More than two years after Adam Walsh was abducted and killed, convicted serial killer Ottis Toole, who was imprisoned on an unrelated crime, confessed to killing the 6-year-old boy. As reported by ABC News, Toole was a proven killer. However, he also had a history of confessing to crimes he did not commit.
During his confession to Adam’s murder, Toole led authorities to a location where he claimed to have buried the boy’s body. Unfortunately, an extensive search of the location did not lead to the discovery of Adam’s remains or any other new evidence in the case. Although Toole later recanted his confession, ABC News reports authorities determined they had enough circumstantial evidence to reasonably conclude Toole was Walsh’s killer. The case was formally closed in 2008, more than 27 years after the 6-year-old boy vanished.
Following his son’s abduction and death, John Walsh left his career and never returned. In the midst of the search for his son, and the decades-long search for his son’s killer, Walsh realized there was no nationwide system in place to track missing children in the United States, and a distinct lack of resources for parents of missing children.
In the years following their son’s death, John and Revé Walsh led an effort to establish the Missing Children’s Act of 1982, the Missing Children’s Assistance Act of 1984, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
