Case of Adam Walsh's Murderer Settled

In the video below, John Walsh talks at a press conference about the closure of his murdered son Adam's case.

Six-year-old Adam Walsh was kidnapped in 1981 and his decapitated head was found a couple of weeks later.

No arrests were made immediately, but police eventually found a strong suspect.

From Fox News:

In 1983, serial killer Ottis Elwood Toole confessed to killing Adam with Henry Lee Lucas, another serial killer whom Toole called his "crime partner and homosexual lover."

Toole later recanted his lover's participation in the kidnapping and killing, and then recanted completely after that.

When Toole died in prison in 1996, he made a death-bed confession to killing Adam Walsh.

There was some doubt as to whether Toole was really Adam's killer, due to the recanted stories and the fact that Adam's body was never found where Toole said he'd buried it.

But after Police Chief Chad Wagner did a fresh and extensive review of the case, he essentially closed it and announced Toole as Adam's killer.

I remember watching a TV movie about this heinous crime when I was in high school. Daniel J. Travanti of the popular police series Hill Street Blues played John Walsh. All these years later, I still remember being deeply disturbed as Travanti played John Walsh hearing that Adam's head had been found, and the shocking portrayal of Walsh's unimaginable grief. Being a father now, I can't even bring myself to try to fully contemplate what John Walsh went through.

The bit of good that came out of this terrible tragedy was John Walsh's America's Most Wanted TV phenomenon which has helped bring about more than 1,000 arrests.

I hope the Walsh family can now find some measure of peace greater than they have yet been able to reach.

AP: Authorities in South Florida plan to announce that they've finally solved the 1981 killing of a little boy whose father later gained fame as the host of "America's Most Wanted."