Case Closed: Adam Walsh Killer Identified

[Faith]

Case Closed: Adam Walsh Killer to Be ID'd
Officials in Florida are Expected to Name the Killer of John Walsh's Son

By PIERRE THOMAS and SCOTT MICHELS
Dec. 16, 2008

http://a.abcnews.com/images/TheLaw/apg_adam_john_walsh_081216_mn.jpg

Florida police are expected to announce today that they are ready to close the 1981 abduction and... http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/icon-arrow-down.gif (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6471791&page=1#)
Florida police are expected to announce today that they are ready to close the 1981 abduction and murder investigation of Adam Walsh, one of the country's most famous cold cases, law enforcement sources tell ABC News. The 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, right, went missing from a Hollywood, Fla., mall more than 27 years ago. His head was discovered two weeks later, though his body was never found. http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/icon-arrow-up.gif (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6471791&page=1#)
(AP Photo/Getty Images)




Florida police are expected to announce today that they are ready to close the 1981 abduction and murder investigation of Adam Walsh, one of the country's most famous cold cases, law enforcement sources tell ABC News.


The 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh went missing from a Hollywood, Fla., mall more than 27 years ago. His head was discovered two weeks later, though his body was never found.

Hollywood police said they would hold a news conference on the case this afternoon. Police sources did not immediately identify the suspected killer, but Walsh has long said that be believes Ottis Toole, a drifter who died in prison in 1996, killed his son.

The murder tranformed Walsh's life, turning him from a middle-class hotel marketing executive into one of country's best known advocates for missing children.


"We were absolutely devastated, heartbroken," he told Larry King on the 25th anniversary of the incident. "We had nothing in common but the anger and the grief. And [Walsh's wife, Reve] said, 'You know, we're destroying ourselves. This is not something that Adam would want. We've forgotten who the real victim is.'"



Walsh, who will turn 63 later this month, started the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center and co-founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His television show, "America's Most Wanted," debuted in 1988.

Since 1984, the center has assisted law enforcement with more than 148,160 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 132,300 children.



"America's Most Wanted" went on to become one of the country's longest-running television shows. It began profiling missing persons, especially children, in 1991. It was briefly canceled in 1996, but reappeared after a public outcry. The show says its reports have led to the capture of more than 1,000 fugitives.



In 2006, President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which, among other things, created more stringent requirements for sex offender registration.



On July 27, 1981, Reve Walsh went with her son to the Sears department store in the Hollywood mall. She left him in the toy department playing video games. When she returned a few minutes later, he was gone. They never saw each other again.



Police have said Adam Walsh may have been among a group of boys who were kicked out of the store by a security guard. His head was discovered in a canal near Vero Beach about two weeks later.

The police, without the benefit of the missing children search tools that Walsh would later champion and modern tracking systems, were overwhelmed. "Leads are coming in and nobody's looking at them. And people are throwing them around. And I, I saw one on a napkin, I saw one here, I said, you know, there's no organization," Joe Matthews, a Miami Beach homicide detective, told ABC's Primetime in 2007.



The case has never been solved, but since then, the names of numerous possible suspects have been advanced, including Jeffrey Dahmer (http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=3473665&page=1).



Toole, a serial killer who was in prison for an unrelated murder, twice admitted to killing Adam, but recanted both times. Toole, the partner of notorious serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, reportedly confessed to committing dozens of murders, though many of those claims later proved to be false.
Police were unable to find Walsh's body in the area where Toole said it was located. During his first confession, in 1983, Toole reportedly said he used a machete to cut off Adam's head.



Police recovered a bloody piece of carpeting from Toole's car, but with no sophistated DNA testing available at the time, police could never determine if it contained Adam Walsh's blood. The carpeting later disappeared.
ABC News' Jason Ryan and Geoff Martz contributed to this report.


http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=6471791&page=2

[dojewo]

:1222423: For the entire Walsh family!

[KittyMom]

The case that changed the way the world looking at missing children. May God comfort those who love Adam.

:1222423:

[foxfarmboxers]

For Adam...RIP.....

[Faith]

http://radaronline.com/exclusives//WalshToole.jpg
CASE CLOSED? Serial killer Ottis Toole; 6 year-old Adam Walsh

Nearly 27 years after 6 year old Adam Walsh was brutally murdered, his killer has been identified by Hollywood, Florida police.

The individual is thought to be Ottis Toole, a pedophile who died in 1996 while serving out a sentence.

Adam was decapitated in 1981, sending his father John Walsh on a mission to find America's Most Wanted. Since 1988, the TV show has been involved in apprehending over 1,000 wanted men and women.

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/12/most-wanted-killed-identified.php

[Faith]

My sincerest and heartfelt condolences go out to Adam's family. :1222423:

[Louise]

For Adam & the Walsh family.

:1222423:

[Roamer]

I've always agreed with John that Toole was Adam's killer. I'm just sorry he died in prison before it was proven.

God bless the Walsh family.

[foxfarmboxers]

I almost burst into tears when I read this thread. I posted earlier, but had to take a few minutes....

Thank God the Walsh's finally have some closure. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

[packy]

I saw part of the news conference but didn't hear why they finally determined it was Ottis. Was it the deathbed confession reported by the niece that clinched it?

Bless Adam's little soul.

[Audie]

Police say Fla. boy's 1981 murder is solved

15 mins ago

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Authorities in South Florida say they've finally solved the 1981 killing of a boy whose father later gained fame as the host of "America's Most Wanted."

Hollywood police said Tuesday that a man long considered the lead suspect in 6-year-old Adam Walsh's death has finally been named as the man responsible for the crime. But he won't be tried: Serial killer Ottis Toole (AH'-tis TOOL) died in prison more than a decade ago.

Toole had confessed to the killing, but later recanted. He claimed hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle gave a deathbed confession.

John Walsh has said he believed Toole killed his son. He says not knowing was torture, but "that journey's over."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081216/ap_on_re_us/adam_walsh

[Firehead]

IIRC, Otis had confessed to Adam's murder and then recanted. Mr. Walsh had an appointment with the scumbag... ok ok... Otis and he died before the appointment. Mr. Walsh's book was great.

My heart breaks for this family. I had to hold back the tears when I listened to Mr. Walsh speak today. They took a very personal tragedy and turned it into something that helps all the missing children. May God Bless Them.

[lost indie]

My sincerest and heartfelt condolences go out to Adam's family. :1222423:

me too...

:1222423::1222423::1222423::1222423::1222423::1222 423:

[Battnt]

God bless this family....:1222423:

[annalyzer]

I saw part of the news conference but didn't hear why they finally determined it was Ottis. Was it the deathbed confession reported by the niece that clinched it?

Bless Adam's little soul.


So that would have been in 1996?

[Roamer]

John Walsh will be on Good Morning America and the Today Show tomorrow.

Just heard it on ABC and NBC.

[janicelee]

For the Walsh family and for all the others who were victims of this monster. :1222423:

[wheezer]

I was 11 when this happened. Up to that point missing children were not even seen on the news. Maybe if you lived in a major city like NY or SF, but I grew up on the IL side of St. Louis and I cannot recall ever seeing newscasts for missing children. This case truly changed the way everything was done. When you read about the case what is the most shocking is that the FBI had an Interstate System set up for the location of stolen cars, but not children! The Walsh family are IMO the reason things changed.

[texanne]

Why is it that his niece waited so long to reveal the deathbed confession? I wonder how much of a confession he made, and if he gave any indication of where the rest of Adam's body is? It is chilling that animals that sick are walking among us stalking our children.

[annalyzer]

Why is it that his niece waited so long to reveal the deathbed confession? I wonder how much of a confession he made, and if he gave any indication of where the rest of Adam's body is? It is chilling that animals that sick are walking among us stalking our children.

Did she wait this long or did she tell them back then?

[dega101653]

This was one of the first cases that got me involved with the missing and crime victims. I can remember the movie made of it and it made my heart hurt for the parents. I can't imagine the pain they have gone through. I also thank John Walsh for turning such a tragedy into something that has helped thousands of victims. My prayers are with the family once again. May it bring some closure and relief to them.

[SavannahStar]

This was one of the first cases that got me involved with the missing and crime victims. I can remember the movie made of it and it made my heart hurt for the parents. I can't imagine the pain they have gone through. I also thank John Walsh for turning such a tragedy into something that has helped thousands of victims. My prayers are with the family once again. May it bring some closure and relief to them.


I've been thinking of that movie ever since I heard that news. Remember when John Walsh learned his son's head was found....how he went beserk? :1222423: Haunting!

[SavannahStar]

I was 11 when this happened. Up to that point missing children were not even seen on the news. Maybe if you lived in a major city like NY or SF, but I grew up on the IL side of St. Louis and I cannot recall ever seeing newscasts for missing children. This case truly changed the way everything was done. When you read about the case what is the most shocking is that the FBI had an Interstate System set up for the location of stolen cars, but not children! The Walsh family are IMO the reason things changed.

How true! John Walsh certainly has a legacy he can be proud of. But at what a price! You know, I've never liked his personality, which I find extremely arrogant, but I SO admire all he has accomplished for the missing children and adults in our society, and crime in general. He is just amazing.

[texanne]

Did she wait this long or did she tell them back then?

Hmmm...I don't know. I guess I caught the blurb about the niece saying there was a deathbed confession and just assumed she had just told LE. She probably told them long ago, and the new LE head there decided to tell what they knew. Shame on them for waiting. That police department has to be the closest thing to Keystone Cops that exists in the modern world.

[Bayou Lass]

I saw the news release with all the Walsh family and it just broke my heart at the emotion and tears. He said that his daughter saved his life because she was born a year or so after Adam went missing. I really admire their strength and stamina throughout this ordeal and it's a shame that they had to wait 27 years for closure. I don't understand why the neice waited so long to tell LE about the deathbed confession.....her uncle died in 1997 if I remember correctly. For the Walsh family :1222423:,

[Roamer]

Close. Ottis died in prison in 1996.

They had the deathbed confession years ago. John and his wife were on GMA this morning, and said officers relooked at the case and concluded without a doubt that Toole abducted and killed Adam. LE even had a bloody piece of carpeting from his car, which later disappeared.

[bambam]

wow....finally! did anyone catch john walsh on one of the morning shows? i slept too late to see it. thank God this family finally gets some closure.

[mrsmcgoo]

If there was ever someone who took a tradgety and did something about the situation, it is John Walsh. He deserves so much recognition for all his efforts on behalf of missing children.

I hope this brings closesure for his family. I am sure Adam is watching from afar and is so proud of his them.

[Roenick]

Wow... when Merideth asked the 2 children how it was growing up not knowing Adam but having to live with this, I almost cried.
They seem really proud of their parents and not angry to have lived in any shadow of Adam.
Reve's explanation of how it feels was beautiful. "Like trying to describe a color you've never seen". I bet she lives that day over and over in her mind.


I believe Adam's purpose in life was to help others. And he did that!
RIP Adam

I hope the Walsh's have a peaceful holiday this year knowing the case is closed.

[sarahhod]

Police: 1981 Murder of Son of America's Most Wanted Anchor John Walsh Is Solved
Wednesday, December 17, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,467905,00.html

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The investigation into the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" anchor John Walsh, is finally closed.

Hollywood, Fla., Police Chief Chad Wagner announced Tuesday that the department had concluded that Ottis Toole, a serial killer who died in jail in 1996, was the man who kidnapped and decapitated the young boy.


The announcement brought to a close a case that had angered the Walsh family for more than two decades, inspired the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and triggered changes in how authorities search for missing children.

"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know."


Adam disappeared from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Two weeks later, fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away. The rest of his body was never found.

Adam Walsh Toole confessed twice to the boy's murder, but he had confessed to hundreds of other killings, and police determined most of those confessions were lies.

Officials were never able to verify his confessions because of a series of errors they made in the investigation, including losing the bloodstained carpeting from Toole's car — preventing DNA testing — and losing the car itself.

Toole's niece later told Walsh that her uncle gave a deathbed confession to Adam's murder in September 1996.

Wagner acknowledged and apologized for the mistakes that were made in the investigation, but he said detectives were always led back to Toole.

"Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect," he said. "Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect."

For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing children.

Adam's death, and his father's subsequent activism, helped put faces on milk cartons, started fingerprinting programs, increased security at schools and stores and spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

It also prompted legislation to create a national center, database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of "America's Most Wanted," which brought those cases into millions of homes.

With the case now closed, Wagner said he hoped the Walsh family could find some closure.

"The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over." John Walsh said.

[gabby]

If there was ever someone who took a tradgety and did something about the situation, it is John Walsh. He deserves so much recognition for all his efforts on behalf of missing children.

I hope this brings closesure for his family. I am sure Adam is watching from afar and is so proud of his them.

I agree with you. I think from what I've seen from Mr Walsh throughout the decades, he is one of those individuals who consider progress recognition. He and his family sure has done a lot to bring progress for children across the country. IMO

I started crying when Ms. Walsh was thanking her other three children for all they have done and given up for their big brother whom none of them ever met. Then they showed those three children behind their parents and I cried again! They truly are an outstanding family! IMO And I agree with you totally when you say Adam is proud of them. I believe he is. JMO

[SavannahStar]

I agree with you. I think from what I've seen from Mr Walsh throughout the decades, he is one of those individuals who consider progress recognition. He and his family sure has done a lot to bring progress for children across the country. IMO

I started crying when Ms. Walsh was thanking her other three children for all they have done and given up for their big brother whom none of them ever met. Then they showed those three children behind their parents and I cried again! They truly are an outstanding family! IMO And I agree with you totally when you say Adam is proud of them. I believe he is. JMO

Is there a link to that video? I would love to see it. Anyone know?

[Cat]

Why is it that his niece waited so long to reveal the deathbed confession? I wonder how much of a confession he made, and if he gave any indication of where the rest of Adam's body is? It is chilling that animals that sick are walking among us stalking our children.

Animals are not that sick; they usually kill for food. It's only human animals that are that sick.

:1222423: Walsh family

[Roamer]

Because Adam lived and died, many other children have been saved, and a thousand criminals taken off the street.

He leaves a very proud legacy.

[ILoveJustice]

Revee and John Walsh have suffered so much these last 27 years. I am glad they are finally able to put at least some of this tortuous journey to rest.

So much good has come from this very tragic situation. So many children have been saved. We'll never truly know how many.

God bless the entire Walsh family for turning their grief into positive action, and for making America safer.

:give_rose:

[Pandabear]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Adam_Walsh.html

Case closed? Questions linger in Adam Walsh probe

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A quarter-century ago, Adam Walsh's accused killer accompanied police to a bus bench outside a Sears where he claimed to have snatched the 6-year-old boy. Then, Ottis Toole went with authorities to a turnpike where he said Adam cried for his mother. Later, they stopped at a bridge where Toole said he hacked off the boy's head.

But did he really do it?

The story was one of several accounts Toole gave over the years. And while Adam's father, "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, has long believed Toole abducted and decapitated his son on July 27, 1981, it wasn't until this week that Hollywood police said they agreed, and closed the case. But there was no new evidence, nothing new that came to light.

New Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said after a re-examination of the evidence, he believes Toole could have been tried and convicted before he died in 1996 serving a life sentence for other killings. Detectives were too hesitant, he says, partly because they didn't want to admit mistakes they made investigating Toole.

But the case against Toole has holes. An Associated Press examination of documents released with this week's announcement leaves many questions about the kidnapping and killing — there is nothing standing alone points to Toole. There are no DNA or blood tests, no slam-dunk eyewitness accounts.

"If you're looking for that magic wand, that one piece of evidence, it's not there," Wagner admits.

Even basic details of what happened can't be determined because Toole never kept his confessions straight (when he wasn't recanting).

He said he picked up Adam outside Sears. Or was it by the mall merry-go-round? He said he bribed the boy with candy — except when he said he used a baseball glove. He said he threw the boy's body into the same central Florida canal as his head, the only part of Adam ever found. He also said he buried the body off a highway and burned it in his mother's yard in Jacksonville. He took credit for many murders — including some committed by others.

He once accused his sometime traveling partner, another self-professed serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, of being Adam's slayer — but Lucas was jailed then. In a 1996 AP prison interview, Lucas said Toole confessed to him, even taking him to the mall to show him where he picked up Adam and to the spot where he supposedly killed him. Lucas died in 2001.

Jailed for the 1982 murder of a Jacksonville man, Toole began confessing to Adam's slaying and others in 1983, sometimes to detectives from other jurisdictions checking to see if he could be linked to homicides of children and adults they were investigating.

For example, despite having confessed to Adam's slaying, he told a Texas detective that he was incapable of killing a child. "I wouldn't do that. Not no little kid," Toole laughed, according to the documents.

A day later, in a conversation with the same investigator, Toole said he killed Adam then dismembered the boy's body. But later in the same interview he said he left the body intact.

In one of the most gruesome explanations of Adam's fate, Toole told a Brevard County investigator that he chopped off the boy's head, then brought his body back to Jacksonville and burned it in his mother's yard. "I ate a little bit of him," the detective recalled Toole saying. But Toole told others he buried it by the Florida's Turnpike or dumped it in the canal with the head.

When the Brevard investigator asked why he kept recanting if he really did it, Toole blamed the Hollywood detectives.

"Every time I'd tell them something, they would tell me I was lying and I was a liar," he later recalled Toole saying. "They finally just made me mad ... You are right, I didn't do it."

Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said Toole's confessions may have been his way of attaining notoriety or "immortality." But when he realized the disadvantage such a confession would have — say, retribution from fellow inmates — he recanted.

"Sometimes these people are thinking in terms of chess games," said Heide, who studies homicides and child abductions. "But they're not that smart, and they don't play chess. Somebody who is going to commit a crime like that has problems with human decency and morality."

But why confess and recant several times? Heide says Toole's low IQ, his troubled childhood and his inability to distinguish reality from fantasy all played a role.

"His hold on reality was likely quite slippery," she said.

Some eyewitnesses identified Toole as the weird man they saw at the mall the day Adam disappeared. Years later, others said they recognized the kidnapper the second he first appeared on TV — infamous Wisconsin serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who lived in South Florida in 1981. Some in the community still believe the case is stronger against Dahmer, who was killed in prison 14 years ago.

The two pieces of evidence that might have provided definitive answers with today's advanced DNA testing were lost by Hollywood police during their investigation — a bloodstained carpet taken from Toole's car and the car itself.

No one knows where they are.

[Hope]

:1222423: I am glad that the Walsh family has some sense of justice.

[foxfarmboxers]

I agree with you. I think from what I've seen from Mr Walsh throughout the decades, he is one of those individuals who consider progress recognition. He and his family sure has done a lot to bring progress for children across the country. IMO

I started crying when Ms. Walsh was thanking her other three children for all they have done and given up for their big brother whom none of them ever met. Then they showed those three children behind their parents and I cried again! They truly are an outstanding family! IMO And I agree with you totally when you say Adam is proud of them. I believe he is. JMO

Adam, to me, truly had a purpose in his brief life on this earth. Thank goodness, unlike some "other cases" in the news.....his loving parents did "good" in honor of Adam. JMHO

[sarahhod]

Authorities question guilt of suspect in Adam Walsh murder

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_11325399

By David Smiley

McClatchy Newspapers
Posted: 12/28/2008 02:22:57 PM PST

MIAMI — From his grave, Ottis Elwood Toole, a career criminal with a penchant for storytelling, still bedevils police.

His numerous murder confessions earned him a spotlight in dozens of unsolved homicide investigations throughout the country and a reputation as one of America's most heinous serial killers.

They also earned the drifter a reputation as one of the country's worst serial liars. Investigators have been unable to confirm many of his stories and in some cases have discounted his confessions altogether.

His most infamous story — of abducting 6-year-old Adam Walsh outside a Hollywood, Fla., Sears store on July 27, 1981, and beheading him in a marshy field near Florida's Turnpike — has sparked controversy anew as Hollywood police this month identified Toole as the man who murdered the child.

That announcement, delivered at a news conference, was welcomed by Walsh family members, who said they finally had justice.

But the announcement drew instant questions from critics who say the evidence against Toole has been shaky, at best, from the start, and who note that police never charged him while he was alive.

"I was appalled, absolutely appalled," Pat Brown, a criminal profiler in Washington, said of the decision to close the case. "There is no reason to close a case without sufficient evidence that one particular person has committed the crime."

Hollywood investigators who took Toole's early confessions had significant doubts. "My opinion, as is most everyone else from the city of Hollywood, is that he did not do this killing," then-Lt. J.B. Smith concluded in 1984. "The only thing that we will say for sure is that 3,500 hours and $62,000 later, we can't confirm anything he has said."

When Hollywood police called reporters to the department's headquarters Dec. 16 to announce the case solved, it was the second time they would officially name Toole as Adam's killer.

Police first did so in 1983, when Toole confessed the night after a TV movie about the case was aired.

But serious doubts about Toole's involvement, his constant wavering on whether he really killed the boy, and a lack of direct evidence forced police to back off. They never did charge him.

When a lawsuit by the Miami Herald and others forced police to open their files in 1996, authorities again said they considered Toole a prime suspect. He died later that year, a five-time convicted killer.

In the 12 years since, police were unable to uncover new evidence.

"If you're looking for that magic wand or that hidden document that just appeared, it's not there," Police Chief Chadwick E. Wagner conceded to reporters.

Instead, Wagner said a review of the file showed that "a vast amount of circumstantial evidence" created probable cause enough to charge Toole with the crime — were he still alive.

Toole had no alibi for his whereabouts on the day Adam was kidnapped, and witnesses claim to have seen him at the mall that day, police said. Police recovered a machete to which Toole had access. Cellmates claimed that he had confessed to them, and a former co-worker said Toole confessed to him in 1982, even before he first spoke with Hollywood detectives.

But no murder weapon was ever confirmed, and police managed to lose the car that Toole said he was driving when he killed Adam, a 1971 Cadillac, along with a box of blood-stained carpet samples taken from it.

Wagner, who declined through a department spokesman to be interviewed for this report, defended the decision to close the case when he spoke at the news conference. He said the department was too defensive about its mistakes in the past and could have arrested Toole before he died.

Toole became involved in the case on Oct. 11, 1983, one day after the Adam Walsh story debuted on national television. He was in a Duval County jail on unrelated charges at the time, and was confessing to a number of murders in Florida and Texas.

A Brevard County detective was finishing an interview with Toole and had turned his tape recorder off when the killer started to talk about abducting and murdering a boy from Broward County.

Soon, Hollywood Detectives Ron Hickman and Jack Hoffman flew to Jacksonville to interview Toole, who would proceed to confess and recant several times and tell multiple versions of how and why he killed the boy.

Toole's confession was filled with holes.

He claimed that he and one-eyed cohort Henry Lee Lucas had driven to Hollywood in the Cadillac and were in the mall parking lot when they saw Adam running around. They pulled him inside and drove to a remote area off the turnpike, where, he said, Lucas killed him.

But detectives learned that Lucas was locked up in a Maryland prison that day.

Toole later changed his tale. In his new version, he said he enticed Adam into his car with candy and toys. He gave varying accounts of how he killed him.

Although the child's head was recovered, his body was never found.

Toole failed to identify Adam on a missing-person flier, gave an inaccurate description of the boy's features and clothing, and said he abducted Adam about the first of the year.

Retracing Toole's steps in the days before Adam was abducted, police found that two days before Adam went missing, Toole was penniless and without a car, and had just arrived in Jacksonville by Greyhound bus — a trip he paid for with a $72 check from the Salvation Army.

Detectives felt that with so little time and money to make it to Hollywood, it would have been almost impossible for Toole to have killed Adam. They told him so.

"No, I didn't kill Adam Walsh," he then told them on Oct. 26, 1983. "If I did, I would be able to show you where the rest of the body is."

Toole spent the next 12 minutes alone with Jacksonville Detective J.W. "Buddy" Terry, who at the time was acting as Toole's jailhouse custodian. Toole changed his mind and confessed, offering a different account of how he killed Adam.

Those 12 minutes have come up countless times in the years since.

Toole, police say, relayed details that only the killer could know, such as the location of a dirt road leading to the canal where the head was found.

In 1988, a Broward Sheriff's Office detective wrote a memo saying that Terry had signed a book deal with Toole and had leaked information about the case.

Terry did not return messages left with a woman at his Middleburg, Fla., home.

During a 1996 interview with investigators, he denied leaking information and said the deal was inked in jest after Toole told him about a number of other book deals he had agreed to. But Terry's superior, then-Undersheriff John Nelson, felt differently and moved Terry to the communications department.

Jim Suber, Terry's supervisor in 1983, believed "that the information Toole gave regarding the Adam Walsh murder was based on information he had obtained from news sources and perhaps from investigators, including Terry," according to one case memo.

Another flaw: the lack of direct evidence linking Toole to the killing. Investigators had long hoped that the Cadillac would yield evidence.

Blood was found in the car after Toole confessed. But by the time DNA testing became available, police had lost the car, along with the blood-stained carpet samples.

Yet, despite the missing evidence, the waffling confessions and the questions about where Toole got his information, police say they have more than enough evidence to indict him.

"If Ottis Toole was alive today, he would be arrested for the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh," Police Chief Wagner told reporters.

The decision to close the case was supported by the Broward state attorney's office. But Charles Morton Jr., chief assistant state attorney, said police mistakes would have made a successful prosecution difficult.

Michael Gottlieb, a defense attorney, agreed that there are major flaws in the case. "With Toole dead, nobody can really question him as to his motive," he said. "We're all going to be left to speculate."

Longtime case detectives still have their doubts.

"I spent 100 hours with that individual," Hickman, one of the original case detectives, said in 2001. "I'll tell you right now: He didn't do it."