Thank You, John Walsh

It was 30 years ago this summer that the most horrible thing imaginable happened to John and Reve Walsh.

On July 27, 1981, the couple’s six-year-old son, Adam, was grabbed at a Florida shopping mall while waiting for his mom to do some shopping.

She was only going to be gone a few minutes, and Adam would wait for her in a nearby video arcade. It was a different, more innocent time, before the concept of “stranger danger” had been hammered into the heads of parents across the nation.

But a stranger’s enticing offer of toys and candy to the trusting little boy resulted in his sexual assault, murder and decapitation a few hours later and the gruesome discovery of his remains in an irrigation canal 16 days later.

The Walshes were, of course, heartbroken by the murder. But it was almost nothing compared to the torture they would endure over the next 27 years, as law enforcement agencies repeatedly fumbled the investigation and passed the buck of responsibility.

It soon became apparent who the serial killer was, but turf issues and pure incompetence on the part of some law officers kept the man from being arrested for the crime and the justice the Walshes so dearly hoped for just out of reach.

In 1996, Adam’s killer confessed on his prison deathbed. He had already given investigators two earlier confessions – complete with details known only to the murderer – but had later recanted and escaped a trial, withholding closure for the Walshes.

It wasn’t until 2008 that the Florida state attorney’s office finally acknowledged the confessed killer’s guilt and officially closed the case. And apologized to the Walshes for their years of undeserved mental anguish.

But the horror and heartbreak experienced by the Walshes has had a silver lining.

As a result of the couple’s untiring efforts, Congress in 1982 passed the Missing Children Act and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was founded in 1984, which has helped find and return scores of missing children to their homes.

The legislation and center have helped create a national system of coordinated investigation across jurisdictional lines in missing children cases that simply didn’t exist in 1981.

And in 1988, John Walsh launched America’s Most Wanted on television, a show that over its 23-year run helped bring to justice 1,153 fugitives across the nation.

Killers, rapists, child molesters and other human vermin have been taken off America’s streets, thanks to Walsh’s charismatic personality and dogged determination to provide justice to others that he and his wife never received for Adam.

In his farewell to his viewing audience, Walsh thanked those who had called in tips over the years that led to arrests. “You’ve saved lives and gotten people justice,” he said.

America’s Most Wanted aired its last episode on Fox TV in June but may be picked up by another network.

Hopefully, that will happen. But even if it doesn’t, the Walshes have done much to make this nation a little safer.

Especially for kids like Adam.

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