My Thoughts on Bringing Adam Home - The Adam Walsh Abduction

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I've been aware of the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh ever since it happened. I was a young child and I was made very aware of kidnappers and tactics they might use and was constantly told not to talk to strangers. So I feel this case has sat with me my whole life. However, I never really dove into the case to learn about the suspect. I thought the suspect was only caught a few years ago, but after reading this book, I realize that this suspect was THE suspect since shortly after Adam's murder. This caught me by surprise because how could law enforcement have let this person be a suspect for that long and then FINALLY decide that he was guilty???

I feel so bad for John and Reve Walsh, Adam's parents. I don't feel that they had very good detectives on this case, and it seems that Detective Jack Hoffman (Hollywood PD detective in charge of the case) was more worried about status and proving he had more testosterone than anyone else rather than having any compassion for Adam or for this case. I honestly was reading this book in disbelief at how everything was handled, or should I say NOT handled, by Detective Hoffman. What a blessing when a new detective was finally assigned and took over the case and enlisted the help of Detective Sergeant Joe Matthews. Matthews seemed so passionate about this case from the very beginning, and I wonder how things might have been different for the Walsh family and the suspect if Matthews had been allowed to work on this case the way he was supposed to from the start.

Dr. Mark Reisner, a psychologist that occasionally worked for LAPD, gave his opinion on the profile of Adam's killer shortly after Adam's murder made headlines. He said that the perpetrator was "either Caucasian or Latin" (Standiford 60) and that the nature of the crime showed that the perpetrator had a borderline psychopathic/psychotic personality with homosexual tendencies that were expressed in rage and violence (Standiford 60). He was probably a loner, had few friends, but would enjoy bragging about his crimes.

The suspect that came to be was Ottis Toole, who you may have heard of, as he confessed to several murders around the country with his partner, Henry Lee Lucas. At first, Ottis confessed to the crime but he changed his story a few times in his many confessions. One of his confessions actually blamed Henry Lee Lucas on the murder. It was later proven that Lucas had an alibi - he was incarcerated - on the day that Adam was abducted and killed.

Although Reisner had said that the perpetrator would show no remorse and probably not confess to his actions, Toole did just that. There were many times over the years where he broke down crying and apologized for killing Adam saying it was the worst murder he had ever committed and he felt so bad about it because he had never killed anyone that young. His original intent on taking Adam was to take him from South Florida to Jacksonville and raise him as his own son. Toole says that once they started driving on the Turnpike out of South Florida, Adam was crying and screaming and putting up a fight, which pissed Toole off enough to where he hit him multiple times in the face and punched him in the stomach until he was unconscious.

To even think about poor Adam's last moments is so heartbreaking. I must say that I don't think I have ever walked into a Sears in my entire life (Adam and I would have been the same age) without thinking of Adam...or thinking of Adam every time I was in Walmart and saw the "Code Adam" signs. It's been a true crime that has stuck with me all my life. Maybe it hit home because we were the same age. I don't know.

The Hollywood Police Department (Hollywood, Florida, that is) gathered lots of evidence against Ottis Toole. Some of that evidence included carpet samples from the white Cadillac that Toole pulled Adam into on the day of the abduction. Toole claims that after Adam was unconscious, he pulled off onto a dirt service road, took him out of the car, and decapitated him with a machete or a bayonet (as he referred to it), then dismembered the rest of his body and disposed of it. He decided to keep the head, and wrapped it in Adam's shirt and threw it in the floorboard of his car behind the driver's seat. A few miles down the road, he thought better of this decision and pulled over to throw the head into a canal, which is where it was ultimately found. Only Adam's head has ever been found.

Eight sections of carpet were collected from the Cadillac once owned by Toole, once it was located. Luminol tests were done which tested positive for the presence of blood on the driver's floorboard and the left rear floorboard behind the driver's seat (Standiford 125). Five rolls of film were also taken to document the forensic investigation done to the Cadillac.

It wasn't until 2006 that the FDLE finally sent 98 photographs to Detective Matthews that contained striking images of the Luminol tests on the Cadillac carpet. And when I say striking, I mean truly unbelievable. This book contains some of these photos, which I had never seen before.

The medical examiner identified various embedded white fragments during the cleanup of Adam's skull (Standiford 138). However, there is no record that Detective Hoffman ever followed up on what the source of these white fragments could have been from the Cadillac.

In one of Toole's confessions, he claimed that he disposed of Adam's torso in Jacksonville at his mother's burned homestead, in an old refrigerator that he used as an incinerator. When police searched that area, they did find a pair of light green boy's shorts and one yellow flip flop, consistent with the clothing that Adam was last seen in. However, these items were NEVER presented to the Walsh family for positive identification as belonging to Adam, so they sat in evidence for years without John or Reve even knowing they had been found. It turns out that when Detective Matthews was finally on the case and had free run of the case years later, he found out about these items and presented them to the Walsh parents for identification. It turns out, they were not Adam's after all. But who did they belong to?

Ottis Toole sent an extortion letter to John Walsh in 1988 that said he would reveal where Adam's remains were if he was paid $50,000. Walsh immediately turned this letter over to authorities, but nothing was ever done with it. What if Walsh had paid the money? Would Toole have held up his end of the bargain? Would there have been closure in 1988 with a suspect and a body to bury? We will never know. Years later, when Walsh mentioned the letter to Broward County State Attorney, Michael Satz, he had no idea what he was talking about. When Walsh showed Satz a copy of the letter, Satz said he could have gotten a jury conviction on the strength of the letter alone (Standiford 211)!!!

It seems that Detective Hoffman found several ways to halt the investigation or prevent it from moving forward. Detective Matthews had been brought in to question Toole early on in the investigation, but Hoffman found ways to avoid that happening and took someone else with him to question Toole while the police chief was on vacation. For some reason, maybe a battle of testosterone, Hoffman did not want Matthews assisting with the investigation, even though Matthews had said he would give Hollywood PD all the credit if he got a confession. I would love to know about more cases that Hoffman worked on to see if he was this territorial on them, as well.

When the murder of Adam Walsh was finally pinned on Ottis Toole with evidence by Detective Matthews and his team, Toole had already died in prison. So he would never stand trial for Adam's abduction and death, nor would he be convicted in a court of law.

It took 27 years for Adam's killer to be named, yet Ottis Toole was a suspect who had confessed shortly after his murder. WHY?! Why did it take so long to get a competent detective on the case? This book made me hurt for the Walsh family even more because I never knew they went through all of this for so many years. I thought the murderer was only RECENTLY found, but according to this book, he was found in the early 80's but never charged or convicted because of shoddy police work and an arrogant detective.

John Walsh is the person responsible for getting missing children's pictures on milk cartons, and making us all learn the dangers of strangers and kidnappings. Sadly, it took a terrible loss for him to find the strength and courage to fight to change our nation. Unfortunately, some people have criticized him for trying to impress his grief on others or scare children while they're eating their breakfast cereal. But I think he has done nothing but good for our nation in bringing kidnapping to the forefront as a serious threat and has only helped us.

What are your thoughts on this case? Do you think John and Reve Walsh could have done more? I don't even think they realized they were being screwed over.