In 1981, I lived just a few miles from where the head of six-year-old Adam Walsh was found.
My child was one year old.
The tragedy forever embedded in my parent psyche. For years, I would not allow my child to play in the front yard and practically cemented her to my hip while shopping at Florida's busy malls.
I was scared to death.
Not soon after the loss of his son, I met John Walsh at the Paradise Grand Hotel, Paradise Island, Bahamas. Walsh was somehow involved in hotels, whether management or otherwise, I'm not quite certain, but the rumor back then was the Syndicate had killed the boy because Walsh wouldn't deal. Something to do with gambling, but again, just another Florida rumor.
I remember, standing in the hotel ballroom in a ring around this famous father and noting how small a man Walsh appeared. The death of his son thickened the air like jasmine on a sultry day...the thought on everyone's mind was almost visible. Yet, the group of which I was a part, sidestepped the sorrow with idle conversation about the beauty of the surroundings while Walsh politely played the public relations card.
Walsh catapulted his sorrow into America's Most Famous Neighborhood Watch and for awhile, I cheered him on. The man had channeled his sorrow for the good, in tribute to his son.
But no matter how high a profile Walsh kept those Most Wanted, children continued to disappear, continued to be murdered. When three Florida girls were lured and killed within a short time period-Sara Lunde, Jessica Lunsford, and Carlie Brucia-Walsh transformed into a man possessed.
Along with a posse of politicians, John Walsh fear mongered the public into believing that parents could not adequately protect their children, that the government must be involved. After all, if his child could be kidnapped, why not the kids of other parents? How safe could your child really be?
Through political connections and dirty tricks (and a combination of the two, former Florida U.S. Representative Mark Foley) Walsh managed to steamroll passage of the ex post facto Adam Walsh Act through the 109th Congress.
A bad law on so many levels.
The sad, pathetic part of Walsh's entire nightmare? No one could ever be certain those accused actually murdered his son.
And no one could ever prove that Adam was sexually violated.
Adam is the ultimate Cold Case.
And now, new proof has surfaced that Jeffrey Dahmer may have very well been the monster that long ago day at Sears.
Not Ottis O'Toole, the original suspect. And not his other traveling buddy, Henry Lee Lewis.
Jeffrey Dahmer, a name that chills the soul as effectively as the name Ted Bundy.
Walsh today, is forced to address the connection nationwide, as the AP picked up the story from a Wisconsin paper and ran with it. (The Daily Business Review article published Arthur Jay Harris' freelance piece December 4, 2006 and a few days later, Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blogged the story first).
Walsh once ago believed that Dahmer should be investigated. In 1992, he wrote Broward State Attorney Michael Satz asking him to explore Dahmer, who died two years later at the hands of a fellow state prison inmate in Wisconsin.
"Two credible witnesses have come forward placing Dahmer inside and outside the Hollywood mall the day of Adam’s abduction," Walsh wrote.
Yet, as reported by the 2/7/2007 Miami Herald, Walsh backs off that initial premise:
''Despite news stories prompted by the publication of a recent article in a Florida newspaper, America's Most Wanted is aware of no credible information connecting Jeffrey Dahmer to the murder of Adam Walsh, the son of AMW's host John Walsh,'' said the statement issued on behalf of John Walsh.
Walsh has kept Adam alive through his advocacy. The child is forever mentally present, an anesthetic salve to an ever present loss.
Sometimes grief and anger are all a parent has left to hold to their deceased child.
To finally solve this case, to lay this case to rest.....would lay Adam to rest.
Can John Walsh let Adam rest?