Before there were pictures of missing children on milk cartons, before Amber Alerts and before there was a National Center for Missing and Abused Children, there was Adam Walsh.
His 1981 Florida murder captured the world’s attention and not only changed the way police departments handle cases of missing children but how parents protect their loved ones.
More than two decades would pass before the case of who killed Adam was officially closed in 2008.
How that happened is detailed in “Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America” by Les Standiford and Joe Matthews (Ecco, $24).
Standiford, a best-selling author, and Matthews, a retired Miami Beach homicide detective who closed the case, will discuss the work at 7 p.m. today at Barnes and Noble in Buckhead.
Standiford had set out on a book tour, he said, when he got a call about a 400-page manuscript Matthews had written about the case.
“I took a look at the file and I knew right then and there I had to write this book,” Standiford said.
He also knew, he said, that he wanted to provide social context to the senseless murder of Adam Walsh so that people could appreciate the huge impact of the crime on society and Matthews’ amazing accomplishments.
“Nothing could have saved Adam,” Standiford said. “He was dead within hours of being kidnapped, but imagine a mother and father having to wait 27 years to learn who had done the crime. Thank God for Joe Matthews because without him, they still wouldn’t know.”
In a far-reaching recent interview, Matthews talked about how he finally fingered Ottis Toole, the drifter who confessed to the killing but who was never charged. He died in prison, convicted on other charges, in 1996.
Q: How did you become involved in the case?
A: In 1981 I was in charge of homicide for the Miami Beach Police Department and was asked to assist the Hollywood Police Department in the investigation of a missing boy, Adam Walsh.
Q: Were you surprised to hear from them?
A: It was a compliment, but it’s not unusual. Police departments help each other. At the time I was teaching policemen who wanted to become polygraph examiners and they needed me to conduct polygraph examinations, so I was happy to do it. The day Adam went missing, my own wife and children were en route to the same mall where Adam was abducted, but returned home when my oldest son, Joey, got sick. It could’ve been our son.
Q: Did you expect to crack the case?
A: No, I didn’t. My thoughts almost 30 years ago were to go in there and help Hollywood and go back to Miami Beach. That’s what I did.
Q: But that wasn’t the end of it for you, was it?
A: From the beginning, I was very disappointed with the Hollywood Police Department because there was chaos, confusion, lack of experience and supervision. I saw one guy taking notes on napkins. I told him in Miami Beach, I assign a detective just to handle leads, no matter where they come from, and file supplemental reports that go to you. And you decide which ones to follow. His response was, “When you go back to Miami Beach, you do it your way.” I knew the case would not be solved.
Q: But you did. What happened?
A: Twenty-five years after Adam went missing, John and Reve [Walsh] came to me and said, “Would you please prove once and for all who killed our son?”
Q: How did you do it?
A: I read all 10,000 pages of the file, which I believe no one else had done. Then I conducted interviews of people who had been interviewed. One interview would lead me to someone else, which would lead me to someone else who had not been interviewed by Hollywood detectives. I reviewed all the evidence and demanded retesting of the evidence.
Q: What was the most compelling?
A: I wanted to verify damage to the vehicle that was described to me by a witness, so I asked for the crime scene photos. To my surprise, I was told the photos didn’t exist. I eventually obtained five rolls of film that, 27 years after Adam went missing, had not even been developed. I was the first to look at 98 photos of Ottis Toole’s vehicle. That’s what did it.
Q: What did the photos tell you?
A: First, they validated the damage to Ottis Toole’s vehicle described by one of the witnesses. Second, the machete that Toole said he used in the beheading and the sheath that it went into were speckled with blood. Third... I had a photo of blood transferred from Adam’s face onto the carpet. It shows the actual image of Adam’s face. To me, it is as clear as the Shroud of Turin.
Q: Then what?
A: I did a chronology that begins six months before Adam went missing and, based on that manuscript, the case was closed.
TIPS TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE
1. Communicate with your child. Respond to whatever your child tells you; don’t react.
2. Take advantage of free child safety programs, such as DNA Lifeprint.
3. There’s nothing wrong with being overprotective. Know your children’s friends and their parents and anyone else who is responsible for caring for your child.
EVENT PREVIEW
Discussion of Adam Walsh investigation
7 p.m. today. Free. Barnes & Noble, 2900 Peachtree Road N.E., Suite 310, Atlanta. 404-261-7747.
About the Author
