The Adam Walsh case began on July 27, 1981, when he vanished from a Sears department store in Hollywood, FL.
The tragic incident happened when he and his mother were shopping that day, and she left him alone in the video game section while she looked at some lamps. When she came back to collect him, the boy was gone.
The search for him led to nationwide coverage, but he was never seen alive again. Walsh‘s severed head was found in a drainage canal two weeks after he went missing, but his body was never found. The details of the murder and who the murderer is have been shrouded in mystery.
The case went unsolved for over 30 years. Then, the question of who killed Adam Walsh was seemingly answered in 2008, when serial killer Ottis Toole was posthumously blamed for the murder.
Toole had confessed to killing the six-year-old boy – and then retracted his confessions – several times over the years. He died in prison in 1996, succumbing to liver failure, so Toole was never formally indicted or brought to trial for the crime.
Although Toole was in the vicinity when Walsh vanished, the details were sketchy, which led to many Adam Walsh theories.
Now, one author has a different theory of Adam Walsh’s death: a true crime author said Adam might not have been killed.
Adam’s official records have many irregularities like his autopsy, dental records, and other documents, which made the author, Harris, wonder if the severed head was actually that of another child.
According to Opposing Views, Harris dished on the theory in an interview with Uproxx:
The medical examiner who made the ID announced it quickly after the child was found, as if it wasn’t much of a disputed issue. It was based on a comparison of Adam’s dental chart, showing a molar with a filling on the cheek side, to the mouth of the found child. That and a visual ID at the morgue by a family friend of the Walshes. Remember, there was no torso so there were no fingerprints, and in 1981 forensic DNA matching wasn’t available.
Harris added that plenty of documents simply weren’t there:
Here’s what should be in the medical examiner’s files: A copy of Adam’s dental chart; Adam’s dental X-rays and X-rays of the mouth of the found child; a forensic dental consultation report, affirming the ID; and a completed, signed autopsy report narrative, since an autopsy was performed. Here’s what’s in the Adam Walsh case medical examiner’s office files: None of that.
Opposing Views pointed out:
This led Harris to believe there’s a possibility that Adam was never found. And although it’s unlikely, it’s even possible that he’s alive.
Adam’s father John Walsh, who created “America’s Most Wanted” after his son’s death, has said he doesn’t believe the evidence put forth by Harris that Dahmer killed his son, according to The Washington Post. As for Harris’ latest theory, Walsh hasn’t commented.
Sources: OpposingViews, Uproxx, The Washington Post
