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I can’t imagine anything worse to happen to a parent than the death of a child, and simply not knowing what happened to your child would have to be somehow worse, as if pain could be measured in that way. Finally for America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh and wife Reve, there is peace in the knowledge.

There are certain headlines in the news that grab us, but nothing grabs us more than a missing child. Those of us that are parents know that fear, as all of us have faced losing a child, even if just for a minute or two, at one point or another. Even those that aren’t parents understand this to be a horiffic realization. Just in the last few years we can point to stories of Elizabeth Smart and Shawn Hornbeck, and just this summer we had the case of Caylee Anthony. Luckily for the Smart and Hornbeck parents, their children were eventually found alive. It wasn’t the case for Caylee’s mother and grandmother, and with that I’m leaving the possibility of the mother’s guilt alone.

There is a much older case that grabbed us twenty-seven years ago, that of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. I remember reading the book his father had written on the case. I finished it in a matter of days, it was so grabbing. Adam and his mothe had been shopping at Sears, and she left him playing video games with some older boys. When she went back to get him, all the boys were gone. Reportedly a security guard had thrown the older boys out, and it was assumed that Adam just left with them, most likely being abducted from the front of the store.

Reve never saw Adam again. Two weeks later his severed head surfaced, yet never any of his other remains. A few years later, because of the troubles the Walshes had getting information, and the lack of coordination between local law enforcement agencies and other government agencies, John Walsh joined Johnny Gosch’s mother, another long-suffering parent of a missing child, and others, and helped create the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. After making his name well-known through this and his book, John Walsh became the host of America’s Most Wanted on Fox, a show that tracks hardened criminals that are escaping the law.

Throughout all this, there was always one case John Walsh couldn’t solve, finding the killer of his own son. It was long believed that it was a drifter, Ottis Toole, that was responsible, and even Toole himself confessed to murdering Adam on a few separate occasions, but always recanted. John Walsh always believed Toole responsible, however, despite the fact that even notorious serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was once mentioned as a possible suspect.

Today the police have finally closed the Adam Walsh case, declaring they were convinced Toole was indeed responsible for Adam’s murder. Toole himself died in prison of cirrhosis of the liver, serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime, but John and Reve Walsh at least finally have that closure they have searched for for twenty-seven years.

John Walsh should also rest with the good that this horrific event in his own family has done for other children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has saved many lives and helped pave the way for the Amber Alert that was created after the abduction and murder of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl from Arlington, Texas. Again, I can’t imagine anything worse than the pain of what John and Reve Walsh have gone through, but I hope the official declaration today will help in some way.

Photos courtesy of foxnews.com and safety.amw.com

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