In 1981, six-year-old Adam Walsh went to a Sears store with his mother in a mall in Hollywood, Florida. His mother left him at an Atari kiosk with several older boys to play games, but when she returned a few minutes later, all the boys, including Adam, were gone. About two weeks later, Adam’s severed head was found floating in a canal more than a hundred miles from where he had been abducted. The case was closed in 2008 after authorities became satisfied that drifter Ottis Toole, an associate of Henry Lee Lucas, had killed the child, but some experts aren’t so sure. The high-profile kidnapping and murder caused a public panic about “stranger danger,” leading not only to several new laws and the formation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children but also to the long activist career of Adam’s father John Walsh, who went on to host America’s Most Wanted for decades, as well as several other similar programs. Join Tom and Jenny on a journey into one of the most infamous and heartbreaking abduction cases in American history on a tragic episode 393.

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Channel art and audio & video editing by Jenny Ashford. Music & sound effects courtesy of freesound.org users jamespotterboy, corsica-s, enjoypa, capturedlv, luffy, kiddpark, and justkiddink. Video clips courtesy of Videezy & Videvo.