Adam Walsh Case Closed: Drifter Murdered Son of ‘Most Wanted’ Host

Updated: In a news conference this afternoon, police in Hollywood, Fla., have announced that they are closing the Adam Walsh murder case as solved.

Ottis Toole, a drifter who confessed, but then recanted, concerning the 1981 abduction and murder of the 6-year-old boy is, in fact, guilty, Hollywood Police Chief Chad Wagner announced today, reports FOX News.

Because Toole died in prison in 1996, where he was serving a sentence for an unrelated murder, there apparently will be no further criminal proceedings.

The 27-year-old case has remained in the spotlight in large part because of the efforts of Adam Walsh's parents to seek justice on behalf of their son and other crime victims. His father, John Walsh, became the host of America's Most Wanted, a television program that seeks public help in finding fugitives from justice.

Authorities have said that Toole provided them with accurate information about the crime, including the location where Adam Walsh was abducted as he played a video game at a department store and the manner in which his head was severed from his body, reports a Miami Herald article written before the news conference today.

And John Walsh has said that a niece of Toole's contacted the program and reported that he also confessed on his deathbed that he murdered Adam Walsh, the newspaper notes.

The Walsh parents have criticized police for botching the investigation of their son's killing, and Wagner today acknowledged that this is true, saying that he hoped the closing of the case would bring them some peace, FOX reports.

At the time Adam Walsh was killed, today's DNA testing wasn't available to law enforcement, and by the time DNA testing was considered, in the 1990s, crucial evidence had been lost, the Herald explains.

"Wagner said there was no single piece of evidence against Toole that made police name him as the killer, but that there was a 'vast amount' of circumstantial evidence," reports ABC News.

"If Ottis Toole were alive today, he would be arrested for the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh," Wagner said at the news conference.

The articles don't explain why police made the decision only now to close the case, but ABC reports that Wagner said "everything ... was in front of our face for years. This case could have been closed years ago."

Updated at 2:50 p.m. to include information from ABC News and New York Times coverage.

Additional coverage

New York Times: "Florida Police Expected to Close Adam Walsh Case"