Jul 27, 2006 8:22 pm US/Eastern
President Signs Bill Named For Adam Walsh
Thursday is the 25th anniversary of Adam Walsh's abduction
The bill creates the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
by Evan Bacon
MIAMI (CBS4 News) ―
Thursday is the 25th anniversary of the abduction of six-year-old Adam Walsh from a Hollywood mall and he's being remembered in a way that'll keep other kids safe.
Walsh was taken from a Sears department store when he stepped away from his mother to play a video game.
Two weeks later, after one of the most intensive searches in Florida history, his severed head was found in a Vero Beach canal, 100 miles from where he was last seen. The rest of his body was never found.
The case gained national attention and led Adam's father, John Walsh, to host the television show "America's Most Wanted."
Walsh joined President Bush Thursday as he signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
It will create a national sex offender registry, authorize grants to help local law enforcement agencies beef up registry systems, assign more FBI agents to Internet sex crimes and require DNA samples of sex offenders.
''This bill will make a uniform sex offender registry in every state [and] add 500 new U.S. marshals, who will be assigned to fugitive task forces,'' John Walsh said Tuesday to TV critics gathered for a press tour in Pasadena, California.
No one was ever charged or convicted with Adam's abduction and the case remains open and active.
The main suspect in Adam's murder, a Jacksonville drifter named Ottis Toole confessed twice to the killing but recanted. He died in prison in 1996.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
