Free Republic

Investigating one of the nation's most prominent unsolved murders, a Hollywood detective pitched softball questions and fed homemade muffins to a serial killer. He asked: Did you kidnap freckled 6-year-old Adam Walsh from a Sears in 1981? "Nothing to do with it,'' Jeffrey Dahmer answered, taking another muffin. The word of Dahmer, a sociopath who stashed severed heads in his refrigerator, was instrumental in Hollywood police deciding he was not Adam's killer despite contradictory statements from two witnesses.

The search for a missing Florida girl named Caylee Anthony received worldwide attention this year, and recently came to a tragic end. The 3-year-old was last seen in June, though her mother Casey Anthony inexplicably waited a month before reporting her daughter missing. Police were unable to find Caylee, but in October Anthony was indicted on first-degree murder charges. Dozens of self-professed "psychic detectives" offered tips, ideas and information to police about where the missing girl was. Unfortunately, as with previous missing persons cases, all the psychics failed: not a single one gave information that led police to recover Caylee...

Earlier this month, an Associated Press probe of FBI figures revealed that, despite technological advances in criminalistics, it’s just easier to get away with murder nowadays. The clearance rate of homicides, or cases solved in a year, stood at 61 percent nationwide in 2007, a steady slip over the decades from the first year of modern record-keeping, 1963, when the clearance rate was 91 percent. In addition to DNA and other scientific advances that should be helping catch more criminals, not fewer, law enforcement also now has the benefit of reaping tips and captures with the help of modern media....

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – FOX 5 has confirmed that one of the most famous unsolved murder mysteries in the country will be officially closed today. The Sun Sentinel Newspaper reports the Adam Walsh murder case will be officially closed, and Ottis Toole will be named by police as his killer. Adam was 6 years old when he disappeared from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida in July 1981. His severed head was found two weeks later, but his body was never recovered. Toole confessed twice to killing Adam, but he also recanted those confessions. He later died in prison in 1996....

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A little boy's murder that shocked parents everywhere, launched a national television crusade and confounded detectives for more than two decades may finally be solved. Hollywood police today are expected to identify Ottis Toole as the killer of Adam Walsh, the 6-year old snatched from a Sears store at the Hollywood Mall on July 27, 1981. Adam's severed head turned up two weeks later in Vero Beach and his body has never been found.

Did Dahmer Confess To All His Crimes? Witnesses Say They Saw Dahmer In Mall Where Adam Walsh Disappeared POSTED: 3:34 pm EST February 2, 2007 UPDATED: 4:30 pm EST February 2, 2007MILWAUKEE -- Did Jeffrey Dahmer confess to all his crimes? There's a call to reopen the investigation into Milwaukee's most notorious killer.Milwaukee TV station WISN reported that there are new questions about Dahmer's criminal history before he returned to Milwaukee and never-reported details that some believe link Dahmer to one of the United States' most notorious cold cases.The boy at the center of that cold case is now a...

President Bush, joined by "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, signed a new law Thursday that requires convicted child molesters to be listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge for failing to update their whereabouts. "Our nation grieves with every family that's suffered the unbearable pain of a child whose been abducted or abused," Bush said in a bill-signing ceremony in the Rose Garden. "This law takes an important step forward in this country's efforts to protect those who cannot protect themselves." The measure was named for Walsh's 6-year-old son, Adam, who was abducted exactly...