Free Republic

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....

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...

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.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Pedophile and convicted murder Ottis Toole abducted and killed Adam Walsh 27 years ago, Hollywood police Chief Chadwick Wagner announced Tuesday. Authorities announced that they've finally solved the 1981 killing of the boy whose father later gained fame as the host of "America's Most Wanted." Wagner said Tuesday that after a fresh review, he is ending the abduction and murder case of Adam Walsh.