Thread by @MissingKids

On July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh was abducted from a Florida shopping mall and brutally murdered.

Today, July 27, 2020, we honor his legacy and his memory.
Follow along as Adam’s father, @john_walsh shares Adam’s story in his own words.

The proudest achievement in my life has been being a father, and on November 14, 1974, Revé and I welcomed our son, Adam to the world. We were truly blessed.

We were living in South Florida, and our 6-year-old son, Adam, loved nothing more than going to the beach.

Like me, he was fascinated by the ocean and everything in it. Adam could name all the different types of fish and coral. He knew a trigger fish from a grouper.

My son was the kindest little boy. He’d share his toys and his books, especially his favorite ones about the ocean and pirates. Like other boys his age, he was a baseball fan. But, frankly, he’d rather stop and examine a butterfly in the outfield than catch a fly ball.

One day I went to work and I never saw my son again. Adam was abducted on July 27, 1981. To our disbelief, law enforcement had no coordinated effort to help locate Adam and no organization to help in our search. We felt alone.

Now, that image of Adam, holding a baseball bat, is seared in the nation’s consciousness.
We were frantic parents with nowhere to turn. There was no local, state or federal agency that could help. Stolen cars could be entered into the FBI’s database — but not stolen children.

There were no AMBER Alerts, no national missing children hotline. No emotional support system for distraught families like us. Two weeks after he vanished, Adam was found murdered, a day that forever changed the course of our lives.

We channeled our anger and our rage into helping families of other missing children. My wife, Revé, founded the Adam Walsh Resource Center in our garage off a card table and a landline that would later become the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

I went on to testify on Capitol Hill to get legislation passed to help other families and other victims. After that, I began hosting “America’s Most Wanted” and catching real criminals.

Today, my son
@CallahanWalsh
and continue that mission on “In Pursuit with John Walsh”

Out of our pain, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) was created in 1984, after President Ronald Reagan signed the “Missing Children’s Assistance Act. We want to make sure Adam didn’t die in vain. 📸 @WhiteHouse
missingkids.org/footer/about/h…

It all came about because of Adam, because of our love and respect for the kind of person he was and how many other people loved him. He was the motivation to make something positive out of this tragedy. To make sure he wouldn’t just be another murdered child, another statistic.

In memory of Adam Walsh.

"If his song is to continue...we must do the singing."
💛

If you have any information regarding a missing or exploited child, please call: 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)