1981 – Adam Walsh

During the the John and Ken show interview on February 7th 2002, Damon Van Dam declares (among other things): “We were in south Florida in 1981 when Adam Walsh was kidnapped”

In 1981, Damon Van Dam is a teenager. He and his family live in Hollywood, Florida.

I am not going to recall the terrible Adam Walsh’s case, John Walsh does it better than anybody else and his excellent book can be found in any public library.

I will just recall the main headlines: Adam Walsh is an adorable 6-year old kid who disappears from the Hollywood Mall Florida, on July 27th 1981. He will be found dead later.

As of today, nobody has been found guilty for his death.

There is something that you will not find in the book but that figures in the Hollywood police report; that’s what I am going to talk about.

Warning, this is complicated.

On July 27 1981, Adam Walsh disappears from the video game area situated in the toy department of Sears, inside the Hollywood mall.

It is hard to determine the exact hour of Adam’s disappearance but it is sometime between 12:30 and 12:50.

This is summertime, school is over.

Video games are brand new in 1981 thus making Sears a very popular place among teenagers in the neighborhood.

The first couple of kids (for better understanding I will call them A & B) arrive at the mall around 11:30 a.m. They go to the sidewalk cafe and eat lunch. From the cafe they go to Sears to play video games. They estimate their arrival around 12:15 and play approximately one half hour, that will be 12:45.

A & B relate to investigators they didn’t see Adam Walsh during this time.

Next, we have two other teenagers (C & D). They are cousins. The mother of one of the kids will declare to the police that the kids went to Sears mall for lunch around 12:15 and had lunch at the sidewalk cafe. After lunch they stopped at Sears to play video games and recall that while playing, an incident happened involving two other black teenagers. They estimate the time at 12:45 and are pretty sure about the hour because they had a 1:00 tennis tournament.

C & D cannot now be interviewed by the police because… they are going to school in South America.

Another teenager (E) arrives at he mall around 12:30, he goes to the sidewalk cafe and has a slice of pizza. From there he goes to Sears, stops on his way to watch cars and estimates his arrival at the video games around 12:45.

At the video game he declares having played with a little boy approximately eight years old. He declares that two black teenagers arrived and tried to take the game controller from the child. At this point, he saw a female security guard walk up to the two black teenagers and tell them to leave the store.

E, our fifth teenager stated leaving Sears after 1:00 pm. When he was shown Adam Walsh’s photo he was not sure if the kid he had played with was Adam. Chances are, it was him.

The security guard is another teenager, she is 17 years old. She declares an incident happened between 12:30 and 12:45 at the video game area located near the toy section at Sears.

She witnesses a fight between two white and two black kids. One of the black kids slapped a white child who appears to be 10-year old; she approaches the four kids and spoke to them. One of the black kids became verbally abusive and she told the four kids to leave the store. She declares the two black kids left the store via the south door and the two white kids via the north door. She also described one of the white kids as being approximately 7-years old and when shown Adam’s photograph, has no idea if he was the young kid.

Adam Walsh was never to be seen after 12:45.

What is interesting in all of the above is that we end up with eight teenagers, one child and six different stories.

***

Teenagers A & B declare playing video games around 12:15 for 30 minutes, and leave around 12:45. They don’t see Adam and don’t seem to have noticed the security guard or the two black kids.

Teenagers C & D declare (via an adult) having played video games after 12:15 and recall the incident with the two black kids around 12:45. They don’t mention the security guard and they are in South America at the time of the investigation.

Teenager E recalls having played with a little boy. He recalls the incident with the two black kids and the security guard telling the two black kids to leave. He doesn’t say anything about the security guard telling the white kids to leave too and he declares leaving Sears after 1:00 p.m.

The Security guard declares having seen four kids, two white kids, one being a very young child, and two black kids. She ordered them all to leave and assures that they did.

It is reasonable to think some or all of these teenagers are the last persons to have seen Adam Walsh.

Referring to the kids present at the mall, police report states: “when the above mentioned witnesses were first interviewed it appeared that this investigation was that of a missing child incident and in depth interviews were not conducted at first by investigators”.

Nothing shows the investigation seriously followed up any of their declarations later.

I think it could have been interesting to know more about all of that and check exactly what they did after leaving the mall.

Sears was a popular area and teenagers know other teenagers who themselves know other teenagers….. One of them might have be able to provide a serious lead about how Adam disappeared. One might have seen or known something that could have helped the investigation.

More questions should have been asked.

What were the names of some of teenagers who “were in South Florida when Adam Walsh was kidnapped”…

I suggest people reading this page to go on a search engine and look for “Jamie Bolger”. This child was abducted from a shopping mall in 1993. He was tortured, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. His two killers were 10 year-old…

In real life parents warn their children against adults, they do not warn their children against kids or teenagers.

In real life, adults kill and kids kill too.