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He claims Dahmer almost confessed to killing Adam.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Oct 04, 2022
An FBI agent has come forward claiming to have evidence that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer murdered John Walsh's son, Adam.
It's been over forty years since the brutal murder of Adam Walsh, the son of "America's Most Wanted" host, John Walsh.
In an interview with Radar Online, a retired FBI agent claimed that it was actually Dahmer who murdered the six-year-old boy.
Did Jeffrey Dahmer murder Adam Walsh?
Former FBI agent Neill Purtell claims Dahmer abducted and killed six-year-old Adam Walsh in 1981.
While speaking to the outlet, Purtell, who interrogated Dahmer after he was apprehended in 1991, claimed that the Florida police botched the investigation of Adam Walsh's murder.
Purtell blamed local police for being too focused on pinning the crime on Ottis Toole, a convicted serial killer in the area where Adam initially disappeared.
"Police agencies are like the military when they have a mindset," Purtell said.
Adam was abducted on July 27, 1981 while at a shopping mall in Hollywood, Florida with his mother, Reve Walsh.
Reve had briefly left her son's side to make a quick errand in another section of the store, while Adam stayed back and watched a group of older boys playing video games in the toy department of a Sears.
Ten minutes later, Reve returned to find Adam was missing.
The six-year-old boy was presumed to have been abducted from the parking lot of the mall.
After an extensive search for Adam, two fishermen discovered the young boy's severed head in a drainage canal in Vero Beach, Florida. His body was never found.
The FBI agent claims Jeffrey Dahmer matches the description of Adam Walsh's killer.
According to Purtell, he had been one of the first investigators on the scene after Dahmer was captured at his apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 22, 1991.
Dahmer's apartment had been littered with human remains, including human heads. Dahmer is believed to have killed 17 men and boys.
"When I arrived on the gruesome scene with a local detective, we both looked at each other and whispered... 'Adam,'" Purtell said, noticing similarities to Adam's murder in Dahmer's apartment.
The FBI filings supported Purtells' claims. "The decapitation and disposal of the torso of Adam Walsh is again the type of behavior that Dahmer continued to exhibit in Milwaukee with his victims," the document stated.
"Jeffrey Dahmer closely matches the description of the person who abducted this young child."
Investigators also found that Dahmer had been living in Miami Beach at the time of Adam's murder, and two witnesses placed Dahmer near the Hollywood Mall on the day of Adam's abduction.
The former FBI agent also claims Jeffrey Dahmer insinuated he killed Adam Walsh.
After Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of 17 men and young boys, Purtell questioned him about Adam's murder at Wisconsin's Colombia state prison.
"He said if he DID admit to it, he would be killed in prison as a pedophile," Purtell said. "My impression was he was admitting he did it."
Dahmer vehemently denied any involvement in Adam's brutal murder and said in a 1992 interview: "I’ve told you everything—how I killed them, how I cooked them, who I ate. Why wouldn’t I tell you if I did it to someone else?”
Ottis Toole confessed to the murder of Adam Walsh in October 1993. Hollywood police initially did not believe him due to his reputation for falsely taking responsibility for murders.
At the time of his confession, Toole was serving time in a Raiford, Florida prison for two unrelated murders.
In December 2008, authorities eventually closed the case of Adam's murder, believing the findings against Toole were enough to prove that he'd murdered the six-year-old boy.
Following his death, Adam's father, John Walsh, went on to become the host of "America’s Most Wanted" from 1988 to 2012 — a crime show responsible for apprehending more than 1,000 criminals.
His activism also led to George Bush signing the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, in 2006, on the 25th anniversary of Adam’s disappearance.
The act established a national database of child sex offenders.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.