Adam Walsh, 1981
Six-year-old Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Sears store on July 7, 1981. Adam was at the store with his mother, and she left him at a video game display, while stepping away to speak to a store employee. When she returned, he was gone. Adam may have been asked to leave the store with the other children at the video game display; however, the specifics of the kidnapping are unknown. The child’s decapitated head was located 16 days later.
His father, John Walsh, took on a strong anti-crime advocacy role after his son’s death, eventually creating the television program America’s Most Wanted and helping with the passage of the Code Adam Act and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
The Code Adam Act mandates a public response to a report of a lost or missing child in federal facilities. The same response is used voluntarily in many stores throughout the country. When a child is reported missing, the store or facility announces the child’s name and description throughout the store, enabling patrons to help locate the child.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, passed on July 27, 2006, created a national sex offender registry, dividing sex offenders into three tiers. Those in the most severe tier, tier three, are required to update their whereabouts every three months throughout their lives. Tier two offenders required to update every six months for 25 years, while tier one offenders are required to update annually for 15 years. In addition, the law provides federal judges with the ability to civilly commit offenders in the custody of the federal prisons who are deemed a high risk of offending against children and sets federal sentencing minimums for offenders guilty of child sexual assault.