AMW - Adam Walsh Murder Case Solved

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Authorities in South Florida have announced that they've finally solved 1981 killing of a little boy whose father later gained fame as the host of "America's Most Wanted."

Hollywood police held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to close the abduction and homicide case of 6-year-old Adam Walsh.

Adam's parents, John and Reve Walsh, long ago derided the investigation as botched. Both were at the news conference.

The boy went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. His body was never found.

A serial killer named Ottis Toole, died in prison more than a decade ago.

Toole had confessed to the killing, but later recanted.

Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle gave a deathbed confession to the crime.