The Associated Press reported yesterday that a serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh in 1981.

I was hardly a year old when this happened but I do remember the early years of America’s Most Wanted. The television show began profiling wanted fugitives and missing persons and children in 1988.

The show was canceled for a month and a half in the fall of 1996 when Fox decided to air a Saturday night sitcom block.

However, protests from the public, police agencies and government officials, including the governors of 37 states, encouraged Fox to bring the show back.

The death of a child is a horrible thing, but Adam Walsh did not die in vain.

Currently in its 22nd season, the show has reported over 1000 captures.

That’s more than 1000 vile criminals off our streets as a result of John Walsh’s crusade against crime and that number grows daily.

Walsh also was a leading advocate in the establishment of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The Center acts as an information resource to help find children who have been reported missing (either by parental abduction, child abduction or running away from home) and to help children who may be being abused or sexually abused.

The gruesome murder of an innocent child has likely prevented many more like it.

It also became the catalyst for a proactive approach to catching those out to harm innocent victims.

– Jason Cannon