Bringing Adam Home Author Les Standiford Talks About Parents' Worst Nightmare

• I raised my children on the lessons that I learned from John Walsh because of his tragedy. His terrible loss was a gain to many mothers, fathers and children around the country. It is ashamed that it had to come at such a high cost to the Walsh family. Unfortunately in our society it takes a tragedy to happen and someone like Walsh who will not sit back and say “that’s okay” to make change happen. His story made an impact on my life and continues to do so in the life of my grown children. I will be forever grateful to the Walsh family for the sacrifices they’ve made. I read your article with interest but the statement, “Before Adam, it was a fact that the FBI would respond more quickly to a report of a stolen horse than to a report of a kidnapped child,” leapt off the page at me. There is a reason. I would love to know from Mr. Sandiford from what research that statement is based upon. In all of my research and years of experience I have not found that fact to be true and that statement has me doubting the authenticity of the rest of the book. I am left wondering, “Was there any fact behind this statement or was it tossed out as a sound bite merely to sell books?” And how would I know to challenge this statement? I am often introduced when I speak to an audience as the “John Walsh” of the horse industry. Why? Our horse Idaho was stolen from our family over a decade ago. It took us 51 weeks to find our horse safe and bring her home. We were the first to utilize the internet in our search and sent out horse industry “Idaho Alerts” long before there was an “Amber Alert”. As a result of our experience, we are helping change the way we as horse owners look after our horses, and are helping change how law enforcement officers search for our horses when they are missing. Notice that I said “are helping change” how law enforcement looks for our missing horses. Like Walsh, my husband and I took our tragedy and found a way to help others. We started a nonprofit organization, Stolen Horse International, Inc., that works with victims (and law enforcement officers) when a search is launched to find a stolen or missing horse. We have even had one of our stories featured on John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted TV show. In over a decade of working with thousands of victims I can tell you this, not one time was the FBI involved in investigating even one of our cases. Even when we knew that a horse had crossed state lines the cases were referred back to local law enforcement. I am not saying that the FBI may have never investigated a stolen horse case. I am sure they have somewhere but the normal stolen horse case generally does not fit the kind of work they do, does it? Anyone who has done any research would know that local law enforcement has jurisdiction over stolen “livestock” cases which include equines. It is often hard to get local law enforcement involved in these cases so to think that the FBI would ride in, take over and investigate seems to be something more for a movie script or maybe the pages of a soon to be bestselling book. So take it from me, someone considered being one of the foremost experts in the field of horse theft in the 21st century, it is not much easier today for many of our stolen horse victims to get law enforcement response than it was for John Walsh to get help for Adam. Our victims are traumatized by their loss and by the lack of help they get from our system just as Walsh was when Adam was abducted. The next time you do an interview Mr. Standiford, please thoroughly check the facts. If you need help, call me. Debi Metcalfe Stolen Horse International, Inc. NetPosse.com

• That’s right, Dahmer did deny killing Adam, and the police found no evidence to the contrary. But the Herald found six witnesses who saw Dahmer at Hollywood Mall at the same time Adam was taken. All of them had told police what they’d seen, some of them a couple of times. Dahmer was a serial killer living 15 minutes from Hollywood, and he had already beheaded a victim by then. But he said it was just a coincidence that he was nearby when Adam was taken and a child’s head was found. He looked the detective in the eyes and the detective believed him. Here’s what the book says is the best, most shocking evidence that Toole killed Adam: the “Shroud of Turin” picture of blood in Toole’s car is an outline impression of Adam’s head. Bob Norman in Daily Pulp at Broward New Times published it and wrote: “Is it really Adam, or is it the forensic equivalent of the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich?” http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/02/adam_walsh_face_photograph.php Here’s the Herald story: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/27/1551541/adam-walsh-murder-revisited-the.html

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