John Walsh's story

Perhaps you’ve seen America’s Most Wanted, the television program that re-creates the crime stories and encourages viewers to help authorities locate and capture the criminals who are wanted for these often violent crimes. The programs host is John Walsh.  Many people think he is an actor or journalist – a television professional hired to host the show. But he isn’t, and his story is quite remarkable.

Walsh owned his own company, and along with three partners, he built deluxe hotels. But one day his six-year-old son, Adam, disappeared. The child had been abducted, but because there was no evidence of a crime, the authorities were slow to help Walsh and his wife find their only child. They searched for sixteen days. Tragically, by the time he was found, it was too late. He was dead.

Walsh’s life was thrown into chaos. He lost thirty pounds. His house went into foreclosure. And he lost his business – he just couldn’t bring himself to return to his work. He had lost all hope. Then one day Dr. Ronald Wright, the county coroner, looked at Walsh and asked, “You’re thinking about suicide, aren’t you?”

“What do I have to live for?” Walsh replied. “I have nothing. My only child has been murdered. I can’t even talk to my wife. I have no job, my house is in foreclosure, my whole life is over.”

“No it isn’t,” Wright responded. “You are the articulate. You mounted the greatest campaign for a missing child in the history of Florida. Go out and try to change things.”

Walsh says that it was the best advice he’d gotten from anyone. It gave him purpose. And that sense of purpose did more than give him a reason not to kill himself. It energized him to serve and help others. In 1988, he began hosting America’s Most Wanted, which he continues to do as I write this. The show has been responsible for the capture of hundreds of fugitives, including fourteen who were on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted lists.

Perseverance; Purpose; Hopelessness; Serving