America's Most Wanted: The Legacy of Adam Walsh and NCMEC with Callahan Walsh

During a shopping trip to the Hollywood Mall in Florida on July 27, 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh's mother, Revé Walsh, left him at a kiosk with other boys playing Atari games, while she did some quick shopping.

When she returned, Adam and the other children had disappeared. Investigators later found the boy murdered, prompting his father, Jphn Walsh, to go on to become one of the nation's biggest advocates for catching criminals.

In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, talks with Callahan Walsh about his work at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

They discuss several high-profile missing and exploited children cases, including Adam Walsh, Amber Hagerman, and the Delphi murders. Callahan also talks about prevention tips for parents, the NCMEC's services, and how to stay safe online.

Show Notes:

[0:00] Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum.  

[3:10] Sheryl introduces guest, Callahan Walsh to the listeners

[6:00] Callahan shares a brief background of how he got to be a part of NCMEC

[7:00] National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

[10:00] Educating the public on how to help find missing children 

[15:30] “32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation online came into the National Center through our cyber tip line in 2022 alone.”

[16:30] Question: Adam's case changed the way not only law enforcement but the way the public looks and investigates and deals with missing children's cases. Can you tell us how? 

[17:20] Operation Cross Country 

[18:25] Team Adam 

[20:40] The Delphi Murders: The Quest for Justice with Barbara MacDonald

[25:00] Preventions and safety tips for parents

[25:40] KidSmartz

[29:00] Predators collaborating online during pandemic

[31:55] Sextortion 

[35:10] Facial Reconstruction Demonstration

[43:25] Public donations allow NCMEC to continue work. If you would like to help DONATE HERE

[45:06] “Not knowing where your child is at bedtime is a pretty hard thing to accept.” -R.W

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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.  

You can connect and learn more about Sheryl’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

Social Links:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @ColdCaseTips

Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum

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