ID's “In Pursuit with John Walsh" Aims to Close Cold Cases

John and his son Callahan pictured top left with John who team up to showcase unsolved crimes in the hopes that some of these cold cases can finally be solved appeared on a panel at The Paley Center with Paula Zahn whose own show on ID On the Case focuses on the investigations behind some of Americaamp8217s most fascinating crimes amp160Callahan has taken up his fatheramp8217s cause serving as the Strategic Advancement and Partnerships Senior Specialist for the National Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenIn the premiere episode In Pursuit focused on two unsolved crimes of husbands killing their wives and then eluding the police amp160Each segment includes photos of the criminal with a tollfree number to call and a website address amp160The program also features photos age enhanced where needed of two missing children in the hope that someone will recognize them and help reunite them with their familiesJohn Walsh explained that he wants to highlight unsolved crimes in small towns whose police forces are small and often not equipped to handle many of the heinous crimes in their communities amp160He said that 70 of all police forces in America have fewer than 10 officers amp160To help support local efforts Walsh has set up a network of retired veteran police marshals and detectives called Team Adam after his son who was tragically kidnapped and murdered 27 years ago amp160Team Adam participants fly in and help local forces fight for justice by doing immediate actions such as grid searches and hot interviews amp160John is also committed to reforming the justice system to find more ways to protect child victims such as enabling them to testify in the judgesamp8217 chambers instead of the courtroom amp160amp8220We know what it is like to wait for justiceamp8221 he statedIn the case of his own son John explained that the local Hollywood Florida police refused to act upon his abduction and the case languished until he was able to obtain all the police files from the case and hire his own private detective to investigate amp160The case was then solved in one month amp160The importance of having experienced investigators on the case and a system that is actively committed to pursuing justice cannot be understated I speak from experienceMy motherinlaw was the victim of a homicide in Pasco County Florida in 1997 amp160We were fortunate that two local detectives were retired New York City homicide police who solved our case in two weeks amp160But the then District Attorney of Florida would not prosecute citing a lack of evidence amp8230 until one of the local detectives brought the case to the FBI and the US Federal court where it was successfully prosecuted amp160This hard lesson underscored to me how lucky our family was to have two veteran law enforcers working on our behalf and how they took a risk to go over the heads of state agencies to seek full justice on the national levelCallahan summed it up best when he said amp8220We want to make the world a smaller place for criminalsamp8221 amp160Not even home is safe John reported that 35 families turned in their own sons after hearing about criminal cases on Americaamp8217s Most Wanted his previous and longrunning show on Fox amp160So far the Walsh familyamp8217s efforts have helped bring to justice hundreds of criminals globally with arrests made as far away as India amp160amp8220The tips from the public are vitalamp8221 Callahan continued amp8220so we want to lower the threshold for themamp8221 amp160To that end they are leveraging social media such as FacebookI know firsthand that when a family member is a victim of a crime there is never closure amp160amp8220Butamp8221 as John pointed out amp8220justice helpsamp8221In Pursuit with John Walsh is telecast Wednesday at 10 pm on ID Investigation DiscoveryClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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ID's “In Pursuit with John Walsh" Aims to Close Cold Cases

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Charlene Weisler

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ID's “In Pursuit with John Walsh" Aims to Close Cold Cases

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Charlene Weisler

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