Adam Walsh Murder: John and Reve Walsh Re-Live the Investigation

March 2, 2011 — -- Reve Walsh still remembers the last conversation she had with her six-year-old son Adam at a Florida shopping mall.

"I said, 'I'm going right over here to the lamp department,' and he said, 'Okay, Mommy, I know where that is,'" Walsh told "Nightline."

Reve Walsh rarely speaks publicly of her son's murder, but chances are you've heard of Adam Walsh, or at least his father: Reve's husband, John Walsh became the public face of the missing children's movement after Adam's death and is the longtime host of "America's Most Wanted."

Now, as a new book, "Bringing Adam Home," tells the story of the Adam Walsh case, the Walshes sat down to speak with "Nightline."

Adam Walsh was abducted from a suburban Florida shopping mall on July 27, 1981. Two weeks later, his severed head was found floating in a canal. The rest of his body was never recovered.

"When all this was going on, I just thought to myself, I can't wait till it's 20 years or 25 years," Reve said. "I don't care about getting old, I just want this experience of my life to be that far away from me because I thought it would be different. It's really not."

From the beginning, the Walshes were disappointed with the police department in Hollywood, Fla.

First, the Walshes say the cops didn't take the missing persons case seriously enough. Then they say the police botched the murder investigation.

"It was one nighmare after another," John Walsh said.

The prime suspect was Ottis Toole, an admitted serial killer who was in prison for many other crimes.

"You keep killing and killing and it gets easier and easier and it don't really bother you," Toole once told Texas law enforcement.

Toole made 24 documented confessions to killing Adam Walsh, including a 1984 videotaped interview with Texas Rangers. During the interview, he said, "I kind of feel bad about that Adam Walsh kid."

"That is," he said, "the youngest child I ever killed."

Toole even wrote the Walshes a letter in 1988, demanding $5,000 in exchange for telling them where the rest of Adam's remains were.