America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh addressed the attendees of the 2010 School Transportation News EXPO about the tragedy he lived through 29 years ago today when lost his son and what he has done to capture those that would hurt other children.

The evening Blue Bird- and REI-sponsored keynote address at this year’s EXPO was packed as Walsh entered the stage after being introduced by STN President Tony Corpin. As soon as he took the stage he began to retell his heartbreaking tale, one which began with the disappearance and subsequent murder of his 6-year-old son Adam. After speaking about the lack of response from the local law enforcement, Walsh retold a story about his first meeting with an FBI official that called missing child cases something “the cops should handle.”

“’It’s a J. Edgar Hoover internal policy’ he told me,” recalled Walsh. “Well I said, ‘J. Edgar Hoover has been dead for a long time and you guys need to saddle up’”

This particular phrase, “saddle up,” has become synonymous with Walsh and his 22 years with Fox’s America’s Most Wanted. But before he began a career in helping to solve some of the nation’s toughest cases, he learned about a type of deviant criminal he had never heard of — pedophiles. While working from the local police station to organize the search for Adam, Walsh spoke to an officer that not only explained these deviants’ desires for young children, he showed he photos of 50 registered sex offenders that lived in his area in Hollywood, Fla.

“After getting little response from the media, I spoke with a coroner in Broward County named Dr. Ronald Wright. He told me to raise the reward even if I didn’t have the money,” said Walsh.

Soon, he was contacted by Good Morning America and flew to New York with his wife Revé and hoped for the best. But after the show he received a call from an old college friend who wanted Adam’s dental records to rule out a gruesome discovery in Vero Beach, Fla., which was over 100 miles away from Walsh’s home. Tragically, the severed head that was found turned out to be the only remains Walsh has ever recovered of his son.

“I don’t remember destroying the hotel room after I found out, but I did,” he stated.

He then had to do the most difficult thing he has ever done; he had to tell his wife that they would never see Adam again. The Walshs returned home to a lawn covered by news reporters, one that even hid in the bushes until 3 a.m. and then rang their doorbell to get a quote for an article she was writing.

Some time later, he decided to pay a visit to Dr. Wright and drove to the Broward County morgue late one evening. He mentioned a bill before Congress, Missing Children Act. Dr. Wright did not try to give him advice one how to get past his son’s death or offer any type of faith-based speech, he simply told Walsh it was time for him to “saddle up” and get this bill passed through Congress.

“It was the best advice I’ve ever gotten.”

In 1982, with the help of both Walsh and his wife, President Ronald Reagan signed the Missing Children Act, which authorized the entry of missing children reports into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. From there, Walsh has continued to fight for victims of every age and in 1988, he joined America’s Most Wanted, a program that has helped to capture of 1,124 fugitives.