In the summer of 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted and murdered by convicted serial killer, Ottis Toole. Adam’s murder sparked national interest and even inspired his father to fight for justice with his own television show, “America’s Most Wanted.”

Years later, John Walsh teamed with one of the men who ultimately solved the case to create an organization with dedicated to comprehensive child safety. On June 16, that organization will come to Toledo to provide area parents with necessary tools to keep their children safe.

DNA LifePrint, a Florida-based organization dedicated to improving child safety across the nation, will come to Taylor Kia at 6300 W. Central Ave. as part of its DNA LifePrint Child Safety Program.

The event will run from 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. is completely free of charge. At the event, DNA LifePrint will provide Toledoans with its new Biometric Fingerprinting and a complete, FBI-certified DNA identification kit.

Joseph Matthews, founder of DNA LifePrint, said the process does not take long and involves using state-of-the-art technology to put together a portable kit families can keep in the privacy of their own homes.

“All you do is swab the inside of the cheek, put it in a solution and you have it forever. If you ever need it, God forbid, the police can use it,” Matthews said.

Matthews said the fingerprinting process involves taking a digital scan of all 10 fingers on a child’s hands and taking a high-resolution digital photo. Both the fingerprint scan and the photographs are burned to a disc and no other copies are made, he said.

“What some people don’t realize is that if you have just a thumb or one or two fingers, the FBI won’t accept it,” he said. “They have to take all 10 digits to be able to put it in their database.”

Any parent who has a kit put together will also receive a free “Child Safety Journal.” Inside the journal, Matthews said parents can write down the child’s personal information as well as answer questions an investigator would ask before beginning a search.

“What we want to do is encourage every parent around the country to get the kit for their kids,” Matthews said. “It’s really a no-brainer to get the kit. The peace of mind alone is worth it.”

The event is sponsored by Taylor Kia, with all costs covered by the dealership. For those who cannot attend the free event but still want to obtain a kit, they can be purchased at www.dna-lifeprint.com for $6.95 with a $7.95 shipping and handling fee.

Tags: Adam Walsh, DNA Lifeprint, Ottis Toole, Taylor Kia

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Community, Public Safety.
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Taylor Kia of Toledo is teaming with DNA Lifeprint to help keep children safe.

The car dealership on 6300 W. Central Ave. has partnered with renowned Detective Joe Matthews to host a free event to give parents everything they need to help law enforcement agencies find their children if they ever were lost or abducted.

The event takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 16.

Among the items each parent will receive is an FBI-certified biometric 10-digit fingerprint profile, a high-resolution photograph of the child in full color, a ‘Child Safety Journal’ that provides law enforcement with the answers to 50 necessary questions after a child is missing and a home DNA identification kit.

Parents keep every bit of information gathered and nothing is kept on file about participating children.

DNA Lifeprint was founded by Matthews, a former supervisor in charge of homicide for the Miami Beach Police Department.

The idea for the system came from the “Baby Lollipops” case he solved in 1990.

“In the ‘Baby Lollipops’ case there was a baby that was found dead, abused and tortured in the bushes and we weren’t able to identify it,” Matthews said.

The case was named ‘Baby Lollipops’ after the shirt the child, 3-year-old Lazaro Figueroa, was wearing. When he was later identified, Matthews helped prove that his mother, Ana Maria Cardona, as well as her girlfriend, Olivia Gonzalez, were responsible for his abuse and death. Cardona has spent the past 20 years on death row and was given a retrial last June, where she was again sentenced to death.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was released on good behavior in 2008.

Because of the original difficulties the police had in identifying Figueroa, Matthews said he wanted to find a way to help law enforcement agencies more easily identify children and their locations through DNA.

Matthews’ first step was to try and get a bill passed that could help provide the DNA of children in social services.

“I tried to formulate a federal bill that would mandate the DNA of social service children,” Matthews said. “We were unsuccessful but as a result of that I developed a home DNA information kit.”

That kit started the beginning of DNA Lifeprint, in which Matthews teamed up with “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh to promote the program.

“We did the best we could,” Matthews said. “John Walsh told me ‘You couldn’t get the federal government to pass a bill, just do it on your own.’”

With that in mind, Matthews created the DNA Lifeprint program in 1996 and has distributed thousands of kits since.

Matthews first met Walsh in 1981 when Walsh’s son, Adam, had been kidnapped and murdered. After coming in to assist on the case numerous times over the next few decades, Walsh later asked Matthews in 2006 while he was working cold cases for “America’s Most Wanted” if he would solve his son’s murder.

“It was a very troubling case for so many years,” Matthews said.

“It seemed like with each administration I would be called back in but never had the opportunity to work the case like we would on Miami Beach.

“In 2006, John asked me if I would prove once and for all who killed their son. I worked the case for two years and nine months and beyond any doubt whatsoever I was able to prove, with actual evidence that was overlooked for 27 years, that Ottis Toole did murder Adam Walsh. The case is officially closed.”

The new evidence included crime scene photos that Matthews said had never been developed, which proved Toole was the killer.

Matthews has teamed up with author Les Standiford to release “Bringing Adam Home,” which details the case of Adam Walsh. It made No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal best seller list and No. 22 in the New York Times.

The ‘Code Adam’ program, which was designed later on to help find lost children in department stores, was named in Adam Walsh’s memory.

On the web: visit www.DNA-Lifeprint.com and click on links for more information.

Tags: Adam Walsh, DNA Lifeprint, Joe Matthews, John Walsh, Taylor Kia

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Auto Sense, Wheels.
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