FROM TC Palm :
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Investigating one of the nation's most prominent unsolved murders, a Hollywood detective pitched softball questions and homemade muffins to a serial killer.
He asked: Did you kidnap freckled 6-year-old Adam Walsh from a Sears in 1981?
"Nothing to do with it,'' Jeffrey Dahmer answered, taking another muffin.
The word of Dahmer, a sociopath who stashed severed heads in his refrigerator, was instrumental in Hollywood police deciding he was not Adam's killer despite contradictory statements from two witnesses.
It is a case with Treasure Coast ties. Adam’s father, John Walsh, now a resident of Vero Beach, used his grief and anger to become one of America’s highest-profile crime-fighters as the host of “America’s Most Wanted.” Adam’s severed head was found in Indian River County.
In December 2008, with Walsh's parents present, Chief Chadwick Wagner called a press conference to say deceased drifter Ottis Toole -- long suspected but never prosecuted -- killed Adam. Adam's parents believed it and Broward prosecutors said Toole was the only valid suspect. Case closed.
But had authorities fully explored Dahmer's time in South Florida, they would have found more evidence implicating him than Toole, The Miami Herald found.
The evidence includes two additional witnesses who said they saw him at the mall with Adam that day, another who placed Dahmer at the scene of an eerily similar abduction attempt two weeks earlier, and people who said he had access to a van fitting an early description of the getaway vehicle.
The 29-year-old murder remains among the most vexing unsolved crimes in America, and no one can say with certainty that Dahmer -- or any of the other myriad suspects to drift through the case -- snatched the child.
Yet by focusing so heavily on Toole despite layers of contradictions in his long twisted tale, Hollywood police may well have missed leads pointing to Dahmer, according to fresh interviews and a review of thousands of documents.
A DISHEVELED STRANGER
``Once I saw that picture of Dahmer, I said, `That's him,' '' Janice Santamassino remembered. ``That's who I saw.''
July 27, 1981 was the first day of Santamassino's vacation, and she drove her daughter and son to the Hollywood Mall on Hollywood Boulevard across from police headquarters. After nearly slamming into the back of a blue van parked illegally outside the west entrance of Sears, she parked, and went inside.
Santamassino wanted sandals for her daughter Lori, 4, but first the girl asked to play an arcade game. Lori approached a game next to a boy wearing an oversized hat, shorts and a striped shirt and played for 10 minutes, the mother said.
On their way out of the toy department, Santamassino looked down an aisle and saw a disheveled man. She said their eyes met. She grabbed her daughter's hand and walked away. ``He just gave me a bad, uncomfortable feeling. It was spooky,'' she said.
She later heard an intercom call for Adam Walsh. A distraught woman and man were at the customer service desk, but the boy at the video games was gone. So was the creepy guy in the toy aisle.
A massive search ensued. Hundreds of volunteers scoured Hollywood's streets, and helicopters and boats filled the skies and waterways. Posters of Adam, clad in a little league uniform and flashing a gap-toothed grin, were plastered everywhere.
Watching the news that afternoon, Santamassino realized she had seen Adam. She called police and then again the next day but said she never received a return call. Not in 1981 nor in 1996, when she called America's Most Wanted after the show, hosted by Adam's father John Walsh, ran a piece on Adam. The show forwarded the tip to Hollywood police.
Contacted by a writer in 2009 and shown a picture of Dahmer, she said he was the man she saw.
UNRETURNED CALLS
Others say they contacted police in the days after Adam's abduction without reply.
They include Jennie Warren, interviewed by state attorney's investigator Phil Mundy in 1996 after a media lawsuit prompted the release of the case file. She was dismissed after she said she didn't see Toole, she said.
Warren told The Miami Herald she saw Adam with his mother Reve that day. She also noticed a man at the video games wearing beige khakis ``like army fatigues.'' He stood next to Adam and stared at the screen.
Warren says she could have picked out the man in fatigues had the investigator placed his picture in the lineup with Toole. ``I wish my mind could take a picture, because it would be him: Dahmer.''
Interviewed recently, Mundy had little recollection of the Warren interview. He did recall broader discussions among authorities about the problems Dahmer witnesses would have posed should Toole be prosecuted.
In 1991, Dahmer emerged as one of the nation's most infamous killers after his arrest on charges involving decapitation, necrophilia and cannibalism. He had 11 severed heads in his Milwaukee apartment.
For some of those present in Sears the day of Adam's disappearance, the photo of Dahmer reignited a 10-year-old memory. They recognized him as the man they saw in the store that day Adam vanished.
Among them was then-Miami Herald pressman Willis Morgan. He had told police he was in the Radio Shack in the Hollywood Mall that day and felt threatened when a stranger aggressively approached him.
He followed the man into the Sears toy department before turning away.
That man was Dahmer, Morgan now told police.
Bill Bowen, an Alabama TV producer, reached the same conclusion independently. He had reported seeing a man lift a struggling, protesting child and sling him into the back of a blue van -- illegally parked outside Sears.
Now, after seeing the news coverage out of Wisconsin, he too was convinced Dahmer was the man he saw.
On a suggestion from FBI agent Neil Purtell, who interviewed Dahmer after his Wisconsin convictions and thought he had tacitly admitted killing Adam through his overly fervent denials, father John Walsh urged detectives to visit Dahmer.
Dahmer told Detective Jack Hoffman he came to Miami in March of 1981 after his early discharge from the Army due to alcoholism while in Germany. He said he had no vehicle, never went to Hollywood, and worked long hours at a Collins Avenue sub shop. He said he never killed children but didn't want to rot in prison and would admit to Adam's murder if it meant a death sentence.
``If Jeffrey Dahmer had committed the Adam Walsh homicide, he would have confessed to this crime,'' Hoffman wrote.
Dahmer was killed in prison in 1994.
THE BLUE VAN
Had Hoffman followed up on Dahmer's statements, he would have found that Dahmer lied about his hours and was often sent home due to drinking, according to his boss, Ken Haupert Sr. As an employee of Sunshine Subs, Dahmer had access to a blue delivery van, according to eight people.
For months after Adam's abduction, police stopped blue vans across the state based on the sketchy statements of 10-year-old Timothy Pottenburgh, who said he'd seen Adam pulled into a blue van outside Sears. Hoffman eventually threw out the blue van theory, citing time discrepancies in Pottenburgh's story.
But Santamassino said she saw a blue van parked illegally outside Sears' west entrance, as did Bowen. Another dismissed witness, Phillip Lohr, said he saw a blue van parked illegally outside the toy department around the time of Adam's abduction. Lohr remembered seeing a man carrying a struggling, freckled child out Sears' toy department exit, though he didn't call police until 1997. He said he was unsure of what he'd seen that day and later felt guilty about doing nothing.
Adam's body was never recovered. A severed head identified as Adam's was found Aug. 10, 1981 in a canal on the northbound side of the Florida Turnpike near mile marker 130.
Two Publix truck drivers called the next day, Aug. 11, to report seeing a blue van parked off the Turnpike near mile marker 131 just after midnight on Aug. 7.
Denis Bubb saw a man with a flashlight down near a canal and radioed Clifford Ramey, following behind. Ramey looked to see if the driver had mechanical problems and saw the man leaning through an open sliding side door and fumbling around with a bucket, he said. He didn't notice a flat tire and the hood wasn't up. Both say they talked to Hollywood police and were told the incident had nothing to do with the Adam Walsh murder.
Ramey's glance was brief, but he thought the van had no front passenger seat, he told The Herald. The shop's blue van, former store co-owner Darlene Hill told the Broward State Attorney's Office in 2007, had ``a milk crate for a passenger seat.''
Another Dahmer connection may be found in the report of a near-abduction in a North Palm Beach Sears exactly two weeks before Adam's disappearance. At the time, investigators believed it was strikingly similar to the Adam Walsh abduction and had two witnesses create a composite sketch.
Investigators dismissed the link after speaking with a Sears security guard who said he'd chased a shoplifting boy around that time and believed the sketch looked like himself.
Hoffman wrote that Jane and Matthew Houvouras, the witnesses, agreed that the security guard was the man they'd seen, as did Terry Keaton, the child who was nearly kidnapped, and his mother.
Reached in 2010, Jane Houvouras said she told Hoffman that neither she nor her son believed it was a security guard. He wasn't in uniform.
Keaton, 10 in 1981, and his mother, Ginger Pantel, also told The Herald the man in Sears was not a security guard. It was Dahmer, Keaton said. ``In my heart, I truly believe that was the guy who tried to get me that day.''
Hoffman did not respond to an interview request.
Charles Morton Jr., chief assistant state attorney in Broward County, noted in a letter to The Herald that the new witness accounts ``add intrigue and mystery to Adam Walsh's tragic death'' -- but are problematic.
``The delayed Dahmer identifications would raise serious legal and moral questions in a potential prosecution of Dahmer,'' he wrote.
SLIPSHOD RECORDS
But all four Dahmer witnesses say they contacted police in 1981, though police -- who admitted to shoddy record keeping in the initial weeks of the investigation -- have no record of their tips. Also, Warren wasn't shown Dahmer's picture in a lineup in 1996 and Santamassino was never contacted by authorities.
And though police and the Walsh family say authorities thoroughly investigated Dahmer even after that interview over muffins, documents suggest otherwise.
A report obtained by The Herald shows police did investigate Dahmer's time in South Florida -- for two weeks. The investigation began after a writer contacted them in 2002 with the names of people who remembered Dahmer and said he had access to a blue van.
Detective John Kerns spoke to Sunshine Subs' 1981 night manager Ken Haupert Jr. and Michel Pelletier, the owner of parent shop Mr. Pizza. Pelletier said he didn't remember Dahmer and only had trucks. Haupert Jr. remembered Dahmer but no blue van, he said.
After a few dead-end records checks, Kerns concluded that ``this investigation has not established any link.''
He didn't contact other potential witnesses. Darlene Hill says Pelletier did own a blue van, which she used herself to move furniture.
She said it belonged to Mr. Pizza. ``You could walk in at any time and pick up the keys,'' Hill said. ``It was absolutely chaos and people would take the van. Sometimes, maybe they'd bring it back that day and maybe they wouldn't.''
Sunshine Subs manager Haupert Sr., who gave Dahmer a job, also remembered a blue delivery van used for Mr. Pizza. And, he recalled the day Dahmer showed him the body of a dead man behind the store. Dahmer's name is on a police report of the incident 20 days before Adam disappeared. The medical examiner's office ruled the death was by natural causes.
``If the police called I would talk to them,'' Haupert said.
Kerns, now retired, had ``no comment.''
The state attorney's office also conducted a brief investigation in 2007, interviewing Hill and Pelletier. Prosecutor Morton interviewed Morgan, but nothing came of it.
Then in 2008, Morton and the state attorney's office learned that Hollywood police wanted to close the case.
Their man: Ottis Toole.
TOOLE'S SHIFTING STORIES
Toole, a pyromaniac, story-telling drifter, surfaced as a suspect Oct. 10, 1983, the same day a TV movie aired about Adam. Sitting in a Duval County jail cell he told a Brevard County detective he had gotten into mischief in Fort Lauderdale. The detective mentioned it to Jacksonville Detective J.W. Buddy Terry.
That was a day before investigators around the country flocked to Louisiana to learn if Toole and one-eyed lover Henry Lee Lucas had killed in their jurisdiction. Together the duo had admitted to hundreds of murders, though today nearly all the confessions are considered inconclusive or outright lies.
Less than two weeks later, Hollywood police called a Friday night press conference to announce Toole as Adam's killer. The Toole and Lucas murders ``make Charles Manson look like Huckleberry Finn,'' said Assistant Chief Leroy Hessler.
Police said Toole knew details only the killer could and led them to the site where Adam's head was found. They planned to charge Toole on Monday, Hessler said.
But when police met with Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, no charges followed. Toole's statements show why prosecutors would be uncomfortable. He said he did it and then said he didn't. Then he did. Then he didn't. Then he did.
He couldn't initially identify Adam, said he took the boy around Jan. 1 and said Lucas chopped off Adam's head. But Lucas was jailed in Maryland when Adam was kidnapped.
Also, detectives showed him pictures of Adam's severed head and the canal scene where it was found, including the Florida Turnpike mile marker -- before asking him to lead them to the crime scene.
After Toole's first recantation that night, Detective Terry spent 12 minutes alone with him and Toole again confessed. Toole later signed an informal story rights deal with Terry. Terry insisted it was a joke, but was demoted when his superiors found out.
Investigators never found Adam's body in the myriad places Toole said he disposed of the remains, and had trouble vouching for his whereabouts in late July 1981.
``My opinion, as is most everyone else from the city of Hollywood, is that he did not do this killing,'' then-Lt. J.B. Smith concluded in 1984. ``We can't confirm one thing he has said.''
Today, Ron Hickman, one of two original lead case detectives, agrees. ``Bogus,'' he said.
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Sorry about the long preamble but I wanted to provide background enough for the reader to see that this case is still in dispute. In fact, it is still unsolved in my opinion. There are just too many variables and no one was ever tried for it. I am not saying that Toole did not do it because I do not know who did it. But both Toole and his partner in crime, Henry Lee Lucas, were famous for claiming responsibility for all sorts of horrific crimes but few of these were ever proven. In fact, it was believed that these men were both serial confessors with mental disorders; in fact, their life stories are so outrageous that they had to be fibbing about some of it. Only one murder was ever credited to Lucas and several others were credited to Toole, mostly by his confession and little else. Neither man was known for killing children, however. They were homosexuals for the most part but they were not pedaphiles. And neither was Jeffrey Dahmer for the most part; his victims were mostly adult males. Witnesses who claim it was Jeffrey Dahmer seem credible to me yet the police are correct in stating that Dahmer had no problem confessing to everything he did after capture so the fact that he denied doing this makes his guilt questionable. He wanted the death penalty. He was very unhappy when he did not get it and if he could have, I am sure he would have committed suicide. So lieing about the Walsh case just doesn't fit his profile. Although there is also the problem of his alcohol abuse and there were things he did that he had a hard time remembering. So who did kill Adam Walsh? I have no idea and I do not think that anyone else has any idea, either. I am just hoping the charts will give me some clues.
According to all sources Adam disappeared July 27 1981 around 12:15 pm from the mall. Using the chart for 12:15 pm I decide to use Mercury as the child's marker. He was not in the company of his parents at the time so the fifth house doesn't work for me and he was not really in control of his own actions so the first house ruler doesn't apply. Mercury is the universal marker for children and I use it in every case where a child is not with their parents but is still too young to be considered an adult. Notice in this chart that Mercury is in the tenth house, which shows us the child in a public place of business. Mercury is disposed of by the chart co ruler, the Moon, which is in the ninth house. The ninth house does describe games and gaming. Not betting though. It mostly describes spectator sports and athletics but It is ruled in this chart by the sign Gemini, which describes games played with the hands. This boy is playing a game by the charts and we know, by the facts, that he was playing video games in the mall. Notice that the seventh house ruler, which describes the person the boy is about to meet, is Mars. This shows us a male. Mars is also in the ninth house, not far from Mercury and the node, so this person is in the game room at the same time that the boy is. In fact, Mars is disposed of by the Moon in Gemini, showing an interest in the games. The Moon is disposed of by Mercury, which tells us as well that this person likes to be around children. The north node conjoined the Sun in the tenth house is a sign that this person had been in the game room in the mall before and that this person had planned to be there on this day. Sun rules the eleventh house and the eleventh house is a marker for children as well. So the north node conjoined the Sun can allow us to be pretty sure that this person was there in the game room on that day because he or she had an interest in being around the kids.
There are some other interesting markers in this chart. Notice that the first house ruler is Venus and it is in fall in Virgo. This person has had great difficulty in relationships and is likely divorced and unhappy about being alone. There is awkwardness and lack of confidence. Venus is in the eleventh is a marker for divorce. It is also a marker for romantic attractions and here in the sign Virgo disposed of by Mercury shows an affection for younger people, possibly even children. Focusing on children in this chart you can see that the fifth house ruler is Uranus, situated in the second house and disposed of by the seventh house ruler, Mars. This person brings money to the game room to offer coins to the kids. This person uses the money to attract the kids and to get closer to them.
In the chart for 12:30 pm things change. You can see that Mercury has left the 10th house for the 9th. This shows us the child, Adam, leaving the mall (the tenth house) and going into the parking lot (the ninth house). Notice that Mars, the seventh house ruler, is still in the ninth. And here's the thing. Pluto is rising and just now attaching to the Ascendant. Pluto is disposed of by Venus, the first house ruler, in the eleventh. Now you should also be watching Neptune as it moves from the fourth to the third. We are now seeing an abduction. The ninth house is the third from the seventh and shows us the abductors car. You can see Mercury there, possibly getting into the vehicle. But when Neptune moves from the fourth to the third and opposes the Moon, which moves into the eighth house at that same time, you will see the child being hidden in the vehicle. Pluto at the first cusp shows us aggression and force. Saturn in the twelfth shows us a binding or capture. All of these planets are disposed of by the first house ruler and, in turn, the first house ruler is disposed of by Mercury. This person came here for exactly this, to take a child. Adam just happened to be available. Moon in Gemini in the eighth shows us possible entrapment and death for sexual purposes. Gemini also describes knives.
Mars in Cancer is in fall so this person has a hard time controlling himself. Mars usually defines male energies so I will begin referring to the abductor as he or him from now on. Mars is disposed of by the Moon so the actions of this person are triggered by emotional needs and fears. He feels driven to do what he does. He cannot help himself. Mars and Mercury are not conjoined but they are in the same sign, showing an affinity for Adam. There was something about this boy that brought back a memory or a feeling. Both planets disposed of by the Moon in the eighth, there was a sexual component in the attraction and a recognition. There will be something similar about this man as a boy to who Adam was at the time. He sees himself in the boy.
As the day progresses, Saturn begins to rule the fourth from the twelfth, which tells us that this man took Adam home or to a place were he was living at the time and held him there. Saturn is in Libra so the child was kept on the second floor of the home or in an area above the ground, such as in an attic, on a shelf in a closet, in an overhead cabinet or compartment, etc... Pluto in the twelfth trine the Moon in the eighth describes a violent death. The Moon in Gemini describes knives. Pluto often defines dismemberment. We know the boy was decapitated as they found his head in a waterway. Mars in Cancer seems to fit this pretty well. Mars as the seventh house ruler disposed of by the Moon in Gemini also makes me think that this was the preferred method of murder for this person, using a knife and taking off the head (Mars is the natural ruler of Aries). Mercury in Cancer square Pluto in Libra shows violence towards the child and the possible leaving of evidence in water. This is all in hindsight however, I must admit, and cannot be easlily seen in this way from the future.
I am pretty sure that Adam was killed the same day he was abducted. The chart for 2 pm shows us a clear death pattern. The first house ruler, Mars, in the eighth house along with the Moon. Pluto remains in the twelfth and the fourth house ruler, Uranus in Scorpio, is now in the first house. Pluto's constant presence in the twelfth house shows us that the boy was actually "being murdered" the entire time until he died. What this means exactly I will leave to the reader but this is the scenario described by the charts. I take it to mean that every thing that happened to Adam after he was taken was a part of the eventual murder. This man took him to kill him. There never was another thought or plan. Notice in the chart for 2 pm, which is the death pattern chart, that the tenth house ruler, the Sun, is conjoined the node. The Sun describes the home of the abductor and Adams place of death. The Sun conjoined the node implies that this location had been used for this purpose in the past and was a part of the plan on this day as well. This man took children to this home and killed them. And Adam was not the first nor was he likely the last. This home had been used for this purpose before. Descriptors for the home include the Sun in Leo and Venus in Virgo. The Sun in Leo is in dignity so it takes precedence over Venus. The Sun in Leo describes a stately home or a home in an upscale location. It is probably either yellow or green in color with something red in the trim or decoration. The Sun places it in a commercial or business district, perhaps downtown. There should be government buildings nearby such as the police station, the library, city hall, etc.. If these are apartments, they are large and garish, most likely yellow with red artwork or trim. These apartments (or this home) would be large enough to have a den and a fireplace. There would be a chimney on the home or chimneys on the roof of the apartment house. This is a fixed location and is not moveable; it is not a boat, a car, an RV, a mobile home or a trailer. It is an older apartment house or a home. It is large and garish with a den and fireplace.
The man who took Adam is marked by Venus in Virgo and Mars in Cancer. Because both of these planets are in fall, this is a weak person with co dependancies and no strength of character. There is some sexual perversion and taste for the unusual. Drugs or alcohol are a problem with Neptune opposing the Moon and Mars disposed of by the Moon. Venus in Virgo gives a matronly nature, a feminine personality that tends to be picky and peculiar, like the stereotypical 'little old lady'. Mars in Cancer gives a personality that is not open or honest, tends to hide the true feelings and to lie about the desires or goals. What this person desires may be unacceptable in most circles. There is a tendency to pursue the lowest segment of society, the poor, the drug addicted, the outcast, and to hang in these circles. This is due to an extreme lack of self respect and a negative attitude which assumes failure before trying. Alcohol abuse and suicidal tendencies are likely. This person has no self control or discipline and cannot hold a job for long. Interestingly enough, the Moon was in Gemini on this day and Jeffrey Dahmer was a Gemini. Ottis Toole was a Pisces.
Traditional readings give Mars in Cancer the following physical markers. A short, wirey and muscular body with a fast, active walk. Dull, dirty complexion with light brown or blond hair. Sharp, hazel gray eyes and a hooked nose. It also gives a crafty nature, clever and wiley. Can be cruel, violent, revengeful and addicted to drink. Often an imposter, pretending to be someone he is not. A taker who gives nothing in return. Now, this is interesting. The dull complexion fits both men while the blond or light brown hair fits Dahmer. The hazel eyes don't fit either; Toole had brown eyes and Dahmer had blue eyes. Neither man has a hooked nose. However, they both could be said to we wiley and crafty. Also cruel and violent, as proven by their crimes. Dahmer was addicted to drink. Toole was known to take on other identities. Toole was short but not so muscular. Dahmer was tall and paunchy. A little of this and a little of that. No decision makers here.
Taking the other marker, Venus in Virgo, you get a taller person with an average body type. This placement gives a "good looking" person. Again, the hair is light brown or blond. And again, brown or hazel eyes. This placement gives dimples and a nice smile. This placement makes one a neat dresser. It also often gives a double life, where one person presents at work and with family while leading a secret perverse lifestyle in secret. Now, again, this gives a little here and a little there. Like I said, Toole had brown eyes and here this is a marker. But Dahmer was blond and both placements describe blond hair. Neither man would be said to be particularly "good looking" but I would think this would apply more so for Dahmer than for Toole, who was rather grotesque. Neither man was a neat dresser, with shirt tails hanging out and dirty pants. Again, this would be Dahmer more than Toole as Dahmer was able to dress well enough to get and keep jobs for periods of time while Toole was so filthy he would not be even interviewed by most employers. Dahmer definitely led a double life, one which presented itself to family and at work and another that went on at night in secret. Not that he was ordinary by any means; he was usually drunk and did not hold jobs for long. His family was aware that he was an alcoholic. But no one knew he was a rapist, murderer and cannibal. Unlike Toole, who did little to cover up the fact that he was a criminal. There was no one who did not know that Toole was an outlaw. So the double life attribute would apply to Dahmer more than Toole but even then not so much.
So the markers for the abductor are not helping us much in determining which man actually did this. Or perhaps it was someone else altogether? This is possible.
One other marker I would like to investigate is the vehicle. We have been told that the child was taken off in a blue van. Sightings of the blue van are widely reported and it is also a reported fact that Dahmer drove a van during the time in question. Throughout the charts for this event, Cancer marks the ninth house. The ninth is the third from the seventh and describes the vehicle used by the abductor. Although at the time of the abduction Gemini rules the ninth, we find that Mercury is in Cancer and both Mars and Mercury are in the ninth at the time, in the sign Cancer. As the day unfolds, Gemini leaves the cusp and Cancer takes over. So Cancer is the consistant marker for the abductor's vehicle. Cancer is a water sign, which implies the color blue, but it actually describes a green color. Mercury, on the other hand, which marks the ninth house at the time of the kidnapping, is a better marker. It describes a light blue or azure as a color. Mercury and the Moon are in mutual reception so I would venture to guess that this vehicle was a light bluish green color. The sign Gemini (and the planet Mercury) implies more than one compartment, like you find in a work truck or a van. However all cars and vehicles are described by Gemini so this is not the strongest marker. So, again, these markers are not that definitive. They do seem to support the reports of the blue vehicle, however. But whether this was a van, a truck, or just another car, is not easily found in these charts.
At the time of the abduction, the fixed star Mirach was in the seventh house, so the person who kidnapped Adam was drunk. Venus, the first house ruler, also opposes Fomalhaut, so there was an addiction involved, either to drugs or drink. The Moon is conjoined the fixed star Hoedus so there was lust and probable rape involved in this event; lascivious behavior. Within another few degrees, the Moon is sinister to Bellatrix, which also describes obsessive lust and rape. At the same time, the Moon opposes Sabik, which is a marker for perversity. Mercury is also conjoined to Geidi Prima, a fixed star that marks rape. There are many markers here indicating sexual attraction, perverse desires and rape. This assures us that Adam was kidnapped for sexual purposes alone. And this is an indicator that this was repeat offender was sexual predators do not stop at one child. Also supporting this idea is the out of sign conjunction between Venus and Phecda, a fixed star that describes sex addiction. And, as if we need this affirmation at this point, the last note to make is the 1 degree conjunction between Mercury, the child's marker, and the fixed star Pollux, which defines misfortune or calamity.
Everyone has always wondered what happened to Adam's body and why it was never found. The boy was decapitated and only the head was found. I am not fond of doing grisly work, such as looking closely at how someone was killed or what was done to their body and such but this being a big mystery I decided to make a run at it. Right away, I ran into trouble because of the nature of Astrology. There are sign assignments to various parts of the body, such as Gemini for the hands and Capricorn for the knees, etc... but there are no planetary markers for this. Although Aries rules the head in general, it would not be said that the planet Mars on its own would describe the head of the body. In fact, I believe Mars has been assigned the genitals but I am not sure. My instincts would tell me that the first house of the natal chart is the best descriptor of the head and face but I am not sure that is the case in an event chart. So you can see that this would amount to nothing more than a shot in the dark. And this is for the head, which is a singular part of the overall body so consider how you can just mark the entire body with one planet or sign. In forensic work, Saturn rules the skeleton and therefor often rules the body's remains. I use it as the marker for the body in almost every chart I do involving a death but I have never tried to track the head and body separately and I am not sure it can be done. You can see in the death chart, as shown above, that Saturn is in Libra in the eleventh house. Now, does Saturn describe the body as a whole or the body without the head? And if the head is not attached to the body then can we use Saturn to track it? These are questions I am not sure I can answer. And I have learned through my work with these charts that when in doubt, go to the Moon. Always go to the Moon. And here the Moon appears to provide some answers.
First of all, at the time of death, Moon is in Gemini in the eighth house. This shows physical death. Gemini is a dual sign, showing two sides or parts to any issue. In my opinion, the Moon is showing us the two body parts, the head and the rest of the body. Notice that the Moon is disposed of by Mercury in Cancer in the ninth. The head was found in a canal (Cancer) in a wooded, swampy area (ninth house ruled by Cancer). Mercury and the Moon are in mutual reception, showing reciprocity between the two. I beleive this shows us the body and the head, as two separate entities. And if this is taken to be the case, we safely say that both parts were tossed into the water but in different places. One was tossed in the outdoors, in a body of water in a wooded area. This is Mercury in Cancer in the ninth house. The other was put in the water also (Moon disposed of by Mercury in Cancer) but in a place where there was a fork in the river or canal (Gemini) and traveled off in another direction. In fact, the body may have been in more than one piece. Gemini would describe an area with swifter moving currents and overhanging scrub while Cancer would describe more stagnant water in a more swampy area. Since we know the head was found, you would take Mercury's position in the ninth and call it southwest. And then you would take the Moon's position in the eighth and call it more west than south. So starting with the vantage point of where the head was found you would move west from there in a still somewhat southerly direction until you came upon a faster moving body of water. This is where the body was dumped. This is the best that I can offer from my own experience with the charts. It is unlikely to be useful at this point but it does provide interesting study and learning opportunities for those of us who are trying to develop a viable system.
Now, last but not least, I would like to compare Adam's birth chart to the death chart. When I decided to do this, I was amazed at what I found. Although I do not have Adam's time of birth, I believe just the placements themselves can render a great deal of information we can find useful. Looking at the solar chart I drew, you can clearly see a cluster of planets in Scorpio around the Sun. Notice that the death chart has Scorpio rising at the time of death and Uranus in the first house, exactly conjunct his natal Moon. This conjunction describes sudden events, of course. Sudden, unexpected events, for better or for worse. Transiting Uranus was also stationary that day, moving into retrograde motion, and therefor sitting on his Moon literally without movement towards separation. Also, note that the marker for his killer, Mars in Cancer, is trine Adam's natal Mars, providing a window of opportunity. Adam was feeling good that day and was friendlier than he should have been.
Another marker in the transits is the sinister approach of the Saturn - Jupiter conjunction to the boy's natal Pluto. This type of aspect reeks of animosity, anger and sadism, with violence to the corporal body (Saturn). In many composite and synastry charts I have done, when I see aspects between Saturn and Pluto like this one I tell people that even if they do get along with this other person right at this time, this will not always be so and the outcome could become violent or, at the very least, a bitter breakup with many regrets.
