After some investigation, police eventually concluded that Adam was abducted by a drifter named Ottis Toole near the front exterior of Sears that afternoon, after being instructed to leave by a security guard. According to Toole, he lured him into his white 1971 Cadillac with a damaged right bumper with promises of toys and candy, then proceeded to drive north on Interstate 95 toward his home in Jacksonville. Adam, at first docile and compliant, began to panic as they drove on. Toole punched him in the face, but as this just made the situation worse, he then "walloped him unconscious." While he was unconscious, Toole drove north on the Florida Turnpike to a deserted service road just north of the Radebaugh Road overpass in northwest St. Lucie County (). When Toole realized Adam was still breathing, he strangled him to death with a seat belt, dragged him out of the car, and decapitated him with a machete. Toole also claimed to have disposed of his body by incinerating it in an old refrigerator when he returned to Jacksonville. He claimed that he wanted to make him his adopted son, but given the close relationship he had with loving parents, this was not very feasible. Determining the source of the blood found in the car was not possible. The police ultimately lost the bloodstained carpet from the car, the machete said to be used to decapitate Adam, and eventually, the car itself. Toole, a confidant of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, repeatedly confessed and then retracted accounts of his involvement.