10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic was a beautiful, bright young girl living in the sleepy town of Bay Village, Ohio with her family. She loved school, horses, and being silly. In the summer of 1989, she and her best friend Kristy brought out a Ouija board at a sleepover. Amy asked the board when she would die and the board spelled out S-O-O-N. The girls didn’t think much of it. Less than six months after their summer sleepover, Amy was dead. She’d been abducted by an unknown man who’d convinced her over the phone to meet him to buy her mother a present. The same man had attempted to meet with other young girls around the area by calling their houses and telling them that he was friends with their mother. Though on the day of her abduction, Amy had sat through a stranger danger presentation at school, something about this man had convinced her that he was safe. What had this man said to Amy, and more importantly, WHO WAS HE?
Who Was Amy?
Amy Renee Mihaljevic was born on December 11, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas to Mark and Margaret. She had an older brother named Jason. She was a reserved and quiet little girl, unless she was comfortable around someone. If she knew you well, it was easy to pick up on how bright of a girl she was. She was in gifted classes at school and could be very outgoing. In a video that her family released to the public after her disappearance, Amy is seen giving a report on a book in front of her class. She has a huge smile and seemed like a fun, happy girl.
When Amy was just three years old, her family moved from Jackson, Mississippi to Bay Village, Ohio. Just outside of Cleveland, Bay Village was voted one of America’s Safest Communities in the 80’s. It was a middle class area that was carefree, and children could ride their bikes everywhere without fear. Residents weren’t worried about locking their doors because they trusted their neighbors.
The Mihaljevics moved because Mark had landed a new job at a nearby auto dealership. Margaret started working at a local sales paper called Trading Times. The family blossomed in their new home. Mark referred to Amy as the “can do kid”. She wasn’t scared to try new things, and she even jumped off of the high dive at the nearby pool when she was only 5! Amy had a passion for horses and loved riding. She was taking lessons at a local ranch, riding her favorite horse, Razzle. Like most kids in Bay Village, Amy rode her bicycle everywhere. Her friend, Jennifer, said that other kids would make fun of her bike because it was a little run-down, but Amy loved it. Amy’s and her best friend, Kristy Sabo, were practically inseparable. They had countless sleepovers and loved watching Dirty Dancing. Kristy’s mom said that she’d look into the room and see Amy and Kristy sitting in the same chair covered in a blanket watching movies together. Amy had no shortage of people who cared about her and she seemed to have a happy, normal childhood.
The Day of the Abduction
On Friday, October 27, 1989, the day started off like any other. At 7:20AM, Jason and Amy rode their bikes to school. Amy was in fifth grade and Jason was in seventh, but they both attended the same school. Kristy remembered walking down the hallway past Amy’s classroom that morning. She looked in and saw her friend hunched over and writing at her desk. That day, an officer from the Bay Village Police Department came in as a special guest to talk to the children about stranger danger. He gave the fifth graders the rundown of how to stay safe and why it was important to be aware of the people around them, especially if they were strangers.
The fifth grade classes were dismissed around 2PM. They were always released an hour before seventh graders so it was typical for Amy to beat Jason home. Around 3:10PM, when Jason left school, his plans changed. He had planned on biking to a nearby strip mall because he had a coupon for Baskin Robbins. This shopping area, the Bay Square Shopping Center, was a popular area for school-age kids to hang out after school. It was within walking and biking distance from the school, only about four minutes away. (This place is sometimes referred to as a mall, but it’s an outdoor strip mall area.) The Baskin Robbins was on one end of the shopping center. When Jason was released from school that day, he decided not to go to Baskin Robbins. He’d heard that a few boys from school were going to be there that he didn’t get along with and rather than be the victim of bullies, Jason decided to head home.
Around 3:10PM, Jason arrived home to the Mihaljevic house. He expected for his younger sister to already be home, snacking and watching TV, but she was nowhere to be found. She would’ve taken the same route home from school that Jason did, so he would’ve seen her if she’d stopped off or had an accident. He decided to call his mother, who was at work. He told her that he’d just gotten home and Amy wasn’t there. Margaret was immediately concerned. This was VERY unlike her daughter. Margaret told Jason that she was leaving work and heading home. Just after hanging up with Jason, Margaret’s office phone rang again. It was Amy. She said that she was at home and she was fine before telling her mom that she’d see her soon and hanging up. Margaret sensed that something wasn’t right. Her daughter didn’t sound like her normal self. She made the ten minute drive home and found Jason in the house and no sign of Amy.
Panic began to set in and Margaret knew something was wrong. At 5:35PM, she left Jason at home and drove to the school to look for her daughter. The doors to the school were locked and no one was around, but she saw Amy’s bike still sitting in the bike rack. Just before 6PM, Margaret drove to the Bay Village Police Department to report her 10-year-old daughter missing.
The Investigation
The officer on duty that day who took the report was Mark Spaetzel. He wasted no time in alerting other officers about the missing child. The search around Bay Village started immediately. Police asked Margaret to return home in case Amy called again or came home. At 6:30PM, Amy’s father, Mark, arrived home from work. Margaret told police that Amy’s phone call didn’t sound right. It was extremely out of character for her to lie. The Mihaljevics began calling everyone they could think of, hoping it was just a miscommunication, and that Amy was safe somewhere.
Kristy remembered being at a friend’s party when she found out about Amy. The mother of the party host came downstairs and asked if anyone had seen Amy. No one there recalled seeing her once school let out that day. Around 8:45PM, friends and family members were flooding the Mihaljevic house to help search. Several men walked the banks of the French Creek that ran from the Bay Square Shopping Center to the lake, in case Amy had an accident. A family friend got a copy of Amy’s school picture from her mother and drove it to the local Channel 3 news station, asking them if they could put it on the news that evening. The news station told her that they couldn’t put Amy’s photo on air until she’d been missing for 24 hours. Rightfully so, the woman threw a fit, hoping that they’d change their minds. When she arrived back at the Mihaljevic’s house, she could hear Margaret screaming from outside. She found her standing in front of the television, horrified by the reality that her daughter’s photo was on the news, listed as a missing child.
The next day, Saturday, the search continued. Police had helicopters, planes, and search dogs out looking for any sign of Amy. The FBI was quick to join the search and went about questioning the family. Margaret was confirmed to have been at work by several coworkers during the time that Amy disappeared. Her husband Mark was at work at a Buick dealership in Cleveland. He left work, stopped for gas, and arrived home at 6:30PM. His alibi was verified and the family was eliminated as suspects. Police pretty quickly dismissed the idea of Amy being a runaway as well. There was no information to point to Amy being unhappy or having any history of running away. Her best friend Kristy told police that Amy would never leave home on her own, that she loved her dog too much.
Last Known Whereabouts
As the searches continued in Bay Village and the surrounding areas, there was a media blast with Amy’s picture and pleas for information regarding her whereabouts or if anyone had seen her after school. Classmates from Amy’s school came forward to provide more information about her movements after school that day. Two friends confirmed that she had left the school around 2:04PM when class was dismissed. The three of them walked the short distance to Bay Square Shopping Center, where there were already several classmates hanging out in front of the Baskin Robbins. They said that Amy left them to stand by herself and then continued on. Two 11-year-olds recalled seeing Amy standing by a pole on the sidewalk near Baskin Robbins, looking like she was waiting for someone. They saw a man approach her, lean down to speak to her, and place his hand on her back as he guided her towards the parking lot. At this time, not really thinking anything of what they’d seen, the kids turned away and back to their friends. When they looked back, both Amy and the man were gone. The two witnesses were able to provide enough details for a composite sketch. While their physical descriptions of the man didn’t exactly match, they did have some similarities. Both described a white male, approximately 30-35 years old, between 5’8 and 5’10 with dark hair. Both sketches were shown to the Mihaljevics, but they didn’t recognize either of them.
Not long after police spoke to the 2 witnesses from the shopping center, one of the Mihaljevic’s neighbors brought her stepdaughter to the station. The girl said that during lunch period on the day of Amy’s disappearance, she told her that she’d received a phone call from a man who told her that her mother was being promoted at work. He wanted to take Amy out to buy a gift for her mother, and one for herself. This story
Children Don’t Go Missing in Bay Village
Jason was shocked that his sister had seemed to walk off willingly with a stranger. He said that despite his sister being only ten-years-old, she was very smart and definitely knew better than to leave with a stranger. The rest of Amy’s friends and family agreed, which left everyone wondering, how did this man convince Amy to meet and leave with him?
24 hours after Amy’s abduction, the composite sketches were released to the media. Investigators worked on developing a psychological profile of the man. The last phone call that Amy made to her mother told them a lot. It was very likely that Amy was with her captor when she made this call. This suggested that the man had quite a bit of confidence, allowing her to speak with her mom while with him. It was a big risk.
It was possible he had Amy call to see if her mother had realized that she was missing, as well as to buy some time before her mother contacted police. He took a huge risk by meeting her in a very public place, and that reinforced his confidence in his plan. He was clearly a manipulator and a risk taker.
The next step was to dissect the reported phone call that Amy had received from her abductor. They believed he must’ve had some background on the family to convince her that he knew her mother. Police began searching for a connection with Margaret. She hadn’t gotten a promotion, but had recently gone from part-time to full-time at the Trading Times. It’s possible that Amy might’ve believed this was a promotion. Margaret said that it was possible she could’ve met someone while on her lunch break at work and told them about her transition to full time.
Police sent out letters in Bay Village and surrounding towns asking if their children had received any suspicious phone calls recently, hoping they might find a connection. They quickly found a girl around Amy’s age in a nearby town who had received a similar phone call the summer prior to Amy’s abduction. The girl was babysitting her younger brother. He answered the phone and told her he didn’t know who it was. She took the phone from him. The man on the other end of the phone wanted to know if she’d go with him to pick out a present for her mother because they were old friends. The girl hung up and immediately called her mother. Her mom was concerned and filed a police report. When the mother heard about Amy’s disappearance, she called the police to tell them about her daughter’s phone call. When officers came to talk to them, they noticed that the girl had a ton of horse riding ribbons on her walls. She told them that she rode at a nearby farm called Holly Hill. This was the exact same farm where Amy took her riding lessons.
Holly Hill Farm was at the edge of Bay Village and Amy was a regular and well known there. Police wasted no time in executing a full search of the farm. Divers, dogs, and helicopters were used to search the area, which was very isolated at the time. There was a man who stood out to investigators. He was the caretaker who lived in a home in front of the stables. He was a relative of the farm owners and was often described as an odd, unusual person. Reportedly, parents had complained about how creepy he was. Amy’s friends said that he always paid extra attention to her. During their search of the farm, police found a pair of green sweatpants that fit the general description of what Amy had been wearing when she was abducted. These were collected and immediately sent to be examined.
Not long after police found out about the first girl who’d gotten a mysterious phone call, they were contacted by another family. Two sisters who lived in nearby North Olmstead had gotten similar phone calls. (It didn’t specifically say, but it seemed like they received more than one call from this guy.) The caller told the girls that he worked with their mom. He asked them personal questions, about their ages, hobbies, and friends. They felt he must’ve known when to call because they were always home alone. Everytime he called, the girls noticed a car sitting outside of their house. They believed it was the caller, watching them.
The town of Bay Village was in a panic, as well as the surrounding areas. Children didn’t go missing in Bay Village. With the discovery of the likely connection of the phone calls, everyone was on edge, knowing that there was a predator in the area.
More Leads, More Dead Ends
During the first week after Amy’s abduction, police received between 400-600 tips and they followed up on every single one, with no strong leads. The composite sketches were updated by an FBI sketch artist and released again to the public. Amy’s disappearance had become a national news story and her face was everywhere. She was featured on America’s Most Wanted. With the updated sketch, police received multiple tips about a local handyman that matched the description. His parents lived right across from the Bay Square Shopping Center and he had recently worked on a house just a few doors down from Amy’s. Police looked into the handyman, but found that he had a rock solid alibi for the time of Amy’s abduction.
One month after Amy’s disappearance, on November 30, 1989, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a phone call from a female. The voice said that she was Amy Mihaljevic and she was in Farmington, Maine. Police immediately brought the recording of the call to the Mihaljevics who confirmed that the voice belonged to Amy. Police in Farmington were contacted and a search began in the area. No sign of Amy was found. Despite Amy’s parents believing the voice belonged to their daughter, FBI voice analysis determined that it was not Amy. A continued investigation into the call found that the caller was a hoaxer who’d made similar calls in the past, who also had severe mental problems. She had no connection to Amy. The Mihaljevics and police were hit with yet another dead end when they found out that the green sweatpants located at Holly Hill Farms didn’t belong to Amy.
Mark and Margaret were determined to keep Amy’s face and name in the spotlight. They knew that if her name fell out of the news, it would lessen the chances of people being on the lookout for her. On December 11th, Amy’s 11th birthday, her friends and family made public pleas for the return of Amy. Her best friend Kristy said, “Happy birthday. I hope you’re alive and I hope you come home soon.” Margaret wrote her daughter a letter that Jason read aloud. It said that if Amy were there, she knows that she would choose angel food cake with confetti frosting and spaghetti for dinner. In her honor, that’s what they were having for dinner. She said she wouldn’t tell her what her present was, that she’d have to come home to see it.
The Ending No One Was Hoping For
In the early morning of Thursday, February 8th, 1990, a jogger on route 1811 in Ashland County, about 50 miles from Bay Village, noticed some clothing off the side of the road. She got closer and saw that it was the body of a young girl dressed in light green clothing. She immediately contacted the police. The local sheriff’s department responded and located the body in a field several feet off the road. They placed a call to the Bay Village Police Department to notify them that they found a body and they believed it to be Amy. It was clear that she had been deceased for quite some time.
The body was soon confirmed to be that of Amy Mihaljevic and the Bay Village police had to let the family know. Jason remembered thinking that at least the nightmare was over, that she was at rest, but knowing he would have a wound that wouldn’t ever close.
The field where Amy’s body was found was the kind of place where the murderer had to have prior knowledge of it. It wasn’t just a place that he could’ve come upon by accident. It was a perfect dump spot. There were no houses nearby and the flat, long road made it easy to tell if a car was approaching at night and would give the person plenty of time to hide. It didn’t appear that Amy had been killed in the field. Based on the initial exam, investigators believed that she had been killed in another location and was placed there likely within a few days following her abduction. A few yards from Amy’s body, they found a curtain and a blanket. It was sent for testing. Police believed it might’ve been used to wrap Amy’s body.
Amy’s autopsy showed blunt impact to the back of her head, but that wasn’t believed to be fatal. Her cause of death was determined to have been from several stab wounds to the side of her neck. She’d been dressed, however her underwear was on inside out. This led police to believe that she was sexually assaulted. Due to the stage of decomposition, the medical examiner was unable to determine if there were any physical signs of sexual assault. All of her clothes were on her, but it was found that her earrings were missing. Amy had worn a pair of turquoise horse-head stud earrings to school that morning and they were gone. They thought that the murderer had likely taken her earrings as a trophy. Her backpack was also missing.
As the news of Amy’s body being found spread, one of the girls who said she’d received a similar phone call told police about something that had happened to her several years before. She was walking through a park when a stranger grabbed her and pulled her into a secluded area where he sexually assaulted her. The man continued to get angrier and angrier, and she believed he was going to kill her before he changed his mind and left her there. She said that the man had taken her clip-on earrings that were also horse heads. This was the same girl who had boarded horses at the same farm where Amy took riding lessons. This strengthened their suspicion of the caretaker at Holly Hill Farm. The man told them that he’d been home most of the day and there was a large period of time where they couldn’t confirm his whereabouts. Police took a different approach and administered what they called truth serum. The solution of sodium pentathol bypasses a person’s inhibitions, slowing down their brain and taking away their impulse to lie. While under the effects of the truth serum, the caretaker still denied having hurt Amy. Police felt he didn’t have the mental capabilities to carry out the crime and he was ruled out.
Two weeks after Amy’s body was found, her ashes were scattered in her mother’s family plot in Wisconsin. They held a service for her in Bay Village, where the church was overflowing with people who wanted to pay their respects to Amy and her family. With the permission of the Mihaljevics, police put cameras inside of the church and in the parking lot, looking for anyone who was acting strangely. They felt it was likely that Amy’s murderer would want to get close to the family and would’ve inserted himself into the searches for her. They began to look at everyone who helped out at the Amy Center, which had been the headquarters for Amy’s searches. They found that a local man had just died by suicide, from drinking a combination of soda and Dry Gas (a car fluid). The man had been heavily involved in the searches for Amy, was often at the headquarters, and knew Margaret. On the day Amy’s body was found, the man had checked himself into a hospital. He looked similar to the composite sketches and had some very strange interactions with the family. He offered multiple times to clean the Mihaljevic’s home and mailed objects to Margaret often, including pins with a note that said one for you and one for Amy when she returns. She recalled a time at the center when the man embraced her in a super creepy way for an awkward period of time. Police searched the man’s home, but found nothing connecting him to Amy. They found he had a recent history of relationship and work troubles, along with depression.
While investigators were looking for anyone who had a connection to Amy, her brother was having a difficult time handling being what he referred to as “the brother of the dead girl.” He blamed himself and was constantly sad. The neverending thoughts of whether he could’ve prevented Amy’s abduction and death by going to the shopping center that afternoon like he’d planned. It was a heavy burden for a 13-year-old boy to carry.
While leads were running out, police received another call about a 10-year-old girl in a nearby town who received a similar phone call before Amy’s abduction. She came home from school and was home alone when the phone rang. The man on the other end said that he was a friend of her mother’s and wanted to pick her up after school to go get her mother a present. The girl said she’d have to ask her grandmother. The man tried to make her feel guilty for asking for permission and “spilling the beans” about the surprise present.
All of the girls who’d received calls from the mystery man had similarities in their ages and looks. It was clear that he had a preference. They lived in a small radius around Bay Village, but attended different schools. Though Amy and one of the girls both attended Holly Hill Farm, none of the other girls did. Finally police were able to find a connection…the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Lots of children visited the nature center on school field trips and in their free time. Police interviewed the staff and the volunteers and found that all visitors, children included, were required to sign a log book. This book had their names, addresses, and phone numbers. Though the existence of this log book was confirmed by all of the staff and volunteers, police were never able to locate it, therefore, they couldn’t determine a physical link.
A Witness
A woman came forward to the Bay Village police and told them that she thought she may have seen Amy’s killer on the side of the road where the body was found. On February 7th, the day before Amy’s body was found, she saw a vehicle parked on the side of the road near the dump site. She saw someone standing by the back of the vehicle with the hatch open, but couldn’t remember any specific details. Not willing to let information slip by them, police decided to try hypnosis on the woman. While under, she was able to recall that it was a 25-35 year old man with a light complexion and dark hair. The vehicle was a dark-colored hatchback. The sketch artist was able to make a composite of the man she’d seen.
A few days later, in July of 1990, an officer pulled over a man driving erratically in a dark-colored hatchback. He fit the composite sketch and was screaming at the officer to shoot him, that he was a bad man who deserved to go to jail. The man was clearly intoxicated and arrested. The next morning, he was found on the floor of his cell with a noose made of shoestring around his neck. He was revived and police found that he worked as a landscaper in Aurora, a town near Bay Village. Much to their surprise, they found that the man had a solid alibi for the day of Amy’s abduction: he was in jail on a charge of animal cruelty.
James Renner
When Amy was abducted, 11-year-old James Renner lived two towns away and became obsessed with her case. He promised himself that when he grew up, if police didn’t solve her case, he would. Now an investigative journalist, Renner has dedicated much of his life to finding Amy’s killer. He’s published a book that explains his findings, what he thinks happened to Amy, and his top suspects.
This is what Renner believed happened on the day of Amy’s abduction:
He thinks that the man likely didn’t park in the center lot of the shopping center, but one off to the side. Once he had Amy in the car, he needed to get her to a location where he’d have total control. To keep Amy calm and pretend that everything was normal, he stopped at a payphone and allowed her to call her mother. He needed to buy time before the panic set in over Amy being missing. He headed further and further into the country. Renner believed this is when Amy started to panic and tried to get out of the car. The man hit Amy on the head with something in the car, hard enough to disable her. He believed the man was a planner, that he had a specific plan for her. Once he got her to the intended location, he brought her in, undressed her, assaulted her, and then re-dressed her. He then stabbed her in the neck and let her bleed out. Once she had died, the man wrapped her in the blanket and curtain and drove her to the dump site. He knew the dump site and was familiar with the surroundings.
In 2008, Renner got a call from a former student from Amherst, which was very close to Bay Village. He said that while he was in school, one of his teachers, Dean Runkle volunteered at the nature center. Runkle was a middle school science teacher who would give his students extra credit for visiting the nature center. He bred mice and would often take them to the nature center to feed them to the snakes. There were also several allegations from former students and parents that Runkle had lots of inappropriate contact and conversations with his students. The school’s old principal said they’d investigated him twice for improper relationships with students. When police questioned Runkle, he denied knowing anything about the nature center, though there were several people who placed him there. At the time, he was living in New London, Ohio, about 2 miles from where Amy’s body was found. He was a dead ringer for the composite sketch.
When Renner received this call, Runkle had already left the area approximately five years earlier and moved to Key West. Renner was determined to talk to him. He traveled to Key West and spent two days looking for him and showing his picture to locals with no luck. As he was leaving the area, he stopped at a stop sign and Runkle walked across the street in front of him. Renner jumped out to confront him. Runkle said that he never denied anything, never said he didn’t do anything. Renner bluffed and asked Runkle what he’d say if he told him he had a photo of him and one of his students at the nature center. Runkle said that he never told police he wasn’t at the nature center, that he only told them he didn’t remember being there. Renner asked him what else he didn’t remember. Runkle cut the conversation off and left. Renner brought this information back to Bay Village police, who didn’t seem to act on it.
Most Current Update
25 years following Amy’s murder, police were given additional resources to investigate Amy’s case. Billboards were posted pleading for information and they hired a retired FBI agent to re-examine the case. At the time of the discovery, no evidence was found on the blanket and curtain that were near Amy’s body. A reevaluation found dog hairs on the curtain that were confirmed to belong to the Mihaljevic’s dog. Police released pictures of the curtain, hoping someone might recognize it.
In January of 2019, a new suspect was brought forward. A woman came to police and said that she believed her ex-boyfriend was responsible for Amy’s murder. The man, who would’ve been approximately 30-years-old when Amy was abducted, was living less than a mile and a half from the shopping center. He also had a niece in the same grade as Amy and her family knew the Mihaljevics. On the night Amy went missing, the man didn’t come home. His ex-girlfriend said that he called her around 10PM asking if she was aware of the news coverage on Amy. On the day Amy’s body was found, an FBI agent was tasked with recording all cars and license plates that drove by the dump site area. The man’s car was one that had been recorded and he had no reason to be in the area. The man came into the police department to speak with investigators, and made a lot of suspicious statements, including that 1989-90 was a dark period for him. Initially he denied that Amy was ever in his car. When asked again if it was possible, he said “okay, but I don’t know what the situation would’ve been.” He also said that his DNA could possibly be on the curtain near Amy and on her body if somebody had planted it on her. The man agreed to a DNA swab and polygraph test. Though it’s obviously not the most reliable test of truth, the lie detector test indicated deception. The man never showed up to the station on the following day to sign the papers allowing police to search his storage unit. Police got a warrant and searched it, seizing evidence. Not only did the man look very similar to the composite sketches, two witnesses from the day of Amy’s abduction picked the man’s picture out of a photo lineup as the man they saw Amy talking to before she disappeared. As far as I can find, this is the most recent update on her case and the man has not been publicly named (to my knowledge).
Amy’s murder is still not a cold case. Police continue to investigate it and actively search for leads. Her beaten-up bicycle is still sitting in their evidence room. Shortly after Amy’s death, Mark and Margaret got divorced. They reportedly had marriage problems before their daughter’s death, but the tragedy brought them to the surface. Margaret was diagnosed with Lupus and moved to the east side of Cleveland and reportedly developed an alcohol addiction. Mark and Jason did their best to move on. Mark remarried in 1995 and inherited several new step-children, who grew very close to Mark and Jason. In late 2001, Margaret was found dead in her apartment from possible complications from chronic alcoholism. Jason is now married with children of his own. Renner continues to investigate Amy’s case, hoping he can bring justice to her and her family. He believes that the nature center is very important in this case, that it’s the connection that will ultimately lead to the apprehension of Amy’s killer.
