BAY VILLAGE, Ohio – In an investigation that has been ongoing for 31 years, physical evidence, witness reports and suspicious testimonies are among the new developments found in court documents filed recently in connection with the Amy Mihaljevic kidnapping and murder case.
The 10-year-old girl from Bay Village was kidnapped from the Bay Village Square Shopping Center on October 27, 1989.
Police said they believed that someone called Mihaljevic and convinced her to meet at a nearby shopping mall so that the two could buy a gift for their mother, who had just received a promotion from Trading Times Magazine.
Mihaljevic’s body was discovered on February 8, 1990 on a rural farm in Ashland County.
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Investigators said she was stabbed to death.
For more than 31 years, his killer remained a mystery.
RELATED: Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped in 1989 and the police are still looking for her killer
But 5 On Your Side Investigators discovered court documents filed last fall that show that in January 2019 a woman came forward and identified her ex-boyfriend as a suspect in the Mihaljevic murder.
As he was not charged, we chose not to identify the 64-year-old man.
If you have information about Amy Mihaljevic’s murder, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $ 25,000 for tips that led to arrest and sentencing for her death. Anyone with information is requested to 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The tip
According to a sworn statement from a Bay Village detective, the woman told police at the time of Amy’s disappearance, the man and his ex-girlfriend lived less than a mile from the mall where Mihaljevic was last seen alive talking to an unidentified man.
In the statement, the police said the man worked in Bay Village at the time and had a family living there, including a niece of the same degree as Mahaljevic.
Court records show the police also said the woman told investigators that the man did not return home the night Amy was abducted.
The police said the woman “indicated that she was different [the man] disappear and don’t come home at night. “
Investigators said the woman said her ex-boyfriend called her at about 10 pm on the night of the kidnapping to ask if she was aware of press coverage of Amy’s disappearance.
A detective also said the woman told him that she believed she traveled with her ex-boyfriend to Ashland County “on one or more trips”.
According to the investigators, the man’s appearance in late 1989 was “consistent with one of the two main compositions of suspects obtained through interviews with witnesses”.
In the deposition, investigators said in May 2020 that two witnesses who saw Mihaljevic talking to a man at the mall on the day of his abduction, chose the photo of the man in question from the photos as the person they remember seeing Amy Mihaljevic taking for the day she was last seen alive.
The car
Police said gold fibers were found in Amy’s clothes after her body was discovered in Ashland County.
The detective told a Cuyahoga County judge that the man in question was driving a golden Oldsmobile with a tan interior in 1989 and 1990.
According to court records, an FBI agent noted that a golden Oldsmobile registered in the man’s name passed an intersection near where Mihaljevic’s body was dumped on the day she was discovered.
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A Bay Village detective wrote: “the investigation was unable to show any reason (s) why [the man] it should have been close to Amy Mihaljevic’s body recovery site on 8/2/1990. “
The interviews
In November 2019, just days after the 30th anniversary of Amy’s abduction, the detective wrote that the man in question entered the Bay Village police department and spoke with investigators over the course of two days.
In a sworn statement, the detective said the man “made very suspicious statements”.
According to court records, these included that 1989 and 1990 were a “dark period” in his life and that the man indicated that he may have met Amy’s mother, Margaret, at a bar.
The detective wrote that, when asked if he ever called Amy Mihaljevic before his abduction, the man replied, “I could have done this” and that “it could have been a wrong number”.
The police said that when they asked the man if Amy was in his car, he said “I can’t believe it”, but when asked again if it was possible, they said the man said “okay, but I don’t know what the situation would have been.”
The detective said the man agreed that it was possible that his DNA was on a curtain found near Amy’s body, but said “I didn’t put it there” and that his DNA would be in Amy’s body “if someone put it in it. “
The researchers said the man had agreed to do a DNA test and a polygraph.
The police said the results of the polygraph test were “an indication of fraud”.
The detective also told a judge that the man did not show up the next day, as planned, to sign the paperwork that allows police to search a warehouse.
According to court records, the police obtained a warrant, searched the storage units where “police seized evidence”.
There is no mention of what the police took.
Five On Your Side investigators tried to call and text the man in question to ask him about the case. He never answered.
Police said he is currently homeless and living in his car.
The man’s ex-girlfriend addressed questions about the case to investigators, who declined to comment on the case.
Instead, the Bay Village police issued a statement saying that the police are still working diligently on this case.
See the ongoing coverage of the Amy Mihaljevic case here.