The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co-host, Eli. Happy New Year, y'all! Happy New Year, everyone. If you're listening to this in real time, we just celebrated the new year just a few days ago, so I hope you're all having a good new year so far. And if you're not listening to this in real time, if you're going back and binging some old episodes, I hope you're having a great year still, no matter where you are. All right, you have a new case for us this week, right? I sure do.
So this week we are on a cold case, and this one comes to us from Ohio. Ohio. Okay, let's get started. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person. So today we are covering the cold case of Amy Mihaljevic. And this takes place in Bay Village, Ohio, in October of 1989. Now, Amy's case is pretty well known, but this is one that I was not very familiar with.
I didn't know a lot of the details and had only heard her name in passing, so this is something that I personally wanted to research just to find out more about. Amy Mihaljevic was 10 years old in 1989. Amy was born December 11, 1978, and she would be 45 years old today. Amy was a fifth grader at Bay Village Middle School in Bay Village, Ohio. Bay Village in 1989 was a wealthy suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and it was once named one of the safest places in America.
Amy was a shy girl with strangers, but very open and funny with those she knew. She loved riding horses and was in the gifted program at school. Amy is around 4'10", and weighed 90 pounds with shoulder-length blonde hair. And now a timeline of events. On Friday, October 27, 1989, Amy gets dressed that morning for school wearing green sweatpants, a white jacket, black ankle boots that she would also wear to ride horses, and turquoise earrings shaped like a horse head.
Before leaving for school that day, Amy tells her mother that she's going to be home late that day because she either had choir practice or was auditioning for the fifth grade choir. Both activities have been reported over the years. But either activity, whichever one it was, was to take place after school. Amy's mother worked as a writer for the Trading Times magazine, and her father worked in the automotive industry and had business in Cleveland that day.
Amy leaves for school on her bike around 7.20am. Her older brother Jason had already left, so she was alone, but arrives to school with no issues. During the school day, she tells classmates that after school she's going shopping with a family friend she hadn't met before to buy her mother a surprise gift, and he was going to buy her gifts as well. So once school is let out, Amy leaves her bike locked up at school and walks the 7 minutes over to Bay Square Shopping Center.
This was a popular place for middle schoolers to hang out after school since it was so close. This area is like an L-shaped strip mall with a large parking lot. At around 2.15am, Amy is seen at the shopping center by two classmates. Amy still has her red and denim backpack with her. She is standing in front of an ice cream parlor, which is also across the street from the Bay Village Police Department at that time.
According to witnesses, Amy looked like she was waiting for someone when a man approached her, put his hand on her shoulder, and led her through the parking lot where she was seen getting into his car. At 3.10, Jason arrives home from school and calls his mother to let her know that he was home. This was the kid's routine. They would call their mom once they got home from school just to let them know that they made it home safely. Jason told his mom that Amy was not home yet.
Amy's mother, Margaret, was not immediately alarmed since Amy had told her that she would be late. Jason calls his mother again at 3.30 to say that Amy was still not home. Margaret is starting to get worried about Amy as she should have been home by now. However, at 3.40, just 10 minutes later, Amy calls her mother to check in after school and Margaret assumes that she's calling from the house. This is before caller ID is super common. This is the last time that Margaret talks to her daughter.
Margaret leaves work around 5pm that day and gets home to discover that Amy is not there and hadn't been there. Immediately, Margaret drives to the school and finds Amy's bike is still there and locked up. Margaret is able to find a school janitor and they look through every room at the school but are unable to find Amy. At 5.58, Margaret reports Amy missing to the police. Just a few minutes later, Amy's father, Mark, returns from his work in Cleveland and finds out that Amy is missing.
Almost immediately, a massive search is started. By the next day, the FBI have joined the case to help search for Amy. Investigators begin canvassing the neighborhood and talking with neighbors, searching wooded areas, and they even drag a few lakes near Amy's home. While searching a wooded area near where Amy liked to ride horses, they find a pair of sweatpants in Amy's size. Her parents are unable to ID them as Amy's but they're sent for further testing.
By Sunday, October 29th, Bay Village Police Chief William Garou says that the man who took Amy is, quote, believed to have a familiarity with the family, end quote. On Monday, October 30th, it's revealed by a neighbor, Riley Bonham, whose 11-year-old daughter was best friends with Amy, that Amy had received two phone calls prior to her disappearance from a man who she did not know. The first phone call was the man saying that he needed Amy's help buying her mother a gift.
The man told Amy that her mother, Margaret, had received a promotion at work and he wanted her help picking out a gift for the surprise party that the staff were going to throw. Margaret had not received a promotion at work. The second phone call promises that in addition to buying her mother a gift, he'll also buy Amy a gift as well. The man stresses to Amy that she has to keep it all a secret in order to preserve the surprise for her mother.
Once this information comes to light, the family is dumbfounded. Not only because Margaret was not promoted at work, but they have no idea who the caller is. The FBI calls in a sketch artist to sit down with the witnesses who saw Amy and the man at the shopping center to create a composite sketch. On Tuesday, October 31st, police release the sketch of the suspect. He is believed to be a white male, 35 to 45 years old in 1989.
In 58 and 59, medium build with darker hair but was balding at his crown. He wore round glasses and was wearing a tan jacket. There were faint traces of a beard on the man. With the release of the sketch, police are flooded with calls. They're still hopeful that they can find Amy alive and bring her home.
On Thursday, November 2nd, as more stories about Amy hit the media, specifically the information about her getting a phone call from a man, two other young girls in the area come forward to say that they also got similar phone calls. Police Chief William Garou says, quote, in each case those girls hung up, but the calls were very similar. We are looking for a common thread, end quote. Police say that the man making the phone calls was very appealing.
Police are questioning several men who resemble the composite sketch, but all are let go. Police also search the wooded area around the water filtration plant based off of a tip but nothing turns up there. On Sunday, November 5th, Amy has been missing for over a week now. Police announced that there was a man seen on October 26th and 27th, so the day before and the day of Amy's kidnapping.
The man had a camcorder and was taking pictures of kids near Normandy School, City Hall, and the Bay Square Shopping Center. Police want to talk with this man and they also want to look at his footage to see if there are any clues. To date, I do not believe that this man was ever identified and police were never able to review that footage. Searches continue throughout the week of November 5th in rural areas nearby.
Police continue to look at people who are reported through the tip line, some as far away as Louisiana, but no real suspect has emerged. Police are able to obtain footage from a local commercial that was shot the day before Amy was kidnapped at the Bay Square Shopping Center, but they're still looking for the man who was there the day that she was kidnapped with his camcorder. Police also send in the sweatpants that they found for DNA testing.
Ultimately, these pants will come back with a 95% probability that they were Amy's. Police return to the area where they found the sweatpants to search that area again. This time, police will use aircraft to help in their search and also send divers into a pond nearby. Investigators remain hopeful that Amy will be found alive, but her family is growing increasingly worried with each passing day.
Mark Mihaljevic says, quote, the longer it goes, the scarier it gets for her safe return to home, but we aren't giving up hope, end quote. As Amy's disappearance enters its third week, local businesses donate materials to print flyers with the goal of sending out 1 million flyers across the country about Amy. The flyers have Amy's picture and the composite sketch of the suspect on it.
The community ties white ribbons around trees, light posts, and telephone poles as a reminder that they're hopeful Amy will come home. Police start to search abandoned farmhouses all over northern Ohio for any clue about what happened to Amy. Thanksgiving rolls around that year and people are encouraged to pick up flyers and bring them with them to post as they travel out of town. Lots of people do this and flyers about Amy are put up all over the Midwest and beyond.
About 25% of all the new tips that come in are from people outside of the Bay Village area. There are even reported sightings of Amy in Maine and Oklahoma, but police are unable to confirm if it is Amy and they do not find her at these locations. On December 1, 1989, it's been over a month since Amy was kidnapped. Two girls, 10 and 11 years old, are waiting for a bus when a man pulls up and motions for them to get into the car.
The girls take off running and say that the man attempted to follow them but stopped when they reached an apartment building. According to the girls, the man resembled the composite sketch in Amy's case. On December 11, which should have been Amy's 11th birthday and her golden birthday, police are no closer to finding her than the day she went missing and they have no suspects. They have run down 3,000 leads and still have not found any trace of Amy.
Amy's parents launched the Community Fund for Assisting Missing Youth, or A.M.Y. for short. The organization will help raise money for the Reward Fund for Amy and put on safety programs for Northern Ohio youth. When reporters ask Margaret what she would say to Amy and her captors, she says, quote, We love you, Amy. We love you and support you. Find some way to get a message to us. End quote. And to the captors, she says, quote, We love Amy more than you do. Just let Amy come home. End quote.
It's January 17, 1990, so we're in a new year now, and Amy has been missing for nearly three months at this point. The FBI released a profile of the suspect. Special Agent William Branon says, quote, The abductor likely acted alone during the actual abduction, but he may have taken someone into his confidence to create an alibi or to obtain the assistance of a friend or associate to cover up his involvement in this crime.
The person responsible for this crime would likely become anxious, more rigid, reclusive, and more uptight than usual. He may have experienced trouble sleeping, may have lost weight, or would have increased his consumption of drugs and alcohol, which would further affect his behavior. The offender may have found a logical reason to depart on a previously unscheduled vacation or visit relatives or change jobs.
In crimes of this nature, the offender frequently provides a reason to miss work on the days immediately following the abduction. The offender may have become more religious than normal or become more solicitous towards family or associates. Any or all of these changes in the offender's behavior after the crime occurred would be recognized by those closest to him. End quote. On February 8, 1990, Janet Seabold gets up for her morning jog.
She lives in Ashland County, Ohio, and she's running along Ohio 1181. It's a rural area. Just about 45 miles from where Amy was kidnapped. Janet's jog takes her near a 300-acre farm around 740 a.m. when she notices something about 20 to 25 feet from the road. It's a body. She immediately runs to the farmhouse. The farmer is Wilbur Salyer, but he doesn't get to the door fast enough. Janet then bolts across the street to her friend's house, Patricia Kidd, and tells her to call the police.
Janet says, quote, I think I found a body. Call the police. Why did it have to be me that found it? End quote. Police arrive within four minutes of the call and begin to process the scene. Almost immediately, the Ashland County police believe that the body is that of Amy Mahalovic. The sheriff, Kenneth Etzweiler, says, quote, the physical appearance is almost similar to Amy's. This is just a guess, but it appears the body has been there since, say, the latter part of November.
We're going to walk this entire area foot by foot. The only thing we found near the body so far was part of one earring. End quote. Amy was found fully clothed. She was wearing the clothes that she was last seen in. However, her turquoise horse head earrings, her boots, and her backpack have never been found. She was face down and hidden by knee high weeds. Amy had been hit on the back of the head with a blunt object and also had one or two stab wounds on the left part of her neck.
Amy's autopsy is conducted that afternoon and evening, and they will confirm that it is Amy via dental records and that what killed her was the stab wound in the neck that severed her artery. Police never confirm or deny if Amy was sexually assaulted. At the scene, about 300 yards away from Amy's body, police find a curtain and a blanket. The curtain is pretty unique. It's an avocado green curtain that might have one time been a quilt.
There's wavy stitching throughout the entire length of the curtain. At around noon that day, police contact Amy's family to let them know that they believe they found her body. The family is absolutely devastated that their hopes for Amy coming home to them are now officially over. The family retreats into privacy to grieve for Amy, but send the following message. The family says, quote, We honestly believed that Amy was alive all this time. Our hope was real.
As her family, we salute and thank everyone who has been so kind to us and has helped us so much during our ordeal. What do we say except thank you, Cleveland? For all your efforts, for all your hope, for all your support, for all your caring. We have been through hell and back. End quote. As news about the discovery of Amy's body spreads throughout the region, people begin to debate how long the body could have been there. As mentioned before, Amy's body was found 20 to 25 feet from the road.
Her body was 300 yards away from the farmhouse and 300 yards away from Amy was one large blanket and one large curtain, both avocado green in color. Members of Amy's family who live in Ashland County where her body was found say that they had driven past that area several times and didn't see anything. Another neighbor said his son often rode his bike past the area and didn't see her either.
A hunter calls police to say that he had been on the farm hunting a week before and in that area and didn't see Amy. Tips start to come in about a car scene in the area a few weeks before Amy's body was found with the trunk popped open. However, investigators maintain then as they do now that Amy's body was put there shortly after her abduction in October. Police are determined to find the killer and promise the community and Amy's family that they'll stay on the case until it's solved.
Over the next few months, tips will begin to dwindle from the community. By April, the reward fund had grown to $60,000. Police will continue to question anyone who resembles the composite sketch or anyone who's called in on the tip line. By July of 1990, police will say that they've talked to 9,000 people and Amy's story will appear on TV shows across the nation. But ultimately, the killer is never caught and police are never able to pin down a suspect.
Amy's case remains in the news over the years, but no new information is really developed. In 2016 though, through advances in DNA, police are able to determine that Amy's dog hair was found on the curtain found near her body. In 2019, just a few years later, a woman comes forward to tell police about her ex-boyfriend. She said that the day Amy went missing, he never came home that night, but he did call her to ask if there was news coverage about Amy.
Additionally, it's revealed by local news that on Amy's body were gold fibers and according to the woman, the man drove a gold car with a tan interior. The day Amy's body was found, an FBI agent sat at a nearby intersection and wrote down the model, make, and license plate of every car that drove by. According to police documentation, that man, the ex-boyfriend, drove by that day. Police talked with him in 2019 and took his DNA and searched a storage unit that belonged to him.
They did seize evidence at the storage unit, but to date, no charges have been brought against him. Police have never said if they have a DNA profile for the suspect, but I would think by taking the DNA of people they interviewed that they are looking to compare it to something. In 2021, thanks to more advances in DNA technology, police are able to determine that Amy's hair was found on both the blanket and curtain found near her body.
Police theorize that both items were used to wrap Amy's body in before dumping her where she was found. As mentioned before, the curtain is pretty unique and possibly homemade. Police believe that if they can find who that curtain belonged to, it will lead to the person responsible for Amy's murder. But that is where the case stands today.
So if you know anything about the abduction and murder of Amy Mihaljevic in October of 1989, you are asked to call the FBI directly at 1-800-CALL-FBI or 1-800-225-5324.
The sources for the timeline today come from The Telegraph Forum, The Akron Beacon Journal, Lancaster Eagle Gazette, The Marion Star, Centennial Tribune, News Journal, The New Work Advocate, Troy Daily News, The Times, The Daily Advocate, Brian Times, St. Cloud Times, Wilmington News Journal, The Evening Sun, Sun Journal, The Delaware Gazette, The Tribune, Dayton Daily News, The Daily Oklahoman, Tulsa World, Telegraph Forum, 19 News, Cleveland News 5, and the FBI.
So that is the case of Amy Mihaljevic. Thank you for sharing this. It's a case that I've heard once before and I remembered it just because of the oddness surrounding her kidnapping. But yeah, it's one that kind of surprises me that we haven't heard more of. Yeah. This is a case that I was very unfamiliar with. I had kind of heard the name before. Mihaljevic is kind of a unique last name. This is the only time that I've heard it personally.
So that's kind of how it rang a bell with me, but I truly didn't know much about her case, but this has been covered pretty well over the years. My sources, I listed out a ton, so this was covered really heavily at the time. And each year at the anniversary of her abduction or of her body being found, there's usually some news coverage out of Ohio covering the case. I have a question. My mind always just goes back to who was that guy?
Who was that guy who had their contact and knew where she went to school? That part of it is just so... That's the really odd and scary part to me. So yeah, I haven't had the chance to talk about this case with anyone. So that's my question for you. Over the years, police have looked at people who knew the family.
So coworkers of both mom and dad, family, friends, because whoever called Amy did seem to know her family, did seem to know her, knew her schedule, like you said, knew where she went to school, knew what was nearby, and kind of knew how to get Amy to come with him. You know, he really exploited her love for her mother by wanting to do this nice thing for her mom, buying this gift, her mom got promoted, there was going to be a surprise party, she wanted to be in on it.
He was able to exploit that, but there does appear to be similar phone calls that had happened before Amy's abduction to two other girls in that area. They received similar phone calls. In one case, she hung up, in another case, she handed the phone to her brother. So they believe it was the same man, since it appears to be kind of the same ruse he was using. But it makes you think that he was possibly watching the middle school and kind of picking out girls in the area that he wanted to target.
Yeah, stalking the area, getting the lay of the land, and you know, that makes sense to me. A question that I have, and this might be not an important point, but a question that I have is they found sweatpants that they send in for DNA testing. And it comes back with a 95% probability that they were Amy's. But it's nowhere near where her body was found. And she was found wearing, I believe, the clothes that she was last seen in.
The only thing missing are her turquoise horse head earrings, her boots, and her backpack. According to all the reports, she was wearing everything else she was last seen in. So I just wonder, you know, DNA testing was still kind of in its infancy as of 1989. So I wonder if it just was kind of a misfiring. 95% in DNA is kind of on the low end, I would say. Usually when you hear about DNA results, it's like 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999.
You know, like it's, it's always up there in that area. So I wonder if that's just the limitations of DNA at that time. Were they actually Amy's pants? Her parents were never able to ID them as hers. They weren't sure if they were, but they didn't think they were. So that's something that I kept coming back to. I was really curious about that.
Yeah. In my own speculative brain, you know, I, I kind of have issues with what's been given to the public so far information wise about like the fact that where she was murdered was like where she stayed to me, right? That's it. Or that she didn't move much. So she was actually not murdered where she was found. She was not found or she was not murdered in that field where she was found.
Police do believe that there is a second site where the actual murder took place and probably where that curtain and blanket came from. So she was moved to the field. Okay, great. Thank you for clarifying that for me. It's all just odd. You know, a lot of questions about specificities in like, I guess, a kidnapping for that area that you don't, you don't see very often. I'm glad to see that there is movement as far as 2021 goes.
You mentioned that, I didn't know if you were able to elaborate more on that. I couldn't remember what it was. Yeah, so police are actively always going back to that curtain and the blanket kind of specifically to test for more DNA. And as things advance in technology, as of 2021, they were able to determine that her hair was found on the blanket and curtain. So in 1990, when her body was found, they just kind of assumed that these things had to do with Amy.
So they collected everything that was found near her body, cigarette butts, bottle cans, this curtain, this blanket, everything. And in 2016, they were able to determine that her dog's hair was found on the curtain. And then a few years later, they were able to determine that her hair was found on the curtain and the blanket. So they do believe, or they theorize that her body was wrapped in those items before being dumped there.
But it's also like, if she was wrapped in those items, this is kind of another question I have. The person who dumped her, presumably the killer, had to kind of take the time to unroll her from those items and then leave everything there. He could have just dumped the material in her body and just left it wrapped and dumped it and left. It takes a little bit more time to do that unfurling to get her out.
And then, kind of similarly with the community, how they were shocked that her body was there because nobody had seen it. That's something that's very odd to me too, that for 100 days, give or take, Amy's body was there 300 yards from someone's house. The farmer, he was interviewed on local TV news and he's like, I've been hearing about this for three months and there she is 300 yards from my house, from my front door. And it's just like, how did you not notice? How did nobody see her?
That's what I was talking about. My mind was like, I don't know. There's something odd there. Like I need more, I need more clear, I need more access. You know what I'm saying? But yeah, that's it for me. Thank you for bringing this case to our podcast. Yeah. The FBI and police investigating this case are very hopeful that it will be solved. And they do believe that it will be solved through DNA advances. And you know, as of 2021, they were working on this case.
So it is something that remains pretty active for them. It's really important to this community. I think it's really a beautiful testament to the community that they're not forgetting about Amy. And I think that's beautiful that Amy is still an active member in their community through a lot of different ways. And that, you know, that keeps her alive. And I'm really hopeful that this case will be solved. It feels like they have everything they need. They just need the person.
Yeah, this is one of the few times where I feel a little bit of optimism towards there being an answer that is as close to justice as it can be in this case. And yet to comment on the community, the resilience of the community as a whole, and also that community knowing that, like them still like going and like keeping her name and image out there and her story. If that person is in the community, like together, they've like also, I don't know if this is true for them.
But like, if that person is in the community, that's got to be pretty scary to see it like every day that these people are like, we will never let this go. I love that. I love that for the community and the people who live there. It's clear that they love this family and like love this girl and care about each other. Yeah, I totally agree. And if that person is still in the area, like the FBI thought that he would be, you know, after the abduction that he would still be in the area.
I hope he's scared and I hope he's uncomfortable. And I hope he doesn't really feel like a part of the community. But again, if you know anything about the abduction or murder of Amy Mihaljevic in October of 1989, you are encouraged to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or 1-800-225-5324.
While we have you just for a few more minutes before you move on to your next podcast or whatever you want to listen to after this, if you could just leave us a quick rate and review if you're in Apple podcasts, it's so helpful for others to find our podcast and to get these cold cases and missing people cases out to more and more people. If you've already done it, thank you so much. I appreciate you. I think of you often, truly I do.
Every person that's commented or written as a review, I think about you and hope you're having a great day all the time. So if you want that energy coming towards you on a frequent basis, just go ahead and write a review. If you don't have Apple podcasts, you can go to our website www.coldandmissing. You can review us there and we also have transcripts on our website. So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, they can follow along with the cases there.
If you're not already, please follow us on Instagram. We post updates about the podcast in our stories and on our timeline. And we also this week will be posting pictures of Amy, the composite sketch of the suspect created by the FBI, and also that curtain and blanket that were found near her body since those seem to be important pieces in this case. We will be posting pictures of all of that throughout the week, so please check us out there. And that's all I have.
Thank you again so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host Allie. And I'm your co-host Eli. Have a great week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.