BAY VILLAGE, Ohio – In an investigation that has been going on for 31 years, physical evidence, testimony reports and suspicious statements are one of the new developments found in court documents recently filed in connection with the kidnapping and murder case of Amy Mihaljevic.
The ten-year-old Bay Village girl was abducted on October 27, 1989, from the Bay Village Square Mall.
Police said they believe someone called Mihaljevic and persuaded her to meet at a nearby mall so the two of them could buy a present for her mother, who had just gotten a promotion at Trading Times Magazine.
Mihaljevic’s body was discovered on February 8, 1990 in a rural farmland of Ashland County.
Scoll Noll / News 5
Investigators said she was stabbed to death.
For more than 31 years, her killer remained a mystery.
RELATED: Amy Mihaljevic was abducted in 1989, and police are still searching for her killer
But 5 investigators on your side are discovering court documents filed last fall that show a woman emerged in January 2019 and identified her ex-boyfriend as a suspect in the Mihaljevic murder.
Because he was not charged, we chose not to identify the now 64-year-old man.
If you have information about the murder of Amy Mihaljevic, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $ 25,000 for tips leading to the arrest and conviction in her death. Anyone with information is asked to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The point
According to an affidavit from a Bay Village detective, the woman told police during Amy’s disappearance that the man and his ex-girlfriend live less than a mile from the mall where Mihaljevic was last seen alive and with a unidentified chat. man.
In the affidavit, police said the man was working in Bay Village at the time and family lived there, including a niece in the same degree as Mahaljevic.
According to the court register, police also said the woman told investigators that the man did not come home the night Amy was abducted.
Police said the woman “indicated that it was different from [the man] to disappear and not come home overnight. ”
Investigators said the woman said her ex-boyfriend called her around 10pm on the night of the abduction to ask if she was aware of the news coverage of Amy’s disappearance.
A detective also said the woman told him she believed she traveled to Ashland County with her ex-boyfriend “on one or more trips.”
According to investigators, the appearance of the man at the end of 1989 corresponds to one of the two suspicious assemblies obtained through evidence interviews.
In the affidavit in May 2020, investigators said two witnesses who saw Mihaljevic talking to a man at the mall on the day of her abduction selected the photo of the man in question from the photo setup as the person they remembered how Amy Mihaljevic saw. the day she was last seen alive.
The car
Police said gold fibers were found on Amy’s clothes after her body was discovered in Ashland County.
The detective told a judge in Cuyahoga County that the man in question was driving a gold Oldsmobile with a brown interior in 1989 and 1990.
According to court records, an FBI agent noticed that a gold Oldsmobile registered with the man was driving through an intersection near Mihaljevic’s body on the day she was discovered.
Scott Noll / News 5
A Bay Village detective writes: ‘The investigation could not give any reason (s) [the man] should have been near Amy Mihaljevic’s body repair site on 8/08/1990. ”
The interviews
In November 2019, a few days after Amy’s kidnapping, the detective wrote that the man in question walked into the Bay Village police station and spoke to investigators over the course of two days.
In an affidavit, the detective said the man “made very suspicious statements”.
According to court reports, it was, among other things, that 1989 and 1990 were a ‘dark period’ in his life, and that the man indicated that he might have met Amy’s mother, Margaret, in a bar.
The detective wrote that the man, when asked if he had ever called Amy Mihaljevic before her abduction, replied: “I could ‘and that’ it could be a wrong number. ‘
Police said when they asked the man if Amy was in his car, he said: “I do not believe so, but when they asked again if it was possible, they said the man said:” Okay, but I do not know what the situation would have been. ”
The detective said the man agreed that it would be possible for his DNA to be on a curtain near Amy’s body, but he said, “I did not put it there,” and that his DNA was on Amy. ‘s body would be “if someone planted it on her.”
Investigators said the man agreed to a DNA swab and a polygraph test.
According to the police, the result of the polygraph test ‘indicated deception’.
The detective also told a judge that the man did not show up the next day as planned to sign paperwork to search police in a storeroom.
According to court records, police obtained a warrant, searching the doors where ‘officers seized evidence’
There is no mention of what the police took.
Five On Your Side investigators tried to call the man in question and text him to ask about the case. He never answered.
Police said he is currently homeless and living in his car.
The man’s ex-girlfriend asked investigators about the case, who declined to comment on the case.
Instead, Bay Village police issued a statement saying police are still working diligently on the case.
Check out the ongoing coverage of the Amy Mihaljevic case here.