Amy Mihaljevic

Warning, this episode contains graphic crime scene detail and maybe sensitive for some listeners. All witnesses, purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I want to start off right now on True Crime with the best news ever. That came out officially on Friday. So I did an episode on Alec Jaden Fishman, who had gone missing when he was en route to California from Denver and there was some suspicious circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Well, I did that episode, and it always super flatters me and just takes me like into another realm of like podcaster when the families find my episodes and share them and reach out personally and are just so so grateful. So Jaden's mother and sister have been both super supportive of the podcast since I release that episode, and of course I've been following along. They have been, you know, sharing about Jaden every single day and I have been sharing their sharing and all of the things. So the other day, it was Thursday evening, Jaden's mom had posted the following update on the Facebook group. Important update. We don't have a lot of details, but have information that Jaden was last seen in the Bay area on January twenty fourth, twenty twenty four. We are headed there now to see if we can find him. Thank you all for everything that you have done to help us. I appreciate it more than I could ever tell you. So I am literally checking back every five seconds to see if there is an update. And we got the update that we all wanted, and that is that they were able to track down Jayden and he is safe. He is alive, and he is officially back home. I don't know the circumstances of where he has been since he disappeared in September, but he was found in Pleasant Hill, California. And when I saw the picture of Jaden with his mother, I just wanted to cry, Like that is why we do this podcast. We do this podcast to spread awareness, to put people's name and face out there and hopefully bring them home safe. Like that is the end goal. At the end of the day, and I am so elated for this family that they were able to bring Jaden home and we all need to celebrate that. That is why we do what we do, and I'm going to keep doing it until every missing person comes home. So I wanted to share that update with you guys. It is such a blessing that Jaden was found and he is safe and his family has him back and we are going to celebrate that. And I think that's the perfect segue for me to talk a little bit more about Kaylana Turner. She is still missing. We are coming up on a year in March and there have been no credible sightings of Kayalaanna since that day that she went missing. So her family posted the other day that there was a sighting of her in Brenham and it was reported to crimestoppers, and this tip ended up not being tied to Kayalana, but whoever it was ended up being found and reunited with their family. So that is the importance of knowing what these people look like who are missing and being on the lookout, keeping an eye out for these people because little tips like that can turn into them being found, or it could turn into someone else's case. Being solved. Ultimately, I want ka to be found and I want kay to be found. Like right now, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her and her family and hope that she is somewhere and she is safe. But I want so badly for her family to get that resolution, and I'm never gonna quit talking about it. I'm never gonna quit talking about the lack of effort that Harris County has put into helping her family. I feel like that is the biggest travesty here, is that everything that transpired on that day transpired the way it did, and it never would have transpired if the law enforcement officers that were there that day had proper training in how to deal with people who were in mental health crisis. It is so so important to be able to recognize and approach with caution and approach in the appropriate way. And it's just really frustrating that the county as a whole fuses to sit down and talk to kayalan A's parents and help them kind of navigate what to do next. They had to fight for so long to get her even listed as a missing person because Harris County was so hell bent on charging her with all of these criminal offenses because she ran from cops and tried to run one of them over. Well, she was being attacked, and she was confused and suffering a mental health crisis and more likely than not a cardiac event because she had a heart condition. And I just feel, like I've said this before, we need to use this as a learning opportunity. Cops are human, they make mistakes, and in the grand scheme of things, like it's okay to make mistakes. However, you have to be willing to learn from it and use it as like a learning opportunity and a teaching opportunity like this happened, and let's make sure that this doesn't happen again. I wish that it didn't happen, but they need to use it as a learning opportunity and a opportunity to sit down with her family and talk about it. Hiding from it and not doing anything, saying nothing says so much in my opinion, I'm never going to stop talking about it. We have got to find kay Alanna, so please continue to be on the lookout. I have her missing Person's banner pin to the top of my Facebook and Instagram pages because I want that to be the first thing people see when they come to my profile. I want people to see kay Alanna because she could literally be anywhere at this point, and I'm always holding out hope that she is going to be found and she's going to be safe and her family can get that happy ending that Jaden's family just got. So please please please share her image as often and frequently as you can, no matter where in the world you may be, because you never know when one little tip is going to lead a family back to their missing family member. Earlier this week, there was some jury testimony in the Elec Murda jury tampering case, and they should have everything wrapped up by Monday, pretty lies and Alibis Gigi was there and is compiling all of the information. Judge told did ask them not to disclose what was testified on Friday until Monday. They're trying to get everything wrapped up and they don't want all of this stuff to be out there. So anyone that was in court on Friday is being asked not to disclose what was testified to and I imagine pretty much everyone is going to abide by that because Judge's rules at the end of the day. But it seems that everything in regards to that is going to wrap up by Monday, so I will keep you guys updated in regards to that, and guys, please like my favorite podcasts ever That got me through, Valo got my through, murd Aw, Pretty Lies, and alibis just my all time favorite podcast. Honestly, I think her podcast kind of inspired me to have a podcast and just go and support her. She's great, she is straight facts. She often goes to these trials and is able to report, you know, from them and get that first hand information that we all love. She also has a series on the adel Sins that she's doing, which I eventually will do for summer series. I'm going to kind of go back and go over all of that. And speaking of Adelson's, Charlie is officially in his new home and I'll probably say this wrong, but wakula correctional and the best part about it. We'll get to all of it once I'm doing the summer series. But a big part of why this murder for hire allegedly happened was because Wendy's family didn't like that she was living so far away from where they were living in Florida, and they did not like her being in Tallahassee. So the best part of this is Charlie is now a thirty minute drive to Tallahassee, meaning he is going to spend the rest of his life living in a place that he absolutely hated and was the catalyst for why he set up this whole murder for hire. Anyways, it seems dumb that someone is going to kill someone else because they don't like that their sister is now living in this place and doesn't like it. But ultimately it's the ultimate karma for Charlie to be stuck thirty minutes from Tallahassee. He for whatever reason, thinks that he's better than everyone and has this privilege and people that live in Tallahassee are trash, and now he is a commoner living in prison right by Tallahassee. Welcome to Florida, Charlie. So I am keeping this right now in True Crime Short and Sweet, even though it's already almost ten minutes, because today's episode is super long and complex. So we are going to go ahead and get started with today's episode. Okay, guys, jumping in to a new case today. This one has been on my list for a while, and I was talking with one of my friends and she basically picked this case for me to cover today. So we are going to be talking about the kidnapping and subsequent murder of a ten year old girl trigger Warning named Amy Mahalovic in Bay Village, Ohio in nineteen eighty nine. So, as always, we are going to go ahead and talk a little bit about Amy, and then we're going to get into the story of the day that she went missing. Amy Renee Mahalovic was born December eleventh of nineteen seventy eight in Little Rock, Arkansas, to her parents, Margaret McNulty and her father, Mark Mahalovic. She also had an older brother named Jason Mahalovik. So the day that everything changed for the Mahalavik family was October twenty seventh, in nineteen eighty nine. It was a Friday afternoon and pretty typical for Amy and her brother Jason to leave school get home by about three o'clock and they would immediately call their mom, Margaret, who was at work, to let them know that they were home. And this is something they did regularly every single day. It wasn't even necessarily something that Margaret told them to do. It just became something that they did every day. Right at three pm. They both would call and say we're home, and that was that. There was never any issues with the kids getting home safely or anything like that, but this was part of the family routine and it is what they did every single day. So on this particular day in October, Jason shortly after three o'clock called his mom and said that Amy wasn't home. But it was really only mere minutes after three that Jason made this phone call because to him, it was weird that Amy wasn't there because Amy was always there and they always made that phone call together. So in his mind immediately something was wrong. And he was only thirteen at the time, and honestly, big credit to him for, at thirteen years old, having the sense to say, I feel like something's wrong, I'm gonna call my mom. So Margaret gets the call from Jason and is it super worried because she had had a conversation with Amy previously, and Amy had mentioned going to try out for a local choir group. So at this point Margaret told Jason not to worry about it now, even though she had told Jason not to worry. Deep down inside, she of course had a little cost for concern because it was so out of the ordinary for Amy not to be there, But of course she tried to rationalize it, thinking that Amy had gone off with a friend was going to try out for this choir group, and that's why she wasn't home. Around three point thirty that afternoon, Jason called Margaret again and said Amy's still not home, and at this point Margaret felt like there might be something wrong, so she began to gather up her things at work. Now, she worked at Trading Times magazine and had been working there for quite a while and had recently also received a promotion at that job. But she knew that something was off and decided to go ahead and head home to find out what was going on with Amy. As Margaret is packing everything up in preparation for going home to figure out what's going on, she gets a phone call and it was from Amy. So Amy had called Margaret at work, and of course Margaret immediately feels so relieved that Amy was phoning her. So Margaret goes ahead and asked Amy how the tryout went, and Amy said okay, and then she asked how Amy was and Amy said fine, and for whatever reason, Margaret thought that Amy had been calling from the home phone. So in the ten minutes between her talking on the phone to Jason and her trying to get her work stuff together so she could leave, she assumes that Amy had returned home. They talk very, very briefly, but then they say bye and I'll see you soon. And unfortunately, that was the last time that Margaret ever got a chance to speak with her daughter Amy. So from here, Margaret decides, I've talked to Amy, She's okay, she's home. I'm gonna go ahead and go back to work, and she did. She decided to go back to work. But despite this, she felt like something still wasn't right. And the way that Amy had answered the questions with okay, fine, it was very not like her to do that. Amy was definitely a chatterbox and she liked to chat. She was animated, and it was just very unlike her to just be short and sweet with her answers. So at this point, Margaret decides something is nagging at her and she is going to go ahead and leave the office and go home. So she left work early and got home and by the time that Margaret returned home. It was a little before four thirty pm. Margaret walks in the home and Jason said, Mom, she's still not here. So at this point I can imagine Jason is just losing his mind, like not knowing where his sister is. And obviously he knew something was wrong, like right away, like he was not even questioning her being two minutes late. He was on the phone with his mother. Something has happened with Amy. So around four thirty pm, Margaret goes ahead and runs back to her car and drives to Bay Middle School, which is where Amy was a fifth grade student, And everything by this point was closed up. There was no cars in the lane, and all they saw there was Amy's Awqua colored bicycle with the white wicker basket that was abandoned in the bike rack. And this is the moment that Margaret remembers so so well. And she said, this is the moment that she knew that something was wrong with Amy. And she says, quote, I never said it, but that bike. I was sick, I was shaking. I knew something terrible had happened to Amy. End quote. She knew something bad had happened to Amy. The moment that she saw that bike there. So with that seeing the bike, she goes ahead and drives to the Bay Village Police Department. She was frantic, obviously trying to compose herself. Two officers tended to her ride away, and they sat her down and they went over what was going on. They took notes, and they asked different questions that they needed to ask. And you know, Margaret had said it had been less than an hour since I had heard from Amy, And immediately the officers jumped into action and went ahead and said we have a child abduction on our hands and we need to get on this asap. They didn't pooh pooh it off and say well, we're just going to search for her. We'll put out, you know, a bolo and look for her. We're going to classify this right now as a child abduction, and props to the Bay Village Police Department for this, because so often things do not get taken seriously and they are kind of just put as well. We're going to keep a lookout, but we're not going to automatically classify as an abduction if we don't have any evidence that an abduction has happened. By about five fourteen that afternoon, police put out a bulletin that provided a full description of Amy to the different police officers that were on duty, and they also sent this out to people who were in the other areas of Ohio that were close by, such as Westlake, Rocky River, Fairview Park, and Avalon Lake. About six pm, Mark, Amy's father comes home from a day of work. Now, he was a customer service representative for GM and he didn't know anything was going on until he walked in through the door. So back then there were no cell phones. The only way to really call somebody was via a landline phone. And I'm sure in the midst of everything going on, Margaret didn't really have anything else in her mind but trying to figure out what was going on with Amy. So Mark had no idea what he was walking into when he walked home. And immediately, you know, they tell him what's going on, and immediately Mark is ready to hit the road and try to look for his daughter himself. So that's exactly what he did. The second that they said that Amy was missing, he went and searched the ravine and they walked every inn of the area out there trying to look for her, calling for her with no luck. By seven pm that night, Mark searching had turned into the whole community on foot searching for Amy, trying to find her. Everybody came together in order to search for Amy, and they truly at this point did become a community, and they were all standing behind Mark and Margaret trying to find where Amy was. The police station had at this point been turned into a command post. There was a lot of people that were gathering there to help in the search with Amy. There was flashlights and food dropped off, and there were dogs that were taken to search the lake front and search in the woods to see if there was any scent of Amy. And Margaret was at this point on the phone with everyone she could potentially think of to call to see if they had heard from it Amy talked to Amy seeing Amy, and she literally was calling every single person that she knew to see if they had any connection to Amy in the last few hours. And at this point it is truly mass panic amongst everybody because they know that the quicker they find Amy the better and the more time that goes on, the less chance they were going to have of finding Amy. So timerly was of the essence here and they were doing everything they could to try to find Amy or any clue as to where she might be. So unfortunately night came and went, and the next day, on October twenty eighth, at seven ten am, they went ahead and alerted the FBI so they could help join in on the search for Amy. And there is a FBI agent named Dick Wren, and he was the guy that led the investigation from the start and he's still that person to this day, that is the contact person for Amy's story. And I think this case falling into his lap was literally meant to be because he lived in the same area as Amy and her family, he had children Amy's age, and I think that that really stuck with him and he was going to do anything he could to try to bring Amy home. So, of course, at this point, they are doing everything they can, talking to everyone that they can to try to figure out what Amy was doing before she was taken, where she was, who she might have been with, if there was any circumstances leading up to that day that looked a little suspicious. So they heard from a neighbor of Amy's family. Their daughter was a close friend of Amy's and brought up something that had happened leading up to Amy's disappearance that they thought might be able to help. So this story that this friend had told ended up being collaborated by Jason and Amy's other friends. It really put everything on the map to try to figure out what was going on and what had happened to Amy. So at this point they realize that Amy had not been randomly abducted, but that Amy was targeted. She had in the day or so leading up to her abduction and her disappearance, she had received some phone calls. Now it isn't clear how many phone calls she received, but it was at least one, it might have been more than one, and it was from an unknown male. And whoever this person was, he knew her phone number, and he knew where she lived, and he knew that Margaret had worked at the place that she worked for the magazine. And he also knew what time Margaret typically came home from work. So whoever this person was was either somebody that was close to the family or a creepy stalker like person that was stalking the family. He was also very familiar with the area that Amy lived in, and he pretty much befriended Amy over the phone and convinced her to meet him at the Bay Square shopping center, which is where all of their shopping typically took place. And Amy had said that she wasn't going to tell anybody about this because it was a secret, but she did tell a few of her friends, and that is how it all kind of came back to it being at this point at the forefront of the investigation. So the reason that this guy wanted Amy to meet at the shopping center is because he said, we're going to pick out a gift for your mom because she just got this amazing promotion at work, and we're going to pick out the celebratory gift for her. And he also said, you know, because you're willing to help me out with this, I'm also going to buy you something. So this guy, flat out, whoever the hell he is, is a predator because he not only used her mother against her, but he also was bribing her with a gift. And this is the kind of stuff that, I mean, we hear it all the time even to this day, like teaching your children's situational awareness. I am sure Amy thought nothing of this and it was just, oh, mom's friend is going to take me to the mall and we're going to pick out a gift for mom because she got this promotion and she didn't even think anything of it. So teaching your children's situational awareness, especially this day and age when we do have access to social media and there's so many different things that people predators can use to contact children, it is so so important. In nineteen eighty nine, this stuff was pretty much unheard of happening. It really wasn't a thing, and the area that the Mahaloviks lived in Ohio was very very safe. There was no question in anyone's mind that something like this would happen there and that their community would be targeted by this predator who obviously knew the area very very well. With this, the police officers and those that were investigating go to the shopping center and they're questioning everyone that was there that day that potentially could have seen something, and it turns out that people did see something that day. They saw Amy walking with a man in the parking lot of the shopping center, and they described him as a man in his mid to late thirties. He was wearing a beige windbreaker with plaid lining. He had front press khakis, a button up shirt. He had thick hair that was thick and bushy. It fell on his forehead just above his eyes, and he was about the average height and wait for a mail and build, making him pretty like unremarkable in appearance. There wasn't anything major evident about him as far as his bild goes. They said that he looked pretty presentable and he didn't carry himself in a way like an accomplished professional night and they were able to come up with a composite sketch of this guy and I will be sure to post that on my Instagram and Facebook pages as well. And it's just crazy to me that this guy was able to pull this off in such a close community. Obviously, it was somebody that very easily blended into society and the community as a whole. And it's just really scary to think that he was able to do that, come into this place, do what he did, take amy, and then leave without anybody saying anything or questioning anything. It is really really scary. At this point, they have kind of a description of who this person might be. There's no security cameras because it's nineteen eighty nine, unfortunately, and they are ready to get everyone on board to try to figure out who this person is. They bring in an FBI profiler who was called in for an analysis to try to figure out what this person might be, who they might be. And at this point, it is now Saturday night, and they knew that they were dealing with Amy being gone for twenty four hours and that they needed to get Hurt in their possession asap. But still nobody stopped looking. Everybody was still searching for Amy on foot, going door to door, doing everything they could to try to find Amy. And there was so many people FBI, local police department, the community as a whole that were on board looking for Amy. The local law enforcement personnel in the area log more than sixty thousand hours and thousands more off the clock searching for Amy. There were hundreds of promising tips that had come in, and they were able to interview a lot of people. They interviewed one hundred and twenty potential suspects, and they questioned eight thousand people in the search for Amy. America's most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries also picked up these stories, which is a big deal back in the day to get Amy's name out there. And her face out there. There were two million poster missing Persons posters sent out with Amy's picture on them, and her story went nationwide across the United States, even into Australia. It was a really really big case at the time. So from end of October until the next year in nineteen ninety, there was nothing, no tangible anything that they could go off of to try to find Amy. Leads came up left and right, but they would often lead nowhere, and everything, unfortunately, ended in a field near Ruggles Township in Ashland County on the morning of February eighth of nineteen ninety. There was a woman named Janet Sebult who was jogging alongside a stretch of county road when she stopped in her tracks because she saw a small figure in a pale green sweatsuit laying face down in the weeds. And of course she was immediately I can't even imagine, terrified, and sprinted a quarter mile to a house, banged on the door and called nine to one to one. And immediately when they got that call, the FBI was brought in and they knew probably what they were dealing with at this point, because they knew that the likelihood of Amy still being alive was probably not, and immediately they block off the road and they start to secure the scene and complete their investmentation. As soon as they got official confirmation that this was in fact Amy, they went to the Mahoalivik home and let them know that it was in fact their daughter. By this point, the media had congregated in front of the Maholific home and of course everyone was hoping that it wasn't Amy, but unfortunately it was, and now came the hard part of the investigations, trying to figure out who the hell did this to Amy, because that person was still out there and even though Amy couldn't be saved, whoever did this was probably going to strike again and they needed to get this person off the streets asap. They were able to determine from the autopsy and all that Amy had been deceased for quite some time, and they thought that her murder more likely than not occurred shortly after her abduction. They thought maybe a few days or even less, but they did say that she was not killed immediately. They were able to determine that she had eaten one last meal between the time that she was taken and the time that she was killed, and they did say that her death was quick, but it was pretty brutal. She had been struck in the head and then stabbed twice in the neck. This person is a horrible human. I don't think I need to put it any other way than that. Of course, everybody that lived in that area was super on edge thinking that this man, whoever did this was still living amongst them and was pretending to be one of them. Could have even been somebody that came out to help search for Amy initially when she first went missing. Whoever this person was, they were very cunning, and they were very skilled in their approach, and there would be nothing that would stop this person from doing this again to another child. And everyone in the community was just super super on edge, hoping that the FBI and the local police department would track him down and figure out who he was and get him off the streets. Interestingly enough, whoever took Amy and killed her took some souvenirs from the crime scene and from Amy, including her horse riding boots that she had on that day, her denim backpack, a binder that was inside of the backpack, and also some torque race earrings. In the shape of horseheads that she had been wearing. As well. There was also some blood found in Amy's underwear, which of course indicated that she may have been sexually assaulted. And luckily they were able to take this DNA and hold it in hopes that in the future they would be able to use it and compare that DNA with future suspects, because DNA in nineteen eighty nine was not what DNA is today, So they really do not have any leads as to what potentially happened to Amy, who took her, and the cases as cold as cold can be. Amy's family tries to go on with their life day to day, but it is really hard. It is a constant reminder of what happened to Amy, and Jason, being only thirteen at the time, I can even imagine how horrible the years following Amy's abduction and murder were for him as a young child and still to this day having to deal with that, not knowing what happened, why it happened, and knowing that unfortunately, even though he was on the phone right away and within the hour of police report had been filed, nobody could do anything to stop this monster from doing what he did. So for years, nothing comes out, nothing at all. And then in November of two thousand and six, it is revealed that several other young girls in that area had received similar phone calls to the one that Amy had received in the weeks prior to her abduction, and a lot of these girls had unlisted numbers, but this person would call and say, hey, I work with your mom and I want to help buy her a present to help celebrate her promotion. Some of the girls lived in North Olmsted, which is a suburb near a bay village, and this was definitely information that investigators took and ran with Amy and some of the other girls who had received these calls. They were able to kind of piece it back and realize that all of these girls had visited the local Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. There was a visitor log book by the front door, and they thought, maybe these girls sign this book and put their phone numbers down, and that is how this person got this information, including phone numbers, addresses, and potentially ways to watch these girls, watch their families, and figure out where their parents worked, so they could really put the stories in motion and get these girls to come meet them. In two thousand and six and two thousand and seven, they started to collect DNA samples from several potential suspects in the case, and in two thousand and seven, the main number one longtime suspect went ahead and retained legal counsel. Now, from everything I found, I believe I figured out who the primary suspect was, the one who ended up eventually retaining legal counsel. There wasn't really a lot about him out there initially in my research, and then I began to dig deeper because that's what I do, and I came across a host of information in regards to him and a couple other suspects. So this guy who I believe was the number one main suspect is named Dean Runkle, and he was a former teacher in Ohio. And when you look at his picture versus the composites, it looks very very similar to this person. And I saw somewhere, and I cannot find it now where I saw this, but somebody said he was a science teacher and would often go to this aquatic center where they kind of tied everything back to people signing the logbook. He would often go there, so he potentially had a connection to this aquatic center in some way, shape or form, but regardless of that, he has always maintained his innocence. He now lives in Key West, Florida. He's in his seventies. There was a former student of his that accused him of inappropriate contact. I guess they had been in contact via letters, and at some point in time these letters ended up turning sexual in nature. And this was back in the eighties that all of this went down with the student, and the student said that in nineteen eight eighty seven, Dean had set up a few thousand dollars in trust fund for this student, but then in the fall of nineteen eighty nine they just stopped communicating. Could be a coincidence, but worth investigating. Nonetheless, there was also a guy that is named Rick Burns, and he had a autobody shop across the street from the police station, and he said he had had an interaction on October twenty seventh of nineteen eighty nine with this man that had shaggy hair. He was parked in a sedan and he says he remembers the date so vividly because it was also the day that he had bought a newly restored truck to the shop. And when he brought this truck to the shop, he pulls in and this man is sitting in this car in the autobody shop parking lot, and one of the shop owners, one of Rick's other friends, comes in and is like, why is this guy in my spot? So he remembers that very very vividly, and said that later this man pulled around to the pumps and then he got out and he was standing and he said, in the back seat he sees a girl who he now believes is Amy. And the man asked Rick for directions to I for eighty and then he left. And he gave this statement to the FBI two days after Amy's disappearance because he thought that he might have literally witnessed the kidnapping. And they looked at all the receipts for people that had been there for the previous two months. They took everything that they needed and that was the last time he ever heard from them again. But he says when he looks at the composite sketch, and then he looks at pictures of Dean Runkle, he says that that is the same man he saw at his shop on that day. Bay Village police definitely have downplayed all of this, and they say that Burns' memory is not reliable, but he is really the only witness that says that, yes, I think that that's him. Now, you can look at the composite sketch and you can look at a picture of Dean Runcle, and they do look very similar. But a lot of people back in nineteen eighty nine look like that, so it's just like kind of the late eighties look. But there was another girl from Amy's school that allegedly saw Amy with her abductor that same day, and she was shown a lineup of thirty something individuals, and she also went right to Dean Runkle's picture. And most recently, they did send a FBI agent out to Florida to reinterview Dean Runkle, but they sent someone that didn't really have a lot of familiarity with the case, and nothing really ended up turning up with that. Now, like I said, he lives in Florida, he manages I think like a Wendy's. His Facebook profile picture is literally the picture of him from the eighties, which is a little bizarre. But nonetheless, they do have his DNA. They have all of his information and that is that on Deane. Now we do have another suspect. He was a key person of interest as well. And the reason that he was a key person of interest is because he confessed to the murder of Amy in two thousand and two. He said that he was the one who was responsible for what happened to Amy. But they said that his confession was false. And the reason that they were able to say that it was false is because he had been institutionalized on the exact day that Amy was abducted. And his name was Richard Holbert. And when you look at his driver's license photo from nineteen ninety nine, they did at age regression to nineteen seventy eight, and again he looks very similar to the composite sketch. However, he was proved to have not been involved and gave a false confession. And there were a lot of others very similar to Richard who were mentally ill, who all gave false confessions and pretty much said that they were the ones that killed Amy and it all ended up not being true. Truly, people who are struggling with mental illness and they've decided that they're going to take on this persona of being a killer. So in twenty thirteen, one of the investigators had previously retired, he went ahead and came out of retirement to work on the case. And he personally believed that whoever had connect Amy had taken her out of Bay Village because the town was too close knit, too dense to commit a murder in. And he thinks that whoever this person was took Amy to Ashland County and killed her there because they think that whoever this person is was familiar with Ashland County and that is kind of where he felt most comfortable, so that's where he actually committed the crime and the murder. In twenty fourteen, the FBI announced that there was a twenty five thousand dollars reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Amy. In October of twenty fourteen, that amount was increased to twenty seven thousand dollars. In twenty sixteen, they discovered that there was a blanket and a curtain that was located near Amy's body, and the blanket and the curtain both had hairs on them similar to the hairs that Amy's dog had, and they thought that the person whoever did this used those items to conceal the victim's body before she was left in the field, which I think is interesting. When I first found this information, I was thinking, like, why would her dog's hair be on these items, But I think what they're alluding to is that there was a type of dog hare on this shower curtain and on this blanket. They obviously belong to whoever the suspect was. They have put images out of these items for anyone that thinks that they might recognize them from back in in nineteen eighty nine to come forward. But whoever had these items, whoever did this, likely had an animal because they said that there was dog hare, potentially dog hare on it, and it was similar dog hare to the dog that Amy and her family had at the time, which is just an interesting little tidbit of information and still like things are still coming out about this case, even years years years down the line. There was also some yellowish carpet fibers that were found on Amy's body as well, that they believed might have been from the interior of the car that she was in at the time. Like before she was murdered or after she was murdered and then dumped. So it's just really interesting that after all of this time, they're still compiling more evidence and kind of getting everything together literally over decades to try to solve this case. But of course, in nineteen eighty nine crime scene investigation a heck of a lot different than present day even twenty sixteen crime scene investigation, finding these different things and having these different little bits of evidence where things are popping up as the time goes, even though it's literally decades later. In twenty eighteen, investigators came forward and they said that they were following a link between a guy who had committed identity theft. His name is Robert Ivan Nicholas. He also had an alias Joseph Newton Chandler the Third. They thought that he potentially could have been part of the abduction and murder of Amy, And in twenty nineteen, authority said that they have so extensively investigated all suspects in all leads, and they think that whoever this killer is when they are identified, that he is going to be somebody that is on their list. They are so sure that they're really close to figuring out who this person is as of twenty nineteen. So flash forward twenty twenty one. On the thirty first anniversary of the discovery of Amy's remains, a major development was announced. A publicly unidentified man aged sixty four was implicated by his former girlfriend, with who he was involved with at the time of Amy's murder and kidnapping. She alleged that he was uncharacteristically absent from their residents located in close proximity to the abduction site when Amy disappeared. He had also called his girlfriend late in the evening inquiring if she had seen media releases about the abduction. And he was employed in the same city and his niece was in the same grade as Amy. Police go ahead and interview him, and they said that he included some suspicious statements, including the possibility that he had met Margaret before, meaning that maybe he knew Amy's mom somehow, like he kind of alluded to that in his interview. His DNA was obtained, he did not protest it, and he failed polygraph test, and a warrant to search a storage facility led authorities to confiscating certain items of interest. And let me just tell you, if you have a secret storage facility that you are keeping stuff in and you don't want anyone to get into it. You're likely probably a killer and hiding some major shit. I'm just saying, if you know, you know. So, investigators go back to the drawing board and they kind of circle back to the two people who witnessed Amy getting into this man's car that particular day in October, and they go ahead and look at the type of vehicle that this man was driving back in the day, and it was consistent with what he drove for the time, including the fact that its carpeting was similar in coloration to some of the fibers that were found on Amy's body. Amy had like some yellow fibers on her body, which is consistent with this type of carpet that was in this car that this man drove back in nineteen eighty nine. And this same vehicle was also seen near the area where Amy's body was dumped in February, meaning that this person probably got wind that they had found the body and he was front and center to watch all of it go down and watch the crime se tape go up. Because people like this get off on the thrill of something like that. First of all getting away with it, hiding literally in plain sight, being right there. It infuriates me. Unfortunately, Margaret passed away in two thousand and one at the young age of fifty four. She struggled a lot with lupus and that ultimately led to her passing away at such a young age. And it's really sad to think that she passed away without knowing who was responsible for her daughter's murder. There are all these new things, like I said, that are popping out. I think personally, they are very very close to solving this case. They just have to get everything in a row and lined up so they can indict without the possibility of it being thrown out. They have to make sure that their evidence is solid and that they are able to bring charges against this person, and that this person ever will see the light of day again. And I really want this episode to be a message to all of the predators, kidnappers, rapists, murderers out there who think that you can get away with this shit. You can run and you can hide, but eventually you're going to be caught. I don't care how sneaky and cunning and secretive you think you are. Your time is running out. And I cannot wait for the day that I can report that they have officially made an arrest in Amy's kidnapping and murder and her family can start to piece together their lives again, knowing that this absolute monster is off the streets. This guy whoever did this to Amy did not stop at Amy, I guarantee you, because he shows the telltale signs of somebody who is a predator and who does this stuff on the regular. The cunning, the planning, the way that he went about it. He definitely is somebody that knew what he was doing and did it with the utmost intent. And unfortunately, Amy was trying to do something nice for her mom and fill for this horrible human telling her the lies that he was telling her. So, whoever you are, if you're listening to this episode, no, your time is running out and they are going to get you sooner rather than later. So that is the story of Amy. We need to get this horrible person off the streets. Share this episode. Let's do all the things we can to get this case solved, because this is one that I think is solvable, and I'm hoping that twenty twenty four is the year that we finally solve this case. So thank you guys so much for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, make sure you leave me a rating. I really really appreciate it, and I will see you guys on Friday for a brand new episode. Bye.