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Amy Mihaljevic's unsolved case has garnered significant media attention over the years, especially after the recent developments made following a crucial tip from a woman who named her former boyfriend as the killer. Ten-year-old Amy was lured to the Village Square shopping center in Cleveland, Ohio, and kidnapped in late October 1989. Her remains were discovered the following February.
Throughout the course of their decades-long investigation, detectives have come up with different theories, but little progress was made until 2019 when the woman's tip arrived. The suspect, whose name is yet to be revealed, has made incriminating statements and was also identified by two witnesses, but is yet to be charged with the slaying.
The decades-old unsolved kidnapping and murder of Amy Mihaljevic is scheduled to feature on Oxygen's Dateline: Unforgettable in an episode titled What Happened to Amy?
An official synopsis says:
"For more than 30 years, Ohio investigators have searched for answers in the murder of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic; the details of the case still haunt Josh Mankiewicz and investigators, who ask for helping solving the crime."
The upcoming episode will air on the channel at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.
Amy Mihaljevic's murder: A disappearance followed by a gruesome discovery and a decades-long search for the killer, among other details
1) Amy was lured to the mall via a strange phone call
People Magazine reported that Amy Mihaljevic was ten years old when she was kidnapped from the Village Square Shopping Center in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, Ohio, on October 27, 1989. She had been receiving several calls from an unknown male in the days leading up to the incident.
The man in question reportedly convinced the fifth grader to meet him at the mall to help him buy a gift for his mother, who recently got promoted at work.
2) Her body was found a couple of months later in a wheat field
Following Amy's disappearance, police started an extensive search, declared one of the biggest in Ohio's history, for the girl, which only concluded on February 8, 1980, when a jogger spotted her decomposing remains in a wheat field about 50 miles from the shopping center where she was last seen. The victim had been fatally stabbed on the left side of her neck.
Detectives believed Amy was murdered and that her body was dumped in the field a few days after she was kidnapped. They also learned that two other girls had received similar calls from a man. These girls were linked to Amy as all three of them visited the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center.
3) Police suspect that the killer collected trophies from Amy Mihaljevic
A police report stated that when Amy's body was found, several of her belongings were missing, which led detectives to suspect that the killer collected trophies from the victim. The missing items reported missing included her turquoise horse-head earrings, black ankle boots, and a black leather binder with "Buick, Best in Class" written on the front clasp.
Bay Village Police Department Sgt. Jay Elish even expressed uncertainty about the suspect's intentions, saying:
"We don’t know if he was grooming anybody that would bite. Or if it was somebody that may have met Amy. That’s one of the things we’ve been trying to determine for years."
4) Key evidence was found near the victim's body, and two witnesses also surfaced
Police also discovered a white blanket and a thick olive-green curtain about 300 yards away from where Amy Mihaljevic's decomposing remains were located back in early 1990.
Moreover, two of her classmates claimed they saw the 10-year-old in the mall on the day of the kidnapping right before a white male, probably in his 30s, approached her. The man put his hand on the girl's shoulder and led her through the parking lot. That was the last time she was seen alive.
5) Nearly three decades later, police received a crucial tip concerning Amy Mihaljevic's murder
In January 2019, nearly three decades after Amy was murdered, a woman named her former boyfriend as the potential killer. As per the tip, the man in question worked in Bay Village when the incident occurred and even had a niece in the same grade as the victim.
The woman claimed they resided less than a mile and a half from the shopping center where Amy Mihaljevic was taken, further adding that the ex-boyfriend did not return home that night.
The suspect was interviewed by police when he made incriminating comments, claiming that the years 1989 and 1990 were a "dark period" in his life and that there is a possibility his DNA might be present on the olive-green curtain found near the victim's body. The man clarified that he "did not put it there." Eventually, the two witnesses picked his picture from a photo line-up.
Learn more about the case on Dateline: Unforgettable, which airs on Oxygen this Wednesday.
