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Amy Mihaljevic was a 10-year-old fifth grader when she was reportedly lured into a mall in Cleveland, Ohio, and abducted on October 27, 1989. She was last seen at the Village Square shopping center with a man by two of her classmates. The search for the girl concluded after her decomposing remains were found the following year in February in a field about 50 miles away from the mall. She died of a stab wound to the neck, as per The Cinemaholic.
Amy was reportedly contacted by her abductor via a telephone call and he set up a meeting, telling the girl that he needed her help to buy a gift for his mother as she had recently been promoted. Detectives believe that two other young girls had received similar calls around that time. Decades later, the case still remains unsolved.
An all-new episode of Dateline: Unforgettable on Oxygen is slated to chronicle Amy Mihaljevic's alleged kidnapping and murder this Wednesday, August 30, 2023. The episode, titled What Happened to Amy?, will air on the channel at 8:00 pm ET.
The official synopsis for the upcoming episode reads:
"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."
Amy Mihaljevic's body was found in a field about 50 miles away from the shopping center where she was last seen
According to People, Amy Mihaljevic began receiving calls from an unknown man sometime around mid-October in 1989, shortly before her disappearance. The outlet reported that the unknown man convinced Amy to meet him at the Village Square Shopping Center in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, Ohio, on October 27.
Two of the fifth grader's classmates also spotted a white male, probably in his 30s, approach her. The man then put his hand on Mihaljevic's shoulder and led the girl through the parking lot.
Amy's concerned parents called the police and reported her missing when she failed to return home, setting off a decades-long investigation into the case. An extensive search for the 10-year-old (declared one of the largest in the history of Ohio) involved hundreds of federal, state, county, and local law enforcement officers.
The investigation into Amy's disappearance concluded on February 8, 1990, after a jogger stumbled upon her decomposing remains in an Ashland County wheat field located about 50 miles from the shopping center where she was last seen. The girl reportedly died of a single stab wound to the left side of her neck.
Officials found crucial pieces of evidence 300 yards away from Amy Mihaljevic's remains
Detectives believed that Amy Mihaljevic was killed and that her body was dumped in the field a few days after she was kidnapped. In fact, a couple of years later, they also learned that other young girls had received similar calls from the suspect at around the same time.
The People Magazine report stated that the Bay Village Police Department Sgt. Jay Elish expressed uncertainty about the suspect's intentions as he said:
"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."
However, one key factor linked Amy to the other two girls as all three of them visited the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Detectives also suspect that the killer collected trophies from the victim, including her turquoise horse-head earrings, black ankle boots, and a black leather binder with "Buick, Best in Class" written on the front clasp, which was missing.
Moreover, police also found a white blanket and a thick olive-green curtain about 300 yards away from where the youngster's remains were located. These were unique pieces of evidence, which had Mihaljevic's hair and her dog's hair on them.
While dozens of tips have been followed and several suspects have been questioned over the years, the decades-old case remains unsolved to date.
Learn more about Amy Mihaljevic's unsolved case on Oxygen's Dateline: Unforgettable this Wednesday.
