00:01:18
One of the high priority leads the FBI is checking, an area man resembling the drawing of the suspect. He left his job
00:01:26
last Friday, has not returned. But authorities will not comment any further on that.
00:01:31
Amy disappeared from the shopping center a week ago today. And today FBI agents and Bay Village police were back in the
00:01:39
center talking with people who might have been here then. Amy reportedly left Bay Square with a
00:01:45
man she believed to be a friend sometime between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. last Friday.
00:01:50
The shopping center was busy, but few who were here remembered anything unusual about the man and the girl. What
00:01:56
went on was a ploy that was developed and carried through. And it looked like a natural
00:02:05
action going on. It didn't look out of the ordinary at all. Today in that same 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. time frame, officers
00:02:12
were trying to jog memories of shoppers to possibly recall something from a week
00:02:16
ago that they did not consider important then. Okay, I'll be glad to help. Police want anyone else who was here
00:02:24
last Friday afternoon to call them, regardless of whether they believe they saw anything. Police also are seeking
00:02:31
other children who might have been contacted by phone as Amy was by a man posing as a friend seeking the child's
00:02:38
help in buying a gift for a parent. You have had some of those? Yes, we have. How many?
00:02:45
I'm aware of at least three, perhaps more. The sounds of rural Ashland County warn
00:02:51
of a passing train, a tragedy averted. The sights along County Road 1181 warn of a tragedy committed. White ribbons
00:02:59
have been strung in memory of Amy Maholovic. Amy's body was discovered right alongside 1181 last week. The
00:03:06
ground has been scraped by investigators for soil sample analysis. Another portion is covered with flowers left by
00:03:12
shocked residents who now have more personal reasons to help in finding Amy's killer.
00:03:18
Cuz he was bent down, so I couldn't see him that well. Larry Schuster has told the FBI an amazing story. On the day
00:03:24
Amy's body was found, Schuster says he saw a suspicious looking stranger drive back and forth near the discovery site.
00:03:31
And he claims the driver looked very much like the police composite sketch of Amy's abductor. As I was leaving, coming
00:03:38
up towards 224, that's when I seen him going back down again. Back up, I think he was coming up this
00:03:44
way to see what was going on and see if anybody found him, found the girl. Amy Maholovic is one girl this community
00:03:50
will never forget. As a card on the flowers proclaims, from the people of New London, Ohio, "We're sorry, Amy."
00:03:58
There is not only a sense of pity being shown by the people of Ashland County, but also a sense of precaution as well.
00:04:04
Even though many neighbors tell me in their opinion Amy was probably killed someplace else, they say they plan to
00:04:10
play it safe just in case her abductor is still in the area. This is the land on which Kenneth Myers
00:04:16
spent much of his life as a grain farmer and a frequent hunter. He says he now has frequent thoughts about Amy.
00:04:23
I told my wife the other day, I said, you know, you see this on TV all the time where they go out in the in the
00:04:28
country and find a body, I said, but you never figure it's going to happen right
00:04:31
in your back door. Myers claims children are being watched more closely as well as property while
00:04:37
the community awaits the arrest of Amy Maholovic's killer. In Ashland County, Jack Marshall
00:04:42
reporting for the 10:00 news. I thank one and all for your support, your love, and your concern, without
00:04:50
which I would not have been able to make it through this past year. A year ago today, just across the street
00:04:56
from the tree and the granite marker, Amy was abducted from a Bay Village shopping center. A little more than 3
00:05:02
months later, her body was found. Let's fill the void that her passing has left with positive thoughts, with a smile on
00:05:10
our face, and say she blessed our life for a while. Unfortunately, she is gone, but
00:05:15
now we must live on. City and civic leaders and law enforcement officials spoke of love and
00:05:23
community togetherness and the Amy fund and the continuing search for the child's killer. And we're not going to
00:05:29
give up until we see this thing through. Amy has touched our lives. She will live
00:05:36
forever. The monument says that Amy lives on in our hearts. Amy pulled a community together as a
00:05:42
family. And we still are a family supporting each other, loving each other. We know that Amy is in God's love and
00:05:51
care. And his love and care are with us. There was mourning and there were drawn
00:05:57
faces and there were some tears, but this was not a ceremony of sorrow. Put a smile on.
00:06:03
Thank you for coming. In Bay Village, John Harrington, Channel 3 news. Friday, October 27th, 1989,
00:06:39
Bay Village, Ohio. This should have been just a normal, typical Friday. The kids go off to school, the parents
00:06:48
go to work, and when everyone gets home, we can start our weekend. But on this Friday,
00:06:56
not everyone will come home. 10-year-old Amy Maholovic went to school. She was in the fifth grade at Bay
00:07:05
Village Middle School. After school, she walked with friends to the Bay Village Shopping Plaza.
00:07:13
Amy was last seen that day by two of her peers. They would later report that they saw
00:07:20
Amy Maholovic standing outside of the Baskin Robbins ice cream shop. Amy was approached by a man in his early
00:07:29
30s, standing about 5 ft 8 to 5 ft 10 in tall, with dark hair and maybe a bald spot on the top of his
00:07:38
head. One witness said the man was wearing a tan jacket and might have been wearing glasses, but
00:07:47
could not be sure. The man walked right up to Amy, leaned down, and he said something to her.
00:07:56
He placed his hand on Amy's back and led her away. This man walked right up to her, spoke
00:08:05
to her, and then took her. No one who saw the man with Amy knew who he was. And to this day,
00:08:17
we don't know who he is. But we do know that he is a very very evil man. Yesterday, February 8th, marked 31 years
00:08:49
ago that the body of Amy Maholovic was found after she had been missing for several months.
00:08:57
And we were sitting there, Captain, on the 31-year anniversary, you sent me a text in the evening and said, "Hey,
00:09:05
you probably already heard this, but there's supposed to be an Amy update and it might come today."
00:09:13
And I text back saying, "I've not heard anything. What's up?" Well, we end up hearing that there was, in fact, going
00:09:21
to be an update. Of course, then we're sitting on the edges of our seats wondering, "Did they finally make an
00:09:27
arrest in this case?" And it seems like with a lot of these major cases around the anniversaries, we will receive an
00:09:35
update, but sometimes it's an update of no real significance. A lot of times it's just that we're
00:09:42
still working the case. We're still asking the public for their help, their assistance. Please call in, email us a
00:09:48
tip. Now, with Amy's case, we've seen updates throughout the years, and many people, many of our listeners, have been
00:09:56
following this case for a long time. And anybody that lives in Ohio knows this case. This was a national case. It was
00:10:04
on America's Most Wanted, and it's been featured throughout the years in several
00:10:09
different venues. Now, in 2006, we had the update of new information that came out telling us that several
00:10:18
other young girls in the area came forward announcing that they had received phone calls as well. This was
00:10:25
information that was known to the police, but withheld from the public for many years.
00:10:29
And then in 2013, we get the update that Phil Torsney, retired FBI investigator, was going to
00:10:38
return from retirement simply to work on Amy's case periodically. Right. Then in
00:10:45
2016, we had one of the biggest updates in this case was the blanket and the curtain that was found located near
00:10:54
Amy's body, where her body was found. And that there were fibers and hairs and such
00:11:01
on these items that have connected them to Amy's case. Right. And that was big news. That we they did a press
00:11:08
conference and everything, and you and I talked about what they found, what they
00:11:12
released that day to the public. We've talked about that a lot, but the the update that came out yesterday, I think
00:11:21
could be more substantial and more significant to the case, maybe possibly the biggest update that we've seen in 31
00:11:30
years. Well, not only a big update, but I I also believe the information that they're giving is is quite a bit, and
00:11:37
even though the clip is only roughly 5 minutes long, there's some major major points within that clip.
00:11:46
And if this is the information that is being released to the public, how much more information does law enforcement
00:11:53
have? Okay, Captain, let's all sit and listen together to this update. This is coming from News 5 out of Cleveland, and
00:12:02
let's discuss what they are telling us 31 years later. Well, 31 years ago today, the body of a
00:12:08
missing girl from Bay Village was found in a farm field in Ashland County. Now, more than three decades later,
00:12:15
investigators have yet to charge anyone in the kidnapping and killing of Amy Mihaljevic. But the 5 On Your Side
00:12:21
investigators recently uncovered newly filed court records showing investigators focusing in on a potential
00:12:27
suspect. Investigator Scott Knoll has more of what he's discovered in a story you will only see here on News 5.
00:12:36
These are the sworn statements from the lead investigator with Bay Village police. In them, he says a woman came
00:12:42
forward 2 years ago and identified her former boyfriend as a suspect in Amy Mihaljevic's murder. It's the case that
00:12:49
shocked a community. There has been panic and paranoia. 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic kidnapped
00:12:54
October 27th, 1989. Say lots and lots of prayers for Amy Renee Mihaljevic. Despite thousands of tips, prayers from
00:13:04
the community, and a nationwide search, on February 8th, 1990, the search for Amy turned
00:13:11
into a search for her killer. Mihaljevic's body found in a rural Ashland County farm field 50 miles away
00:13:18
from the Bay Village Square Shopping Center, where she was last seen talking to the man seen here in FBI composite
00:13:24
sketches. It's believed the man in this composite sketch kidnapped the 10-year-old girl from the Bay Village
00:13:30
Shopping Center. But who is he? 5 On Your Side investigators discovered police now following up on a tip they
00:13:37
received in January 2019. According to newly filed court documents, a woman told police she
00:13:43
suspects her ex-boyfriend is Amy's killer. We're not naming him because he's not been charged with any crime.
00:13:50
But according to an affidavit filed last fall, the woman told investigators she lived with the man less than a mile and
00:13:56
a half from the shopping center where Amy was last seen. Police say the man had family in Bay Village, including a
00:14:02
niece in the same grade as Mihaljevic. And the night Amy disappeared, court records show the woman told police the
00:14:09
man never came home. However, the woman told police she did hear from the man that evening,
00:14:16
a phone call asking if she was aware of the news coverage on Amy's disappearance. And police say there's
00:14:22
more. And been having this on television for 3 months, and then you wake up in the morning and find it's about 300
00:14:29
yards find a body about 300 yards from your house. Police say they found gold fibers on Amy's clothing after her body
00:14:35
was discovered. The detective told a Cuyahoga County judge the now 64-year-old man drove a gold-colored
00:14:42
Oldsmobile with a tan interior at the time. And police say his former girlfriend
00:14:48
recalls traveling to Ashland County with the man. We've also learned on the day Amy's body was discovered, an FBI agent
00:14:56
was assigned to record all cars and license plates passing through a nearby intersection. Police say around 5:00
00:15:03
p.m. that evening, the agent recorded the man's gold Oldsmobile driving by. According to the detective, his
00:15:10
investigation has not been able to show any reason why the man should have been there that day. We don't have like one
00:15:16
suspect where like, yeah, this is the guy. With the same token, we have such a vast amount of information. I think
00:15:21
it'll only going to take a couple pieces of information to tie all that together
00:15:25
and actually solve it. Just days after Bay Village's former police chief told that to News 5, investigators say the
00:15:30
man in question walked into the police department and talked to investigators over the course of 2 days. In a sworn
00:15:37
affidavit, the detective said the man, quote, made very suspicious statements, including that 1989 and 1990 was a dark
00:15:45
period in his life. According to court documents, the man initially told investigators Amy was never in his car,
00:15:52
but when asked again if it was possible, investigators say the man said, "Okay, but I don't know what the situation
00:15:58
would have been." The detective wrote the man also agreed it was possible his DNA would be on a curtain found near
00:16:04
Amy's body, and that his DNA would be on Amy's body, quote, "if somebody planted
00:16:09
it on her." Investigators say the man agreed to a DNA swab and also a polygraph test. Police say the result of
00:16:16
that test was deception indicated. They also say the man did not show up the next day to sign paperwork allowing them
00:16:23
to search a storage unit. Instead, according to the detective, police got a warrant, searched the storage units,
00:16:30
where, quote, "officers seized evidence." Leading up to the 30th anniversary of his daughter's murder,
00:16:35
Mihaljevic's father told us he's still hopeful Amy's case will be solved. It's something that you can never stop
00:16:42
thinking about. that after 31 years could be heating up. Police telling a judge that in May, two
00:16:49
witnesses picked the man's picture out of photo lineups as the man they remember seeing Amy talking to the day
00:16:55
she disappeared. So, what else do we know about this man? Police say he's currently homeless and living in his
00:17:01
car. We tried calling and texting him to ask about this case. We never got a response. We also tracked down the woman
00:17:08
who came forward with this information. She referred us to investigators, but the Bay Village detective quoted in
00:17:15
these court documents told us he wouldn't comment on what we found. In Bay Village, I'm 5 On Your Side
00:17:21
investigator Scott Knoll. If you have information about the murder of Amy Mihaljevic, the FBI's offering a
00:17:28
reward of up to $25,000 for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction in her death. Anyone with
00:17:34
information is asked to call this number, 1-800-CALL-FBI. All right, so there's some major points
00:18:14
there. Let me go over what I have. We have a woman comes forward to say that she thinks her ex-boyfriend possibly was
00:18:21
involved or responsible for the death of Amy Mihaljevic. He lived across the street from the shopping center or lived
00:18:29
within less than a mile from the shopping center, had family in that area, his nieces were in the same grade
00:18:37
as Amy, was not home the night that Amy was kidnapped. Mhm. Calls her the night that Amy was
00:18:45
kidnapped and ask her, "Are you seeing these news reports about Amy Mihaljevic?"
00:18:50
Drives a gold car, possible gold fibers found on her, found on the curtains. Once they find her body
00:18:58
in Ashland, which I believe is 50 miles away or so, or 50 minutes away. Roughly, it's it's 48 and change miles
00:19:07
away. So, they have a FBI agent set up to track cars in that area, and guess whose car
00:19:15
was tracked? The suspect's. So, then he is interviewed by law enforcement. He talks about 1989 and 1990 being a dark
00:19:24
period in his life. Then basically agrees, I guess they're questioning him saying, "Well, look, is
00:19:32
there any possible way that Amy could have been in your car?" And he says, "No, no, no, no. Okay, well, maybe, but
00:19:39
I don't know how that would have happened." Then goes on to say, "Look, my DNA could be on the curtains that you
00:19:45
found near her body where she was dumped." And yes, uh they collect DNA evidence from him. Basically says if
00:19:54
there's DNA from him on Amy's body, then that would had to come uh from somebody planting it. He takes a
00:20:01
lie detector. Again, a lot of people iffy about lie detectors. I view them as a barometer. He failed
00:20:10
the lie detector. That gives us a starting point, I think. Now, you have two eyewitnesses that come forward and
00:20:17
pick this individual out of a lineup as the guy that they saw with Amy Mihaljevic the day she was kidnapped at
00:20:25
the strip mall. Did I miss anything? I don't I don't see anything that you missed and uh maybe we heard a couple
00:20:32
things slightly different, but I think we can go through these items one at a time because I
00:20:38
think what we have here, Captain, there's some things that we can easily pick up on from what they are saying,
00:20:44
what they are releasing. But I also think that there might be some things that we can infer from what they're not
00:20:49
saying. Right. Reading between the lines and applying what we know about the case
00:20:54
to what they are now telling us. It's easy to listen to this clip and go, "Well, this might be the biggest update
00:21:02
to date." Yeah. It's shocking. I'm not going to lie to you, man. When you text me yesterday, I thought, "Oh, here we go
00:21:08
again. It's going to be something that is nothing." Often in Amy's case, what my experience has been following this
00:21:16
case for so long is that when something new comes out, it's usually something that you can't put any weight to. It's
00:21:23
something that you have to take with a grain of salt. It's someone that's all of a sudden
00:21:27
realizing something, remembering something, or connecting some dots over something that happened 20, 25, 30 years
00:21:34
ago. Mhm. And you go, "Okay, well, they're they're remembering this now all of a sudden?" Therein lies my biggest
00:21:42
question in in this information. Why, if we're just hearing about this from what
00:21:48
they told us, January 2019, this woman comes forward and says, "I believe my ex-boyfriend could have
00:21:57
been involved in the abduction of Amy Mihaljevic." Right. Why why 29 years later is there is there
00:22:05
a reason for that? Now, what I what I will say, reading between the lines here, there has to be something very
00:22:12
important in her statements to police. Mhm. Because they got a job to do, not just
00:22:20
in Amy's case, in other cases, they have a a public to protect on the daily. There must have
00:22:27
been something in there because we can tell by other things that are stated in that news report that police have spent
00:22:34
a lot of time, effort, and resources on looking into this tip. Yeah, normally I'd say, "Oh, here's this
00:22:41
woman coming forward about ex-boyfriend. Is this some kind of revenge? So much time has passed." I believe, or what my
00:22:50
gut is telling me, is that she found out something about this individual, probably in 2018, maybe
00:22:58
2019, 19, that made her go, "Light bulb." Maybe she suspected it for years, but there
00:23:06
was something that triggered her to go, "I have to go to the police now." We're going off of memory here today, Captain.
00:23:14
We didn't know until last night that there was going to be an update in it an update this big. And so, no time to go
00:23:22
through all of our notes and all of everything we've reported in the past on this case.
00:23:28
So, forgive me if we if we stray or get something wrong here, but This is a very
00:23:33
important update. This is very important and like I said, there's got to be something in her statement to police
00:23:40
that made them really dive in and investigate this this tip so thoroughly. Now, some people out there listening are
00:23:48
going to go, "Well, duh, Nick. It's because she said he didn't come home that night and
00:23:54
I did speak with him that night because he called me to ask me if I had seen the
00:23:58
news coverage or heard the news coverage about Amy having gone missing or the abduction of this child." That cannot be
00:24:07
the answer. That's not why they dove into this thing so deeply. So, let's move past that and I say that because
00:24:14
I'm awfully curious about that part of this tip. Because from my understanding, that news coverage did not come out
00:24:22
until 10:30, 11:00 at night. She went missing right after school. Right. So, now we have a big window of time
00:24:31
already that's elapsed before I I couldn't imagine he's calling her asking her if she's seen the news
00:24:39
coverage, but heck, Captain, maybe that is the tip. Maybe that is the iceberg. Because maybe she's saying,
00:24:48
"Well, it hadn't even come on the news yet." Right. But then that's when you have to take another step back and go,
00:24:53
"Okay, well, then again, why 29 years later?" That's something that should have been that should have clued you in
00:25:00
immediately that night, the next day, that you are pounding on the door, pounding on the desk at police
00:25:06
headquarters saying, "This guy's involved. He's telling me about it before the public even knew that she was
00:25:11
abducted." Right, but we don't know the character of this individual. So, again, it's could be something that
00:25:17
she suspected for a while, but then found out some new information and that was the trigger to go, "Hey, I got to go
00:25:25
to law enforcement." But this news report is perfect cuz one, they set it up. Woman comes forward to
00:25:31
say that her ex-boyfriend could have been involved in the murder of Amy Mihaljevic and then they connect some
00:25:37
dots. Okay, one, he lived less than a mile away from the shopping center. Okay, so that's a good location. That
00:25:45
means that individual should be looked at. I I have in my notes, Captain, not to cut you off, but I have in my notes a
00:25:51
mile and a half, less than a mile and a half from the shopping plaza. Yeah, but very close. That's walking distance or
00:25:58
that would be quick to if he took her from the shopping center back to his place.
00:26:04
We have a caller telling Amy to meet him at the shopping center. So, just anybody
00:26:10
in that location that connects them to the case. But also, we have the fact that he has nieces in the same grade as
00:26:19
Amy. So, how could he have got Amy's number? He could have got it from one of his nieces. He could have had some kind
00:26:27
of obsession with Amy Mihaljevic. Could have got information from from his nieces. And the nieces aren't
00:26:33
going to question, "Why is my uncle asking me about one of my classmates?" They could have just
00:26:39
been walking together at some point. But then he's not home the night that she's
00:26:44
kidnapped and then he makes the call, "Hey, have you seen this footage?" So, right there, that is enough of a
00:26:52
connection to the case to at least put him on a suspect list. Yeah, and let's go ahead
00:26:58
and take it a step further with all the other items that they found. It makes him even a a much better suspect. He's,
00:27:05
from what little we know already, to me, he's as good as any suspect that has been discussed before in the past. And I
00:27:13
know on our show we've talked about several. We went through at least five that I can
00:27:18
think of in in five in really good detail. We planned on discussing five more at
00:27:24
some point. I'm kind of guessing who this possibly could be because he is not named
00:27:33
and rightfully so not named in this news article or in the news coverage. But I can't believe that he was anybody
00:27:42
that was already on my radar. Right. And maybe not on anyone else's either unless
00:27:50
there's a chance his name was already in the case files somewhere or he was already on police's
00:27:56
radar and that was enough to get a tip, to get another person to come forward and bring up his name again was enough
00:28:03
for them to really dive in deep. Now, if he lived less than a mile and a half from the
00:28:10
shopping plaza, that would mean let's pretend that he is the perpetrator. Okay, that's one thing we really need to
00:28:17
point out here. There's not been an arrest made yet. This guy's not been brought up up on charges yet.
00:28:23
So, it's 50/50 at this point if this is even our guy or not. But let's say it is. So,
00:28:30
that means he would have known a good deal more about the area than than I had suspected. Right. What I've always
00:28:39
thought is that this person knew that there is a direct link between the shopping plaza and Amy's school.
00:28:46
They they need to know enough that this would be a place that Amy would feel comfortable going to on her own
00:28:54
to get her to meet him there and then abduct her from that location. Amy's situation is very much an abduction that
00:29:04
took place before Amy even realized she had been abducted. Right. It was a ruse.
00:29:10
He tricked her into going to the plaza, tricked her into his vehicle, and at some point she realized what was going
00:29:17
on. We're not going shopping like this guy told me. We're not going where he said we are going. So, he picked the
00:29:23
location that she would have been comfortable enough to leave her school at the end of the day, go to willingly
00:29:30
by herself. We always kind of knew that. But what's interesting here is if he lived that close,
00:29:37
this was not something he just picked up in passing. He would have known that the
00:29:40
police department, the Bay Village Police Department, is located in that exact area.
00:29:47
It's it's practically right next to the plaza. So, that's very very bizarre to in my opinion to to know
00:29:58
that and go, "All right, I'm going to go into the belly of the beast to make this
00:30:03
abduction. I'm going to do this in the backyard of the police department." So, we have the girlfriend that comes
00:30:10
forward saying she believes possibly her ex-boyfriend could be involved. That seems to have taken place in January of
00:30:18
2019. Then in May, we have two witnesses and you have to believe, Captain, they're
00:30:25
the two witnesses that were at the plaza that day Right. that said they saw a man
00:30:31
talking with Amy. I like the fact that they picked this individual out of a photo lineup. Yes, picked this guy out
00:30:38
of a photo lineup and of course they probably figured out a way to get some old photos of this guy. So, they're
00:30:44
showing these witnesses pictures of what this guy looked like in '89 or '90. Well, and we haven't really had that
00:30:52
communication from law enforcement. I mean, some of the major suspects, you take like Dean Runkle for example, none
00:30:59
of those eyewitnesses ever came forward and said, "Yeah, you know what? Now that
00:31:04
I'm thinking about it, it was Dean Runkle I saw." They never came out and said that. So, now you have
00:31:10
I just find that incredible and could you imagine these eyewitnesses that have lived with this horror not being able to
00:31:16
answer certain questions that you know could solve this case for law enforcement, for Amy's family, and to
00:31:22
finally all these years later to be looking at a photo and go, "That's the guy and I finally can give law enforcement
00:31:31
answers." I mean, they had to feel good about that. Yes, and so we have the two witnesses pick this guy out of a
00:31:40
photo lineup. Like you said, we've not had any obvious statements from police in the past saying, "We have people who
00:31:46
have identified Dean Runkle as someone seen at the plaza that day." The best we have on Runkle is that a vehicle that
00:31:55
was very similar to his if not identical was spotted behind I believe it was behind the plaza parked
00:32:03
there that day. That vehicle would have been a fairly common vehicle for the time.
00:32:08
Right. So, you can't say it was in fact Dean Runkle's. You can just say it it it
00:32:14
it does not eliminate him. That's what's great about this update though. This is different as you're pointing
00:32:19
out, yeah. Well, yeah, but I mean, has there been talk about the gold fibers being fibers
00:32:23
that they believe came from a automobile? Yes, and that's part of the problem with Runkle is that the vehicle
00:32:29
he had at the time would have had an interior that that it would have been possible for those fibers to come from.
00:32:36
Now, again, not a uncommon vehicle. Right. Other vehicles have similar fibers. No one's saying that they are an
00:32:46
exact match and fiber analysis is really up to the judgment of the of the person
00:32:53
giving you the analysis. It's not an exact science. But this gold Olds Oldsmobile vehicle
00:33:01
with tan interior, as they say in this new update in the new news article, this does not eliminate this guy either.
00:33:09
You would expect to find similar fibers in that vehicle. And then what we have here is a bit of an interrogation,
00:33:17
right? Because police say this guy in his favor in his favor he willingly walks into the police department and
00:33:25
sits down and talks with detectives. He's there to ask them some questions, I'm sure, but also to proclaim his
00:33:33
innocence, to tell them why he's not involved and this is all just a big misunderstanding. Right.
00:33:41
But what's interesting here is what kind of trickles out from that interrogation.
00:33:47
I do want to say this going into it. I don't find really anything that this guy says in their release
00:33:56
to be suspect. I I don't think it it doesn't make me go, "Okay, draw a circle around
00:34:03
this guy, underline his name, he's the guy that did it." Because the release says is that
00:34:11
okay, he showed some signs of deception in the polygraph. Yeah, and that could just be nerves.
00:34:17
Here's the thing, man. If somebody knocked on my door 29, 30, 31 years after the fact of some cold case
00:34:24
homicide and let's say I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know who this person was. I'm not going to lie,
00:34:30
Captain, I would be nervous as hell going, "What do these guys got that has put me in this chair today with
00:34:38
these wires hooked up to me answering questions?" Well, again, I I also think we we have evidence now that he's living
00:34:45
in his car. Look, a lot of people that deal with homelessness have mental health issues,
00:34:52
drug addiction issues. Obviously, that would be happening when he's being interrogated by the
00:34:59
the police. So, him being deceptive on the polygraph, again, it could be nerves. It could be
00:35:06
the guy has a drinking problem. It could be the guy has a drug problem. The guy has some mental health issues
00:35:12
and those can stop you from passing the polygraph test. So, I don't put a lot of weight into that. I
00:35:19
also don't put a lot of weight into, "Well, '89 and '90 were dark periods of my life." We don't know what was
00:35:27
happening in his life. Were did family members pass away in in his life? I don't even find
00:35:35
it that incriminating for him to say, "Okay, maybe Amy was in my car, but I don't know how that would have
00:35:42
happened." That makes makes me wonder if he ever gave his nieces rides to school or ever
00:35:48
picked them up from school, ever drove them to a friend's house, ever drove his nieces
00:35:55
and some of their friends around. Or if he loaned his car out at any time. And the there in lies some of the the issue.
00:36:03
So, that stuff that comes out makes him sound very suspicious, very guilty. But let's keep in mind that sounds to me
00:36:12
like they this was a thorough interrogation and I'm using that word I'm picking I'm choosing that word
00:36:18
interrogation over interview because I think when he walked in and said, "I agree to sit down with detectives and
00:36:25
talk. I'm here. You don't have to come and find me. I'm happy to talk with detectives." At some point, if you like
00:36:32
this guy or if you think that he's done something, this meeting, this interview flips from
00:36:39
an interview to an interrogation and I think that's what happened at some point.
00:36:43
Or no, it's sometimes it's not and flipped. It's just from the word jump. And we've seen this in other cases where
00:36:50
they're going to press and press and press. So, did you pick up Amy at the plaza that
00:36:55
day? No. Was Amy Moyer ever in your vehicle? No. Right. Is there any reason that we would think
00:37:04
that she was in your vehicle? Is there any reason why we would find evidence that she would have been in your
00:37:09
vehicle? At some point you press and press and press to the point where he's going to break a little bit and say
00:37:15
he he's either going to confess and tell you something that he was lying about before or he's left with no other choice
00:37:21
to say, "Okay, I'm not saying that it is 100% impossible Right. that she would have ever have been in my vehicle at any
00:37:32
time. I'm just saying I I don't know what the situation would be that she would have been in my vehicle."
00:37:41
Right, and law enforcement could be going, "Hey, look, douche canoe, right? Douche burger, we have fibers that match
00:37:51
the same fibers of the car that you owned at that time and we have eyewitnesses that can prove
00:37:58
that you own that car at that time or we have pictures of you with that car. Well, they can go back and check his his
00:38:05
license and res- registration, too. If if he registered the vehicle in his name, then there's no disputing that he
00:38:11
owned a vehicle that make and model that year at that time. Right, and sometimes
00:38:17
the questioning becomes not good questioning. Damien Echols questioning, right? Where they'd ask
00:38:25
you, "Well, how would you explain that if they matched? Okay, if you if that is the questioning, then the answer could
00:38:35
be well, I don't know if if she was ever in my car, I don't know why she would be." So, that that answer
00:38:45
sounds pretty bad, but in context, not so much. But here's my issue. One, but what about the DNA on the curtains?
00:38:54
There's two questions. They ask him about DNA on the curtains and DNA on Amy Moyer's body. The answer for the DNA on
00:39:03
Amy Moyer's body is somebody would have had to plant it there. That again makes me think that they're asking him
00:39:11
questions that he's going, "Well, I don't know, but I guess if it was on her body, somebody had to plant it there."
00:39:18
But when they ask about the curtains, it doesn't seem like he said, "Well, they had to plant it on the curtains." He's
00:39:26
saying it's possible my DNA might be on the curtains. Maybe that's just the way I'm taking it from the report, but it's
00:39:32
almost like he's willing to admit that his DNA might be on those curtains, but if it's on Amy, it was planted.
00:39:38
Yeah, again, it goes back to the questioning that we've seen in the past and and you referenced exactly what I
00:39:43
was thinking of was the West Memphis 3 case where when that case broke and they were interviewing people in the
00:39:50
neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, especially when they started talking to um you know, this was
00:39:56
going on before Damien Echols was questioned. This These were questions that they were
00:40:04
giving to everybody. And or at least the majority of the people that they spoke with. And these
00:40:10
questions were provided to West Memphis by the FBI. Okay, here is the I don't remember the exact number for whatever
00:40:20
reason nine or 12 pops in my head. Mhm. But here's the nine or 12 questions that
00:40:25
we, the FBI, if we were conducting a door-to-door search and question, what we what we would be asking the
00:40:34
people. And one of those questions was, "Can you explain why we would find your fingerprints at the crime scene?" Well,
00:40:40
the innocent answer is you would not find my fingerprints at the crime scene. Right. Or the innocent answer or
00:40:48
the intelligent answer. Right. Now, the confused answer or guilty answer is you try to explain it away. Either you're
00:40:56
guilty, you did it, you now have to explain away why your fingerprints are there. Or if you're just a confused
00:41:02
individual, confused by the question, you need a lawyer and you're you're the one that's trying to explain away. They
00:41:10
never said, "We found your fingerprints at the crime scene. We're just asking why
00:41:16
can you explain why we might find your fingerprints at the at the crime scene?" This is an This is
00:41:22
like the oldest trick in the book by investigators. It's I've seen it in in very low-level crimes, too. This is
00:41:30
actually something that I used when I when I worked security. I I had somebody that took out a fence, took out the
00:41:36
whole side of of a big expensive fence that we had on one of our properties. Mhm.
00:41:41
I knew who did it. And I could tell by the marks on his truck and the marks on on the fence
00:41:47
itself, they lined up perfectly. However, on my surveillance footage of that spot, there was a wall blocking it.
00:41:55
Blocking the camera from that particular view that showed his truck taking out that whole row of fence. Mhm.
00:42:02
But I knew he did it. And so I just said to him, he he refused to admit, refused to admit. And then
00:42:08
finally I said to him, "Well, why would I Then explain to me why I would have footage
00:42:13
camera footage." And I pointed to the camera. And he looked up and he said, "Oh, crap.
00:42:19
There's a camera right there. I was driving in this area." I never told him I had actual footage of it. I just said,
00:42:25
"Explain why I would have footage of Right. of you of you taking out my fence." Now, that's the same thing that
00:42:32
they're doing here. They're saying, "Okay, why would we find your DNA on the curtain? Why would we find your DNA on
00:42:40
Amy?" And he's probably starting off going My That's not my DNA. I don't know what
00:42:46
you're talking about. I was never there. I've never seen that curtain before in my life. Those questions then turn to at
00:42:52
some point going, "Okay, so sir, you are telling us that it is 100% impossible that we would find your DNA on that
00:43:03
curtain." It's impossible to shove a Cadillac up your nose. It's 100% impossible that we would find
00:43:11
your DNA on this dead victim. Yeah, but again point he's he's breaking a little bit or
00:43:19
he's smart enough to go, "I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying I didn't put it there.
00:43:26
I'm just saying I cannot tell you why you would find it there because I don't believe that you will find it there."
00:43:32
Again, I don't know the notes that the news has. But the way they make it come across is he's going, "Man, DNA on the
00:43:39
curtains? Possible. DNA on her? Somebody would have to plant that." So that's we have all these things that I go,
00:43:49
"Good suspect." We have somebody coming forward. I think there's a reason she came forward. There was a There was a
00:43:54
lightbulb moment. There could have been a conversation. This guy could have called her and said
00:44:00
something and it was just enough for her to go, "I knew it. I got to go to law law enforcement." So I like that. I like
00:44:08
the fact that he would have been familiar with this area. I have always thought, again, like you said, to do
00:44:14
this right underneath the noses of the police department, to me, that's either somebody is very brazen or they
00:44:22
have a knowledge of that area. Now we have the connection with his nieces and Amy being in the same grade, he could
00:44:30
get information from them. He could get information from the school because if he's not that far away from the plaza,
00:44:37
he's not that far away from the school. Mhm. And I know from picking up nieces and nephews, I've gone in and talked to
00:44:44
the people in the offices. I probably could have got information, "Oh, my niece and nephew are going to
00:44:51
Amy's house on Thursday. Could you give me her number so I could call her parents to make sure that's okay?" Well,
00:44:56
it wasn't uncommon for her to to ride her bike to and from school. So one could simply follow her home Right.
00:45:05
and Then look up the address. Look up the address. The other thing that people do, not as much nowadays,
00:45:12
but a lot of times back then in the '80s and and early '90s, people would put their last name on their mailbox.
00:45:18
Yeah, well, here's here's the other thing I wonder. How close were his nieces to Amy? Police would know that.
00:45:26
Obviously, we don't know that from this report. But also, when they say, and I think this is a little bit of a tell and
00:45:33
maybe I'm reaching, but when they go, "He had family in the area." Yeah, okay, you already told us
00:45:39
that his nieces were connected to her. But why are you bringing up that well, his family was in Bay
00:45:45
Village? I wonder if there's a connection between his family and the Mahovics. Uh and that might be something that we
00:45:53
hear about later later. Again, all these things are like great indicators that this individual should be on our list.
00:46:02
But then you have, again, the FBI agent in Ashland, if I'm getting the information correct from the report.
00:46:11
They made it seem like, "Okay, once her body was found, we had FBI agents in the
00:46:17
vicinity. Mhm. And so we started just writing down license plate numbers knowing that somebody might come back to
00:46:27
the scene to see what is going on. And this individual was 50 miles away from Bay Village and his car is reported to
00:46:37
be at that four-way stop. Okay. To me, that's the got him. Yeah, that's by far and away the most
00:46:48
damning portion of this release to me. Well, cuz they never state, "Oh, by the way, he had uh work
00:46:56
in Ashland County." Or by the way, he had family there. They go out of their way to say we
00:47:01
cannot find any reason why he would have been in that area at that time on that day. And then on top of that, his
00:47:08
ex-girlfriend's telling them something. And again, look, we've had reports where
00:47:12
they come out and go, "We got this curtain and we think it was handmade and does anybody recognize that?" And that's
00:47:18
it. That's one piece of information. Everybody take a picture. Uh there's a $25,000 reward from the
00:47:26
FBI. We're talking about 12 to 14 little bits of information. And And this is a department that has
00:47:36
held back things for years. I also think another thing that is like, "Okay, car in the area."
00:47:43
But when the ex-girlfriend confirms, "Oh, yeah, we traveled to Ashland County." Again,
00:47:52
what does that mean? I think there's more information there. Like, "Well, we traveled there for this
00:47:59
reason." But law enforcement isn't giving us that reason. Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, he
00:48:05
could have had family in the area or or made up any reason at all to to bring his girlfriend with him to that area.
00:48:13
Right. But um you know, that's why when I spoke with with Kelsi German um from the Libby and Abby case, the Delphi
00:48:24
double homicide case. When I spoke with Kelsi German, she is the older sister of one of the
00:48:31
victims. She was involved in the searches before the bodies were located and I knew that to be the case. She was
00:48:40
involved in the searches the night before and the morning of. I specifically asked her, one of the one
00:48:46
of the biggest questions I had for her was, "Do you remember?" Now, mind you, it might be a little different for
00:48:52
Kelsi's situation because she is a direct family member, a sister of one of the victims, sister of one of the people
00:49:00
they're searching for. But I asked her, I said, "I know you were part of the search parties,
00:49:06
do you recall law enforcement making you sign any kind of sign-in sheet and provide any type of identification
00:49:16
before they allowed you to go out on these searches?" And she said, "Nick, I do not recall
00:49:22
that taking place. That does not mean it did not happen. Right. It doesn't mean that there wasn't
00:49:28
a sign-in sheet for everybody else or she just doesn't remember. But what I said to her, and I didn't go
00:49:36
into too much detail with this, but these guys often want to know what law enforcement
00:49:44
knows because they want to know how close these guys are to catching the perpetrator.
00:49:52
They they want to know should I flee the area? Has it gotten too hot here? Too hot in
00:49:59
the hot tub. need to just get out of dodge at this point? And I told her I said, you know, I
00:50:05
wouldn't be surprised if the bridge guy was in the search parties. And I hope that law enforcement collected those
00:50:14
names and checked IDs and that at least his name is on a list somewhere. Now, with this case
00:50:22
this dude there's no getting around it. Even if he's innocent, this guy, we know for a
00:50:29
fact his vehicle was spotted, license plate written down by FBI agent in the area at the four-way stop
00:50:37
nearest the body recovery site on the day at 5:00 p.m. when her body was discovered. Now,
00:50:45
what's interesting about that is that this was again, this case was big news. Big news so much so in the
00:50:54
area that even though 50 miles away 48-50 miles away from where Amy was abducted
00:51:02
you talk to those sheriff deputies and you review the old newspaper articles. The sheriff's deputies all
00:51:10
said the same thing. When we got the call and what was described to us that we were responding to out on that
00:51:18
country road I was pretty convinced on the drive there we were going to find Amy
00:51:23
Mihaljevic's body. 48 miles away from where she was abducted. Right. That's how big of a news it was.
00:51:29
Everybody was looking for this girl for months. And so the the police law enforcement aren't
00:51:36
dumb. You know, I know I know that some cases get bungled, some cases get screwed up. Not in all cases are they
00:51:42
dumb. All right? This is a case where they weren't. We had the FBI, we had other people involved very early on in
00:51:50
this case from the first weekend. And what did they do strategically? They know this is going to get released.
00:51:58
There's going to be a big news releases about this. They're smart enough to say,
00:52:02
you know what? This may be a big huge waste of time or it could be something that turns out
00:52:08
to be extremely valuable later. Let's put some guy have him jot down all the license
00:52:16
plates, all the vehicle descriptions that that come through this four-way stop all day long. And you know what?
00:52:25
They spotted this dude's vehicle Yeah. around the 5:00 hour in this area. Now, how do you explain that away?
00:52:32
Again, maybe he did in the interrogation, but they're not again, releasing that information.
00:52:39
But like I said, a lot of other updates in many cases are one piece of evidence or one
00:52:46
item to discuss. Here we have 14 or more. So, what else does law enforcement know? And I also feel like
00:52:55
if this is nothing that cops would not go and have an update because this is just really setting
00:53:05
yourself up for failure to get the community excited that there's finally going to be an arrest, that there's
00:53:12
finally going to be justice for this girl, for her family. But a couple things that lead me to be
00:53:18
you know, suspicious of this is he did give his DNA. Yeah. And so why hasn't that been
00:53:28
tested? Or were the items that it was tested against, is there something that's um
00:53:35
causing it to be inconclusive, so they need to build a bigger case? The other thing, which I don't think is that
00:53:42
damning, which they, you know, start going, "Aha, he he was supposed to show up so we could go through his items in
00:53:50
the storage unit and he never came in." Well, that could be simply he again has a drug problem, a drinking problem
00:53:58
mental health issues whatever reason he's on the streets now this could have caused him from or
00:54:05
prevented him from going back to law enforcement and going, "Here's my key to search my stuff."
00:54:11
But to search his stuff they go, "Okay, well, he he was supposed to give us permission. He didn't, so now
00:54:19
we have to get a warrant." It's not the easiest thing to get that warrant. But they got it fast.
00:54:29
And it could be a couple things. One, it's just been a cold case for so long that any judge is going to go, "Hey, any
00:54:36
lead that we get especially a a new lead, a viable lead, I'm going to sign it off."
00:54:43
Or is it that there was so much uh circumstantial evidence that they went, "Yes Yeah. Go go search this unit."
00:54:52
that's the answer, Captain. I think that that's what you have because if you if you go through the timeline of that very
00:54:58
brief uh news release what we hear is this tip comes forward January of 2019 from the ex-girlfriend.
00:55:08
Then in May two witnesses pick this guy out of a photo lineup. And then it's not
00:55:14
until last fall that they have the conversation with this guy. Now, again, in his defense,
00:55:22
I'll go to bat for him briefly and say what looks good for this guy to being innocent, he willingly walks
00:55:29
into the police department, agrees to sit down and and chat with with detectives.
00:55:35
It sounds to me and I again, I'm trying to read between the lines here because it's not a incredibly detailed report,
00:55:43
which the news can only give what they have. Right. And it sounds to me like he offered up
00:55:51
his DNA, that he agreed to a DNA swab that day at that meeting. Now, and then it goes on to say the next day he was
00:56:00
supposed to come in and sign Right. a search warrant for us to go look at his um what was it? Like a self-storage
00:56:08
unit? Yeah. We want to search your storage unit. Come in and sign this waiver for us. He
00:56:14
does not show up for that. Now, now you're going in front of a judge and now what you're saying, Captain, is you're
00:56:19
going, "Okay, look. Okay, we I understand we got this tip, but we've we've had a thousand bad tips,
00:56:26
obviously. Thousand tips that led nowhere, so you're not getting a warrant just on the tip. But judge, we got a
00:56:32
tip. And then we were able to go back and confirm through state records, through county
00:56:41
records that this guy registered a vehicle in his name that matches that would have an interior
00:56:49
that would line up with the fibers that we found at the body recovery site. Oh, we also have two witnesses that picked
00:56:55
them out of a photo lineup. So, what you have here, Captain, is a lot of dominoes
00:57:00
start falling in the favor of police getting this actual warrant. And judge, we talked to him just yesterday
00:57:08
failed the polygraph. Oh, and he said that it wouldn't be impossible that we would find his DNA at
00:57:14
the crime scene, at the body recovery site. Yeah. We we checked the FBI records. We
00:57:20
we know that his vehicle was in the area the day that we recovered her body. the biggest one that right there you go,
00:57:26
"Oh, man, you a scallywag." You You's a dirty son of a [ __ ] You's a dirtiest son of a [ __ ] Uh no,
00:57:34
but And so you get the warrant and then you go and you search the the storage unit and then what's their statement in
00:57:39
that news release? It says evidence collected. Now, let's let's dive into that for a second because it can't be
00:57:45
anything that's super damning, super against this guy because Cuz they would have arrested him.
00:57:50
They would have went and found this dude and locked him up and we would have already been hurt hearing about charges
00:57:54
filed and a and a trial date set. But that that doesn't mean it's not evidence that's not supporting their
00:58:01
case. If they're collecting anything, whatever they collected is supporting their case
00:58:06
against the son of a [ __ ] I agree. What I'm what I'm saying is that it could not
00:58:11
I would be shocked if they found any of Amy's missing items in his storage unit because I think if they found any of
00:58:18
those items and can could could confirm that they were from Amy. And I don't even know that you have to confirm that
00:58:25
they're from Amy because the items that were missing you know, when they found her, she's
00:58:29
found fully clothed, but some of her items that she left with school at the end of her school day and it was never
00:58:36
seen for a couple of months until her body was found. Right. Those items that are missing are quite
00:58:41
unique. Yes. They're they're not they're not one of a kind, but there's also not
00:58:46
thousands of them out there. Yeah, I think like you said, there would be a an arrest. What I think is interesting that
00:58:52
what we are hearing or maybe not so much hearing in this news release, I think is better to say
00:58:59
it is things that are not surprising to me. Um one, we hear that this man is 64 years old today. Right. Okay, so 31
00:59:09
years ago would make him 32-33 years of age at the time of her abduction. You know, I've always thought
00:59:18
this guy's in his mid-30s. And I went off of that idea simply because of what the two eyewitnesses said. Mhm. I
00:59:25
thought Amy was talking to her dad. Right. And we know it was not Mark Mihaljevic that
00:59:30
she was talking to. What what I gather from that statement of the eyewitnesses that day at the plaza, they are
00:59:37
children, these witnesses. They are kids that are roughly Amy's age saying, "I thought she was talking to her dad."
00:59:44
Well, why would a kid think that? They're thinking that because the man looked to be about the age one would
00:59:51
expect her father to be. Right. Or these witnesses have fathers about the same age. Meaning this guy was in that age
00:59:59
group. And so that's not so surprising to me, early 30s, 32, 33. The other thing too is what what is not said is a
01:00:07
direct connection to the Mahalovic family. As you kind of were pointing out earlier, family in the area.
01:00:14
I think that's a tell. He had family in the Bay Village area. What's that matter? You know, cuz we already talked
01:00:20
about the nieces. I I I I think there's something more to that. Well, Again, like I said,
01:00:26
we've seen in tons of cases one item discussed on anniversaries. We're talking about 14
01:00:34
freaking items. That means there there there could be so much more to this. And maybe that's just me being hopeful.
01:00:41
But I also think it seems like at some point, like you said, that they contact this individual and he goes in
01:00:47
willingly to talk to the police. Maybe nervous. Maybe has some issues. But if he's living in his car in
01:00:57
northeast Ohio, Is that what they said he's he's living I know they said he's living in his car, but did they say he's
01:01:03
living in his car in northeast Ohio? No, they just said that. could be homeless anywhere. Yeah.
01:01:09
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Technically, that's the definition, right? Um no, they didn't say they
01:01:15
didn't say he was even in Ohio. Um so but if he let's just say he's living in northeast Ohio,
01:01:27
that's some rough weather to be living in your car. And the other thing too, here's what I was wondering.
01:01:36
He could just be down on his luck, a little bit of a loner. Cuz most adults do not go homeless. They
01:01:44
normally have some kind of support system. Normally, they get turned away because
01:01:50
of you know, mental health issues or or drug addictions. I was talking to a investigator last night about this and
01:01:59
you know, 64, he could be collecting social security. But I believe that he would be eligible for his full amount
01:02:06
when he's 65. So, maybe his whole thought was like, "Well, I'm going to be homeless for a
01:02:11
little bit, but eventually I'm going to get my check. And once I start getting my social security, then I'm I'll be
01:02:17
able to get an apartment or something." But they also don't state whether this guy
01:02:22
had a criminal history. They didn't say that he didn't have any prior arrest. We don't know if this guy is a a sex
01:02:31
offender. You we just don't know. And I I I believe that again, and this is just based off of how
01:02:40
many cases that we've done updates on, and the updates just aren't that much of information. This seems like a lot of
01:02:47
information. And I just don't think they would give that to the public if they weren't
01:02:53
close. Right. And and maybe it's a couple things. We're close, so now we need some people
01:02:59
to go uh And it sucks cuz you don't want to release the guy's name because technically, he's just a suspect
01:03:08
and he hasn't been charged. But if they released a picture of this guy or they released
01:03:15
something else that might jog somebody else's memory, because maybe he confessed to somebody
01:03:21
years ago. So, I think there's going to be more tips that come in, but I think they're
01:03:27
building a case against this guy. Well, I think what's going on here a a couple things. And you really hit on a
01:03:33
lot. So, let let me kind of go into a few of these things here. First, I and I can't speak to how it is everywhere, but
01:03:41
I know from growing up, born and raised in Columbus, here in Columbus, for the most part,
01:03:48
if you're homeless, you're kind of homeless by choice. And what I mean by that is look, I understand everybody
01:03:55
falls on hard times. We're not always in control of every minute of of every day
01:03:59
of our lives. However, here in Columbus, multiple shelters that one could go to to stay the night. You can you can sleep
01:04:07
here for night after night. You can eat here day after day, night after night. However,
01:04:15
our shelter has rules. It has a curfew. And the people that don't stay at those shelters are people that do not want to
01:04:25
or cannot follow those rules or obey that curfew. Yeah, but a lot of these food banks and stuff, I mean, he he
01:04:32
could technically be living off some of the systems in place for the homeless, like as far as food banks, maybe even
01:04:41
going to YMCA or a shelter where he can take baths or take showers. But again, like you said, I'm not
01:04:48
choosing to stay there because if I just stay in my car overnight, I don't have to follow to those rules. What if he is
01:04:55
living in one of those decked-out $100,000 Mercedes Sprinter vans that has like the bed and TV and
01:05:02
stuff in it? I don't think so. And and this guy's like, "Man, y'all y'all done me dirty. You said I'm
01:05:08
sleeping in sleeping in my vehicle. Made me sound like I'm homeless when really I got this
01:05:13
decked-out vehicle." I I'm with you. I don't think that's the case, but that that funny thought popped in my mind.
01:05:18
Well, here's what makes me wonder. This individual is not going to hear whenever he hears
01:05:27
about this update cuz He will hear it. Yeah. Guess what? Cuz he wants to hear it. Because this
01:05:33
individual is talking about um the coverage of her the day she went missing. This guy is following the case.
01:05:42
So, he's going to hear this. What I'm afraid of is suicide. The guy taking his own life and they
01:05:51
don't have enough pieces of the puzzle to completely convict him. Well, it also sounds like he's slightly off the grid
01:05:59
anyway. I mean, even though they were able to locate him, it did say that the that News 5 Cleveland did try to contact
01:06:08
this individual, so they must have his phone number to which he's not respond Yes, suicide would be terrible because
01:06:15
if in fact he was the guy that did it, we may never know. Well, unless he wrote a note that would leave enough evidence
01:06:22
for for the police to close the case. Or if the DNA could connect him at some point.
01:06:28
Yeah. Because we know he gave the swab. The other thing too that you have to worry about is the guy fleeing the area
01:06:34
and then now it's it's not a matter of suicide, but it makes him that much more difficult to locate when you do you said
01:06:42
building a case against this guy. Once you have built your case and you're ready to charge him, now you got to go
01:06:47
find the dude. Well, one of the things about the DNA was I was going, "Okay, well, she comes
01:06:52
in in January, then they get DNA. Okay, well, they should have this tested by now, but
01:06:58
Well, but keep in mind the DNA would have come from last fall. Right. And then plus with all the stuff with COVID,
01:07:03
I think all the tests and everything everything has been on hold and they they could actually have some kind of a
01:07:11
match and then they they want to retest it to confirm the match, but that might be something that they have to do
01:07:19
through the court system, which is also been tied up because of COVID. And I I want everybody to be very, very clear
01:07:25
about this. I think that if DNA connected him to that curtain or to her actual body or articles of clothing on
01:07:32
her person, He'd be arrested. He's arrested and we would already have a trial date. So, what I want to say
01:07:39
here is this update, following this update, it's very clear they are asking the public once again for their help as
01:07:48
they would do on any anniversary of the abduction date, body recovery date, or just when we need the public's help. Any
01:07:55
update you're going to get, please call in, give us a tip. We need your help. We
01:08:00
need some more information. I want everybody to do not say, "If you know something at all,
01:08:06
do not say to yourself, I'm not going to report this or I'm not going to tell this to somebody else or talk to
01:08:11
somebody about this." And I mean law enforcement when I say somebody, because they've got this guy's DNA, so it can't
01:08:20
be him. That's not what they are saying. No. Nobody is saying that. It's very likely, let's pretend it is
01:08:27
him. They just need a little bit more. They need a little bit more. DNA didn't connect them for whatever reason. We
01:08:34
need a little bit more. And let's take this a little step further here. The interesting words towards the end of
01:08:40
that news coverage and applaud News 5, good work. I I applaud them. Fantastic job by News 5
01:08:47
giving us probably the biggest update in the Amy Mahalovic case that we've had in
01:08:52
31 years. Towards the end there, they say, "What we found." What we found, what News 5 found, that they found the court
01:09:01
records. We found documents in court records that has spawned this news release, that has spawned us asking Bay
01:09:10
Village Police Department for more information. Right. That has spawned us reaching out to this
01:09:15
lady who provided the tip, to which the lady just refers them, rightfully so, back to law enforcement. This news
01:09:23
coverage comes out on February 8th, 2021, 31 days, 31 years to the day that her body's recovered.
01:09:35
That's not a coincidence. Come on, I wasn't born 10 minutes ago. It's a boy. This is the the police gave this to News
01:09:42
5. Mhm. That's that Look, Crispy Colonel, humble opinion, dumb guy in a garage, don't believe everything I'm
01:09:48
saying. Noted. But my guess here is this was given to News 5 purposely on the date of the anniversary of the body
01:09:59
recovery because there's tidbits of information in there that people that know this individual or
01:10:06
suspect this individual can start connecting the dots mentally and they can pick up the phone,
01:10:12
they can email. They're We're not going to tell you this guy's name. We're not going to show you his picture because
01:10:17
he's not been charged with anything. We're doing right by him. However, we will say he's 64 years old.
01:10:24
He's homeless. Mhm. He has a cell phone. He's living in his car. Maybe a house phone.
01:10:31
Shh. So, there are things that Okay, now people can go, "All right, do I Do I know
01:10:38
Do I know somebody that's 64 living in their car that that is was living in Bay Village a mile a mile and a half from
01:10:45
the shopping plaza in 1989?" Right. There's where they go on to say had family living in the area.
01:10:53
That They're speaking to this man's family by saying that. Yeah, or look Look, we've seen the FBI
01:11:01
suggest to law enforcement, "You got all this stuff on this guy? Put it out to the public cuz it's not
01:11:07
going to affect your case and it's going to put pressure It's almost like having
01:11:11
a press conference where the deputy says, "We know who you are and we're on to you." Mhm. It's almost the same
01:11:20
thing. Mhm. Uh by putting out this much information in the news coverage, it's almost the same thing and maybe they
01:11:27
want to say, "Let's see how he reacts." And for all we know, they're planning on
01:11:31
pulling him in today and discussing this with him today and asking him some more
01:11:37
questions or basically telling him, "Hey, we don't have a 100% match on the DNA, but we got enough that we can take
01:11:44
you to trial." And to see see if they can get a confession out of this guy. That might be
01:11:50
what they're intending to do. I don't think law enforcement or even news, even if they stumbled upon this information,
01:12:00
are going to release something like this that is going to give so so much hope to
01:12:04
the community and possibly so much hope to her family. The biggest things here, my biggest takeaways,
01:12:12
if I if I had to pick two, is his car is in Ashland County and we know that from the FBI
01:12:20
and the two eyewitnesses picking him out of a photo lineup. Those are the two biggest things I take away from this
01:12:29
news report. So, what we can pull from this news release and what we can really ask the public for their help with
01:12:38
is to think long and think hard. Can you, anybody out there in listener land, can you think of a man or maybe you knew
01:12:47
a man that was 32, 33 years, roughly, at the time of Amy's abduction, at the time of Amy being found, that
01:12:57
would own or drive a vehicle, a gold Oldsmobile with a tan interior? Were you picked up by some guy that
01:13:06
beha- behaved strangely? Were you abducted by someone and just you were too embarrassed to come forward?
01:13:14
Do you know this guy in any shape or form or fashion? And keep in mind, look, her body is found on Township Road 1181
01:13:24
in Ashland County in February 8th of 1990. This is near New London, Ohio. Her body was dressed in her clothing,
01:13:35
the clothing that she was seen wearing the last time that she was seen. But there were items that were missing from
01:13:41
Amy when she was recovered. A turquoise horse earring, black ankle boots, and a black leather binder.
01:13:51
And it was believed and and remains so to this day that her abductor kept these items or forgot or failed to
01:14:02
dump them with the body for some reason. So, are you somebody out there that received one of these items
01:14:10
from someone matching that age descrip- description, matching somebody that owned that type
01:14:16
of vehicle at some point? That's what we need. That's what That's what they're hoping for amongst other
01:14:22
things in this. If in fact they did purposely leak it, it's cuz they want some more
01:14:28
information. As Captain said, they're building a case against this guy and you could help.
01:14:35
Maybe you could help solve one of the biggest unsolved cases in the state of Ohio. Now, remember there's still a
01:14:42
reward out there for information leading to an arrest and conviction, a reward of
01:14:47
up to $25,000. And if you have any tips at all, of course, you can reach out to the Bay
01:14:54
Village Police Department or the FBI by calling 1-800- call FBI. And just a word
01:15:01
to the suspect, if if he is listening, this could all be over with. You could turn yourself in.
01:15:09
You can confess to the crime. You could give law enforcement the evidence they need to convict you. Well, and if you
01:15:16
want leniency, the time is now. If you're the suspect, if you've done this, the time is now to get any kind of
01:15:24
leniency at all because once they've built a solid case against you, judges are way too smart to show any
01:15:31
leniency to a guy that they've already built a case against. Right. So, your time's running out. Your time The clock
01:15:39
is ticking. You need to just turn yourself in today. A little bit of a different episode this
01:16:01
week, but one of the things that we always said we would do is to give updates on cases. We wouldn't
01:16:08
just do coverage, shine light on a case, and move away from it. We We want all these
01:16:14
cases to move forward, to progress. When there's updates, we're going to let you
01:16:19
know. And most of the time you can find those updates on our other show. It's everybody's second favorite podcast out
01:16:25
there because this one's the first. Number one podcast in the world, True Crime Garage. Number two podcast in the
01:16:31
world, Off the Record. Which is available only on Stitcher Premium. Check it out. Go to our website if you
01:16:38
want a free month of listening. Until next time, be good, be kind, and don't litter.