Who killed Amy?

New TV series profiles Mihaljevic murder case

A new series on Investigation Discovery is shining a light on a murder that shook the area nearly 30 years ago.

“The Lake Erie Murders” seeks to highlight some of the mysteries and killings that have haunted the shores of the Great Lake.

It will kick off at 9 p.m. Dec. 30 with a three-hour special titled, “Who Killed Amy Mihaljevic?” according to a news release from the cable network.

The release claims the special also will feature the stories of other women whose experiences allegedly mirror those of the 10-yearold Bay Village girl who was brutally stabbed and beaten body before her body was found in 1990.

Even 29 years after her body was found, there are no suspects in Amy’s death, though the police have not given up the chase.

In June 2016, the Bay Village Police Department, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, Ashland County Sheriff’s Office and FBI exhibited a homemade avocado green curtain and a store bought curtain which were found near Amy’s body in a field about 20 feet away from County Road 1181, Ruggles Township in Ashland County.

A representative of the Bay Village Police Department said there have been no big breaks in the case since that announcement.

Investigators said Amy was last seen Oct. 27, 1989, at the Bay Village Shopping Center after walking there from school.

Days before her disappearance, Amy received a call at home from an unknown man asking for help picking a Christmas gift for her mother, Margaret Mihaljevic.

Amy and the man arranged to meet.

On the day she went missing, two witnesses claim to have seen her with a white male at the shopping center.

One described seeing Amy speaking to the man, while the other described seeing the man approach Amy before directing her to the parking lot of the center.

Mihaljevic said she’d received a phone call from her daughter at 3:30 p.m. that day and assumed she was at their home because Amy often would call and check in.

When Mihaljevic returned home from work at 5 p.m., Amy was not there and her bike was still parked at Bay Village Middle School.

She reported her daughter missing less than an hour later.

Amy’s body was found face down in a wheat field by a jogger Feb. 8, 1990.

The FBI’s website said Amy was dressed in the clothes she was last seen in.

A coroner’s report revealed the girl died as a result of a stab wound to her neck.

In 2009, the FBI offered a $25,000 reward for information on the murder.

That same year, billboards started popping up in the greater Cleveland area imploring anyone with information to contact the FBI or Bay Village police.

Amy’s school picture, featuring her smiling face, a side ponytail and a golden cross necklace resting on her white shirt, stared down from each billboard.

In the 29 years since her disappearance, Amy’s murder has left an indelible mark on the community and has inspired a book and a podcast and is still a topic of discussion online as people try to make sense of the death, the release said.

In a 2006 interview with The Morning Journal, northeast Ohio author James Renner claimed that in writing his book “Amy: My Search for Her Killer” he discovered evidence that Amy was left alive for up to a week.

“We know this because on Friday (the day of her abduction), she ate spaghetti for lunch,” Renner said. “When they conducted the autopsy, there was no trace of it in her stomach.

“In its place was some sort of mixture of soy. Possibly, her last meal was Chinese take-out. Whatever it was, someone was keeping her alive.”

Amy’s mother, who became Margaret McNulty, divorced Amy’s father in 1991. She died in 2001 of complications from alcoholism.

The girl’s father, Mark Mihaljevic, now in his 70s, still is waiting for his daughter’s killer to be brought to justice.

In an interview with William Huffman for his “Who Killed Amy Mihaljevic?” podcast, Mihaljevic said when his daughter’s killer is found and convicted he would want authorities to put the assailant in general population in prison.

“They’ll take care of it,” he said.

Amy