BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — In an investigation that’s been ongoing for 31 years, physical evidence, witness accounts and suspicious statements are among the new developments found in court documents recently filed in connection with the kidnapping and murder case of Amy Mihaljevic.
The 10-year old Bay Village girl was abducted from the Bay Village Square Shopping Center on October 27, 1989.
Police said they believe someone called Mihaljevic and convinced her to meet at a nearby shopping center so the two of them could buy a gift for her mother, who had just received a promotion at Trading Times Magazine.
Mihaljevic’s body was discovered February 8, 1990 in a rural Ashland County farm field.
Investigators said she was stabbed to death.
For more than 31 years, her killer has remained a mystery.
RELATED: Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped in 1989, and police are still searching for her killer
But 5 On Your Side Investigators discovered court documents filed last fall that show that in January 2019 a woman came forward and identified her ex-boyfriend as a suspect in Mihaljevic’s murder.
Because he has not been charged, we have chosen not to identify the now-64-year-old man.
If you have information about the murder of Amy Mihaljevic, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for tips leading to the arrest and conviction in her death. Anyone with information about Amy Mihaljevic’s death is asked to call investigators at 1-877-FBI-OHIO or the Bay Village Police Department at 440-871-1234.
The Tip
According to a sworn affidavit from a Bay Village detective, the woman told police at the time of Amy’s disappearance, the man and his former girlfriend lived less than a mile and a half from the shopping center where Mihaljevic was last seen alive talking to an unidentified man.
In the affidavit, police said the man worked in Bay Village at the time and had family living there, including a niece in the same grade as Mihaljevic.
Court records show police also said the woman told investigators that the man did not come home the night Amy was abducted.
Police said the woman “indicated it was unlike [the man] to disappear and not come home overnight.”
Investigators said the woman stated that her former boyfriend did call her around 10 p.m. the night of the abduction to ask if she was aware of the news coverage of Amy’s disappearance.
A detective also said the woman told him that she believed she traveled with her former boyfriend to Ashland County “on one or more trips.”
According to investigators, the man’s appearance in late 1989 was “consistent with one of two major suspect composites obtained via witness interviews.”
In the affidavit, investigators said in May 2020 two witnesses who saw Mihaljevic talking with a man at the shopping center the day of her abduction, picked the man in question’s picture out of photo line-ups as the person they recalled seeing Amy Mihaljevic taking to the day she was last seen alive.
The Car
Police said gold fibers were found on Amy’s clothing after her body was discovered in Ashland County.
The detective told a Cuyahoga County judge that the man in question drove a gold Oldsmobile with a tan interior in 1989 and 1990.
According to court records, an FBI agent noted a gold Oldsmobile registered to the man drove through an intersection near where Mihaljevic’s body was dumped on the day she was discovered.
A Bay Village detective wrote, “investigation has not been able to show any reason(s) why [the man] should have been near Amy Mihaljevic’s body recovery site on 2/8/1990.”
The Interviews
In November 2019, just days after the 30th anniversary of Amy’s abduction, the detective wrote the man in question walked into the Bay Village police department and talked to investigators over the course of two days.
In a sworn affidavit, the detective said the man “made very suspicious statements.”
According to court records, those included that 1989 and 1990 was a “dark period” in his life, and that the man indicated that he may have met Amy’s mother, Margaret, in a bar.
The detective wrote that when asked if he ever called Amy Mihaljevic prior to her abduction, the man answered, “ I could have” and that “it could have been a wrong number.”
Police said when they asked the man if Amy was in his car he said “I don’t believe so,” but when they asked again if it was possible, they said the man said “okay, but I don’t know what the situation would have been.”
The detective said the man agreed it was possible that his DNA would be on a curtain found near Amy’s body, but said “I did not put it there,” and that his DNA would be on Amy’s body “if somebody planted it on her.”
Investigators said the man agreed to a DNA swab and a polygraph test.
Police said the results of the polygraph test were “deception indicated.”
The detective also told a judge that the man did not show up the next day as planned to sign paperwork allowing police to search a storage unit.
According to court records, police obtained a warrant, searched the storage units where “officers seized evidence.”
There’s no mention of what police took.
Five On Your Side Investigators tried calling and texting the man in question to ask him about the case. He never responded.
Police said he’s currently homeless and living in his car.
The man’s former girlfriend directed questions about the case to investigators, who refused to comment on the court filing.
Instead, Bay Village police issued a statement saying police are still diligently working this case.
