Two highly publicized kidnappings in the Midwest occurred within a week of one another in October 1989. On October 22, eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted while walking toward his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Five days later, ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic disappeared near her home in Bay Village, Ohio, a town of 15,000 people straddling Lake Erie, fifteen miles west of Cleveland.
Jacob Wetterling’s case was solved after nearly twenty-seven years, as his abductor and killer led police to the boy’s remains in 2016. Amy Mihaljevic’s remains were discovered four-and-half months after her kidnapping, but her killer remains unidentified after thirty-four years.
Bay Village police and the FBI, however, believe they are drawing closer to bringing Amy’s case to a resolution.
Amy Mihaljevic
When the Bay Village Middle School let out at 2:10 p.m. on October 27, 1989, Amy and her thirteen-year-old brother Jason went home. The children’s parents, Mark and Margaret, were both at work. Mark was employed by Buick while Margaret worked for Trading Times, a magazine in Westlake, three miles south of Bay Village.
Shortly after arriving home, Amy answered a phone call. After approximately one minute she hung up with a big smile on her face. She told her brother the caller was a man named Frank who worked with their mother. Amy said the man told her because mommy had just been given a big promotion at work, he and her other co-workers were planning to throw her a surprise party. The man wanted Amy to come with him to pick out a gift for her mom.
A Phone Call Starts It All
Amy told Jason she was going to the Bay Square Shopping Center to meet with the man to pick out a gift.
I could not find any source stating why Jason did not accompany his sister.
Bay Square Shopping Center
Several of Amy’s friends saw her at the popular locale and spoke to her. After several minutes, they saw a man approach the young girl and proceed to speak with her. No one recognized the man, but Amy seemed comfortable around him as she was seen smiling and laughing.
After a couple of minutes, the two were seen walking toward a car. The man had his hand on Amy’s shoulder and she was at ease. This was the last time she was seen.
Who Was the Man with Amy?
Amy’s disappearance received extensive news coverage, including being featured on America’s Most Wanted. Hundreds of volunteers aided authorities in the search for the child. Four-and-a-half months later, the search came to a devastating end.
While jogging along a county road in Ruggles Township in rural Ashland County on February 8, 1990, Patricia Kidd found the body of a young girl in a field near the road. Ashland County is adjacent to the southwest of Cuyahoga County; Amy’s body was found approximately fifty miles from Bay Village.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner identified the remains as Amy’s. She had been raped and stabbed to death. DNA samples were taken but have not produced a match to the perpetrator. Yellow fibers were also found on her body.
Amy’s Body Is Found
The police investigation determined Amy had probably been killed elsewhere and dumped in the field.
Although it was likely she had been murdered on the same day she had disappeared, she had eaten between when she was abducted to when her body was found. The coroner concluded her last meal consisted of some sort of soy substance, possibly an artificial chicken product or Chinese food. Such foods had not been served for lunch that day at the Bay Village Middle School.
Likely Killed Elsewhere
Amy’s killer is believed to have taken several of her personal items as souvenirs of the murder.
These items include her black leather binder with a buckle inscribed “Buick, Best in Class” written on the front clasp, turquoise silhouette earrings in the shape of horse heads, and her black ankle horse-riding boots with silver studs running down the sides.
Other items never located were Amy’s blue leather book bag with red piping and a white nylon windbreaker.
Images of Like Items Taken by Amy’s Killer
Based on her friends’ descriptions, composite sketches were made of the man seen talking with Amy at the Bay Square Shopping Center. Some of the children thought he had glasses, but others did not.
The sketches failed to produce a solid suspect. No substantive leads surfaced for seventeen years.
Composites of Amy’s Likely Abductor
In November 2006, investigators announced that in the weeks prior to Amy’s kidnapping, several area young girls had received similar phone calls to the one Amy described to her brother. These calls were made by a man claiming to work with either the girl’s mother or father and said he wanted the child’s help in buying a present to celebrate the parent’s work promotion. The girls who received these calls lived in North Olmsted, nine miles south of Bay Village, and some of their phone numbers were unlisted.
Authorities also announced that Amy and the other girls who received these calls had all recently visited the local Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Like most such attractions, the center had a visitors’ logbook by the front door which guests were asked to sign. The information requested included phone numbers and addresses. Most girls recalled signing the book and providing the additional information.
Investigators believe the man who called the girls obtained the phone numbers from the guest book at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center.
Lake Erie Nature and Science Center
Dean Runkle is a person of interest in the murder of Amy Mihaljevic. At the time of her abduction and murder, he was a science teacher at Nord Junior High School, twenty miles southwest of Bay Village. He grew up only a couple of miles from where Amy’s body was found and frequently volunteered at the Lake Erie Science Center.
“Mr. Runkle” was well liked by many students, but others said he made them uncomfortable. Several former female students said he would make suggestive comments about their outfits and, when an eighth grader became pregnant, Runkle is alleged to have said he wished he were the father. Girls said he often touched them, such as bending down while answering a question, and rubbing and patting their shoulders. Runkle denied all the allegations.
A male student said the teacher “took him under his wing” after he was struggling in his class. He tutored the youth and, as his grades improved, the student grew to love science and, as a result, developed a liking for Mr. Runkle. The feelings were reciprocated by the teacher.
After a time, however, the male student claims the teacher began sending him several letters which soon became sexually suggestive. The student’s mother said Runkle even established a trust fund of several thousand dollars for her son but later asked for the money back. Runkle also denied these claims.
Physical evidence cast further suspicion on Runkle as well. Yellow-colored fibers were found on Amy’s body when she was discovered. At the time, Runkle owned a gold Grand Prix which some people believed they saw Amy in on the afternoon she disappeared. He sold the car shortly after Amy’s disappearance. Investigators tracked the car but hit a wall when they learned it had been melted at a junkyard.
Dean Runkle
Dean Runkle quit his teaching job abruptly and without explanation in 1991, two years after Amy’s murder. He moved to Key West, Florida, where he opened a restaurant.
Reporter and author James Renner spoke to Runkle in 2016 about Amy’s murder. The former teacher said he was not involved and refused to speak to him further.
Dean Runkle has never been charged in relation to Amy Mihaljevic’s murder. Police have not been able to determine if he had ever met Amy and have not formally named him a suspect.
In 2019, an announcement by investigators seemed to indicate that Runkle was no longer considered a person of interest in Amy’s murder. Authorities announced they believe Amy’s killer is likely someone who has slipped under the radar as they have thoroughly investigated all people deemed persons of interests or suspects and believe Amy’s killer is not among them.
The statement seems to indicate that the DNA found on Amy’s body does not match that of Runkle or any other person authorities have investigated.
Dean Runkle in 2016
Dean Runkle bore a resemblance to the composite sketch of the man last seen with Amy Mihaljevic at the Bay Square Shopping Center and who is presumed to be her killer. However, so did a lot of other men, and authorities stress the composite sketches were made on the descriptions of young children’s faint recollections of a man they had seen only briefly. Composite sketches are almost always only “ballpark images” of a person’s actual appearance. Several men who resembled the drawings have been ruled out as suspects.
The presumed killer of Amy Mihaljevic is believed to be approximately five-feet-eight to five-feet-ten inches tall. In 1989, he had a medium build and black hair. He would likely be in his fifties today.
FBI profilers believe that Amy’s killer is a loner with a history of problems with women, whether it be through repeated rejections or through failed relationships. He was probably unemployed or working in a low-paying menial job.
Profile analysts believe the man may have experienced a sudden life crisis shortly before Amy’s murder, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the ending of a marriage/relationship. It is also believed the killer developed a drastic change in lifestyle after the murder. This could include anything from developing a drinking or gambling problem to having a sudden interest in religion or to gaining or losing a significant amount of weight.
Dean Runkle did not experience any of these changes.
Three Faces: No Name
Following her daughter’s murder, Margaret Mihaljevic founded the Community Fund for Assisting Missing Youth, a non-profit organization to preserve her daughter’s memory and to assist in the prevention of similar events happening to other children.
The stress and devastation resulting from Amy’s murder took its toll on her parents. As unfortunately happens with many parents of murdered or missing children, their relationship grew strained and deteriorated.
Mark and Margaret Mihaljevic divorced, but they remained united in their efforts to find their daughter’s killer.
Margaret and Mark Mihaljevic
Margaret Mihaljevic died in 2001 at age fifty-four. The official cause of death was due to complications of lupus.
We have heard it countless times and it may sound cliché, but Margaret’s friends and family believe she really died from the heartbreak of losing her daughter in such a heinous manner.
Amy’s Mom Dies Young
In 2016, DNA tests showed that an avocado blanket and curtain found approximately 1,000 feet from Amy’s body had hairs on them belonging to the Mihaljevic family dog. The curtain may have been a bedspread or related bedding before it was re-purposed.
Investigators believe the blanket was used to conceal Amy’s body while her killer carried her into the field and that the dog hair from Amy’s clothing was transferred to the curtain.
The curtain and blanket are believed to have been handmade. Authorities feel if they can determine who owned the blanket or can find someone recognizing the decor while in another’s home, they will have Amy’s killer.
The Curtain and Blanket
The Mihaljevic family all loved their dog Jake, but Mark, Margaret, and Jason all agreed he was, most of all, “Amy’s dog.”
It would be a fitting ending if Jake’s hair led to the identity of Amy’s killer.
Jake Mihaljevic
In 2021, authorities announced a sixty-four-year-old man was implicated by a former girlfriend in the murder of Amy Mihaljevic. At the time, the two were involved in a relationship and living together near where Amy had disappeared.
The woman alleges that on the evening of Amy’s disappearance, her then-boyfriend was not at home and that he called her late that evening, inquiring if she had seen media releases about Amy’s abduction.
Police say the man told them he had previously met Amy’s mother, Margaret, and that he made several “suspicious statements” when questioned. They say he failed a polygraph test but voluntarily submitted his DNA. Authorities were granted a warrant to search a storage facility and confiscated several items of interest.
Investigators also announced that two people who saw the man leading Amy into his vehicle picked this man out of line-ups in May 2020. The vehicle was consistent with what the man drove at the time, including having similar carpeting coloration to the fibers on Amy’s body. In addition, a vehicle of the same make and model had been observed near the dumpsite on February 8, 1990, when her body was found.
The man has not yet been publicly identified.
A New Lead
The Bay Village Police Department and the FBI are confident the chase for Amy’s killer will be resolved.
If you have any information on her murder, please contact the Bay Village, Ohio, Police Department at (440) 871-1234 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. A reward of up to $50,000 is being offered for information leading to the identity of Amy’s killer.
Confident of Closure
Former Bay Village Police Chief Mark Spaetzel investigated Amy Mihaljevic’s murder from when he was a young patrolman until he turned in his badge over thirty years later.
Shortly after he joined the Bay Village, Ohio, Police Department as a young Sergeant in 1985, Spaetzel volunteered to periodically go to the town’s schools to speak to the children about a policeman’s job. Amy Mihaljevic was among the students at the Bay Village Middle School Assembly when he spoke to them on the morning of October 27, 1989, several hours before she went missing.
Amy was shy and did not ask Sergeant Spaetzel any questions and he could recall nothing about the young girl from that morning. By evening, however, even though he had not formally met her, he felt as though he knew Amy after he was among those who were involved in the search for her.
As Patrolman Spaetzel rose to the rank of detective, one of the cases he was assigned was the murder of Amy Mihaljevic. He says the case was never cold as tips regularly poured in. None, however, proved to be the smoking gun.
Mark Spaetzel became the Chief of Police for Bay Village in 2013. The veteran lawman retired in 2020 after serving for the town for thirty-four years. He was disappointed his career came to a close with the murder of Amy Mihaljevic still an open case. Detective Spaetzel, like many involved in the investigations, however, is optimistic that closure is drawing near.
Former Bay Village Police Chief Mark Spaetzel
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17847517/amy-renee-mihaljevic#
SOURCES:
- America’s Most Wanted
- “Amy: My Search for Her Killer” by James Renner
- Cleveland Plain-Dealer
- Finding Amy’s Killer “Website”
- FBI
- WES-S TV ABC Affiliate Channel 5 Cleveland
- WKYC TV NBC Affiliate Channel 3 Cleveland
when an eighth grader became pregnant,–Even though that teacher named Ruckle should be investigated for this eighth grader and the boy he sent sexual letters to……………