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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Amy Mihaljevic · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness, invite
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Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
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Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
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Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
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Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
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Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
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Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:29
Speaker 2: On Friday, October twenty seventh, nineteen eighty nine, ten year
1:33
Speaker 2: old Amy Mahalovich rode her bike to her fifth grade
1:37
Speaker 2: class at Bay Middle School with her friend Kristen. This
1:40
Speaker 2: was part of her usual routine. It was at Chili
1:44
Speaker 2: Fall Day in Bay Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
1:48
Speaker 2: Kristin said that on this day, Amy was excitedly talking
1:52
Speaker 2: about the yearbook picture retakes that were happening at school
1:55
Speaker 2: that morning. The students had had their original pictures taken
1:58
Speaker 2: a few weeks earlier. Amy had put her hair into
2:01
Speaker 2: a side ponytail, which was all the rage at the time,
2:05
Speaker 2: but apparently she wasn't happy with how it turned out.
2:08
Speaker 3: It just didn't feel like her.
2:10
Speaker 2: Police later checked out this information and found that a
2:13
Speaker 2: photographer from Ohio's School Pictures had come to the school
2:17
Speaker 2: on October fourth. Amy's fifth grade class led out at
2:22
Speaker 2: two four pm that afternoon. Kristin later told the FBI
2:26
Speaker 2: that after school, when she went to get her bike
2:29
Speaker 2: to ride home, she noticed that Amy's bike was still
2:32
Speaker 2: in the bike rack. Amy had a brother named Jason,
2:35
Speaker 2: who was two years older in the seventh grade. His
2:38
Speaker 2: class led out an hour later than Amy's, so Amy
2:42
Speaker 2: normally got home first. Both kids were expected to call
2:45
Speaker 2: their mom, Margaret at work, every day when they arrived home,
2:50
Speaker 2: but on that Friday, Jason called Margaret at her job
2:53
Speaker 2: at The Trading Times, the local newspaper where she worked,
2:57
Speaker 2: to say he had made it home safely, but he
2:59
Speaker 2: said Amy still hadn't come home. Margaret wasn't immediately worried
3:05
Speaker 2: because Amy had told her that there was a choir
3:07
Speaker 2: practice or some kind of a tryout that evening. At
3:11
Speaker 2: three forty pm, Margaret got a call at work, it
3:14
Speaker 2: was Amy. Amy told her mom that she was fine
3:17
Speaker 2: and the try out went well. Margaret later told investigators
3:21
Speaker 2: she thought Amy was home when she made that call.
3:25
Speaker 2: After work, Margaret drove home, which was about ten minutes away.
3:29
Speaker 2: Amy still wasn't home. Concerned, Margaret went to the school.
3:34
Speaker 2: That's when she saw Amy's bike still in the rack
3:36
Speaker 2: and realized she hadn't ridden her bike home. She went
3:39
Speaker 2: to the police station to report Amy missing.
3:43
Speaker 3: Amy's fought Mark.
3:44
Speaker 2: Who was away on a work trip, would point out
3:46
Speaker 2: later that to him, the mention of choir practice on
3:50
Speaker 2: a Friday afternoon or evening was kind of a red flag,
3:54
Speaker 2: since choir practice, to his knowledge, was not ever held
3:56
Speaker 2: on that night. In their investigation, police discovered that after
4:01
Speaker 2: school let out, Amy walked about a quarter mile to
4:04
Speaker 2: a nearby mall, the Bay Square Shopping Center, with two girlfriends.
4:08
Speaker 2: That's when they found out the choir practice story was
4:11
Speaker 2: covered for something else. They found out that an unknown
4:14
Speaker 2: caller had contacted Amy at home and said they would
4:18
Speaker 2: meet her in the mall to buy a gift for
4:19
Speaker 2: her mother because her mother had been promoted. But this
4:23
Speaker 2: wasn't true. There was no promotion and no gift. Amy's
4:27
Speaker 2: abductor kidnapped her from that mall. Witnesses saw Amy talking
4:32
Speaker 2: to a man in the parking lot, and then she disappeared,
4:36
Speaker 2: and there was no sign of her for several months
4:39
Speaker 2: until on February eighth, nineteen ninety, nearly four months after
4:43
Speaker 2: the incident, a female jogger was running near a cornfield
4:48
Speaker 2: in Ruggles Township off County Road eleven eighty one, in
4:51
Speaker 2: a rural area of Ashland County. That's when she found
4:55
Speaker 2: Amy's body.
4:58
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
5:00
Speaker 2: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
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Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
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Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds
5:09
Speaker 2: of messages from people all around the country asking for
5:12
Speaker 2: help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
5:16
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case she'd like
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Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
5:22
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
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Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
5:28
Speaker 2: That's six seven a seven four four six one four five,
5:32
Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram at
5:35
Speaker 2: Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder line. Amy Mulholovic
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Speaker 2: was born on December eleventh, nineteen seventy eight, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Speaker 2: She grew up with her mom, Margaret, her dad Mark,
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Speaker 2: and her brother Jason, who was two years older than her.
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Speaker 2: The year after Amy was born, Mark was transferred to Jackson, Mississippi.
6:41
Speaker 2: He had a long career with Bwick. In nineteen eighty four,
6:44
Speaker 2: he was transferred again. That's when the family moved and
6:47
Speaker 2: settled near Cleveland, Ohio. That's where Amy grew up at
6:52
Speaker 2: six twenty eight Lynford Drive in Bay Village, Ohio. Amy
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Speaker 2: grew up riding her bike to school with her friends
6:58
Speaker 2: and doing all the normal things that kids did in
7:01
Speaker 2: the late eighties. She loved the movie Dirty Dancy. According
7:05
Speaker 2: to her friends, she knew every line. She was also
7:08
Speaker 2: proud of her collection of My Little Pony figurines. Amy
7:12
Speaker 2: was petite four foot ten inches and ninety pounds, and
7:16
Speaker 2: she was constantly on the move. She participated in a
7:20
Speaker 2: lot of activities, including swimming, brownies, and especially horseback riding.
7:25
Speaker 2: She loved to take lessons and train at the nearby
7:28
Speaker 2: stable Holly Hill Farms. The horse she loved the most
7:32
Speaker 2: was named Razzle. Amy's father, Mark, came home from his
7:37
Speaker 2: work trip. He had been away for several days. By
7:40
Speaker 2: the time he got home, he said, Margaret was hysterical.
7:43
Speaker 2: She'd already called all of Amy's friends, and he immediately
7:47
Speaker 2: started searching the local area. Margaret had already called the
7:51
Speaker 2: police and reported Amy missing. By the next morning, the
7:55
Speaker 2: FBI was there and they were cooperating with local police.
7:59
Speaker 2: The FBI interrogated everyone, including Amy's family, following standard protocol.
8:07
Speaker 2: We got a chance to speak to Amy's older brother, Jason.
8:10
Speaker 2: Jason is now forty nine years old. He lives in Ohio.
8:15
Speaker 2: He shared his experience in the aftermath of his sister's disappearance.
8:20
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I thought it was Let's see, I
8:21
Speaker 4: was in seventh grade and she was in fifth, sorry
8:24
Speaker 4: getting old, so she would usually be home when I
8:27
Speaker 4: was on my way home, so she got home earlier
8:30
Speaker 4: than I did, and for whatever reason, on that Frienday,
8:32
Speaker 4: she wasn't And I called my mom asked what was
8:35
Speaker 4: going on, and she said, oh, yeah, she had some
8:37
Speaker 4: sort of trial for a choir something that should be back.
8:39
Speaker 4: And it got later and later, and leader I called
8:42
Speaker 4: my mom and she started, who You're re get worried,
8:44
Speaker 4: and then the whole cascade of things of realizing that no,
8:48
Speaker 4: she really wasn't gone, and I don't know what else is?
8:51
Speaker 4: Where else is say? There were countless police and Atbie
8:57
Speaker 4: in and out of the house in all hours of
9:00
Speaker 4: the night and day, and especially the first couple of
9:03
Speaker 4: weeks when everything was focused on finding her and rescuing her.
9:09
Speaker 2: The day after Amy disappeared on Saturday morning, one of
9:12
Speaker 2: Amy's neighbors, another girl who was in her class, told
9:16
Speaker 2: police that at lunch the day before, Amy had told
9:19
Speaker 2: her that she got a phone call from a man
9:22
Speaker 2: she didn't know. The male caller called Amy at home.
9:26
Speaker 2: He claimed he worked with Amy's mother. He said he
9:29
Speaker 2: wanted help buying a present to celebrate her promotion, and
9:32
Speaker 2: he told Amy she could pick out a gift as well,
9:36
Speaker 2: but Amy told her friend the caller had emphasized this
9:40
Speaker 2: had to be their little secret. Investigators believe that at
9:44
Speaker 2: the point when Amy made the call to her mom
9:47
Speaker 2: at three forty pm, Amy had already been abducted. They
9:51
Speaker 2: believed her abductor was standing there with her, and that
9:54
Speaker 2: this call bought him crucial time to get further away.
9:58
Speaker 2: Amy sounded fine on the call, so it's unclear whether
10:02
Speaker 2: or not Amy knew she was in potential danger at
10:04
Speaker 2: that time. She may have been frightened, or she may
10:08
Speaker 2: have just thought this was all part of a secret
10:10
Speaker 2: gift plan. Mark has said in multiple interviews that Amy
10:15
Speaker 2: knew not to talk to strangers. But what if her
10:18
Speaker 2: kidnapper knew their family or convinced Amy that he did.
10:23
Speaker 2: Investigators learned something else. They found out several other young
10:27
Speaker 2: girls had received phone calls similar to the ones Amy got.
10:31
Speaker 2: They wondered if Amy had been targeted specifically, or if
10:34
Speaker 2: the caller tried several girls before Amy was the one
10:38
Speaker 2: who took the bait. Police talked to Amy's friends. Two
10:42
Speaker 2: of her friends said they left class together. They all
10:45
Speaker 2: walked together to the mall, which only took a few minutes.
10:49
Speaker 2: They said that after they got to the mall, they
10:51
Speaker 2: split up. Police talked to two witnesses who were eleven
10:56
Speaker 2: years old. They said they were out in the parking
10:58
Speaker 2: lot at around three pm. They saw Amy standing by
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Speaker 2: the mall like she was waiting for somebody. There was
11:05
Speaker 2: a bask In Robin's ice cream shop out there that
11:07
Speaker 2: a lot of the kids hung out at, and Apparently
11:09
Speaker 2: Amy was near the ice cream store, although they didn't
11:11
Speaker 2: see her go inside. The witnesses saw a man put
11:15
Speaker 2: his hand on Amy's back and walk her out to
11:18
Speaker 2: the parking lot, but Amy didn't seem to be in
11:21
Speaker 2: any distress, so the two kids said they weren't really
11:24
Speaker 2: paying attention. They didn't see where Amy went next. They
11:31
Speaker 2: described the stranger with Amy that day as a clean
11:33
Speaker 2: cut white man, approximately in his thirties, around five foot
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Speaker 2: seven to five foot eleven inches tall, with a bald
11:40
Speaker 2: spot and dark, possibly gray hair. Detectives put together a
11:45
Speaker 2: composite sketch of the man the witnesses saw. Now apparently
11:49
Speaker 2: there were some discrepancies between their descriptions. One of them
11:53
Speaker 2: said the guy Amy was talking to had glasses, the
11:55
Speaker 2: other said he didn't. And they interviewed many people, but
11:59
Speaker 2: they never found the man in the sketch. It also
12:01
Speaker 2: probably didn't help that the composite sketch literally looked like
12:05
Speaker 2: your average white man on the street. It kind of
12:07
Speaker 2: looked like it could be anyone. Amy's eleventh birthday came
12:12
Speaker 2: and went with her family nowhere closer to finding answers.
12:26
Speaker 2: Once Amy's body was found in February, of nineteen ninety,
12:30
Speaker 2: around twenty feet from the road. She was identified very
12:33
Speaker 2: quickly from dental records and fingerprints. According to the autopsy report,
12:38
Speaker 2: Amy had blunt forced trauma to the back of her head,
12:41
Speaker 2: but the actual.
12:42
Speaker 3: Cause of death with stab wounds to the neck.
12:45
Speaker 2: The autopsy found Amy's body had been in that field
12:49
Speaker 2: for a considerable period of time, probably the entire three months.
12:54
Speaker 2: Investigators believed that Amy was dumped there either on the
12:57
Speaker 2: day she went missing or shortly afterwards. Their best guess
13:01
Speaker 2: is from a few hours to a few days after
13:03
Speaker 2: her abduction. Of course, Amy's body was very decomposed. She
13:08
Speaker 2: was dressed, but her sweatpants were inside out. This made
13:12
Speaker 2: investigators belief it was likely that she was sexually assaulted,
13:16
Speaker 2: but unfortunately, her body had been out in the elements
13:19
Speaker 2: for way too long for some kinds of sexual assault
13:22
Speaker 2: testing to be effective, so they didn't know for sure.
13:27
Speaker 2: There were signs that Amy may have been kept alive
13:30
Speaker 2: for at least a few hours after her abduction, although
13:33
Speaker 2: it's not conclusive proof. The coroner's report found substances in
13:38
Speaker 2: her stomach. They were able to conclude that Amy's last
13:41
Speaker 2: meal was something soy based, possibly in art official chicken
13:44
Speaker 2: product or Chinese food. I wonder could she have gotten
13:48
Speaker 2: the food from the mall food court or could her
13:50
Speaker 2: killer have gotten it. Could they have kept her somewhere
13:53
Speaker 2: else alive for a period of time, or maybe bought
13:57
Speaker 2: takeout food and brought it to her. There was no
14:00
Speaker 2: way to know for sure. Several hundred yards away from
14:04
Speaker 2: Amy's body, investigators found a curtain and a blanket that
14:08
Speaker 2: were sent in for forensic testing.
14:11
Speaker 3: The forensic testing team.
14:12
Speaker 2: Found yellow gold fibers on Amy's body. There were also
14:16
Speaker 2: some things that were missing. Her black studded boots that
14:19
Speaker 2: she wore for horse riding were missing, and investigators never
14:22
Speaker 2: found the other items that Amy had been carrying that day,
14:25
Speaker 2: including her denim backpack, her black binder with Bwick Best
14:29
Speaker 2: in Class written on it, and some very unique turquoise
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Speaker 2: earrings that she was wearing. They were shaped like little horseheads.
14:38
Speaker 2: Police considered the possibility that Amy's killer had taken these
14:41
Speaker 2: items and either ditched them or kept them as a souvenir.
14:46
Speaker 2: Police were trying to figure out the caller's origins. They
14:50
Speaker 2: were also investigating every possible connection to Amy or Margaret,
14:54
Speaker 2: since Margaret was mentioned in the call trading time said
14:58
Speaker 2: Margaret had not gotten a promotion. The only thing that
15:00
Speaker 2: had happened recently with her work schedule was that she
15:03
Speaker 2: had gone from part time to full time. Police also
15:06
Speaker 2: explored connections with Holly Hill Farms, where Amy rode horses.
15:10
Speaker 3: And spent a lot of time.
15:12
Speaker 2: One of the young women who got a call similar
15:14
Speaker 2: to the one Amy got months before she disappeared, reported
15:18
Speaker 2: the incident to police. The FBI came to her house,
15:21
Speaker 2: and they found out this girl, like Amy, was a
15:24
Speaker 2: regular at holly Hill Farms. There was a documentary called
15:29
Speaker 2: The Lake Erie Murders on Investigation Discovery, and there were
15:33
Speaker 2: three episodes in that series about Amy's case. They interviewed
15:37
Speaker 2: someone else, a woman who was ten years old at
15:40
Speaker 2: the time Amy disappeared. She told ID few weeks before
15:44
Speaker 2: Amy disappeared, she got a similar phone call to the
15:47
Speaker 2: one Amy got. She said, someone identifying themselves as her
15:51
Speaker 2: mom's boss called her and mentioned them buying a secret gift. Apparently,
15:56
Speaker 2: she asked her mother about it, and her mother kind
15:59
Speaker 2: of shut the whole thing down, so she never attempted
16:02
Speaker 2: to meet up with the caller, and that caller was
16:05
Speaker 2: apparently never found When detectives were investigating the girls who
16:10
Speaker 2: got calls mainly in the summer before Amy disappeared, they
16:14
Speaker 2: found that there was one place they all had in common.
16:17
Speaker 2: They had all apparently been to the Lake Erie Nature
16:21
Speaker 2: and Science Center in Bay Village. Police said that the
16:25
Speaker 2: location had a paper log book where visitors could write
16:29
Speaker 2: down their names and addresses. So one theory they had
16:32
Speaker 2: was maybe someone involved with the center, a volunteer or
16:35
Speaker 2: an employee, or possibly just a visitor, got the girl's
16:38
Speaker 2: phone numbers from inside that logbook. Police looked for the logbook,
16:43
Speaker 2: but it was gone and investigators were never able to
16:47
Speaker 2: find that logbook. Over the years, police interviewed Amy's friends
16:53
Speaker 2: several times.
16:54
Speaker 3: They ran down a lot of leads.
16:56
Speaker 2: Of course, they asked about Amy's parents' relationships, about her parents'
17:00
Speaker 2: friends they're male friends, Amy's father and her friend's father's
17:04
Speaker 2: They found nothing conclusive. There were a lot of names
17:08
Speaker 2: mentioned in connection with Amy's case over the years, a
17:11
Speaker 2: lot of false starts and red herrings. The jogger who
17:15
Speaker 2: found Amy's body mentioned a weird guy who lived on
17:19
Speaker 2: her street, but there was no evidence that he was
17:22
Speaker 2: ever connected to Amy's case, and in my opinion that
17:25
Speaker 2: was part of the problem.
17:26
Speaker 3: It seemed like everyone.
17:28
Speaker 2: Knew a weird guy who lived on their street, which
17:32
Speaker 2: was a challenge for the police. Another early suspect mentioned
17:36
Speaker 2: by the FBI profiler Robert Wrestler, was Billy Strunak, a
17:41
Speaker 2: man who had stalked a waitress in nineteen eighty three.
17:44
Speaker 2: Police became interested in him as a potential suspect in
17:47
Speaker 2: Amy's case in nineteen eighty nine. Apparently the reason why
17:50
Speaker 2: police were suspicious was Billy's criminal past and his behavior.
17:55
Speaker 2: They say that Billy volunteered, that he inserted himself into
17:58
Speaker 2: the investigation, that he was trying to cozy up to
18:01
Speaker 2: Margaret after Amy's disappearance, and even offered to clean her house.
18:08
Speaker 2: Thirteen days after Amy's body was found, Billy took his
18:11
Speaker 2: own life by drinking dry gas and soda. Police said
18:17
Speaker 2: after his death they searched his residence. They said they
18:19
Speaker 2: found zero evidence that would link him to Amy. They said,
18:23
Speaker 2: on the contrary, his suicide note referred to problems at
18:26
Speaker 2: work and depression. They said there was nothing there referring
18:29
Speaker 2: to Amy at all, so that lead turned into a
18:32
Speaker 2: dead end. Police also continued to explore connections with Holly
18:37
Speaker 2: Hill Farms, especially once they found out one of the
18:41
Speaker 2: other girls who got one of these weird phone calls
18:44
Speaker 2: was also a regular at Hollyhill Farms. One man the
18:47
Speaker 2: FBI talked to was a caretaker there, a man named
18:50
Speaker 2: Harold Bound. He lived on the property. His parents owned
18:54
Speaker 2: the stables, but apparently they were out of town when
18:56
Speaker 2: Amy went missing.
18:58
Speaker 3: Harold was cooperative. He allowed investigators to search his apartment
19:01
Speaker 3: and the whole farm.
19:03
Speaker 2: Harold was described as a loaner and a Vietnam veteran.
19:06
Speaker 2: He had a habit of striking up conversations with some
19:09
Speaker 2: of the girls who rode horses at the stable. Some
19:12
Speaker 2: of the parents told police they thought Harold was a
19:15
Speaker 2: little bit weird and creepy. Harold requested polygraph tests. He
19:20
Speaker 2: actually asked police to test him with sodium pentathal aka
19:24
Speaker 2: truth serum, which, to be honest, is the first time
19:28
Speaker 2: I've ever heard of anyone being interrogated like that voluntarily.
19:32
Speaker 2: We don't know what the results were, but in the
19:35
Speaker 2: end police did not pursue Harold as a suspect. He
19:39
Speaker 2: was never arrested or charged with anything in connection with
19:43
Speaker 2: Amy's Disas parents, police were also contacted by two girls
19:48
Speaker 2: in North Olmsted, which was a.
19:50
Speaker 3: Few miles from Bay Village.
19:52
Speaker 2: They found out girls were getting calls there as well,
19:55
Speaker 2: and some of the girls who got called had unlisted
19:58
Speaker 2: phone numbers, So naturally, investigators wondered was this the same
20:03
Speaker 2: caller who called Amy and how did the caller get
20:07
Speaker 2: all of their numbers. Over the years, police considered several suspects.
20:12
Speaker 2: One was a man named Kenneth Ray Stanton. He was
20:15
Speaker 2: a traveling salesman and serial child molester. His mo was
20:18
Speaker 2: to find victims in upper middle class, largely white neighborhoods.
20:22
Speaker 3: He would choose holmes where.
20:23
Speaker 2: The victim, a young girl between the ages of seven
20:26
Speaker 2: and twelve, was home alone. Kenneth appeared clean cut, normally
20:30
Speaker 2: he wore suits, and he was capable of being charming,
20:34
Speaker 2: at least charming enough to convince his victims to let
20:36
Speaker 2: them into the home. Sometimes he posed as a police
20:39
Speaker 2: officer or food safety inspector. Kenneth did looked like the
20:44
Speaker 2: composite sketch. Investigators say they believe Kenneth was in Ohio
20:49
Speaker 2: at the time when Amy disappeared. The FBI were hunting
20:52
Speaker 2: for him. In December of nineteen eighty nine. His abandoned
20:55
Speaker 2: car was found in Perrysburg, Ohio. Kenneth's case was featured
20:59
Speaker 2: on America's Most Wanted, and minutes after the episode aired,
21:03
Speaker 2: multiple people called in to say that Kenneth was living
21:05
Speaker 2: in Moraine, Ohio with his wife. That's about three hours
21:09
Speaker 2: from Bay Village, where Amy lived. After the episode aired,
21:13
Speaker 2: Kenneth fled the area. Police eventually tracked him down at
21:17
Speaker 2: a motel in rock Hill, South Carolina, where he had
21:20
Speaker 2: molested another young girl. Kenneth pleaded guilty to the molestation
21:24
Speaker 2: charges and was sentenced to sixty years in prison. Investigators
21:29
Speaker 2: have confirmed they did consider Kenneth mainly due to the
21:32
Speaker 2: possible proximity to Amy, but later stated they did not
21:36
Speaker 2: believe he was their suspect. Kenneth died in prison on
21:39
Speaker 2: August twentieth, twenty eleven years past and police hit many
21:48
Speaker 2: dead ends. Amy's family still had no answers and it
21:53
Speaker 2: was weighing on them. Jason shared his thoughts on how
21:56
Speaker 2: hard he believed the police worked on the case.
22:00
Speaker 4: They never let Amy's case rest a single day. They've
22:03
Speaker 4: continuously worked on it the pride of DNA and even
22:06
Speaker 4: take tundles of hair way back in the eighties when
22:08
Speaker 4: nobody had heard of anything like that. It's always very
22:12
Speaker 4: humbling to me to be have my sister remembered so
22:16
Speaker 4: long after it's actually happened. It's been, at least for me,
22:19
Speaker 4: a very touching and humbling experience to go, hey, you know,
22:22
Speaker 4: the community at large, including most of America, really loved
22:26
Speaker 4: my sister. And we're not I mean, it sounds terrible.
22:29
Speaker 4: We're not in any special We're just we're just a
22:32
Speaker 4: couple of kids from Suburbia, a mobile family that went
22:37
Speaker 4: through the same thing everyone else does.
22:45
Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, a retired investigator named Phil Torsney announced
22:50
Speaker 2: that he would be coming out of retirement to work
22:52
Speaker 2: on Amy's case. Phil assisted the FBI in catching the
22:55
Speaker 2: mobster Whitey Bulger. Whitey was on the run for years
22:59
Speaker 2: and spent a lot of time on the FBI's ten
23:01
Speaker 2: most wanted list. Phil told reporters he didn't believe that
23:05
Speaker 2: Amy's killer had come from her immediate area. Instead, he
23:09
Speaker 2: believed the killer was more likely to have ties to
23:12
Speaker 2: Ashland County, to the area where Amy's body was found.
23:16
Speaker 3: Phil described Amy's hometown as.
23:18
Speaker 2: Quote two dents too close knit to be a likely
23:21
Speaker 2: place to commit.
23:22
Speaker 3: Murder end quote.
23:24
Speaker 2: In March of twenty fourteen, the FBI announced a twenty
23:28
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars reward for any information that would help
23:31
Speaker 2: lead to Amy's killer or killers. In twenty sixteen, police
23:36
Speaker 2: announced they had done testing on the blanket and curtain
23:39
Speaker 2: that were found near Amy's body. They found dog hares
23:44
Speaker 2: they said were similar to Amy's dog, So detectives believe
23:48
Speaker 2: it's very possible that the hairs on that curtain did
23:52
Speaker 2: belong to Amy's dog and that somehow they were transferred
23:55
Speaker 2: from her clothing to that curtain, meaning that the curtain
23:58
Speaker 2: that was found near the body was what Amy's killer
24:02
Speaker 2: had used to wrap her in and dump her body.
24:05
Speaker 2: The curtain itself is unusual. Police continue to release photos
24:09
Speaker 2: of that curtain in hopes that someone might recognize it.
24:13
Speaker 2: They believed that it could be a crucial clue. The
24:16
Speaker 2: curtain actually looks like something someone sewed at home. It's
24:20
Speaker 2: a dark green beige color. The tabs on the top
24:23
Speaker 2: are not equal distance apart. Police want to find out
24:27
Speaker 2: where the curtain was before it was found near Amy.
24:31
Speaker 2: If it was in the killer's house, They hope that
24:34
Speaker 2: it may have DNA evidence that can be tested. At
24:36
Speaker 2: some point, James told us he thought the police had
24:41
Speaker 2: done a very thorough and good job. He pointed out
24:44
Speaker 2: they followed a ton of leads and most importantly, had
24:48
Speaker 2: carefully collected all kinds of DNA from the crime scene,
24:51
Speaker 2: years before.
24:52
Speaker 3: Some kinds of DNA testing were available.
24:55
Speaker 2: The vials of hair and clothing were carefully sealed in
24:59
Speaker 2: the crime lab. And since we hear about so many
25:02
Speaker 2: cases on this podcast where evidence is lost or destroyed,
25:06
Speaker 2: it's actually so refreshing to hear about a police department
25:10
Speaker 2: taking the proper steps to preserve evidence and actually having
25:14
Speaker 2: the foresight to preserve that evidence. But even with the
25:18
Speaker 2: evidence preserved after the initial investigation, police were left for
25:22
Speaker 2: many years without a sole, viable suspect. They did interview
25:27
Speaker 2: hundreds of people they followed up on tips and rumors,
25:30
Speaker 2: including a pedophile ring and an identity thief, but all
25:34
Speaker 2: of these leads were dropped or ruled out. In twenty
25:39
Speaker 2: twenty one, right around the thirty first anniversary of Amy's
25:42
Speaker 2: remains being found, police stated they had another person of interest,
25:47
Speaker 2: a sixty four year old man whose former girlfriend had told.
25:50
Speaker 3: Them she believed he had been involved in the killing.
25:53
Speaker 2: According to news reports, she told police she suspected this
25:56
Speaker 2: man because he was not at home when Amy went missing.
26:00
Speaker 2: He lived close to where Amy was kidnapped, and he
26:03
Speaker 2: reportedly had a niece who was in the same grade
26:05
Speaker 2: as Amy. Police interviewed the man and it was reported
26:09
Speaker 2: that he made suspicious statements. Law enforcement also revealed this
26:13
Speaker 2: man had been picked out by a witness out of
26:16
Speaker 2: a lineup in May of twenty twenty.
26:18
Speaker 3: Police also said the man.
26:20
Speaker 2: Drove a car at the time of Amy's abduction that
26:23
Speaker 2: was similar to the ones seen by witness on February eighth,
26:26
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety when Amy's body was found. But since twenty
26:30
Speaker 2: twenty one, no more information has been released and there
26:34
Speaker 2: has been no arrest. Jason said Amy's case had a
26:40
Speaker 2: massive impact on the family over the years. He said
26:43
Speaker 2: his parents never really got over her abduction. Margaret and
26:47
Speaker 2: Mark had already been having problems in their marriage before
26:50
Speaker 2: Amy's disappearance, but after she went missing, the marriage never recovered.
26:55
Speaker 2: They divorced in nineteen ninety one. Mark remarried a woman
26:59
Speaker 2: who's been married to for the past twenty five years,
27:02
Speaker 2: so James had a new stepbrother and stepmom. Margaret moved
27:07
Speaker 2: away from the area, eventually ending up in Las Vegas.
27:10
Speaker 2: She went on talk shows and continued to do media.
27:14
Speaker 2: She was begging the public for any tips that could
27:17
Speaker 2: lead to her daughter's safe return. Margaret died in her
27:21
Speaker 2: apartment in Las Vegas in two thousand and one. According
27:24
Speaker 2: to an autopsy report, the cause of her death was
27:27
Speaker 2: complications from chronic alcoholism.
27:30
Speaker 3: James says he's.
27:31
Speaker 2: Humbled by how many people remember Amy's story and keep
27:35
Speaker 2: her memory alive and the massive impact she's had on
27:39
Speaker 2: the community.
27:40
Speaker 4: Well, again, it's always very humbly when she remembered. I
27:43
Speaker 4: mean this is not quite forty years ago, and still
27:46
Speaker 4: she's very much into the news and forefront and on
27:49
Speaker 4: people's minds. And that's amazing to think that she had
27:53
Speaker 4: that much impact, and you know, the effort for her
27:56
Speaker 4: had that much impact as well. I would certainly caution
27:59
Speaker 4: people to learn from some of those mistakes, like guard
28:03
Speaker 4: your children and make sure they're safe and know who
28:06
Speaker 4: they're talking to and why, and be that defense for
28:09
Speaker 4: your children. I mean, my parents were just wasn't as forefront,
28:13
Speaker 4: you know, it wasn't I don't know what to say.
28:16
Speaker 4: It wasn't like they didn't really can get happened to them,
28:20
Speaker 4: I guess at the point. And of course the calls
28:23
Speaker 4: were happening in secret, so it wasn't like they were
28:25
Speaker 4: letting them happen. And they were going on when nobody
28:28
Speaker 4: else was home, which is part of the reason why
28:30
Speaker 4: it was allowed to happen. So just being you know,
28:32
Speaker 4: that hyper vigilance about keeping your kids faith and helping
28:36
Speaker 4: them to reach their full potential.
28:43
Speaker 2: In September of twenty twenty five, Amy's case made news again.
28:48
Speaker 2: Police released a new composite sketch of a new person
28:51
Speaker 2: of interest. He was described as around thirty five years old,
28:55
Speaker 2: with fair skin, and as being someone who was standing
28:59
Speaker 2: near a blue hatchback vehicle on the day Amy's body
29:02
Speaker 2: was found. Police stated to News five Cleveland that the
29:06
Speaker 2: witness had waited a year before coming forward with this information.
29:10
Speaker 2: Apparently they didn't realize it could be important at the time.
29:14
Speaker 3: We're going to be posting this composite.
29:15
Speaker 2: Sketch, actually all of them, and also the missing items,
29:18
Speaker 2: the black studded boots, the black buick case with gold clasp,
29:22
Speaker 2: and the horse head shaped aquamarine earrings on Instagram at
29:26
Speaker 2: Ellen Gompot. At the same time, police have said there
29:30
Speaker 2: was very little physical evidence in the case, but that
29:33
Speaker 2: may be changing with new technology. In April twenty twenty five,
29:38
Speaker 2: it was reported that new DNA testing was being conducted
29:43
Speaker 2: on hair that had been found on a curtain and
29:45
Speaker 2: a blanket that Amy's body was dumped with. The FBI
29:48
Speaker 2: was in the process of confirming that the hair was
29:51
Speaker 2: not Amy's, and if it's not a match to Amy,
29:53
Speaker 2: presumably they will try to find a match. Scientists told
29:57
Speaker 2: nineteen News that DNA testing on evidence from the field
30:00
Speaker 2: was being conducted. DNA labs in Deerfield Beach, Florida told
30:04
Speaker 2: nineteen News they found DNA from a man on Amy's sweatpants,
30:09
Speaker 2: the one she was found in, but sadly the sample
30:13
Speaker 2: was too small to test it to identify suspect. But
30:16
Speaker 2: the DNA lab is said they hope that new technology
30:19
Speaker 2: coming out, possibly even by the end of the year,
30:22
Speaker 2: could change that. Jason said that he thinks about Amy
30:27
Speaker 2: a lot now that his own children are teenagers, and
30:31
Speaker 2: he still has hope that whether it's a DNA breakthrough
30:34
Speaker 2: or someone recognizing the horse earrings in a drawer or
30:38
Speaker 2: some other item from a garage sale or some other
30:42
Speaker 2: random occurrence. He he still has hope that Amy's killer
30:46
Speaker 2: could be caught.
30:47
Speaker 4: I know that there's a hole that nothing can kill
30:50
Speaker 4: with Amy, and I would love to have seen what
30:53
Speaker 4: she would have become and moms you were becoming in
30:55
Speaker 4: her parenting style and whatnot. I have two mostly grown
30:59
Speaker 4: children at this point. Mack nineteen, he's had a job.
31:03
Speaker 4: He's busy making his way in the world. And Ethan
31:06
Speaker 4: is sixteen, almost seventeen, and he got his first job.
31:09
Speaker 4: And again, Amy's lives, even the impacted their lives. They
31:15
Speaker 4: never met her, but they certainly have a memory of her,
31:17
Speaker 4: if that makes sense, even keep alive in their generation
31:21
Speaker 4: of what happened. And to be a beaconist to you know,
31:25
Speaker 4: keeping your children safe and not talking to strangers, and
31:29
Speaker 4: being aware of your surroundings as a young person, as
31:31
Speaker 4: a child, like hey, people are not always out there
31:34
Speaker 4: for your best interest. For whatever reason, Amy became in
31:38
Speaker 4: many ways I think I don't want to say, is
31:42
Speaker 4: like American's Sweethearts. It's uite afraid, but it became verson.
31:47
Speaker 4: I can't ever say enough thank you for any of
31:50
Speaker 4: that because it means.
31:52
Speaker 2: A lot for me. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen
31:57
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production
32:01
Speaker 2: of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
32:05
Speaker 2: narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez
32:09
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
32:12
Speaker 2: James Wheaton for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored
32:16
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek. Executive
32:20
Speaker 2: producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and l. C.
32:23
Speaker 3: Crowley.
32:24
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
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Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
32:30
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
32:33
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
32:37
Speaker 2: If you have a case she'd like me and my
32:39
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
32:42
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
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Speaker 1: School of Humans