BAY VILLAGE – A store-bought blanket and homemade curtain found near the crime scene may be the pieces of the puzzle that solve the Amy Mihaljevic abduction and murder case, authorities said Thursday morning.
Mihaljevic went missing on the afternoon of Oct. 27, 1989. On Feb. 8, 1990, the 10-year-old’s body was found by a jogger in a field off County Road 1181 in northern Ashland County, about 50 miles from Bay Village. Authorities said Mihaljevic had been stabbed and beaten. Thousands of leads were followed and hundreds of people have been questioned in the past 27 years but no one has ever been charged.
Representatives of the Bay Village Police Department, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI unveiled an avocado green homemade curtain and a blanket that were found about 1,000 feet from Mihaljevic’s body on the day she was discovered. The blanket and curtain were about 14 feet apart from each other.
“We have a blanket which honestly is not that unique, but maybe in conjunction with this curtain, whoever knows what this curtain is about, where this curtain came from, the prior possession of this curtain, we’re hoping somebody recognizes it, and if we can find the person who made it, if we can have someone call us and say, ‘My mom made this curtain,’ ‘My grandma made this curtain,’ ‘It was hanging in my brother’s room,’ whatever that is, we can solve this case,” said FBI Agent Phil Torsney.
Although the blanket and curtain were found on the same day Mihaljevic’s body was discovered, authorities were unable to conclusively link the blanket and curtain with the crime; a fact that recently changed.
Torsney said at the time of the original investigation, law enforcement collected hair samples from the family dog, Jake. Through recent tests, they were able to determine that dog hairs found on the blanket and curtain had come from Jake.
“There are microscopic similarities between the canine hairs found on these two items and the hairs originally collected from the family dog. Therefore, we believe those hairs from the Mihaljevic’s dog, Jake, were transferred from Amy’s clothing or Amy’s body to these two items which we believe were used to wrap around Amy’s body from wherever the homicide took place,” Torsney said.
Torsney said other hairs and fibers were discovered and are being investigated.
“The most distinctive thing about this curtain is that it was homemade. A curtain bought at a store wasn’t going to help us much,” Torsney said.
The tab-top curtain appears to be repurposed from bedding or a bed covering. It measures 68 inches long and 27 inches wide. Torsney described the stitching pattern as distinctive with the pattern on the top rotated 90 degrees from the pattern on the bottom.
“We’re just looking for the location where that blanket was. We have multiple crime scenes in this case. We know two of them. We don’t know where a third or fourth were and this is what we’re looking for,” said Bay Village Police Chief Mark Spaetzel, who was a detective in 1989 and has been involved in the investigation for the past 27 years.
Amy’s mother had passed away but her dad and brother were at the press conference.
Amy’s father, Mark Mihaljevic was thankful for all the hard work law enforcement has done and said that he hopes this new evidence will be the break may finally solve the case.
“I think this is what we’ve been waiting for 25, 26 years,” he said.
Authorities still believe there is a link between the abductor and Ashland County.
“She was found in Ruggles Township in Ashland County, and we strongly believe that there is some connection between a resident of that area and this case,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said.
Torsney said that the location where she was dumped – at the crest of a hill, allowing a good line of sight in both directions – indicates the person likely was familiar with the area.
Ashland County Sheriff E. Wayne Risner attended Thursday’s press conference and said the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to assist with the case. Risner said he had started working in Ashland County Sheriff’s Office the same year Mihaljevic’s body was found and he was one of the people involved in the initial investigation.
“At first it was just me and two of our guys, and now look how it’s grown,” Risner said.
Risner credited the hard work of all those involved over the years.
McGintey emphasized that this new evidence could break the case.
“If you’re out there and can tell us where this blanket came from, (law enforcement) will finish the job,” McGinty said. “To the criminals, you can run but you cannot hide. We have proven this in the past, we have solved these cold cases. We can solve this case too.”
The FBI has offered a $25,000 reward for anyone coming forward with information leading to the arrest of someone in this case. Now, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office is matching that reward.
Anyone with information on the case should contact Bay Village police at (440) 871-1234 or bvpd@cityofbayvillage.com.
