I suspect they are getting real damn close to getting the person/s. The only thing that all these girls had in common was that they had visited the local Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, which kept a visitors logbook by the front door. Im not sure how he explained to Amy that he knew that her mother had gotten a promotion on October 27th on that fateful phone call. Details: In 1989, ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic received a call from a man named Frank who claimed to be her mother's coworker and that she was getting a promotion and wanted to meet with her in order to pick out something for her mother for a . Birth Sign Sagittarius. "The younger the age of the victim, the more likely the perpetrator would not have a gender preference," he says. He often filmed his students in class, cutting together the film later at home. A search warrant for the suspects house was executed, but no evidence linking the man to Amy was found. Renner never made contact until he was about to leave town. The Ashland County field where Amy Mihaljevic's body was discovered on February 8, 1990. . "I'm meeting someone," says Amy. And, only a few times has she said that the man in the photo could be the one she saw. Multiple witnesses say that he matches the man they saw with Amy the day she vanished. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Design a site like this with WordPress.com, If youre interested in learning more about Amys case, please check out James Renners book about this case. By James Renner on Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 4:00 am. Real Name: Amy Renee Mihaljevic Nicknames: No known nicknames Location: Bay Village, Ohio Date: October 27, 1989 Amy Mihaljevic. A Catastrophic Cyber Event in the Next 2-Years; Youth Pastor and Foster Dad in Florida Accused of Human Trafficking; Downtown Denver Dying? One of Amys friends, who saw this man lead her away, has been shown hundreds of pictures of possible suspects. For their part, Bay Village police detectives do not consider Runkle as the only suspect in the case and continue to work all leads. inappropriate behavior and unwanted physicality? At one time, they even seemed close to arresting him. Amy . In 1987, Runkle set a few thousand dollars aside in a trust for Dan, according to Dan's mother. There is new evidence in the Amy Mihaljevic murder investigation - a homemade curtain and a blanket found on the road where Amy's body was discovered in 1989. "I left for health reasons." Although Renner describes Runkle as an eccentric teacher, no hard evidence supports this view. They know this.". None took the bait. **See the blog below for more** It was October 27, 1989 . The Handmade Curtain. Eventually, their method of killing starts to bore them, and the killer needs more drama, risk and excitement with each new victim. Child abductions are some of the most upsetting cases for police, because the victims are usually killed within hours of their abduction. In 2018, officials announced that they were following a potential link between Joseph Newton Chandler III and the murder of Amy Mihaljevic. Cleveland newspaper reporter James Renner investigated Mihaljevic's murder case and concluded that a teacher named Dean Runkle should be viewed as a prime suspect. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. As of 2014, her homicide remained unsolved. No other connection could be made between him and Amys disappearance. We know where she was found. Amy Mihaljevic - Suspect - Dean Runkle. Law Enforcement arranged a press conference and revealed new details on the Amy Mihaljevic case. Clearly the killer attempted to lure several other girls into the same trap before Amy, and who knows how many other victims they succeeded in killing prior to Amys murder. Kids no longer answered phone calls. For 19 years, the FBI and the Bay Village Police Department kept the identity of these other girls a secret. Amy Renee Mihaljevic (December 11, 1978 - October 27, 1989) was an ten-year-old American elementary school student who was kidnapped and murdered in the U.S. state of Ohio in 1989. In 2002, during a Sunday Mass at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church on Lorain Road in Fairview Park, he announced that he was the one responsible for what happened to Amy. Our theory is that they were used to wrap her in before she was dumped where she was found.. Tag: Dean Runkle. Over time the letters became sexual in nature. Men with mostly shady pasts and weak alibis, vague connections to the suburban area, or those who have a history of sexual offenses are the ones who are included in the suspect list. Renner, your stuff is interesting, but ad hominem attacks . Interestingly, Marks new step son, Ryan Ruiz, was walking to school one day when he was approached slowly by a car. "It was more than creepy; it felt like an animal noticing you walk into a room. By the time these women sought me out in 2006, they had forgotten the name. Runkle liked to tell boys sexual jokes, says Derek Chase. Copyright 2021 WOIO. Under interrogation, the suspect began softly muttering random words in no particular order. By allowing her to make contact with her family, the killer bought themselves the precious hours they needed to commit the assault and murder before she was reported as a missing person to police. "He used to tell us about the science center he volunteered at. Turning the corner, he says, "I have nothing to confess to.". I suspect they preyed on school-age girls by attempting to lure them out shopping under the guise of getting gift for their mothers. As I'm considering how to enter the compound, a man walks across the street in front of me. Why do you think Amys body was recovered where it was? Two years later, he earned a Young Educator of the Year award for starting a science fair at the school. . He gave them the name of a suspect and asked if it sounded familiar. Runkle was born in New London and grew up in a farmhouse just a couple miles from where Amy's body was dumped, along County Road 1181. These other girls went to school in North Olmsted and were roughly the same age as Amy, about 10 or 11. Many of these men have no alibis for the afternoon of October 27, 1989. [2 . For more information, please see our Published: Oct. 25, 2021 at 7:26 PM PDT. Read More: Where Is Amy Mihaljevics Father Now? He was an eccentric teacher from the beginning. The case seemed to go cold again until new details were released in 2016, some 26 years after the body of Amy Mihaljevic was discovered. She watches as he walks up to Amy and puts a hand on her back. Amy Mihaljevic was born in Little Rock. See pictures of the handmade curtain and blanket here. On Friday October 27th, Jason arrived home at about 3:15pm, but Amy was nowhere to be found. According to reporter James Renner, Dean Runkle is a possible prime suspect in the FBI investigation. Then the man puts an arm around Amy's shoulders and leads her away. And though I've never seen him in person before, I recognize him immediately - not from the grainy 13-year-old newspaper photos but from the composite sketch of Amy's abductor. Ryan was terrified, said no thank you to the man and quickly ran away to school. A large volunteer search party with dogs and flashlights found nothing. Cleveland Taco Week returns on Monday, April 10th. As per our current Database, Amy Mihaljevic died on Oct 27, 1989 (age 10). New DNA evidence could help solve the decades old mystery. Runkle!" As an FBI agent on the case said, we have the beginning and the end of what happened to Amy M, but what we dont have is the middle piece. "I wouldn't be surprised if I was in a picture at the Lake Erie Nature Center," he says. By the time police made this connection, the log book had vanished from the nature center. July 12, 202211 items. Required fields are marked *. All the interviews checked out except one. I pull the car over and hop out. Amy was just 10 years . In the fall of 1989, Runkle applied for a teaching position at Nord Junior High in Amherst and was hired on the glowing recommendations of former administrators from Vermilion. There is new evidence in the Amy Mihaljevic murder investigation - a homemade curtain and a blanket found on the road where Amy's body was discovered in 1989. Friends said she never recovered from Amys death and the lack of solid leads in solving the case. Sometime that week, a man had called Amy at home, after school, when she was there alone. Amy Mihaljevic disappeared on October 27, 1989. At this point, the case was still considered a missing persons case, as Amys body would not be found until months later. Somebody who had ridden in that car a week ago, had dropped a hair on the seat," Renner said about the transfer theory. Amy Mihaljevic, United States Unclassified. ", I ask him about the sexual nature of the letters and he looks away. He got a job teaching seventh-grade science at Sailorway Middle School in Vermilion in 1967. INTERVIEW FOLLOW-UP The evidence is highly circumstantial toward Dean Runkle. Sure enough, all the employees there recognize Runkle's picture - he's a manager, but he's not working today. This is a key piece of evidence police searched for when interviewing their many suspects. He asked each of them if they remembered visiting the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village. A couple hours later after no response, the Mihaljevics filed a missing persons report with the Bay Village Police Department. Mr. Runkle wouldve had access to the log book which listed Amys address and phone number, as well as the unlisted phone numbers of the other girls who received the suspicious phone calls. No forensic evidence has tied Runkle to the crime. Over three decades after the kidnapping of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic in northeast Ohio, local police said this week that newly-discovered DNA on a blanket and a curtain could be the key to solving the decades-old cold case. Other tips were called in about a local handyman who had been doing some work on a house down the street from the Mihaljevics. When he couldn't find a textbook up to his standards, he wrote his own and passed it out to the kids. At the height of the stranger-danger era, 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic from Bay Village, OH, was abducted from the Bay Square Shopping Center on October 27, 1989. But they recently tested dog hairs found on the fabric and determined that they matched hairs taken from the dog Amy owned at the time. Her murder case received national attention. What happened to the car you were driving in the Fall of 1989? When I ask him if he could have used the logbook at the nature center to gather phone numbers for girls in North Olmsted, he says he's done talking and begins to walk away. As time went on, the Mihaljevics marriage disintegrated. The first place I stopped was a chain restaurant that Runkle reportedly frequented in Ohio. Mark Spaetzel and a retired FBI agent had interviewed employees about a man who might have volunteered there in 1989. We Got To Him First. Although the Bay Village Police have, confirmed that these same suspects have been interviewed, there are few. He said knowing where the curtain came from and who it belonged to is so important right now. And, because he was in the suburban Ohio area in 1989, authorities think that he can be behind Amys death. The other students assumed the man was a friend or relative, and that Amy knew him, so they thought nothing of it. Dan says their relationship was never physical. He says that after he left for high school, Runkle used to write him letters. In 1990 when the body was found, forensic testing for DNA as we know it now and other trace evidence was not yet available. In terms of a suspect, I agree that Dean Runkle appears incredibly suspicious. Nothing is that simple, I told myself. This desolate stretch of cracked pavement is not a place you'd likely happen on by chance, and detectives had long theorized that whoever had dumped her body there must have been familiar with the area. A stranger convinced Amy that he needed her help buying a present . She says he "probably" gave some to the Lake Erie Nature Center. Other students of Runkle have since testified that Runkle engaged in sexual misconduct with them in the form of inappropriate touching and rides in his car to and from his apartment. Family Life. The center had been one of Amy's favorite places. Some of them just came to our attention recently. This theory is based on the fact that Amys body was found re-dressed and her underwear was put back on inside out. He didn't say anything, just walked past me. The killer also must have been local at the time, having known about the corn field on the remote county road for disposal of Amys body. The local middle school dismissed for the day around 2:10pm every day, but the local high school did not dismiss until 3:10pm. The police also released a letter to all households with school-age children asking if they had received any mysterious phone calls similar to the one that lured Amy out to the shopping center. Dean Runkle is still the prime suspect in the case, according to one FBI agent, but the case against him is still circumstantial. Lanning has weighed in on the case before. "My sister told me about you," he says. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. He had a few girls he was extra close to, like the girl who sat in front of me. Gold-colored fibers were found on Amy's body, according to the Ashland County coroner's file on the case. It turns out the suspect had schizophrenia and he had stopped taking his medication. Amys body was only ever found because her killer wanted it that way. Runkle also seemed to have volunteered in the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village at the time of the murder. At 2:10 p.m., on October . A continued discussion on the Amy Mihaljevic case after 20 years. Ohio Gov. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and she later moved to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Today, in his late 70s, he remains free and resides in Key West, Florida, where he works as a restaurant shift manager. We know this perpetrator is both patient opportunistic, the play it safe type who allowed Amy to call her mom as to not raise suspicion, so why would he rush from his job to the abduction scene? He knew Amy and her friends. Most "groom" and "seduce" their victims into going along with their plans, a salesman-like approach that allows them to believe the children are willing participants. He was an accomplished ragtime piano player and played in the Red Garter Saloon at Cedar Point during the summers. At 2:10 p.m., on October 27, 1989, classes end for the fifth graders of Bay Village Middle. Amy Renee Mihaljevic (11 Dcembre 1978 - Le . In 1971, he quit teaching for two years to play ragtime at Disneyland. Margaret became severely depressed and was unable to move on with her life. 2.1 Dean Runkle; 3 References; 4 Further reading; Read more about this topic: Amy Mihaljevic, Suspect, Confession, alas, is the new handshake.Richard Dean Rosen (b. Then Runkle suddenly quit again, in 2003, according to his personnel file; he gave no reason, declined to apply for a sabbatical that would have allowed him to reach retirement, and didn't even complete the paperwork necessary to collect his pension. Finally, police discovered a link between all the girls. At the time of Amy's . The man asked Ryan if he wanted a ride to school. The girl told police that the man called her house claiming to be a friend of her mothers. . I wasn't going to chance it because I didn't trust him based on his unfounded and mean spirited hatchet job on his personally manufactured suspect, Dean Runkle, in the Amy Mihaljevic case. Many of them are simply just look-alikes who otherwise have no connection to the crime. I can tell whatever I want to. Most of these killers have what psychologists deem a thrill-seeking personality.. In 2001, Margaret Mihaljevic was found dead in her apartment. "When I went to school, there was this wall - student on this side, teacher over here," he said in an interview that ran in the Lorain Morning Journal that year. I'm still going on the fact that Mr. Case knew everyone from that small town and he did not say that Dean Runkle was the man that was with the unknown child . Apparently, in 1987, Dean even set up a few thousand dollars in a trust fund for his favorite student, but then, in the fall of 1989, they just stopped communicating. All rights reserved. According to his co-workers, he lives just a mile from the restaurant, near a large apartment complex, but no one has his exact address. However, his confession proved to be false after investigations revealed that he had been institutionalized on the day that she was abducted. But something happened in 1987. They lived in a nearby community. She said she was going with a friend to the Bay Square Shopping Center. Several students have recently stated that they rode in Mr. Runkles car with him to donate the mice at the nature center. Amy is . Amy Mihaljevic's cause of death was determined to be homicide by stabbing. The investigation now relies heavily on advancements in DNA. Edit: Press conference just ended. Feeling like police never investigated the local nature center lead after the log book disappeared, Renner began his own investigation. As word spread around the neighborhood, friends and family started coming over to the Mihaljevic house to make flyers and search for Amy. Cleveland newspaper reporter James Renner investigated Mihaljevic's murder case and concluded that a teacher named Dean Runkle should be viewed as a prime suspect. I quickly began to see why this man was on the FBI's list of priorities. Whether it came out of that persons house, whether it came out of the location where Amy was killed. Renner pressed him for any information about Amys murder, but Runkle walked away. And others include people, sometimes odd, who lived near the Mihaljevics at the time parents of Amys closest friends, convicted sex offenders, and those with suspicious alibis. In lab, he would stand behind me and push his chest against me. As the years went by, Margaret Mihaljevic moved to Las Vegas to be closer to her mother. One such prank supposedly involved dipping a cat in liquid nitrogen and then smashing the frozen carcass to bits on the floor. Since Runkle is exceptionally well liked as a teacher by many former students, Renner became the subject of strong criticism, unlike anything he had faced from naming previous suspects, when he named Runkle. He talked about the blow-up dolls he kept at home and the way the dashboard of his Grand Prix looked like breasts. If you meet me at the plaza after school, I'll take you shopping to pick out a present for her. Investigators from Bay Village and the FBI know of this man. Right now, there is a theory going around about the possibility of Amys case having multiple assailants, with a connection to a pedophile ring in Michigan. This "list os suspects" is so completely bogus. Runkle says he doesn't ever remember being physical with his female students, either. Dean Runkle himself denies any involvement in the murder of Amy Mihaljevic and the FBI has never officially declared him a suspect. They intend to keep it open for the next 30 years until it is solved. On that Top 25 list, he would be the man at the top. Amy Mihaljevic Popularity . DR seems eccentric from what Ive read, but being eccentric isnt a crime either. DR is to this case what Leigh Allen is the the Zodiac. When would I have had time to kill her? Three and a half months later, Amy's body was found near New London, Ohio. But others remember a darker side. I requested Runkle's personnel file from Nord Junior High School and ran his name through a search of newspaper articles. 2 Suspects. He asked them if they remembered writing their names and home numbers in a logbook by the front doors. "I would definitely tell them to investigate this guy.". But he sees the death of Runkle's twin sister at such a young age as a traumatic event that may have had an impact on the rest of his life. According to reporter James Renner, Dean Runkle is a possible prime suspect in the FBI investigation. The curtain is incredibly unique and likely homemade. I remember when he saw one girl with a skirt that was way too short, he said, 'That's not appropriate, but I'm glad you wore it to my class.' Multiple witnesses say that he matches the man they saw . Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Amy: My Search for Her Killer: Secrets and Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic at Amazon.com. That obsession leads James to a successful career as an investigative journalist. Amy Mihaljevics abduction and murder, unsolved, is still ongoing, and it seems as if the authorities will not stop until they bring the 10-year-old girl some justice by arresting and convicting her perpetrator/s. Science teacher from the area, lived in Ashland County and grew up. Runkle resigned abruptly, explaining he had to leave for "health reasons." What is your response to some of your former students in regards to.