Amy Renee Mihaljevic

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Ashland County Sheriffs Office (OH)

Offense Location:

Bay Village, Ohio

Summary:

Amy Renee Mihaljevic was a ten-year-old American elementary school student who was kidnapped and murdered in the U.S. state of Ohio in 1989. On 10/27/1989, 10yr old Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped from the Bay Square Shopping Center parking lot in Bay Village, Ohio. On February 8, 1990, the girl's body was found in a field, close to the road, off County Road 1181, Ruggles Township in rural Ashland County, Ohio. Her murder has yet to be solved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Weeks prior to her abduction, Amy was contacted via telephone by the abductor, who arranged to meet her after school on 10/27/1989, on the pretext of buying a gift for her mother who had recently been promoted. On October 27, 1989, Amy Mihaljevic walked from Bay Middle School to the Bay Square Shopping Center, and was kidnapped from the center in Bay Village, Ohio. Mihaljevic left her school on foot and headed to the shopping center, where she was last seen outside a business. She appeared to be waiting for someone. It is reported that a man approached Mihaljevic and put his hand on her shoulder as he walked her through the parking lot. On February 8, 1990, Amy's body was found by a jogger in a farm field, close to the road, off County Road 1181 in Ruggles Township (rural Ashland County, Ohio). Amy's cause of death was determined to be a combination of stab wounds to the neck and a blow to her head.

Additional Details:

In November 2006, it was revealed that several other young girls had received phone calls similar to the ones Mihaljevic received in the weeks before her abduction. The unknown male caller claimed he worked with the girl's mother and wanted help buying a present to celebrate her promotion. The girls who received these calls lived in North Olmsted, a suburb near Bay Village; some had unlisted phone numbers. Investigators later confirmed that several girls in nearby North Olmsted had received nearly identical calls. All had recently signed the visitor logbook at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. The caller appears to have used that logbook to identify potential victims by name, address, and phone number. It appears her killer also took several souvenirs including the girl's horse-riding boots, her denim backpack, a binder with "Buick, Best in Class" written on the front clasp, and turquoise earrings in the shape of horse heads. Evidence found [included] the presence of yellow/gold colored fibers on her body. Twenty thousand interviews have taken place during the investigation. This case was described as involving the most extensive search in Ohio since the 1951 disappearance of Beverly Potts. 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. In February 2021, it was announced that a person of interest emerged in the case after a woman contacted authorities in 2019 with potentially valuable information. In 2024, according to the Bay Village Police Department, Amy's clothing was retested, and a lab found an unknown man's DNA on it, but the amount of DNA collected was too low to be used to create a profile. Amy's family remains a shell of its past, as her parents divorced and her mother has since passed away. Margaret McNulty Mihaljevic died in September 2001 without ever knowing who killed her daughter. For a time, she had crusaded to help find missing children, even appeared on "Oprah," but never got over losing her child. In response to her daughter's death, Mihaljevic's mother, Margaret McNulty, co-founded the Community Fund for Assisting Missing Youth, which aimed to educate children about stranger danger.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 02, 2026