33 years since her kidnapping, new developments in the Amy Mihaljevic murder mystery

Bay Village, Ohio (WOIO) - New developments in one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in Northeast Ohio, the kidnapping and killing of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic.

LISTEN: Dark Side of the Land podcast: Who Killed Amy Mihaljevic?

A lead detective in the case says a piece of evidence in Amy’s murder has just been re-submitted to a lab for further DNA testing. Bay Village detectives are not releasing specifics as to what that evidence is and what specifically they’re testing for, but say it will take four months to get results.

Thursday marks 33 years since Amy was taken from a shopping plaza in Bay Village. Her body was found four months later, in a field in rural Ashland County. A suspect has never been identified.

Amy Mihaljevic

There is a walk at Bay Middle School Thursday night in honor of Amy. The goal is to keep her memory alive and to keep her case in the public eye, in the hopes of finding new clues that will lead police to her killer.

Every year, Bay Village Police and the FBI get 75 to 100 tips in Amy’s case. They say they follow up on every one of them. In the past two years alone, the department has spend $75,000 on advanced DNA testing. In the past, this is what investigators have said about how crucial that testing is to this case.

“We’re pursing more so the angle of science now than we ever have in the past because DNA changes every couple of months,” says Det. Sgt. Jay Elish of the Bay Village Police Department.

The biggest hurdle, Dt. Sgt. Elish says, is the fact that the evidence in 33 years old. But he adds, they continue to hold out hope that recent advancements in DNA testing will lead to a suspect and to justice for Amy.

If you have information that could lead police to a suspect in the Amy Mihaljevic case, call Bay Village Police or the FBI.

For more information on Amy’s story, it is featured in our true crime podcast series, ‘Dark Side of the Land, Who Killed Amy Mihaljevic?’ It’s a two part series. You can find it, where ever you get your podcasts.

Copyright 2022 WOIO. All rights reserved.