Rotten Mango - #76: The Baskin Robbins Killer (Unsolved Case of Amy Mihaljevic)

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

The rookie police officer was sent to the local middle school to give a lecture on how to be safe. Stranger Danger! But this town had nothing to worry about - it was a safe small town. The officer left happy with his work - he had no idea that one of the very kids sitting in his lecture would be kidnapped and murdered right after school. This case was unsolved in the FBI files for over 30 years… but would a woman’s phone call in 2020 finally catch the child killer? Full Source Notes Here: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Butterbeam Butterboot

Welcome to this week's mini-sode. Except it's never read mini-sode. You know the drill. The other day I was on a flight back home from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm on the plane. I've got my Kindle. I downloaded like three different books that I wanted to start while I was on this plane ride. I got started on the first one. It wasn't feeling it. Second one. Again, not really feeling it, okay? I was like, baby, I should just watch a movie instead and not be in educated bits.

But then I was like, you know what? Since I'm on a plane, I wonder what the feeling would be like to revisit one of my favorite books of 2021, which you know is the skies belong to us by Brendan Kurner This book was so amazing the first time around and I am not a big fan of rereading books That's just not my thing especially nonfiction books, right? So I'm like, you know what? I'm on a plane. Let's just do it for the vibes I start rereading it on my Kindle and I just got sucked in for the second time I think it was more gripping the second time around. I don't know if it was the plain setting, but there was

so many details that I was like, wait a minute. I don't even remember this the first time that I read it and I just like zoomed through it in the five hour plane ride. I know a lot of you guys are traveling this summer because things are opening back up. I get so many DMs asking me, this is like a little book club that's starting. You guys are asking me, what book should I read this summer? The Skies belong to us by Brendan Kernner because I'm on a little campaign. Listen, if we read this book enough, maybe they'll turn into a movie because that would be a bangin' movie.

Now let's get into the case. A 35 year old man, let's call him Bobby, okay? The reason that I'm using a fake name, we're gonna talk about it later. He starts his morning in the kitchen. It should be like any other day, right? He had worked that day, but instead of going through his usual routine He starts off by writing a note to his family. He mentions his depression He mentions his severe psoriasis that he's had since he was born. I mean, this is a skin condition And he had it really really bad any time that he would bend down to pick up something, his skin would break and it would start pleading.

So at one point in his life, I mean, he would have to cover his whole body and Vaseline and just lay in bed most of his childhood. He got bullied for it, for a greater part of his life. He was just sick of it. He was done. That's how he was feeling. He went to the fridge and he took out a bottle of Coca-Cola. And he pops it open. Then he grabs a bottle of dry gas. Now, this is something that you put into the car's gas tank. It helps prevent gas from freezing. It also helps like remove water from gas.

It's one of those things. And it's, I mean, it's incredibly toxic. And he starts pouring that dry gas into the Coca-Cola. He raises it up to his lips. And he starts trying to chug it. But after a few sips, I mean the chemicals were probably incinerating, burning his entire throat. I mean maybe that's why he decided to stop drinking the mixture. Maybe that's why he decided to throw away his

suicide note and he went to work a schedule. So he shows up at work and he starts stalking these shelves. He starts telling everyone, wait wait wait, wait, wait guys, I'm in a little bit of pain, like I don't know what's going on, like my stomach hurts. Okay, well, is it bad? I mean, kind of, then go to the hospital. So he rushes himself to the hospital and they call his brother. His brother rushes to his side. What's going on? What's going on, Bobby? Oh, nothing, I'm just depressed. I think I'm on edge. I think that's why I need to be hospitalized. He did not mention any of this dry gas Coca-Cola mixture. A couple days later, he starts to convulse while at the hospital.

He's put on a ventilator, they run tests, they run scans. The dry gas was eating him from the inside out. So what's very interesting about this is that the FBI and police are called in for this case. Now you're thinking, Stephanie, that does make sense. It's a suicide. What's going on here, right? Well, just 13 days ago, a 10-year-old girl's body was found, stabbed to death in a field, and Bobby looked just like the composite sketch.

So this takes place near Lake Erie in Ohio, which, by the way, the sources for this podcast, the Lake Erie murders, it's like a docuseries. I think there's four different parts on Amy Mahalovic by investigation discovery, really good series, but also there's a book called Amy, my search for her killer, Secrets and Suspects in the Unself Murder of Amy Mahalovic by James Runner, which by the way, the first book that I ever read from James Runner was True Crime Addict, How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Mora Murray, which is one of those cases that really gets you into True Crime. It's fascinating because he's really honest, especially about being a journalist in the True Crime space.

I mean, he's really transparent with the tricky relationship that he has with law enforcement, with the victim's families, you know, with the suspects' families, because he's kind of, you know, essentially investigating these things. I mean, it's really fascinating the way that it affects even his personal life. So anyways, go check that out. And this is an unsolved case. So if you guys have any tips, call 1-800-call-FBI, or even if you go to amymahalovicmystery.com, that's run by James Runner, it just keeps you up to date with all of the updates on the news Like this is your go-to source of like is anything happening This is one of those cases that's just so unsettling and it makes you feel uncomfortable and there's so many different suspects How is this unsolved that's you just want to throw your hands in the air? So obviously we got to get to the the heart of this whole case and that is Amy

Mahalovic and I'm really bad at pronouncing last names, but I think I'm getting it right. So she was 10 years old when she was abducted and murdered. Let's get to her childhood. So her mom's name was Margaret. And she worked for the trading times, sold ads for the local magazine, and she had recently gone from being part time

to a full time employee. This seems like a nuanced thing, right? This becomes really important later. Then we have her dad, Mark Mahalovic, who is a football star in high school. At the time he was working for Buick, the car company, and they were essentially just high school sweethearts when they got married. Really cute relationship. At first people were worried that they had nothing in common, but they were in love. So they get married, they have Jason, Amy's older brother, and then they have Amy. Now Amy is described by everyone to just be this little ball of fire. That's what they call her. Just super popular at school.

She was incredibly smart. I mean, she was in gifted classes. Everyone thought that when she got to high school, she would be the valedictorian of their class. And she was only 10. I mean, she had so much potential in her you guys are gonna love her She was a really cool kid like back then and takes were not cool I know thrifting is in right now, but not then she was a thrifting queen She was ahead of her time she was into old things So her best friends said that she had this old-fashioned bike with these big old handlebars And she freaking loved it. I mean all of her classmates were making fun of her like what's wrong with your bike? Can't afford a new bike, but she was into it. I mean, she was artsy.

This is just her thing. She loved horses. She went to a place called This Is Really Important. Holly Hills Horse Farm. And she would ride horses all the time over there. I mean, took riding lessons, won awards, for riding horses. Really cool kid, okay?

Even if she didn't have lessons, she would still go to the horse farm just to brush the horses. So it seemed like there was really nothing that Amy couldn't do. Now at the time that all of this takes place, there were a few things going on in Amy's life and I just feel like I got to mention it, okay? Her parents were going through a divorce. Now it's clear that both of her parents loved her dearly, but I think divorce can be really hard on a kid, you know? I don't think it has anything to do with this case or what happens next, no, but I do feel like, okay, maybe I should include this.

And then the same month that she disappears, there was a small incident in that school that's really unsettling, really creepy, okay? Amy and her friend were outside jumping rope. They're like near this school fence, just, I don't know, talking about what 10-year-olds talk about, boys, school, class, horses. And on the side of the road through the fence, they see that there's this car parked there. And inside that car, there's a man. This man is looking directly at them.

While they're jumping rope. Like, that's creepy. Yeah. So Amy's friend felt so creeped out by this that she felt it necessary to put down her jump rope, run back into the school and tell a teacher. So the teacher's like, okay, well, let me just go ask this guy. Why are you looking at the kids? So she rushes outside, but at that point, the car was gone.

The man had vanished. He's gone now. Now, there was one more incident that is told by Amy's best friend. And this, I mean, this is, they had a sleep over one night. And they wanted to play on the Ouija board. So they're like asking very, you know, silly questions. I'm sure like 10 year olds ass, like oh, does this guy like me, you know, what am I gonna, what am I gonna be when I grow up? But at the end, allegedly, according

to Christie, Amy's best friend at the time, Amy wanted to ask, when will I die? And so they started moving the little Ouija board holder and at first, they went to the letter S, then it went to the letter O, and then it went to the another O, and then an N. Soon. And they were so creeped out, they were like, oh my god, put it away, put it away. So they just put the Ouija board away and tried to forget about it. They watched movies that night and just did not think about it again. But I also feel like that's a very common question to ask, right? Yeah. So. I think it's one of those incidents that nothing weird is happening with the Ouija board, but I do think it is probably traumatizing to Kristi, her best friend. That's true.

Who is like growing up with this memory. Yeah, that's true. You know. So the day is October 27th, a Friday, the Friday before Halloween. I mean, this is the best Friday. Amy Mahalovic jumps on her bike, meets up with her school friends, and they start biking to the middle school. Now Amy, this whole bike ride, she was chilling. There was no signs of anxiety or like, ooh, she's

like afraid something's gonna happen. No, she was happy. The only thing on her mind at the time were school pictures. She had worn a ponytail the day that the school pictures were taken. And it was like a new hairstyle. She did a side ponytail the day that the school pictures were taken and it was like a new hairstyle She did a side ponytail just like one ponytail on the side of her head and she decided I hate this look But she has to wait until November for picture retake day So she was just really stressing about it and her friends were like listen Amy You look so cute. You don't even have to worry about it. They get to school. They go through the classes now in a really strange Twist of fate. That day, a police officer from the local police department walks into this middle school.

And this officer was considered a bit of a rookie at the time, right? He's sent to the school to talk about child safety because it's Halloween soon. So probably the kids are going to be trick or treating. He's got to teach them about stranger danger, writes it up on the board, giving them tips. Who do you not talk to? You know, who do you avoid? What do you do if a stranger comes up to you and asks you if you want candy? Now he's looking at the class of students and most of them were listening intently, some of them were probably looking terrified, okay? I remember these talks, we had police officers come to our school

and this is the type of town that you, I mean it's Bay, village, Ohio, it's the type of town that you don't I mean it's Bay village Ohio. It's the type of town where you don't really have to worry about that. Like no kidnapping predators are just lying dormant waiting for the next lonely child walking by on the sidewalk to snatch him. Like it's just not that type of place. So are they taking it seriously? They are taking it seriously though because this sounds scary. I mean if we're a kid you're like that's terrifying.

They're gonna put me in their van. What the heck? So they're all listening intently. They're like you're right You're right like I gotta be careful now the officer leaves the school But he would be back in a few hours because one of the students in that very class that he was talking to would be kidnapped right after school So class ends Amy should be home about an hour before her older brother, Jason. Now this Friday was a little bit different. She had told her mom that she's staying late at school for choir tri-outs. So her parents expected, okay, well maybe she'll be home

around the same time as Jason choir tri-outs really should be max an hour, right? Then she's gonna bike home, it's gonna be fine. But here's the thing, there were no choir tri-outs that day. So around 2 p.m. Amy starts walking with her classmates towards the local Basque and Robbins. This is a shopping plaza that's actually directly in front of the Bay Village police station. Wow. Which is fascinating. Wait, so she lives really close from home? Really close. Yeah.

I mean, I mean, in front school. Yeah, so she's going to this Basque and Robbins. This is like an ice cream shop, and I grew up in a small town, so I know this vibe. I actually had a hangout at Baskin Robbins, like this was the go-to place for all the cool kids. You buy ice cream and they have like three benches, and you just try to sit next to your crush on that bench with your ice cream that's dripping. It was just a strange experience, okay. So she's headed to Baskin Robbins with her friends. It's about a quarter mile from the school, and everyone's there.

This is where people gather. So she's out there. Her friends disbursed. They're talking to boys. They're talking to girls. They're just doing their thing. Buying some ice cream. And she's seem twirling around a pole. Like, you know, those like street light poles. She's just kind of like twirling around not really doing anything. And one of her friends looks back at her and sees that this man probably in his 30s is approaching Amy. And they have a very short conversation. It seems like he knows her. I mean, he puts his hand on her back and leads her out to the parking lot. Maybe it's her dad.

Maybe it's her uncle. It's really just not alarming. So she looks away for two seconds to talk to somebody else. And when she looks back, Amy is completely gone. And again, this is an alarming because she's thinking, oh, she probably went home with her dad. Or maybe this is her uncle who's picking her up. Whatever this is, this is an alarming because she's thinking, oh she probably went home with her dad, or maybe this is her uncle who's picking her up. Whatever this is, this is not stranger danger. Because we just learned, if there is a stranger, you say blah, blah, blah, blah.

But this person obviously knew Amy. That person was really bossy, right? Yeah. Because he walked straight into the group. In the middle of a basket, Robbins. I mean, her friends weren't like right next to her, but they were really close. This is a small shopping plaza. So Amy's gone.

Jason the older brother, he gets off of school and he was pretty stoked, okay. This guy, Jason, he had a coupon in his back pocket. It had been calling his name the whole day. Free ice cream at Baskin Robbins. It was a coupon for his birthday cone, right? So he's like, I'm gonna head up Baskin Robbins. It's gonna be the time of my life. But while he's walking towards Baskin Robbins,

he sees a group of older boys there. And these boys were evil. I mean, they had bullied him for so long that he's like, am I really gonna waste and ruin my free ice cream? While I get bullied, like they're just gonna call me all these names and what am I gonna do? Just eat my ice cream cone? No, I'm gonna go home.

Like, a man is gonna go home, I'll use it another day. Jason would later say, if those boys hadn't been there, I would have been at Baskin Robbins with Amy. So Jason gets home. Now at this point, Amy probably should be home by now, right? But she's not home. He thinks this is a little bit strange. She knew about the choir triodes, but still very, very odd. So he calls up his mom Margaret, who's at work and says, hey, what's going on with Amy? She's still not home like did she talk to you and the mom's like wait, what do you mean? She's not she's not home yet. Okay. Okay, that's fine Jason like I'm gonna I'm just gonna leave work early and I'll head home right now. I'm sure it's nothing. She's probably at a friend's house

Maybe she's at Baskin Robbins, right? So she hangs up the phone. She's gathering her supplies telling her boss like I'm gonna head out Right she gets a phone call. Hello? Hey, mom, she's gathering her supplies, telling her boss like I'm gonna head out, right? She gets a phone call. Hello? Hey mom, it's Amy. Uh huh. So she's like, where have you been? Quiet triads. Okay, well where are you now Amy?

I'm home mom. And so everything about this conversation was just so strange to Margaret. I mean, it seemed like her daughter was trying to hang up. It seemed like her daughter was just iffy about these details. Like, why are you talking like this? Did something happen?

What's going on? So either way, this is giving her more anxiety. So she's like, okay, well, don't worry. I'm gonna be home in like 10 minutes. So she hangs up the phone, rushes into our car and drives home, right? The whole time. At this moment, does she think that she's home or no?

Yeah. She thinks that she's home, but maybe something happened at choir trials. Maybe something bad happened. This just isn't the way that her daughter talks. And by the way, Amy and her mom were so close. People called Amy Margaret Shadow. They loved each other so much.

They were best friends, not just mom and daughter. So she's like, OK, maybe something happened. Rushes to the house, slams up in the door, and Jason's like, okay, will did you find her? What do you mean, did I find her? Like, she's supposed to be home. She called me, she's at she's home. And Jason's like, what are you talking about? She never came home. She didn't call you from home. So she immediately, Margaret is like, okay, okay, don't panic. She gets back into our car, drives straight to the middle school She's like maybe maybe it's choir tryouts. Maybe she's still here and that phone call was I don't know like a glitch in the universe

She's just she's panicking at this point. She gets to the middle school and Amy's bike is still on the bike rack So she's like okay, she really didn't come home So she starts panicking a little bit more. Nobody has seen Amy. None of Amy's friends have seen Amy since after school. None of this is making sense. They start panicking. She calls the police.

She rushes to the police station. And thankfully, the police do not waste any time. They don't care. She's a runaway. They're not asking all these questions of like, are you sure this 10 year old doesn't want to like get a credit score and start a new life? Like, no, 10 year olds are not runaways

And if they are you should still be looking for them, okay? So they start searching now even the FBI get involved rather quickly in this case and later this causes a lot of speculation especially in like the more conspiracy niche of true crime because I Mean I guess the question is why were the FBI so dead set on this case? Maybe they were having a slow month. Now, I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way. I am not saying that Amy's disappearance didn't warrant this type of search. What I'm saying is, I think every missing child should receive this type of search from the FBI,

but in my time of being into true crime and like really loving reading about cases, I just haven't seen a lot. Like a lot of the large portions of missing children's cases covered, there isn't this high of FBI presence, unless it goes viral on social media or with the news. So all of Amy's friends and family, they rushed to the family house, they want to help in any way that they can't. Maybe she went to the woods, maybe she slipped on something and she has a broken ankle in the woods, like let's go search the woods. We gotta have search parties, and that is when Christie, one of Amy's best friends, had this like moment of deja vu. Not in the sense that she felt like Amy would vanish, not in like the Ouija board is coming

to nothing, none of that. But like wait, I remember, didn't Amy say that she was meeting with someone? So they're like, what? So the FBI come in, they sit her down and they're like, what are you talking about? She's meeting with someone? Well, okay. So she told me that she got a call about a week ago on the house phone when she was home alone

and she thought maybe it was one of her friends. She rushes up to it and Amy picks it up and it was this guy, it was this man on the phone. And he knew her by name. He said, hey Amy, like I work with your mom. She just got a promotion at work. So maybe she didn't necessarily get a promotion but she did go from part time to full time earlier that year. That's why I said it's important. And if you like, I can

meet you after school and help, you know, pick out a present for your mom to celebrate her promotion. And you know, Amy, maybe we can get a present for you too, but just don't tell anyone because we want to surprise your mom, right? Let's not ruin this price. Oh my God. And she did tell this exact message to her. Yeah, to her friends because I mean, that's not ruining the surprise. She's not telling her mom, but she was so excited.

I mean, she was so happy for her mom, truly, Amy is the type of kid that would do anything for her mom. So she was stoked. So technically, it's not ruining the surprise. She tells her friends. Now this is when the FBI start panicking. Like, okay, like for sure she is not you know gotten lost. She is not lost in the woods with a sprained ankle. This is a kidnapping situation. And they

start asking tenured Christie a ton of questions. Like is is there any way that maybe your best friend would have her just leave? Maybe she wants to run away with someone, you know, have you thought about that? And this her response is so heartbreaking because it just shows how young these kids are that are involved. She says no, Amy would never leave. She loves her dogs too much. Like that's a 10 year old response to the FBI. So they start panicking even more. Everyone's out there doing search parties. The FBI is like going full force on this local law enforcement,

full force, and other family friends decided we got to do something about this. Like we can't just be out here. We need to get word out that Amy is missing because if people see her face somewhere, time is of the essence. So they take that school picture that Amy ironically didn't like at all With this I'd ponytail and they march into Channel 3 news office the local news office and they say listen You are gonna air Amy's picture whether you like it or not you're gonna talk about her disappearance, okay? And they said I'm sorry. We can't do that. We've got protocol. You got to wait 24 to 48 hours and they would not leave They said you listen here. You got to do it her friends that that she's with some man. She's not just missing. She didn't just run away. Please. Okay, okay, like calm down guys. We'll air it tonight. So they're excited, they're happy. They feel like, okay, this is progress.

There's a new thing trending on TikTok, okay? It's called Scent of the Day. People are buying full-sized bottles of perfume so that they can spray it typically on their wedding day. It's a new scent. They've never worn it before, but they love it. Now this smell is associated with their wedding day anytime they wear it. It's like forming these scent memories.

And all of the comments are, I'm sorry, do you think we're rich like this is insane do you know how much a bottle of a full-size perfume is that's crazy I'm here to tell you there's an easier way there's a much more affordable way to do that and that is sent bird I have been using sent bird personally for the past three years now and I'm obsessed with it not only can I travel with these okay let me break it down for you you're like stuff you are getting ahead of yourself what is is sent bird? It's a fragrance

subscription service that gives you the opportunity to shop from over 600 brands. It's a flexible subscription. You can skip any month without penalties and they let you choose a new design of fragrance to try every single month for just $16. And the cool thing is, it's not a surprise. Like you get to pick exactly which one you know what you're getting They have perfumes they have cologne's and a lot of unisex options So you choose your pick and they send you a 30-day supply which honestly has lasted me way longer than 30 days and centpered carries top designer brands like product Gucci for Sachi and they also have you know indie labels like Vince commuda the Harmonies confessions of a rebel actually my's pick was confessions of a rebel called,

Bitch, Please. That's my fragrance scent, and I loved it so much. It just smells like confidence. All of their scents are 100% authentic. They work directly with these brands. And if you guys are like me, and some months, you're just like, I don't really know what I'm looking for. You can sort and find your new fragrances by brand,

style, occasion, season, and more. Did you know some of the bottles that they carry cost anywhere between $345? Some of them go up to like $500. Imagine doing scent of the day with a $500 bottle. That could not be me. So an exclusive offer just for you guys, you get 30% off your first month today. That's only $11 for your first fragrance. Go to scentbird.com and use my code rotin for 30% off your first month today. That's only $11 for your first fragrance. Go to centbird.com and use my code Rotten

for 30% off your first month. Again, that's scintbird.com and try out your first perfume or cologne for just $11. They get back into the car, they drive back to the Mahalavic house, but when they pull into the car, they drive back to the mahala of the house, but when they pull into the driveway, they hear It's been described as guttural, primal, gut-wrenching screams from inside the house. So they're like, what happened?

The Russian and Margaret, who wasn't expecting any of this, Amy's mom saw Amy's picture pop up on the news. And she was just screaming. What do you mean she wasn't expecting this? She wasn't expecting to see this on the news. I think it's like a mixture of either she wasn't expecting it to be on the news. Like she didn't know that they were going to go put it on channel three. Or maybe this is like the moment of realization like my child is missing. Got it. Yeah.

This is not, oh, she's at a friend's house and didn't tell me. This is on the local news. So they have this huge search center. It's called the Aimee Center. And a lot of people were volunteering to help out. I mean, the whole community, they were really upset about this. They were shaken. This type of stuff does not happen in this town.

They had a bunch of papers that were donated. So they printed hundreds of thousands of flyers with Amy's school picture on it distributed them across the United States, some even ended up as far as Australia, which is wild, and the calls just are pouring in. Okay, a lot of them were just straight up speculations. That's what the police said. They'd be like, hey, I'm looking at my neighbor through the window right now and I'm telling you that, guys, frickin' strange. They'd now and I'm telling you that guy is freaking strange. They'd be like okay, well that's not really proof.

Well he did steal a plant from me and his dog pooped in my yard so I wouldn't put a pass this guy. They're like that is again. I'm not laughing but like that is again not proof lady. And then the next time it'd be like listen I'm telling you, it's gotta be my ex boyfriend. What do you think that? I mean I knew, I knew he'd one day just snap. What do you think that? I mean the guys got no morals. This is exactly the type of thing that he would do and they're like okay this is

outrageous. Now the police were taking this entire thing incredibly personally because Amy with kidnapped right across the street from the police station in broad daylight in front of an ice cream shop. In front of a basket, Robbins. So they go all out. They conduct over 18,000 interviews between the police, between the FBI. They just go in on this town. And of course, I know with every case we got to ask and this is like the first thing that they do is eliminate the ones closest to the family.

And they asked a lot of tough questions. They FBI went around asking all of the family friends, how do you feel about Amy's dad? You know, what do you think about her brother? You think Jason's a little weird? And everyone says no, they love Amy. Like you don't, you're barking up the wrong tree. Like I get why you have to do this, but trust me, they love her.

And so obviously the family was ruled out, not just because of love, but also alibis and stuff. The search party, back to ground zero, just all these crazy tips, and then they get a creepy call. An anonymous call from a nearby town received a call very similar to Amy's mother's promotion call. She said that she was babysitting her little brother, right? And the phone rings, so her little brother runs, answers it.

And she wasn't really paying attention at first, but she realized,, wow he's been on the phone for a really long time, like why? That's strange, is it mom? Is it dad? What's going on? So she says, hey, who's on the phone? And he just kind of like shakes his head, like puts his hand in the air like, I'm freaking no. She's like, okay, well I'm responsible for you, I'm your baby star, okay, let me, she grabs the phone, hello, and it's man's voice. Hey, I want know if you wanna go pick out a present for your mom. I'm an old friend of your mom, and we haven't seen each other in a while,

so I wanna buy her a beautiful gift, and I think it'll be nice to surprise her, don't you? We can pick a big gift for you on the way. The guy thought she was a little kid? No, she is, she is little kid, she's like 12 or something. Oh, okay. Yeah, so she's like, what?

So she hangs up the phone, she calls her mom. And her mom is obviously confused. We did he say his name? Like, why would, that's strange. Even if I had like an old friend, why would they call you? And why would they want to like take you to buy it? That's, that's bizarre. Let's just call the police and get it on the record, right?

So they go to the police station, they file reports on it, and a month later they see on the record, right? So they go to the police station, they file reports on it, and a month later, they see on the news that Amy had vanished. So we got to call the FBI on this, like this is weird. What is the coincidence that we too have the same phone call? So the FBI rushes to their house, they're questioning, okay. So the same thing happened to you, got it, okay. Hey, quick question.

Where did you get all these horse trophies from? Oh my god. Where do you keep all your horses? Oh, um, Holly Hill's farms? Well, maybe this is the connection. Anything else that we need to know? This is kind of important for later. The girl that received this call that was very similar to Amy's,

she had been raped by someone not too long ago. And she couldn't ID the rapist. But this rapist took her clip on Earring off of her ear as some sort of like sick trophy, like a souvenir. Now those earrings were horses. So this is important later. So the FBI, they just go all up in Holly Hill's horse farm. Like what's going on?

Maybe this guy has connections to the horse farm. And he's just waiting around for young kids to be writing horses to kidnap them. I don't know, like this is terrifying. They start combing through the farm. They bump into the caretaker who is a relative of the owners of the farm and he just had a very strange vibe about him. So they look into his history and his history is even stranger.

Like there were allegations that he was creepy with some of the female students. There were allegations that he was creepy with some of the female students. There were allegations that he was creepy with some of the parents. I mean, he was kind of known as like the boogie man of the horse farm. None of the young girls really liked him. He just gave off very creepy vibes. So they're coming through every inch of this horse farm.

And then another call is made to the FBI. Two sisters that lived in nearby so that they two received a spooky phone call. So like, what's going on? Okay, well, we want to be anonymous because this guy is obviously still out there and he's not caught, but the man on the phone kept asking us how old we were and what we like to do. And what's strange is he would always call when we were home alone. Our parents would be at work and we'd always ask like, well, why do you want to know all these things? Oh, well, I work with your mom. I want to buy her a present.

I just wanted to see what maybe she would be into, which she would like. They were terrified. He knew when to call. He would always call when they were alone. And they started getting so paranoid that these two girls, every time that they would get that call, they would start looking out their windows. They felt like they were being watched. And sure enough, there was a car that they would get that call they would start looking out their windows They felt like they were being watched and sure enough There was a car that they did not recognize. I was parked outside every single time a call was made He was probably watching them so the police are like okay, what are the coincidences? Then another call is made to the FBI another ten-year-old girl in the area had the same exact experience But this one she's home alone after school, the phone rings, hello.

Hey, I'm your mom's boss and I want to pick you up after school one day. Wait, what, this happened when after the missing case or... So after she went missing, they started being like, oh wait, that happened to us too. All these families started coming forward telling the FBI like, wait, wait, this is weird. Maybe this is like a serial kidnap or just trying to kidnap all of the young kids in this town. What's going on?

Who's calling us? So they said, I'm your mom's boss. I want to pick you up after school one day. So she's like, well, I gotta ask my grandma. And he started just guilt tripping her. Like, why do you have to ask your grandma? Just like, are you sure? I mean, I'm just trying to make it easier

for you and your grandma, like just doing the most. So she just hung up. Didn't really mention it, saw Amy on the news later on and was terrified. Now they did not, they didn't go to the same school though. She also didn't go to Holly Hill's horse farm. So how did this, well, like, what's the connection here, right? She also lived in a neighboring town, didn't go to the same school. What's going on? So the police started investigating, okay, what else do you like to do for fun? I mean, I guess I like to go to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village. Okay, ding, ding, ding. I mean, Amy has been there. This is like another connection. I mean, it seems like all of these girls have a connection, but I mean, most of the kids in this area have a connection here.

So the police, they march up in there at that nature center, they know that they have a log book. So when these kids check in, because the parents usually I guess aren't staying with them, so they write their names down, their phone numbers, their address, that's like emergency contacts. So this is the easiest way to find out. Are these girls definitively connected

to this nature center? Is this how, you know, this person is, maybe it's like connected to this nature center? Is this how, you know, this person is maybe it's like teacher at this nature center of volunteer here? The janitor, I don't know, it could be anyone here, the owner, but when they go to look for that book, it's gone. The book is gone. Just vanish, just gone. Okay, then that's very. Yeah, very strange, but again, because it it's gone the police can't definitively say oh There's a link here and it's someone involved with this place. I think the fact that book is gone

Yeah, it's like a sign of hey exactly let's look here. I think we'd be really good, but also really horrible agents So um this is when James Ranner they author are there, but he starts tracking down other leads, because he's like, are you sure that these are the only girls that got this call? Because that seems like a lot. If there's this many, there might be more, right? And a local that he was interviewing was telling in this story of, oh, there's another two girls, sisters, right? And one of them was probably like four years old at the time this took place, but she goes to bed in her room, and she brushes out,

and she brushes to her parents her room and she brushes out and she brushes to her parents' room and says, Mom, Dad, someone's in my room, there's a man in my room and they're like, okay, listen. I got it. Listen, there's just no such thing as monsters. Trust us. You're gonna be okay. Okay, she goes back to her room.

Goes back again, like I'm telling you, Mom, Dad, listen, dad listen listen Linda there is someone in my room So eventually the dad goes to check opens the closet see there's nobody here But a hand comes out to close it so he's like excuse me what okay? They're literally as a man in there he opens it up the dad holds him down mom calls the police and this guy was sent to jail So a lot of the locals that know this story I mean well this man in particular, seemed to insinuate to James Runner, the journalist, like, maybe it's this guy, right?

But what James is doing? I'm just so confused by this story right now. It's very, yeah. First of all, the girl runs in there. There's a man. And the band just watched this little girl come in. It's probably me, eye contact, ran out, and then come in again, and then ran back

out again. So it seems like maybe he was hiding in the closet. Okay. And like was waiting for her to get into bed to like creep out like a weirdo. Okay, fine. And then the dad came in, opened the closet door, and he closes it. Yeah, pretty much. What?

Yeah, we're like laughing because no one got physically hurt but like traumatizing. So, you know, this local is telling the journalist, James Runner, like, maybe it's this guy. If the police aren't looking into him, you should look into him. But when James Runner looks into him, he had been in jail at the time it seems.

From what I can tell, from all, everything it seems like he had been in jail. It seems like what James Runner was implying right so that didn't make sense Now the FBI they're getting a lot of press on this, you know a lot of people are wondering what's going on I mean the whole nation was involved. There's hundreds of thousands of posters out there So they release a video of Amy speaking to her class now This is a gut-ranging video because yeah, you saw that picture of her and she looks so young I mean she's just a kid and you feel this pain of how is this child missing but when you watch

this video like it just like hits you in the gut so more people just start getting involved in this and the FBI get a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A young girl called them and said hi my name is Amy and I'm in Farmington, Maine and just hung up So all of these calls were recorded they take this audio tape and they show it to the mahala Vic family And they're sitting there and they're saying oh my god, that's her But that's her that's her voice it's her it's her. It's got to be her But you know because maybe this is a grieving family They send it to the FBI headquarters, analyze if it's her voice.

They're trying to trace the call, right? And at the same time, they're reaching out to all of the law enforcement in Maine. Like, you gotta look for her. If you see anyone that looks like, put the word out there. If you see Amy, you gotta pull her aside. They're just frantic. They're looking for her. But then the news returns that the voice in the audio was not Amy's voice. Who a prank call. I don't know if it's a prank call. I don't know. Maybe there is another Amy that is

you know being exploited or was missing in Farmington. So there's just so many of these like leads that are not really there that they seem seem so promising. And they just leave nowhere. So Amy's 11th birthday comes along and her mom decides to get up on TV and give a gut-wrenching message. She had been missing for two months and she looked directly into the camera and Margaret said, I miss you, I love you so much, come home. And she tells everyone it's really difficult

to have a birthday party without the birthday girl. And she tells everyone it's really difficult to have a birthday party without the birthday girl. And she wrote this little note to our dearly-starling Amy, Happy Birthday. Since you aren't here at the moment and we don't know the address, we decided the only way to get birthday greetings to you was this way. We know from birthdays past that you would choose spaghetti for your meal, angel food cake with confetti frosting. So in honor of that, that's what we will be having. Don't worry though, we're gonna save some for you too. One thing we won't tell you is what your present is. You'll have to come home to find what it is.

We are waiting for you, sweetie, till then the gift to you is lots of love and prayers for your wellbeing. So they keep searching. And then there was a jogger on her morning jog. And you know exactly where this is going. She sees what looks like a pile of clothes. Maybe a doll.

Maybe someone threw a mannequin. Which, you know, if you Google the words mannequin and body found into Google, this is a very big rabbit hole that you'll go down. It seems like most people who do find dead bodies that are not dismembered, they do believe it's some sort of mannequin, even in the last main episode, the two guys, the two brothers,

were like, that must be a mannequin for Shonda Sharer's body, right? And I thought maybe the connection is that people's brains don't wanna believe it's a dead body, so they believe what we see more of, which is mannequins at the mall versus dead bodies. I mean, how often do you see a dead body? That one's zero killer.

That's like all the time. Let me email her. But apparently there's more than that. So if a human body is not prepped by a mortician, usually there is a resemblance to a mannequin. Like the body forms this almost like wax like appearance on the outside. And if your if rigor mortis has set sin, then you have the stiff appearance. So it makes you look almost plastic because you're laying very rigid It's not like you're just laying down for a nap. You're very rigid

But there is something interesting called the uncanny valley. This is a little tangent I'm sorry, but it's fascinating. So this is the hypothesis. This is a theory that the relationship between an object resemblance to a human and the human's emotional response to that said object is related. Okay, so get this. If something looks like it's trying to be a human, but it looks nothing like a human, so a Barbie doll, you feel positive emotions to it. You might feel more positive emotions to a Barbie doll than maybe a robot doll that

looks like a robot because you have more sympathy towards things that look like you, like humans. But there's a valley of things that are just close enough, but not a human. And it gives you this really negative feeling. Just like this strangely familiar eerie, okay, something weird is going on. And I think maybe that's why a lot of people when they see a dead body, you know, these people that find crime scenes, they think, oh, it's going to be a mannequin, but they keep investigating. Because if you really genuinely thought it's just a mannequin, you might keep jogging.

But something gives you this feeling of like, what is happening? It kind of makes sense. So if a robot's appearance is made more human versus just screws and bolts, right? Like if that Alexa device or that Google Home device looks somewhat like a human. Or the other AI woman. Yeah, you start kind of having a positive empathetic response, right? But if it reaches a point where it becomes almost human, but not human enough, you start getting creeped out. Yeah, yeah, just like that AI woman, it's so human, but not human enough, you start getting creeped out.

Yeah, yeah, just like that AI woman, it's so divided, right? And it's because we're really good with small inconsistencies. So it's even down to the face muscles. The upper face of a robot usually is really stiff, so it lacks emotion. So even if it's almost perfectly human, it gives you that uncomfortable feeling.

Now, I thought this probably only has to do a true crime or AI robots, right? But this is found everywhere. You know, Final Fantasy? They had a movie called Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within, which is a CGI animated film. It completely tanked. I mean, they put a lot of money into this. The budget was $137 million. And they only made $85 million because of their already-exist in fan base right the whole film is centrally flopped and it's

stated that a lot of people didn't like it because the robots were so realistic but not human enough it was like ninety eight percent human but that two percent made people so creeped out yeah like what the forks going on yeah that's why like I rather I think most people rather watch watch anime than these 3d Wait, okay, you're literally headed where I was headed. Okay, so sometimes animated films are criticized for that right there Like I mean it's 2021 come on why why are these Disney girls? What do they have big old eyeballs that take a path their face? What's usually because these producers are trying to not hit uncanny valley?

What's usually because these producers are trying to not hit uncanny valley? Because you know the Shrek movie they did a test screening before it came out and they showed all these kids the movie and Every kid had like well most of the kids had an anxiety response to Princess Fiona They said that she just looks creepy. So before the release they animated her and made her more cartoonish and kids loved it. You know Sonic the Hedgehog, the 2020 film? So they released a trailer. The comments are turned off on YouTube, it's that bad. Yeah, they released a trailer.

They had to edit the whole movie again for three months after the trailer came out, because people were creeped out by Sonic the Hedgehog. Really? So they made the Sonic the Hedgehog look way less human and more cartoonish for the final release. That makes sense. Yeah, so this is, I mean, this is creepy. What's the saying? There's the saying for that, you said? Uncanny Valley.

It's like so uncanny. So there's like a valley of like, okay, this is like the sweet spot that humans can tolerate. Yeah. Now, obviously this is just a theory and people think that with time with kids growing up around cartoons and A.I.s, maybe uncanny valley will completely disappear. But we don't know. Anyways, those little tangent. Let's move on.

So the jogger, she takes this very rural route and it's one of those places that unless you lived there, unless you worked there, maybe even hunted there, it's not a place that you would pass through. It's not like, oh, this is just the road to my destination. She's running like she always does and 20 feet off the road in the field, she spots which she assumed was a doll or a mannequin, but when she gets closer, this was the body of a little girl. It was Amy. They bring her body in to be autopsy. Now a couple yards away.

Okay, not a couple. I want to say it's like a hundred yards away. They find a curtain and a blanket. No, the FBI are immediately assuming this blanket was probably wrapped around Amy's body. So we're going to bring that in as evidence. Summers are my shopping months. I am very aware of this and I'm trying to to buy stuff with my debit card. So that I'm not like, you know what, this is free money, swipe, swipe, swipe.

Cuz it's not. And one of the easiest way to do that is with credit karma. They've just always been there to help you make better financial decisions. And now they can even help more. So with the credit karma money spend account, you can be rewarded for your good money habits. The way that it works, it's this brand new checking account where you can win cash reimbursements for making purchases. Anytime that you use your credit karma money debit card, you have the chance to win daily instant karma purchase reimbursements

on items up to $5,000. So you just pay your debit card, and if you win, you'll be notified on the spot and your instant karma cash will be added to your spend account. That's gnarly. Credit karma money has already given away over $3 million in instant karma to over $50,000 credit karma members and counting.

Open your FDIC-insured Spend Account for free. There's literally no minimum balance requirements, no overdraft fees, and free withdrawals with the network of over $50,000 ATMs. Right now you can visit creditcarma.com-win-money to open your free account and start winning instant karma. That's creditcarma.com-win-money to open your free account and start winning instant karma. That's credit karma dot com slash win money to sign up for free and start winning instant karma. That's credit karma dot com slash win money. Instant karma is sponsored by credit karma. No purchase necessary exclusions in terms of apply C rules. Binking services provided by MVB bank ink. Member FDIC maximum balance and transfer limits apply.

So when they autopsy Amy's body, the cause of death were stab wounds to the neck. She blood out slowly. They estimated the time of her being stabbed and the time of death to be about 30 minutes. Wow. So this was not like a very quick painless death. It was speculated that she was kept alive for a few days,

probably no longer than like a week or two, but they don't really know. I mean, I feel like all of these different sources, they kind of say different things. So I just wanna go with the speculation of, either it's not really to the public because it's an ongoing case or they really don't know because she was decomposed. Her underwear was inside out so it's speculated that there was some sexual molestation but

again it can't be confirmed because she was decomposing. How long has it been? Months? They think like maybe close to 100 days, like months that she was out there in the field. So she was not killed in the fields. So there had to happen a second crime scene, right? And new information would come out later, but I'm just gonna put it in now

because it makes more sense. The Cleveland Magazine article came out 10 years after her murder and said that the killer had taken a few souvenirs. So they had taken a green horse head earring from her. Remember the other call. Yes. Remember the other call. Yes. Remember the rapist.

White nylon jacket like a windbreaker and her shoes were taken. And a school binder was taken and it's had best in class written on it. So these were taken. I don't know if maybe he wanted to dispose of it to get rid of evidence or he just wanted to keep it as a souvenir. So this is the theory of how everything happened, okay? The killer picks her up at Baskin Robbins. Most likely, this is planned with a phone call with everything. And I mean, this guy is taking risks.

He's confident, he's got a whole set up plan. He's obviously taking her to a second destination where everything else would go down. So they get into the car, they start driving. Now, there probably is in a confrontation at this point because again, she's probably under the assumption we're going to go buy gifts from my mom. He buys time by probably stopping at a pay phone.

And now we don't know if he forced Amy with a weapon or with threats, or if he just told her, hey, we should call your mom so she doesn't get worried, because we don't want to ruin the surprise. So she calls her mom on a pay phone and says, I'm home now and hangs up. Because she expects her mom is going to be home after work. They get back into the car.

They start driving deeper into the rural parts or to areas that maybe she didn't realize. Or maybe she's like, there's no mall down here. I know that. I know all the malls in the area. So for whatever reason, there is blunt force trauma to her head. So it's suspected maybe she's trying to get out of the car and he hit her, knocked her out, took her to the second location, probably sexually assaulted her,

redressed her with her underwear inside out, and then killed her with the stab wounds to the neck. Then the killer took her body to the field. I just don't know how this isn't stopped because there's four girls or four teams. There's got to be some kind of connection and it was a small town and they know their phone number, their family situation. It seems like there's a lot of clues, right? Yeah, I think that's why it's like weird.

I think it's weird that, oh, this is not me saying there's a conspiracy at all. I'm just saying, maybe it's technology, maybe, I don't know what it is, but the fact that there's that many FBI agents involved, there's this many phone calls, this many people involved, this many ways to tie links and it hasn't been solved. It's kind of just frustrating. And listen, I'm not going to be the one to say maybe they're not doing their job but I think it's a little extra frustrating because for example the author James Renner he was really confident he was like I mean he was on the same page as us

how does this not solved and he grew up in Ohio so he has personal ties to this case so he wanted to investigate I think he's been like two years for this book investigating but I mean the police will only reveal so much information on the ongoing case When when when was the oh the murder was 89 I believe And then there's updates though someone is questioned in 2020 and just everyone in the town was Terrified I think everyone in the nation was terrified, but specifically Ohio was going through it. Now this is an interesting tidbit that I want to include in this podcast because maybe it could help someone I don't know, right?

So James, the author of the book, he was at home and his parents were like, well his dad was like giving him the whole spiel and I'm sure a lot of parents were at the time of what are you going to do if someone comes up to you? What are you going to do if someone calls you? What are you going to do if you get kidnapped, right? And he was just thinking, okay, well, I don't know. I'm like 12. What would I do? And his dad tells him, if you ever get kidnapped, you stuff everything you can into your mouth. Pieces of carpet, rip it out, stuff it in your mouth. Just fabric from that couch, rip it out, stuff it in your mouth, swallow it. If there's hairs just all over the floor in the carpet, you eat it. You take it,, stuff it in your mouth, swallow it. If there's hairs just all over the floor

in the carpet, you eat it. You take it, you put it in your mouth and you swallow it all. Oh, there's a random knick knack on the table, freaking swallow it, okay? So that way, if what happens to Amy happens to you, when they autopsy you, we can find out who did it, and I can go kill them. That's what James Runner's dad said. Wow, what a tip. Which honestly, I hope no one is ever in this situation, but just for my own little safe keeping in my brain, I think that kind of a solid tip.

So who are the suspects in this case? And I'm gonna be using a lot of fake names. I mean, a lot of these names are out there, right? But because they haven't been charged, because they haven't been convicted, I just don't want to put their names out there. So suspect number one is Bobby, the person that we started this whole story with. Now Bobby was named as a likely suspect in even the minehunter's book. You know the Netflix show? Well that FBI agent, what's his name?

Ressler something, okay? He wrote a book about zero killers. It's honestly a pretty good book, right? But in this segment, he wrote about how he thought that it was Bobby. So maybe it is Bobby. Let's look into it. Well, Bobby was working at a local store at the time, and he did look very similar to the composite sketch, right? So there was a bit of a connection. And after hearing that Amy went missing, he started volunteering at the center to find her. Now a lot of the volunteers remember him being not the most helpful. Like he was just kind of creepy. Just would stand on the side and stare at all the female volunteers, then we'd get creepier. He would steal things from his workplace, right?

Maybe some necklaces, maybe some trinkets, maybe some little, little, you know, broaches. He would ship it to Amy's mom with the letter saying here's a trinket for you and one for your daughter when she's found. Okay, okay. Maybe he's sweet but just really misunderstood. But then he would also do this thing where he would steal paper from the volunteer center that they're using to print Amy's missing posters. I was confusing.

Some people reported seeing him going up to Amy's posters that were taped on the wall, running his finger across her face. Just staring at the poster. He would offer to clean Amy Mahalovic's house, like he would go up to Margaret and be like, I know you're so stressed right now, I can totally clean your house for you. Because the last thing you want to do is clean, so let me clean your house! I mean, it's just bizarre, right? Turns out this guy has a criminal history.

He apparently stalked a young waitress seven years ago. Apparently, he got arrested for something called disseminated material harmful to children. So when you Google it, it seems like maybe that means like showing porn to kids, mailing porn, showing nudity to kids, like a picture of it. But the real suspicion didn't start until after Amy's body was found, and he committed suicide.

So they're thinking, okay, this guy maybe, maybe he knows that he's in too deep. Maybe he knows we're gonna catch him. Maybe it's the guilt for whatever reason, let's look into it, they search his place. No, does this have anything to do with Amy? They find the suicide note. There is no mention of Amy. So maybe he's just having a hard time in life. That's what all of his family said.

He didn't like his job. He hated what was going on with his relationship. He was just having a rough time. So then, because he is gone now, and they couldn't really find any other evidence, they can't definitively say it's him. Also, I'm sure that there's a lot of pressure of, you know, pinning a crime on someone when they're dead. Because I do know. Yeah, but also,

it doesn't sound like there's like very definitive evidence. Yeah. Because there's besides, he's being creepy. And he passes around the time. And he was, yeah. But to be fair, a lot of people were at this volunteer center. Like this was, I mean, most of the community wanted to help out. Maybe he is just a misunderstood guy. I think that there were some allegations of rape from other people about this guy, but I'm not really going to get into it. You can read about it in Om James Renter's book. The investigation discovery, a docu-series doesn't go into that.

So it's in his book. But suspect number two, we've got the church guy. We're going to call him Chris, the church guy. Why are you calling him the church guy Stephanie? Okay, so a few days before the 13th anniversary of Amy's abduction so this is 2002 now 13 years Oh literally a few days before the 13th anniversary in the middle of church service a man Chris stands up and Says can I have your attention, please? My name is Chris.

Well, his real name. People know me as Satan. And I killed Amy Mahalovic. What? And the whole congregation froze. They're like, what did this guy just say? You know, suddenly, I mean, the fear is like settling in these people.

Like, what are we gonna do? Like, this guy is, this killer is just standing among us. Like, hello, do something. He says he's Satan. We're in church. So there, there happened to be some off-duty police officers that were in the service, and they just got up, tackled this guy to the ground,

and they brought him into the police station. So everyone kind of in the community assumed something like this would happen. Someone's eventually going to feel so much guilt. Eventually they're going to confess. They have this hope. It's not going to be a serial killer, right? It's got to be this one person that's going to be too much. But who is this Chris guy? So he was interviewed by James Renner and for a brief time He said that he was managing these restaurants. He was then hired by little Caesars the pizza company So his job was fascinating. He would actually go from store to store just firing people. That was his job I mean, that's a very depressing job

So one day he's at one of the locations, I guess firing people and these four guys come in and they're robbing the place. So this huge confrontation happens and Chris, the church guy, was almost beaten to death and he was hospitalized for a long time and he said because of that, he fell into a deep depression, his wife divorced him and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the hospital. They put him on some meds, but eventually he stopped taking them. And he was off his meds for at least a couple months when he walked into that church and confessed to this crime. That he's saying that he didn't commit this point, right? So, yeah, the police

bring him in, they interrogate him, and he's like a rambling mess. I mean nothing he said made sense. He was just bringing up like religious philosophy. Just a lot of stuff that was like, okay, maybe this guy needs help, but he's probably not the killer. They kind of just released him. Later, he self-publishes a book. It's called, by the truth, do not sell it, which is ironic because if he's telling his truth

in the book, then he is selling it, no. Confusing. By the truth. Oh, I'm just like. Do you sell it? then he is selling it no. Confusing. But the truth to me is so lit. So yeah, I didn't buy this, but James Rennard did, okay? So he bought the book, he took one for the team, okay? He bought the book and he said it was, um, he said it was interesting. So he just, he says that a neighbor came up to him and said,

you know what, Chris, that picture that composite sketch of Amy's killer looks just like you, huh? And so he looked up that picture and he was like, oh my god, my neighbor's right. That looks just like me. And then it hit him. Amy was murdered in order to silence Chris's voice. So James Runner interviewed him and was like,

what voice, like what were you saying that you need to be silence? Like are you running on the lumenati? Like are you spewing some conspiracies? What's going on? And he was just like, no, no, I was telling the truth, you know, nothing led me to say it, I killed Amy. What?

You know, I can see forces of good, and forces of evil. I believe that there's this like head of evil working behind the scenes, working against the forces of God. I can see where humanity is headed and the forces of evil will do anything they can to silence the truth. And I feel that I am responsible for Amy Mahalovaek's death because someone killed her to frame me. responsible for Amy Mahalovic's death, because someone killed her to frame me, because I was too vocal.

Satanist did this. So James Renter is like, well, how are you being vocal? That's confusing. And so Chris, the church guy, says, why threaten George Bush, senior? I walked into a police station and I said, I'm gonna kill the president. Uh, what?

No, no, I'm not gonna physically kill him, but I'm gonna kill his spirit. So of course, either way, the Secret Service allegedly came to his house to give him a little talk, like, what do you mean by that? Spiritualy how? Stay away from DC, little forker. I'm sure there was a lot more stern talking. So that's suspect number two. I don't know.

Maybe the FBI, his person of interest, maybe he's the suspect. We don't know, really. Then we have suspect number three. This is Harry the horse guy. So he worked at Holly Hill's horse farm. He was a family of the owners. He was around for, maybe he was like 30 years old at the time that this took place, right? So he's young, and a lot of the girls that wrote

at this horse farm just were so creeped out by him. They didn't like him. They, he just would wander around. They thought that he was like a boogie man, just kind of creepy. So he did have a trouble to history. His mom was super evil-tamb. She just saw him as like the horse keeper,

someone to clean up the horse stalls. When he was young, he said, mom, can I buy a new pair of boots? Like my boots are falling apart, and I'm working all day, like, horse keeper. Someone to clean up the horse stalls. When he was young, he said, Mom, can I buy a new pair of boots? Like my boots are falling apart and I'm working all day like, come on, I need a new pair of shoes and she straight up looked at him and told him, you're not worth the money. Like you're not worth the investment of new shoes. So to a lot of true crime people, you're like, well, this is a setup for some gnarly happening possibly. He served nine years in the Air Force, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and when Amy went missing, the FBI immediately came to question him while they were searching Holly Hill's farm, because they're like, you're a little bit

weird. Now, he claims that they hooked him up to a lie detector test and just started screaming at him, like, what did you do? Tell us what you did! And they injected him with true serum, which they don't do nowadays, but it was common back then, maybe not common but popular. It's sodium pentathal, pentathal. It's essentially this chemical that just slows your brain down. So they're saying it's a true serum

because your brain is too slow to make up lies on the spot now. So we're gonna be able to tell when you're lying more than a polygraph, because he did fail his polygraph, it said. So he wakes up, he doesn't remember the interrogation at all once the true serum was injected, but the FBI just told him, we're really disappointed in you, allegedly. And they just walked out, they never questioned him again. And the police at this point do not believe that he is responsible. So then we've got suspect

number four, Kevin, the the contractor you guys like these names I'm coming up with Kevin the contractor a lot of people in the community were very suspicious of this guy The it was so common that people would call in and the FBI is like are you talking about Kevin the contractor? Yes, Kevin the contractor. Yeah, we've heard a lot about him like that's how suspicious people were so he worked on people's houses And at the time he was working on the house a few doors down from Amy's place. So this would be an easy way to get to know Amy. Very easy.

He's working on the house. Amy's a nice kid. She's like, hello, person working on my neighbor's house. Maybe he sparks up a conversation, finds out about Margaret, talks to Margaret, just gets to know the whole family. Now, this is why it becomes suspicious. He somewhat resembles the composite sketch apparently. And on top of that, he used to almost never go to church,

but suddenly after Amy disappeared, every day of the week, Becca was up in church. Every Sunday service, he was in the pews, he was praying, he was doing a lot. Why would someone suddenly become religious? Maybe he's guilty. He was doing a lot. Why would someone suddenly become religious? Maybe he's guilty He's reasons man. I Mean I the other perspective could be when something like this happens in the community

I would think maybe I'm like I have a little Quarter-life crisis and I'm like what if that's my kid? I need to go to church and pray. I don't know That's my thought but he had an alibi of sorts So he was he was a chiseled man, Kevin the contractor, think abs, think pecks, he was chiseled, he's tan, he's working out in the sun all the time. And so a lot of house swipes were in to him. This is straight up out of the end of those romance novels. And his alibi was, he was at a good friend's house, a very respected community member of

Bay Village, talking about the affair that he was having that day. So he wasn't at Baskin Robbins. So then a little while later, another woman calls the FBI with a tip. Do you see why? I mean, okay, sometimes I do be sitting on the FBI a lot, which is really scary online to do, but I can see that their job is really hard.

So this woman calls the FBI with a statement and she says, okay, that day I was driving down the rural road, right, where Amy was found. And I drove past this car. Now technically, there's almost never anyone on this rural road, especially people that I don't recognize. Because I know all these cars. But there was this random car that was parked near where the body was found and he had his trunk open. Almost directly in front of the spot that Amy was found.

They're like, okay, well what kind of car was it? Did you see his face? What was the color of the car? And she's like, I don't remember! So they do something very unusual. They put her under hypnosis. And they come up with this composite sketch, and they put it out to the public. Like if you know this person, please, please, please contact us. All the law enforcement agencies in the area looking at this composite sketch, like, okay, we're gonna get this guy for real this time. They didn't even have to wait long.

Because they see on the road a car. That's just recklessly driving. Looks like they were drunk. Okay, just swerving, just doing the most. They pull them over. Huh, this guy looks like that composite sketch that we were just looking at at the police station So they start questioning him. He was obviously drunk, which is bad. Yeah, you're gonna get a DUI Maybe you're gonna get some tickets. You're gonna get your astronaut in jail. Don't drink and drive, right?

But he starts like going all out. He's like just shoot me, just shoot me. What? We're not gonna shoot you for a DUI. He's like no I'm a bad man, just shoot me. Um, we're not gonna do that. So they handcuff him, they drive him to the police station and they just throw him in the cell like you sober up like you're so weird. We need to find out why you look like that composite sketch. So the next day when they check up on him, he had attempted suicide. So there was a news around his neck. I mean, thankfully he didn't die, but they were just so confused. Why would he take his own life? I mean, yes, DUI, reckless driving, huge consequences.

But it seems like a really intense bargain to like take your own life because of it. Maybe it was other factors. What's going on? What is this guy hiding? They thought maybe it had to do with Amy. His finally caught. But when they do a deep search, he was in prison the day she was abducted for animal cruelty. So another lead that seemed so promising that ended nowhere. So then there's a strange speculation. and did nowhere. So then there's a strange speculation. And the book goes in depth about this. But I mean, some people, I wouldn't say a good majority of people, but some people, they were a little bit confused

because after Amy's body was found, there was a rumor that 40 to 60 FBI agents were at the crime scene, gathering evidence. Now, it seems that they don't really do that for regular child murder cases, and Amy didn't cross state lines. And there was no ransom note, and there was no other threats involved.

So that just seemed like a lot of FBI agents. Yes, I get it. It's hot girl summer, right? But don't be running out there, willing, nilly, without taking care of yourself. That was, I'm really proud of that one. I'm sticking with it, okay? Let me introduce you to Care of's in-depth online quiz.

It asks you about your diet, lifestyle, health concerns, and it helps address your specific wellness goals. Honestly, the online quiz to me feels like getting a one-on-one consultation with a nutritionist, but you don't even have to leave your house. It's kind of nice So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna do exactly what I did Which is take their fun and easy quiz and they recommend specific vitamins powders quick sticks that are tailored for your specific health goals in mind So for example my vitamins

I was recommended the probiotic blend for your digestion. You guys know I love probiotics. Facials for my heart, aces and thin for my skin, radiola for my energy, and then for my powders I was recommended mocha powder for my energy. I just mixed it up with my protein shakes and I've been really loving it and I was also even recommended a quick stick which is on the go nutrients that taste really good. So you just put it in your mouth and melts and it was the gut check for my digestion one. Now here's what's really cool about Cara. Their products are formulated with good for you, clean ingredients that are backed by science. They're super transparent about the research and sourcing behind each one of their

products, and your recommendations come in a daily individually wrapped packet that are perfect for getting back into your routine, or maybe even starting a routine because sometimes I know it can be hectic. Right now you guys can actually get 50% off your first care of order if you just go to takecareof.com and enter code rotten50. That's 50% off your first care of order. Go to takecareof.com and enter code rotten50. So the rumor was maybe a cop was involved because the FBI, I mean they go hard for bad cops, you know, especially when it involves child murder, but most of the local cops they were

accounted for. They had confirmed allies, if not, there was like a huge police meeting around the time that she disappeared, so that didn't make sense. Most of the local cops were there. I mean, it's just weird. So then some people were speculating, maybe Amy's not dead. Maybe she's in like the witness protection program. I mean, I think when you don't have the answers for true crime, the conspiracies get far fetched. That is an instance of one, right? So then you have to speculate, what if you're just barking up the wrong tree? What if that phone call had nothing to do with her obductor and killer?

What if she had that phone call by a completely different guy? Maybe innocent, maybe not innocent intentions, but she's waiting at Baskin Robbins, a man walks up to her, maybe he wanted to talk to her, maybe he didn't. And she just says, oh, were you the guy that I talked to on the phone, taking me to the mall? And he's like, sure. And just takes her away. And now the original person who made that phone call because of all this price of all

this negative connotations is like, I'm terrified to come out. Maybe it's that. And the question is, should people be worried? Because this is an unsolved case. Is it possible that this is the first murder for this serial killer that's still out there and we just don't know? Maybe they got better at hiding bodies because after Amy disappeared, I mean there are a lot of kids that disappeared in Ohio. I mean there's a lot of kids that disappear everywhere. So is the sad or maybe this is the only murder

for this killer? Either way, this guy's got to get caught, right? So there was two more promising leads closer to now. So the earliest one was 2008 with James Runner because he gets a call. He has this whole website. I mean, this guy, this journalist, this case means a lot to him. Like it's personal now, right? So he gets a phone call from a tip and they said, I think it's one of the teachers at that nature center. He volunteers there and he was just weird.

Like he would always give kids extra credit for coming into the nature center. He was really buddy buddy with all these kids and don't you think it's a coincidence that all these kids somewhat resemble Amy? Like maybe this guy has a type. All the kids that he called. I'm just saying, like this feels weird. So James does some digging. He finds a dozen people that can place this teacher at the teaching center, at the nature center.

But when this guy was interviewed by the police, the teacher stated, I haven't even heard of this nature center. I've never been before. But James, the journalist, is like, but I, I have done some investigative work and I see that there's like 12 people who literally have seen you there. It's not just one person, right? He looks like the composite sketch. His old school allegedly investigated him two times for in-proper relationships with kids. He also called, you know, girls that looked similar to Amy. That's what the

allegation is, like all the girls, you know, the people that knew, the girls that were called, they all looked similar to Amy. He didn't live too far from where Amy's body was found, but this guy moved to Florida. So James Renner, what does he do? He flies to Florida. So he starts just tracking down this guy, just asking everyone full on private investigator mode. Can't find him. He's about to head back to Miami to get on his flight to go back home because what the forks going on, right? And I mean this sounds crazy it was in the docu series but apparently I see that a stop site just ready to head back to the airport guess who walks by the freaking teacher the freaking just ran into each other ran into each other I'm sure James runner I'm sure he had like narrowed it down to like

oh he lives in this very specific area I'm sure it wasn't just like oh I'm sure James Runner, I'm sure he had like narrowed it down to like oh he lives in this very specific area I'm sure it wasn't just like oh I'm in South Beach like and I just ran into the guy I'm sure it's like no this is a very specific area that he had narrowed it down to so he gets out of the car He confronts him and he's like what if I told you that I had a picture of you at the nature center Which I don't know if he did which like great bluff if he didn't. And Tom the teacher, fake name, just says, well, I never told the police that I wasn't there. I only told them that I don't remember being there.

Okay. And so James is like, okay, well, what else do you not remember? And he said, you know what? I'm done talking about this. And he walked away. So James Render is like, that's, I mean, that guy's guilty. So he calls up the FBI. And they just don't question him.

So this guy's just living in Florida still, living his life. There's, can't question him. I guess there's not enough evidence. Well, he sounds the most suspicious to me. Yeah, so the FBI, they revamp it again. They're like, okay, we need more publicity. DNA testing's getting better. Let's try to test stuff. Build boards with Amy's face was all over the it again. They're like, okay, we need more publicity DNA testing is getting better Let's try to test stuff billboards with Amy's face was all over the place again They hired the retired FBI agent to take on Amy's case again like he had been on her case since day one

And he's much older now he had retired But he's probably the most informed about her case. So this is like their best shot So he came back to work to try to solve this case Wow, I mean, it's crazy There were no updates Until closer to the end of 2019 It had been close to 31 years a Woman calls the police and said I think I know who did it. I think it was my ex-boyfriend

Okay, why do you think that? I think it was my ex-boyfriend. Okay, why do you think that? Because he's just a suspicious guy, he's just a moralist guy? Weep at the airy bat a lot, lady, right? No, no. I think it's my ex-boyfriend. Because we are living together at the time, maybe like one and a half, less than one and a half miles from where Amy was abducted.

And on top of that, he had a niece in the same grade as Amy. So you might have known Amy somehow, maybe a yearbook picture, maybe something else. Maybe he could have asked his niece for these details, and she's tense, she'll know. She's like, yeah, that's my friend Amy. But the night of the abduction, he didn't come home. And this is really rare for this guy. Like my ex-boyfriend, he came home every single night, just not the type to do this. And he gives me a call around 10 p.m. And I said, hey, like, where are you? And he said, oh my god, are you watching the news? Are you keeping updated on what's going

on with that girl, Amy? And she thought, that's really bizarre. Like, it's already bizarre that he didn't come home. It's really bizarre. Like, this guy is not like a true crime, you know, what do you call it? Like a true crime, you know What do you call it like a true crime a fish and a doe like he's not obsessed with true crime? Or missing children very bizarre stuff Yeah, so she's like okay, that's really weird So the police they run with this they get a photo of him when he was around that age and they do a photo line up with the witnesses that were at Baskin Robbins and they I did him may of 2020 They picked him in a photo lineup.

So this guy gets brought in at this point. He's in his 60s to be interviewed by the police and the man said, very suspicious things. He said, I might have called Amy prior to abduction. I might have met Amy's mom in a bar, but I don't know if it was Amy's mom that I was talking to. Okay, so you're admitting that you called Amy prior to an abduction?

No, I said I could have, or it could have been the wrong number. Very weird stuff. Why are you talking like this? Yeah. Okay, so here's another interesting tidbit about this guy. The day that Amy's body was found, a bunch of FBI agents were there. Now this one lone FBI agent was probably given the least important task of the day. Probably he thought so, right?

His whole job was to sit at an intersection and write down every single license plate that pass by. He was probably upset about this, right? But he did it. It doesn't sound like the most important, but it paid off. Because the suspect, this guy, had driven through through this intersection and the FBI to this day have no No logical reason that he'd be driving through this intersection the day that Amy's body is found. Yeah Wow, this is insane. So they asked him could Amy have been in your car and he said no

Well, are you sure about that maybe? And he said, no. Will I be sure about that? Maybe. But if she was, I don't know what situation that would have been. So he's saying, maybe she was, but I can't tell you why. What the hell is he talking like this? I don't know. In the...

Yeah. I don't know. Could your DNA be found on the curtain or on Amy's body? Now, he consented to giving DNA and a polygraph, which he failed, he failed the polygraph, but you guys know how I feel about polygraphs. And he said, if the DNA is there, then someone framed me.

So again, it's like this statement of like, if you do find it, it's because ABC and D, which innocent people wouldn't say that. Innocent people, in my opinion, would say, absolutely not. There's no way in my opinion, would say absolutely not. There's no way in hell. And give me my lawyer. Yeah.

To give me my lawyer, take my DNA, you're barking up the wrong tree, you idiots. Okay, that's what they would say. You idiots, you're barking up the wrong tree. But he said, if it is, then it's because someone framed me. And if someone didn't frame me, you guys were saying, like, it's really suspicious. So court documents show that the police searched his place and his storage unit and he still hasn't been charged.

His name has not been released. They're working on the case. And according to court documents, it just says, and I quote, they seized evidence. Police seized evidence. So does that mean they seized something that was a value, like something that could be important to the case? Or they just value like something that could be important to the case or they just took some things that might be

important to the case? I don't know. There is a $25,000 reward and tips can be sent to 1-800-call FBI. This is an ongoing investigation. Now Margaret Amy's mom she died in 2001. In Las Vegas, she was only 54 years old. So soon after Amy's murder, she was diagnosed with lupus. And yeah, there were, you know, medical reasons, but a lot of people just believe that she died of a broken heart. So Margaret is buried with Amy though. Now the cemetery usually doesn't allow anyone on their grounds to be buried with a personal

item, but they had made an exception for Amy, she was buried with a teddy bear. So it's three of them, finally together. And that is the story of Amy Mojalevic. This is actually a highly requested story because of the case updates that happened of that guy being questioned, but... But we don't know who it is. They have not released his identity. I mean, it seems like they're trying to build a case on him, but 31 years is a long time. Yeah, wow, I really hope they nailed this down, because holy cow.

So if you guys have any tips, that's who to call. And if you guys are like me and you're just trying to stay updated on this case, especially with, I mean, all these breakthroughs that happened so long after Go check out James Render's website a me mahala vik mystery calm. Does he think it's this guy or no? I don't want to say what is I think that I mean so many of these people are suspicious I would like to say personally that this guy is suspicious and that teacher dude is suspicious So the problem with this guy is like why would he talk like that if he's not yeah like what would he get out of it to be fair though Mm-hmm. I'm wondering maybe if I'm 60 and you're asking me a bunch of questions about the time that I was 30

Maybe I'd be like, I don't know like I don't know if I can definitively say something because I don't want to lie to you But I also I think it'd be on it. Oh, it could be a young girl in my car. Like, yeah, like if I'm 30, why would I have a 10-year-old in my car that's not my kid or my kid's friend? Exactly. So why would he say like that? So let's say, let's just say that. Yes.

Pretend he is guilty. So does talking like this avoid him from being caught in the lie, being guilty. So, I mean, a lot of the cases that we've talked about, sometimes it does seem that the FBI or police try to catch you in a lie. Because the minute that they catch you in a lie is the minute that everything goes downhill. So maybe he thinks that keeping these open-ended questions is better for him in the long run. Because if you're guilty, maybe you don't want to definitively lie if you know that these people

Might have proof You know might have the DNA instead of being like no definitively no my DNA would not be there. Why would it be there? He's saying well if it was if it happens to be a match Yeah, maybe it has to do with the fact that I was 30 years ago and he's just being paranoid But I don't know. It's years ago and he's just being paranoid, but I don't know, it's just weird, it's just weird. And why did this? I'm hoping the lady, I'm sure it's a personal reason, but I'm hoping she had a good reason to wait until 2019 to reveal this information. That's true too. It would have helped the case immensely if she came

forward sooner. That is very true too. Wow. So I mean, I'm going to that DNA evidence. Like I said, if you're looking for updates, Amy MahalovicMistery.com run by James Runner, just got all the updates. So I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode, which not a mini-sode, I tried. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this guy is terrifying. Maybe some shit happened in their relationship, but it's just also weird.

So I guess we're just waiting for that the updates. So I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode, which not a mini-sode I tried. And let me know what are your thoughts, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday. Bye!