Amy Mihaljevic - Suspects /// Part 1 /// 345 | Forensic Files

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grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] [Music] one of the high priority leads the FBI
is checking an area man resembling the drawing of the suspect he left his job last Friday has not returned but
authorities will not comment further on that Amy disappeared from the shopping center a week ago today and today FBI
agents and Bay Village Police were back in the center talking with people who might have been here then Amy reportedly
left Bay square with a man she believed to be a friend sometime between 1: and 400 p.m. last Friday the shopping center
was busy but few who were here remembered anything unusual about the man and the girl what went on uh was a
ploy that was developed and carried through and it looked like a natural uh action going on it didn't look out of
the ordinary at all today in that same 1 to 4:00 p.m. time frame officers were trying to jog memories of Shoppers to
possibly recall something from a week ago that they did not not consider important them okay I'll be glad police
want anyone else who was here last Friday afternoon to call them regardless of whether they believe they saw
anything police also are seeking other children who might have been contacted by phone as Amy was by a man as a friend
seeking the child's help in buying a gift for a parent you have had some of those yes we have how
many I aware of at least three perhaps more John Herrington channel 3 [Music] news earlier this year in episodes 308
and 309 titled Amy mahalic that was from June of this year we were able to do a detailed timeline of this case this is
an unsolved abduction assault and murder case of a 10-year-old girl 10-year-old Amy mahalic this weekend unfortunately
will Mark a sad anniversary it will now be 30 years to the day that Amy was abducted taken from a small shopping
plaza that was just walking distance from her Middle School the abduction was not a violent one Amy did not scream
this was not a snatch and grab situation a man calmly walked up to her and she left with this grown man this was
witnessed by two of her classmates now for anyone who is unfamiliar with this case Don't Panic
you don't have to go back and listen to episodes 308 and 309 before listening to
this week's coverage we are covering this case in a way that these are pretty much Standalone portions of what is a
very very big story so what is now a 30-year timeline of a very big case you get that in depth in those episodes for
those that don't know our setup Captain you can listen to True Crime garage for free on anywhere that you listen to
podcast you can get episodes from the last 6 months or so now we have been doing this great show thanks to all of
the wonderful listeners out there for 4 years so the older episodes you can listen to those for free when you
download the free Stitcher app go to our website to learn more yeah some would say 4 years too long now I say all that
Captain to point out that we did an in-depth interview with James rener the only person who has authored a book that
is devoted solely to Amy's case that was way back in March of 2016 episode 22 the
purpose of this week is to discuss some of the suspects in this case now the information you are going to hear today
comes from many sources this being an Ohio case the two of of us have been watching this case for a very long time
but one source that we will use often is Cleveland magazine this here is from their
coverage on the 10-year anniversary which says the Amy mahalic case became the most intense search for a child in
local history involving every conceivable law enforcement agency and an army of volunteers federal state
county and local law enforcement Personnel logged more than 60,000 official hours and thousands more off
the clock hundreds of promising tips were tracked down and dismissed 14,000 people interviewed 120 potential
suspects investigated and questioned intensely 8,000 leads pursued an abandon the story was featured in major
newspapers and on national TV shows like America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries 2 million copies of the Amy
post were distributed that is in all 50 states and in Europe and all the way to Australia before we get to the suspects
first let's get into some of the known and possible movements of the killer we've talked at length about the phone
call or calls to Amy's home setting up the Meetup at the plaza I do want to mention it sounds to me that police and
FBI lean toward the idea that there was more than one call to me at home but regardless there was at least one we
have talked extensively about the abductor choosing Friday as the meeting up day let's get into the other phone
call the call from Amy to Margaret so for those not super familiar with the case the way this works is Margaret is
at work Jason Amy's brother arrives home from school he calls his mother at work
like he does every day on a typical day Amy would would arrive home before Jason
and Amy would call Margaret at work each day when she arrived home as well on this day Jason is the only one to call
and he points out to his mother that Amy is not home this is not of great concern
as Amy told her mother there was a choir tryy out that day at school okay then there was a second call on this call
Again Margaret and Jason they determined that Amy is still not home now margar is
a little panicked and she's going to leave work early but then and this is according to Cleveland magazine article
at 3:40 p.m. Margaret gets the call that she needed it's Amy calling to say everything is fine Margaret asked how
the try out went Amy said okay Margaret asked she said she had the impression that Amy was calling from home so they
talk briefly and then bye-bye see you soon that was the last last time Margaret ever spoke to
Amy now before we get into the experts and what they say about this last call I want to address this first for so many
years in fact up until the last 18 or 24 months it has always just been accepted
and understood that this call was made after Amy was in the company of her abductor now all of a sudden after all
this time people are starting to call that into question I get it it's interesting to ponder but it seems
extremely unlikely and of course we don't know for certain but we do know class got out at 210 that day Amy walked
with friends and it only took a few minutes to get to the shopping plaza and most of the good timelines out there say
that it was around 300 p.m. when a man approached Amy spoke to her and led her away so according to the Cleveland
magazine timeline we have 40 minutes that's a big discrepancy in time so I absolutely believe that Amy was in the
company of her abductor by this point I think the call was made from a pay phone
a motel phone or somewhere the abductor lived or was staying the interesting thing here I
think is you can put a cap on the distance that they could have been from the plaza at the time of this call and
the maximum would be a 40-minute drive from the plaza now people who believe that Amy would have be behaved much
differently during that phone call if in the company of her abductor that's fair
but it's possible that Amy may have been unaware that she was being abducted yeah
and let's remember this is supposed to be a secret shopping trip to get a present for her mother so she wouldn't
want to give away the surprise yeah he could have allowed her to call and reminding her hey don't you know don't
give up on this idea that we got this secret shopping trip to do you can't tell your mother this now I've had some
people question why I think that a pay phone is possible or would have been possible here they point out and this is
very obvious but very good too they point out if she was afraid if Amy was afraid a pay phone out in the open she
could have just fled the abductor then and there but you and I captain being children of the80s we are old enough to
remember payones quite a bit and use them quite a bit when we were children and one thing that I want to point out
is something that's kind of Forgotten today that at a lot of gas stations do you remember the pullup pay phone the
one that was constructed in a manner that wasn't in a booth but it was out and it was in a way that you would just
pull up with your vehicle you wouldn't even get out of the vehicle you would pull up and you could punch in the
number and make the phone call from sitting inside of your vehicle yeah this could have been a situation that he used
there what we do know is that a phone call happened we can't say for certain if she was quote unquote under his
control you know meaning he had a gun or a knife on her or he had already expressed a threat to her that would
have kept her under his control right but again let's think about this logically are you going to take that
chance have her under your control she knows this is now abduction she knows now that she's in some kind of danger oh
let's have her call her mother or do you keep playing itol and yeah I'll let you call your mother
before we go shopping right either way we do know that the call happened we can only
speculate what was going on at the time what the experts say about this phone call Amy checking in with her mother in
the abductor allowing this call the first lead detective on the case Jim Tomkins said quote that's critical it
bought him an hour or more precious getaway time for the man authorities were calling the unknown male expert
analysts also believe this event reveals important details about the unknown male
they are certain he was standing right there and that he may have known that Amy was supposed to call now this could
be from something he learned from Amy on previous phone calls or in conversation
on the day of the abduction or even possibly Amy threatening him if in fact by the time she figured out that he had
abducted her he's she's saying I have to call home mom and dad will be looking for me you're going to be in trouble so
some of the experts believe that he stood there and told Amy what to say during that
call the late and great FBI agent Robert wrestler says it tells us he was executing a bold plot that included Amy
her family and the police pointing out that the Bay Village Police Department headquarters is right across the street
from the shopping plaza he goes on to say this is an intelligent man presentable well spoken this is a
complicated personal crime when Amy's body was found in that field 3 months after her Abduction the kyoga County
coroner and the FBI scientist determined that Amy had been deceased for some time
most likely the murder had occurred shortly after her abduction probably a few days or less she was not killed
immediately Amy did eat at least one meal after she was taken maybe more her autopsy revealed blunt force trauma to
the head and stab wounds to her neck it appears that the blunt force trauma on its own was not fatal but the stab
wounds were over the years Captain there have been thousands of tips and hundreds
of suspects and in this sense we are using the term suspects very Loosely some of these men were just lookalike
suspects these were leads that the police received FBI received because somebody looked like one of the
composite sketches right and we've seen this with like the deli murders somebody
goes hey look this guy looks just like the sketch or just like the photo but they live in California and
you can't prove that they were in Indiana at the time so that that's why I don't like some of these suspects well
and it gets difficult for law enforcement because of of two factors one with the Amy case with the deli case
not a lot to go on so you have to throw that sketch out there but they throw that sketch out to the public knowing
that we're going to get a wealth of leads that are no good yeah you know they they only need the one good one but
we're going to get a whole bunch of people coming forward saying I know somebody that looks just like this guy
in Amy's case in the Amy composite sketches we pointed out in our previous episodes technically there were four
composite sketches released over a it's a little more than a one-year time period but there was a sketch release
the first weekend and then FBI artist came in and did two sketches that appear on the same flyer and that's the one
that I refer to as like the famous composite drawing where you see the two individuals now it was only one man that
abducted her but we have two somewhat different looking individuals in that famous composite sketch one two of the
eyewitnesses one claiming that they saw a man with glasses and one claiming they
saw a man without glasses so that's where the initial I think confusion started yeah so the first composite
drawing is basically a meshing of the two eyewitnesses accounts they were like all right we'll take we'll take
everything throw it in a blender and boom this is the picture that pop that comes out the FBI artist did separate
ones so why the reason why you're seeing two different composite drawings is one
is from one eyewitness and one is from the other eyewitness both of these eyewitnesses were children 10 or 11
years old both both of these eyewitnesses were not up front and center when they saw this guy they were
distance away 25 30 ft away and saw this man interact with Amy the thing that law
enforcement points out and has continued to point out over the years is they think that this is a very quote unquote
General description of somebody that this this is not somebody that is distinguishable right this is not
somebody that would stand out in a crowd and that's why you get so many lookalike
suspects because this kind of just looks like your average Joe right now investigators said that out of all of
the potential suspects ever to appear on the raadar screen less than two dozen remain priorities after acute
investigating now early on on the local level there was rumored to be two very good suspects in fact these men they
were suspects even before Amy's body was found suspect number one was Billy strunck from Fair viiew Park he injected
himself into the search efforts he joined the volunteers and helped to search for Amy he was questioned several
times this both by Bay Village Police Department and the FBI his story was checked and then double checked
according to Cleveland magazine Billy was found to have serious personal problems both medical and emotional but
all unrelated to Amy's case months after Amy's disappearance he consumed a lethal
amount of ethanol dry gas and died 3 days later right but to be clear they believe this was on purpose and this was
technically a suicide yes and FBI agent Robert westler who was briefly involved in the case questioned this suspect
personally wrestler maintained that he had a gut feeling that Billy strunak was hiding something wrestler later cited
this suicide as a possible indication of guilt in wrestler's book whoever fights
monsters wrestler says strunak was a good candidate to be the one they were calling the unknown male now all other
investigators insist that he was not the guy Steven Eder who was a supervisory special agent for the national center
for the analysis of violent crime said after his death meaning strunak we had access to his home and belongings FBI
agent dick Ren adds there was not a shred of evidence for this or any other crime Eder says that Billy strunak quote
simply didn't have the capacity to commit this type of crime some in the local community believe he still could
have been the guy we covered this angle of the investigation in depth on our other show
off the Record yeah now I have a couple issues with the detectives the investigators saying that they don't
think Billy was capable of doing this because most people probably wouldn't be capable
of dying from a suicide by ingesting gasoline right gas so that that takes a uh determined
individual and I also think just his involvement in the search the involvement in the investigation the
contact with the mother um and and like you said their big thing is well once he
died from this suicide and wrestler is saying well I believe he's basically saying right because there's a suicide
he believes that Billy had something to hide it might have been an indication of
guilt that he was overcome by guilt or he was afraid that he was going to be arrested and people were going to find
out what kind of monster he was and he's going to have to spend the rest of his life Behind Bars any number of those
reasons or all of them together would have been enough for this individual to commit suicide is what wrestler believes
right and then so now you have these investigators go well he's dead now and so we can investigate his property but
we didn't find any evidence of any crime I don't know why but my gut has always told me that this crime was the first uh
uh as far as a killing would go by this individual MH there might be some inappropriate touching or looking or
possibly even um exposing themselves to younger individuals but to me this is a this is
a one-time thing possibly never going to happen again and and so that would lead
me to believe well look at somebody like Billy and he makes a really good suspect
and then that you go well well we investigated his house and his property and and all that stuff and we didn't see
any sign of a crime well here's what we do know we know that there's a crime scene I would call it a crime scene
where he abducted her even though she went willing I'd still call that a crime scene and then we know that she went
into to a vehicle to me those are the two crime scenes and then plus where her body was found those are the three
places that we know we don't have much evidence to uh suggest that she went back to his
house or or went to anybody's house so I'm just saying that you can be searching in this location but it's like
again what if like you were saying what if the phone call was made from a hotel or a motel and
and so it's like you wouldn't find any evidence at his place because he never took the
victim back there MH so look we we can't we could sit here and spin our tires all day and try to
figure out why we have the FBI and we have other agencies later saying that he Billy strunak is not our guy they're not
going to give us all those reasons what I will say though too right but it's not
as clear that we we don't have like some strand of DNA that we can test to make sure that it's it's Billy or not Billy
right correct there is physical evidence in this case but we do not have we do not have DNA evidence that we
can test in the sense of of current types of Investigations so but but here's here's
the thing we got to we got to keep in mind while we're going through these suspects okay so these same the same
investigators or at least the same agencies are on record over the years as saying we're not going to 100% rule out
anyone and we hear that like with the deli case now we can take that for their word we
can take that for what that is supposed to mean we don't know exactly what that means behind closed doors and Behind
These closed door meetings that they're having regarding the suspects when they say
that look I I think that if we're if we were going to create a top 10 list of of
top 10 suspects in this case I didn't just go through and pick out suspects that were mentioned in the newspaper or
mentioned in local rumor or anything like that I went through there was there's more than 10 of those I went
through and I picked out ones that I believe should remain on some kind of top 10 list now this is just our own
little garage list here but I would leave Billy strunak on that list until I had further information to Lead Me to
believe that they are in fact right that he's not their guy they could have come
across some things to say that he had a 100% Ironclad Alibi right for that day we don't we don't know that because
that's never been said in the public um they also one thing that I do want to to
comment directly on though is where they say we simply don't believe that he had
the capacity to commit this type of crime now you pointed out that he consumed ethanol and killed himself and
that takes a certain something I guess but it takes a something well but what what they may mean here in this is not
so much that he couldn't have physically committed this type of crime they may firmly believe that he was of an
emotional state or he was he had these personal problems they may fully believe that he could have physically committed
this type of crime he wouldn't have been able to not crack or not tell someone or
not come forward you see what I mean like that not only did this crime happen but the person as far as we know has
also never confided in anyone never confessed to it never never had a mental break and just and just came clean or or
freaked out so that might be what in fact that they mean on this and again though um yes there there is a crime
scene that we are unaware of there was a place that she was killed yeah that's the missing puzzle piece
here um but what we have dick Ren saying is there was not a shred of evidence for
this crime or any other crime that they could find at his home or in the belongings that they were able to view
now there is local rumor in the area that uh and we we have wrestler who's on record saying this I don't know that
it's in fact true but we have local rumor that the family removed his items or had
access to his apartment before law enforcement did after his death because they weren't right they weren't fully
aware that he was dead at the you know immediately after his death it took some time for that word to travel to them
before they went in and looked at his apartment so there's local rumor that it's like a it's a really good uh Family
secret you know a Best Kept Family secret that Billy strunak did in fact kill Amy mahalic and his whole family
knows about it and they know about it because they were able to view all of his belongings but what we would know
later is that there are things missing from the crime scene there were items that Amy had on her person that have
never been found never been located and we know for certain from dick Ren's statement that they didn't find those
items in the belongings or in the space that they were able to view regarding Billy strunak right which makes me
wonder if the crime scene was a a vehicle those items could have been left in that vehicle that vehicle could have
been discarded with all those uh items but one of the things I like about Billy is when she went missing he was a
suspect when her body was found he was a suspect and I believe today he still is
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offered by T-Mobile and Verizon [Music] 2023 all right we're back cheers mates cheers to everyone so suspect number two
and in fact he may have been one of the very first suspects even more so than Billy strunak he worked at the horse
stable where Amy went horseback riding on the weekends some say he looks like the composite sketch personally I think
that is debatable MH I would say his appearance was vaguely similar to one of the composite sketches so this is at the
Holly Hill Farms riding stable where he works Amy was an avid horse rider she took lessons for two years and her
favorite horse at Holly Hill was named Razzle Holly Hill Farms which is no longer there but was for many years in
fact it was just in the last few years that Holly Hill closed for Good selling off all of the Farmland to make room for
new housing developments Holly Hill Farms was located on Nagle Road and the old address list of farm as in Avon Lake
but if you look at it on a map it was very close to where several communities meet you have Avon Lake West Lake and
Bay Village Nagle Road was not far from the the train tracks that ran behind the
mahalic home in fact the night that Amy went missing police and Mark mahalic and
friends were actually looking for Amy around those train tracks that was one area that they really focused on because
Amy would ride her bike there and go back there and go back there with friends from the neighborhood so that
was one area that if you could find her if there was a reasonable explanation as
to why she was missing if she was out on her own plane they thought they might find her
there this the the night that she went missing now at this time they're still trying to explain away why she is
missing right there no one was aware of the r used by the Predator to lure her to the shopping plaza right that info
was not learned by the police department until Saturday morning that's when the case officially went from a missing
person's case to to a kidnapping and the FBI was immediately called in now most of that area back in 1989 was
Farmland the man that we are talking about the suspect His Name Was Harold bound he actually lived at the riding
stables where Amy went weekly this dude jumps on the radar for several reasons first early on investigators were fully
focused on the call to Amy's house the r for the Meetup and abduction information
in the call again could offer insights to who the perpetrator was they were working off of the idea at the time that
the abductor may have known Amy Margaret or both persons involved with Holly Hill
Stables would have known Amy and Margaret Margaret actually would ride horses there as well this man Harold
bound he was the son of the owners of Holly Hill according to what I could find he was a Vietnam vet and he lived
in an apartment above the garage at Holly Hill it seems that he was an avid Hunter stories have been told of persons
going to the stables for writing lessons and seeing Harold what they said was he's wandering
around in camouflage with a bow and arrow mhm some I think thought this was weird maybe I mean maybe he was just
hunting really from the stories I could find about his behavior it's really a mixed bag right so some of the girls at
Holly Hill said things like we thought he was creepy even before Amy went missing others said he was strange but
thought that he suffered from PTSD from the war years later his brother Greg would say that Harold was a suspect for
a couple of reasons Greg says law enforcement said that Amy was taking taken away in a blue pickup truck the
farm owned a blue pickup this from my understanding was a shared farm vehicle and Greg says Harold came home late on
the night that Amy was abducted Harold bound's parents who owned the farm and lived on the
property this kind of adds to to the whole scenario here they were actually out of town when she was abducted they
were down in Florida for that weekend which would make make sense you know parents are out of town that's where
you're staying this is a perfect opportunity right and we both believe that the abductor picked that Friday for
some reason well investigators also said here's a guy that probably left work and
then probably didn't return so but that that would still put him in that category right right and to be clear I I
Believe In that clip that we heard there's there they're talking about a different individual not Harold bound
right right right but the interesting thing here is if he lives on that property and works there his parents are
the owners they're gone they're out of town yeah there would have been other people in and out of Holly Hill Farm
that day that weekend but he doesn't really does he need to be accounted for no right I mean he he comes and goes as
he pleased pretty much correct correct now James rener says when he first he actually interviewed or spoke to Harold
on at least two occasions he says that when first asked Harold says he didn't know Amy from any of the other students
at the stable then later Harold tells rener a very specific story about a time that he saw Amy at the stable and asked
her a question so this is completely different stories from the same guy about the same situation two completely
different answers one to say I wouldn't have known her from any of the other girls to then go
into a very specific story about a time where he had an interaction with Amy right Harold was questioned by the FBI
the day after Amy was abducted well that's what we say I'm a little unclear here Captain if it was in fact that
Saturday because remember the FBI was called in that Saturday it says that Harold was interviewed the day after she
was abducted but it could have been that sun regardless it's going to be that first weekend he's questioned very early
on during this whole situation he's questioned at his apartment and he did allow the FBI
agents and the officers to come into his apartment and he also allowed them to look around yeah not only look around
his apartment but also look around the farm property and inside of his parents' home the FBI agents left and when they
left they took nothing with them the feds questioned Harold bound multiple times the first week that Amy was
missing Harold did not like the treatment from law enforcement that he was getting so he gathered up some of
his things and he went and checked himself into a local VA Hospital some suspect he was trying to
put up a wall between him and law enforcement right his brother says that Harold believed that they were trying to
pin this abduction on him and he he was he got afraid and so he went and checked himself into this VA
Hospital well yeah think about this way you're you're working on this Farm you you come back from war you know you're a
little off or maybe you don't know you're a little off you're working around a lot of children and one of them
comes up missing MH and and maybe and and you're kind of considered by at least some of the the students to be the
weird guy or the creepy guy right but how many times you know has a school had a janitor where the guy is nothing but
nice but kids create you know rumors oh that guy's a little strange no he's not being strange he's just saying hello to
you or or saying hi to you uh but but th those uh rumors uh and speculations grow
over time too well and that's the thing too that that I wanted to point out where some of
the kids Holly Hill claimed the guy was creepy or or doing weird things sometimes things are just weird because
you're a child and you don't understand a situation right you know like you see this dude that's wandering around in
camouflage and he has a bow and arrow and you're like what's that guy always doing here right and and then but but as
an adult somebody would know a couple things one he he lives on the property so he should be there there's no reason
for him not to be there right two he's a hunter um and this is is this is a large
property that his parents own this is private land it's farm land he is allowed to hunt there right you know so
as an adult that doesn't seem so weird as a kid not going to lie man if I show up to ride a horse and there's some dude
walking around stealth like in the woods and in camouflage with a bow and arrow I'm going I'm staying away from that
dude yeah or the fact that every time you show up he's there you go well right well why is this guy always here why is
he always at work oh well he lives there or take this a scenario where a guy comes in to clean an area and maybe
doesn't uh say hello to the kids because he's trying to stay out of the way some
kids will take that as oh this guy's being really creepy he didn't say hello you know yeah so where we look at Herold
bound and say does he look guilty does he sound guilty I go with looking guilty I would say no no but sounding guilty I
think yes because of the that to me if if in fact that's true that in one conversation he claims to not have known
Amy at all and then another conversation says he had Direct interaction and names
her specifically right but that's that sounds a little weird but that's not coming from law enforcement or
investigators that's from James rener and you never know it could have jogged his memory but you also kind of think
well if I lived on a property where a young girl frequented and she went missing and then was later found dead I
don't know that I would forget her so I don't know that I would need something to jog my memory now Captain I will say
this you know back to the famous composite drawing of of the by the two classmates who say they saw who took Amy
in my opinion out of the two suspects that we have discussed today personally I think that strunck looks much more
like the composite drawing than this Herold bound right it would be interested to see if uh the law
enforcement did any kind of lineup with these eyewitnesses so we do have to keep one
thing in mind and and and remember you were talking to me last week about misinformation and when there is bad
information thrown out there drives me insane in some of these cases it can hurt the investigation and it makes you
wonder specifically in this case is it possible that the man who took and killed Amy does not look like the
composite drawing and therefore someone who knows something never picked up the phone or never sent
an email with a tip and a name because as uncomfortable as it was to suspect a person close to them maybe even someone
they loved yeah it made it so much easier for that person and so much more convenient when they looked at that
composite and they were able to say to themselves Well it can't be him he doesn't look like the composite well
well back to the truck thing you know eyewitness is saying that maybe she's abducted in this
truck okay so my thought is if you don't have a clearcut eyewitness account of the vehicle how sure can we be of the
eyewitness accounts of the the man they saw with Amy right and and that that kind of
bothers me a little bit yeah and the way that this shopping plaza is kind of divided
up you know there's some Standalone buildings in the immediate area there's several parking lots in the media area
the thought is a there's a couple of ways of thinking of this one as said earlier this was not a
violent abduction this was not a Kicking and Screaming situation nobody that saw
anything that day knew that she was being led away to be abducted so no one saw her get into a vehicle and the
thought is either just no one saw her get into a vehicle or that he potentially parked his vehicle in an
area that would be less visible and led her you know slightly away and then into
his vehicle right it makes me wonder though you're you have this ruse going hey me me somewhere we're going to buy a
gift for your mother is it possible you know here's a guy that works at the Stables when Amy sees me she isn't going
to be freaked out because she has seen me before and that makes me wonder I I get
that the the issue that I've always had with that and the issue that I've always
had with with people presenting a suspect that Amy would have known directly personally I think that it's
that it's highly unlikely just in the sense that she's being told that this individual is somebody else on the phone
and to arrive and learn that he is not in fact who he says he was makes it a you know weird from Jump Street right
there right so all right what I'm getting off topic here back to Harold bound so law enforcement blocked off
naggle road and they searched that area extensively and they Captain they searched it for days during the search
law enforcement found a pair of sweatpants in the field or a wooded area in that immediate area these pants very
well could be the same ones that Amy was wearing this does not help Harold one bit of course so law enforcement focused
serious attention on him for months they did intense surveillance exhaustive investigation all of this yielding
nothing Harold took polygraph test and I want to be clear that's plural tests uh
Harold Harold requested that he be questioned after they administer truth serum the FBI complied with this he was
subjected to questioning with truth serum pumping through his veins now I can't tell you if he passed the
polygraph test and I can't tell you what the FBI thought about his answer during
the truth serum questioning but I can tell you at some point they were no longer interested in talking to him
anymore right which makes you believe when he's checking into a VA hospital this is all a part of it hey look I'm
being accused of something uh this is this is heinous I see why an individual would want to do anything you want to
give me truth serum you want to give me a a polygraph test I'm not involved in this I I think and we've talked about
this before I think it's one of the scariest things in the world to think about being accused of a heinous crime
um with little to no evidence and how much that can affect these individuals lives can I can I tell you what the
local rumor and local thought was on Harold bound and his his reaction to the in investigation no I'm tired of you
talking so the general thought here is that because he served in Vietnam because he served in the war that what
he witnessed there what he experienced there left him mentally unstable and it was it was Harold that
that understood this though he he knew that he wasn't of mind to put up a fight and to Proclaim his innocence in the in
the you know in a sense that that made sense to him I guess and the idea is that he was living at home and he was
working for his parents because because because of what he suffered in the war that might have been the extent of his
capabilities at that time and then when he became under under Fire and under questioning for this Abduction of a girl
that it that it tipped him and he said this is the only way I know how to handle this I need to go get checked out
and get looked at where some Proclaim that that is a sign of guilt that he's trying to Shield himself or run away
from the problem other others suggest that it's just he's innocent and doesn't understand how to
properly fight this and I don't blame him I mean you're being talked to by the FBI and multiple agencies and in the end
what we do know took place is he was polygraphed multiple times he was questioned after they administered Truth
surum by his own request and at some point law enforcement they've never cleared him but we know that they moved
on from him right so again though I mean could you imagine being accused of a crime like
this this is a heinous crime against this young beautiful girl this uh smart intelligent girl she has so much promise
and and you kind of know her you you at least you might not know her that well but she works where you uh right shees
there ties to you direct ties to you and and the fact that once people didn't I I'm getting flustered with
Amy's mother's mentioned in that phone call in the ruse and he would have likely have known her as well yeah but
it's just once you're accused of this or there's some speculation about you and then you're trying to clear yourself and
I'm sure there's some people in his family that gave him some looks and he knew that they just didn't believe him
and I just think that would crush your spirits yeah I think for for the most part it sounds like his family had his
back now regarding his brother's Greg and his statements that appear in uh renner's book Amy my search for her
killer that statement about the blue pickup truck that law enforcement said to the family that Amy was taken away in
a blue pickup truck that's the only place I've ever seen that statement and in fact I don't
know how Greg came up with that maybe in fact he was told that by law en ment but
I've also seen public statements from very early on in the investigation where they were outright telling the public we
do not have a description of a vehicle and on top of that when they release these composite drawings and sorry I'm
holding these up and yelling at the captain when they release these composite sketches of of who they think
was at the plaza that day if they had a freaking vehicle description it would have been included on that as you and I
have said many times vehicle description is so much easier a vehicle's easier to
track down than a drawing of a person right and I even have um a newspaper article from very early on shortly after
her body was found where the chief of police for Bay Village is saying I would give anything for even a vague
description of a vehicle we don't have that right so I don't know where that information came from but it doesn't
seem to be accurate it may have just been a way of cranking up the heat and asking some questions and hoping that
this dude might crack but the other thing that we might we need to think about too when we talk about Harold
being a good suspect or not being a good suspect you can be a good suspect in the
eyes of law enforcement for a period of time and then thoroughly checked and then no longer a good suspect in their
eyes right so we referenced those sweatpants that were found near or on the property of Holly h
hill we we need to think about this portion of the investigation too the pair of pants that were found on Holly
Hill Farm property that made Harold or someone from Holly Hill look like they were
involved we know the the results of the autopsy remember when Amy was found she was found fully clothed right redressed
after death most likely but fully clothed those pants that were found on that property simply were not hers
now dick Ren when asked around the 10-year anniversary about Harold bound specifically Ren said he didn't do it
I'm as certain as I can be in an uncertain world is his exact quote in fact yeah and back to this blue truck
thing for a second you know it's it's heard one time you've seen it no other time again is it is it something that
was brought up by rener that was then Twisted later it's it's a possib well it was a
statement from Harold's brother Greg to rener right that's what I'm saying but the statement uh this conversation that
happened was there a Twist and Turn to get there you see what I'm saying and and just because somebody put it in his
book does not mean it's 100% accurate is is all I'm putting out there well yeah and that's why I said we don't know
where Greg came up with that information right you know that I mean he could have
could have it could be total fantasy for all we know and that conversation happened 15 years after the abduction
and I think a lot of things get changed and distorted and and and misremembered now from the uh articles
that came out around the 10year anniversary in regards to both of the suspects that we have discussed so far
strunck and Harold bound th this is the the statement that they gave at the 10year the 10-year mark
it says investigators are virtually unanimous in the certainty that neither one of these individuals was involved in
the abduction or murder of Amy mahalic well the other thing that I like about this individual
is that there's there was other phone calls made and there was a a a set of girls or or one girl that actually rode
horses at those Stables uh so there would be the connection of the phone calls mhm yes
and again it's it's we're unable to determine which in fact phone calls were connected to Amy's Amy's
[Music] [Music] case [Music] uh I thank one and all for your support your love and your concern without which
I would not have been able to make it through this past year a year ago today just across the street from the tree on
the granite marker Amy was abducted from a Bay Village shopping center a little more than 3 months later her body was
found let's fill the void that her passing has left with positive thoughts with a smile on her face and say she
blessed our life for a while unfortunately she is gone but now we must live on City and Civic leaders and
law enforcement officials spoke of love and Community togetherness and the Amy fund and the continuing search for the
child's killer we're not going to give up until uh we see this thing through uh Amy has touched our lives uh she will
Live Forever The Monument says that Amy lives on in our hearts Amy pulled a community together as a family and we
still are a family supporting each other loving each other we know that Amy is in
God's love and care and his love and care are with us there was mourning and there were
drawn faces and there were some tears but this was not a ceremony of Sorrow put a smile
on thank you for coming in Bay Village John hington Channel 3 News [Music] we want to thank everybody out there for
listening for everything true crime go to True Crim garage.com and until tomorrow be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter [Music] Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
thought it was an Eco move few worse less paper no it was so you could say it faster no it's to be more iconic must be
a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare up front prices book a service instantly
and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than just a list
get started at angie.com that's ngi or download the app today

Amy Mihaljevic - Suspects /// Part 1 /// 345

Part 1 of 2

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This week we revisit a case that we refuse to give up on. Sunday will mark 30 years to the day that 10 year old Amy Mihaljevic was abducted in plain sight. Join us for a discussion regarding some of the suspects you have heard of and some you may have not. Beer of the Week - Scissor Kick by KCBC Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

This episode discusses the unsolved abduction and murder of Amy Mahalic, focusing on key suspects and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

The Disappearance of Amy Mahalic. A detailed timeline of the unsolved abduction and murder of 10-year-old Amy Mahalic.
The Role of the Suspect. Investigators discuss the potential suspects in Amy's case and the challenges they faced.
The Crime Scene Mystery. There are three known crime scenes, but evidence is scarce.
Billy Strunak's Alibi. Despite being a suspect, no DNA evidence links him to the crime.
Harold Bound's Creepy Reputation. Harold Bound, a suspect, had a strange reputation among students at the stables.
Eyewitness Accounts. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a blue pickup truck during the abduction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Nick's heartfelt greeting to the audience.

1:57WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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