True Crime Garage /// Off The Record /// Captain is Dumb | Forensic Files

welcome to the first episode of True Crime garage off the record this is your captain speaking in this episode we talk
a lot about the case of Amy mihalovic if you haven't listened to that episode it's episode number 22. all of our old
episodes are available through the Stitcher app for free why because Stitcher is freaking awesome this
conversation happened after the recording of the Kendrick Johnson case the Beards were flowing and I got about
two hours of this conversation so this conversation will come out in about four parts hope you enjoy cheers mates
foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well I gotta tell you about this Captain
because here's the thing you know when you and I covered the Amy maholovic Cold Case probably our best show
I'm not I'm not actually on that episode but hey and maybe that's why it's our best show
well not to to be honest well I got to thinking about this last week because I drove up to the Cleveland area and I was
having lunch with our good friend James Renner and bro date the thing about it was I as I was driving up there a couple
things occurred to me one I realized that you know back then we were only doing one episode we we rarely
would we cover a case for more than one episode Back Then and those were the Glory Days well you know what at the
time maybe it felt maybe it felt right you know I think looking back I I would have said back then Amy's only one
episode well I started digging into her case again because that's that's one of my
you call them red light cases that's one of my red light cases that I've been dragging around with me for years and
it's always with me but everybody's calling it red light cases now I started a thing
I mean just just so you know I mean I think I was watching Nancy Grace the other day
and she was like my red light case my red light case now is so I'm just saying everybody's using this
jump on board well I am I'm fully on board so you're driving to Cleveland just takes 71. well I kind of got to
start start back a little bit okay I'm gonna tell me how you showered and yeah so but no I knew I was going up there in
advance so I started I I had some free time and I started I couldn't help myself I started looking into Amy's case
again and I got more angry and more Angry as I do when I look into this case for many
reasons and uh you know I'll go through those later but I really should talk to somebody though about your anger issues
no well knowing that I was going up to okay so Renner calls me and he says look can you come up I want to to ask you
some questions about podcasting and I said okay no problem I'm like um first off I'm like I don't I don't
think he's contacted the right guy he really should have contacted the captain but yeah but you know it's it's so funny
though because oh I mean the amount I still get a ridiculous amount of either hate mail or
crap on our blog or iTunes and it's like I mean we should just put a disclaimer like the the show is
produced by the dumb guy right do you want me to agree with you here because I feel like I'd be
confirming you're the dumb guy if I'm like yeah you're right yeah I'm I'm good at all the other stuff other than
talking right so I disagree okay but okay so so Runner called you he wanted to talk
about podcasting and and you know me I always have an agenda I'm like this is perfect I have a couple I have a couple
of Amy mihalovic questions that I want to ask him once I get there face to face he won't be able to get out and I will I
will he'll be forced to talk to me right so I drive up there wait hold on it's my
favorite thing is I win Runner when Runner came all the way from Cleveland uh so we're in the studio in Columbus
excuse me and uh first of all he gets out of his car he's looking at both of us like wow this is
one crazy multi-league crew right and then we're in the studio this super nice Studio Sonic Lounge Studios check
them out online but uh we're in this super nice studio and Renard's looking at you funny
and then at some point you say to him yeah I've been to see you speak before oh oh really then all of a sudden he
goes he looks at you and he goes oh yeah you followed me out to the park to my car
you followed me all the way out to the parking lot yeah hey I bought a book that day and I and
you know what I was very polite I there was a long line of people that wanted to
buy his book at that particular I've actually spoke to him at multiple things before we started doing this right but
that one particular incident yes I did follow him out to um to the street there he was too smart
to like walk to his car he just walked to an open area and kind of stood there anyway but I was very polite because I
purposely I could have been the first one in line to buy the book and I said I I'm going to be I'm going to put myself
last in line because I have a couple questions to ask this guy that way I don't hold up anybody else's time and he
sells a book to all these people I was being polite to him polite to them I'm a superhero okay maybe maybe in your eyes
but the way I view that is that you're actually being extra creepy because you're thinking I'm gonna
utilize a lot of this guy's time and I'm gonna be pretty creepy doing it no that I mean you had uh preconceived
creepy Notions well at these things okay so I've been to a bunch of these with different authors and the way that it
always goes down is this so an author if it's if it's a true crime presentation they give more of a
presentation where they'll kind of go through the [ __ ] they'll go through the crime they might go through some public
theories some other people's theories and usually they will go into their Theory a bit but not too much because
they want to sell you the book and then afterwards they'll kind of open it up to a q a and then there's followed
by a session where the author will will typically sit down at a desk or a table somewhere
and they will you can form a line with the intent of you know the intention is that you're going to buy a book and the
author will then write you know autograph the book maybe write a little funny note to you or something in the
book and take a shower but during that time you you are you're allowed to ask questions you know you're allowed to to
present a question to them and um okay so you aren't being no well if if I were going to ask him a
question this was the place to do it right okay so but okay so back to the story so you're going up to Cleveland so
you know that he's going to be he's going to be stuck with you going out to lunch yeah he said do you want to
grab a bite to eat and I said okay okay so where did you eat uh I don't I don't remember
there was some so it was just some like lunch place like I don't know like that narrows it down officer no I think
he I think he picked he he Moose Head Saloon or something like that so it's like it was like good yeah and it was
they had good food and I'm sure they had great beer but I wasn't gonna it was like 11 o'clock in the morning I wasn't
drinking a beer it sounds a lot better than moose knuckle so anyway I go up and don't quote me I don't remember if
that's the exact name so I'm I'm filming you right now but the thing is so driving up there
so leaving Columbus heading up 71 to get all the way toward Cleveland okay it's like a two and a half hour drive yeah to
this restaurant I think it took me 210 to get there mind you I'm on the north side of Columbus and this was actually
like Lakewood something like that but when you're driving up there one thing that that occurred to me and this
has occurred to me multiple times when I take that trip up to that area is that somewhere
uh a little less than a little less than a little more than halfway there for me
anyway uh when you get past the the 1181 area that's a a route 1181. it always occurs to me that somewhere
between here and where my final destination is for the day there's very likely a
60 to 70 year old child killer that's living in this area that's something that always comes
across my mind when when making that Journey well might be still living might have moved
is what you're saying though right or do you think they're still there I just get a feeling I just get a
feeling that that the person's probably I get some strange feeling when I start getting toward that area and driving
along it I get angry about it and I start looking at sheds and and things as I pass them giving you know turning
strange eye to them right but this this crime took place a long time ago 1989. so I mean one it's
possible that this suspect would be dead or possibly has moved you know to Florida or something
but but you're saying your gut feeling is still there still around that's just the feeling I get but one
thing that occurred to me earlier in the week before I left was that I had never
discussed this with you or with with James and we didn't talk about this on the show was there is a um okay there's
a book out there called whoever fights monsters which came out I believe in 92 and it's by Robert K wrestler famous
FBI agent and it's fantastic book I highly recommend everybody pick it up but now there's about four or five pages
in that book where Robert Ressler talks about the Amy mihalovic case and I at this time it's it's in a
chapter titled um what plus y equals who now Amy was abducted in October of 1989
and at this time Robert Ressler is near retirement well he gives a profile regarding who he
thinks took Amy and he prepared this profile with another agent this is a local agent to the Cleveland office John
Dunn and they were also working with a man named dick warns okay so while he's there he he actually
I think he the way that the story goes is that that wrestler had to be in town for something else and I think it was
like hey I'll just kind of drop by I'm I think he's from the area maybe it was just have lunch I mean just like you and
Rena yeah yeah I think he was given some kind of seminar or he was taking a seminar anyway
he's there and he decides he's going to sit down with the local agents and they're going to put together a profile
on who they believe took Amy and the profile they come up with and I'll give you kind of the the
um nuts and bolts of it it's this it's a white man late 20s or early 30s introverted a loner relatively
unsuccessful unmarried not overly educated but not stupid no military service and a propensity for
spending a lot of time with kids so as they're preparing this profile the local agents inform wrestler that
guess what we we have a guy that is already a suspect and he fits that profile so this guy his name is Billy streuneck
so who is Billy strunek he's he's a lot of what the profile says he's a white guy in his late 20s or early 30s
he's an introverted loner relatively unsuccessful he works at a um not a grocery store but like a
kind of like a Sam's Club or something like that where you have people buy in bulk right yeah he's kind of a stock guy
doing doing things like that he's unmarried right and not to you know put my thoughts on this too much but as
far as like the unsuccessful you know late 20s unsuccessful right when they're profiling these individuals to me this
has always meant you know it could be a school teacher could be a banker could be somebody with actually like a nice
job could be a college professor but I I think the unsuccessful part would probably be you know the overall
umbrella of their lives you know not married no kids not a lot of friends does that make any sense well no you're
right and the thing is one thing that people have to to keep in mind is when you're looking at these profiles
so what they will typically do is they will come up with reasons to back up other thoughts that they have about the
criminal so meaning okay a guy this late in in life late 20s early 30s he's unmarried
well what what is one reason why he might be unmarried because he's he's not successful yeah or he's so handsome and
has a successful podcast that he's kind of picky well these are just these are just
they're probabilities they're not they're not certainties you know and and keep in mind they're only putting
together a profile with the information that they have at the time at any time if they're given more information or new
information or better information their profile can change right and you know that they're not always spot on with all
these things this is just this is just a few FBI agents sitting down without a suspect in mind going
from our experience who is the type that would typically abduct a 10 year old girl
now keep in mind at this time she's been gone for a while so they're probably they're working on the probability that
she's been she's been either Kept For What would be a long-term criminal plan or she's she's dead by this point she's
been murdered so they're they're just coming up with this profile off of what they've studied
off of what they've seen in the past right so Billy strewnack William strunek um
he lived in Parma Heights he he did have some kind of Prior with the he had some
kind of Prior police record and it's a little unclear about what his prior conviction was for this is according to
the Cuyahoga County's website it says he was found guilty of disseminating material harmful to children
now from my my readings that typically means that pornography right however on the website it doesn't give a clear
account of the offense it doesn't give the specificity or the the details of that offense it could be like nudie mags
um that's also it's kind of a broad it's kind of a broad charge too to be really
to be fully honest with you that that's um it's usually not clear-cut it's not like
B and E where like all right well we know this guy broke in to somebody's home unlawfully or broke into a business
unlawfully anyway this dude is a bit of a thief he has a history of stealing from employers
um you know small petty crime uh he's five foot six inches tall 155 pounds and at five six yeah and and this
is in the 80s so I mean five six is I mean this this is a short gentleman I'm not maybe I shouldn't call him
gentleman but short guy yeah five six would be a short guy and most in most decades yeah
um at this time he was living in the Fairview Park Apartments uh he was living in an efficiency there now he
alone or this guy did have a girlfriend um I think his girlfriend may have had a
child a small child uh well you see that you know all like single mothers should
be like careful because there are guys that will pray on single mothers to to be close to their children
and and have them become victims yeah and there's some there's some people who wonder if this was a real girlfriend or
not um you know I mean was she plastic which is made out of plastic no there's there's a chance he was probably just
telling people that they had a relationship and they had no relationship maybe she's just somebody
that was nice to him um he so he worked at the BJ's Wholesale Club and the interesting thing about him is
after they're going through this profile and they're doing this profile well the
local agents are like hey you know Bob we got a guy that that matches your profile and by the way he's already one
of our top five Suspects and really the point of the profile is not really to tell you who to to give
you a name of who did the crime right it's more to to have the investigators hone in on
if you have to prioritize if you have to maximize your time and the efficiency of
your investigation well then you should look at this group of people before you look at that group of people
[Music] so this strewnac guy at the time Billy Billy strunek yeah so William struneki Goes by Billy he's the guy that
we talked about sometimes when you're telling me about these guys you you switch between their first names and
their last names and so sometimes it's hard to keep track of who you're talking about well the
suspect yeah and one one thing I don't think that we talked about when we covered Amy's case and it's been so long
so it's hard to remember but they actually had what they referred to as the Amy Center and I believe this was
set up at City Hall and it was basically a room where investigators and volunteers could go that could help in
the search for Amy because keep in mind she she was gone for months before they found her body
so they were actively looking for her or looking for her abductor her mother Margaret would often go to
this this Amy Center and she was kind of one of the people that was one of the leaders of this group
well one of the volunteers there was this Billy strewnack he he had volunteered his time to help in the
search for Amy now he did a couple of things there that that called his character into question by the police
and I believe that this was first by Margaret well let me I'm just trying to follow you here so you're saying Billy
the suspect worked at the Amy Center yes as a volunteer as a volunteer to try to find her right now I I think this
guy I think you guys might have brought this guy up before but uh when during the interview with
you and and Renner not 100 sure but but go on I'm just trying I want to just make sure I'm following everything
correctly well and if anybody's going well that doesn't make any sense that a suspect is working as a volunteer he
became a suspect after having volunteered his time at the Amy Center yeah but you see a lot I mean how many
cases have we covered where it's like guys that want to get involved with cases or they they find out later that they
were on their radar you know in the beginning and then it was three years later they they caught them so I I don't
think that's too uh far-fetched well no they in in most cold cases I forget the percentage but
in most cold cases they find that the the the offender that they find out years later committed the crime was
already spoke to by police or was already questioned now in this situation a little bit different to the fact that
sometimes these guys inject themselves into the investigation or into the search for the victim and the reason
being that that um John Douglas would tell you this and and wrestler would tell you this as well
most of the time it's not anything where they're like hey I gotta I want to be close to this investigation I want to I
want to uh be a part of it it's nothing like that they believe that most of the time it's so that they can figure out
how close the investigators are to making an arrest being that if they if they get wind that the investigators are
close to their guy or on to them right then they know to get the hell out of town
and to take off right yeah I wonder how many of them like I don't know if get off is the right
word but how many of them get off if they're close to an investigation and then they start hearing cops talk
about a suspect that's not them you know what I mean and so it's like you know this Billy guy sitting around
they're like hey man we're really close to catching somebody he's like oh [ __ ]
they might be catching me and then they're like hey this guy uh uh Tommy two finger right
I don't know how much anybody at the Amy Center would really know much about the investigation the way
that I think that you know this is not like the that they set up a task force there and they're working with the
public to solve the crime it's more or less it's a group of volunteers and from time to time police officers and
detectives probably walk over and check in and just say did any leads anything strange have we heard anything that kind
of thing right but think about this in the in this manner right you're working this Amy Center
cop comes in just to show face right show the presence of police force there more
support than to actually work the case when you go up and you start asking questions
doesn't seem that odd right right and so like you said I mean maybe they don't really know tons about the case but
if you are involved somehow you can't just go into the police department and go hey
guys uh so I'm kind of interested in this Amy case and uh any word you know what I
mean right so it's like you do that to take your chances and maybe you don't hear stuff from time you know uh every
day but you'd hear some stuff from time to time uh which would you know be some kind of
I I would assume and this is maybe just me being you know assuming and making an
ass out of you and and you but um I I I wonder how much of these individuals why they're if they're
injecting themselves into the cases how much thrilled they get from even just hearing
people talk about the case and just hearing a phrase like well we have real no solid lead or we have no solid
suspects I mean uh there there's probably some uh and I'm sure the FBI has done some work on what kind of
psychological rush I would think that would be they'd probably get some kind of high off of it you know oh yeah
almost like they watch the news they clip the the newspaper articles out yeah that sort of thing
but strange though man so but the reason why this guy came on to their radar and
became a suspect was I believe it was Margaret Amy's mother that tells the police hey
this guy is he's a volunteer but he's he's strange and he had at one time gave gave Margaret a hug that she said was
awkward that he maybe held on to her too long that he had also sent he had mailed
he licked her ear something to Margaret in the mail that it was a I believe it was a card along with two
pins like a decorative pin or something that he mailed to her and he mailed her two of them and one was for her and one
was for Amy when she returned home hmm so he and he he also offered to help the mahalovics out in any way and one
suggestion he had for her was that he could come in uh uh clean their home so yeah that's
that's a little odd I mean okay so so this guy bill so he could just be a very nice guy
that actually means well but he's just very he's very bad in social situations but you but you would assume again
making an ass out of you and you um but you assume that an individual that was bad at social situations would not
put himself into social situations you know what I mean um that that that I think you just made an ass out of you
because that's assuming that someone bad at social situations is aware that they're bad at social situations no no I
get that most people that are bad in social situations have no clue that's true that they're bad in these
situations but if you have this introvert right I mean that's that's where that's
where he becomes more suspicious to me he got this introvert this guy that doesn't have doesn't seem like he has a
lot of friends he's spending a bunch of his time at this Amy Center he goes out of his way to give uh send send gifts to
their house and they're just small pins or whatever but then on top of that you say I could help your family out
if you need to well the weird hug with him Lick in her ear possibly with whispering
in her ear he didn't listen he didn't lick her here he didn't whisper but I find
I find the chore that he claims he could help out with to be odd oh yeah because if it's hey I can mow
your grass that's typical hey I'll take some weight off your uh your husband's shoulders mow the grass I
can show up and that's the thing that you don't have to be there for I can just show up Mo and leave and and
if he offered that to me not so weird I want to clean your house what the [ __ ]
what room do you want to go through what are you trying to find this is where my
mind is going well yeah yeah of course and that's why that's why he because he gets on to the police radar had he not
done any of these things he would not have if he was just another volunteer he wouldn't have been on their radar at all
right [Music] [Applause] thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend and make sure you check out
True Crime garage.com be good be kind and don't litter

True Crime Garage /// Off The Record /// Captain is Dumb Episode #1

Nic and the Captain discuss: James Renner and the Amy Mihaljevic case. Released: 4-30-2018

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Brief Summary

The episode discusses Amy Mihalovic's case and suspect Billy Strunek's profile and behavior as a volunteer in the investigation.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. The first episode introduces the podcast and its focus on true crime cases.
The Amy Mihalovic Case. A deep dive into the case of Amy Mihalovic, a haunting cold case from 1989.
The Profile of a Suspect. Discussion of a profile created for Amy's abductor, revealing chilling details.
A Volunteer with a Dark Past. The suspect, Billy Strunek, volunteered at the Amy Center, raising red flags.
The Strange Volunteer. A volunteer's odd behavior raises suspicions in the investigation.
Cleaning Offer Raises Eyebrows. An unusual offer to clean the family's home adds to the mystery.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I started looking into Amy's case again and got more angry.

2:55WatchJan 26, 2023

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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