Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness, invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On Friday, October twenty seventh, nineteen eighty nine, ten year
Speaker 2: old Amy Mahalovich rode her bike to her fifth grade
Speaker 2: class at Bay Middle School with her friend Kristen. This
Speaker 2: was part of her usual routine. It was at Chili
Speaker 2: Fall Day in Bay Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
Speaker 2: Kristin said that on this day, Amy was excitedly talking
Speaker 2: about the yearbook picture retakes that were happening at school
Speaker 2: that morning. The students had had their original pictures taken
Speaker 2: a few weeks earlier. Amy had put her hair into
Speaker 2: a side ponytail, which was all the rage at the time,
Speaker 2: but apparently she wasn't happy with how it turned out.
Speaker 3: It just didn't feel like her.
Speaker 2: Police later checked out this information and found that a
Speaker 2: photographer from Ohio's School Pictures had come to the school
Speaker 2: on October fourth. Amy's fifth grade class led out at
Speaker 2: two four pm that afternoon. Kristin later told the FBI
Speaker 2: that after school, when she went to get her bike
Speaker 2: to ride home, she noticed that Amy's bike was still
Speaker 2: in the bike rack. Amy had a brother named Jason,
Speaker 2: who was two years older in the seventh grade. His
Speaker 2: class led out an hour later than Amy's, so Amy
Speaker 2: normally got home first. Both kids were expected to call
Speaker 2: their mom, Margaret at work, every day when they arrived home,
Speaker 2: but on that Friday, Jason called Margaret at her job
Speaker 2: at The Trading Times, the local newspaper where she worked,
Speaker 2: to say he had made it home safely, but he
Speaker 2: said Amy still hadn't come home. Margaret wasn't immediately worried
Speaker 2: because Amy had told her that there was a choir
Speaker 2: practice or some kind of a tryout that evening. At
Speaker 2: three forty pm, Margaret got a call at work, it
Speaker 2: was Amy. Amy told her mom that she was fine
Speaker 2: and the try out went well. Margaret later told investigators
Speaker 2: she thought Amy was home when she made that call.
Speaker 2: After work, Margaret drove home, which was about ten minutes away.
Speaker 2: Amy still wasn't home. Concerned, Margaret went to the school.
Speaker 2: That's when she saw Amy's bike still in the rack
Speaker 2: and realized she hadn't ridden her bike home. She went
Speaker 2: to the police station to report Amy missing.
Speaker 3: Amy's fought Mark.
Speaker 2: Who was away on a work trip, would point out
Speaker 2: later that to him, the mention of choir practice on
Speaker 2: a Friday afternoon or evening was kind of a red flag,
Speaker 2: since choir practice, to his knowledge, was not ever held
Speaker 2: on that night. In their investigation, police discovered that after
Speaker 2: school let out, Amy walked about a quarter mile to
Speaker 2: a nearby mall, the Bay Square Shopping Center, with two girlfriends.
Speaker 2: That's when they found out the choir practice story was
Speaker 2: covered for something else. They found out that an unknown
Speaker 2: caller had contacted Amy at home and said they would
Speaker 2: meet her in the mall to buy a gift for
Speaker 2: her mother because her mother had been promoted. But this
Speaker 2: wasn't true. There was no promotion and no gift. Amy's
Speaker 2: abductor kidnapped her from that mall. Witnesses saw Amy talking
Speaker 2: to a man in the parking lot, and then she disappeared,
Speaker 2: and there was no sign of her for several months
Speaker 2: until on February eighth, nineteen ninety, nearly four months after
Speaker 2: the incident, a female jogger was running near a cornfield
Speaker 2: in Ruggles Township off County Road eleven eighty one, in
Speaker 2: a rural area of Ashland County. That's when she found
Speaker 2: Amy's body.
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds
Speaker 2: of messages from people all around the country asking for
Speaker 2: help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case she'd like
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 2: That's six seven a seven four four six one four five,
Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram at
Speaker 2: Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder line. Amy Mulholovic
Speaker 2: was born on December eleventh, nineteen seventy eight, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaker 2: She grew up with her mom, Margaret, her dad Mark,
Speaker 2: and her brother Jason, who was two years older than her.
Speaker 2: The year after Amy was born, Mark was transferred to Jackson, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: He had a long career with Bwick. In nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: he was transferred again. That's when the family moved and
Speaker 2: settled near Cleveland, Ohio. That's where Amy grew up at
Speaker 2: six twenty eight Lynford Drive in Bay Village, Ohio. Amy
Speaker 2: grew up riding her bike to school with her friends
Speaker 2: and doing all the normal things that kids did in
Speaker 2: the late eighties. She loved the movie Dirty Dancy. According
Speaker 2: to her friends, she knew every line. She was also
Speaker 2: proud of her collection of My Little Pony figurines. Amy
Speaker 2: was petite four foot ten inches and ninety pounds, and
Speaker 2: she was constantly on the move. She participated in a
Speaker 2: lot of activities, including swimming, brownies, and especially horseback riding.
Speaker 2: She loved to take lessons and train at the nearby
Speaker 2: stable Holly Hill Farms. The horse she loved the most
Speaker 2: was named Razzle. Amy's father, Mark, came home from his
Speaker 2: work trip. He had been away for several days. By
Speaker 2: the time he got home, he said, Margaret was hysterical.
Speaker 2: She'd already called all of Amy's friends, and he immediately
Speaker 2: started searching the local area. Margaret had already called the
Speaker 2: police and reported Amy missing. By the next morning, the
Speaker 2: FBI was there and they were cooperating with local police.
Speaker 2: The FBI interrogated everyone, including Amy's family, following standard protocol.
Speaker 2: We got a chance to speak to Amy's older brother, Jason.
Speaker 2: Jason is now forty nine years old. He lives in Ohio.
Speaker 2: He shared his experience in the aftermath of his sister's disappearance.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I thought it was Let's see, I
Speaker 4: was in seventh grade and she was in fifth, sorry
Speaker 4: getting old, so she would usually be home when I
Speaker 4: was on my way home, so she got home earlier
Speaker 4: than I did, and for whatever reason, on that Frienday,
Speaker 4: she wasn't And I called my mom asked what was
Speaker 4: going on, and she said, oh, yeah, she had some
Speaker 4: sort of trial for a choir something that should be back.
Speaker 4: And it got later and later, and leader I called
Speaker 4: my mom and she started, who You're re get worried,
Speaker 4: and then the whole cascade of things of realizing that no,
Speaker 4: she really wasn't gone, and I don't know what else is?
Speaker 4: Where else is say? There were countless police and Atbie
Speaker 4: in and out of the house in all hours of
Speaker 4: the night and day, and especially the first couple of
Speaker 4: weeks when everything was focused on finding her and rescuing her.
Speaker 2: The day after Amy disappeared on Saturday morning, one of
Speaker 2: Amy's neighbors, another girl who was in her class, told
Speaker 2: police that at lunch the day before, Amy had told
Speaker 2: her that she got a phone call from a man
Speaker 2: she didn't know. The male caller called Amy at home.
Speaker 2: He claimed he worked with Amy's mother. He said he
Speaker 2: wanted help buying a present to celebrate her promotion, and
Speaker 2: he told Amy she could pick out a gift as well,
Speaker 2: but Amy told her friend the caller had emphasized this
Speaker 2: had to be their little secret. Investigators believe that at
Speaker 2: the point when Amy made the call to her mom
Speaker 2: at three forty pm, Amy had already been abducted. They
Speaker 2: believed her abductor was standing there with her, and that
Speaker 2: this call bought him crucial time to get further away.
Speaker 2: Amy sounded fine on the call, so it's unclear whether
Speaker 2: or not Amy knew she was in potential danger at
Speaker 2: that time. She may have been frightened, or she may
Speaker 2: have just thought this was all part of a secret
Speaker 2: gift plan. Mark has said in multiple interviews that Amy
Speaker 2: knew not to talk to strangers. But what if her
Speaker 2: kidnapper knew their family or convinced Amy that he did.
Speaker 2: Investigators learned something else. They found out several other young
Speaker 2: girls had received phone calls similar to the ones Amy got.
Speaker 2: They wondered if Amy had been targeted specifically, or if
Speaker 2: the caller tried several girls before Amy was the one
Speaker 2: who took the bait. Police talked to Amy's friends. Two
Speaker 2: of her friends said they left class together. They all
Speaker 2: walked together to the mall, which only took a few minutes.
Speaker 2: They said that after they got to the mall, they
Speaker 2: split up. Police talked to two witnesses who were eleven
Speaker 2: years old. They said they were out in the parking
Speaker 2: lot at around three pm. They saw Amy standing by
Speaker 2: the mall like she was waiting for somebody. There was
Speaker 2: a bask In Robin's ice cream shop out there that
Speaker 2: a lot of the kids hung out at, and Apparently
Speaker 2: Amy was near the ice cream store, although they didn't
Speaker 2: see her go inside. The witnesses saw a man put
Speaker 2: his hand on Amy's back and walk her out to
Speaker 2: the parking lot, but Amy didn't seem to be in
Speaker 2: any distress, so the two kids said they weren't really
Speaker 2: paying attention. They didn't see where Amy went next. They
Speaker 2: described the stranger with Amy that day as a clean
Speaker 2: cut white man, approximately in his thirties, around five foot
Speaker 2: seven to five foot eleven inches tall, with a bald
Speaker 2: spot and dark, possibly gray hair. Detectives put together a
Speaker 2: composite sketch of the man the witnesses saw. Now apparently
Speaker 2: there were some discrepancies between their descriptions. One of them
Speaker 2: said the guy Amy was talking to had glasses, the
Speaker 2: other said he didn't. And they interviewed many people, but
Speaker 2: they never found the man in the sketch. It also
Speaker 2: probably didn't help that the composite sketch literally looked like
Speaker 2: your average white man on the street. It kind of
Speaker 2: looked like it could be anyone. Amy's eleventh birthday came
Speaker 2: and went with her family nowhere closer to finding answers.
Speaker 2: Once Amy's body was found in February, of nineteen ninety,
Speaker 2: around twenty feet from the road. She was identified very
Speaker 2: quickly from dental records and fingerprints. According to the autopsy report,
Speaker 2: Amy had blunt forced trauma to the back of her head,
Speaker 2: but the actual.
Speaker 3: Cause of death with stab wounds to the neck.
Speaker 2: The autopsy found Amy's body had been in that field
Speaker 2: for a considerable period of time, probably the entire three months.
Speaker 2: Investigators believed that Amy was dumped there either on the
Speaker 2: day she went missing or shortly afterwards. Their best guess
Speaker 2: is from a few hours to a few days after
Speaker 2: her abduction. Of course, Amy's body was very decomposed. She
Speaker 2: was dressed, but her sweatpants were inside out. This made
Speaker 2: investigators belief it was likely that she was sexually assaulted,
Speaker 2: but unfortunately, her body had been out in the elements
Speaker 2: for way too long for some kinds of sexual assault
Speaker 2: testing to be effective, so they didn't know for sure.
Speaker 2: There were signs that Amy may have been kept alive
Speaker 2: for at least a few hours after her abduction, although
Speaker 2: it's not conclusive proof. The coroner's report found substances in
Speaker 2: her stomach. They were able to conclude that Amy's last
Speaker 2: meal was something soy based, possibly in art official chicken
Speaker 2: product or Chinese food. I wonder could she have gotten
Speaker 2: the food from the mall food court or could her
Speaker 2: killer have gotten it. Could they have kept her somewhere
Speaker 2: else alive for a period of time, or maybe bought
Speaker 2: takeout food and brought it to her. There was no
Speaker 2: way to know for sure. Several hundred yards away from
Speaker 2: Amy's body, investigators found a curtain and a blanket that
Speaker 2: were sent in for forensic testing.
Speaker 3: The forensic testing team.
Speaker 2: Found yellow gold fibers on Amy's body. There were also
Speaker 2: some things that were missing. Her black studded boots that
Speaker 2: she wore for horse riding were missing, and investigators never
Speaker 2: found the other items that Amy had been carrying that day,
Speaker 2: including her denim backpack, her black binder with Bwick Best
Speaker 2: in Class written on it, and some very unique turquoise
Speaker 2: earrings that she was wearing. They were shaped like little horseheads.
Speaker 2: Police considered the possibility that Amy's killer had taken these
Speaker 2: items and either ditched them or kept them as a souvenir.
Speaker 2: Police were trying to figure out the caller's origins. They
Speaker 2: were also investigating every possible connection to Amy or Margaret,
Speaker 2: since Margaret was mentioned in the call trading time said
Speaker 2: Margaret had not gotten a promotion. The only thing that
Speaker 2: had happened recently with her work schedule was that she
Speaker 2: had gone from part time to full time. Police also
Speaker 2: explored connections with Holly Hill Farms, where Amy rode horses.
Speaker 3: And spent a lot of time.
Speaker 2: One of the young women who got a call similar
Speaker 2: to the one Amy got months before she disappeared, reported
Speaker 2: the incident to police. The FBI came to her house,
Speaker 2: and they found out this girl, like Amy, was a
Speaker 2: regular at holly Hill Farms. There was a documentary called
Speaker 2: The Lake Erie Murders on Investigation Discovery, and there were
Speaker 2: three episodes in that series about Amy's case. They interviewed
Speaker 2: someone else, a woman who was ten years old at
Speaker 2: the time Amy disappeared. She told ID few weeks before
Speaker 2: Amy disappeared, she got a similar phone call to the
Speaker 2: one Amy got. She said, someone identifying themselves as her
Speaker 2: mom's boss called her and mentioned them buying a secret gift. Apparently,
Speaker 2: she asked her mother about it, and her mother kind
Speaker 2: of shut the whole thing down, so she never attempted
Speaker 2: to meet up with the caller, and that caller was
Speaker 2: apparently never found When detectives were investigating the girls who
Speaker 2: got calls mainly in the summer before Amy disappeared, they
Speaker 2: found that there was one place they all had in common.
Speaker 2: They had all apparently been to the Lake Erie Nature
Speaker 2: and Science Center in Bay Village. Police said that the
Speaker 2: location had a paper log book where visitors could write
Speaker 2: down their names and addresses. So one theory they had
Speaker 2: was maybe someone involved with the center, a volunteer or
Speaker 2: an employee, or possibly just a visitor, got the girl's
Speaker 2: phone numbers from inside that logbook. Police looked for the logbook,
Speaker 2: but it was gone and investigators were never able to
Speaker 2: find that logbook. Over the years, police interviewed Amy's friends
Speaker 2: several times.
Speaker 3: They ran down a lot of leads.
Speaker 2: Of course, they asked about Amy's parents' relationships, about her parents'
Speaker 2: friends they're male friends, Amy's father and her friend's father's
Speaker 2: They found nothing conclusive. There were a lot of names
Speaker 2: mentioned in connection with Amy's case over the years, a
Speaker 2: lot of false starts and red herrings. The jogger who
Speaker 2: found Amy's body mentioned a weird guy who lived on
Speaker 2: her street, but there was no evidence that he was
Speaker 2: ever connected to Amy's case, and in my opinion that
Speaker 2: was part of the problem.
Speaker 3: It seemed like everyone.
Speaker 2: Knew a weird guy who lived on their street, which
Speaker 2: was a challenge for the police. Another early suspect mentioned
Speaker 2: by the FBI profiler Robert Wrestler, was Billy Strunak, a
Speaker 2: man who had stalked a waitress in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: Police became interested in him as a potential suspect in
Speaker 2: Amy's case in nineteen eighty nine. Apparently the reason why
Speaker 2: police were suspicious was Billy's criminal past and his behavior.
Speaker 2: They say that Billy volunteered, that he inserted himself into
Speaker 2: the investigation, that he was trying to cozy up to
Speaker 2: Margaret after Amy's disappearance, and even offered to clean her house.
Speaker 2: Thirteen days after Amy's body was found, Billy took his
Speaker 2: own life by drinking dry gas and soda. Police said
Speaker 2: after his death they searched his residence. They said they
Speaker 2: found zero evidence that would link him to Amy. They said,
Speaker 2: on the contrary, his suicide note referred to problems at
Speaker 2: work and depression. They said there was nothing there referring
Speaker 2: to Amy at all, so that lead turned into a
Speaker 2: dead end. Police also continued to explore connections with Holly
Speaker 2: Hill Farms, especially once they found out one of the
Speaker 2: other girls who got one of these weird phone calls
Speaker 2: was also a regular at Hollyhill Farms. One man the
Speaker 2: FBI talked to was a caretaker there, a man named
Speaker 2: Harold Bound. He lived on the property. His parents owned
Speaker 2: the stables, but apparently they were out of town when
Speaker 2: Amy went missing.
Speaker 3: Harold was cooperative. He allowed investigators to search his apartment
Speaker 3: and the whole farm.
Speaker 2: Harold was described as a loaner and a Vietnam veteran.
Speaker 2: He had a habit of striking up conversations with some
Speaker 2: of the girls who rode horses at the stable. Some
Speaker 2: of the parents told police they thought Harold was a
Speaker 2: little bit weird and creepy. Harold requested polygraph tests. He
Speaker 2: actually asked police to test him with sodium pentathal aka
Speaker 2: truth serum, which, to be honest, is the first time
Speaker 2: I've ever heard of anyone being interrogated like that voluntarily.
Speaker 2: We don't know what the results were, but in the
Speaker 2: end police did not pursue Harold as a suspect. He
Speaker 2: was never arrested or charged with anything in connection with
Speaker 2: Amy's Disas parents, police were also contacted by two girls
Speaker 2: in North Olmsted, which was a.
Speaker 3: Few miles from Bay Village.
Speaker 2: They found out girls were getting calls there as well,
Speaker 2: and some of the girls who got called had unlisted
Speaker 2: phone numbers, So naturally, investigators wondered was this the same
Speaker 2: caller who called Amy and how did the caller get
Speaker 2: all of their numbers. Over the years, police considered several suspects.
Speaker 2: One was a man named Kenneth Ray Stanton. He was
Speaker 2: a traveling salesman and serial child molester. His mo was
Speaker 2: to find victims in upper middle class, largely white neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: He would choose holmes where.
Speaker 2: The victim, a young girl between the ages of seven
Speaker 2: and twelve, was home alone. Kenneth appeared clean cut, normally
Speaker 2: he wore suits, and he was capable of being charming,
Speaker 2: at least charming enough to convince his victims to let
Speaker 2: them into the home. Sometimes he posed as a police
Speaker 2: officer or food safety inspector. Kenneth did looked like the
Speaker 2: composite sketch. Investigators say they believe Kenneth was in Ohio
Speaker 2: at the time when Amy disappeared. The FBI were hunting
Speaker 2: for him. In December of nineteen eighty nine. His abandoned
Speaker 2: car was found in Perrysburg, Ohio. Kenneth's case was featured
Speaker 2: on America's Most Wanted, and minutes after the episode aired,
Speaker 2: multiple people called in to say that Kenneth was living
Speaker 2: in Moraine, Ohio with his wife. That's about three hours
Speaker 2: from Bay Village, where Amy lived. After the episode aired,
Speaker 2: Kenneth fled the area. Police eventually tracked him down at
Speaker 2: a motel in rock Hill, South Carolina, where he had
Speaker 2: molested another young girl. Kenneth pleaded guilty to the molestation
Speaker 2: charges and was sentenced to sixty years in prison. Investigators
Speaker 2: have confirmed they did consider Kenneth mainly due to the
Speaker 2: possible proximity to Amy, but later stated they did not
Speaker 2: believe he was their suspect. Kenneth died in prison on
Speaker 2: August twentieth, twenty eleven years past and police hit many
Speaker 2: dead ends. Amy's family still had no answers and it
Speaker 2: was weighing on them. Jason shared his thoughts on how
Speaker 2: hard he believed the police worked on the case.
Speaker 4: They never let Amy's case rest a single day. They've
Speaker 4: continuously worked on it the pride of DNA and even
Speaker 4: take tundles of hair way back in the eighties when
Speaker 4: nobody had heard of anything like that. It's always very
Speaker 4: humbling to me to be have my sister remembered so
Speaker 4: long after it's actually happened. It's been, at least for me,
Speaker 4: a very touching and humbling experience to go, hey, you know,
Speaker 4: the community at large, including most of America, really loved
Speaker 4: my sister. And we're not I mean, it sounds terrible.
Speaker 4: We're not in any special We're just we're just a
Speaker 4: couple of kids from Suburbia, a mobile family that went
Speaker 4: through the same thing everyone else does.
Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, a retired investigator named Phil Torsney announced
Speaker 2: that he would be coming out of retirement to work
Speaker 2: on Amy's case. Phil assisted the FBI in catching the
Speaker 2: mobster Whitey Bulger. Whitey was on the run for years
Speaker 2: and spent a lot of time on the FBI's ten
Speaker 2: most wanted list. Phil told reporters he didn't believe that
Speaker 2: Amy's killer had come from her immediate area. Instead, he
Speaker 2: believed the killer was more likely to have ties to
Speaker 2: Ashland County, to the area where Amy's body was found.
Speaker 3: Phil described Amy's hometown as.
Speaker 2: Quote two dents too close knit to be a likely
Speaker 2: place to commit.
Speaker 3: Murder end quote.
Speaker 2: In March of twenty fourteen, the FBI announced a twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars reward for any information that would help
Speaker 2: lead to Amy's killer or killers. In twenty sixteen, police
Speaker 2: announced they had done testing on the blanket and curtain
Speaker 2: that were found near Amy's body. They found dog hares
Speaker 2: they said were similar to Amy's dog, So detectives believe
Speaker 2: it's very possible that the hairs on that curtain did
Speaker 2: belong to Amy's dog and that somehow they were transferred
Speaker 2: from her clothing to that curtain, meaning that the curtain
Speaker 2: that was found near the body was what Amy's killer
Speaker 2: had used to wrap her in and dump her body.
Speaker 2: The curtain itself is unusual. Police continue to release photos
Speaker 2: of that curtain in hopes that someone might recognize it.
Speaker 2: They believed that it could be a crucial clue. The
Speaker 2: curtain actually looks like something someone sewed at home. It's
Speaker 2: a dark green beige color. The tabs on the top
Speaker 2: are not equal distance apart. Police want to find out
Speaker 2: where the curtain was before it was found near Amy.
Speaker 2: If it was in the killer's house, They hope that
Speaker 2: it may have DNA evidence that can be tested. At
Speaker 2: some point, James told us he thought the police had
Speaker 2: done a very thorough and good job. He pointed out
Speaker 2: they followed a ton of leads and most importantly, had
Speaker 2: carefully collected all kinds of DNA from the crime scene,
Speaker 2: years before.
Speaker 3: Some kinds of DNA testing were available.
Speaker 2: The vials of hair and clothing were carefully sealed in
Speaker 2: the crime lab. And since we hear about so many
Speaker 2: cases on this podcast where evidence is lost or destroyed,
Speaker 2: it's actually so refreshing to hear about a police department
Speaker 2: taking the proper steps to preserve evidence and actually having
Speaker 2: the foresight to preserve that evidence. But even with the
Speaker 2: evidence preserved after the initial investigation, police were left for
Speaker 2: many years without a sole, viable suspect. They did interview
Speaker 2: hundreds of people they followed up on tips and rumors,
Speaker 2: including a pedophile ring and an identity thief, but all
Speaker 2: of these leads were dropped or ruled out. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, right around the thirty first anniversary of Amy's
Speaker 2: remains being found, police stated they had another person of interest,
Speaker 2: a sixty four year old man whose former girlfriend had told.
Speaker 3: Them she believed he had been involved in the killing.
Speaker 2: According to news reports, she told police she suspected this
Speaker 2: man because he was not at home when Amy went missing.
Speaker 2: He lived close to where Amy was kidnapped, and he
Speaker 2: reportedly had a niece who was in the same grade
Speaker 2: as Amy. Police interviewed the man and it was reported
Speaker 2: that he made suspicious statements. Law enforcement also revealed this
Speaker 2: man had been picked out by a witness out of
Speaker 2: a lineup in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Police also said the man.
Speaker 2: Drove a car at the time of Amy's abduction that
Speaker 2: was similar to the ones seen by witness on February eighth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety when Amy's body was found. But since twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, no more information has been released and there
Speaker 2: has been no arrest. Jason said Amy's case had a
Speaker 2: massive impact on the family over the years. He said
Speaker 2: his parents never really got over her abduction. Margaret and
Speaker 2: Mark had already been having problems in their marriage before
Speaker 2: Amy's disappearance, but after she went missing, the marriage never recovered.
Speaker 2: They divorced in nineteen ninety one. Mark remarried a woman
Speaker 2: who's been married to for the past twenty five years,
Speaker 2: so James had a new stepbrother and stepmom. Margaret moved
Speaker 2: away from the area, eventually ending up in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: She went on talk shows and continued to do media.
Speaker 2: She was begging the public for any tips that could
Speaker 2: lead to her daughter's safe return. Margaret died in her
Speaker 2: apartment in Las Vegas in two thousand and one. According
Speaker 2: to an autopsy report, the cause of her death was
Speaker 2: complications from chronic alcoholism.
Speaker 3: James says he's.
Speaker 2: Humbled by how many people remember Amy's story and keep
Speaker 2: her memory alive and the massive impact she's had on
Speaker 2: the community.
Speaker 4: Well, again, it's always very humbly when she remembered. I
Speaker 4: mean this is not quite forty years ago, and still
Speaker 4: she's very much into the news and forefront and on
Speaker 4: people's minds. And that's amazing to think that she had
Speaker 4: that much impact, and you know, the effort for her
Speaker 4: had that much impact as well. I would certainly caution
Speaker 4: people to learn from some of those mistakes, like guard
Speaker 4: your children and make sure they're safe and know who
Speaker 4: they're talking to and why, and be that defense for
Speaker 4: your children. I mean, my parents were just wasn't as forefront,
Speaker 4: you know, it wasn't I don't know what to say.
Speaker 4: It wasn't like they didn't really can get happened to them,
Speaker 4: I guess at the point. And of course the calls
Speaker 4: were happening in secret, so it wasn't like they were
Speaker 4: letting them happen. And they were going on when nobody
Speaker 4: else was home, which is part of the reason why
Speaker 4: it was allowed to happen. So just being you know,
Speaker 4: that hyper vigilance about keeping your kids faith and helping
Speaker 4: them to reach their full potential.
Speaker 2: In September of twenty twenty five, Amy's case made news again.
Speaker 2: Police released a new composite sketch of a new person
Speaker 2: of interest. He was described as around thirty five years old,
Speaker 2: with fair skin, and as being someone who was standing
Speaker 2: near a blue hatchback vehicle on the day Amy's body
Speaker 2: was found. Police stated to News five Cleveland that the
Speaker 2: witness had waited a year before coming forward with this information.
Speaker 2: Apparently they didn't realize it could be important at the time.
Speaker 3: We're going to be posting this composite.
Speaker 2: Sketch, actually all of them, and also the missing items,
Speaker 2: the black studded boots, the black buick case with gold clasp,
Speaker 2: and the horse head shaped aquamarine earrings on Instagram at
Speaker 2: Ellen Gompot. At the same time, police have said there
Speaker 2: was very little physical evidence in the case, but that
Speaker 2: may be changing with new technology. In April twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: it was reported that new DNA testing was being conducted
Speaker 2: on hair that had been found on a curtain and
Speaker 2: a blanket that Amy's body was dumped with. The FBI
Speaker 2: was in the process of confirming that the hair was
Speaker 2: not Amy's, and if it's not a match to Amy,
Speaker 2: presumably they will try to find a match. Scientists told
Speaker 2: nineteen News that DNA testing on evidence from the field
Speaker 2: was being conducted. DNA labs in Deerfield Beach, Florida told
Speaker 2: nineteen News they found DNA from a man on Amy's sweatpants,
Speaker 2: the one she was found in, but sadly the sample
Speaker 2: was too small to test it to identify suspect. But
Speaker 2: the DNA lab is said they hope that new technology
Speaker 2: coming out, possibly even by the end of the year,
Speaker 2: could change that. Jason said that he thinks about Amy
Speaker 2: a lot now that his own children are teenagers, and
Speaker 2: he still has hope that whether it's a DNA breakthrough
Speaker 2: or someone recognizing the horse earrings in a drawer or
Speaker 2: some other item from a garage sale or some other
Speaker 2: random occurrence. He he still has hope that Amy's killer
Speaker 2: could be caught.
Speaker 4: I know that there's a hole that nothing can kill
Speaker 4: with Amy, and I would love to have seen what
Speaker 4: she would have become and moms you were becoming in
Speaker 4: her parenting style and whatnot. I have two mostly grown
Speaker 4: children at this point. Mack nineteen, he's had a job.
Speaker 4: He's busy making his way in the world. And Ethan
Speaker 4: is sixteen, almost seventeen, and he got his first job.
Speaker 4: And again, Amy's lives, even the impacted their lives. They
Speaker 4: never met her, but they certainly have a memory of her,
Speaker 4: if that makes sense, even keep alive in their generation
Speaker 4: of what happened. And to be a beaconist to you know,
Speaker 4: keeping your children safe and not talking to strangers, and
Speaker 4: being aware of your surroundings as a young person, as
Speaker 4: a child, like hey, people are not always out there
Speaker 4: for your best interest. For whatever reason, Amy became in
Speaker 4: many ways I think I don't want to say, is
Speaker 4: like American's Sweethearts. It's uite afraid, but it became verson.
Speaker 4: I can't ever say enough thank you for any of
Speaker 4: that because it means.
Speaker 2: A lot for me. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production
Speaker 2: of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
Speaker 2: narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etily's Perez
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
Speaker 2: James Wheaton for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek. Executive
Speaker 2: producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and l. C.
Speaker 3: Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
Speaker 2: If you have a case she'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
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Speaker 1: School of Humans