Mihaljevic murder still haunts area writer
By Jeff Gallatin
Bay Village
Published Oct. 18, 2006

James Renner examines the unsolved murder 17 years ago of Amy Mihaljevic in "Amy: My Search for Her Killer."

For James Renner it was always personal.

For Bay Village Detective Lt. Mark Spaetzel, it’s the case he and the rest of his department won’t let go of.

When 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic disappeared on her way home from school Oct. 27, 1989,  it set in motion a massive search involving thousands of law enforcement officers and volunteers determined to find the outgoing young girl. When Amy’s body was found months later in a field in Ashtabula County, efforts to find her killer continued unabated with thousands of leads being followed up by law enforcement officers and followed with close scrutiny by millions of people around the nation. Now, 16 years later, the case remains unsolved. But neither Renner or Spaetzel is willing to say it will stay that way.

Renner a staff writer for the weekly Cleveland newspaper “The Free Times,” has written a book about the case. “Amy: My Search for Her Killer. Secrets and Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic.” The book is published by Cleveland-based Gray & Co.  Publishers,  which produces books of local interest. The first public talk by Renner is set for 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Bay Village branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, 502 Cahoon Road.

Author James Renner

For Renner, he will be discussing what has become a lifelong obsession.

“I was about the same age as Amy when it happened,” Renner said. “It’s something I related to and wondered about when it was going on, and now I want to see it solved. I think that the killer is still out there and that he is around here. Hopefully our talking about it can help bring that about.”

For Spaetzel, he sees a blown up poster of the flier containing information on Amy’s case on top of a filing cabinet every day he walks into the detective bureau at Bay Village’s recently opened police station.

“I can’t leave this department until we give it our best efforts again to try and find the killer,” Spaetzel said. “It’s still an active case to us and we still get leads and follow them up all the time. Anytime there is publicity about it or something comes out like this book, it causes a fresh round of phone calls or tips. Hopefully one of them will help us break the case.’’

Renner said even as a youngster he was following leads and information on the case.

“I saved pictures and articles on the case all the time,” Renner said. “Whenever there was something about the case on TV, I’d be glued to the screen watching.”

Spaetzel also became heavily involved in the case. A patrolman and four-year veteran of the force at the time, he was quickly immersed in the case.

“I was the officer who had to go to the Mihaljevic home at the time and start to look around for possible clues,” he said. “We all were involved as officers as well as the FBI and officers from all over who we had to coordinate with whenever there was a lead to follow in their area.”

Renner admits wondering what if it had been him or someone he knew.

“We were the same age,” he said. “It’s something that could happen to anybody.”

Spaetzel found himself busy just trying to keep thousands of potential leads straight for the department.

“When I was taking phone leads on the case, we had one of the old phones with the push buttons that lit up when someone was on the line,” he said. “All of those lines on the phone were constantly lit up for weeks all day. Whenever I would end one call and hang up, the line would instantly light up again with someone else calling. It was that way for a long time.”

Renner said he and Amy had similarities which went beyond being about the same age.

“Both her mother, Margaret, and my mother had lupus,” Renner said. “It’s something you think about and compare at times. In her mother’s case, she also developed a drinking problem and eventually died young. I’ve always felt that losing her daughter like that was a primary cause for her mother’s problems. I don’t think she would have had as many problems.”

Renner said he found out later the case had even indirectly affected his family.

“It turns out my father had been getting some threats where someone had been saying they might come after his children,” Renner said. “It upset him, understandably.”

When discussing the case with his father at a young age, his father talked to him about what to do if something similar happened to Renner.

“He told me if I was tied to a bed  ...  to eat something from where I was so if I was killed and they found my body, the police could find some evidence in my body of where I had been been,” Renner said. “He wanted to make sure if something happened to me, they could find out what happened.”

Spaetzel said the case has an impact on his department and area police department techniques to this day.

“We had such an overwhelming volume of tips, leads and information on the case that we had to develop better systems of processing the information just to keep up,” Spaetzel said. “We still use a lot of those. We use them to keep the case going because we do still follow old leads as well as new ones.”

Both men said the case led to a large amount of research in their respective jobs.

“I’ve talked to well over 100 people about it and they all have something important,” Renner said.

Spaetzel said between the FBI and area police, they received thousands of tips and conducted many interviews as a result.

“We’re probably talking over 15,000 right now,” Spaetzel said. “That’s a huge amount of information.”

Both men believe that the killer can still be caught.

“I’d say it’s someone who has been talked to already and who’s probably still in the area,” Renner said. “I don’t reach any specific conclusions or cite a specific suspect, but if you read (the book), you might reach some conclusions as to who could have done it.”

Spaetzel said there’s a good possibility police have at least come across the killer somehow.

“We’ve investigated thousands of leads and talked to many people,” Spaetzel said. “There’s a good chance that we’ve at least come in contact with the killer. We just need that one clue or piece of information that puts the case together and we can get the arrest.”

For Renner, that’s something he believes can come soon.

“It could be in the next few years and I’ll be ready to write about it,” Renner said.