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Netflix and in select theaters, rated R. So

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we're back. And

0:54

it's great to be back. Crime Con

0:56

in Nashville, Tennessee was a smash

0:58

hit. What didn't you say? A

1:01

smash hit, but it was a lot. It was

1:03

a little overwhelming at times. In

1:06

a good way, I think. Yeah, in a

1:08

good way. I mean, success means

1:10

different things to different people. But as

1:12

for me and Ricky, it meant surviving

1:14

a road trip down I-75 in

1:17

my dad's bus with over 300,000 miles on

1:19

it. Right,

1:21

and two toddlers screaming at the top

1:23

of their lungs at times. So

1:26

yeah, there's Cheerios covered

1:28

the floor, sippy cups, you

1:31

name it. Right. I think I

1:33

got hit with a cookie once. I was driving.

1:36

And this was a nine and a half hour

1:38

drive one way, which

1:40

was an epic adventure that tested

1:42

our limits of human patience, bladder

1:45

control, and just the

1:47

tolerance to stay awake driving between semi trucks who

1:49

were going at least 90. Right.

1:53

Or I have to say, 90 and a

1:55

half hours would be like the perfect, you

1:57

know, everything went well. It

2:00

was more like 12 hours. I

2:02

think with all the stops, the mental

2:04

breakdowns, the getting gas and red bulls.

2:07

You drove most of the way. I

2:09

drove both times I failed because I

2:12

was going to drive the entire thing. I made

2:14

it like an hour and a half until the

2:16

destination. And then I just, I

2:18

was like, please. You just tapped out. Please, someone else

2:20

drive. And my dad took over, which

2:22

is funny because he's like, I can handle it,

2:25

no problem. And you could barely make it through

2:27

that last hour. And

2:30

you know the crazy thing, I think it

2:32

would have been a lot cheaper to just

2:34

fly down. Just you and I, no kids,

2:37

no parents, like, right, crews on down there

2:39

with our two little suitcases. No, we had

2:41

a whole busload of

2:43

stuff. Like we're talking air

2:46

fryers, bags of chicken nuggets,

2:48

juice, like just

2:50

everything in this bus. Every

2:53

item I said, no, we shouldn't take you.

2:55

Well, we used it. How many times do

2:57

we use that air fryer? We did. We

3:00

even brought a cure egg, but normally hotels

3:02

have cure eggs. They didn't. They didn't. We

3:04

stayed at the Gaylord Opryland, a

3:07

beautiful hotel. Absolutely stunning.

3:09

Right. However, I feel like

3:11

the rooms are like a little on the, like,

3:14

they weren't great. They're kind of like a best

3:16

Western, you know, something like

3:18

that. Holiday Inn. Yeah. But I mean,

3:20

besides that, oh my gosh, the views

3:23

in the gardens. And you

3:25

can tell like they put so much love and care

3:27

into like that area. Love

3:30

and care into capitalism. That place was

3:32

so dang expensive. A drink would

3:35

cost you like $20. I

3:37

had this weird feeling like if

3:39

COVID would have been way, way

3:41

worse or like not gotten better,

3:43

maybe we would all lived in

3:45

these weird resort bubbles, like little

3:48

communities. That's what it felt

3:50

like. And it felt kind of weird when you

3:52

stepped outside. You're like, oh my god, the air,

3:55

the grass. It was strange. You know,

3:57

what's crazy though is I have horrible.

3:59

at this time, we didn't

4:02

leave the resort and my allergies were great.

4:04

I'm a bubble boy. Maybe you should, maybe we should

4:06

just do that to our house and never leave. I

4:09

don't need to leave. No, but

4:11

we absolutely loved Nashville and if you

4:13

ever get a chance to go to

4:15

Nashville, Tennessee, you got to go. I

4:17

mean, I saw some of the

4:19

best nightlife I've ever seen. Oh,

4:22

like Broadway Street, that was awesome. Like we're

4:24

used to Pittsburgh, a small city that has

4:26

like, you know, just a couple of bars

4:28

here and there that are cool to go

4:30

to. No, this whole entire

4:32

street, Broadway is like insane. And there

4:35

were bands in every single bar, back

4:37

to back, back to back. You kept

4:39

saying, let's change the radio and we

4:41

just went to another bar. Oh

4:44

yeah, it was wild and the drinks were expensive, but it

4:46

was like totally worth it. Oh my God, it was like

4:48

two beers. We bought like two Miller lights and it was

4:50

like 20 some dollars

4:53

after tip. I was like, are

4:55

you sure that's the right price or should you like,

4:57

you know, double check that? I don't know. We're just

4:59

not used to going out too. So right. I have

5:01

to say as a business though, we probably almost

5:04

did our whole year worth of tax write

5:07

offs. Done. We are done. Our

5:09

tax guy is going to be so proud of us. He is. But

5:13

yeah, I mean, Nashville was

5:16

a smash hit. It

5:18

was utterly exhausting. I think we put in 15,000 steps

5:20

a day at least. At

5:24

least. Basically an Olympic event, but

5:26

also a crime con event. I

5:29

need new shoes. I need new shoes too. I

5:31

wore the soles out already. I have blisters the

5:33

size of grapes. You do. But

5:36

yeah, we don't want to talk too much here,

5:38

but we also want to talk a lot because

5:41

we just loved crime con. It was so cool

5:43

to talk with the other podcasters. Oh, that was

5:45

awesome. We got to meet them face to face.

5:47

We've been never came with them. True crime garage.

5:49

Yeah, we sat next to true crime garage. They're

5:52

insane. Yeah, exactly. But such

5:54

a good time. And we even hung out

5:56

with them after crime con and we hung

5:58

out with live laugh Larson. It's

20:01

always a jogger. You know,

20:03

someone, I guess it kind of makes

20:05

sense because that's someone who might be on like back

20:07

roads or you know, something like

20:09

that who is actually being able to look

20:12

around or like look into the weeds. It

20:14

does seem that way like a jogger or

20:16

a hunter, someone like that who's like, yeah,

20:18

in the woods or like a desolate area

20:20

that you're not normally in. The

20:23

heartbreaking discovery of missing

20:25

Amy turned into a

20:28

devastating homicide investigation. Located

20:31

along a secluded field, approximately

20:33

50 miles from where Amy

20:35

was last seen in Bay

20:37

Village, the young girl

20:39

was found stabbed to death, which

20:41

shattered her family's hopes of finding

20:44

her alive. This

20:46

horrific revelation brought deeper

20:49

anger, confusion, and

20:51

immense hurt, not only to

20:53

the family, but also to the entire community.

20:56

And as you can imagine, it came

20:58

with chilling fear that spread throughout the

21:00

area, knowing that this killer

21:02

was out there, having taken

21:04

the life of an innocent child

21:06

at 10 years old. I

21:09

think for the community, this is something that

21:11

hits you hard because you

21:13

no longer feel safe. And

21:16

this was a very safe neighborhood, a very

21:18

safe town. Right. I mean, you

21:20

obviously feel bad for the family, but

21:22

then you start questioning, am I safe?

21:26

Is my family safe? Could this have

21:28

happened to me? It's terrifying. And then

21:31

thinking back to that guy who

21:33

approached Amy with this thick brown

21:35

hair, it very well

21:38

could have been this person

21:40

who's responsible. Or that poor

21:42

little girl who saw something

21:45

but then thought, oh,

21:47

it's probably nothing. Self-reflection,

21:49

you know? Yeah. Now,

21:52

imagine this abduction happening today in

21:54

missing cases, they continue to happen.

21:57

Unfortunately, but back. Back

22:00

around this time, we're talking 1989, 1990, kids aren't

22:02

walking around with their cell

22:06

phones. So there's not much to go

22:08

by. Like Ricky said, the

22:10

little girl who saw this guy approach

22:12

Amy was really all that they had.

22:16

Amy's mom was doing all that

22:18

she could do, pushing to find

22:20

her daughter's killer, even going on

22:23

Oprah Winfrey's show to share the

22:25

composite drawing of the potential

22:27

suspect and alerting people to be

22:29

on the lookout of people's behavior

22:32

changing. Like if they had strong

22:34

interest in religion all of a

22:36

sudden or a strong interest in

22:38

drugs or alcohol, anything

22:41

like that. And witnesses came forward

22:44

who saw Amy on that day. And

22:47

that's how we know that Amy was

22:49

walking with her friend and

22:51

told her that she was meeting up with someone. So

22:54

the witness at the shopping plaza who

22:56

gave the description of this guy, what

22:59

he looked like led to a composite

23:01

sketch that was shared with the community.

23:03

Now witnesses who saw Amy on that

23:06

day came forward, as we mentioned, and

23:08

they provided crucial information. We have the

23:10

friend who talked with Amy and Amy

23:13

telling her that she was meeting up with a friend.

23:16

And then the other witness at the

23:18

shopping plaza who gave a description of

23:20

the man that Amy was seen with,

23:22

which led to a composite sketch, which

23:25

was shared with the community. However,

23:27

narrowing down a man in his 30s

23:29

with bushy brown hair in a city

23:32

of about 17,000 people

23:35

was challenging. For sure. Professionals

23:38

in this field acknowledged the

23:40

difficulty of obtaining precise details

23:42

in such in

23:44

this situation. I mean, imagine

23:47

being in a busy ice cream shop as

23:49

soon as school let out and noticing this

23:51

older guy approaching a younger girl. Details

23:54

may be a little foggy, like the hair

23:57

color, was he wearing glasses? What

23:59

color were the glasses? his overall

24:01

appearance might be, you know,

24:03

a little blurry. And

24:06

this uncertainty made it tricky, and

24:08

it made the list of potential

24:10

suspects extensive. It's

24:13

strange to me that this was done on

24:16

the exact day that the school

24:18

held an assembly talking about the

24:20

dangers of strangers, right?

24:23

Stranger danger. Stranger danger. However,

24:25

I'm glad they had this

24:27

conversation, especially back 89, 90, whatever, in the 90s. I

24:32

feel like we never had that type of

24:34

talk. Like, I was

24:37

never really afraid of strangers. Yeah,

24:39

I kind of didn't really picture them as human.

24:41

Right. Like, I kind of pictured

24:44

them as like, some kind of creature or

24:46

something. If I saw a grown up in

24:48

a public place, I'd assume that someone's father

24:50

or mother, whatever. And, you

24:52

know, as a young child, you're not thinking

24:54

of that. You're thinking, well, they seem nice,

24:56

and they seem like they know

24:58

my mom. Right. And I mean,

25:00

it doesn't seem like a bad

25:02

guy. Right. But

25:05

that's what they want you to think. Now,

25:09

like we said, when Amy's body was

25:11

found, there were other items that could

25:14

still hold answers to who kidnapped Amy

25:16

and murdered her. Oh,

25:18

so this is still unsolved. Yeah,

25:20

this case has never been solved. And

25:23

as frustrating as it sounds, it's been

25:25

over three decades. This

25:27

case isn't solved. We don't know the

25:29

extent of what detective to know, but

25:31

there's a lot of speculation.

25:33

There's a lot of suspicion and, well,

25:37

theories that surround Amy's case.

25:40

Now, where Amy's body was located,

25:42

there was also a blanket, her

25:45

clothes that she was wearing, and a

25:47

curtain that was found in the

25:49

same field, but further away. These

25:52

items have been kept with hopes

25:54

that DNA technology will advance someday.

25:57

The curtain was shown to the public in

26:00

hopes that someone would recognize it. But

26:02

as we mentioned before, there were a few

26:04

things that weren't there, like

26:06

her earrings, which were like a

26:09

gold horse head. They

26:11

weren't on her body. She

26:13

was wearing these black shoes. They

26:16

weren't there. So it's

26:18

believed that whoever did this kept

26:20

these things possibly as trophies or

26:23

little things to remember Amy. Right.

26:28

Okay, so question. From

26:31

the people who saw

26:34

her, Amy, at

26:36

Baskin Robbins or the Plaza, whatever.

26:39

Now, she wasn't threatened.

26:43

She didn't look like she was in distress. She

26:46

seemingly just walked to the

26:48

guy's car and got in the car and

26:50

left. Yeah. I

26:54

could assume there wasn't a struggle or

26:57

anything like that. She seemed to trust the

26:59

guy. Yeah, there was trust there. There

27:01

was reassurance

27:04

that she's going to

27:06

get this gift for her mom. And

27:10

there was no danger surrounding it at all. But

27:12

we can assume this isn't a person she

27:14

met prior. This

27:17

most likely is a stranger. We

27:21

don't know. I mean, it could very well be. Now,

27:23

there was belief that this

27:26

person contacted Amy a few times on

27:28

her phone. So this isn't just like

27:30

one time he contacted. This has been

27:33

like a series of times that he

27:35

called and then a number of times

27:37

that he called her. This

27:40

has been like an ongoing conversation that this

27:42

guy has had with Amy and now they're

27:44

finally meeting up. Okay, so

27:47

I can assume she trusts him at this point.

27:50

Yeah, the trust is there for sure. And

27:53

if you remember while Margaret, Amy's mother was

27:55

at work, she got a call from Amy

27:58

herself claiming that she was a woman. She

28:00

was at home safe and she was fine.

28:03

But Margaret felt uneasy about it

28:05

because her usual bubbly self wasn't

28:07

there. This call is

28:09

believed to be from a local payphone

28:12

in the area. So whoever

28:14

did this, they knew a bit about

28:16

Amy, unless Amy knew her mom's work

28:18

number. Could this have been someone

28:20

who knew where her mom worked? They

28:23

got the timing right, the location right. No

28:25

adults or parents would be around. And

28:28

how did this person get ahold of Amy in

28:30

the first place? He was

28:32

able to get her into the

28:34

car without a struggle or anything

28:37

really. Right, so

28:39

a few of Amy's friends reported

28:41

that Amy was in contact

28:43

with this guy who kept calling

28:45

the house and she got multiple

28:47

calls. And we mentioned this briefly

28:50

before in this episode, but

28:52

she was excited to tell her friends

28:54

that she was meeting up with this

28:56

guy with the intention of buying her

28:58

mom a gift. Terrifying,

29:01

she trusted this guy. Yeah,

29:03

and other girls also reported

29:06

getting strange, similar phone calls

29:08

at their house weeks

29:11

before Amy's disappearance. So

29:14

Amy wasn't the only victim? No,

29:18

it was a male voice telling them

29:20

that their mom got this work promotion

29:23

and asked if they wanted to get their mom a

29:25

surprise gift to celebrate with her. And

29:27

these girls who were called were

29:29

located in different areas, so not

29:31

at just her school, but

29:34

all around the area. Jeez.

29:38

So how were all of these

29:40

girls contacted? Were they from the

29:43

same school or like a club

29:45

or are they kind

29:47

of random? So they were

29:49

all random within the area and

29:51

it was soon identified that all

29:53

of these girls were all connected

29:56

to one location, the Lake Erie

29:58

Nature and Science Center. There

30:00

was a visitor log book that

30:03

contained personal information like names, phone

30:05

numbers, addresses in 1989. However,

30:10

when police go to search the

30:12

area for this said log book,

30:15

it was nowhere to be found. Wow.

30:20

But that has to kind

30:22

of narrow it

30:24

down a bit in the search. Yeah,

30:26

whoever it was had access

30:28

to this location. They

30:33

had access to that log book. They knew what

30:35

was in there, where it was. Right.

30:38

So someone who maybe was a volunteer

30:40

or an instructor or something.

30:44

Yes. And it's believed that this is

30:47

a huge clue in this case

30:50

because whoever this person was, so

30:52

like we said, had access to the visitor

30:54

log book at the Lake Erie Nature and

30:56

Science Center. So they

30:58

know it, all the

31:00

girls were in the log book, but that

31:03

log book is nowhere to be found. They

31:06

never found it. Now several

31:08

suspects began emerging during

31:10

the investigation. One

31:12

notable tip involved a man whose house

31:14

cleaners discovered a book titled The Girl

31:17

in the Box, along with

31:19

alleged photographs of the shopping center

31:21

where Amy was last seen. However,

31:24

when the police searched this property, the

31:26

photographs were nowhere to be found. Kind

31:31

of weird, kind of sus. Now

31:33

I wasn't able to find if

31:35

this particular individual had any ties

31:37

with the science center,

31:40

Lake Erie Science Center, but it's

31:43

interesting. Where did those pictures go? So

31:46

what was the book about? The Girl

31:48

in the Box? The

31:50

true crime book about an abduction, the

31:52

kidnapping about a young girl. Now

31:56

as the search for the

31:58

elusive perpetrator dragged on. Another

32:00

incident occurred during a Sunday morning

32:03

church service. A man

32:05

stood up claiming to be Satan and shouting, I

32:07

killed Amy Mahalovic. He was immediately arrested.

32:11

However, it was soon revealed that

32:13

this man was diagnosed with schizophrenia

32:16

and had not been taking his

32:18

medication. And there was no connection

32:21

between him and Amy's disappearance or

32:23

murder. So this is just

32:25

some random dude that stood up and said

32:28

he did it. Like totally

32:30

random. Yeah. Now,

32:35

another tip came in that is still

32:38

being looked into today. And I actually

32:40

found a lot of the information that

32:42

we're going to talk about on

32:44

a documentary called The Lake Erie Murders,

32:47

which you can find on HBO Max.

32:50

And an investigative journalist named James

32:52

Renner, he gives some

32:54

very interesting points into the investigation

32:56

of this case. And

32:58

he just so happened to be at

33:01

CrimeCon, where we just were. What? Small

33:03

world, right? I wish we'd bumped into him. Yeah,

33:05

we should have talked to him. Because we

33:07

were investigating this case, but I didn't even put the

33:10

two and two together. Yeah. He

33:13

was busy. We were busy. But he did talk a

33:15

bit on this documentary, and he

33:17

explained the suspicion surrounding a

33:19

very suspicious man. Now,

33:23

at the time, a middle school science

33:25

teacher who worked at Amherst, Ohio and

33:27

taught at Nord Junior High School was

33:30

known for having basically a mini-zoo in his classroom

33:32

around 1989 at the time when Amy went missing.

33:37

This particular individual volunteered at the

33:39

Nature Center that held many different

33:41

creatures. This teacher also

33:43

had animals of his own in

33:46

his classroom. And James Renner

33:48

even said that there were more animals in

33:50

his classroom than at the Nature Center at

33:52

one time. One

33:54

thing that James Renner points out is when

33:57

the police question him, he denies that he

33:59

was a victim of the murder. ever setting

34:01

foot inside the Lake Erie Nature Center. Well

34:03

that has to be easy to disprove.

34:07

Right? You would think. Now

34:09

there was even a photo of him with one

34:11

of his students at the Nature Center. How

34:14

can you even dispute that? But still

34:16

to this day he just kind of, nope,

34:19

don't know nothing about that. Wasn't me. Wasn't

34:22

there ever. And a lot

34:24

of his other students contradict

34:26

his statement and they even

34:29

speak out about a number

34:31

of times when he made

34:33

suggestive comments or even inappropriate

34:35

physical contact with students.

34:39

Now the crazy thing is when James,

34:42

a guy who is fully invested into this case,

34:45

was looking to speak with this

34:47

guy, he was driving around and

34:49

guess who he sees? This teacher

34:52

just so happens to walk by.

34:55

What are the chances? Right? And

34:58

so according to what James says

35:00

on the documentary, he asks this

35:02

individual about being at the Nature

35:04

Center and this teacher

35:06

said that he never said that

35:08

he wasn't there, but what

35:10

he did tell the police is that he

35:12

doesn't remember ever being there. Of

35:15

course. Right. And

35:17

that was basically the end of the conversation. I

35:20

mean, I'm on James' side. Like, it's

35:23

totally crazy that he pretended that he was

35:25

never there. How could you?

35:28

Yeah. I mean,

35:30

this is someone who teaches middle school

35:32

science, who has a large

35:34

amount of creatures in his classroom,

35:36

who was known by multiple people.

35:38

He involved himself at the Science

35:41

Center, but he's

35:43

denying it. I mean,

35:45

I'm with James on this

35:47

one. I think we have

35:49

him. People remember seeing him

35:52

there. Yeah. But unfortunately,

35:55

it's all circumstantial evidence.

35:57

There is no concrete evidence. in this

36:00

case that links him to the murder

36:02

and kidnapping of

36:04

Amy Mahalemic. And many

36:06

people who know of this case believe that

36:09

he's innocent. Now,

36:11

I found this clip of this

36:14

news station called News Center 8

36:16

that did a lighthearted segment on

36:18

this teacher whose name is Dean

36:20

Runkel. Years ago, before he was

36:22

ever a suspect or a person

36:24

of interest, and it

36:27

was a time when he was just

36:29

known to be an amazing teacher looking

36:31

to give children a valuable education on

36:33

science, animals, and their anatomy.

36:36

It does make your skin crawl. So

36:39

here, I'll give you a listen. So,

36:43

teacher, it's probably the liveliest, white-fiest glass

36:45

you'll ever see. And Denise is here

36:47

now to guide us on a field

36:49

trip. This most unusual classroom is we

36:52

pay our weekly tribute to teachers. It

36:54

is unusual. When the eighth grade students

36:56

at Nord Junior High called Dean Runkel's

36:58

classroom a zoo, they're not kidding. And

37:00

that's exactly the way he likes it.

37:06

Oh, we're not talking about just

37:08

a couple of mice or a

37:10

guinea pig. Try an alligator, a

37:12

prairie dog, iguana, snakes, ferrana, an

37:14

entire saltwater fish menagerie. And that's

37:16

not all. There are 50 tanks

37:19

and cages in all lining the walls of

37:21

room 105. This all

37:23

belongs to me. It's my hobby, but

37:26

it's a great hobby to have because

37:29

they're my students. So they get to

37:31

share what could. In Dean Runkel's case,

37:33

commitment to his job is an understatement.

37:35

Between class preparation and zoo keeping, he

37:37

spends 16 hours a day here and

37:39

doesn't take summers off. Sounds like quite

37:41

a burden. Not at all. I

37:44

love it. I love the kids. They're

37:46

young. They have the enthusiasm. It's

37:49

just a lot of fun. For many of

37:51

these eighth graders, this may be their last

37:53

exposure to life science in school. So Mr.

37:55

Runkel likes to make it a memorable year.

37:58

Usually I sing with him. I do this

38:00

but let it go with the- Yes,

38:03

he's definitely an inspiration. He

38:05

always challenges us to do our best,

38:07

not only in science, but also in

38:09

life as well. So that's the

38:11

intestine right there. Beautiful.

38:14

Excellent. Yes.

38:17

Every lesson in here, including the

38:20

team's very first earthworm dissection, incorporates

38:22

a lot of hands-on learning. But

38:24

Dean's classes are always sliced with

38:27

fun as well. I

38:29

used to play Red Time piano professionally. I

38:31

worked for Disneyland. That was before I

38:33

was at Disney World many years ago. One

38:36

of the basic philosophies in

38:39

entertainment is that your audience deserves the

38:41

best shown possible, and that's the way

38:43

I teach. My students deserve the best.

38:48

For 27 years, Dean Runkle has been

38:50

bringing the world of life science to

38:52

life for junior high students in Vermilion

38:54

and now in Amherst. For that, we'd

38:56

like to offer Dean our heartfelt congratulations

38:58

along with a

39:01

$250 savings bond and brunch at the Ritz

39:03

Carlton. He's got the right idea. Got to

39:05

keep the interest up. I knew he was

39:07

a performer. He's got the best audience of

39:09

all. You mentioned he works all summer. I'm

39:11

sure he does. Otherwise, you'd have to take

39:13

all those animals home. I don't think they'd

39:15

have any worth. Thanks, Dean. That's

39:17

our news at five. Inside Edition is next. Well,

39:19

I'll be back. It

39:23

gives me sexual predator vibes.

39:25

Like they're young, they have the enthusiasm.

39:27

He works 16 hour

39:30

days. Yeah, me too.

39:32

His passion maybe isn't

39:34

just science. It's also- It's

39:36

like the kids. The kids. And it's always

39:39

a red flag when we hear these stories

39:41

all the time, the guy who worked for

39:44

Disneyland, and he

39:46

worked jobs that always involved himself and

39:48

are surrounded by, he was always surrounded

39:50

by children. So clearly the

39:52

police have their eyes on him, right? I

39:56

mean, maybe they didn't make an arrest

39:58

or whatever, but like, Where

40:00

is this dude now? Well,

40:02

he's no longer a teacher. He's no

40:05

longer living in Ohio. He

40:07

actually fled the town and he's now

40:09

living in Key West, Florida. He

40:11

moved there in 2003. So

40:15

after all of this stuff went down, he

40:18

just got the hell out of

40:20

Dodge. And

40:22

yeah, police are definitely keeping their eye

40:24

on him. I feel like, I mean,

40:26

we don't really know. As far as

40:28

we know, he's still living there and

40:30

he's working as a fast food restaurant

40:33

as manager. He's

40:35

working at a fast food restaurant as

40:37

the manager. So he

40:39

went from being a loving, influential

40:42

teacher who loved

40:44

kids in Ohio. Probably loved them a

40:46

little too much to

40:48

now managing what? Probably

40:51

mostly teenagers at a fast

40:54

food restaurant. McDonald's,

40:56

teenagers, fast food

40:58

restaurant. Right. But

41:00

the evidence they have against him, again,

41:02

it all is

41:05

circumstantial. Don't

41:07

you just hate that? I do. And

41:09

he's never been charged and he's never been

41:12

named as a primary suspect. He has only

41:14

been named as a person of interest at

41:16

this point. So no DNA

41:20

evidence has ever been

41:22

found, right? Nope. Interestingly,

41:24

there were items found that we mentioned

41:26

near where Amy's body was found, like

41:29

the curtain that was found about 300

41:31

yards away in the field

41:34

from Amy's body, and

41:36

it did contain Amy's hair and

41:39

it also contained hairs that belong

41:41

to Amy's dog. So

41:43

it's believed that this curtain was

41:45

used to wrap up Amy's body

41:48

or transport her body at some

41:50

point. Maybe the hairs

41:52

were on her clothes, but what's interesting

41:54

about the curtain is it appears to

41:56

be handmade. So someone.

42:00

may recognize this specific

42:02

curtain. So how does

42:04

this not attach him to Amy? Well,

42:08

they're still doing DNA testing, so I guess

42:10

we'll have to just play the waiting game.

42:13

Yeah. Now,

42:15

is this something where technology was

42:17

just behind its time? I mean, this is

42:19

years and years ago. I mean, this is

42:22

the 90s. 30 years

42:24

ago. So I would assume technology is getting

42:26

better. Is this still something that we're looking

42:28

into? That's what we're hoping for. I mean,

42:30

that's what I'm hoping for. Like us just

42:32

talking about this case and getting it out

42:35

there or other podcasters, anybody,

42:37

just keeping it fresh is

42:40

going to help. Like how

42:42

many cases have been solved recently in just the

42:44

last couple of years with the

42:46

technology being more

42:49

advanced, the DNA technology. So

42:54

Dean Runkle, during his

42:56

time while living in Ohio, he

42:58

lived in different parts surrounding this

43:00

same area. One location

43:02

was called New London, Ohio,

43:05

and that's the location where he was born and

43:07

raised. And in this town, he

43:09

lived in a farmhouse, which was owned by his

43:11

parents, which was actually located

43:13

just a few miles from where Amy's

43:15

body was found. Course.

43:18

That house was burned down when he was like

43:20

six years old, so nothing left

43:22

of that house. I

43:25

was kind of interested like, well, where are the

43:27

curtains from that house because they're homemade? Who

43:29

knows? Right. And to

43:31

note, this particular area was not

43:34

very accessible or even common to

43:36

drive by because this is like

43:38

a back road, corn

43:41

fields, nothing much happens on this back

43:43

road. A jogger is jogging

43:45

by once in a while. And

43:47

we're talking 104 days she was found. So

43:51

she was laying in this field

43:53

for quite some time before anyone

43:56

even realized to, hey, let's check

43:58

out this field. here. So I'm

44:00

assuming she wasn't too far off

44:02

the road even. No, not

44:05

too far off. Why is that so common? You'd think

44:07

if you're hiding a body you would put it far

44:10

away, away from the road. Like this is

44:12

a place where people drive, people run, people

44:15

walk, people can see. I kind

44:17

of get the feeling like they want them

44:19

to be found. Or is it

44:21

just a panic situation? Or a panic

44:23

situation. Where they just dump and go.

44:26

Dump and go, yeah. Now

44:28

another really interesting piece of evidence

44:31

that was found was these little

44:33

gold fibers that were found on

44:36

Amy's body which just so happened

44:38

to match the interior of a

44:40

car that Dean Runkle was driving.

44:43

Well did they do DNA testing of the

44:45

car at least? Well

44:48

it was looked over but it wasn't

44:51

fully analyzed and the

44:53

car has since been destroyed. Of

44:55

course. And again

44:57

I mean we're talking 1990s DNA

44:59

testing just wasn't what it is

45:01

today. And it was

45:04

believed that Amy was stabbed

45:06

inside the car. Like

45:08

her blood could have been covering the inside

45:10

of the vehicle which was

45:12

a gold colored Grand Prix. Maybe

45:15

it was cleaned up enough to where you

45:17

know if you're just looking at it at

45:19

a glance you wouldn't see anything alarming. Like

45:21

you wouldn't see blood.

45:24

But he soon sold this

45:27

car after Amy's disappearance. Suspicious.

45:31

And it was later found at

45:33

a junkyard that was soon melted

45:35

down and destroyed. Shit

45:37

so we don't have anything. Like all

45:39

of that evidence is

45:41

gone. Yeah. So are we assuming

45:44

though that she never left the car? Some

45:46

investigators believe that while

45:49

Amy was in this car you know when

45:51

she trusts this guy and this guy's kind

45:53

of keeping the trust there

45:56

still. But as they're driving

45:58

further and further away from the city.

46:00

city and into this desolate

46:02

area, back roads where there's

46:05

nothing, Amy starts to

46:07

worry and panic and she's trying to get

46:09

out and she's fighting at this point.

46:11

Right, well we can only assume. And

46:14

it's believed that this is where he

46:16

stabbed her because Amy was found with

46:18

multiple stab wounds to the neck and

46:20

the throat area and bludgeoned

46:23

her and- All of that. Yeah.

46:26

I know, I know testing wasn't what it is today,

46:28

but do we know if there

46:30

were any, I don't

46:33

know how to explain it, but did he

46:35

like mess with her sexually? Really

46:38

the only thing that they can tell is

46:40

that the underwear was inside out when they

46:42

found Amy, so- So they're assuming- They're assuming,

46:45

yeah. Most likely. There was foul

46:47

play, right? Yeah. But

46:49

yeah, the car was already destroyed, so whatever evidence

46:52

was in there is now gone. Completely

46:55

gone. But it is interesting

46:57

that he was driving a gold

46:59

Grand Prix with gold interior,

47:02

like the

47:04

dots are connecting, right? Right.

47:07

Now, I might have missed this, but were

47:09

there fibers from that gold, I

47:11

thought you said that. Yeah, there

47:14

were fibers found on her clothing. Clothing?

47:16

Yeah. Wow, okay. Yeah.

47:19

So that narrows it even further, even though

47:21

we don't have a

47:24

conviction or anything and it's

47:26

still cold, but come on. Yeah,

47:29

right? And

47:31

like I said, a lot of people feel

47:33

like Dean Runkle is innocent. There's a lot

47:36

of people who are like- Innocent? Yeah, a

47:38

lot of people, if you look in different

47:40

comments on different topics surrounding this case, they're

47:42

like, Dean Runkle is innocent.

47:44

He was my teacher. Right, right.

47:47

But are those statements coming from a place

47:50

of purity? Are they coming from, like are

47:52

they, I mean, they're

47:54

kind of tainted views, right? I had

47:56

a really, really good encounter

47:59

with this teacher. right? He can't

48:01

be guilty. He couldn't

48:03

have done this, but they don't know. No.

48:06

I mean, you never know and I'm

48:08

just speculating based on things that I

48:11

read and things that I've watched. I

48:13

could be wrong. Right. But I'm also

48:15

human and it's fun to kind of

48:17

figure it out. Yeah. I mean, we're

48:19

speculating but we're speculating also with some

48:22

evidence, I would say.

48:25

Some circumstantial evidence,

48:28

but these things kind of point towards

48:31

him and they point towards him more

48:33

than they point to anybody else. Right.

48:36

So he has to be under the radar. Right.

48:39

Now advances in DNA technology have

48:41

provided new opportunities for

48:43

investigators to re-examine the

48:45

old evidence of what

48:48

is left. Authorities are

48:50

hopeful that the new testing

48:52

methods might yield more definitive

48:54

results, which could finally identify

48:56

Amy's killer. The

48:58

ongoing analysis includes retesting

49:00

existing evidence with improved

49:02

techniques and exploring any

49:05

new leads that arise,

49:08

but it becomes challenging when the evidence

49:10

like the curtain or other items that

49:12

was found in the area around Amy's

49:14

body could have been

49:17

mishandled. Could the DNA evidence

49:19

have been lost over the

49:21

years? Yes. Simple

49:24

answer, but yes. I

49:28

know looking into this case, I've been

49:30

more invested and I just really want

49:32

Amy to get justice. Amy

49:34

Mihalovic was known for her

49:36

exceptionally close relationship with her

49:38

mother, often described as best

49:40

friends by family members in

49:42

documentaries. This deep bond

49:44

made Amy eager to do anything to

49:47

make her mother smile. When

49:49

Amy received a phone call from an unknown

49:51

man claiming that he needed her help to

49:54

buy a gift for her mother, it seemed

49:57

convincing to her, even though it

49:59

would be a good idea to be a good friend of

50:01

Amy's. strange for a 10-year-old to agree to such a

50:03

request from a complete stranger. This

50:06

pattern of deception was not unique

50:08

to Amy. Other young girls from

50:11

her school and the surrounding area

50:13

received similar calls around the same

50:15

time suggesting a calculated approach by

50:18

the perpetrator. These calls

50:20

created a link among the victims

50:22

revealing a common method used by

50:24

the abductor to gain their trust.

50:27

The fact that these calls were

50:29

all made to girls who had

50:31

recently visited the Lake Erie Nature

50:34

and Science Center where

50:36

they signed a log book with

50:38

their personal information suggests that the

50:40

perpetrator used this information to target

50:42

them. Amy's

50:45

tragic story tells the vulnerability

50:48

of children to manipulative tactics

50:50

especially when motivated by their

50:52

love and trust for their

50:54

parents. The saying goes, don't

50:57

talk to strangers and we both feel

50:59

like it's important to educate our children

51:01

on this. Predators are

51:04

sadly becoming smarter and they're learning

51:06

from the mistakes of other predators

51:08

in the past and

51:10

now in today's world we are

51:12

facing challenges that surround online.

51:16

Knowing who your children are talking to

51:18

is so important.

51:20

I would suggest even keeping that

51:22

door of communication open and avoid

51:25

your child keeping things from you

51:27

or sneaking off onto

51:29

different apps. Bottom line is

51:31

they're going to be on Snapchat, they're

51:33

going to be on TikTok because their

51:35

friends are on there and I mean

51:37

you can still allow them to be

51:40

but I would also warn them about

51:42

the creeps out there and

51:44

the dangerous things out there. I

51:46

know for us, our son, this is years

51:49

ago but when he was very very young

51:51

playing on PlayStation or Xbox would be

51:54

like, oh I made a new friend,

51:56

he's 18. It's like dude you're seven.

52:00

Yeah. Not cool, like no.

52:02

And I mean, we were still learning as

52:05

parents around then because

52:07

I really wasn't, I was kind of naive. Like,

52:09

well, I mean, who's playing Roblox? Just a bunch

52:11

of kids. No big deal. No,

52:14

it's a scary world out there and we just have

52:16

to be on top of it because like I said,

52:18

these people are just getting better

52:20

and smarter and trying to

52:22

one up us parents. So

52:25

let's do better and prevent future tragedies. If

52:29

we can prevent a child being

52:31

kidnapped or lured into someone's vehicle

52:33

just because of this podcast, that

52:36

would be a success to me. Yeah, a

52:38

hundred percent. Now

52:40

I did leave one thing out that I forgot

52:42

to mention, Dean Runkle, the teacher. He

52:45

left in 2003, so he left Ohio in 2003 to

52:49

go to Key West, Florida because he said

52:51

he had health.

52:53

Health issues, health problems. I remember you telling

52:55

me about this. But what's interesting

52:58

is he just

53:00

left his teaching job. Like he had

53:02

a pension. But he did what?

53:04

He took a job as

53:06

a manager at a fast food restaurant.

53:09

So I know a lot of people think that's

53:11

suspicious. I personally, I think

53:14

that's insanely suspicious.

53:16

I mean, we said it was around 30-ish. Right.

53:20

What was Dean running from? Interesting.

53:22

What's interesting though is

53:24

that during that time, teachers

53:26

were now made

53:29

to take fingerprints. They

53:32

had to actually go and take

53:34

fingerprints to be

53:36

a teacher. Is

53:38

that incriminating for someone like Dean? Hell

53:41

yeah. Exactly. There is a crime

53:43

scene. Now he only needed

53:46

one more year of teaching. And

53:48

the only thing that kept him from, again,

53:51

this was his passion. He

53:53

is a natural born teacher. Everyone

53:56

loved him. The

53:58

only thing keeping him from finishing. that

54:00

one year to gain

54:03

his pension is the

54:05

new role that he would have

54:07

to take fingerprints. I didn't catch

54:09

that but that's really interesting. Super

54:11

suspicious. Yes, he is

54:14

very suspicious and gosh

54:16

I just wish we can just get

54:19

something on this guy. I know. I

54:21

bet he's listening right now because you

54:23

know how like these these predators out

54:26

there they like love to listen to

54:28

their stories and like relive them. Well

54:30

guess what Dean time's up time to

54:32

come forward time to confess give

54:35

this family some justice. Right. And

54:38

I do want to mention Margaret at

54:41

the end of this case because

54:43

Margaret Amy's mom she lived every

54:45

single day after her daughter went

54:47

missing fighting for answers

54:49

for her daughter and

54:52

she went into deep

54:54

depression you know

54:56

started drinking alcohol and

54:59

she divorced her husband moved

55:02

to Las Vegas not because of like the

55:04

missing case or whatever but just because of

55:06

you know their differences and

55:08

she lived in Las Vegas with her mom where

55:10

she eventually passed away so she died

55:13

not even knowing what happened

55:15

to her daughter. Yeah, it's awful. Yeah and

55:17

you can just see like the pictures of

55:19

her and the videos of her just like

55:23

her entire life has been just crashed. Yeah.

55:25

You know like a parent's

55:27

worst nightmare happened. It's awful.

55:31

No justice before she died either

55:33

and she deserved that. Mm-hmm. Terrible.

55:36

So yeah this case is really sticking with us

55:38

it kind of hooked us like a fish. Yeah.

55:41

So we actually we presented this

55:43

at our local library just kind

55:46

of like a brief discussion about

55:48

the case. So it's

55:50

nice to to really dive

55:52

deep you know into it but

55:55

again with

55:57

technology advancing I want

55:59

to see some results, I

56:02

want to see some closure. I mean,

56:04

the mother isn't here anymore, but I

56:06

mean the community, everyone. We

56:08

all want answers. Amy, she

56:11

deserves it. And we don't want these people to get

56:13

away with this stuff. Like I'm just so tired of

56:16

these cases because it's like, I

56:20

just want them to pay for what they did.

56:24

But that's the closing of this week's episode. We'll

56:27

be with you next week. And if you like

56:29

our show or if you like this episode, just

56:31

give us a, what is it? Five star rating

56:33

or a thumbs up or something? Wherever

56:36

you are, just give us some good

56:38

feedback. Some love. We put some love into

56:40

this episode in our show, so we would

56:42

appreciate it. On to the next

56:45

one. On to the next

56:47

one. What will we investigate next? You

56:49

know what though? I really want cases

56:52

like this to be solved so

56:54

that we can create followup episodes.

56:56

Yeah, and have our crime side

56:59

salads again. Did

57:01

you just hear, like recently, the Gilgo

57:04

Beach murders, there is two more

57:06

victims. How crazy is

57:08

that? Insane. This guy

57:10

doesn't even look human. I hate Rex Huerman. Yeah,

57:12

me too. Just hate him so much. Awful,

57:15

awful, awful guy. Well,

57:18

I think that's the end. I

57:20

think that was a pretty good first episode

57:22

in our new little studio, which is like

57:25

so awesome. We don't hear footsteps. We

57:27

heard a couple trains go by. There

57:30

were trains. A couple motorcycles. I guess

57:32

we can't really get rid of those

57:34

crazy loud sounds. There's life around us.

57:37

Right. All right, well, we'll see

57:39

you next week. Goodbye.

57:43

I want this stuff here. Ho. Ho.

57:54

Moving like this. Yah. I

57:57

was down here. you