Renewed push to find person who killed Amy Mihaljevic
FEBRUARY 8, 2019
"BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- Twenty-nine years to the day after Amy Mihaljevic’s body was found, authorities are hoping new advancements in DNA technology may soon bring them closer to identifying her killer.
Bay Village police are confirming that DNA from more then one source was found on Amy when the little girl’s body was recovered from a remote field in Ashland County on February 8, 1990.
“We have DNA that cannot be attributed to Amy or her family,” says Bay Village Police Chief Mark Spaetzel.
The DNA is limited, and is not a complete profile of any one person. It is also not the type of DNA that is used in the nationwide criminal database.
That type of DNA, known as “nuclear DNA” is more exacting.
The other type of DNA, known as “mitochondrial DNA”, is what was found on Amy’s body from sources other then her family.
“There’s no mitochondrial database to insert our DNA into to see what it will match up against,” says Chief Spaetzel.
“You need nuclear DNA to really identify somebody,” says Dr. Fredrick Schumacher, a statistical geneticist at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine.
“Mitochondrial DNA,” he adds, “can really eliminate an individual (as a suspect).”
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for the future.
“We may get to an identification of an individual off of mitochondrial DNA,” Dr. Schumacher says, “if you look at the current literature, there are some groups arguing that’s possible. It’ll just be awhile before that can be confirmed.”..."
Renewed push to find person who killed Amy Mihaljevic
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