Hi, I’m sorry to interrupt the flow of this forum. I did a deep dive on the Amy Mihaljevic case recently and came up with some thoughts as a central Ohioan.
Cleveland Magazine’s article from October 1999 has this blurb in the suspect’s behavioral profile regarding Amy’s kidnapping and murder: “He developed a sudden compulsive or obsessive disorder, experienced a personal catastrophe or an emotional setback.” Paired with the idea that he is unlikely to be successful in marriage or family life, I would not be surprised if Amy’s killer had tried masking who he was to get a wife and kid(s), but as time went on he couldn’t keep up the facade, and his partner split with him. Therefore, the crime occured when he decided nothing was left holding him back from fulfilling his darkest fantasy that he had put away.
If the suspect or his partner had family in Cleveland, it is reasonable to assume they would commute there for vacations and holidays, periodically. Therefore, the suspect would have knowledge of different places and activities for kids in the area, and have a reason for being around kids without sticking out. That would mean that, unlike the popular assumption that the killer has been hiding amongst Cleveland locals for all these years, perhaps he actually wasn’t caught because of his distance from the manhunt, and being unknown to anyone in Cleveland outside possibly some family.
I live in central Ohio, and if you want to drive north to Lake Erie from here without hopping on interstate 71, you take Route 42. I, myself, usually drive up to Sandusky rather than Cleveland, which is over an hour West along Lake Erie. Regardless, navigation will still take me up Route 42 a ways (one lane each direction!) towards Sandusky before turning off, so that just makes it all the more convenient that if your destination is Cleveland, you can stay on route 42 the whole way there from central Ohio
Route 42 passes through the city of Ashland, which is also the name of the county where Amy’s body was found in a field. If the perpetrator wanted to hop off 42 while he was still out in the sticks (Ashland and Mansfield are where the population become more dense in that direction), he could have turned off at 224. 224 is a straight shot road that travels towards and intersects with county road 1181, the exact road where Amy’s body was found.
Given how close 42 gets to county road 1181, I don’t think the suspect had to know that area like the back of his hand to leave her where he did. He could have just had a general area in mind beforehand and drove around those roads to pick a spot when he was getting rid of her body. Just because someone lives in Cleveland doesn’t mean they know the roads around that area, rather the requisite here is that the suspect has some knowledge from driving THROUGH the area. Also, I doubt he was traveling that way for work. Someone traveling from elsewhere to Cleveland for their job would have contacts up there who would have recognized him when the sketches were posted everywhere.
Honestly, it is surprising how much information used to be in neighborhood telephone directories, such as family members names, ages, and occupations. So I feel like the question “how did the man on the phone get these girl’s phone numbers?” isn’t so much the question that needs to be asked. Rather, *How did he pick out his victims?* Did this man indeed have his own child(ren) and visited places where they would be around other children? Was he able to figure out the names of the little girls he liked via proximity, then do research to obtain their family info later?
Regarding the curtain, I think it was made by a female relative of the suspect. My Grandma grew up in dirt poor rural Georgia, and the idea of saving old blankets without disposing of them, as well as sewing something instead of buying brand new, seems much more likely than it being a homemade horse stall curtain. The Cleveland Magazine behavior composite suggests that the suspect likely lived alone, with a roommate, or with his parents. In short, good chances he was on the down ‘n’ out. He probably complained to his mom, an aunt, or a sister, that he needed big darkening curtains for whatever hole he was shacked up in, and they made some out of an old blanket. If he’s not a responsible guy, or if he had just visited family, he could have had the panels still in his car from when they were gifted, convenient for use in his crime. He wouldn’t necessarily have had to stop by home during or after he killed Amy.
Sorry that was long, and I wasn’t sure how to end it, either. Hopefully this perspective helps my fellow sleuths
