Dateline NBC - What Happened to Amy?

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

For more than 30 years, Ohio investigators have searched for answers in the murder of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic. Now they’re enlisting your help to solve the case. Josh Mankiewicz reports.Examine the evidence in this case: https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/in-the-news/watch-dateline-episode-what-happened-amy-now-n1279797If you have any tips for investigators in Amy’s case, call Bay Village PD at [phone]

I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, a different kind of story. A baffling case of a little girl kidnapped, and investigators want you to help. She was my first friend. I remember walking by her classroom that day. That was the last time I saw her. What did you think had happened? I didn't know. I was scared, though. She vanished one October afternoon. Ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic.

Is Amy there? Is Amy there? She never came home from school. She was going to meet somebody and go buy a present for her mother. Whatever is wrong, just have her come home. It's been a mystery for more than 30 years. Who took Amy? These are photos of a lot of your evidence. Now investigators are opening their files to us. This is more like your Ted Bundy type.

Correct. Tonight, you'll get the chance to help crack this case. We want to hear from you. Just call with that minute piece of information. You pick and you pick and you pick, and boom, it's solved. There's still a killer out there, and somebody has to know something. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with What Happened to Amy?

You see here, these are all boxes of leads, and they're all numbered. So the first lead we ever got in this case, going all the way down to, we're well past 10,000 leads. And so these have all been checked out? These have all been checked. Mark Spetzel was a patrol officer here in Bay Village, Ohio, when Amy Mihaljevic disappeared. He worked the case for decades, along with a team of investigators, including Detective Jay Elish and FBI agent Phil Torsney. I know it kind of goes against your creed to be opening up the evidence locker and showing pieces of evidence to reporters. We feel that the benefit would be to show people what we have and what we're looking for.

You're willing to listen to anybody about anything involving things they remember from back then. There's a lot of evidence, there's a lot of good work been done on it, but these things always involve one missing piece of a puzzle, and if somebody can bring that to us, even now, we're happy to get it and we want it. It's a piece they've been searching for ever since October 27, 1989, the day Amy's mom came home from work to find her daughter missing and called everyone in the neighborhood.

And she sounds different. Hysterical. Hysterical. Is Amy there? Is Amy there? Please tell me if Amy's there. No, she's not. I'm sorry. Where is she? Why are you looking for her?

She never came home from school. She never came home from school. I don't know what to do. It's a day Amy's father, Mark, has lived with for more than 30 years. Talking to a customer or somebody, oh, you're Amy Mihaljevic's father. And I still get that today even. And what do people say? Oh, I'm so sorry, and sorry to hear that. I didn't realize you were Amy's father. And one thing I never do, I try not to. Oh, you were? No, I'll never answer that way. I say, no, I am Amy's father.

So. And it's a day these investigators have pored over for decades. Here's what they've learned, and what they want you to know about the day Amy Mihaljevic disappeared. October 27, 1989. She went to school about 7.20. She rode her bike from her home.

Usually she rides with a friend. On this particular day, she did not. One of the friends Amy normally rode with was Christy Sabo. I lived further from the school than Amy, so I would bike to her house, grab her, and we would bike to school. Tell me what you remember about Amy. I remember her being really sweet and really fun. She was also my first friend, my first sleepover.

And you guys were inseparable. Yeah, we were. Christy's home was just a few streets over from Amy, who lived in this quiet cul-de-sac with her mother Margaret, her dad Mark, and her big brother Jason. It was a town where everybody knew each other growing up. You knew your neighbors. It was a great place to learn how to ride bikes. Amy made the short trip to school. She parked her bike in the rack and headed in. That day, Amy was wearing short black boots,

along with silver and turquoise earrings shaped like horses' heads. You can see them in these drawings. Just normal school kid items that, as you'll see, would become vitally important in the months ahead. At 7.45 a.m., the bell rang. Amy began her day in the fifth-grade gifted class. She was a good student and loved to read. Here she is giving a book report. They're trying to get to their Aunt Sue's house because their mom left them. Amy adored animals, especially horses and her dog Jake,

and wanted to be a vet when she grew up. She also loved to draw and would leave little notes for her dad, Mark. Dear Dad, you're the specialist person in the world, so for that I bring this little gift. How old was she? I don't know, probably fourth grade maybe. I like how she signs it Amy Mihaljevic, as if like otherwise you won't know who it is, right?

Yeah. She was very accomplished for her age. Kristen came in with this little girl and said, this is my new best friend, Amy Mihaljevic. And I said, well, hi, Amy, how are you? And with that, you were kind of Amy's second mom. Oh, absolutely. I adored Amy.

During one of Amy's classes that day, a young patrol officer visited the school to give a talk about safety. Amy sat there and listened, along with her friend, Christy. If anybody calls you, don't go with somebody who calls you, and if somebody tries to pick you up in a car, along with her friend, Christy. If anybody calls you, don't go with somebody who calls you. And if somebody tries to pick you up in a car, don't go with somebody who's in a car that you don't know. Amy was there for that.

Yeah. That young officer, Mark Spetzel, rose through the ranks to become chief of police. You have to have looked back on that talk to those students. I do, and it's one of those things, you know, is there something else I could have said? Lunchtime. Up to this point, it had just been a regular day at school. Then in the cafeteria, Amy mentioned something to one of her friends. Something she said was a secret.

In talking with her friends, we learned that Amy received a call or calls from a male. This male wanted to take her to go buy a present for her mother who had received a promotion at work and that they were going to go to the mall with $45 and buy this gift. Did she say that the man had told her to keep this a secret? Yes. That secret would become the focus of intense investigation for the next 30 years. When we come back, a trip to the strip mall. She's seen walking down toward that shopping center as if she's walking with a purpose. The kidnapper's plot is set in motion.

The two 10-year-olds actually that saw this both described that a male walked up to her, is set in motion. The two 10-year-olds, actually, that saw this, both described that a male walked up to her, engaged her in conversation. They looked away, and when they looked back, Amy was gone. Just before noon on the day she disappeared, Amy Mihaljevic told a friend during lunch at school that she had a secret. A man had called her at home, she said, and offered to take her shopping to buy a surprise present for Amy's mother. Amy was going to meet the man after school.

Her brother Jason knew none of this. She didn't say anything about her plans that day. No, she didn't say anything out of the ordinary at all. I wish she would have. Amy didn't mention anything to her friend Christy either. I remember walking by her classroom that day and looking in her classroom. And you saw Amy? I saw Amy. That was the last time I saw her. After school, which ended at 2.04 in the afternoon, instead of riding her bike home like she normally would, she walked with a couple friends to Bay Square. Bay Square is a very small kind of strip mall shopping area. It's only a quarter mile from the middle school, so kids would often walk from the middle school to the Bay Square. was a baskin robbins ice cream store there

leaves right on time and fbi agent phil torsney she's seen walking down toward that shopping center as if she's walking with a purpose amy walked to the plaza with another little girl and mentioned the man to her that girl later told christy about the conversation she told me that amy told her you know i'm going to meet a friend. And she thought nothing of it. She was like, okay, have fun. I'm going shopping with one of my friends. And she would have just walked down the sidewalk here to the plaza to the right. Detective Jay Elish retraced the very few steps Amy took that day. So she would have felt completely safe walking over here and hanging around. Very safe. A lot of kids from the middle school would have been here. People shopping, you can see how many cars are here.

It would have been just like this in 1989. At 2.15 p.m., two kids saw Amy in the plaza, standing by this black pole. She seemed to be waiting for somebody, and they both described that at some point a male walked up to her, engaged her in conversation. They looked away, carried on their business, talking with their friends, and when they looked back, Amy was gone. The two 10-year-olds, actually, that saw this

helped provide a composite drawing of the individual that they saw. These are the composite sketches based on descriptions from two 10-year-olds who each had different memories of the man. They were widely circulated and came to symbolize the face of Amy's abductor. But police want you to know they may not be entirely accurate. These were done by recollections of a couple 10-year-olds who were standing at opposite ends of this shopping area, down here and down here, with Amy standing in the middle. Investigators do believe the man is a white male with a medium build,

who was 30 to 35 years old at the time. He would be about 60 to 65 years old today. So you want to hear about anybody, even if they don't match the sketch, and even if they didn't look like that then? That is correct. Police say the man was somehow able to gather enough information about Amy to get her to trust him. That's a key to determining who did it, right,

is to figure out what is his method of operation that he's able to identify the mother with enough information to use their employer's information and also know the child's name. However the man did it, it worked. Amy walked off with him, willingly, right in front of everyone. The spot where Amy was taken was directly across the street from where the police station was, barely 500 feet away. This was Mark Spetzel's view from his old office window. Amy was standing about four posts down, right down that sidewalk there when she was last seen.

You literally could have seen it happen if somebody had been looking out the window at that moment. Right, yeah, yeah. Just after three that afternoon, Amy's big brother Jason got home from school and noticed Amy wasn't there. I walk in the door where she would have normally been in, you know, the TV room, watching TV or doing homework outside with Jake. Sort of noticed that she wasn't around there, so I looked at the house, looked in her room, made a phone call to my mother about, hey, where is she? Their mom, Margaret, was at her job, working for a local newspaper called Trading Times. She wasn't too concerned because Amy had told her earlier that she'd be at choir practice

that afternoon. I hang up, go back to doing my own homework and whatnot. Not long after that conversation, another phone call would become one of the most haunting moments in the case. At 3.30, Margaret gets a phone call from Amy. The kids would call Margaret at work when they got home and were safe. And so Margaret assumed that call came from home. Yeah, exactly. What did Margaret say? Just, you know, hey, good to have you home, Amy. Make sure you get a snack or something like that.

There was no sense of urgency. In that moment, Margaret did not realize that phone call, at the time almost too routine for her to remember, would be a call she would never forget. Coming up, that phone call from Amy did not come from home. He lets Amy call her mom. I mean, he's taking a huge chance. He's willing to take risks.

This is somebody who can come across as charming and ingratiating. More like your Ted Bundy type. Correct. When Dateline continues. At 3.30 p.m. on the day she disappeared, Amy Mihaljevic called her mom to check in the way she always did, even though she was, at that moment, with her kidnapper. When Amy calls her mother, she doesn't appear upset.

There's no indication anything's wrong. There's no red flags up. She doesn't say anything to her mother. That shows an astonishing amount of daring and planning by that man. I mean, he's taking a huge chance, and yet he goes ahead. He lets Amy call her mom. He has no idea that conversation's going to go. He's willing to take risks, but risks he's comfortable with. And people do that when they plan things out. Suggesting that he knew that if Amy's mom received a phone call, she wouldn't start looking for her right away. Right. And he bought himself also some time to make sure Amy

still felt comfortable. Police don't know where Amy was when she made that call because back then, local calls within an area code weren't even logged. They do know this. Amy was in the hands of a calculating and devious planner. You're talking about somebody who's intelligent yet will commit a heinous crime. It's a very unusual pairing. FBI agent Phil Torsney wonders if Amy might have called from the Westgate Mall, which was about six miles from the shopping plaza where Amy was last seen. It's very likely during the initial part of this abduction, she's still shopping.

Torsney says a woman gave a detailed description of a little girl who looked like Amy in the Westgate Mall that day between 3 and 4 p.m., roughly an hour after Amy was taken. She said the girl was with a man. It was really her walking through a food court into the mall with a white male. Now, police want to know if anyone out there remembers seeing anything similar at the Westgate Mall that day. And even though this is 30 years old, you're kind of hoping maybe somebody remembers them. 5.30 p.m. That's when Amy's mother returned home from work and realized Amy wasn't there. She raced to the school and to a horrifying sight. Her daughter's blue bike was still parked in the

rack. We immediately took it at face value that, yeah, this child is missing. Amy's dad, Mark, arrived home from work to a chaotic scene. Margaret was running around the house, you know, Amy's not here. Could you tell something was really wrong? Oh, yeah. You didn't think this was Margaret overreacting? No, no, this was the real, real, this was the real thing. Mark took the family dog and went right out to search for Amy himself. He took Jake down to the shopping center and had him try to find Amy. Neighbor

Gene Silver rushed to the local NBC station with Amy's class photo. And I said, look, I'm not leaving until you put this picture on. And I didn't leave until they put the picture. And I drove in the yard. I heard this primal scream. Margaret was screaming because she saw Amy's picture on the television. And realized all of a sudden, she's that mom and this is that kid. Yes, she did. She was heartbroken. Amy had been missing for about five hours,

in the company of a man who'd lured her with lies, a man who'd meticulously planned the whole thing. Who was he? Investigators have an idea about his profile, and now they want you to hear it too. So that's another thing that you want viewers to think about, is who was around back then who likes kids, can get kids to trust them, is a planner, is manipulative, and is methodical

and not impulsive. All those things. Manipulative is the key. And may be able to interact socially with other people. Some of the people that are like this, people even find them somewhat charming. So you're not looking for some frightening freak. At least that's not how they present themselves. This is more like your Ted Bundy type. This is somebody who comes across or can come across as charming and ingratiating. Correct. As the sun began to set that October night, Amy's parents hunkered down, desperately hoping to hear from their daughter.

We had a phone in the kitchen, a wall phone, and that's where Margaret slept that night, right underneath that phone. In the kitchen, on the floor? On the floor. Yep. The long night passed, and the call Margaret longed for did not come. Coming up, was Amy the only target? The person on the phone introduced himself as my mom's boss by name. Two women speak from the shadows. There had to be a moment where

you thought to yourself, this could be me on the posters. We have called everyone we know. The day after Amy Mihaljevic was taken, her parents went on TV asking for help. Just find her. Tell her to come home. Whatever is wrong. Whatever is wrong. Just have her come home. If anybody has seen her get into a vehicle, we need, I think that would help quite a bit. Detectives pushed forward with their investigation, looking for any information about the man who'd called Amy at home. We wanted to know if anybody else out there, any other school children of this age group, had received similar phone calls. They sent out a letter to thousands of local students

and received a frightening response. In the months before Amy disappeared, two young girls living in a neighboring town received calls almost identical to Amy's. Police believe the girls may have actually spoken with Amy's kidnapper. Those two girls are now grown women. Even all these years later, they've asked us to shield their identities, a measure of the lasting damage this crime has inflicted on so many.

They still wonder if that man is out there watching. The person on the phone introduced himself as my mom's boss by name. He knew your mom's boss's name? We're calling this woman Pam. She was just 10 years old when the man called her. What did he want? He expressed that my mom was getting a promotion. He was really excited about it. And he wasn't sure what to get her for a gift. And they wanted it to be a surprise. And he wanted to pick me up after school to go pick something up because they wanted to get something special. But when the man overheard Pam tell her brother about the call. His tone suddenly changed. He was like angry almost, like you're going to ruin it. And at that point I was like, well, I'm sorry, I can't go. You really saw several different sides of this guy because at the beginning he's sort of, you know, trying to

charm you. It was like excitement and wanting to collaborate and all that, and then it was, oh wait, she's not an easy target. Just the unknown is scary. This woman, who we'll call Katie, spoke with the man several times before her older sister made her hang up. These calls would only happen when your mom was out of the house? Yes. As if the person knew that your mom was out of the house or just a coincidence? I think they definitely knew that my mom was out of the house.

Katie says she noticed a car parked outside her home around the time the man was calling and remains convinced he was watching her. There had to be a moment where you thought to yourself, this could be me on the posters. Over the years, I've thought about that a lot. I mean, I pray on it, and I pray for my family, and I pray for Amy, and I pray for Amy's family. And, you know, it ripped the family apart.

It ripped the town apart. Armed with this new information, investigators searched for a link between the children who'd been called. They got all the families together in a room and had them fill out questionnaires. Did they shop at the same places? Did they go to the same dry cleaners? Did they use the same dentist? Did they get their car fixed at the same place? You know, where did they frequent? So we asked all these questions to try to draw comparisons and commonalities to see if we can get some investigative leads. Great idea. Did it go anywhere?

Unfortunately not. There is one undeniable link, the story the man told about knowing each girl's mother. It's his signature, and it's unique. Investigators want to know if that M.O. rings a bell with any other law enforcement agency out there. It's not going to be something that this person is going to just be able to turn off after he abducts Amy. It would most likely be a person that maybe did it before, because he did a very good job of luring Amy to the shopping plaza on October 27th of 89. So maybe what you're looking for is a case like this that happened before that, that wasn't as refined, and that this was, the Amy case, was him getting better at.

Very possibly. Maybe not a case where someone was abducted and killed, but maybe a case where this guy had some type of sexual relationship with a child and got away with it. Or maybe he did do time for it and he was out at that point. Fall turned to winter. There was still no trace of Amy. Snow-covered ribbons remembering Amy shiver all over town. Life changed a lot. There was times when we would cry and just be scared, just be scared, not knowing what's going on,

talking about when is she going to come home. December 11th was Amy's 11th birthday. She'd been missing for 45 days. Margaret invited me in on Amy's birthday. Connie Deacon was a reporter for NBC station WKYC and lived just down the street from Amy. She still believed that Amy was alive and she was going to throw this birthday party that she hoped that if there was some publicity, someone would see this and would

decide to let her go. There were birthday presents stacked up on the fireplace. It's very difficult to have a birthday party without the birthday girl. I was holding back tears. So was my photographer. Even Christy Sabo, just 10 years old, did her best as she reached out to her friend the only way she could. Happy birthday, Amy, and I hope you're still alive, and I hope you can hear me, and I hope you come home soon. Weird feeling to be talking to your friend through television? It was weird. I was nervous. I felt for Jason.

When we were off camera, he would just cling to Jake. He was there, the dog, big black dog. A lot of the way I handled it was to not be in the way. A lot of days were spent riding my bike with Jake, going up to the lake. And just sort of watching the water. Mark tried to keep to the family routine as best he could. Amy had a paper route. It came out every Thursday. And I would get up before I went to work, and her and I...

Excuse me, her and I and the dog would go deliver the papers before school. And after she disappeared? I kept the paper route running for maybe three weeks, but I still delivered the papers on Thursday morning, me and me and the dog. So she'd have something to come back to? Yep. Yep, we delivered the paper.

So. For Margaret, there was the added torment that the kidnapper had used her name to lure Amy away. It's the constant pain. It's the constant torment. I'm wondering what she's going through, where she she is and why. I keep asking why. It would be months before Amy's mother would find out what had happened to her little girl. Coming up. I talked to Mrs. Mihaljevic this afternoon.

She was adamant. Connie, it's not her. It's not Amy. A discovery on a country road. Heartbreak in Bay Village. I remember just putting my head down and crying. When Dateline continues. Reporter Connie Deacon was at work when the news broke on February 8th, 1990. Into our newsroom, we had the scanners going all the time.

And the word was that a body had been found about 50 miles south of town in Ashland. Connie, this is far more than a news story to you. Deacon had become friendly with Amy's mother, Margaret, and called her right away. I talked to Mrs. Mihaljevic this afternoon. She was adamant. Connie, it's not her. It's not Amy. She honestly thought Amy was somewhere in the area being cared for by someone who wanted

a child. Within hours, authorities had their answer. It was Amy. It all came to a heartbreaking end about a quarter of a mile down this quiet country road. They came home and the chief of police was at the house. Our minister came to the house. I think somebody from the FBI came to the house, and we all sat around and held hands, and they explained what they found. Christy heard the news at school. We all found out it was Amy,

and there was guidance counselors in school, and I remember just putting my head down and crying. You went to the funeral? Yes. Yeah, it was huge. It was my first funeral for my friend. All of Bay Village there? Mm-hmm. Then some. It was packed. It was packed. It was... Her poor mom and dad and brother.

Her poor family. The thing that still sticks in my mind is going past... the Bay Village Police Department and seeing the flag at half-staff. The Bay Village Police Department had seen the fight, get half staff. And after that, excuse me, after that, didn't assist the police all the time. Always questioning, always asking, always looking for something. They never stopped.

For 105 days, we were looking for Amy. We weren't looking for a killer. We were looking for Amy. The day her body for a killer. We were looking for Amy. The day her body is found, we're now looking for a killer. That search began here, County Road 1181 in Ashland County, 50 miles from Bay Village. Perpetrator more than likely is comfortable with this area to dispose of a body. Because this isn't just a place you'd stumble onto or drive by. Not at all.

It's well off the highway. It's not as if you take a couple of rights off the highway and you're there. It's very rural, very out of the way. Yet, for some reason, this perpetrator chose that location. Investigators collected every bit of debris within a mile of where Amy was found. Her body yielded few clues. There was some indication of sexual assault, but nothing conclusive. Medical examiners believe she'd been in the field for a while and was most likely killed shortly after she was taken. Amy had been hit on the head and stabbed in the neck. The most telling clue might be what was not found at the scene.

Her backpack wasn't there. It contained a Buick binder like this one, which her dad had given her from his job. It said, best in class, on the clasp. Also missing, Amy's boots, and those horsehead-shaped earrings, the ones she put on that last morning. Is it reasonable to believe that the items that were missing from Amy,

her backpack, the binder, her boots, the earrings, that those were retained by her killer? It's possible. Possible they were kept as a trophy. So one of the things you're looking for is whether anybody has seen these earrings or a pair of child's boots like that. But these items are extremely unique items that if anybody had ever seen them before, they'd probably recollect it.

The decades have brought many theories about what happened to Amy Mihaljevic. Recently, the case was in the headlines again with a possible person of interest. No arrests have been made, and police say their overall investigation continues. We could go on and on about just the number of investigative leads that have been followed up on. 10,000 tips, 30,000 interviews,

and 100,000 man-h hours later, they're still looking. Every officer that works in our police department is aware of the Amy Mihaljevic case, whether they worked there in 1989 or if they started after that. And it's something that we never will forget about. There is one more clue, a very important one, that investigators want you to know about. It might just be the key to solving this whole case. Coming up, that clue revealed at last. Will you be able to help? It's so unique that we're hoping that somebody can identify that.

If you saw it someplace, we want to hear from you. When detectives found Amy Mihaljevic in this field, they gathered every shred of evidence they could find. Anything that didn't grow there, we basically grabbed up. Could have been cigarette butts, papers, whatever. Including this green curtain. It's very unique. It's a homemade curtain. Almost looks like a bedspread was made into a curtain.

The curtain, along with all the other evidence, was periodically tested over the years. Because maybe the constant march of DNA science might one day yield a clue. And in 2016, it did. What we found was there were minute hairs identified on this curtain, and these hairs were identified as being dog hairs. And not just any dog hairs. When Amy went missing, one of the things the investigators did was they took samples of their dog Jake's hair for later comparisons. Jake is long gone. His hair outlives him, carefully collected and preserved in this vial for decades. A lab compared it to the hairs on the curtain.

The result was a huge leap forward. So the dog hair and the hair on this curtain matched up. So based upon that, there's the theory that possibly she was wrapped in that curtain. Jake, Amy's constant companion during her short life, may have provided a crucial key to finding her killer. She loved Jake very much. And now Jake may help solve her murder. 10, 13 years after his death, he's still trying to save Amy. He was a good dog. He was the best dog. And now the curtain has yielded a new clue.

One detectives are revealing for the first time. Further testing uncovered even more hairs. This time they were human. and they were Amy's. Strengthening the theory that Amy was wrapped in that curtain, and that the killer may have used it to transport her body. Investigators really want you to take a close look at it. It doesn't look professionally made. Yeah, it's not something that back in the day would have bought at Sears or JCPenney, certainly. It's somebody made it just quickly out of something they had.

But it's so unique that we're hoping that somebody can identify that. You want our viewers to look at that curtain and say whether they have seen anything like that before. Yeah, if you saw it in a house, you saw it someplace, we want to hear from you. Remember, the curtain may have been a brighter green back in 1989. The quilting and design are unique, as is the crude way in which it was sewn

together. We think that it would be someone that would recognize it and say, you know, I remember that curtain being in so-and-so's house or that curtain being in so-and-so's barn. We're hopeful that somebody will see that curtain and say to themselves, you know, I suspected this guy maybe of this. Oh, and by the way, I remember seeing that curtain on his property. It's like a needle in a haystack, but we're hopeful. We are not made to bury our children. It leaves parents shattered, sometimes unmendably so. Shortly after Amy disappeared, her parents' marriage fell apart. Mark says the relationship was already on the rocks before the abduction. Twelve years after Amy's disappearance, Margaret died. She was only 54.

Whoever killed Amy kind of killed Margaret, too, didn't they? Oh, yeah, definitely. Then Margaret sold her house and moved out to Las Vegas, where her mother lived. She was broken by that. Oh, yeah, she was broken. Mark Mihaljevic keeps in touch with the investigators. Will the police solve it? Yes. You're convinced they will? Yes. Mark Spetzel, who spoke with us before he retired as police chief, kept Amy close right up until he left.

You still have the poster of Amy in your office? I do. Yeah, I don't need it as a reminder, but I keep it there just so she knows we're still doing it. Phil Torsney retired from the Bureau and moved away, but still works the case when he can. Well, I've been doing this a long time, and here's what I know. The only time a case doesn't have the potential to get solved is if nobody's doing anything, and I feel good about it. We're doing something, and we're always doing something. I hope this is some help. I hope it's the last interview I have to do on this before it's solved. Amy's bike still sits in a small room at the Bay Village Police Department.

Her case notes remain front and center. She's been gone for more than 30 years. But Amy Mihaljevic is still here. And she's waiting for justice. Maybe you can help her find it. If you have information you think might help with Amy's case, please call the Bay Village Police at 440-871-1234. Investigators are offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next

Friday for our two-hour, 30th season premiere at 9, 8 central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.