A cable documentary appears to have done its job.
It has people talking again about a famous Northeast Ohio unsolved murder and may have even sparked new leads.
On Sunday, Investigation Discovery aired a 3-hour special on Amy Mihaljevic.
On Friday, her father said a famous retired FBI investigator has since returned to town to work the case, and that about 50 tips have come in.
“To keep something like this in the news media for 29-plus years, it’s really just unbelievable,” Mark Mihaljevic said.
It was 1989 when his 10-year-old daughter Amy went missing from a Bay Village shopping plaza, only to turn up months later in a field.
This year will mark the 30th anniversary of Amy's murder. The killer has never been brought to justice.
Mark was part of the documentary and said there were things even he learned from it, such as how investigators used truth serum to try to make one suspect confess.
He said there were also things producers could have made clearer, however, such as how much his employer supported him.
“It’s amazing how General Motors got behind this thing, it was unbelievable,” Mihalevic said. “There’s a lot of people that should’ve gotten some mention that did not get some mention.”
The episode concludes with one of the most compelling parts of all, with a local journalist suggesting a former teacher may have committed the crime.
It prompted a woman this week to speak up on the journalists’ blog, saying that teacher touched her and threatened she would end up “like Amy Mihaljevic.”
Mark said he has heard of the man, but if he was guilty, he would have been arrested by now.
He continues to hope for an arrest soon.
“As everybody keeps saying, ‘it’s just going to take that one clue.’ And it’s going to happen, it’s got to happen,” Mihaljevik said. “The commitment is still there, which is just mind-boggling.”
These days he says he does not bug police, though he keeps a phone nearby. Investigators have promised to call him first if they ever have a suspect.
And though 50 tips since Sunday’s episode may sound good, he points out some of them are not new.