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Amy: My Search for Her Killer

Secrets and Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic

by James Renner

  • Format: Hardcover, 272 pages, 5.8 x 8.8 inches
  • Illustrations: 19 black-and-white photographs
  • ISBN: 978-1-59851-019-5
  • Price: $24.95

Where to Buy

Description

“I fell in love with Amy Mihaljevic not long before her body was discovered lying facedown in an Ashland County wheat field. I fell for her the first time I saw that school photo TV stations flashed at the beginning of every newscast in the weeks following her kidnapping in the autumn of 1989—the photo with the side-saddle ponytail . . .”

So begins this strange and compelling memoir, which delves into the investigation of one of Northeast Ohio's most frustrating unsolved crimes.

On October 27, 1989, ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic disappeared from the comfortable Cleveland suburb of Bay Village on her way home from school. Thousands of volunteers, police officers, and FBI agents searched for the girl. Her picture was everywhere—anyone who watched the local TV news remembers the girl with the sideways ponytail.

That image also became indelible in the mind of eleven-year-old James Renner. Even at that young age, he vowed to find this girl.

Tragically, Amy's body was discovered a few months later. Her killer was never found.

Fifteen years later, Renner, now a reporter for an alternative weekly magazine in Cleveland, picks up the leads himself and tries to solve the crime.

Filled with mysterious riddles, incredible coincidences, and a cast of unusual but very real characters, his investigation quickly becomes a riveting journey in search of the truth.

Reviews
    Reads more like a screenplay than your typical tell all crime story. It is compelling, riveting and hard to set down. The characters are flushed out and frighteningly honest . . . This is a well written, passionate narrative that has a place on your shelf, but more importantly a place in your thoughts. Sadly, it is necessary to remind ourselves bad people live around us, watch our children and are dangerous. Renner brings that to light all too well. — Cuyahoga Falls News Press
    In this meticulously-crafted and engaging book--which is both memoir and true-crime--Renner begins with the events of that day and continues until this one. — coolcleveland.com
    Reads like a who-done-it, with lively and fast-paced narrative as Renner talks to people with an interest in the story. — Morning Journal
    Poignant and wonderfully well-written. — Richard North Patterson, Silent Witness
About James Renner

James Renner is a staff writer for the alternative weekly newspaper Cleveland Scene. His film adaptation of a Stephen King story was an official selection at the 2005 Montreal World Film Festival. A graduate of Kent State University, Renner lives in Akron, Ohio. He is also author of Amy: My Search for Her Killer. More About James Renner

Contains References to:

Alvin Matlock, Amy Mihaljevic, Ashland County, Bay Village, Billy Strunak, Cleveland Cold Cases, Doyle Matlock, Free Times Magazine, James Renner, Ohio Missing Youth, Ohio Murders, Richard Alan Folbert, Scene Magazine

Other books by James Renner:
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