Amy Should Be 40: 3News Podcast Spotlights Amy Mihaljevic's Life

It’s been 30 years this month since Amy Mihaljevic was found murdered in an Ashland County field, four months after she was abducted from Bay Village Square Oct. 27, 1989. Amy Should Be Forty, a 3News podcast launched for the anniversary of her kidnapping, takes a wider view of the case, pondering the girl she was and the woman she could be. Hosted by senior reporter Andrew Horansky, the show does retrace case details, but it lingers on those living in the aftermath.

“I approached it as a person who could be having a shared experience,” says Horansky, who lives in Bay Village and was born three years before Mihaljevic. “That’s how I found a voice for it: not thinking of it as a news story, but as a person who could be living a parallel life.”

The podcast, which often features Amy: My Search for Her Killer author James Renner as a co-presenter, has arguably amplified Mihaljevic’s tale to its widest audience in years, debuting on iTunes Top 100 podcasts and being featured on Vulture. Here are some of the central players.

Kristy Sabo
Sabo’s voice is one not often featured in case retrospectives, but Mihaljevic’s childhood friend provides one of the clearest looks at who she was: a friendly fifth grader who loved Patrick Swayze and horses, was the first person to invite Sabo over for a sleepover and deeply wanted to please her parents, especially in the midst of their marriage’s decline. “[Sabo] was the closest thing to a time capsule of Amy at age 10,” says Horansky.

Mark and Jason Mihaljevic
Before the abduction, Mihaljevic’s killer called her at home and discussed her mom’s recent promotion, so some think he knew the family. Dad Mark wonders about a man who worked on their home, and was later convicted of another murder. Brother Jason almost went to the strip mall the day Amy was taken. “The thing [comforting] with Jason is that he felt they shared everything that could have been shared in that time,” Horansky says. “They had a good relationship.”

Agent Lisa Hack
Hack is the sixth FBI investigator assigned to the case. Investigators have mitochondrial DNA from strands of hair found on a blanket near Mihaljevic’s body, but unlike with nuclear DNA, they need a suspect to compare it to. But Horansky sees hope in a new DNA match process that’s had success using mitochondrial DNA to develop a full nuclear profile. “I wouldn’t be surprised, from what I’m hearing, if a year from now we have someone who has been arrested.”