New Evidence in 10-Year-Old's Slaying?

March 31, 2009— -- In the nearly 20 years since Amy Mihaljevic was abducted and killed, Bay Village, Ohio, police say they and the FBI have interviewed nearly 20,000 people and investigated more than 7,000 potential suspects.

But the case, one of Ohio's most frustrating unsolved murders, remains a mystery. Police have not named a suspect.

Now, a witness says he may have seen the person who lured the 10-year-old girl away from a local shopping plaza.

Rick Burns, the owner of a service station near the spot where Amy was last seen alive, now says he believes he saw the girl's killer. He said a man with a young girl in the back seat of his car asked for directions to the highway around the time Amy was abducted.

Shown a series of photographs by ABC News affiliate WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland, Burns identified a man who was previously interrogated by police as the man who asked for directions. But he said he could not be sure that the girl in the back seat was Amy, who was kidnapped Oct. 27, 1989.

"That was him and he took her," Burns said. "I always remember a face. He looked like he wasn't from here. He looked like a school teacher from the country."

Lt. Det. Mark Spaetzel of the Bay Village police downplayed the importance of Burns' information, but James Renner, a reporter and author of a book about the case, called it the best new clue in the case in the past 20 years. He also criticized the police.

"When you find an eyewitness to the abduction who hasn't been interviewed since 1989, I have to question that," Renner said. "I'm disappointed."

Police: No New Information From Witness in Amy Mihaljevic Case

Spaetzel said he believed Burns, who was interviewed by investigators shortly after Amy was abducted, was confusing two separate incidents he had reported to police earlier, but had never actually seen Amy's abductor.

He said photos of the man identified by Burns were available on the Internet.

"I think he's trying to be a helpful citizen but I think he's misremembering two events and putting them together as one," Spaetzel said. "It really is nothing new."

Spaetzel said police have spent "a lot of time" investigating the person Burns identified, who did not return a phone message seeking comment and is not being identified by ABC News because police have not named him as a suspect.

Police Still Looking for Clues in Amy Mihaljevic Murder

"We have looked at him closely," Spaetzel said. "We have done a lot of work regarding this individual. And, obviously, there's no indictment."

On the morning of Oct. 27, 1989, Spaetzel, then a patrolman, spoke to Amy's class at Bay Village Middle School. Later that day, she was abducted from a town shopping center. Police believe Amy's killer called her at home and convinced her to meet him at the shopping center.

A jogger found her body about three months later on a rural road about 50 miles from Bay Village. She had been stabbed twice in the neck and struck with a blunt object on the back of her head.

Burns said he was interviewed by the FBI, who went through his store receipts, shortly after the abduction. But, he said, investigators never followed up or showed him photos of possible suspects. He said he told police the same story he's telling them now.

But Spaetzel said he checked police records of Burns' initial statements and said Burns never said anything about seeing Amy or a man that could have been her abductor.

Nearly 20 years later, Amy's father, Mark Maheljovic, said he still thinks about his daughter every day.

"Right now she would be 30 or 31 years old," he said. "I wonder what she would look like. How many more grandkids would I have? What would she be doing with her life?"

Spaetzel said police are still actively investigating the case but said he did not think the case could be solved without help from the public. He said he gets an average of one to two tips a week

"We're not going to solve this on our own," he said. "Someone with direct knowledge is going to need to come forward and talk to us."