The Skeleton Key Chronicles

56 minutes ago

More than 36 years after ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic disappeared from a shopping center in Bay Village, Ohio, investigators are taking another look at decades of evidence, including recently discovered hairs that could potentially help answer questions that have gone unresolved since 1989.

Detective Sergeant Edward Chapman is now leading the investigation, reviewing nearly 21,000 tips, old photographs, microfilm, and original evidence collected throughout the case. Some of that evidence is currently being examined at laboratories across the country, and a genealogist is assisting with the examination of recently discovered hairs. Although previous DNA testing has encountered setbacks, Chapman believes advances in technology could reveal something investigators weren't able to detect years ago.

Amy disappeared on October 27th, 1989, after a man contacted her by telephone and convinced her to meet him at the Bay Square Shopping Center. He told Amy he wanted her help choosing a gift for her mother, who had recently received a promotion at work. The caller apparently knew enough about her family to make the invitation believable.

Amy's classmates would later recall some details about that afternoon. One friend, Olivia Masiak, remembered Amy telling her she was meeting someone. Another classmate, Haley Pritchard, described seeing Amy approach a van before turning away and walking toward Baskin-Robbins. These recollections have not been independently verified, but they add another layer to the questions surrounding Amy's final movements.

Witnesses also described Amy speaking with an unidentified man before the two walked away together. Her remains were located in rural Ashland County the following February, and despite an extensive investigation, no one has ever been charged.

Chapman has already met with Amy's father, Mark, and her brother, Jason, who have spent decades hoping for answers. In a recent interview with Cleveland 19 News, Chapman described the investigation as the most important assignment of his career. He also spoke about the responsibility he feels toward Amy's family and his belief that the evidence may still hold answers.

"I owe them an answer."

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

6 hours ago

It's been more than three years since 19-year-old Noah Presgrove was found along a rural Oklahoma highway, and his family is still trying to find out what happened to him. Now, a leaked court document is raising even more questions about the Labor Day weekend he spent with friends just before his passing.

Noah was found on the morning of September 4th, 2023, along Highway 81 near Terral, Oklahoma, not far from where he'd been staying with a group of friends over the holiday weekend. Nobody has been able to establish exactly what happened during those final hours, and after years of trying to get answers, his family turned to the courts.

Apparently, a leaked draft of the family's amended lawsuit offers a very different account of the events leading up to Noah's passing. According to the document, the family believes what happened to him may have been planned ahead of time, and that he was later chased by people riding in an off-road vehicle. These claims have not been established as fact.

And there's another issue. The family wants the amended lawsuit made public, but there have been restrictions on releasing some of the investigative records. After a draft of the document circulated online, their attorneys asked the court to allow them to file it publicly rather than keep it under seal. That could give the public a much clearer picture of what the lawsuit alleges, while allowing attorneys to continue gathering evidence and questioning people who may know what happened that weekend.

For Noah's family, this isn't just about finding out what happened that night. It's also about getting some measure of justice and holding anyone who may have been responsible accountable. Three years later, they're still trying to understand how a holiday weekend with friends ended with Noah being found along a stretch of Oklahoma highway.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

For decades, parents have talked to their kids about checking Halloween candy, but the case that spawned so many of those conversations had nothing to do with a stranger handing out candy at the door. It happened in Deer Park, Texas, on Halloween night in 1974, and the person responsible was an eight-year-old boy’s own father.

Eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan had spent the evening trick-or-treating with his father, Ronald, his younger sister, and several neighborhood children. When they returned home, Ronald gave Timothy a Pixy Stix allegedly from their Halloween haul. Shortly after tasting the candy, Timothy became sick and was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away later that night.

As investigators retraced what happened that night, they discovered that Ronald had also handed out five of these Pixy Stix to other children that night, including more of his own. Fortunately, none of the other children ate theirs. One little boy had actually tried to open his, but couldn't get past the staple holding the top closed.

The investigation eventually led straight back to Ronald, who was struggling financially and had taken out substantial life insurance policies on his children. Authorities determined that he had prepared the candy himself and tried to make it appear as though someone in the neighborhood was responsible. He was convicted in 1975, and his sentence was carried out in 1984.

In the years that followed Ronald O’Bryan became known as "The Candy Man," and his case changed the way parents approached Halloween for years afterward. Ironically, the very person those children should have been able to trust was the one they needed protection from.

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