Bob Alaimo

I've had some time lately to follow up on some old leads that have been kind of stagnating.

Around the time I started hearing about Dean Runkle, I got a number of tips about another guy who lived near the site where they found Amy's body. Guy's name is Robert "Bob" Alaimo. Runkle's stuff made it's way to the top of the pile and the stuff on Bob ended up on the bottom. A retired detective contacted me recently and reminded me about Alaimo and so I went out to his place earlier today.

Back in 1989, Alaimo worked at a dry cleaners at the corner of Dover and Center Ridge Roads, in close proximity to Tradin' Times, where Amy's mother worked. Alaimo also lived in Bay Village but had property in Ashland, a mile or so away from CR 1181, and moved into a log cabin there after or during a bitter divorce. He would drive to Bay Village often, though, to pick up his kids at soccer. He drove a Ford Fiesta. He looks like the composite sketch, but so do a lot of people.

Alaimo is still down there in Ashland, today. He's about 70. He said a few interesting things. He's read my book. Thinks it's garbage (he has company, there). The FBI took samples of carpeting out of his car. He says he was questioned a number of times by police and FBI and remembered one day when the police brought him into the station.

"They led me past one of those two-way windows and I remember thinking the girl who witnessed the kidnapping was probably on the other side." An odd thing to say, especially given that--as far as I know--the fact that Amy's abduction was witnessed by a girl was not released until my book. I think the papers, if they mentioned it at all, used the word "classmate".

He claims to have a photographic memory. "I know where I was every day of my life. For instance, July 4, 1959." Where was he then? "I was in prison." Why? "That's for me to know and you to wonder about."

He says he was born in New York, but moved to Cleveland when he was quite young. I can find no record of this arrest. So, 100 Master Class points to whoever can track that down, first.

He also has several Fiestas rotting in his yard. He says the police haven't spoken to him since 1989, but those who know Alaimo have been interviewed by detectives as recently as 2006.

Update: Alaimo was accused of domestic violence in 1984.

Dan Nash

If anyone knows the real Dean Runkle, it's a man named Dan Nash.

Dan Nash was in Runkle's class when he was still a teacher in Vermilion, in the mid-80's. Dan was the one Runkle wrote love letters to. At one time, Runkle was also depositing money into an account set up for Dan but right before he disappeared from 1987 to 1989 he seems to have emptied out that account.

The love letters abruptly stop just before Amy's abduction. I've wondered if Dan came to his senses at that time and asked Runkle to leave him the hell alone.

But Dan's not talking. When I tracked him down a couple years ago, he was living in a rundown apartment near Lorain. Just mentioning Runkle's name was enough to send him into hysterics. His parents at first denied any connection to Runkle and the account he'd set up for his son. But then eventually admitted it.

When I spoke to Runkle, he said that Dan was like his son.

This is another story I don't quite know how to take. But I wish that Dan, or someone Dan has talked to, would come forward and tell us what he knows about the real Dean Runkle. He certainly didn't do him any favors.

Was Amy alive until December?

I spent the day in Ashland and Norwalk, looking through old newspapers in the months leading up to and following Amy's abduction. I found a few interesting things I'll be sharing over the next few days. But the most interesting was a tidbit from the Norwalk Reflector from a couple days after they found Amy's body in Feb. 1990.

A man named Hursel Case came forward and claimed he was sure he'd seen Amy on December 7, sitting near 12 E. Washburn in New London. She seemed very unhappy and was talking to a middle-aged white man.

That's about a quarter-mile from where Dean Runkle was living at the time.

Speaking of Runkle, I spoke with his Aunt today, too. She explained he had a troubled childhood. His twin sister, Diane, died of polio before 1st grade. "His mother, Bessie, always blamed Dean for that for some reason," she said. "It wasn't his fault, but she made him feel terrible about it. And he was never the same. It affected the rest of his life."

I'll be taking a closer look at Runkle again in the next few weeks, too.

Anyone Know Dr. Richard Hammond???

The morning of February 11, someone on an early exercise route sees a body a short way into a harvested field. They think its a mannequin until they get close enough to see that it's a female body. An autopsy shows sexual assault and mutilation. She was stabbed to death. Kept somewhere for a short time and cleaned before being deposited in the field off the road.

Sound familiar?

This wasn't Amy. The woman's name was Peggy Hettrick and her body was discovered two years to the day before Amy's--Feb 11, 1987, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Peggy was 37 years old. Her body was found a short distance from the home of an eye surgeon named Richard Hammond. Check out his picture. Looks kind of like the composite sketch, right?

Police discovered Hammond was a calculating pervert in 1995 when a woman noticed a video camera in a vent in his home's bathroom. When they searched the house, they found that he had a secret room full of videotapes of naked women he'd captured from the cameras set up in his bathroom, as well as a storage unit full of even more tapes. After his arrest, he posted bond, checked himself into a hotel, and committed suicide. His autopsy noted that he'd shaved all of his body hair, a strategy some killers use to keep from leaving DNA at crime scenes.

Here's the thing. Hammond was known to disappear for stretches of time with no explanation for where he had been. I'm curious if he ever visited our area.

***Correction: Amy's body was discovered Feb 8, 1989.

Witnesses Lie, Go Mum to Protect Friend.

Frankly, I don't know what to make of this.

I was lied to. A source in my book won my confidence and I quoted him in a chapter about the minutes leading up to Amy's abduction and allowed him to spout commentary about the local police.

I knew this source had a criminal history. But I have a soft spot for people with down-on-their-luck stories. What Dan Monnett told me was that he had been busted for trafficking acid, serving 8 years in prison, a couple years after Amy's abduction. I recently learned the real reason Monnett was behind bars for so long--he's a Tier III sex offender, convicted of a crime against a female child.

That leads me to question just about everything Dan Monnett has told me.

Monnett was at the plaza the day Amy was abducted. He was 14 at the time and had skipped the last hour of school to hang out at the plaza with his friends Jill Prochaska, Nick Cline, and Dave Kotinsley. He told me they were standing by the bowling alley and he was watching Amy twirl on the pole in front of Baskin-Robbins. He said a cop came by and was talking to them about why they weren't in school when he saw a man walk up to Amy and lead her away.

Of course, now we know that every cop in Bay Village was at a meeting in the town hall across the street at this time.

So what's the truth?

I attempted to talk to Jill, Nick, and Dave to verify Dan's story, but they won't talk. Dan said he'd call me back but never did.

To think that Dan could have been involved goes against everything we know about the case. I'm not saying he had anything to do with the abduction. But he's lying and I don't know why.

Is he lying to get his name in a book? Why embellish the truth with this fake story about a cop? Why have his friends clammed up, now?

I don't know. But it troubles me.

BREAKING: Man arrested in Bay Village for trying to abduct girl from LENSC!

Buddy, did you pick the wrong hunting grounds.

19 Action News is reporting this morning that John Still, a member of the National Guard, tried to lure an 11-year-old girl into his blue PT Cruiser outside the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. Police arrested him a short time later in Cahoon Park.

This is very interesting, as Amy was nearly 11 at the time of her abduction from Bay Village. Also, many people close to the investigation believe there is some connection between the LENSC and Amy's abductor.

I've got some Q's out to police but so far we do not know this man's age. Only that he apparently resided in Strongsville.

I seriously doubt this was the first time he's tried this.

Let's not jump to conclusions, but who's got info?

**UPDATE**

John Still is 42 years old and was in the military in 1989.

The Boogeyman Had Company

One of the more frightening stories I came across in Bay Village during my research into Amy's case for the book was the tale of James D. Sullivan.

In 1982, a young Bay Village girl began complaining of a man staring at her from inside her closet at night. But this was no monster-in-the-closet nightmare. This was real. The girl's father discovered James D. Sullivan in her closet. He was arrested and sent to prison for 22 years (after his release, he skipped town without registering his address with authorities but was caught by Marshals in Culver City, CA, in 2007 and sent back to lock-up).

Apparently, this was only half the tale. A source close to the investigation of Sullivan contacted me last week and claims that Sullivan was not the only man who climbed into the girl's closet. There was another man who sometimes appeared instead of Sullivan, who was never apprehended. They apparently switched off. One night it would be Sullivan, the next, another man. The second man looks like the composite sketch of Amy's abductor.

My question to authorities would be, did Sullivan know any of the suspects in Amy's abduction?

Who was this other man?

Does anyone have any info for me regarding James D. Sullivan?