On Runkle's "Retirement"

Something occurred to me tonight regarding the circumstances around Runkle's odd departure from Amherst Schools.

He was one year away from getting his pension when he decided to stop teaching and move into a homeless shelter in Key West.

I always assumed this was because it was about the same time the FBI started asking around about him (2003). But, something else was happening for Runkle at that same time. Due to a strange timing issue, in order to continue teaching, he was told he had to renew his license through the state of Ohio. No big deal, usually. But, if you look at his personnel file or talk to the principal out there in Amherst, Runkle was livid about having to renew his license for that last year.

My wife is a teacher. She recently had to renew her license. Funny thing about those licenses. Beginning about ten years ago, when a teacher renews their license they must re-submit their fingerprints for a background check.

It would have been the first time Runkle had to submit fingerprints since he began teaching again in 1989, a month before Amy was murdered.

Was he worried that his fingerprints might give him away?

Another Girl Stalked by Amy's Killer

Just got off the phone with another of the girls who police believe were called by Amy's killer in the week's leading up to the abduction.

These girls, like Amy, were called by an adult man who asked personal questions and eventually tried to lure them outside to meet with him. The phone calls started off with questions about their bra and panty sizes and quickly escalated to pretending to work with their parents and asking the girl to meet with him to pick out a present for their mothers. Most of the other girls were from North Olmsted, while Amy was from Bay Village. The one thing they had in common was they all visited the Nature Center in Bay shortly before Amy was taken. There was a log book in the Nature Center into which kids would write their address and phone number--I believe this is where the killer got their information.

This girl is not from Bay. And she's not from North Olmsted. And she didn't go to the Nature Center (as far as she remembers).

Her name is Shawn (not Shawna, but Shawn). She looks remarkably like Amy. Or did, when she was eight in 1989 (yes, she was also quite a bit younger than the other girls).

Shawn lived in Amherst, where Dean Runkle taught school. Her parents ran a laundromat in Vermilion, near where Runkle used to live. Shawn used to hang out there all the time. She liked talking to the adults that came in and out of there. Shawn's mother remembers a man who looked just like the composite sketch of Amy's killer come into the laundromat frequently. She believes that man may have been Dean Runkle.

Shawn contacted Det. Spaetzel this week to share her suspicions.

Reward for Info!

I'm offering a $500 reward to the first person who brings me a copy of that logbook or any documentation/pictures from the Nature Center that proves Runkle was there in 1989.

No questions asked. 

Nature Center Cover up continues...

This morning, I put a request for information on the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center's Facebook page. A simple, polite request for anyone who has info about Dean Runkle or the log book to please contact me.

It was a way at getting at some new leads and information in the case of the murder of a 10-year-old girl.

LENSC has chosen to take it down.

They say the reason I can't examine their archives it because I may contaminate evidence or discover information about anonymous donors. That argument cannot be applied to the request for information on that Facebook page.

They are now actively obstructing any effort to gain important information about the Center's role in Amy's abduction.

Unbelievable.

Here's a link to their Facebook page.

Nature Center: If you don't want me asking the question, then by all means, ask it yourself. If you are confident that the Center was not the place where Amy's killer got her phone #, then what do you have to lose?

Bottom Line

Even Runkle does not deny he was at the Nature Center.

When I asked him directly if he would be surprised to find himself in a photograph with a student at the Nature Center in 1989, he said, "No, it wouldn't surprise me. I never said I wasn't there. I just told [the FBI, Bay Village] I don't remember being there."

Such B.S.

Runkle's one of the smartest guys I've ever met. We're talking savant-level genius, here. The dude doesn't forget what he ate for lunch 30 years ago, let alone whether or not he volunteered at that center, or took mice there. He's covering his ass, too. He knows he was at that Nature Center. So the best he can do is say, "I don't remember". He knows he can't say "no" because more than likely one of his students does have a picture of him there--hell, six of them have told me (and Bay Village and the FBI) that they remember him talking about being there.

Evidence of that is somewhere. A good place to start would be the Nature Center.

Nature Center files complaint

Just got off the phone with a Metroparks ranger. Seems the Nature Center filed a complaint against me.

The complaint was filed by PR gal Renee Burslem renee@lensc.org

From what I gather from the ranger, Burslem overstepped the bounds of reality a bit in her complaint, telling the ranger I had come to the Center on several occasions to ask for access to their archives, when she knows it was one occasion and very pleasant at that.

For my part, I gave the ranger my version of events which were added to the report. I am concerned Renee Burslem came very close to filing a false report, which is a serious offense. I would think they would have known better.

Renee Burslem also lied when she said those archives had been searched and no one had found anything so the records must not exist. On the contrary, the FBI and police have looked through only SOME of the rooms, but at this date a full and complete search still has not been completed. The problem is the archives are in no particular order and arranged throughout several rooms in the basement.

I strongly believe that logbook is still sitting in their archives (if Renee Burslem herself hasn't pitched it yet), especially in light of a former staff member's revelation that the log book was copied at one time. If the logbook is gone, where is the copy?

I think what we're seeing here is the most disgusting example of "cover your ass" I've ever witnessed.

What have we got here? We have a center devoted to kids which is going to great lengths to keep their possible connection to Amy's murder a secret. Instead of opening up their records and handing over that logbook, they're covering it up to scuttle any negative publicity.

Renee Burslem has only her own interests in mind. Unfortunately, that may come at the expense of closure in Amy's case.

I am stunned.

P.S. It's sweeps. 

Similar Composite Sketch from 1989?

Whilst digging through the Westlife archives, searching for the names of Nature Center employees from 1989, I came across this interesting little tidbit from their police blotter. It's the composite sketch of a man who was flashing school girls walking along Webb Rd. in Lakewood. They called him the West End Flasher.

Here's the description: 30's, 6-feet-tall, heavily built, wearing brown plastic glasses. Thick nose. Brown, curly hair. Driving a red sports car.

Do you think the sketch looks like the composite sketch of Amy's killer? There is a resemblance, I think.

But the description fits "the Accountant" or "Brad Harvey" more than Runkle. 

Anyway, I've suggested to Bay and the FBI for years that they go back through the newspapers from that time period for new clues. They told me that wouldn't amount to much. I'm finding it very helpful, though.