Quick refresher: Runkle was a middle-school science teacher in Vermilion until 1987 when he abruptly quit his job there. At that time, he was writing love letters to a young boy. It possible his early retirement had something to do with that relationship, as he was paying several thousand dollars into a bank account for the boy. That, to me, has always sounded like hush money. Was quitting teaching part of that agreement? When I questioned the boy's parents about this strange economic arrangement, they at first denied it and then later tried to downplay the sum.
In any event, Runkle resumed teaching in Amherst, in 1989, shortly before Amy was abducted (in fact his contract is dated the day she was taken).
During the time in between, Runkle wandered the country for awhile before returning to New London to live with his parents in a house around the corner from where Amy's body was discovered. He got a job working at a convenience store. Ever the nature lover, Runkle began breeding mice at the store and selling them for profit to...local nature centers.
I spoke to his former manager, a woman by the name of Oneta McCarthy. She told me she knows he sold the mice to local nature centers as food for snakes. She believes one of those locations was the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. At the time, it is confirmed, there were three large snakes on display at the nature center that ate a steady supply of mice. Two pythons and one rattler. The rattler was handled only by the director, Larry Richardson. The other two were managed by other employees.
The people who handled the other snakes have never been asked if they remember Runkle being there. The investigators have known about this lead since 2003.
