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E223: Mandy Stavik (Patreon Release)
3.6k Plays1 year ago
Mandy Stavik was everything every girl wanted to be. She was an athlete and intelligent. She had a caring heart and lived life to the fullest. Sadly, her life was cut short. However, thanks to advances in DNA and to poolside gossip, her killer was identified.
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Transcript
Discovering DNA through 'Coffee and Cases'
00:00:01
Speaker
Alison, you and I have learned a lot about DNA. I mean, not like to the point that we're professionals or anything, but we have learned a lot on coffee and cases just from some of your episodes alone. I've learned that you can tell where a person may have lived from their teeth. Yes. Fascinating stuff or hair. Yeah.
Mandy Stavic's Case: Solved by Gossip?
00:00:24
Speaker
And this case that we're covering today, this solved case, took place in the very late 80s, but it took a very long time to get solved, and it was solved thanks to some gossip. Oh! Listen, I know I shouldn't say this, but I love me some gossip.
00:00:46
Speaker
Me too, and I shouldn't, but I do. Guilty pleasure. Yeah. So we're talking today about Mandy Stavic, who I had, have you heard of her case before? No, I have not.
00:01:02
Speaker
So this case was actually not the one that I intended to do. I intended to do another one, which I will do for my next Patreon. But I got super upset because there was a documentary on it. There were two. And I wanted to watch both of them. And I paid $1.99 on Prime Video for the first one. And it was absolute trash. Oh, no.
00:01:30
Speaker
I mean, it was literally like, this was a narrator, Mandy had big plans for her life and she was working hard on reaching her goals at Central Washington University. Like totally monotone and just was a slideshow with this lady. It was not good. Yeah, that's bad. And then the second one, it was supposed to be on Discovery Plus, but they lied or I couldn't find it.
00:01:53
Speaker
I paused on that one and found Mandy's case and felt that it was one that we would all be interested in hearing because it was very interesting how it was solved.
The Life of Mandy Stavic: Talented and Adored
00:02:06
Speaker
I'm ready.
00:02:08
Speaker
Mandy was, in my opinion, the envy of every girl she had to be and the obsession of every boy in her small town of Acme, Washington, because at least that's how I perceived her. From my research, from some documentaries I watched about her, Mandy was
00:02:30
Speaker
Honestly, I don't always say this all the time, like they're so beautiful and full of life, you know, living room. But really, in my opinion, Mandy is probably one of the prettiest people I have ever seen. Wow. She just, and it's not like
00:02:48
Speaker
She was supermodel, beautiful. I mean, she was very beautiful, but it was just, you could look at her and tell that there was a genuineness about her. And she just would have been the girl that I would have wanted to be friends with and probably the girl I would have wanted to be. Like, she just came off as that girl. Right.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, the girl. So yes, and while in high school, she was she was the girl. She was a cheerleader. She was a basketball player. She played softball. She ran track. All of these amazing things. How'd she have time to do anything else like eat or sleep or?
00:03:32
Speaker
I don't know, but I read that first off she excelled in all of these athletic endeavors and she was also a really great student. So maybe she was one of those elite people that only had to have three hours of sleep. 20 minutes. Yeah. Set my alarm at one to one 20 a.m. Yeah. Yeah. But she had the best smile. And when you look at her eyes, it's like you would look into her soul.
00:03:59
Speaker
I don't know, she just, it was a lasting impression for me. And from reading about her, I felt that I grew to love her and know her just as much as everyone in the small community where she was partly grew up.
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay. So despite Mandy appearing to be this all American girl that had everything, she really wasn't spoiled and didn't grow up having it all. Her family actually lived in Alaska until her parents divorced when her mom moved her and her siblings to this extremely tiny town in the state of Washington. So Mandy grew up really without a father.
00:04:40
Speaker
and often turn to her basketball coach to mentor her as a father should have done. So she, despite all of these hardships, still stayed just a very positive person.
00:04:54
Speaker
Mandy had big plans for her life
A Holiday Tragedy Strikes
00:04:57
Speaker
and she was working hard on reaching all those goals. She was a freshman at Central Washington University. And she was in that part of the year that is the sweet time for kids in the United States where we have three major holidays back to back to back. Oh, yeah.
00:05:20
Speaker
Lots of fun. Lots of fun. Lots of time off school because we have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And lots of eating with each of those. Candy, food. I was at breakfast on Christmas, but yeah, food, food and food.
00:05:36
Speaker
See, we do, well, you know, candy on Halloween, obviously, because, which now we hand out candy, but there's a handler's fee, so I eat the candy as well. One for you, two for me. Two for me, yeah.
00:05:52
Speaker
And then obviously the big Thanksgiving meal, and we do multiples of those because we do my family and Anthony's grandparents. And then if we can work it out, Anthony's family for Thanksgiving, or sometimes we split Thanksgiving's. And then at Christmas we do the big meals again, like three big meals. Oh, and then we have new years too. Oh yeah, more eating.
00:06:19
Speaker
I think in America, we just like to eat. I know it's the best. We're gluttonous, but it's fun. So that means for students and kids like Mandy, they're living for the mischief that comes with Halloween, then they're on Thanksgiving break from school. And then you get two weeks of winter break for Christmas and New Year. So it's like, it keeps giving. Amazing.
00:06:47
Speaker
She had an uneventful Halloween and she was now home for Thanksgiving break with her family. Okay. And when I said that her town, Acme, Washington was a small town, I was not lying. There is a general store, which in my hometown, it wasn't IGA. Now it's to save a lot. So we say we're going to save a lot. They say we're going to the general store. Okay.
00:07:15
Speaker
I don't think it was affiliated with. So it's not like we had a pigly wiggly and then route. Yeah, it's not like a corporation. Gotcha. So they have the general store. They have the post office, a gas station, one restaurant that was a diner, an elementary school and two churches.
00:07:36
Speaker
Sounds pretty typical. Yeah, that's a typical small town. And it's so tiny that the Census Bureau doesn't even check the town's population. They're just lumped into a couple small towns. Okay. So when I say this is a town where everyone knew everyone, they literally did know everyone in this town. Probably related to them.
00:08:03
Speaker
And this was the reason why Mandy and her family were totally fine with going down their country road on daily runs or cycling. So they were, you know, pretty athletic as you can tell from Mandy. We have set up before, you know.
00:08:26
Speaker
Maggie and I being gluttonous as we are. It keeps us safe because, well, number one, it's harder to abduct someone like me who has a few extra pounds. So there's a perk. And number two, we talk all the time about how the people who tend to get abducted and the stories we tell are either out for daily runs or bike rides.
00:08:54
Speaker
nicks that, you know. Yeah, we do neither of those. Or camping. And again, I'm perfectly fine in my air conditioning on my couch. Yeah, especially today when in the state of Kentucky, it's been like 98 degrees with the humidity matching that and it's like a sauna outside. I think they said it was 109 or something like that.
00:09:18
Speaker
Yeah. No. With the humidity. I saw this meme that was like, you don't have to worry. Summer's in Kentucky where you don't have to worry anybody will be in the back of your seat trying to kill you. Yeah, that's true. Nobody be back. They'd be dead. You'd open the door and there's a corpse. A dead body. Exactly.
00:09:37
Speaker
So anyways, Mandy ran track. So she was a runner and she usually went on daily or by daily runs. Okay. So it was the day after Thanksgiving, November 24th, 1989, when Mandy was last seen and being the athlete that she was and probably feeling that she may have over eight or whatever. She went on her daily run with her family dog, which was a German Shepherd named Kyra.
00:10:04
Speaker
Oh, so cute. If I tried to run with my dog Emma, she would just sit down.
00:10:12
Speaker
She's trying to tell you Maggie, you just sit down. Sit down. Normally her mom would usually keep her company on these runs by riding along on her bicycle as Mandy wouldn't run. But because Mandy's sister was in to visit, the mom Mary did not go this particular day. So Mandy's on her own. Got it. But again, this town is so tiny. This road is in the middle of nowhere.
00:10:42
Speaker
no one really batted an eyelash that she went on this run alone around 2.30 in the afternoon in the direction that she typically took. So from what I read, she seemed to have
00:10:55
Speaker
She would either go one way, turn around and come back, or basically go the other way and turn around and come back. So she would run two different paths. On this day, she ran towards the river that was close by her house. She would get to the river and then she would turn around and run home. And I didn't.
00:11:18
Speaker
read where like the typical miles that she would run. But I'm assuming that it would be enough that if she were gone for a little while, her family wouldn't be worried. Okay. Right.
The Search and Grim Discovery
00:11:34
Speaker
I'm thinking she probably ran at least three or so, maybe even more miles when she went on these runs. Well, and I mean, she's doing it all the time. So this isn't something abnormal.
00:11:47
Speaker
Right. But what is strange and abnormal is several hours later, the dog returns home without Mandy. Oh no, that's not a good sign. She just shows up.
00:12:00
Speaker
No, it's not. And her family actually did begin to panic. Her mom calls around to a couple of her friends just to make sure, you know, Mandy didn't hop into the car with one of them to go get ice cream or something like that. But none of them had seen her. And so Mandy's mom Mary calls the police to report Mandy as missing. Man. And right around Thanksgiving.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah. And this family, this family hadn't really had an easy life. I've read in one article that her brother was shot in Anchorage, Alaska in like 1975 and killed. And they still don't know who's responsible for that. And then they have this incident as well. Wow. Yeah. Wow.
00:12:51
Speaker
So her mom Mary does relay to police that Mandy was in teal sweatpants. She had on a light colored top and she had on blue shoes and either pink was striped in with the shoes or she had on pink socks, but there was also pink in the footwear mix. Okay.
00:13:11
Speaker
Immediately, Allison, a massive search began, despite the road being a country road and not heavily traveled. We do have a few sightings of Mandy on her run, so we know for sure
00:13:25
Speaker
that she made it to the river and then turned around to come home because one man driving a delivery truck saw Mandy running in the direction of her house because she ran past his van back toward home. So we know she was on the last leg of her run. So short distance away.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah. She's very close to home. I think I read and I could be wrong. This may be wrong, but I think I read somewhere. She was around a third of a mile away from home when you saw her there. Okay. So not very far at all. I think that's more gut wrenching knowing that she was that close before safety. Exactly. But two days into the search,
00:14:14
Speaker
search teams do find a pair of sweatpants in the woods. So at first there's nothing along her route and then they find a pair of sweatpants. Believing that they were Mandi's investigators took them in, they brought in her mom Mary to identify the pants. And a lot of things that I read said that Mary didn't really want to face reality and was unable to positively identify those pants as being the ones Mandi was wearing when she left home.
00:14:44
Speaker
but we now know that they were, but at the time, I just think it was too hard for her mom, which understandably. Yeah, exactly. So as you can imagine, obviously this town has never had anything like this ever happen. This is the definition of a town where people do not lock their front doors or lock their vehicles, you know,
00:15:12
Speaker
You just don't when you're in a town of a hundred people or something and you know, everybody that lives around you. Yeah. But now all of a sudden people are terrified because there's a killer running rampant in this small Washington town. Gosh.
00:15:35
Speaker
Because police wanted so badly to, one, end this panic that was in town, and two, give Mandy's family some answers, the search for her grew in intensity. So we continued the searches on land, but now search and rescue teams were beginning to extensively search bodies of water that were within a huge perimeter of her typical jogging path. So now we're expanding out
00:16:05
Speaker
past that one area right though that's kind of scary too because obviously she i mean if she's in the water somebody put her there because it's not like she was going out for running a swim you know what i mean right
00:16:21
Speaker
And after three days of searching, so it doesn't take long, so they find the pants. The next day they began searching the water. Mandy's body was recovered from the river close to her home on November 27th, 1989. And her body was found just three and a half miles away from her house near the shoreline of this river by Detective Peterson.
00:16:49
Speaker
And Allison, I watched a great 48 hours episode on Mandy and Detective Peterson, who at the time of the interview was obviously retired, is still so emotional when he talks about the case that watching him
00:17:12
Speaker
lead, I forgot the dude that interviewed him, to this area was gut wrenching. He recalls that he noticed there was something pink floating in the water. And as the little boat that he was on drew closer, he realized that what he was seeing was Mandy's shoes floating in the water. It's like the West Memphis Three.
00:17:40
Speaker
all over again and you know I think a lot of cops get like this reputation of being like cold or calculated or just analytical but I mean
00:17:54
Speaker
I've seen over and over again, and I'm not saying this happens in every case because I know it doesn't. In an ideal world it would, but in cases like this one or some of the other cases we've covered, some of these cops, like in the Bill and Peggy Stevenson case, that detective was like, I'm not going to retire until I have solved this case. There are cases that stick with them. It seems like this one did for this detective Peterson.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yeah. And it was so sad. Like he cried on it, like on camera in the interview. It was so sad, but he said, he realized that he was seeing the shoes of Mandy and they found Mandy naked only in her shoes. And she was floating stuck on some river debris. So she hadn't been able to move on down the river because she was stuck.
00:18:48
Speaker
Detective Peterson was sent into the water to get Mandy's body because he had recently been trained on DNA because remember we're really in the infancy of DNA in 1989. And he knew how he had been trained, how to get her out of the water and preserve any of the DNA that might still be on her at that time.
00:19:11
Speaker
And in the interview, he was asked what the first thing he told Mandy when he got to her. And it was so sad. He had to look away from the camera and he was like, you're the first person that's ever asked me this. And he like turned back and he was crying. And he said, I just looked at her and held her and said, I got ya. Oh my gosh.
00:19:37
Speaker
And he said that it was one of the hardest days he has ever had on the job because he said when he looked at Mandy he quote she quote look like my daughter.
Autopsy and Dead Ends in Investigation
00:19:47
Speaker
Oh my that's why it stuck with him because I guarantee you every part of this search was like he was looking for his own daughter.
00:19:56
Speaker
I guarantee it. I'm sure. Wow. Just so, so incredibly sad. And you can tell that her community had never experienced anything like this because every single person that they interviewed about this case cried. Every single one. Oh, wow. An autopsy obviously was performed on Mandy in the days that followed and they determined that she had been sexually assaulted.
00:20:27
Speaker
She had been beaten on the head and knocked out and thrown into the river to drown because they were able to rule that her official death was drowning. Oh my gosh. We've talked about this. That has to be one of the worst deaths. Anything without air. And I really hope that she was just out through the whole thing. Right.
00:20:56
Speaker
You know, I just can't imagine. There were other clues on her body that revealed to police more about what could have happened to Mandy in the moments, those last moments of her life. There were scratch marks found all over her arms, not scratch marks from her killer or defensive wounds. But Mark, she got police believe as she was running away. Oh, like through the woods, like it's rubbing on branches and stuff.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yes. So investigators now believe that Mandy was stopped on the side of the road as she was running and threatened to get in the car with a weapon more than likely again. Because they said, you know, if somebody was pursuing her on foot, she's a fast runner. So it would have been hard for someone to catch her. So they're saying they had to have been in a vehicle, said, get in. They also believe this person kicked her dog into the ditch.
00:21:54
Speaker
Held Mandy at gunpoint and then Mandy complied and got into the car. Why are they thinking they kicked the dog? Was the dog acting weird? Like skittish? You know, I questioned that too. I don't know why they got to that. Like they agreed on that. I didn't read that the dog was limping when she got home or anything like that. But maybe it was just the dog had to have been
00:22:24
Speaker
restrained somehow because maybe she would have tried to attack if Mandy was being harmed. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they're thinking, okay, the dog had to have been subdued somehow. I was thinking like maybe they guessed it because you said the dog returned home and I was thinking, did the dog cower down uncharacteristically like it had been hit? I guess it could be multitude of things.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah. And like I said, they never came out and said for sure how they came to that conclusion. I was just thinking that it's a German Shepherd, so she probably would have tried to protect Mandy. And so I'm assuming that they just kind of kicked her out of the way. Right. So after Mandy gets into the vehicle, she's taken into the woods, not far from where she was kidnapped, about five miles from where she was abducted and she was raped there.
00:23:19
Speaker
Afterward, police believe that Mandy did make a run for it. And they say those scratches on her arms were actually from blackberry bushes that were all over the area. And so us Eastern Kentucky people were very familiar with blackberry bushes. They have gigantic thorns on them. Yep. Yep. And they grow in bushes, but then they just multiply and it's like everywhere. Yes. Yeah. You don't want to get caught in that. Yeah.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah. And so they're saying she, so she was running, they believe through the Blackberry bushes and because she was struggling through those bushes, her attacker was able to catch up with her. At that point, she is hit on the head and then the person threw her body into the river. I'm assuming knowing she would drown, but obviously we can't prove that, but that's my
00:24:14
Speaker
That does make sense if she's trying to run away while the hitting over the head to try to subdue.
00:24:22
Speaker
And then I'm wondering if they hit her over the head and then they realized maybe that was going to be a fatal wound and dumped her body. Or if that was the intentions all along was to kill her. I'm almost thinking that the intention at first was just her rape. And then Mandia said, I'm going to the police or whatever and ran. And it just kind of escalated from there. But we don't know that for sure.
00:24:49
Speaker
The details revealed by the autopsy and the investigation that those like small details that were released to the public left everyone in shock because at this point now you're looking at your neighbor and you're thinking, are you who killed Mandy? Oh, right. Yeah, you're doubting everybody.
00:25:07
Speaker
And as I mentioned, Detective Peterson had just been trained on how to preserve and extract DNA from crime scenes because DNA and using it in investigations was really just starting at this time. But they did recover DNA from Mandy's body.
00:25:23
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. And they actually found semen inside Mandy. So we have a complete DNA profile through the semen. So very good odds that we have this.
00:25:40
Speaker
According to investigators on this 48 hours episode I watched, they interviewed and met with the kind of odd people in town, the drifters that came in and out, the people that were believed to be druggies, like people of that nature. But all of that led to dead ends.
00:26:04
Speaker
I read that 30 men were asked to give saliva samples. Again, 30 dead ends. Wow. And Mandy's case went cold. It went cold, but it never closed. Okay. I'd be like, listen, every single male in this small town getting a line.
00:26:23
Speaker
Swab, swab, swab. And I know that it probably is against some constitutional right or whatever. Yeah. But I think, like, why do we not have everybody's fingerprints on file somewhere? Right. I know. I had to give my fingerprints as a teacher. Yeah, me too.
00:26:49
Speaker
And the FBI already has my fingerprints because when we toured the FBI Museum, he said, we have this new way of doing fingerprints. Here, let me show you. And I was like, okay. Let me see. Yeah, do me. Not like it matters, but you know. Right, right. But her case does go cold for a really long time.
Gossip Points to Tim Bass
00:27:12
Speaker
It wasn't until 2013 that investigators got a break in her case. Okay.
00:27:20
Speaker
So one hot summer's day, much like today at a local water park, several moms were just tanning, sitting in a grassy area, watching their kids play when somebody mentioned Mandy.
00:27:33
Speaker
It's a small town. There's only so many things you can talk about, something like that. Everybody's going to continually talk about. And so somebody mentions her. So they mentioned her name and two moms, Heather and Marilee, who actually were not friends, turned to each other and voiced for the very first time they believed they knew who was responsible for Mandy's death. So both of them, each one of them thinks that they know who it is?
00:27:59
Speaker
Yes, and it's the same person. Oh, okay. The two shared very eerie stories about one man who was, I think, early 20s, 22 maybe, when Mandy was killed, but he had attended the same high school as Mandy and obviously the same high school as Heather and Marilee.
00:28:27
Speaker
So Heather blurts out, I know who killed her. And Marilee stunned that somebody would say that because a small town and you're not going to talk about Georgie that killed somebody because if that's who it is, Georgie will come kill you. Yeah. But she, Marilee is like, I do too. Oh my gosh.
00:28:48
Speaker
They're both as intrigued as we are. Okay, who do you think did it? We need to know. Yeah. So they share two stories, each of their own story about their encounters with a local man named Tim Bass. And these encounters happened around the same time as Mandy's murder. And they are bone chilling experiences. Oh no. Okay, tell me about them.
00:29:17
Speaker
Okay, so Marilee said that this man, Tim, who was a friend of her now husband, stopped by the house one night a couple years after Mandy's death. Okay. Knocked on her front door. And she opens it and he's like, hey, I've been out hunting. I need to use your phone. I need to tell my wife that I'm running late, but I'm on my way.
00:29:42
Speaker
okay and this is somebody who she knows right so she wouldn't be like just like a random person exactly yeah so she'd let them in i'm sure yeah and i don't think it was her husband's best friend but it would have been somebody she knew enough to be comfortable letting them use the phone inside her eyes right
00:30:03
Speaker
At the time, Mary Lee was home alone with her infant son. She said that she heard Tim dial the number, but then you know how it'll say the phone number you have dialed is not in reach. Please try your call again later or, you know, gives you please dial one in the area code. So she hears that on the line. So she knows this call did not go through.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah, that it was probably not to any number in existence. And she suspected that Tim had at this point lied about needing to make the phone call. Oh no. She said in an interview with CBS, quote, so then he walks through the kitchen and back to my bedroom. And he said that he used to drive by my house and that he'd always been in love with me and wanted to make love with me.
00:31:00
Speaker
Oh, no, sir. No, no, no. Yeah. She was terrified. Terrified. Can you imagine that? No. Your husband's not at home. It's 19, like, what, 91, 92 maybe at this point. Cell phones are not a thing for you to call your husband on.
00:31:26
Speaker
You're there with your little kid. And now this man is like, we're making love right now. And he's like a creepy predator. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah. And she said, I kept telling him, this is a quote from her. No, no, but he kept trying to convince me to come into the bedroom with him. Finally, I told him I would call the police and somehow I don't even remember exactly how I got him out of my house. Oh my Lord. Thank goodness.
00:31:56
Speaker
disaster averted. Oh, yes. And she said in that 48 hours interview, both of them did how easily the situations that they were in could have turned in to something like Mandy's. Oh, yeah. Wow. So hearing this story, Heather
00:32:17
Speaker
is now like, I too had a very uncomfortable experience with this man, Tim Bass, just months before Mandy was murdered. So hers were, so Marylee's was like a few years after this was months before. She had only been 15 at the time. Bass was, Tim Bass was 21. And it was after a softball game, they were rotting in a truck driven by a man named Dan who
00:32:47
Speaker
Heather would later marry okay and at the time they were just friends but Heather was but like in the middle seat of this truck between Tim and Dan and they were on their way to get some ice cream after a softball game okay
00:33:01
Speaker
She said that Tim began to aggressively flirt with her, like take a pin and rub it up and down her leg, like trace it up and down her leg. Oh, that's creepy. That's creeping me out. Super weird things. She said, quote, he will talk about my eyes and say that they were beautiful. Then he took a pin out of the cup holder and would start rubbing it along my knees. Oh, I am thoroughly creeped out.
00:33:31
Speaker
She said that she was as well, and it was very cringy, but she just kind of. Not really played along. I don't think, but like more is kind of laughed it off. Yeah. Yeah. Because she knew with Dan in the car, what is Tim going to do with another man in the vehicle with him? But she said the incident always stuck out in her memory, but in the small community, what's she going to do other than just try to avoid him?
00:33:59
Speaker
Right, which I hope she did. I'm sure she did. Well, and he ends up, which I talk about here in a little bit, actually leaving the town anyways, so it really wasn't a problem for her. Girls everywhere were like, phew. Thank God. Right.
00:34:18
Speaker
For the two women, it made sense that if he could behave like that with them, what was preventing him from being the same with Mandy? Mm-hmm. Good point. And from that same CBS article, one of the ladies said, quote, I really wasn't ready because we're in a small town. And to accuse someone of something we didn't know for sure, it's a little scary, end quote. But in that water park, more than what would that have been two decades later?
00:34:46
Speaker
The pair knew that they then had to alert the police. Oh, yeah. If they're coming to the same conclusion, they could at least check it out. Oh, for sure. And police are actually stunned. Tim Bass lived on the same street as Mandy.
00:35:09
Speaker
But they figured out he had never been questioned by police ever. Oh my goodness. And she was so close to home. In fact, no one from his house, his mom, his dad, his brother, none of them ever questioned if they knew anything about Mandy. How did they miss that? And they could have looked out their window
00:35:37
Speaker
Oh my gosh. And seen her. Oh my goodness. So in the 48 hours episode I watched, cause that is a good question. And I thought that too, like, why would you not have questioned them? They just said it was one of those instances where you were like, Oh, it couldn't be anybody from this family. You know, this is a good family. And then they just moved on. Wow. Don't rule out anybody. Right. That's the lesson.
00:36:05
Speaker
And strangely, so I said that Tim moved and he did. Six weeks after Mandy was killed, he suddenly married another girl in town named Gina Malone and the two left the area to start a family. We talked about this. We have talked about this in an episode. Moving away. Yep. Can be a sign of guilt. Yep.
00:36:32
Speaker
Tim and Gina at this point actually had a few kids and Tim worked as a delivery man for a commercial bakery and Gina was a stay at home mom. Gosh. So again, like they don't seem the type who would be like, Oh, this guy committed murder. Right. The delivery man at the local bakery. Yeah.
DNA Evidence and Arrest
00:36:54
Speaker
Police actually speak with him on several occasions. The first time that they talked to him, he initially was like, Mandy. Mandy. I don't think I know a Mandy. I don't recall a Mandy.
00:37:11
Speaker
Really in a small town and he lives on the same road police right and decades later The mention of Mandy's name brought tears like I said to every single person that was interviewed on this 48 hours episode Yeah, so how is it you would not remember someone who changed? the culture of your small towns it precisely and
00:37:33
Speaker
And then he acted all of a sudden like, Oh, Oh yeah. Yeah. Mandy. Wasn't she the girl that was found in the river? Oh my gosh. Like just suddenly remembered who she was. Okay. Yeah.
00:37:48
Speaker
Our first investigators are kind of vague with them just saying, you know, we wanted a few more DNA samples for the case log, but as soon as they mentioned DNA, Tim is done. So he stopped talking really with investigators and told them, basically, I'm not giving you a sample of DNA because I know I've seen how this works. You'll use the DNA against me somehow. Uh-oh.
00:38:15
Speaker
And what a weird comment to make. But obviously investigators aren't going to give up that easily. And so they approached him again this time at his work and he still refused to give a sample. So investigators are like, okay, screw you. So they actually go into his
00:38:43
Speaker
workplace and talk to his manager, Kim Wagner. And they're vague with Kim. They don't come right out and say, we think he kidnapped, raped and murdered. Right. Right. But they kind of start talking with her and she says, let me guess you need his DNA and without them even saying it. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we do. Had she had a creepy experience?
00:39:14
Speaker
Well, we'll kind of talk about it here in a little bit. It's not as creepy as the other two girls, but it's enough to make you be like, really? But she's like, let me guess, she needs his DNA. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we do. And she said, okay, you can count on me. And so she made it her mission. No questions asked to get a DNA sample for police.
00:39:39
Speaker
So every day, Allison, every day that Tim would work, she would empty the trash before Tim would walk into the break room, just on the off chance that he would throw something away. Oh, so she could collect it. So it wouldn't be contaminated. Yeah. But he never did. Even that's weird. I threw trash away in everybody's trash can all the time.
00:40:02
Speaker
Yeah, because I'm always okay. Maybe that says more about me. I'm always eating or drinking something. But it's we've already established this. Yeah. But finally, after three long months, oh gosh, that's a long time we caught a break.
00:40:18
Speaker
Mm-hmm. She'd been waiting a while. Yeah She said that Tim was in the break room just chatting with some other employees and he had a Coke that he was pouring the coke out of the coke into a cup and drinking it so He finished the cup and the can must have also been empty and he threw them both away in the trash can
00:40:44
Speaker
And then walks out and she said in an interview with 48 hours, she was like, I was said to myself, oh yes, it's go time. It's go time. I can picture her like frantically running across the room to get it.
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah. And she said she tried to figure out how to do it nonchalantly because there were other people in there. So she said she just took the bag and then took it to her office and put the cup and the can in Ziploc bags and immediately called the police. Good job, Kim. I know Kim needs to be an investigator. Good job, Kim. So when investigators tested the cups DNA,
00:41:29
Speaker
It matched the DNA that was found in Mandy. Okay. Perfectly. So they now believe that they know who killed Mandy. Wow. Finally, Tim was arrested. It took a while. I think he wasn't arrested until 2017. Gosh. But he was finally arrested in the parking lot of his workplace. How embarrassing.
00:41:55
Speaker
For the kidnap, rape, and murder of Mandy and the day he was arrested and the day Mandy's family found out that her potential killer had been arrested, it was Mandy's mom's birthday. Oh, wow. So justice as your gift. Yes. Pretty good. Justice throwing the book at somebody. Happy birthday. So now all that was left to do was convince the jury that Tim was guilty.
00:42:25
Speaker
I hope they were able to. Well, to me. You got the DNA open. Yeah. It's open and shut to me. There was semen in her that matched his DNA. You're done. Right. Yeah.
Trial and Verdict: Justice for Mandy
00:42:42
Speaker
But it really wasn't that easy. And we'll talk about why. Okay.
00:42:49
Speaker
Tim wasn't a very sociable guy, so police asked his brother to paint them a picture of the Tim that he knew, and his description wasn't the best. Oh no, and this is his brother? Yeah. Oh, okay. He said that his name's Tom, Tom and Tim. Oh, okay.
00:43:13
Speaker
were very competitive growing up just as any brothers would be, but he said something happened to Tim that changed him and his brother was now someone who had little regard for women. Oh.
00:43:32
Speaker
He said apparently in high school, Tim and this girl had a really bad breakup and that while they're on the phone arguing, he says, I'll kill myself if you break up with me and actually fired a gun to scare her. He didn't try to kill himself, but he fired the gun. He wanted her to think he did.
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah. So she, of course, and good job for her broke up with him. But from that point forward, Tom said that Tim was never the same towards women and gave women zero respect. Wow. And his boss, Kim, in the interview, and I think even on the stand,
00:44:15
Speaker
back that up saying that he had never, since he started working there, called her Kim, Mrs. Wagner, boss. What do you call her? It was Woman. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wow. Like, how you doing, Woman? Wow. Yeah, Woman wears my pay stub. Oh my gosh, I'd slapped him.
00:44:41
Speaker
And she said she said she ignored it because she could tell he was a weirdy I would have slapped him but She's a stronger woman than me
00:44:52
Speaker
We act on emotion. Yes. His ex-wife painted a similar portrait of Tim. She said that Tim was very mentally abusive while they were married and she was basically his live-in slave. Oh man. Like, woman go get me water, woman go check the mail. And his brother said he had probably heard Tim tell his ex-wife, in his words, a million times to shut up. Wow.
00:45:22
Speaker
And she actually ended up getting a restraining order for a hot second and threatened to leave him. But he said, I'll make up laws about you so I can keep the kids and you won't have them. And she decided to say, but she does, she did end up divorcing him, which good for her. Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
So after 30 years of heartache, fear, frustration, the trial of Mandy's accused killer, Tim Bass, finally begins. And like we said, this case should be simple. Right. It sounds like it.
00:45:56
Speaker
So this man who was 44 at the time Mandy was killed, his name's Dave, he was a lawyer, actually came out of retirement and worked for free on Mandy's case because he said it changed him that much. And here was what his opening statement was. He said, quote, the defendant's DNA was inside her. And we know that she was kidnapped, she was raped, and then she was killed, end quote. So, hello. Right, case closed.
00:46:27
Speaker
But it wasn't apparently that simple because a defense attorney, Steven Jackson said, quote, Tim Bass is not guilty. He didn't kidnap anyone. He didn't rape anyone. And he certainly didn't kill anyone. Then how did his DNA get insider?
00:46:47
Speaker
Excellent question. And Stephen Jackson told the jury that Mandy and Tim shared an intimate secret relationship together and that they had had sex the day that she was murdered, explaining the semen that was found inside of her. But he wasn't responsible for her death.
00:47:06
Speaker
I mean, this Stephen Jackson guy is good because that would at least give an explanation that's not murder as to why the semen would be inside of her if he can get somebody to corroborate. Well, I guess you would never have it if it's a secret relationship. Nobody knows about it. That's true. But it's.
00:47:28
Speaker
It was a secret, but before the secret was released during trial, Tim told everyone like his ex wife, Hey, I just want you to know I was having sex with Mandy. Hey, mom, I just want you to know I was having sex with Mandy. Oh, so he's like trying to, it's almost like he's trying to spread this false narrative. So people would be like, yeah, he told me about it.
00:47:50
Speaker
Yeah. He told me. Yeah. His brother even said on the stand that Tim asked their mother if they could place the blame for Mandy's death on their dead father because the DNA would be similar. Oh my goodness. Okay. Yeah. This is a lowdown dirty scoundrel right here.
00:48:12
Speaker
And the mom, she actually, at sentencing and they let the family speak, she speaks and said that that conversation never happened, but his brother says it did. The brother also says that he tells both of them, the mom and the brother, that they need to come up with an alibi, basically get their story straight where he was with them that day and blah, blah, blah.
00:48:42
Speaker
So the information was presented to the jury. The information that came from Kim, she testified. His ex-wife testified, his brother testified, and a bunch of other people. But the jury was given all this information, but it took over a day
00:49:04
Speaker
for them to reach a decision. Okay. Because I guess like you, people are like, well, what if they really were like having sex, then that could explain why his DNA is inside of her. Right. Yeah.
00:49:19
Speaker
The day the verdict was read was 29 years and six months to the day since Mandy was killed. And so everyone there was wondering, would her family and friends finally get justice? Right. And Allison, they did. Oh, good. Good. Tim Bass was found guilty on charges of kidnapping, rape, and murder.
00:49:46
Speaker
I'm glad. On sentencing day, Mandy's mom, me too. Mandy's mom and sister were way too emotional to speak, but Mandy's brother-in-law did and expressed that because of the actions of one selfish person, their lives were changed forever. Mm-hmm. It was very sad. He was also very emotional. And I know you must be wondering if Tim spoke. Yeah. Well, he did. And what he said, in my opinion,
00:50:15
Speaker
is disgusting. Oh, no. What do you say? At this point, maybe this is just me, but at this point, if I have said I'm completely innocent and really I'm not, and the jury says you're guilty, I would own up to what I did and tell the family
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, I killed her. You may not be sorry for what you did, but I still think the family deserves to hear it come out of your mouth. Right. That's just me. But he said, quote, I would like to say that I'm 100% innocent of this crime. Furthermore, I don't believe I received a fair trial. And saying that though, the better man in me says I should say very little today and give this day to the Stavik family. Well, you haven't.
00:51:04
Speaker
You haven't given it to them. Oh yeah. But thankfully the judge was unswayed by these plea, not really pleas, but just statements from Tim and his mom and gave Tim the maximum sentence of 27 years. Which doesn't seem long enough.
00:51:29
Speaker
No, and they couldn't get life because the prosecuting attorneys didn't think they could say it was premeditated murder. So they just said murder. And that's why you just got the 27 years because they felt they could convict him of that charge. Right.
00:51:49
Speaker
When Judge Olson delivered the sentence, it was pretty good. He said, quote, for 30 years, you've lived free from the responsibility for your actions, but that life has been a lie and tragically it has caught your family, your mother, your brother, your ex-wife, and your children in its web. So true, Judge Olson. Yes. Good for you, Judge Olson.
00:52:14
Speaker
So if he was 22 when Mandy was killed, so he would be 52. So he's going to be like 70 something, 80 something when he gets out. And Mandy's mom said at that point when he does get out, he won't be able to really live what life has left. Right. Right.
00:52:36
Speaker
Mandy's basketball coach gave the eulogy at her funeral and his words left a lasting impression. I know this is like her surrogate father. Yeah. I'm telling you this, this whole thing's so emotional, but his words left a lasting impression of everything that Mandy was and everything that she could have been. He said, quote, you see her smiling back at you right at your soul with the eyes that say I love life. Oh man.
00:53:05
Speaker
And to know this guy took it from her. Yeah, all that she had and all that she could have been.