Morbid - Episode 470: The Murder of Mandy Stavik

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

In late November 1989, college freshman Mandy Stavik returned to her hometown of Acme, Washington to celebrate the holidays with her family. On the afternoon of November 24, the day after Thanksgiving, Mandy told her family she was going for a run. When she still hadn’t returned that evening, her mother became concerned and called around to her friends, but none had heard from her. When she still hadn’t returned the next morning, the panic set in, and the search began.For three days, the residents of Acme, Washington undertook an increasingly desperate search for Mandy Stavik and were heartbroken when her body was eventually located in the shallow water of the Nooksack River. Local police began an intense investigation, but after months of dead ends and dwindling leads, the case wound down and eventually went cold.Mandy Stavik’s death would likely have remained unsolved, were it not for a tenacious cold case detective, who in 2009 began running old DNA samples against samples collected from suspects over the last two decades.Thank you to the fantastical David White for research assistanceReferencesAssociated Press. 1989. "Amanda Stavik's brother also died tragically." Lewiston Tribune, December 1.Ferm, Carol. 1989. "A flood of memories, a torrent of tears." The Bellingham Herald, December 3: 1.—. 1989. "Community's sense of peace is shattered." The Bellingham Herald, November 29: 1.—. 1989. "Family and friends keep a vigil of hope." The Bellingham Herald, November 26: 11.—. 1989. "Loss angers, saddens classmate." The Bellingham Herald, November 29: 2.—. 1989. "Reward offered." The Bellingham Herald, November 27: 1.—. 1989. "Teen presumed kidnapped." The Bellingham Herald, November 26: 1.Ferm, Carol, and Cathy Logg. 1989. "Search for missing teen continues." The Bellingham Herald, November 27: 1.—. 1989. "Stavik's body found in Nooksack." The Bellingham Herald, November 28: 1.Logg, Cathy. 1989. "Clues elusive in Stavki's death." The Bellingham Herald, November 29: 1.—. 1989. "Investigators get many tips in Stavik case." The Bellingham Herald, December 1: 13.—. 1989. "Police issue a warning about human predators." The Bellingham Herald, December 20: 11.—. 1989. "Sheriff seeks pudgy-faced man for questioning in Stavik case." The Bellingham Herald, December 3: 13.—. 1990. "Stavik case awaits tests." The Bellingham Herald, March 20: 1.—. 1992. "Stavik 'suspect' files suit." The Bellingham Herald, March 21: 1.—. 1990. "Garment ID'd tentatively as Mandy's." The Bellingham Press, January 28: 15.Mittendorf, Robert. 2017. "Arrest in 1989 killing - sheriff credits DNA." The Bellingham Herald, December 14: A1.Pratt, Denver. 2018. "Defense challenges DNA evidence in '89 slaying." The Bellingham Herald, August 11: A1.—. 2019. "Defense in murder trial opening: 'No one knows what happened to Ms. Stavik'." The Bellingham Herald, May 11: A1.—. 2017. "First-degree murder charge filed in 1989 kiling of Stavik." The Bellingham Herald, December 15: A1.—. 2019. "'I wanted to do the right thing for Mandy,' Bass' co-worker testifies." The Bellingham Herald, May 17: A1.Sirken, Alec. 2016. How two moms chatting at a water park helped crack a Thanksgiving cold case murder. July 16. Accessed May 18, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mandy-stavik-case-how-two-moms-chatting-at-a-water-park-helped-crack-thanksgiving-cold-case-murder/.State of Washington vs. Timothy Bass. 2021. 80156-2-I (The Court of Appeals for the State of Washington, June 1)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Oh my god, it's so funny, because I went to, I was gonna start singing with you, and then I was like, will she say at night or evening? And then as you're about to say it, I was like, she's gonna say evening. See, you knew.

I didn't join in. You knew. And then trust my goot. You just knew. That's because we're intuitive witches. We are, obviously. We had a crazy tarot card reading. Yeah, we did.

It was insane. It solidified every single thing that I have been feeling and that I know you've been feeling. Same feeling. And I cried at the end. Clarity. I cried because I was so happy and I want to just like Just wanted to cry. You did you cried. I was it she burst right into tears and she had good reason because that reading was

Wild, it was crazy and the fact that it ended with like a tarot card. That's like really super special to me Yeah, it was a really cool one. I've never really had a tarot card reading resonate as much as I've had them resonate. Yeah, but like never to the degree that this one did. This one was knocking my socks off because we went in there saying, I'm not gonna ask a specific question out loud. I know what question I had in my head. Like I'm gonna think it in my head the whole time. Yeah, I was thinking in my head,

but I just said, you know what? Just give me a general one. And I feel like she was at first, she was like, I'm just gonna fly off the seat of my pants here. You're giving me literally nothing. She was like, fuck you guys. And then she started and she was like, just hit right on it. But nail on the head. And like, he came with us and his reading was perfect. And like, all of ours ended a weird way. Dave, me and Drew, yes, intertwined. It was really well. But so that was happy. So that's a thing. Yeah,

you know, that was a happy thing. This is a sad thing. It's so tough to like transition. I know whenever it like, you know, we're like, hey, let me tell you about my day. And then it's like, let me get into this really sad thing. Yeah, you know what? You just got make the transition happen, I suppose. Yeah, a Sagu, if you will. Isn't that an end? That's why we drink ism. Oh, is it? Yeah, I think that's a amincristinism.

Oh, amincristin. Sagu, I love that. I love that. I love it. I love that and I love them. I love that and I love all of them. And it's Gemini season. So like shout out to end.

That's why we drink. If you don't listen to them, you must live under a rock and you should move that rock I love all of them. And it's Gemini season. So like shout out to him. That's why we drink. If you don't listen to them, you must live under a rock and you should move that rock and go listen to them. Yeah, go listen to them. They're great. Honestly. But yeah, I do have a really sad case for us today.

But at the same time, the way that this case turns around is crazy and it feels very fateful, in my opinion. All right, so we're gonna start off in late November of 1989, when college freshman Mandy Stavick was returning to her hometown of Akmi, Washington. She was gonna celebrate the holidays with her family. And on the afternoon of the 24th, obviously, which was back then, back then, back then, in that year, it was the day after Thanksgiving, Mandy told her family that she was going for a run. But she never returned that evening. Her mom became very, very concerned and called around to her friends, but literally none of those friends had heard from her.

And when she still hadn't returned to the next morning, Panic set in entirely, and the search began. So who is Mandy Stovick? Amanda Mandy, Theresa Stovick was born on April 16th, 1971 in Anchorage, Alaska. Ooh, which is, that's just like the most fun fact ever. Also, if you look her up gorgeous, that she has a smile.

Yes. Like I immediately just went, because it's just like, woo, it's like one of the smiles that like just hits you. And she just seems like, and like I'm obviously gonna get into it, she just seems like a cool chick. And somebody who not only would have

but desperately wanted to leave her mark on this world. And she did. Yeah, but I wish she had more of an opportunity to be in this world longer because she would have done absolutely incredible things. So truly. But yeah, she was born in Anchorage, Alaska, one of four children born two parents,

Glenn and Mary Stovick. The Stovick family wasn't a dysfunctional family at all, but by the time Mandy was born, Glenn and Mary's marriage was kind of showing signs of strain, and they decided to divorce three years later in 1974. It really sadly seemed to be one unfortunate event in their family. That kind of set off a series of unfortunate events.

Okay. I feel like everybody kind of knows that family that has gone through so much more. Yep. Then their fair share of what they should have to. There's always that one family that you're like, why? And it's always the best people. I was just going to say, and it's always the people that you're like, come on. Like, no, this family's great.

And why are they like, shildering all this shit? And every time they go through something, you're like, have they not gone through enough? Yeah, when does it end? Oh my God. And that's the thing. The stomach seemed to be one of those families

because just one year after Glenn and Mary divorced, Mandy's 16 year old brother Brent, he was shot multiple times in the head and the chest and anchorage by an unknown killer while he was out bohunting. Glenn, the father told reporters in 1989, as far as the circumstances, they've never found any reason for the murder.

Wow. Never, never found out what had happened. Did this family go through all of this? I have no idea because a few years later, like a number of years later in 1988, Mandy's stepbrother Spencer also died in an accidental drowning case. What?

Yup. Oh, this family. It's a lot. So I think I don't know, I don't know really like what sparked the decision, but part of me wonders if Mandy's mom was like, you know what, I think we need a new area, a fresh start. And that's when they decided in 1983 to move the family from Alaska to Acme, Washington. And that's how they ended up there.

Now, other than the tragedy and some of the disruptions like the move and the divorce, Mandy's childhood was pretty typical, like aside from all the fucking craziness. Like the tragedy. She was described as being smart, confident, and driven in ways that were just like not common among children. Her mom said of her, Mandy has always liked to be involved in people's lives, even as

a tiny baby, whatever was going on there she was. Which I was like, oh, and she also said that Mandy was not ever shy about one knowing what she wanted and two setting out to get it. She told reporters Mandy would never need to take an assertiveness training class. And she said that level of self-confidence. Sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, but more often than not, it got Mandy the respect

and affection of those around her, not only in school, but in her community. It's upsetting that it even rubbed some people the wrong way. A confident woman. Like it upsets Rob some. Yeah. And it bums me out because it's like, that's why people dull. Yeah.

And it's usually for other people. Yep. Don't dull your shit for other people. If people don't like it, that's honestly their own shit that they're going to have to deal with. Don't dim your shit. Yeah. Don't dim your shit because if, dim your spot call. Don't dim your shit, because if, honestly,

like if you're a confident person and it pisses people around you off or people who like says, like, don't know you off, that's fine. That's their problem. That's fine. Keep on, keep it on. What other people think of me as

is none of my fucking business. Exactly. So never let it dull you. I've seen that happen to people and it bums me out. 100%. And you know what? I don't think Mandy was one of those people. I think she was like, I am who I am.

It sounds like she was that. Yeah, it sounds like she was like that. That's just like, yeah. This is who I am and I'm confident in how I am and deal with it. I don't think she had time for people that didn't like her. I think she's just like, okay, they don't like her. And neither do you. And I don't think there was time for people that didn't like her. I think she's just like, okay, they don't like her.

And neither do you. And I don't think there was friends. For people that didn't like her, you know? Yeah. Neither do you, friends. You don't have time for that. You don't have time for that. Don't let it happen.

What do you, what's your tattoo? What's my, it's only forever. Not at all. So we only got so much time here. It's so funny, because I remember when you got that, I was like, I don't know if I get it. The older I get, the more it resonates. Yeah, it's really is.

Because I got it for that reason that it's like, yeah, it feels like you have forever, but that's not long at all. No matter what. We don't know how long forever is for any of us. It's immeasurable. So, make sure you're doing it your way. Exactly. Don't hurt anyone else, but like do it your way.

Yeah. Be confident. Be happy. Take a take a page on a mandis book. That's right. Because listen, by the time she reached high school, her tenacity and her determination and her just like sense of self was paying off, she became a star on not one sport team, multiple sports teams. Oh yeah. She played varsity basketball, softball, she did track, she did cross country, I checked, those are different, different seasons. And she did cheerleading. Because at first I was like, she did track and cost country, cross country aren't those the same. And then I was like, yeah, those are, those are different. Different. But honestly, I didn't know that until very recently. Fun fact. And so she

played all of those sports. but she actually had trouble with basketball when she first started. And the first time she tried out for the high school team, she actually didn't make it. Oh wow. And her mother said that she was absolutely devastated by that, but she spent a ton of time working on it. She went to a basketball camp that summer

to hone in on her skills, you know? And sure enough, made the fucking team the next year. That's my girl, Mandy. That is my girl. Outside of school too, she was an avid swimmer and she eventually trained as a lifeguard at the Waccom family YMCA and also worked there part-time as a daycare instructor.

Damn, this is what I mean. She was really doing it. This is what I mean. She was really doing it. This is what I mean when I say, I can't imagine what she would have offered the world. That's the thing. I'm like, she was taking, even as much time as she was here, she was already taking full advantage making them the world.

She was already being like, I'm going to do all the things. Hell yeah. I have to say, like getting to know her and finding this story, I really, it was inspiring. Like I was like, I need to do shit. Like I need to try shit. I don't know how long we're here for. Like it really, forever, not long at all.

It's such a good quote. Yeah. Now the thing is, she also wasn't just good when it came to sports. She also worked really hard in school. It's such a good quote. Yeah. Now the thing is, she also wasn't just good when it came to sports. She also worked really hard in school, and she made honor roll almost every single semester. By the time she had made it to her senior year, she had decided actually that she really wanted to become a commercial pilot.

Oh, okay. She was like, I just want to fly planes. I just want to fly through the sky. That's just what I want to do. I've said it before, I'll say it again. That's just what I want to do. I've set it before I'll say it again. Pilots fucking amaze me. Truly.

You're flying a giant thing through the sky. I'm going on a flight to my own side. I don't want to think about it too much. No, it's amazing. It's incredible. It's awesome. I love pilots. Yeah, I love pilots.

Plains are amazing. It's an amazing thing. Plains, pilots. All of that. Aviation. Aviation as a whole is a's an amazing thing. Plains pilots, all of that. Aviation. Aviation as a whole is a really wild miraculous thing. I was like, Plains pilots, Pazazz. Pazazz, precipitation. Even, yeah, there's pretty amazing.

A chance of that. A chance of precipitation. So yeah, she wanted to be a pilot, and that was her full intention when she enrolled at Central Washington University in the fall of 89. However, she changed her mind after doing a couple of flights when she was like, you know what, I actually don't think flying is my favorite thing in the world. Okay, she tried it.

Exactly. And she did a hard switch and changed her major to nutrition. Damn. That is hard switch. Just a hard switch. But I feel to nutrition. Damn, that is hard switch. Just a hard switch. But I feel like it's, she's so multifaceted. I was gonna say, she seems very like, just, she likes a lot of things.

She's good at a lot of things. Like, she can play any sport at all. She can do great in school every semester. She can volunteer at the YMCA. She can also be a daycare worker. Try her hand up flying a plane. I don't know about that. How about nutrition? Sure, I'll do that too. I mean, how many among us will trash it?

You know, like that, how many people? A lot of people don't. And it takes me. It's hard for me to trash it. So that's like really impressive. Exactly. And her mom said it wasn't really the field of study that like, mattered the most, but that, quote, what Mandy wanted more than anything else was to leave the world a little bit better of a place. That hurts my heart. What makes a person a murderer?

Are they born to kill? Or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music. I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious

New York City drugings, Breaking Down Lori Vallow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives, and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud.

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Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder App. So, on November 22nd, 1989, Mandy and her roommate from school, Yoko, they caught a ride with Mandy's ex-boyfriend Rick Center. I think it sounded like they were still on pretty good terms. Okay. So they, he was driving them home basically back to Mandy's mom's house in Acme, Washington for Thanksgiving break or, I don't know, winter break.

I didn't, I dropped out of college. I don't know break that. I got to break that. Exactly. But once Mandy and Yoko had settled in at Mandy's house, they headed to the gym at I dropped out of college. I got to break that. Exactly. But once Mandy and Yoko had settled in at Mandy's house, they headed to the gym at Mount Baker High School so that Mandy could meet up with some of her friends, some of her old teammates, and just kind of like, you know, your home for Thanksgiving.

That's the first thing you do is you want to see your old friends. Of course. So like I said, next day was Thanksgiving. And Mandy Yoko, excuse me, Mandy and Yoko spent the whole day with Mandy's family, never left the house. Just had a nice Thanksgiving. Now the next day, Friday, November 24th, Mandy and Yoko had a lazy morning, hung around the house. Of course they had some leftovers. We love Thanksgiving leftovers. They went for a short walk and later that night they had plans to go to a movie with a couple of Mandy's friends from high school Brad Gorum and his friend Tom Bass

Now Mandy knew that she wasn't gonna have a lot of time later in the day since she had those plans So she decided to go for a run a little earlier than she usually would have like she was a runner. She loved her run Now so she headed out a little after 2 she usually would have. Like she was a runner. She loved to run. Now, so she headed out a little after 2 p.m. that afternoon. From what I saw the most, it was anywhere between two and three that afternoon. OK. And she took the family dog with her.

Now, and the family dog was Kira, which is a great safety precaution, totally 100%. So Mandy and Kira headed west on Strand Road, which was the same way that Mandy always started her run. She had literally been doing this exact route since high school. Now, about an hour later, Mandy's brother Lee and his friends saw her running back up Strand Road just about five or ten minutes away from their house. So it kind of seemed like she was finishing up the run.

But when Lee got home just a little bit after that, there was no sign of Mandy and no sign of Kira. Okay. And he was like, that was weird. I just saw her, like kind of thought she'd be home by now. But a few hours passed and at that point, Mary and his mom started to panic. She was like, some things not right here. Like she would not do this. And Lee had seen his sister, like I said, pretty much approaching the house at the end of her run. So it was weird that it had now been hours. And this was not something she did, like I was just saying. Like, she would not just disappear for a long period of time and not check in with anybody.

Yeah. And even weirder, because like I said, she'd specifically gone out on this run early so that she had time for her movie plans that night. Yeah, so this doesn't make sense. Nothing is adding up here. So Mary, she doesn't want to jump to conclusion. She's not gonna go straight to the police and be like, she's missing.

Yeah, so she starts to call around to Mandy's friends, but none of them had seen her or even heard from her that day. So since she wasn't having any luck with that, she and Lee went out in her car to retrace Mandy's usual route, but they came back a short time later because they still, there was no sign of Mandy. And then something I can't even imagine like being in this situation and then this happens, haunting, absolutely haunting. Kira returned. Oh, no. Back to the house.

Oh, I hate that, but she was not with Mandy, obviously. And she was looking, she didn't look herself. Like she looked afraid of something, something had affected her. She was described as cowering. And she had her, this is a quote, tail tucked and with river silt covering

part of her hind quarters. Which they were like, what? Like why is she dirty and what is she, like something bad happened? Oh no, this is horrifying. It's terrifying. So at this point now, Mary is freaking out. And at that point, Brad Gorum, Tom Bass and Rick Zender

had all shown up at the house to pick up Mandy and Yoko for their movie night. Yeah. They had no idea. Yeah. So they all headed out one more time to retrace her route, check a couple other places, still no sign of her. So Mary did end up calling the police

a little after 5.30 PM that night to report her daughter missing. I just like, I can't imagine being in those shoes and I hope I never ever, ever have to be. I can't even fathom. But like to report your kid missing. Like, I can't. No, I can't even put myself there.

It's horrible. You just want to hug these parents so much. And it's just like, I feel like this story in particular, is such a good example of how fast things can change. Oh, yeah. She had planned that night. She was supposed to go back to school. She was just home for a little bit.

Yep. She went out for a run that she had always gone on. Yep. And then never came back. It's like a blink. And everything is different. It's so scary. Yeah, it's horrifying. But the thing is, luckily, especially for being the time

that it was, luckily, the Sheriff's Department actually took Mary's concern seriously. And they were like, oh, she's just a runaway. Yeah, because that's inferior. And they immediately engaged Waccom County search and rescue and Alan Pratt who worked with them. And Alan Pratt was actually known as a human tracker. He had like a rep for finding people. Imagine being known for that. That would be an honor. Yeah. So he got information from the family about the usual running

route. And he went out to track Mandy's movements, and he did this until he came up to a spot about a quarter mile away from the Stavic house, and he noticed, quote, a disturbed spot on the shoulder of the road. And as far as he could tell, quote, there were several footfalls, which looked like somebody had been walking or wrestling around or something. I hate this. This was unsettling. Yeah, I was just going to say I feel very unsettled by this. Yeah. And he also noticed in this area, the grass along the side of the road seemed to have also been disturbed. And there was good amount of river salt discovered in the ditch by the grass, just like the kind that was on Kira's bottom. Oh, no. So based on the scene and the fact that obviously,

there's still no word from Mandy by the next day. The police changed the status of the case from missing person to presumed abducted, which that must have been like a devastating blow to her family. So by Saturday afternoon, there was a massive search for Mandy. It seemed like the entire town of Acme

had joined the search. There were people on foot, people looking out on horseback, there were search and rescue teams flying above the area. People were in planes, helicopters, like you name the mode of transportation or anything. People were there looking. She was very well known in this community. She was very liked. And she had only graduated from high school six months earlier. So people were very concerned for her safety. She's a child. She's so young.

Yeah. Her high school principal, Robert Moore, told reporters, this is not the type of gal who just takes off on her own. No. And I don't mean she's a child, like she's a young woman, but it's like she's so young. But she is so young, you know?

Now, and then also, District Superintendent William Bolton added, this is a very level-headed kid. Something here is not right. Oh. And that's the thing, like she was involved in her community. Everybody knew her.

Like this wasn't one of those that you can even think, like maybe she did like, right away. Absolutely not. There was no doubt in anybody's mind something incredible. And it's the fact that she went earlier to make plans. To make plans that evening. It's like, that's, come on. And like her roommate from school is at the house with her.

Like, if she wasn't, you know what I mean? She wasn't taken off. Yeah. So her disappearance, it was extra disheartening for the small community of Wacom County because just four months earlier, 23 year old Diane Reeves had also disappeared without a trace. Police found her car on a forest service road about 14 miles away, but no sign of Diane.

Oh, jeez. And before Mandy went missing, Diane was the latest woman in a string of four or five disappearances or murders that occurred in the area. Oh. So now residents were seriously concerned about her safety and their children's safety. One resident named Donna Bolton, she commented, you just don't think of something happening like that around here. And Mary Stavick agreed saying, this is just the kind of quiet rural neighborhood where any of us would never think that our children wouldn't be safe.

That's always the worst. Like, it's a quiet town. Yeah, I know. And you never stop in that way. It's like you just can't predict it. No. And I feel like these predators know that it's a quiet town where nothing ever happens.

Yeah. So they're not going to be suspected. People aren't being extra vigilant because they don't have to be. Exactly. So as we know, Mandy had gone missing Friday afternoon, full blown search by Saturday, like all day, Saturday. And by Saturday night, the search upgraded to what Waccom County Sheriff Larry Mount described as an all out criminal investigation

of a presumed abduction. Now, in addition to the local police, the friends and the family that we're searching and search and rescue teams, the search efforts would eventually include a mounted Waccom County Sheriff's Posse, a US Customs Airplane, a US Border Patrol agent, and several scent dogs. Wow.

Like, they were looking for her. Yeah. But by Sunday, they still had not found Mandy, still had not found even a clue as to where she could be. Oh my God, that's awful. And the thing was poor parents. Oh my God, I can't imagine. And searchers had combed through like the heavily wooded area

near her running route. But by Sunday, the Sheriff's Department announced unless new developments occur, no further ground searches planned because they had basically searched all the areas nearby. Oh. And instead, investigators at that point wanted to turn their attention to the Nook-Sack River.

One team would be dragging the river and the other would search around the perimeter. Okay. So while search teams worked the river, the Stovic family turned to the media to plead, to make a plea to Mandy's kidnappers. Mary told everyone tuning in, Mandy is a real special person. She's one of these people who wants to leave the world a better place. The world needs her. Whoever's got her don't hurt her. We need her back. She's got things to do. Oh, like I've read that a million times and I have chills. I was just going to say goose bumps. Just like please don't hurt her. We

need her. She's got things to do. Oh, oh, that just just keeps that gives me full chills. It's just it's gut-wrenching. So with the days passing and literally not a single update in the case, the community was feeling not only fear, but helpless. Like they want to help this family and they can't, they're unable to. Yeah. So they decided to direct their energy because they could help, you know, toward collecting donations for a reward fund. And in less than 24 hours, less than a full day, they had raised over $8,000. Oh my God.

And it was comprised mostly of donations ranging from 10 to $50. Wow. So that's how many people were willing to put in. Yeah, some cash. That tells you something. And the funds organizer Jim Kyle wanted Mandy's family to know that they were supported

and wanted the world to know that this community was not gonna let something like this happen without putting up a big fight. Damn. So even with the community backing her though, Mary was starting to lose hope at this point as the investigation's going on. And on the second full day of searching,

she told reporters earlier today, I felt really strongly that she was okay. Now I don't know. Oh. I really do, that just ruined me. Now, any kind of hope that anybody had was unfortunately shattered on the morning of November 27th. Mandy's body was discovered on a sand bar in the Nook Zach River.

It was about three and a half miles from where she was last seen jogging. Wow. Which was very, very close to her. Yeah. She was found completely nude, which is awful. And Sheriff Mount told reporters that the cause of death was not immediately apparent and added that quote, there were few marks on her body. So the case immediately was labeled a homicide, obviously, because of the circumstances leading up to this discovery and now because of the state

that she's been found in. Yeah. So the sheriff let the press in the community know as much and said, we know the beginning and we know the end. We do not know the middle at all. So from the killing, it really is. This whole case is just so chilling. So from the moment her body was found, the investigators were at a pretty big disadvantage. It was very clear that Mandy hadn't been killed where she was found, so they still had no crime scene. And worse, there had been a lot of heavy rainfall

in the days since she'd gone missing. So there was a pretty good chance that critical evidence was gone at that point. That's so frustrating. That's so frustrating. It's awful. So knowing that they were at this disadvantage and given the nature of this case

and the other recent disappearances, the sheriff's office called in the other recent disappearances, the Sheriff's Office called in the local office of the FBI, which I think was the smartest move you could have made. Absolutely. They wanted the FBI's assistance in evaluating whether Mandy's death was related to these other crimes, and if so, to help develop a profile for the person responsible. So while the Sheriff's Office coordinated with other agencies, deputies got to work tracking the only lead that they had so far, which was a suspicious vehicle spotted by several

residents around the time that Mandy had disappeared. According to the sheriff, the deputies were looking for a black or brown full-sized Chevrolet or Ford-style pickup with a matching canopy and a gold stripe. Chevrolet or Ford style pickup with a matching canopy and a gold stripe. So pretty, like that's, that's a good description. I was going to say that's really detailed. So at least there's that. And just think whenever it's, oh, you, I, whenever they have to give the description of a vehicle, you're just like, yeah, what happened? You know what I mean? Like when it gets that far, you're just like, I hate that somebody had to remember that vehicle. Exactly. Because what did they see that?

Exactly. It's just like, it gives me chills. How many cars do you pass? That's throughout the day. And you think absolutely nothing. I always think that. But then you pass one and you're like, I should remember that.

That's exactly because something happens that you're like, I need to remember that. Yeah. And I couldn't tell you one car I passed by today. Oh my god, no, we were trying to name it, except the purple truck. Except the purple truck, but that was because it was purple. Exactly.

And I couldn't tell you anything else about it. No. And that's the thing. I think about that all the time, especially after I've just gotten done with a case, I'm like, I need to be more vigilant. I know, it's so hard. It is.

Now, so the day after Mandy's body was found, the autopsy was conducted by Waccom County Medical Examiner, Dr. Gary Goldfogel, I think is how you say it. One of the first things he noted was that Mandy's body appeared to be covered in what was quoted as long scratches on her legs, buttocks and arms. And there were more scratches on the front of the body than there were on the back. So because a lot of the scratches were parallel, it indicated that Mandy was alive when she'd gotten them, gotten them to the medical examiner. And it also indicated that she'd been in motion when she got these scratches because they were parallel. Yeah. And the medical examiner noted that they were, quote, consistent with someone running through brush,

such as the blackberry bushes found along the riverbank where Mandy's body was found. Oh, God, so she was running? Yes. Now, her body showed no signs of defensive wounds, no evidence of strangulation, and there was no other DNA or evidence found underneath her fingernails.

There was, however, a significant blunt force trauma injury to her forehead. And the doctor believed that it would have caused a very significant concussion, but he wasn't able to say whether or not Mandy ever lost consciousness. So ultimately, he identified the cause of death as a freshwater drowning. Oh my god. Because she had been knocked unconscious and then thrown in the river. Oh. Yeah.

And noted that the time of death was between 3.30 and 4.30 p.m. Oh. It's awful. Mm-hmm. So during the autopsy, this is a bit graphic, and I just want to let you guys know that. He did find Seaman and Mandy's body. And quote, based on the sperm count, concluded sexual

intercourse had occurred no more than 12 hours before her death. Oh my gosh. She had been raped. And given the circumstances, he was comfortable saying that's what had happened, it was a rape. And so the Seaman sample was collected and sent to the state's FBI office and the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for Analysis, where a DNA profile would later be created. But remember, this is barely the 90s at this point. Yeah. DNA had not come that far. Yeah. They have it and that's great. But it's not where it is now. Not at all. It's not like they ran it through some system and it was like ding, ding, ding, here's your guy. That's the thing. It's awesome. It's great, but it's not where it is now. Not at all, it's not like they ran it through some system, and it was like ding, ding, ding, here's your guy.

That's the thing, it's awesome. It's great that they have the DNA, it's great that they know what it is at this point, but like what to do with it is kind of a different story at this point. Exactly. So now they knew the cause and the approximate time of death, but other than that, again, investigators are stumped

and not finding much of anything else. They spent hours combing the banks of the Nooksak and the surrounding area, but they did not find anything that indicated where Mandy was kidnapped from, where she was attacked, or who had taken her. And the deputy coroner, or excuse me, no, sorry. The deputy, like an officer, Tim Ortoner said of the person who did this, quote, he either has to know the area or he's the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. Yeah, I'm going to go with knows the area.

I'm not going to tell you. Okay. So while investigators struggled to find who did this, the community in Wacom County continued just reeling from the news of this latest murder. One resident told reporters, it's so damn frustrating, I've wondered how many times I've talked to him, meaning the killer, this weekend, I look around and wonder. And a high school student, Pete Stewart told reporters, it makes you think twice now, before you go out walking alone. It makes you think what a crazy world it is out there.

And a lot of residents in this town started locking doors that they'd never bothered with in the past. Like this was a town where you were safe enough to not have to lock your back door, your front door. Not even think about it. Something like this changes everything. Yeah. And people were going out and buying guns for protection, like army themselves, because they were scared. Yeah. Because remember, she's not the first girl to go missing. Yeah, and this seems to have been a pattern around there. Exactly.

Which is interesting because I will tell you that they're actually not related. Oh, wow. Or they don't believe it's related. They don't believe it's related. Okay. So days later, after a report of a young woman being nearly abducted elsewhere in the county,

another one, public fear prompted the Sheriff's Office to make a public statement regarding the risk of human predators. Speaking to reporters, the criminal deputy Dean Sandelli, I think is how you say his name, he said, the citizens of Wacom County should be aware of the hazards and risks involved in their daily lives. The Sheriff's Office recommends that they try to avoid situations that put them in a state of high risk. These situations include walking or jogging alone, especially late at night and in unlit areas, which is true. But Mandy went for a jog in the middle of the afternoon. I was just gonna say like all that is absolutely true. She wasn't alone. She wasn't a wallet area. She was in her own fucking neighborhood.

There was literally no... There was nothing that would have made her think that she would be even slightly unsafe. No, nothing. The time, the, the, the, the, having a dog, or the lightness of day, bringing a dog with her, having people know where she was going,

she did everything right. Everything. That's the thing. And sometimes you, that's what happens. We've done it so many times. We've done it so many times. Yeah. You do everything right. And sometimes you, that's what happens. We've done it for too many times. Yeah. You do.

You do everything right. And it's still. Yeah. And so the Sheriff's Office also reminded residents to be vigilant in their awareness of strangers in the area. And they specifically noted, including men who are reportedly watching young women or children, especially near schools and bus stops.

So this community was like in crisis. On a huge edge. Like I can't imagine living in this community at this time. I wouldn't, I don't think I would leave my fucking house. No. And now by December, tips were coming in non-stop about Mandy's murder.

The detectives were actually said to be receiving almost 30 calls an hour while they were on the job and outside of work. they were getting tips called into their personal lines, like their phone lines, which it's like, maybe don't do that. Yeah, don't do that. But unfortunately, these tips were not very helpful in helping investigators narrow down the pool of potential suspects.

And at that point, the pool included just about anybody in town that they hadn't ruled out yet. That's not great. Rough. Now, the best lead investigators had was a description of a man seen in the area around the time that Mandy did go missing. And the press described this man as the Pudgey-faced man.

He was described as being white in his early to mid-30s quote, with a Pudgey face and cheeks, dark hair and a mustache, and three to four days' growth of beard. So that's a pretty good description. Yeah. It's not nice to call people Pudgey-faced, but if this is a murderer or whatever. Then call them whatever you want. Exactly.

So based on the information from the public who had seen this guy driving a 1970s light brown station wagon in the area, so kind of similar. Yep. So they were able to put together a composite sketch, a 1970s light brown station wagon in the area, so kind of similar. So they were able to put together a composite sketch and they circulated that in the news and around the community and also on AP wire, but it failed to produce any viable lease. What?

A composite sketch. Wow. Now, on December 3rd, 1989, Mandy was laid to rest at St. Joseph Mission Cemetery in Clipper, which is a smaller town close by the Akmi. And the funeral and burial costs were actually paid from a fund that was set up by the administration of the Akmi Elementary School. So this community really banded around each other.

Yeah. And later that day, they had a memorial service at the high school man, he went to Mount Baker High and nearly a thousand people attended to pay their respects. That, I mean, this all tells you something about her. It does, and it gives me chills as I say it. And the family, yeah. And this community.

Exactly in the whole community. Like even though they are in crisis right now, like I would want to be a part of this community if I was in crisis. Absolutely. It seemed like you could lean on your neighbors. Seriously. And you would need to at this point.

Yeah. So any hope that the new year would bring a break in the case quickly faded. The new year came and went. Investigators were still trying but they were coming up with nothing. Now in late January 1990, there was testing done on a pair of sweatpants that had been discovered during the initial search. The pants were believed to be Mandy's, but they weren't even completely sure that they were.

But in a statement to the press, a spokesperson for the FBI crime lab told the reporters, nothing that we received from this is certain. So this is like wall after wall after wall. And it's like people are getting hope because they're like, okay, they're like, unfortunately, with semen found, we can test that. We don't have much to do with it. Okay, those sweatpants might be hers. Maybe that will help us like come up with a lead.

Okay, we have a composite sketch and it's just like, nope, nope. That's a thing. It's not for lack of them doing a great job here. Yeah. For them finding things and actually like really moving this forward. It's just, it seems like every time they get something, they just hit this massive wall. They hit a wall. They hit a wall. That's the thing.

And sadly, none of Mandy's other clothing was ever discovered, so they couldn't do testing on it. And neither was the walkman that she had taken with her on her jog. So investigators, they were also staying silent on whether Mandy had been sexually assaulted like to the press. They didn't want this getting out.

Yeah, they told the press, at this time, not information is only known to us and the perpetrator of the crime. I think what they were trying to do was keep things close to the chest and kind of suggest that there were certain aspects about this crime that were going to be able to be used to identify somebody during questioning. And they weren't going to let that out. Absolutely.

But despite their best efforts up to that point, they had really only succeeded in ruling people out. They didn't really have suspects. They were just ruling people out there, right? And that's going to take a while. And the composite sketch of the Pudgy Faced Band had still not produced any concrete leads. Investigators weren't finding anybody who matched that description. And I mean, I would assume that they probably shaved their beard at that point.

Yeah, I would think so. You know, or grew it even longer. Yeah. And in the weeks that followed, the new year, a bunch of investigators ended up being taken off the case, which was indicating that the case was getting cold. But by March, the tide actually seemed to be turning in favor of the investigators when the Sheriff's Office announced that they had identified a person of interest

in Mandy's case. Ooh! Sheriff Larry Mount told the press, there's one, excuse me, there's more than one suspect. We're just waiting on lab results to help us decide whether we've been going in the right direction or the wrong direction. And what he was referring to were hair and fiber samples collected from Mandy's body that they were hoping to tie to a suspect. And they had also been collecting blood and saliva samples from suspects over the course of the investigation. But those again were more useful in ruling people out than they were in. Yeah.

That actually identifying someone. So as the weeks passed and the lab results slowly came back from the crime labs, the sheriff's investigators actually seemed further away. Still. Further away. That's so frustrating that they ever were in the first place. And the announcement of a person of interest proved to be one of the last encouraging leads that investigators had in the hunt for Mandy's killer. So in March 1992, two years after the sheriff's

office had made that announcement, that person of interest was suing the county. What? Quote saying, Sheriff's deputies duped defamed and mistreated him. Whoa. So according to Paul Malik, who was that person of interest, who lived on Strand Road at the time of Mandy's disappearance, Sheriff's deputies illegally arrested him and forcibly took her and saliva samples from him. And he said it was while six deputies held him down in the county jail. Whoa. He also claimed they never advised him of his rights.

They never allowed him to speak with his lawyer. They never even showed him the search warrant that allowed them to take the samples. And he said actually that he had gone to the police voluntarily thinking that he was one of the last people to see Mandy alive on the day she went missing. Like he's thinking he's gonna help. Yeah.

And then this is what happens. I think they may have been getting desperate if what he says is true. Yeah. And I wasn't there so I can't say. Yeah, that's not great if that's what happened. Definitely not. That's not how you want to go about investigation.

Because then the community's not going to trust you. Yeah. But he told reporters at first, I never considered I would be a suspect. I firmly believe that it's only because I live in a dump and I was poor that I became a suspect who could not clear himself by merely proving where he was and by having a witness who could say they saw me leaving. Whoa. So he was like, I think I was kind of pinpointed here for all the wrong reasons.

Now according to the former sheriff Larry Mount who was no longer sheriff when Paul filed the suit, quote, he was told that Malik initially resisted when deputies tried to get the samples. And he also stated that deputies definitely did not use improper force, and they were well within their rights to restrain him if need be. Okay. Now actually, Wachim County Sheriff's Chief Criminal Deputy Dean Sandell agreed, and he said the investigators took samples in the most unobtrusive way we could. All right. so I was not there, so I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. And actually, it's kind of unclear if the suit was resolved or how or if it ever really was or if it

just got dropped, but it was the last time that Mandy's case received attention from the press for many, many years. That's upsetting. It is. from the press for many, many years. That's upsetting. It is. So as the years passed after Mandy's murder, luckily DNA was coming a long way and had come a long way in its ability

to identify suspects. And especially obviously as we know, in cases involving sexual assault. Yeah. And so a DNA profile had been developed from the semen collected during Mandy's autopsy right after. But it wasn't until 2009 when the cold case was reopened that it did become useful to the investigators.

And actually the scientific advances of DNA profiling were what prompted Detective Kevin Boa, I think it's Boa, to reopen the case. He was actually now a veteran officer, but he had just joined the department, why couldn't I say that? Right before Mandy went missing. Like he was rookie, basically. Oh, that's crazy. And he didn't know it yet, but he would become one of the few investigators to see the case all the way through from beginning to end. That's cool, because don't worry, there's an end. There's an end.

Thank goodness. There's an end and this fucker, thank you for telling us that because it would really make me angry if this was like, I know. It's still open. Sometimes I feel like, well, we get to this point, you do have to tell people just to be like, this is not still cold.

Yeah, stay with us. Stay with us. Stay with us has a good ending. Exactly. So in the decades since the murder occurred, at Bohei and other investigators had worked on a theory as to how the crime unfolded, obviously. They thought that Mandy's abductor was most likely

somebody she knew or at the very least was familiar with. And they theorized that this person had pulled up alongside her while she was jogging and pointed a gun at her, demanding that she get in the vehicle. They figured once inside the vehicle, this person drove about four miles away into a wooded area, and that's where Mandy was sexually assaulted. And after that, they figured that she attempted to flee through the woods, which is why her legs and her arms and everything got fine. All scratched up. And they believed that the attacker was chasing her. Oh, the woods.

Eventually caught up to her, hit her in the head, which caused that blunt force trauma to her forehead, and then placed her in the river unconscious, causing her to drown. Oh, my God. The most random and brutal attack. That is horrifying. That is something that's a nightmare.

And a horror movie. And we always say like say like, okay, that's a lot. Yeah, that's, well, and just for her family to have that kind of visual in their head, it's just like, that's a nightmare. Because I have the visual in my head right now. Oh, how could you not? How could you not?

That's a nightmare. It's so many people's nightmare. Real nightmare, actually. So BoA and his team went back to the original file, and they re-interviewed every single person involved. Wow. And they took DNA samples from anyone living in the area at the time who would have had any contact

with Mandy that fall, anybody that was willing to at that point. Yeah, and eventually, excuse me, eventually the detectives collected more than 80 samples, which of course we're all going to have to be processed. Yeah, and that's the thing with DNA, it's like, it's not like CSI. It's not like CSI at all. It's not like forensic files, or it's like forensic files.

It's not like CSI and those, you know, like sitcom kind of to like the forensic thing. Where it's like, and then it's like ding, ding, and it just finds someone within five seconds. It takes time. There's enough and like that. There's waiting.

So several more years when I, and all throughout those years, Boa and his team continued to chase down leads. And one of those leads would eventually introduce them to an acne resident named Timothy Bass. Now, at the time of the murder, he actually would have been known to Mandy and her friends. Actually, if his name sounded slightly familiar to you, that's because his younger brother Tom Bass was one of the boys that Mandy had plans to go to the movies with the night she disappeared. Oh my god. Yep. What? Small town coincidence. So fuck. So, but when the detectives went out to talk to Tim, who was the older brother, not the boy she had plans with,

he acted like he wasn't quite sure who Mandy even was at first. Shut up. And given his proximity to the case, the detective Boa found it pretty hard to believe that he wouldn't remember Mandy. Yeah, come on. But still, he was like, let me fucking jog your memory asshole.

And he said, bass looked up kind of like he was searching his memory and then finally said, oh, that was the girl that was found in the river. What? Like Jesus Christ dude, be a little more fucking callous. How eloquent. It's like, yeah, that was the girl from your community that was murder.

Yeah, that's what you said. Like the girl who just graduated high school. Like barefoot. When I, for a run, that's what you said. The young, like the girl who just graduated high school. Like, bear it. When I for a run, yeah, took all precautions. Like, really? Like, oh, that's that girl. That girl found in the river. Yeah, that's her identifyer.

That's right. But then on top of all that weirdness, he also said he didn't really know her. He had no idea where she lived and he would absolutely not consent to giving any DNA without a warrant. So like, look more guilty. Come on. But the thing was, they didn't have any physical evidence linking bass to the crime. So it was going to be really fucking difficult to convince a judge to issue a search warrant for the DNA. Now coincidentally, Detective Kevin Boet was not the only one thinking about Tim Bass in 2013

because yes, we are in 2013 at this point. Wow. Mandy was killed in 1989. Damn. Her family went through so much. Shufford. So much time. For how long, geez.

And remember, this is their second child that has been killed and it's unsolved. So in June of that year, a group of mothers had gathered for a group outing to a local water park with their kids. It was just a community being community. I don't know. Yeah. Now during a conversation between two of the mothers, Heather Baxter and Merleyn Anderson, the subject of Mandy's death came up, and they both talked about how surprised they were that the notorious case was still unsolved. So they kind of talked about the case for a little bit, you know, like having a discussion. And Heather Baxter suddenly blurted out, I know who killed her. What? And was surprised when Merle reported or excuse me replied I do too

I'm sorry what ladies it turned out that they'd but like they both They did not know for sure, but they had an inkling but they were pretty sure because they both had really scary and Rather unpleasant experiences with one Timothy bass While they were younger and they had each had suspicions for years that he might be involved in Mandy's Disappearance. I hope they get this fuck years later. They were still freaked out by this guy who was still a part of their community. So this motherfucker stayed in his fucking community. Just like whoever earlier was like I'm I wonder if I've talked to him this weekend. Yeah, they don't have. Now according to Merle Tim Bass had been friends with her now husband while they were

in high school. And years later, he showed up at her house while she was home alone with her infant son. Oh, God. And because he's friends with her husband, she's like, he's kind of creepy, but like, I don't know. And he said, he'd been hunting and he needed to use a phone. And she's like, you're a friend. Like, okay. I don't love. And he said, he'd been hunting and he needed to use a phone. And she's like, you're a friend, like, okay, like, okay. I don't love this situation, but, you know.

So having known him from high school, she let him into the house and pointed him in the direction of the phone. But once he went in that direction, she could hear beeping from the phone, which proved that he hadn't made a call. What? Like she knew he hadn't made a call.

So after that, he stalked back through the kitchen and just walked up to her and told her he'd always been in love with her, that he used to drive past her in her husband's house and that he wanted to make love to her. She is home alone with her infant son. I'm horrified. And this man just shows up.

And he knew exactly what he was doing. He didn't have a fucking call to make. He's there for this. Yeah. And as we all know, he's already raped somebody. Oh my God. He is a dangerous mother fucker. Piece of shit.

Piece of garbage. She was like, yeah, that's not gonna be happening. And in that moment, realized she'd made a huge mistake letting him into the house. A cap trying to coerce her into her own bedroom. Oh my God. And only left when she yelled at him that she was gonna call the police

if he didn't get the fuck out of there. So luckily, he got out of there. Thank goodness. And probably because he was scared of her calling the police because he knew he had murdered someone. He had murdered someone. So Heather Backstrom, the other friend who was talking at the Water Park that afternoon, she had a similar experience with Tim Bass. Only a few months before Mandy was murdered.

Oh, God. According to her, she was only 15 years old at the time, and she'd gone to a softball game, just to like, you know, and she's getting her ride home from her friend Dan, who was also driving his friend, 21-year-old Tim Bass in the car. Oh, God. Remember, she's 15. He's 21. 21. 21 years old. Oh, yeah. So he was 21 when he murdered his man. No, it was boiler alert. Now, during the drive, he started aggressively flirting with her.

She said he would talk about my eyes and say they were beautiful. Then he took a pen out of a cup holder and would start rubbing it along my knees. What the fuck? Just being a fucking creeper. Now luckily Dan being in the car, her friend that was giving her the ride kept things from escalating any further, but she never forgot how pretory he seemed and she went out of her way to avoid him anytime she saw him. What a disgusting pig. And that's the thing. It's like, I feel like sometimes when a woman has an experience like that, like aggressive flirting and like doing that weird thing to her knees, some people will be like, what,

why were you so freaked out? Oh yeah, there's definitely, there's definitely people that will say that. Like they minimize it. Yeah. But as a woman, you know when you're in a danger, you know. And you know, like something happens to your body and you know.

There's alarm bells that immediately go on. And I just wanted to say that because as I was writing it, I was thinking about people that would be like, I don't know, like that doesn't really seem to know. Do you know that scary? No. She was terrified.

She was 15. She was 15 years old and this 21 year old is touching her. She was 21 year old man. And she doesn't want to be touched. And she doesn't want to be touched and she doesn't want to be floored it with. So I just wanted to say that. I'm just putting it out there. So at the time that each incident occurred, both of them felt powerless. Like they were like, I don't I don't know if this is even anything to report. Yeah. Like what? I hate that. It's so hard. It's so hard. And again, you're

intimidated by people that are going to be like, what's the big deal? Exactly. It's so hard. It's so hard. And again, you're intimidated by people that are going to be like, what's the big deal? Exactly. And you start questioning yourself, like am I overreacting to this? Yeah. Please, if anything like this ever happens to you, you're not overreacting.

Any reaction you have is not an overreacting. And that's the thing, and if you feel like you are, it's okay. If you feel unsafe, someone crossed your boundary, and fuck them up. Fuck them up. Fuck them up. Fuck them up. So still, in the wake of Mandy's death,

those experiences made both of them wonder whether or not it was Tim Bass who had murdered Mandy. But they knew that there was no evidence that they probably wouldn't be taken seriously. And also if they were wrong, they would do a reprobble damage to this guy's reputation, which probably isn't great, but like, that is, but they were like, I don't know what should we do.

Yeah. But they didn't feel like they could report this. Okay. But now they felt more empowered. And it was kind of like in part of the validation of the two of them having a similar experience. And so they decided to go and report it to the police together.

Which like, had they not gone to that water park together that day and gone to the police about him, I don't know if this case would have been solved. Wow. Just two moms at this shit could be a movie. I was gonna say, this is like cinematic. It is. This is coming together.

It is the way that they're just like sitting there. I could see like, picture their kids playing in the background and they're like having this deep discussion. Yeah. And they decide to do something about it. Oh, yeah. And like I said, how'd they not, I don't know, I don't know what would have happened.

So, I might have lost my place. No, I didn't. So the reports from Heather Backstrom and Marley Anderson suggested to investigators that they were on the right track. Because they had heard that name before. They'd heard his name and now they're hearing it again from two women who had yucky experiences. Yes. But the investigators, their situation with Tim still remained frustrating.

He was not providing any kind of DNA sample and would not even speak to investigators further. Shady mother fucker. Shady mother fucker. So now it's 2015. We fast forwarded. Two more years have gone by. Six years after the case was reopened,

Detective Bowie went back to Tim Bass because he's like, I know I'm on the right track here. I just got to get there. And he was like, you know, maybe in the past couple of years he changed his mind, maybe I'll get some DNA, but he still would not give DNA. He went years, years holding out. Something is wrong here. Something's wrong.

So the exchange with BoA actually did freak Tim Bass out to the extent that he told his brother, Tom, he was worried that he would become a suspect and that the reason he didn't want to submit a sample and this is not true, don't even entertain this for a second. He said he didn't want to submit a sample because he actually had had sex with Mandy while she was home for Thanksgiving. He had to fuck up, you know the fuck you didn't. You actual pig.

And even his brother didn't believe him because he was like, Mandy had only been home for like two days at that point before she went missing. One of which was Thanksgiving. And you're fucking disgusting. In your gross. And he was like, I don't even know how you would have had time to have such contacts with her. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, oh, I just went up to her and I said, oh, you're keeping fit. And that

was it. So he was like, oh, I just complimented her and it was that easy. Oh, shut the fuck up. Go fuck yourself. All this time goes by. And he's, this is the kind of shit he's still pulling. Oh, yeah, after he's killed this woman, he is, uh, yeah, I don't there's not enough word for what kind of filthy fucking monster he is, like your piece of shit. But then it actually gets worse. Then he asked his brother, Tim asks his brother, Tom, if the police asked Tom anything about this, he wants Tom to tell the police that Tom also slept with Mandy. Oh my god.

To make it seem like she slept around, which she did not. So he's just going to sit there and shit all over her reputation. Knowing that she murdered her. That she's brutally murdered her. Rape her. You're disgusting. Chase her to her, you're fucking crazy. And through her unconscious body into a fucking

disgusting. And that was not the only bizarre conversation that went down within the vast family at that time. of fucking... He's disgusting. And that was not the only bizarre conversation that went down within the Bass family at that time. According to Tim's then wife, Gina Malone, who was no longer his wife, oh good. Not long after the conversation that Tim had with his brother,

he was actually talking to his mother, Sandra, and asked her, quote, if they could agree to tell the police that Bass's deceased father had killed Mandy. Wow. He wanted to pin this on his dead dad. Holy shit. And also it's like, dude, your DNA will still look different.

Yeah, you don't have the exact same DNA, my friend. Like, oh my God. That shows what's going on up there. Truly. So his mother was absolutely horrified at this. And she's like, what the fuck are you talking about? Oh my God. And she's apparently according to Gina,

she covered her face and just said, no. So I don't know about that. What is that about? That is some, that's some shit. That's some shit. So meanwhile, Detective Bowie was endlessly frustrated with the lack of progress in the case. Because it's right there.

Because that is exactly it. It's dangling in front of him and it's the old man that's like, you gotta be quicker than that. That's truly like so close. So he reaches out to Kim Wagner, who was the manager of the bakery store. The bakery store where Tim worked. Oh my God.

He was a delivery driver for a bakery store. This man may have given you a fucking cake. Oh, hate it. But so he approaches the manager of the store and he's hoping he can get permission to swab the delivery trucks for touch DNA, which would be left by the driver, obviously. So, Kim Wagner told Detective Bowie that he would need to get permission from the corporate office.

So, she gave him the phone number for corporate headquarters, but they wouldn't allow it, which is bullshit in my opinion. Yeah, that's like, you're fucked up. Yeah, no. So, that stalled the case for another two years. Oh my God. So now we're in spring of 2017. Holy shit.

And Detective Boa goes back to him. And he's like, can you provide the investigators with the general route that Tim drives? Like, can you do, can you just do that? Until then he hadn't told her who he was investigating or why. But this time Wagner actually asked whether this was in relation to the Stopic murder. And he, the detective confirmed like, yeah, it was, which is interesting.

Yeah. So then Kim asked if Tim was a suspect. And the detective confirmed, yes, he is. And he explained, we basically want to follow him so that if he throws anything out along his route, we can take it. DNA. DNA and it's public shit now. So she was like, yeah, you can. But they were, they were able to follow him along his route, but they never managed to collect anything containing this DNA. So a short time later in August of 2017, Kim actually ran into Tim Bass in the breakroom at the bakery,

and she saw him drinking water from a plastic cup, which she then discarded into the trash before leaving the room. So being the mother fucking MVP of the mother fucking decade, she was, Walt St, I was gonna say went and then I went for Waltz. It was kinda crazy. She Waltz, on over, collected the cup from the trash, put it in a plastic bag and handed it over

to Detective Boway. And she actually, before she handed it over to the detective, she also did the same thing a few days later when she saw Tim discard a soda can in the detective. She also did the same thing a few days later when she saw Tim discard a soda can in the trash. Oh my God. So she got them two samples. Hell yeah.

Baddest bitch alive. So she texted the detective and she's like, Hey, I did a thing. I did this thing. I did this thing. And she's like, I want to give this to you as evidence. So they met up in a parking lot that same afternoon and Bully accepted the DNA evidence.

Yeah. And the samples obviously were then submitted for rush processing and came back as a DNA match to the ceiling collected from Mandy's body in 1989. Holy shit. He had murdered her. Wow. And it was a slam dunk.

Yeah. You can't argue that. You can't argue that. So later, when asked why she took it upon herself to collect the evidence, and this, like, almost made me cry when I read it the first time, Kim said, if Tim was potentially involved in that crime, I wanted to do the right thing for Mandy, which I'm like, fucking communitiously.

Seriously. Like, wow. I love this story is banned around your fucking communitiously. Like, wow. I love this story is banned around your fucking communit. Yeah. Like I love it. It takes a village, friends. It takes a village. So on December 12th, 2017, Watcom County Sheriff's Deputies led by our detective,

Kevin Boway, arrested Tim Bass on his home in Heverson for the first degree murder of my stoppage in 1989. And in a press conference, Wacom County Sheriff, now obviously there was a new sheriff because it's like so many years later, Bill Alpho, he told reporters, it was one of the best moments in my professional career when we got you and form her mother that we were making a race.

Oh my God, I love that she was there to see it. Thank goodness. Like because her heart would never, oh my God. Never be mended again. No. But the fact that she knows what happened. Yeah.

And to see someone be punished for it. Exactly. And knows that the person that did this is never going to be allowed to do this to another person. I can't even imagine. And the sheriff told reporters that they made the arrest based on that DNA evidence connecting bass to the murder. So had Kim not made that decision, who would have been able to still be walking free.

But he did stop short of saying where the evidence had been collected from in the press conference. I can't really talk about that too much. So while investigators and the prosecutors office started building their case against him, Tim Bass was desperately grasping for any alibi or contrary evidence that would protect him from this murder conviction. Good on him. It's like, dude, give it up. They have your semen.

Yeah. Like you're giving up no arguing. Nope. And he maintained the detectives and everybody else working on the case that they were all out to get him, he said. Oh, shut the fuck up. Like you're not special.

No one wants you in their presence. No, we sure don't. So in conversations with family members during visits to jail, he allegedly asked his mother to provide an alibi for him. Which is like, God. Yeah, you can have all the alibis you want. Your semen doesn't just like jump across miles and miles and go anywhere.

That's how it works. Stop asking your mom to do these things. You're fucking nasty motherfucker. So he said, maybe you can say that we were Christmas shopping. Wow. Are you joking me? He gets worse and worse as the story goes. You murdered someone the day after Thanksgiving.

What the fuck is wrong with you? And he also kept begging his brother Tom to spread a rumor that Mandy was promiscuous. Oh, God. He said, Tom, do what you can. Maybe other friends could say they knew her back then as well. Ew. Like, what the fuck? You killed her in one of the most brutal ways possible,

and now you wanna kill her memory, too. Geez, that is zero. Zero remorse. Every single day on this earth is a living fucking hell of a room. Oh, I hope so. So the DNA evidence connecting him to the murder was incredibly strong, to say the least. Yeah.

And during his press conference, Sheriff Elphoto reporters, the laboratory determined that the match probability was one and 11 quadrillion. Yeah, it's pretty good. So they were pretty comfortable prosecuting. Yeah. Now in December 14th, him bastard appeared before a judge. He was officially charged with first degree felony murder. And it alleged that he caused Mandy's death

in the course or furtherance of rape attempted rape, kidnapping or attempted kidnapping. Disgusting pig. Now in his statement to the press, Wacom County prosecutor David McEckeren, that's one of this, told reporters that he wasn't able to charge bass separately for rape or kidnapping because the statue of limitations

had run out for both crimes. I hate that. So the felony murder charge was most likely the one that he would face. Okay. Now in the months that followed, the public defender, Stephen Jackson, who is Tim Bass's public defender obviously,

filed one motion after another. First, he tried to get the kidnapping and the rape charges dropped. Then he wanted to have the DNA evidence excluded from trial. In what world are we going to exclude DNA evidence from the trial? You can get fucked.

But he claimed that Kim Wagner was illegally acting as an agent of the state when she collected the trash containing the DNA. And he said, thus, it should be excluded. He said, put simply, law enforcement officers cannot use private citizens to obtain evidence without a search warrant, where a search warrant with otherwise be required.

This search was done for a singular reason to assist law enforcement. It's like, yeah, whatever. So David McEckron countered that detective Bohé had never asked Kim Wagner to get involved in the case or act on behalf of the Wacom County Sheriff's Department. And in fact, he actually made it very clear they weren't directing her to do anything.

Yeah. Kim acted entirely of her own volition and said she had a daughter and hoped that somebody would do the same if it were her daughter. So after hearing both sides, judge agrees with the prosecution and Jackson's motion to suppress DNA evidence was denied.

Bye. So after 30 years of dead ends and false hope, the opportunity to get Mandy Justice finally arrived on May 10th, 2019. Wow, this just happened. 10th, 2019. Wow. This just happened. Fucking years. Yeah. Wow. So in his opening statement to the jury, David McEckron presented the case as it had been assembled by the investigators, they said she'd gone out

jogging Mandy. She was intercepted by Tim Boss. He forced her into his cart gunpoint. He took her to a remote area and raped her. And she tried to escape. He chased her down in the woods, struck her in the head, and again placed her unconscious body in the river where she drowned. Now, the evidence collected during the autopsy,

obviously implicated bass in the crime. Yup. And his behavior following his arrest, especially his repeated attempts to get friends and family to lie on his behalf, only confirmed his guilt. And McEckar until the jury, we know that he wanted his brother to say

that he himself had sex with her to make her look like she was a loose girl and wanted an alibi. I love that also he was hanging his hat on that. Like somehow if she had slept with multiple people that this was fine. That it's okay. That she got murdered. It's like, yeah, that still doesn't work. It still doesn't work that way. Exactly. So the public defender, Stephen Jackson, on the other hand, he just presented a case that really had little to do with Tim Bass at all. He said to the jury that Tim Bass and Mandy Stovak had consensual sex.

And you know, he would know because he was there. Yeah, absolutely. And he said, obviously, that explains that obviously, obviously DNA in her body. Yeah. But you know, as for her disappearance and her death, that's a mystery. Still 30 years later, he said, Tim Bass is not guilty. He didn't kidnap anyone.

He didn't rape anyone. And he certainly didn't kill anyone. I'm like, that's great. Do you have anything to back that up? Imagine trying to get a case to remain unsolved. No. When you have the killer right here. No.

Imagine. No. No. I couldn't. Couldn't be me. But he actually argued that the prosecution had no evidence of rape. Huh, I'm like, I'm what?

And they were like, and he said that they didn't have any witnesses who saw Mandy's abduction. It's like, yeah, the semen in her body and the fact that she ended up in a river directly after kind of tells us everything we need to know. It's like, nope, no abduction can happen unless people see it. Nope, that's it. Nope.

Actually, I'm just picturing him, the standing there in the courtroom, being like, if a tree falls in the middle of the woods. And no one's around to see it. It didn't really fall. Like, sir, like, no. Have all the goddamn seats in the world and get the fuck out of here. Go get a granola bar. Get it world to get the fuck out of here.

Go get a granola bar. Get it. Sit down. Fuck out of here. So basically he was just saying like, you know, a lot of people had seen Mandy jogging that day. Any one of them could have been the person who could have not per a broad day.

Absolutely. Wow. Shut up. What a defense. Nobody was really into this at all. No. And after a week of testimony and unfortunately very graphic evidence, the prosecution

rested their case on May 17th, and the defense rested theirs on the 22nd. The jury deliberated for a little over one day, and then they came back with a verdict of guilty. Hell yeah. All in the charges of first degree murder, and they also found him guilty in the special verdicts, first degree rape,s first degree rape attempted

first degree rape, first degree kidnapping and attempting first degree kidnapping. Damn. Guilty on all mother fucking charges. Yes. And when those verdicts were read, almost everybody in that courtroom erupted into tears. I love that. Obviously overwhelmed with like every possible emotion you can feel after 30 years of wondering what had happened to this poor girl. So he

was sentenced to 320 months or 26 years in prison for the crimes against Mandy Stoppick. In 2021, obviously they filed an appeal because what else do they have to do? And it argued among other things that the admissibility of the DNA evidence linking him to the crime and the constitutionality of charging bass under felony murder statute amended after the crime occurred. Shalom. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

No one wants to hear from you again. Basically, what they were trying to say is that like one of the statutes had run out for the crime, for what he was convicted of and that the DNA evidence was like not good or something, I guess, because of the...utes had run out for the crime, for what he was convicted of and that the DNA evidence was like not good or something, I guess, because because Kim Wagner had gone. Yeah, of course.

It's in and what they were trying to say too was that Kim Wagner had violated Tim's constitutional rights. I love that when the DNA matches, it's like, yeah, it was stupid the way you got it. You literally, and it's like that's your archivic. It's still fucking matches. You did it. It doesn't matter how I got it. It's like that's your active act. It's still fucking matches. You did it.

It doesn't matter how I got it. And like work is a public place, right? Yeah. You know? Yeah. I don't know. It works. I don't know if that's true, but whatever.

I don't know if it's true, but the appeals court, they disagreed that Kim had violated the constitutional rights. That's all that matters. They said to prove a private citizen was acting as a government agent. The defendant must show that the state in some way instigated and encouraged council directed or controlled the conduct of a private person. And that that bassist lawyers had failed

to prove that claim in court. Yeah. So I don't think you can technically take somebody's DNA at work, but it's very hard to prove that somebody made you do it. Like law enforcement made you do it. Yeah, absolutely. There was no proof that they did. Exactly. And I don't think they did. I think Kim was living.

Yeah, she was doing her job, man. She was being a mama. Yeah. Now, as far as the argument that the prosecutor applied a statute that had been amended after the crime occurred, the Justice's wrote, although we conclude the trial court erred in applying a 1990 version of the felony murder statute to this 1989 crime, they were literally arguing the difference of a year.

Yeah, shut up. The error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and it had no effect on the outcome of the case. No. So, after hearing arguments from both sides, the appeals court sided with the prosecution and rejected all of Bass's arguments thus upholding his conviction. So raw inhale, Tim Bass. Raw inhale. Raw inhale. Raw in every fucking level of hell that they possibly could be. Indeed. And that's it. Bye. That's the end of Tim Bass forever.

Wow. Fucking hate him with every vibrato. What a disgusting piece of shit. It's like, I hate all of the people that we cover, that murder people because they're horrible people. They're a pregnant. This one in particular, I was like, are you kidding me? The fact that he was trying to still like be smurred.

He had a reputation. Are you kidding me? The fact that he was trying to still like be smurched her reputation. That's great. After he had brutally raped and murdered her. The day is earlier. After Thanksgiving. And he's still trying to be like, oh, let's, you know, let's painter as this loose woman.

And maybe we can blame it on my dad, dad. Yeah, and you know what, my dad's dead. He can't say anything about it. So why don't we blame it on him? It's like, you have no fucking Yeah, and you know what? My dad's dead. He can't say anything about it. So why don't we blame it on him? It's like, you have no fucking bottom, do you? No, no fucking bottom. No, the lowest of the low. Like the shit that that, like that man, that thing will hit the fucking magma in the center

of the earth. And he will still continue to go lower. Listen to you. Discuss that. You're really good at insults. Thank you. Sometimes I get so angry that I can't insult that well. That happens to me too a lot.

And I'm just like, you're a froggy motherfucker. Like, you're just like the first thing that will come out. Yeah, I feel that. But fuck that guy, fuck that guy. Fuck that guy, I'm so glad he's in jail. Me too, after. He had 30 years to fucking sit with himself and nobody did, and

he was perfectly fine doing. Yeah. Yeah. Brought, brought, brought, inhale. And you know what, Mandy deserved to fucking light the world on fire. And she seemed like she was on her damn way to do it. She deserved so much fucking shame that she wasn't allowed to. This world is less. It's absolutely less. So that sucks. It does. But I'm really glad that her family at least

got a little bit of justice out of it. I do too. Yeah. And just like everything that they had gone through, I hope that that was, you know, like I hope they didn't have to go. Yeah, I hope they're not going through any more tragedy until I hope it's nothing but a positivity from here on out. Me too. And on that note guys, we hope your rest of the week is positive too, and we love you. And we thank you for listening, and we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. If I have to tell you not to keep it that weird your wild yeah love you bye bye

what if I said bye like that every time you guys would you still listen Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.