Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Beautiful teen girl home on college break found naked, raped and murdered after jogging with her dog. What happened to Mandy Stavik?

Episode Date: December 31, 2019

Mandy Stavik takes off on an afternoon jog with her German Sheppard. The dog comes home. Mandy does not. With Nancy Grace today to discover the details of this case: Ashley Wilcott, Judge and trial attorney Steven Lampley, former detective George Schiro , DNA expert Dr. Katherine Maloney, Medical Examiner Dr. Carla Manly, Psychologist Joanna Small, reporter KIRO 7 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Mandy had just graduated from high school. She was in her first year at Central Washington University. She came home for Thanksgiving break. Mandy left her home on the day after Thanksgiving in 1989. She wanted to get in a run. It was kind of in the late afternoon. She had a daily route that she used to jog that took her down the road that her house was on, on Strand Road, down to the Nooksack River and back she went with their dog Kyra German Shepherd dog was

an older dog but it was said it was very protective of Mandy I was panicked the minute she didn't get home on time and then I was doubly panicked a few minutes later when the dog was there and she she wasn't. Any kind of missing person call is a 911 call. It requires immediate response. And a deputy will go out and talk to the reporting party. In any investigation like this, you're going to look at, you know, boyfriends, anybody that they might have had trouble with. Mandy's boyfriend was cleared after he gave a police statement.

How did an 18-year-old girl just starting her life vanish while out running with her dog? How does that happen? We hear the same scenario over and over and over. This girl, Amanda Mandy Stavik, vanishes in broad daylight around 2 p.m. November 24 jogging with her dog near her own home Bellingham Washington State this is a lovely area very low crime rate how did it happen you were just hearing our friends at ABC 2020 take a listen to this. Mandy left her home on the day after Thanksgiving in 1989. She wanted to get in a run. It was kind of in the late afternoon.

She had a daily route that she used to jog that took her down the road that her house was on, on Strand Road, down to the Nooksack River and back. She went with their dog, Kyra, a German Shepherd dog. It was an older dog, but it was very protective of Mandy. I normally went with her. I rode my bike, she ran, and the dog pounded along after us. But that last morning that she disappeared, I didn't go with her because my sister was there. And so I kicked myself.

When she didn't come back when she should have come back, and then the dog came back without her, I was panicky. First person I called was her boyfriend. Mary was worried that Manny was missing. Then I got worried. The dog came home alone after about two hours, and they suspected something terrible had happened to her. It was so unusual that people started looking immediately.

We were hearing our friends at ABC 2020, and it reminds me so much of the case of Corita Vetrano, the Long Island jogger. The one day her firefighter dad, Phil Vetrano, the Long Island jogger, the one day her firefighter dad, Phil Vetrano, does not go jogging with her, she ends up dead. I mean, that is a lot of guilt to carry around. And you're hearing the same thing in the case of this teen girl, Mandy Stavik. And that's the kind of guilt that follows you and weighs on you the rest of your life. With me right now, an all-star panel, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer at

ashleywilcott.com. Stephen Lampley, detective. And this guy knows his way around a courtroom and a crime scene. Author of Outside Your Door on Amazon. George Sciro, DNA expert with Scales Biological Laboratory, Inc. And boy, do we need a DNA expert today. Dr. Catherine Maloney. Joining me, renowned Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County Medical Examiner's Office. Dr. Carla Manley, psychologist, fear specialist. drcarlamanley.com. Her latest book, Aging Joyfully, but right now to Joanna Small, reporter with KIR07 TV. Joanna, thank you for

being with us. Tell me about the area where Mandy Stavik went missing. As you mentioned, Nancy, it was the Bellingham area, but it's actually a little bit northeast of there in a more rural community. It's Whatcom County, which is the closest county to Canada. And the town that Mandy lived in is called Acme. And it was a very small community. Everyone was very tight knit. In fact, the majority of her friends lived on the same street she did. That was Strand Road. They all went to a small high school called Mount Baker. People at that high school still remember her, and there's teachers who are still working there. So Mandy's

community was very well aware of her, and she was the over-the-top athlete. She was a very popular girl. She had a lot of family members. So it was no secret that she was well-liked and beloved in that community. That is hurting me so much. She is just a little girl out jogging with her dog in this small rural community there on the Canadian border. She goes missing, and it is a free-for-all. Everybody's looking for Mandy. An extensive search for a missing teenager.

Her brother, who was visiting a neighbor, actually saw her run one direction and then a few minutes later run the other way. He was the last person to see her. Every TV station, radio, and even outside the state national media were covering it. I was in my first year as a reporter at the Bellingham Herald at the time. I hopped in my car and I drove out and interviewed Mary. She understood that there was a chance that we could help. You're hearing the voice of a Bellingham Herald reporter, Carol Herrick, at ABC 2020.

Joanna Small with me, KIRO7 TV. Joanna, tell me about the search that ensued and who first called 911. Mandy, again, was a very well-liked, very popular girl. Most people knew of her and really cared about her family. So immediately a search was launched, a very extensive search, because I mentioned it's an extremely rural area right along the Nooksack River. And it was such a large geographic space, so it required a lot of manpower. There were hundreds, hundreds of people who were out

there searching for Mandy, and it was pretty overwhelming. Detectives, people from Bellingham, people from Seattle, and that's about two and a half hours south of the Acme area. So the search continued for several days. People she'd gone to high school with, people from her past, people who didn't even know her. And again, it was extensive. The Nooksack River is a fast-moving, very long and wide river, and they were searching that entire area. So it was incredibly time-consuming and incredibly intense. You know, very often people think if they have a dog with them, it saves them from danger. And actually, as you know, Ashley Wolcott, I'm working on a new book, Don't Be a Victim. And that is one of the tips I give people.

If you can, take a dog with you. She did take a dog with her, but that did not stop her from going missing. And I'm looking at a photo of her right now. And you can see this photo at CrimeOnline.com. She has the hairstyle of the day. It's long and in waves, kind of like a Farrah Fawcett, but not exactly. Beautiful, kind of a strawberry blonde, big brown eyes. And somebody put some money into her smile because there's no way you can have a smile that perfect. Jackie, look at this. I mean, look at that. I mean, somebody loves this girl and is taking care of her.

The one day they don't go jogging with her, she goes missing. To Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer at ashleywilcott.com, how many times do we do things in retrospect as teens, as young people, even just up until the time the twins were born, I would go running up and down the East River at night, at 10 o'clock at night. Me, a felony prosecutor that knows better. It's a feeling of invincibility, I think. It is. And I think that goes with youth. But keep in mind, generally, can you trust? Sure, right? People can trust and you can trust that you can go for a run, that it's all okay, and it's going to be okay. But here's the thing I need to say about the dogs, because I noticed that as well.

When you go running or you have a dog with you, you absolutely assume that it's safer and that you're going to be okay. So the two things I would look for as a result of that is, number one, anyone at all that they questioned, that they interviewed. Did they have any marks that could have been caused by a dog? Because that dog might have bitten or gone after somebody who tried to get to her. The second thing is, I would think in my mind, it must have been somebody that she knew and that knew her dog because then a dog would not be defending her necessarily. Well, I don't really even know for sure what the dog, what kind it was. I mean, I mean, if it's our dog, it's a chubby little dachshund. And I don't know, you know, if he would pose that much of a threat, although he does a lot of growling. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about an 18-year-old girl just starting her life,

vanished while out running with her dog. Stephen Lampley, detective at StephenLampley.com, author of Outside Your Door. Stephen Lampley, what about it? How safe is it for someone like Mandy to go jogging? Remember, this is a very rural area. How does that play into the scenario, Stephen? Well, Nancy, you would think it would be safe. You would reasonably suspect that she's in a rural area and she has a dog.

That even adds a German know on top of that you would you would think that uh you could go jogging and then be safe oh it's a german shepherd hold on joanna small it's a german shepherd yep it's a german shepherd i think it's an older dog though between like 10 and 12 years old but a german shepherd that she grew up with does it still have teeth that's my question because stephen Lampley, you know, I get into it all the time about pit bulls and how they eat people. Although there was a recent pit bull that saved a family's life from a coral snake. And his name was Zeus. And he passed away.

Okay. And I feel awful about that. But they do still eat people. German shepherds are right up there, I think, in the top three. They will bite you. Yes, and she has this German Shepherd, and they have a reputation for defending. They're very, very loyal animals. So as a police officer, if I see a case like this,

and you know this as well as I do, Nancy, whenever you have a young person that comes up missing under these circumstances, it never ends well. As opposed to if you have an elderly person that comes up missing, maybe that person just forgot how to get home. Maybe they got lost or got preoccupied. Those don't always end bad, but whenever you have a young person that ends up missing like this, it almost always is not a good result. Yeah, and I know that Steve Lampley is speaking anecdotally,

but the statistics do bear out what he is saying. Take a listen to this. He learned what Mandy's normal route was and followed the sign and found the evidence that it was her sign that was coming out onto that road. It was her tracks and followed it to a place where the tracks just stopped and they shouldn't have. Her dog was running with her and the dog tracks stopped there also. It makes you think probably someone pulled her into a car and took off with her. I mean, that's kind of the worst. She's not going to be forcibly taken, forcibly, unless two or three guys grabbed her.

And there was no evidence of that on the road. There was no scuffling and pushing and shoving and that type of thing. The question was, was it just somebody driving by that drove up that road and sees this beautiful girl running with a dog and decides to grab her? Or was it somebody that knew her?

Yeah, I'm trying to absorb everything that tracker Joel Harden is saying there to 2020. To Joanna Small, reporter joining me from KIRO7 TV, what is he saying about finding tracks, they believe they're Mandy's, and then suddenly they stop and no evidence of a scuffle. Explain, interpret to me what he's saying. Well, again, we've referred to it several times, but the area being very, very rural, the Nooksack River is surrounded by brush. And so it's very easy to kind of disappear into that brush area. And you have to remember, Mandy was an athlete. She was a star basketball player.

She ran almost every day. I don't think there was a sport that she didn't play. And she ran very, very quickly. So there would never, it's not surprising, it wouldn't be surprising to any detectives that there wasn't a visible scuffle. People were pretty sure she could outrun just about anyone. Well, yeah, unless that person was in a car. Because I mean, if you think about it, common sense agrees with you. But when I think back on, you know, Karina Vetrano, she was much more physically fit than her killer, Chanel Lewis. I mean, he was addled with dope and booze. She could definitely outrun him, but he had the muscles.

And let's see, Molly Tibbetts. She could have outrun her killer. I mean, these women, think about Missy Beavers, who was not running, but as an exercise gladiator instructor, who was, I guarantee you, more fit than whoever killed her. There's not a gladiator called a gladiator instructor for no reason. So I find it really interesting to Steve Lampley that they can follow her tracks, you know, tennis shoes, running shoes, and of course you see the dog tracks beside it. You know that's her. And then suddenly they just stop. There's, if it's mud or sand or dirt, do you see that it just stops? Analyze that for me, Steve and Lampley.

Well, Nancy, I wish I could see what they saw on the footprints. To have footprints, in other words, just to have a couple of footprints like she's jogging and then nothing more without any scuff, without any turning of the footprint, like she's turning to talk to someone, to have just footprints like she lifted off is really suspicious. I would think there would be perhaps the ending, but maybe she would have turned to talk to somebody or the footprints would have been smeared. There would be something more than they just ended, in my opinion. Well, also think about, as Jackie here in the studio accurately points out. She wouldn't just leave her dog behind, get in the car willingly, and leave her dog behind.

For those of you just joining us, a graduate of Mount Baker High, Mandy Stavik, home on break from her freshman year at Central Washington University, goes jogging. But then her German Shepherd dog, Kira, returns home three hours later without Mandy. And then the nightmares come true. The search went on for three days. She was found on the third day. Mandy was found on the south fork of the Nipzak River, probably close to 5 and 1 half, 6 miles from her house. There was a bend in the river and some debris,

and the body was just hung up in the debris there. I saw her body. She was face down. She was just kind of suspended just a little bit off the bottom. There was a branch there that was some debris that prevented her from floating any further downstream. She was naked except for shoes and socks on.

The tennis shoes matched the description. The detective that was with me dispatched himself in a quick fashion to get to the family home to let her know we had found her. I wouldn't wish this on even my worst enemy. There's nothing worse than losing a child. Oh, my stars, just hearing the mom is so, so upsetting. You are hearing our friends at ABC and Mandy's mom to Carla Manley, psychologist and fear specialist at drcarlamanley.com, her many, many books on Amazon. Dr. Carla Manley, when my fiance was murdered, I had no idea there could be a pain worse than that.

When I lost my dad, it seemed to bring it all back. The thought of losing a child, your child, to me, I don't think I could go on, Dr. Manley. I do believe that would be the worst loss. Absolutely, because it's not what we expect. As a parent, we want to be the one who predeceases the child. And so the parent, in this case, this beautiful mother, is left thinking, oh, this year Mandy would be doing this. And in fact, this year, where we are right now, she would be likely turning 48. And when we start getting into the mother's shoes and realizing what an incredible lifelong loss this is when

we have this violent person who an opportunistic act in a beautiful small world community and wipes out one of her most if not her most beloved being on the planet. It's horrific. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The medical examiner determined Mandy's cause of death to be drowning. She'd suffered a head injury and had been sexually assaulted. They took DNA evidence from Mandy's body. They created a DNA profile of both Mandy and an unknown male. Time and time again, they would have a person of interest.

They would question that person, But something would rule them out. They had a good alibi. Or, ultimately, their DNA did not match. This case dragged on. It becomes a cold case. But after, you know, 10, 15, 20 years, it's like, well, it's never going to be solved. Our friends at ABC, and we're talking about the cold case of Mandy Stavik, a teen girl home from college on break.

Thanksgiving break goes jogging with her German Shepherd dog. Never comes home. Her body found in a river naked except for shoes and socks. I mean, to me right there, that is the tip off. She was sex assaulted. But the medical examiner confirmed it. To Dr. Catherine Maloney, joining me, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner at Erie County Medical Examiner's Office, Nickel City Forensics. Dr. Maloney, how do they tell, after a body has been in the water for that

period of time, three days, what the cause of death is and that there was a sex assault. Well, in terms of a sex assault, you could look for trauma to the genitalia. You could also do swabs to look for the presence of sperm or for DNA to be in those swabs. And then in terms of drowning being the diagnosis, drowning is sort of a diagnosis of exclusion where you sort of excluded everything else. So the person wasn't stabbed. They weren't shot. They weren't strangled. They did say she had the, it sounded like a bruise on the back of her head.

So with nothing else, then the assumption becomes the person must have been drowned. They're found in water dead uh the fact that she was unclosed says to me immediately there was a sex attack it's freezing cold she's got on socks and shoes so that rules out a swim which is you know you know far-fetched to start with. But the fact that she's naked and in the water says to me she has been sex assaulted. That goes to motive to whoever killed her. If this had been a consensual relationship, a consensual sex relationship, she likely would not have been killed. So put that together and that gives me a sex motive for murder. To Catherine Maloney, Nickel City Forensics, Dr. Maloney, speaking of DNA, you would think that rushing water would take the DNA off the body.

But when the DNA is in the body, such as in the vagina or the vaginal tract, the water would have no effect on it. It would stay there. That is correct. The DNA basically would have been in a place where it couldn't have been washed off. Dr. Maloney, how long can you get a viable DNA match from DNA, for instance, in the vaginal tract? That's a good question. It probably depends on the condition of the body and the condition of the um where the body is found if the body's decomposed um if there's any type of insect or animal activity that could have disrupted the presence of the dna um it really is kind of on a case-by-case basis i remember

arguing to juries that um and this is before dna that dna at anyway, there's always been deoxyribonucleic acid, but before we could perfect it to bring it into trial, sperm lasts generally three days, about, swimming around. First, the tail breaks off. The next day, the head breaks off. Then, after that, the sperm starts to degenerate, deteriorate. However, DNA, not fully intact spermatozoa, still exists. Joining me right now, DNA expert from Scales Biological Laboratory, George Sciro.

George Sciro, how long, let's just say, inside the vaginal tract or in the mouth or the throat or in your rectum, how long inside a body will DNA be preserved? Well, Nancy, as the doctor pointed out, there are a number of variables that go into that. And that's one of the things that we kind of call the holy grail of forensic science is trying to determine what we call post-coital interval, how long maybe time lapse between finding sperm and the actual incident. And the data is all over the map. There is one case where actually up to 19 days later in a cadaver, they found intact spermatozoa. So there's no real timeline you can put on that. So as long as it's there, as long as

it's not disturbed, as long as it's not diluted, it can last many days. Wow. So we would be able to recover that and take swabs and then take those swabs and then determine if there's spermatozoa present and then determine DNA, determine the DNA there's spermatozoa present and then determine DNA, determine the DNA from those spermatozoa. Back to Joanna Small, reporter with KIRO7 TV. We know it was three days later that a searcher came upon Mandy's lifeless and naked body. There in the South Fork of the Nooksack River. Who found her body? That was Detective Ron Peterson. Initially, a search team that was going, that was actually in the river, that was in the river by boat, saw the body. They were volunteer firefighters. They didn't feel

comfortable approaching the body, so they contacted Detective Ron Peterson with the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, who immediately went to that area and saw, as you lot like Mandy in terms of, you know, the same hair, the same eyes. And immediately his mind, he told me, went to his daughter. And so when he turned her over, it was extremely emotional for him. Everybody in that department has a personal connection to either the family, the community, or Mandy herself. And so it was heartbreaking. The search begins for Mandy Stavik's killer listen. We went out and contacted as many folks as we could, asked for samples, tried to find out what they might have known or what they might have heard over the last 30 years.

It's the longest case I've worked on without having an investigative leak DNA-wise. At one point, we sent 31 samples at one time, and she sorted through all of them. I wouldn't say you lose hope after comparing that many samples, but you can't be as excited each time when you get let down that many times. To me, it was, if you haven't got anything to hide, then there's no problem giving your DNA, and I had no problems asking. The case had never, never left the thoughts of Mandy's

friends, and so two women were talking about the case and talking about what a strange person Tim Bass was. We should talk to the sheriff's office. They should look at him. To Dr. Carla Manley, you hear friends suddenly say, here's a guy who has a very odd behavior. Look at him. And the odd behavior, I don't know about any other odd behavior, but I do know. Well, actually, take a listen to this. They were supposed to get married when she graduated from high school. After Mandy was killed, he married her. It was a very sudden thing. All of a sudden, he comes to me and he's like, do you want to get married now? And so we got married. They had three children together, and he became a local delivery driver for the Franz Bakery outlet. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. He was very controlling and always told me what to do, what I could wear, what I couldn't wear, who I could talk to, who I couldn't talk to.

He didn't even call me by my name. He called me by whore. 2010, Gina had filed for a domestic violence protection order for herself and her three children. In the order, she had said that she didn't feel safe and that Tim would watch cold case TV files. When he would watch the cold case files or movies that pertain to murder, he would always say the murderer was stupid and didn't cover his tracks very well.

And he wouldn't be stupid enough to get caught. Wow. Okay. That's scary enough right there. And with a neighbor that people already think has peculiar odd behavior, the minute a murder occurs of Mandy Stavik, he suddenly gets married and moves away immediately. And I don't know about you guys, but to ask you, Wilcott, they had a wedding already planned to happen in the future. And then something goes, yeah, forget that.

Let's get married right now and move. That would concern me. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? I always say this, especially about women, trust your gut and your instinct. And so it would concern me as well. And why are you going to marry the devil on himself? Yeah, I agree.

But I find it a big red flag that they suddenly get married and move away. Now, this is even more of a red flag. Gina and Tim in their home, they asked Tim to give a DNA sample. I thought Tim would give us his DNA or he wouldn't. But if you don't ask, you don't know. And they said that they were there to collect the DNA that they had already collected from a lot of people in the area. She said that she was expecting Tim home within a few minutes. They asked him about Mandy Stavik, and he said,

oh, he looked up at the ceiling like he couldn't remember that name. That was definitely a red flag for me, which indicated to me he's obviously lying. You don't grow up in that area everybody knew what the many static case was and she ran past his house every day how would you not know it and he said oh was that was that the girl that was missing and he said they said yes it was and I said oh you know I remember she was found in the river like it was sort of a revelation

that he had brought that back to his mind he knows exactly who manik was, but he was playing it off like he didn't. Tim said he wasn't going to give us a DNA, that he didn't trust the police, which was another red flag, and by then we were out of flags. Wow, won't give a DNA sample and then pretends he doesn't know the neighbor that ran by his house every single day. Now, those are some red flags in my mind. What about it, Ashley? Red flags. Forget about red flags.

To me, it indicates, listen, he knew he was complicit. He has more information than they know at this point in time. You know, just not giving DNA, pretending you don't know a neighbor, then we have the problem. He refuses to give DNA. And under the law, at this point, they don't have enough evidence to get a warrant on Tim Bass. They can't force him to give his DNA. So they're kind of stuck until this. If something happened to my daughter, I'd want someone to help me. And the thought of her mom never having an answer of who

did that to her daughter, if I could help her find that peace, I wanted to do it. She watched him. They got a water cooler at their office. And he drank out of a plastic cup and threw it away. He threw it in the garbage in front of me, walked past into the bathroom. And I just looked in the garbage, and of me, walked past into the bathroom. And I just, I looked in the garbage and my heart was like, you know, beating out of my chest.

And I grabbed it and I put it in my desk drawer. I think I waited a little bit and then I texted Detective Bowie. I couldn't get it back to the office quick enough and down to the lab quick enough to have it tested. Wow. You're hearing co-workers of this guy, Tim Bass, speaking to ABC 2020, to Joanna Small, reporter, KIRO7 TV. Who is this person, Kim Wagner? And why does she feel she had to get Tim Bass's DNA surreptitiously, secretly? Kim was another person in the community who felt a connection to Mandy. She didn't know Mandy personally, but like I said, everyone in the community felt some kind of connection to this girl or to her family and to her story. And Kim

also has a daughter. And so she felt incredibly motivated to help the police in any way she could. This case haunted the people in Whatcom County for years, you know, nearly 30 years at that point. This is in 2017. And it was it was devastating. And Kim was someone who still thought about it every day. And so when she saw the opportunity to do something positive that could potentially end this, and she mentioned this several times to me, but in this torture for Mandy's family, she didn't hesitate. She wanted to do it immediately, which is actually very brave. And isn't it true, Joanna Small, K-I-R-O-7 TV that detectives have been following Bass around, but they couldn't get his DNA. They've been following him. I mean, we have heard of DNA being obtained off a piece of pizza. Believe it or not, in the mansion murder trial up in the D.C. area, a whole family is murdered by a guy who comes to the door pretending to deliver pizza.

Inside the scene, they find a half-eaten pizza. And they take DNA off the pizza crust. And they catch the killer. So, isn't it true, Joanna Small? They've been following Tim Bass around. And all they've got so far at this point is he's a neighbor. He refuses to give a DNA sample. Others think he has very odd and peculiar behavior and claims he didn't know Mandy, which obviously he does.

So they start following him. That's totally legal. They had, isn't it true? He would take out his trash and get rid of it? I mean, they couldn't catch him in anything, Joanna. Kim was a fairly, he kind of did the same thing every day. Therefore, you know, he wasn't stopping at restaurants. He wasn't really deviating from his routine. It was mostly work and home, and they didn't have access to his work vehicle, or he spent the majority of his routine. It was mostly work and home and they didn't have access to his work

vehicle or he spent the majority of his time. And so absolutely, yeah, they were following him around. They were attempting to catch him in, I don't know, I would call it like a slip, just something different and to no avail. That really wasn't happening. And to make it even more difficult, we learned that he would pack up his trash and burn it he never left dna out like on a soda bottle or a plastic fork it just didn't happen to george skiro joining me dna expert with scales biological laboratory george how do you get dna off for instance a plastic cup well to get some dna off a cup, it's relatively simple. You just take a swab, a sterile swab, cotton swab, just like a Q-tip, moisten it with some

distilled water, swab the area, the mouth area, take that, let it air dry, package it, and send it away to be analyzed. It's that simple. That simple. You know, we hear of stories like this, but in this case, it's true. A co-worker decides to help out, doesn't really even know Mandy Stavik, and she gets the DNA. And then this. I'm Bill Elfo, the Whatcom County Sheriff. On November 24, 1989, at 1.50 p.m., 18-year-old Amanda Stavik, also known as Mandy, left home on the Strand Road out in the Acme Valley to go jogging with the family dog.

The dog returned home several hours later, but Mandy did not. Following an exhaustive search, Mandy's body was found in the south fork of the Nooksack River. The investigation into the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Mandy Stavik has remained a top priority for the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Over the course of the last 28-plus years, hundreds of leads emerged and were systematically investigated. Among the potential suspects that emerged in recent years was Timothy Forrest Bass. Deputies forwarded DNA samples from Mr. Bass to the Washington State Crime Laboratory, who reported to us that his DNA matched the DNA recovered from Mandy's body in 1989. Bass was

arrested by the Sheriff's Office detectives on December 12th yesterday on suspicion of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and first-degree rape. You are hearing Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo announcing first-degree kidnapping, murder, and rape charges on Tim Bass. But isn't it true, Joanna Small, he claimed they had a consensual sex relationship. Yeah, that was the basis entirely for how Tim tried to explain things, which was unbelievable to everyone who knew Tim and Mandy. How did prosecutors disprove that? Well, it was very much a character analysis.

Every single person that they put on the stand who was speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Mandy's friends and family, were asked the question, did Mandy and Tim ever interact? And every single person said no. And Timothy Bass himself never took the stand to answer for that. And so there was no one to speak to the fact that he could have possibly had a consensual sexual relationship with Mandy Savick. And they did put his brother on the stand, which really worked in the favor of the prosecution, because even his own brother found it unbelievable that this ever would have occurred. And he recalled a conversation that he had had with Tim about that secret, like that secret consensual sexual relationship where Tim had mentioned to

him that he was concerned because police were going to find his DNA in Mandy. And that was, that was right after he had refused to give his DNA sample. He told his brother that he was concerned because he admitted he had had sex with Mandy and they had been keeping their relationship a secret. And it had happened over the Thanksgiving break, which would explain why his DNA was found in her. So that's quite the coincidence

that he suddenly reveals a, quote, sexual relationship with this teen girl right after she goes missing. Okay. And then just the character analysis that you are describing, plus no evidence of any interaction between these two, no dates, nothing like that. In fact, he claimed he didn't even know her. Also, she had a boyfriend and he had a fiance. Isn't that right, Joanna? Yeah, they were both in relationships. Rick Sender was kind of an on-again, off-again boyfriend,

but they both went to Central Washington University, and they had reconnected. They were high school sweethearts. And he's actually the person who drove her home for Thanksgiving. And so they not only planned to continue seeing each other at school in Ellensburg, but they were going to spend time together over Thanksgiving break. He was close with her family. And so it would have been extremely out of character for her to be interacting with a man,

a neighbor who she'd never had any contact with in high school or any contact with, even in those first few months of college. They didn't go to school together. Mandy had only come home a few times. And so there was absolutely nothing that connected the two of them. The case goes to trial, and then this. We, the jury, find the defendant, Timothy Forrest Bass, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged in count one. You know, I'm very curious, too.

Joanna Small with KIRO7 TV. The sentence was 320 months. That's almost 27 years. Why not longer? There was not an aggravated count of murder in this particular case. There wasn't a murder weapon identified. As someone else in the panel had mentioned, she had a deep bruise on the top of her head. And they said the birdie in thesy, the coroner had said the bruise could have potentially caused unconsciousness, but there was never any kind of weapon identified. So it wasn't an aggravated murder charge. And ironically, or maybe sadly, he will spend less time in prison than the number of years it took to find him as the killer.

Wait a minute. Are you telling me that the fact that she was raped does not aggravate the murder? They actually, because of, they couldn't technically charge him with rape statute of limitations. So they had officially dropped that charge and he was found guilty of first degree murder. So he was not convicted on rape? He was not convicted on rape, but as everybody described the crime and even from the prosecutor's office, it was considered a rape and murder. But he wasn't convicted on a separate rape charge. So because they couldn't identify a weapon and rape statutorily could not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations, it was a flat out murder, not an aggravated murder. And therefore, he did not get life. He got 320 months, about 27 years. That's correct. There's an aggravated murder and therefore he did not get life he got 320 months about 27 years there's an

aggravated murder statute in the state of Washington and that elevates things and so it was I don't want to say it was disappointing because they knew the family knew going into this about the maximum sentence he could receive so they were prepared prepared. And so the case went unsolved as long as the sentence, and he is set to walk free potentially in 2036. That's just in 16 years. Question, Joanna Small, how did Tim Bass hide in plain sight all these years? Well, Tim immediately left the community. As you mentioned, he got married to his fiance, who was only 18. She was only 18 years old at the time. It was a rushed marriage. And they just left. And Tim was a very routine person. He had a mundane job. He didn't have a lot of hobbies. He didn't socialize.

He kept entirely to himself. His mother lived with he and Gina Malone, who is his ex-wife now, for quite some time. And Tim didn't raise any suspicions because he was just private. And maybe he had stuck around Strand Road, but apparently he knew better than that and left immediately. How old was he at the time of the murder? He was 21. So he was three years older than Mandy, and he was three years ahead of her in school, which is why he had initially claimed he didn't remember her, didn't know her.

Justice delayed, but not denied. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.