30-Year-Old Rape/Murder Case Solved in Most Unusual Way

ABC Mandy Stavik, ABC's Nightline

Over 30 years ago, teenager Amanda “Mandy” Stavik disappeared while out for a run in her rural Washington town. Her body was later discovered in a nearby river. Ahead of 20/20’s rebroadcast of the episode about how her murder was solved 30 years later, here’s what you need to know about the crime and how her killer was finally apprehended.

Stavik Was Sexually Assaulted and Murdered in 1989

On November 24, 1989, 18-year-old Stavik was home from college for Thanksgiving when she went out for a run near her home in Acme, Washington, and did not return. At trial, Mandy’s mother Mary testified that after several hours, the family became concerned and called the sheriff’s office. Three days later, her nude body was found three miles away in the Nooksack River.

A number of neighbors, including Judy Strachila, Brad Gorum, and Jeremy Anderson, testified they saw Mandy during different parts of her run, according to the Bellingham Herald. And a man who helped the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office with search and rescue, Allen Pratt, testified that he noticed Mandy’s dog, Kyra, who had gone with Mandy on her run and returned home without her, was “cowering with her tail tucked when he got to the Stavik residence” and that there was silt from the river on the dog’s hindquarters.

Two Moms Chatting About the Case Gave Police a Lead

According to CBS News, in June 2013, two women, Heather Backstrom and Merrilee Anderson, who had attended the same high school as Stavik, took their children to a local waterpark and got to talking about Stavik’s unsolved murder because it was something that had rocked their small, tight-knit community.

Suddenly Backstrom blurted out that she knew who did it and Anderson said she did too. They exchanged stories and discovered they were talking about the same man, Timothy Bass.

Anderson told CBS News that Bass was a friend of her husband’s and that one night a few years after Stavik’s death, he came to their house and made sexual advances toward her. Backstrom said she had a similar experience with Bass a few months before Stavik’s murder when she was just 15 and Bass was 21.

After this conversation, Anderson contacted a fellow classmate of theirs who worked for the Whatcom Sheriff’s Office and told him about their suspicions of Bass, which is what led to an investigation.

Bass’ Co-Worker Kim Wagner Helped Get the Crucial Evidence Against Him

According to ABC News, when authorities began investigating Bass, his wife at the time, Gina Malone, told them he was very controlling and that he also loved to watch true crime shows and say that he “wouldn’t be stupid enough to get caught.”

When police questioned him, he claimed he couldn’t remember who Stavik was, which police found suspicious because, in that small community, everybody knew about Stavik’s case. Plus, Bass had lived a few houses down from the Stavik family at the time of Stavik’s murder. Lastly, he refused to give the police a DNA sample to compare to the DNA found at the crime scene. Sheriff Bill Elfo told ABC News that that shot Bass to the top of the suspect list.

In 2013, investigators went to Bass’ workplace, a bakery outlet store, in the hopes of obtaining a DNA sample from his delivery truck. The manager, Kim Wagner, directed them to the company’s human resources department and didn’t think too much of it because they hadn’t given her any specifics about the investigation.

At that time, the police couldn’t get a DNA sample because the company wanted a search warrant and they didn’t have probable cause for a warrant.

But several years later, Wagner and her husband and some friends were talking about Bass and it came up that he used to live on the same street as the Stavik family.

“This light went off in my head and I thought, ‘Is that why the police were at my work?'” Wagner said. The next time police came around asking about Bass’ delivery routes, she offered to help them get a DNA sample.

“Tim basically took his trash home,” Det. Kevin Bowhay said. “He didn’t leave any chance that somebody would find something.”

While police had to decline Wagner’s offer because they couldn’t enlist a civilian in an investigation, they did tell her they could accept evidence brought to them, so Wagner watched Bass until one day he threw away a water cup at work in 2017.

“I looked in the garbage and my heart was like…beating out of my chest,” Wagner told ABC News. “I grabbed it and I put it in my desk drawer. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. That just happened.'”

When authorities tested the cup, Bass’ DNA matched the DNA taken from Stavik’s body. During the investigation, Bass claimed it was because he and Stavik had been having a secret relationship, but the only person who could have corroborated those claims was Bass’ father, who had died.

Malone, who was still Bass’ wife at this point, initially gave him an alibi, which she later rescinded, telling police that he asked her to lie for him and she couldn’t tell the truth until she felt safe.

“What do you say to someone like that? Like, you have to be careful about what you say. I felt like I just had to agree with everything he’s saying because if I don’t, I could be next. … I wasn’t a strong person back then. … I was very weak but I should’ve gone with my gut instinct,” said Malone.

On May 24, 2019, a jury convicted Bass of murder in the first degree. The rape charge had been thrown out due to the statute of limitations expiring. Bass was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

20/20 airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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