00:00:11
[CAMERA CLICKS] MOLLY: I probably took
that picture of Mandy and our younger brother Lee.
00:00:20
This has got to be
up in Palmer, Alaska, in the wintertime, in the snow. We loved to play
in the snow and ride horses.
00:00:36
It was neat. That wintertime in Alaska,
we'd tie a sled to my horse. We'd ride around the yard,
taking turns pulling
00:00:46
each other on the sled. It was a lot of fun. My sister loved animals,
and she loved cats and horses.
00:01:00
It was our one thing
that we really connected with was with horses. And cats. Horses and cats were our thing.
00:01:09
Mandy was a very
confident and happy kid. She had lots of friends,
and she was very active.
00:01:18
DOUG: Mandy's personality,
I would say vivacious. She was a hard worker
at everything she did.
00:01:25
When she committed
to something, she really committed
to it, and-- and succeeded at so much
of what she did too.
00:01:36
MOLLY: The day after
Thanksgiving, on November 24th, 1989, Mandy left with
Kyra, our German shepherd,
00:01:44
for her run down to the end
of the road and back, down to the river. Mandy never came home.
00:01:53
KEN: She would have
fought off attackers, so we believe
that it would have to been through force,
like a weapon of some type,
00:02:00
to get her into the vehicle
to kidnap her. Mandy's dog was
very protective, but if the dog is overcome
by force or weapon,
00:02:09
was forced away from her,
I think the dog would have not been able to defend her.
00:02:15
MOLLY: My mom was
calling everybody. She called all of her
friends, and they didn't know where she was.
00:02:21
Mandy's not someone who
would just take off. We knew there had
to be foul play. DAVE: We did have leads, but
they never really materialized
00:02:31
into any real prime suspects. BRYANNA: Typically,
the victim and the offender will know each other.
00:02:38
There's a relationship. But when that doesn't
exist, police have almost nothing to go off of.
00:02:44
DAVE: And it was
an investigation that just went on for-- well, for 28 years. MOLLY: I mean,
she was so close.
00:02:53
How can she disappear
that close to home? We were all just broken. I mean, this shouldn't
have happened.
00:03:29
It's a picture
of Mandy and I and my older sister, Mary Alice,
who had just graduated.
00:03:36
That was a happy day. Mary Alice is seven
years older than I am, which means she's 10
years older than Mandy.
00:03:48
Mandy was born in Anchorage,
Alaska on April 16th, 1971. Back then, we were just
kind of your normal family.
00:04:01
Mom was home and Dad worked. In 1974, my parents
divorced, and my mom moved out
and took with her Mandy
00:04:13
and left me and Mary, Alice and
Brent with our father, Glenn. In 1983, My family moved
to Washington from Alaska.
00:04:40
DOUG: Acme is a safe
place to raise a family. It's a rural community. A lot of people live on farms
down in the Acme Valley.
00:04:52
Probably populated by what
you might call hippies, a little bit back to the Earth.
00:05:02
MOLLY: In 1983, Bandy joined
Mount Baker High School. DOUG: Mount Baker high
school in the '80s definitely
00:05:10
had big hair. It was a close-knit school. Everyone wanted to go
to the football games,
00:05:16
everyone wanted
to go to the dances, and it was quite a community. I was Mandy Stavik's
band director.
00:05:24
In 1983, Mandy joined band,
and she played saxophone. She was really vivacious,
really paying attention.
00:05:37
She very quickly
made a lot of friends and kept those friends
throughout high school.
00:05:43
MOLLY: Mandy was amazing. She was very active
in high school. She did just about every
sport she could think of.
00:05:53
And my mom would kind
of joke with her, and she's like, you can't
do softball and basketball.
00:06:00
She's like, oh, watch me. She was popular. She was bubbly. She was happy, very friendly.
00:06:09
She would make people
feel comfortable. People kind
of gravitated to her. In 1989, Mandy graduated
from Mount Baker High School,
00:06:24
and then, in the fall,
she went to Central Washington University. DOUG: Mandy was ready
to take on the world.
00:06:34
She just had everything
going for her, and she knew where
she wanted to go, and she was ready to pursue it.
00:06:55
MOLLY: Mandy and her
roommate came home from Central to spend
the Thanksgiving holiday
00:07:01
with the family. I remember hearing her talk
with my mom about, you know, school and how much fun
she's having and, you know,
00:07:10
her plans. But right now, she
was more focused on who she was going to get
together with and reconnect
00:07:17
with after Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving,
on November 24th, Mandy had stayed
at the house, and
00:07:31
she hung out with her friend. In the morning, we all ate
leftovers, had pumpkin pie,
00:07:37
and her and her roommate were
going to go for a walk first, and then, after
their walk, Mandy
00:07:44
was going to go for a run. And they were going to get
ready for, you know, a movie or whatever.
00:07:51
Mandy left with Kyra,
our German shepherd, down to the end of the road
and back, down to the river
00:07:59
Probably four
to five miles total. It's kind of a straight
shot to the river and back.
00:08:04
It was an easy, flat run,
and she did it all the time. I do remember my mom
calling me and
00:08:23
telling me that Mandy was
missing, and I was just like, what? She goes, yeah, Mandy, she went
for a run and didn't come home.
00:08:36
And Kyra the dog just returned,
but she was not herself. I want to say that
she might even have
00:08:44
been limping a little bit. My mom called
the police immediately. [PHONE RINGING]
00:08:53
[SIREN WAILING] KEVIN: Being a police
officer means to me, serving the community and just making
the community safer for myself
00:09:04
and my family to live in. I started out as an explorer
with the Bellingham Police,
00:09:10
and I was hired
by the sheriff's office in January of '89. I also attended Mount
Baker High School,
00:09:19
just like Mandy did. Once Mandy was
reported missing, search and rescue
was called out.
00:09:30
KEN: I was 17. We all hung out with Mandy. We all knew Mandy. I was attending the same
school that she did,
00:09:36
Mount Baker High School,
and our dads helped, I recall. Schoolmates helped. Because it was
not a normal thing
00:09:45
that happened in that area,
for a girl to go missing. KEVIN: Mandy started at her
house, which is behind me,
00:09:52
and then ran in this direction. A lot of the times,
her mom would ride her bicycle with Mandy.
00:09:59
She just didn't happen
to be riding that day. DAVE: And they told me right
away that this young woman
00:10:06
was missing. They were really very
fearful that something had happened to her. Mandy was seen
by a number of people
00:10:13
between 2:30 and 3
o'clock, and she was coming back to her house. A friend of hers
had seen her running
00:10:20
and had pulled into a house and
was waiting for her to run by, and she never did.
00:10:28
KEN: We know that her brother
Lee saw her at a residence just down the road
from her house.
00:10:35
We believe that
she was abducted between the last time she
was saw by her brother Lee,
00:10:41
and between her house. DAVE: Mandy's dog
had come home alone, and the dog was covered with
silt on its hind quarters
00:10:57
and looked like it had gone
through a traumatic event. KEVIN: The neighbors
and communities got together.
00:11:03
There was 15 or 20
people that searched the roadway,
the railroad tracks, the area within
the home, and the route
00:11:12
that Mandy normally ran. The resources to look for Mandy
were citizens, family, friends, horses,
helicopters, and
00:11:25
they had a boat in the river. DAVE: We had a human tracker
that went out that night,
00:11:33
and he was trained to look
at dirt alongside the road, and he found traces
of a car stopped and
00:11:41
a person got
in on the passenger side, and alongside
the vehicle was a ditch, and it was filled
with water and silt.
00:11:50
The family dog was
cowering and wouldn't come with the tracker to go down. So we felt that she had
been taken at that location.
00:11:58
We thought the dog had
been kicked into the ditch, and that's why the dog
had silt on it.
00:12:04
MOLLY: As a family, we didn't
have any information other than you know, that she's
missing and they're looking,
00:12:09
but they-- you know, they
did keep us up to date, obviously, but-- - I seem to kind of wave
between total denial
00:12:18
and hysteria, and-- and I haven't been able
to sleep, and I just-- I mean, you know, you
remember all the things
00:12:27
you read in the paper,
the Ted Bundy and the Green
River killings and all of these terrible things.
00:12:35
And all you can think of is,
it doesn't happen to you. It doesn't happen
here on Strand Road.
00:12:43
But it did. MOLLY: We kept hoping. You want to hope for the best. And, of course, that
didn't work out well.
00:13:09
[SIREN WAILS] KEVIN: Mandy's body was found
on November 27th of 1989 in the South Fork River.
00:13:22
DAVE: The officers had
been searching the river, walking all up
and down the banks,
00:13:27
and they had a patrol boat
that had gone down the river, and the patrol boat
spotted her body.
00:13:35
KEVIN: Mandy's body
was found right here. She was facing down river,
outstretched, face down.
00:13:42
She had tennis shoes
and socks, and a watch on, and that was it. DAVE: We could tell
by looking at the body
00:13:51
that she had not been carried
very far down the river. So we felt that she had
been deposited there
00:14:01
and had looked as though
she had drowned, and it would have been very
close to where we found her.
00:14:13
KEVIN: One of the hardest
parts of the job is notifying family
members that their loved
00:14:18
one has passed or died. MOLLY: I was at home with
my mom, kind of waiting, and the police
arrived and let us
00:14:31
know that they found her body. I was shattered. I was just absolutely
floored and shattered.
00:14:44
I was mad that
this was happening. I remember running out
into the field behind our house
00:14:54
and just screaming, just
guttural, as loud as I can and as long as I could. Just-- just anger,
like at everything.
00:15:09
At God.
Why? You know, how could
He let something like this happen to us? DOUG: On Monday, after school,
we had another staff meeting,
00:15:19
and we kind of knew
it might be bad news. And we went
to the meeting, and it was announced by our principal
that Mandy's body
00:15:31
had been found. It was devastating
to find out she had died. Such a vibrant young lady
seemingly for no reason,
00:15:43
had died. It was a very somber moment. There were people crying, just
total shock for everybody.
00:16:00
KEN: When Mandy's body was
removed from the crime scene, she was taken to the Whatcom
County Medical Examiner's
00:16:05
Office, where she was
examined thoroughly by the medical examiner. KEVIN: They found scratches
on her legs, which
00:16:14
indicated she had run through
the brush in an attempt to get away. DAVE: We believe she
was trying to escape
00:16:21
and was running through
blackberry bushes. We also discovered
a hematoma, which is bleeding under
the scalp, and
00:16:29
it was on the top and right
side of her skull. That was examined
very carefully.
00:16:36
KEVIN: This large
bruise indicated she was struck
or hit, and they found water in her lungs, which
indicated that she had drowned.
00:16:46
DAVE: And it appeared
that she was just allowed to flow
with the stream, and then was caught
up with the branches
00:16:51
where we found her body. Our medical examiner also
determined that Mandy had been sexually assaulted.
00:16:59
MOLLY: It made me feel sad
that she had to endure that. Angry that it happened. She was probably terrified
and running for her life.
00:17:19
KEN: The crime scene where
Mandy's body was found was important
to preserve evidence
00:17:24
in the form of footprints
in the sand, to do canvas of the area
for clothing or objects
00:17:30
or anything to that effect. At that time in 1989, DNA
was a new testing program that the FBI was doing, mostly.
00:17:40
DAVE: The FBI worked with
us in the laboratory and the sheriff's office
and came up initially
00:17:46
with a couple of suspects. And I got search
warrants for them, and we cleared them
through DNA analysis,
00:17:53
and we eliminated them
from the investigation. We checked all
the sex offenders,
00:18:00
and the officers are going door
to door and checking on people and looking for anyone that
could possibly be a suspect.
00:18:06
This went on for a long time. We had a number of people that
they were looking at initially.
00:18:16
BRYANNA: There was
a lot of suspicion by police that this
murder was committed by the Green River
Killer, who was later
00:18:23
identified as Gary Ridgway. The Green River
Killer would prey on women running
in rural areas,
00:18:31
on trails outside of Seattle. He would attack them,
rape, and murder them. It's exactly what
happened in this case.
00:18:39
The exact same pattern with
the exact same time frame. There was a lot that would
link this case to this very
00:18:45
infamous serial killer. This very plausible lead that
the Green River Killer had
00:18:51
actually just
moved a little bit and had actually
been responsible for the murder in this case
didn't end up panning out,
00:18:59
because the DNA found
in Mandy's body and DNA found in the other victims' bodies
of the Green River Killer
00:19:06
were not the same. KEN: I believe the case was
held back by lack of evidence. You have biological evidence
in the form of semen.
00:19:16
However, we have no way
to test that or compare that against people at that time.
00:19:22
So it was very important
to preserve that evidence for future testing. DOUG: After finding out
that Mandy had died,
00:19:37
we were all devastated. You know, from 7th graders
to 12th graders in this little tight-knit community.
00:19:45
DAVE: The whole community was
really impacted by this murder, and to think that a beautiful
young girl who was so
00:19:53
filled with promise could
be abducted, raped, and then killed was just shocking.
00:19:59
MOLLY: Mandy's death
destroyed my mom. Absolutely. Losing a child is
just unimaginable.
00:20:08
And part of her
was killed, too. My mom, who is 88
now, she's starting to have signs of dementia.
00:20:23
As far as memories
of Mandy, her forgetting that is, in my opinion,
maybe a good thing,
00:20:31
because memories
of Mandy are painful, and I don't want
her to be in pain. Mandy's funeral took place
at the high school auditorium.
00:20:54
It was a packed house. There were so many
people there. It was just crazy. DOUG: Mandy had been
on that stage many times.
00:21:06
I had our jazz band, of which
Mandy had been a member. The jazz band played a song
at this memorial service,
00:21:14
and we played "Here's
That Rainy Day". I remember the song
real clearly. It just seemed appropriate.
00:21:29
KEN: The investigation
turned to, who haven't we talked
to in this area? They continued talking
to classmates, old boyfriends,
00:21:39
people that lived in the area,
people that committed violent crimes, and nothing was
coming to the forefront of who
00:21:47
did this to Mandy Stavik. BRYANNA: But investigators
never let it go. In fact, many detectives
had pictures of Mandy
00:21:55
on their desks,
because they didn't want to forget this
victim, and remembering we
00:22:01
have to keep working this. And they did. In fact, investigators
in this case kept writing to the FBI,
asking, were there any updates?
00:22:10
Did they rerun the DNA
and find any hits? But, unfortunately, none
of those ever panned out.
00:22:17
KEVIN: As time progressed,
it felt like this case would go unresolved. Mandy's family
was kept appraised
00:22:26
of the status of the case,
as well as letting them know that we
had not given up
00:22:33
and that it was still
assigned to somebody. MOLLY: As time went on,
people started losing interest
00:22:39
and it wasn't quite
such a big story, and I didn't think they
would ever find him.
00:22:47
And in some ways, I
kind of put it away. KEVIN: I was assigned
as a primary investigator
00:23:07
to Mandy Stavik in 2007. I feel a case that
happened 20 years ago versus just happening
are equally important,
00:23:20
and I had the opportunity,
because of my seniority, to pick which cold case
I wanted to work on,
00:23:27
and I purposely chose the Mandy
Stavi case, not only because I went to Mount Baker, but
because it was in my community
00:23:36
and I felt that I had
something to give. DAVE: By this time, we had
a huge mass of reports,
00:23:45
7,000 pages of reports. Kevin Bowhay took all of the
reports, sat down with me, and he organized those.
00:23:53
KEVIN: I had it spread
out over my living room, and reorganized it regarding
persons of interest.
00:24:02
There were still
20 to 30 people that needed to be contacted,
as well as one person
00:24:10
needed to be followed up on. I visited Mandy's family
on several occasions, as well as making
phone calls to let
00:24:21
them know that I
was still assigned, and that I was not
going to give up. MOLLY: Every couple
of years or so they
00:24:29
would touch base with us
and say, hey, you know, we haven't forgotten. We're still looking, you know.
00:24:44
KEVIN: The only
evidence that we were able to recover
from the scene was DNA evidence found
on her body, which
00:24:52
we were able to preserve. So we started out
doing DNA sweeps of individuals that
lived in this area
00:25:01
or were registered
sex offenders. In 2010, myself
and an FBI agent traveled to Cambodia
to interview
00:25:12
a suspect in this case. His DNA was collected. However, it did not match that
that was left on Mandy's body.
00:25:24
KEN: In 2012, I asked the lead
detective, Kevin Bowhay, if I could review the case.
00:25:30
My belief was that it
could be a local person. As far as the DNA not
coming back into the system,
00:25:37
either the person hasn't
been caught for another crime or the person
hasn't been booked.
00:25:41
In 2013, a schoolmate
of mine came to me and said she had
some information to tell me of some
suspicious happenings
00:25:51
to her that may be
in aligned with what happened to Mandy Stavik. DAVE: It was during
the summer, a number
00:25:59
of women were at a water
park in Whatcom County. One of the women
said, you know,
00:26:04
one person I thought could
have been involved in this was Timothy Bass,
and she described
00:26:09
an incident she
had with Bass where he had tried to grope her. The other woman said she
had a similar experience.
00:26:17
He had come to her house,
wanted a glass of water, then refused to leave
unless he had sex with her,
00:26:23
and so she said she finally
had to throw him out and was really concerned. So they said, you
know, we should
00:26:28
go to the sheriff's office and
tell them that he is someone that should be looked at.
00:26:37
KEVIN: Both of the women
that came forward described him as being
odd, antisocial,
00:26:45
and sexually aggressive. DAVE: We looked
at Tim Bass and found that his family lived
on the same road
00:26:54
that Mandy always ran on. She would run by his
house every day. They realized right
after this murder,
00:27:01
he had moved out of the area to
another city in Whatcom County, and had not been involved
in the search for her.
00:27:10
KEVIN: Detective
Ken Gates knew Tim. He was friends
with Tim's brother. So Ken Gates and I went
out to Tim Bass's house.
00:27:26
KEN: During that contact,
it was very odd to me. He claimed he
didn't remember who
00:27:31
Mandy Stavik was,
even though it was a huge case for the community. It was odd to me that he
would make that statement.
00:27:38
DAVE: We knew from
other people that he had watched her play basketball. She was a star basketball
player in high school.
00:27:45
So the fact that he
said he didn't know her was really suspect. KEVIN: He kind of looked
up at the ceiling
00:27:51
and repeated Mandy's
name a couple of times, saying, Mandy, Mandy. Kind of like
pretending to search
00:27:59
for who she might be, and then
made the comment, oh, yeah, she's the gal that they
found in the river, right?
00:28:06
KEN: We asked Tim ass at that
time, in October of 2013, for his DNA sample. He refused.
00:28:13
He did mention that
he watched crime shows and saw innocent
people go to jail. We left his house knowing that
that was his frame of mind.
00:28:23
BRYANNA: Now, that could be
a sign that he is guilty, but it could also be a sign
that this is someone who wants
00:28:30
their civil rights respected. KEVIN: So the next
step was to see if we could get a DNA sample
from his place of employment.
00:28:46
KEN: We went to his work
and asked management, and they did not give us
permission to do that.
00:28:52
They advised to seek a warrant. KEVIN: At this stage
of the investigation, we did not have enough
evidence to put Tim with Mandy,
00:29:01
therefore a judge would
not have issued a warrant. So that was not an option. From 2013 to 2017, we
kept an eye on Bass.
00:29:13
We even went out and followed
Tim during his delivery route, waiting for him
to discard an item which
00:29:22
would have had DNA on it. Unfortunately, he never
discarded an item, and he wore a rubber gloves.
00:29:31
MOLLY: The impact
of Mandy's murder affected our whole family. It made me more guarded,
more skeptical of people.
00:29:41
It just made me less trusting. I worried about my daughter
and wanting her to be careful.
00:29:46
I know that they were
still working on it and they didn't
have a lot to go on, but it just-- it
was frustrating.
00:30:03
KEVIN: In August of 2017, we
had followed Tim on his route, and his supervisor
made the statement,
00:30:12
well, I know what you want. You want Tim's DNA. And she said that she
could get his DNA.
00:30:21
She told me that she had
a cup which he had drank from, as well as a Coke
can that she had
00:30:28
collected out of the garbage,
which he threw away. So I collected
the can and the cup
00:30:37
to have it shipped down
to the state crime lab. In December of 2017, I
got back to the office,
00:30:45
and my coworker
had stated that he had gotten an email from the
state crime lab wanting to know
00:30:55
what my phone number was. I called the state crime
lab, and she said, Kevin, just wanted to let
you know that the DNA
00:31:04
matched that of Tim Bass's. KEN: And Kevin Bowhay
contacted me and said, Ken, we got a match.
00:31:15
KEVIN: It was like
winning the lottery. I was in shock and disbelief,
but in the same sense,
00:31:22
I was relieved
and-- and ecstatic. DAVE: I was extremely
happy when I got that call.
00:31:30
We had worked for 28
years in this case, and we did everything
we could possibly
00:31:34
think of to-- to solve it. KEN: Now the next steps
were to, OK, what has he done in the last 28 years?
00:31:44
[SIREN WAILING] We developed a strategy
to arrest Tim Bass. We did not want to have
an incident at his house,
00:32:01
because he had children. He had his wife. So it was decided
that we would take him down at his place of work.
00:32:09
KEVIN: We drove out to Tim's
place of employment. It was about 8 o'clock
in the morning.
00:32:17
He was walking from
the warehouse to his truck. We stepped in front of him. I asked him, do
you remember me?
00:32:27
And he said, yes. He looked at us and said,
well, what's going on? What's this about?
00:32:33
And I said, well, I believe
you know what this is about. And he was arrested. MOLLY: It was in the afternoon.
00:32:48
I was in the living room
when I got the phone call, and he said, we found
Mandy's murderer.
00:33:04
And the ironic thing was
it was my mom's birthday. We were notified
on my mom's birthday.
00:33:12
Her 81st birthday,
December 12th, 2017. It's like, man, what
a birthday present.
00:33:26
DOUG: I was in the band room
at Mount Baker High School. I checked my email, and I
saw that they had arrested
00:33:34
someone in Mandy's case. First thing I see as I
scroll up is Mandy's picture, and I just jumped away
from the computer,
00:33:45
because I was not
expecting that. It brought so many
feelings back about the time when
she had disappeared
00:33:55
and throughout all those years
when nothing was happening. And then all of a sudden,
someone was arrested.
00:34:03
And it was a hopeful
moment, but it was shocking. It was shocking to me. KEN: Tim Bass was brought
into the station, where
00:34:17
detectives interviewed him. - And he denied everything. KEVIN: We asked him
if he ever dated Mandy.
00:34:45
He said no, that he
had never dated her, he never had any
sexual relationship with her, that he just
watched her basketball games.
00:34:56
KEN: When Tim Bass was
notified that his DNA was a match to the semen, it was
almost like he was trying
00:35:03
to think of another story. KEN: He engaged
in conversation. Again, at first saying
he didn't know much
00:35:26
about the case, didn't
know Mandy at all, but ultimately ended up
saying that he had some type
00:35:31
of relationship with her. KEN: Tim was asked about dating
her, what they did on dates.
00:35:49
Did they come to her house? Did-- did she
come to his house? Locking him into a story
to try to take him back to 1989
00:35:56
to see where he
was at the time. MOLLY: There's no
way that she would even give him the time of day.
00:36:35
Maybe in his-- you
know, his dreams. There's no way. It was just laughable
that he would say that.
00:36:44
KEVIN: We knew this was a lie. When we pressed him
on, well, do you know why Mandy was going to school?
00:36:59
KEVIN: He had no idea
why, which proved that they had no relationship. Otherwise, they
would have talked
00:37:06
about whether she was enjoying
college, whether she wasn't. He had no idea of any
part of her life.
00:37:30
DAVE: I knew by the evidence
we had, we had probable cause, and I felt we had enough
evidence to convict him.
00:37:36
And so it didn't matter to me
at that point what he did say. KEVIN: Once we were
done talking with him,
00:37:42
Tim was booked
on charged with murder as well as rape and kidnapping. KEN: After Tim
Bass was arrested,
00:37:52
we discovered that
he didn't have much of a criminal history. He was pretty squeaky clean
as far as criminal activity.
00:38:01
DAVE: I was going to retire
at the end of 2018, but I'd worked on the case
for, at that point, 29 years,
00:38:09
and I really wanted
to see it concluded. So I came back and tried
it in May of 2019.
00:38:16
It was an extremely
important case, so I was very, very happy. In fact, I did it
as a volunteer.
00:38:33
MOLLY: When Mandy's
murder trial began., I did go to most of it,
but there was a lot that I
00:38:41
just could not sit through. I didn't want to see
autopsy photos. They showed everything.
00:38:52
It was horrible. I don't think
my mom did either. I think when that
happened, we just said,
00:38:57
no, we can't do this. DAVE: The focus,
of course, was DNA, but we built up a lot
of attended facts.
00:39:07
We showed where he was living. We could show the access
he had to Mandy. We could show that some of the
stories that he told officers
00:39:16
were not true. We could show
by the timeline that he moved to a different
city when we
00:39:23
were right in the middle
of the investigation, and we felt that he
was trying to get
00:39:27
out of sight, out of mind. We could show the other
involvement he had with women.
00:39:33
So we had a variety of things
that circumstantially pointed to him. And then, of course, we had
the DNA, which was irrefutable.
00:39:43
His brother also provided
some information. He showed that Tim
was wanting him to lie and give
him an alibi, which
00:39:51
his brother refused to do. MOLLY: The first
time that I saw Tim at the trial, my feelings
were anger, disgust
00:40:03
that he got to spend
the last 28 years free after doing what he did. I was mad. I was angry.
00:40:16
DAVE: I met with Mandy's family
on a number of occasions. We really tried to keep real
close contact with them.
00:40:23
They're extremely
nice people, and we really wanted them to
understand what we were doing.
00:40:30
MOLLY: He maintained
his innocence. When we were sitting in court
listening to Tim Bass lie,
00:40:36
blatantly lie, it was-- it was infuriating. We knew he was lying. KEVIN: I was a little concerned
that he may get away with it,
00:40:59
but in my heart
of hearts, I knew that the jury would be able
to put everything together and
00:41:06
come up with a guilty plea. KEN: On May 24th, 2019,
Tim Bass was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
00:41:17
DAVE: The judge gave
him the maximum, and we hoped that
that's enough, that he would never, ever get
out and see the light of
00:41:23
day again. KEN: After the trial,
we met with the family. They were delighted,
overwhelmed,
00:41:31
emotional about the verdict
and the sentencing of Tim Bass. MOLLY: Seeing Tim being
sentenced was quite a relief.
00:41:41
We were very appreciative
to all of the juries. We said thank you to every
single one of them.
00:41:48
I will never be able
to forgive Tim Bass for what he did to my sister. Never. I hope the guy rots in jail.
00:42:01
DOUG: I was
in the same room that I used to teach Mandy in when
I found out the verdict.
00:42:07
I cried. I just burst into tears. KEN: This case made it
more personal because I
00:42:14
went to school with her. Mandy was a smart
person, always nice to me, always nice to people.
00:42:24
The last memory I have of Mandy
is walking down the aisle during graduation. MOLLY: What happened to Mandy
broke my mom's heart,
00:42:39
and I've seen her cry
on several occasions. And me too. We've cried together, you
know, in response to that.
00:42:51
It's difficult. DOUG: Over the years,
the murder of Mandy meant less to the kids
because they
00:43:03
were so young when Mandy died. The one place that we would get
discussion going, in the band
00:43:11
room at Mount Baker, there's
a plaque with Mandy's picture, and kids periodically would
ask, what's this all about?
00:43:18
So we'd tell the story then. MOLLY: Our biggest
connection was our horses. We would ride.
00:43:27
We would ride together,
and that was really cool. That was fun. Yeah, she was a great rider.
00:43:33
She was definitely
an All-American girl. KEVIN: I really question
whether justice is ever
00:43:42
served when somebody's
killed or murdered, but I'm glad that Mandy's
story is still alive
00:43:49
and that her memory is-- is still in everyone's
heart and on their minds. MOLLY: If I could say
one last thing to Mandy,
00:44:05
it was just to let her
know that I love her. You don't always say it. You know, it's kind
of an assumed thing,
00:44:12
but it'd be nice to be able
to tell her that I loved her. [THEME MUSIC]