Where is Timothy Bass Now? We discuss the murder of Mandy Stavik, a true crime that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
Old cold cases are finding that new techniques can provide further evidence that can help solve them. Advances in DNA technology and investigative genetic genealogy are being used to help investigators finally solve some of the most terrible crimes, even from decades ago.
One such crime occurred in 1989. Mandy Stavik was an outgoing and adventurous eighteen-year-old. She was an accomplished sports enthusiast and also studied language and music. After graduation, Mandy would arrive at Washington State University, hoping she would one day fulfill her ambition to be a pilot.
Mandy would return home to Clipper Washington, and on the day after Thanksgiving, while jogging near her home on Strand Road, she would disappear. Horrifyingly it would be three days later that the 18-year-old’s body was found on the south fork of the Nooksack River.
Mandy had been running alone, but the family dog was with her. The dog would return home alone.
After a massive manhunt, with everyone in the town looking, Mandy’s naked body would be found in the river, six miles from her home. An autopsy would reveal that Mandy had been raped and she had died from asphyxiation.
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A wound on her head led investigators to believe she had been struck. Suspicion would initially fall onto Mandy’s current boyfriend, and the two had an on-and-off relationship.
After cooperating fully with the police, it was clear that boyfriend Rick had nothing to do with the crime and was cleared of all suspicions.
DNA detection was used in the case, but at the time, the process was slow and time-consuming. However, an unknown male’s DNA was found, which sparked new leads into the crime, but it led nowhere, and the case went cold.
In 2009, the incident came to Detective Kevin Bowie. He decided that a DNA sample taken from every man that lived in the area at the time of the murder could help the investigation. This would prove difficult in practice, though, and over four years, many samples would be taken, but there would be no matches.
One lead would come from the investigation, and it would identify Timothy Bass, who had lived not far from Mandy at the time of the murder but had subsequently moved shortly after. Was this the break that the police had been looking for?
Where is Timothy Bass Now?
Who is Timothy Bass?
Timothy Bass had lived close to Mandy Stavik. People remembered that he had attended basketball games that Mandy was playing in, and Mandy’s daily run would take her past his home. Timothy had moved away after the murder and eventually married, settling in Everson, Washington.
He would be contacted by the police but claimed he did not remember the event.
Although he said very little at the trial, Bass would state he was innocent and had not received a fair trial.
What did Timothy Bass do?
Bass would not voluntarily give a DNA sample when approached by police, so they would go to his employers and ask for help. Bass was a delivery driver for a local bakery, and the manager, Kim, was uncomfortable about helping the police at first.
However, the manager Kim would eventually come around to thinking there may be a link between the murder of Mandy Stavik and Timothy Bass and gave information that might help the police gather DNA.
Bass, though, had been careful not to allow anything to be found that could be used to collect DNA, but one day, the manager Kim would collect a cup that Bass had been drinking from and take it to the police.
The DNA tests matched, and Bass was arrested in December 2017. Bass denied knowing Mandy, but when he realized that the police had his DNA, he claimed he had a consensual sexual relationship with Mandy.
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However, there was no evidence that the two had been in a relationship, and police doubted his story. Lawyers would try to have the DNA evidence thrown out, but manager Kim would testify in court, and the evidence was used.
Bass would try to have family members lie for him to provide alibis, a plot that would fail, as his own family would not lie for him. On May 24th, 2019, Timothy Bass was found guilty of the murder of Mandy Stavik.
He would receive twenty-seven years in prison.
Is Timothy Bass still in prison?
Today, Timothy Bass is incarcerated in Clallam Bay Correction Centre on The Olympic Peninsula, Washington.
Did Timothy Bass have children?
Yes, he had three children with his wife, Gina Malone.
