Phantom Of The Neighborhood

Amanda Theresa Stavik, known as Mandy, was born in Anchorage, Alaska, on 16 April 1971, the daughter of Glenn and Mary. Her parents divorced in 1974. In August 1975 her sixteen-year-old brother Brent was found on federal land near the state waste station on the Glenn Highway, shot seventeen times and covered with brush. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In October 1983 Mary moved the remaining children south to Whatcom County, Washington, choosing Clipper, a place just outside Acme whose mailing address covers the rural dead end of Strand Road off Highway 9. She wanted somewhere safe.

Mandy flourished there. She graduated from Mount Baker High School in June 1989, a three-year starter on the girls basketball team who also played softball, ran track and cross country, cheered for the football team, made the honour roll and played saxophone in the band. In the autumn she enrolled at Central Washington University, about four hours away, aiming at a career in fitness and nutritional counselling.

She came home for Thanksgiving 1989. Her boyfriend Rick Zender drove her and her Japanese exchange-student roommate Yoko from the university, arriving at Mary's house at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday 22 November. That afternoon Mandy visited her old school to see friends and the basketball team. Thanksgiving Day was spent at home. On Friday 24 November she ate leftover turkey around midday and, some time between two and three in the afternoon, set out on her usual five-mile run with the family German shepherd, Kiera. The route ran west from the house on Strand Road, across Highway 9 to the south fork of the Nooksack River and back.

Her brother Lee and his friend David Craker saw her running east on Strand Road towards home at about three o'clock, roughly an eighth of a mile from the house. An hour or so later Lee came home and found neither his sister nor the dog. Kiera turned up alone, cowering with her tail between her legs and river silt on her hindquarters. Mary called neighbours, then the police at about 5.30 p.m. Whatcom County search and rescue sent a tracker, Alan Pratt, who found a disturbed patch on the road shoulder with several footfalls possibly from two people, and river silt in a nearby ditch that matched what was on the dog. The whole community turned out: neighbours on foot and in trucks, farmers walking their land, loggers checking spur roads, teenagers running grid patterns, deputies from other counties, helicopters and riders working the brush and river banks. On the Saturday and Sunday the search pushed down river and up into the timber and found nothing.

At about noon on Monday 27 November searchers working the south fork by boat found a body face down in shallow water three and a half miles from the house. It was Mandy, naked except for socks and running shoes. Detective Ron Peterson had just returned from FBI training in DNA evidence recovery, and he personally managed the removal to preserve anything the body carried. The autopsy found superficial scratches across her arms, legs and buttocks, mostly parallel and on the fronts of her legs, consistent with running through blackberry thickets, and a blunt force injury to her right forehead that would have caused a significant concussion. There were no defensive wounds, no evidence of strangulation and no sign she had been bound. The cause of death was consistent with fresh water drowning. Semen was present, and the sperm indicated intercourse within twelve hours of death. Her stomach contents put her last meal between 11.30 and 12.30, and death between about 3.30 and 4.30 on the Friday afternoon.

Investigators concluded she had been taken near the house, almost certainly by someone she knew or by someone with a vehicle and a weapon, since she would have outrun a stranger on foot and the dog would have reacted to a stranger. She was driven somewhere near the river, and at some point she escaped and ran through the blackberry bushes before being caught, struck on the head and placed in the water. this part of the story is covered for now Two pillowcases and a pair of teal sweatpants were found, but tests were inconclusive. In the 1990s about thirty local men gave DNA voluntarily or were ruled out by alibi, including the drifter David Suchy, the neighbour Paul Mallock and the boyfriend Rick Zender. The case went cold. details of the account remain covered until revealed

In 2009 Detective Kevin Bohey, who had been a rookie in 1989, reopened the file from page one and eventually collected DNA from more than 80 people. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it A few days later he told Tom that he and Mandy had slept together, asked Tom to tell police the same so she would look promiscuous, and suggested blaming their dead father for the murder. He also admitted being in the homestead field near where she was found that weekend, rather than hunting as he had claimed. Gina, his wife, told police he was controlling and that they had watched Mandy run past from his upstairs bedroom window.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Surveillance of his delivery route produced nothing. Wagner then collected a plastic cup and a Coke can he had discarded at work and handed them over. The DNA matched the 1989 semen profile, with a reported chance of a random match of one in 11 quadrillion.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The sheriff called Mary on her eighty-first birthday to tell her. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Mandy is buried at St Joseph Mission Cemetery in Clipper, and a scholarship fund in her name continues at Mount Baker High School.