167: A Supposedly Sketchy Medical Examiner & the Murder of Mandy Stavik

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Kay Sybers hated going to the doctor. According to her husband, Bill Sybers, Kay hated going to the doctor so much that she refused to get medical treatment for her ongoing chest pain. The morning of May 30,1991, Kay woke up in pain. Bill, who was a pathologist and medical examiner, attempted to draw blood from Kay’s arm so that he might figure out what was wrong. But he couldn’t get any blood. He then left for work, and Kay died later that morning. But how did she die, exactly? Had Bill really been trying to draw blood? Or had he injected her with a deadly poison?

Then Kristin tells us about a murder that haunted a small Washington town for nearly 30 years. Mandy Stavik was home from her freshman year of college for Thanksgiving break of 1989. She went for a five-mile jog with her dog, Kyra, as she often did, but she never came back. Mandy’s mom immediately panicked. She called everyone she knew. People searched and searched for Mandy. Three days later, a detective found Mandy’s body in the Nooksack River. It took decades to solve the crime.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
An episode of 48 Hours, titled, “Mandy Stavik: The Case No One Could Forget”
An episode of 20/20, titled, “30 years searching”
“Here’s what we learned from the defense attorney on day one of the Bass Trial,” by the Bellingham Herald on YouTube
“Here’s what we learned from the prosecuting attorney on day one of the Bass Trial,” by the Bellingham Herald on YouTube

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Dr. Bill Sybers, Florida doctor accused of murdering his wife” by Seamus McGraw, The Crime Library
“Evidence Embalmed” by Jonathon King, The Sun Sentinel
“Medical examiner: He didn’t kill wife, did botch autopsy” Associated Press, Ocala Star Banner
“Facing retrial, state drops murder case” Associated Press, The Herald “TribuneFormer Bay medical examiner Dr. Sybers dies of lung cancer” by News Herald Staff, The Panama City News Herald

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