A suspected child rapist long believed to have committed suicide by jumping in 2009 was secretly living under a false name until his death last month exposed his secret.
Christian Robert Basham, 56, committed high-profile suicide by leaving a suicide note in his car on the Tacoma Rose Bridge in Washington state after being charged with sexually abusing a boy in Kitsap County. I directed it. WABC TV reported..
But Basham somehow escapes and deceives law enforcement for 15 years, living in Los Angeles as an unassuming building maintenance worker named Mark Clemens, until his sordid secret is revealed. A neighbor found him dead inside.
“It’s very shocking,” Tommy Cuellar, who lives next door, told the ABC. “This was our maintenance guy. This guy had the keys to our apartment. As you can imagine, it was awkward, to say the least.”
Police in Kitsap County, Washington, where Basham was charged in the gruesome child sex abuse case, announced last week that a medical examiner’s autopsy had confirmed Clemens’ true identity.
The accused rapist was indicted in the case in 2008, but managed to post bail of $350,000.
In March 2009, witnesses reported seeing him jump from a bridge in Washington state, after which police found his car and what appeared to be a suicide note nearby.
Although authorities did not find any bodies, they ruled that he was presumed dead, ABC reported.
It is unclear when and how he actually disappeared, but it is clear that he rebuilt his life under a new pseudonym and remained in obscurity until his actual death.
“He seemed like a normal person,” Cuellar said, telling the outlet that Basham sometimes babysat his cat.
“He could be a little rowdy at times, but that was his personality,” the former neighbor added. “There are no other clues that he is the person accused.”
Despite the recent revelations about his background, tenants said they are planning a ceremony in his memory.
