Dead man leads to ‘shocking’ discovery

In 2009 disappearance, a quiet life in L.A. and possible second jumper

In February, a 56-year-old man known to his neighbors as Mark Clemens was found dead in his apartment after living a seemingly private life in Los Angeles. Soon after being found, neighbors discovered his true identity, and learned that their neighbor was actually a former Washington state resident named Christian Robert Basham. Basham, then 41, had been presumed dead by suicide nearly 16 years earlier after he allegedly jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on March 25, 2009, while facing criminal charges for alleged child sex crimes.

Details in a police report that were not publicly reported at the time now provide more context as to what witnesses on the bridge saw in 2009. The additional reporting from police documents opens the possibility that the man who jumped from the 240-foot tall bridge wasn’t Basham, in addition to raising a question about a second man who went missing the same week. Gaps remain in the story of what happened when Basham disappeared, though multiple neighbors and an employer in California offer a clearer picture of the man’s undocumented, quiet and respected life after his disappearance.

A Kitsap County suspect disappears in 2009

Basham was accused of rape in 2008 after befriending a 13-year-old victim, according to Kitsap Superior Court documents, and was charged with second degree assault of another 13-year-old boy the same year. Basham had skipped a court date on February 17, 2009, before his presumed leap from the Narrows Bridge, two days after his parents last saw him, his step-father declared in a statement to the court in 2011.

Law enforcement notified Basham’s parents separately of their son’s apparent death, according to WSP reports in the records request obtained by their lawyer, who represented them in retrieving the $100,000 bond they paid to