Arrest is made in 1987 slaying
SANDPOINT — Sandpoint Police announced on Friday that a Ponderay man has been arrested and charged with the murder of Tammy Rae Bristow, who was found strangled in her southside apartment more than 32 years ago.
William Rey Acosta is charged with first-degree murder. He made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Friday via video feed from the county jail. Senior Judge Debra Heise sustained Acosta’s $1 million bail and appointed a public defender to represent him.
Bristow, 18, was discovered dead in her three-room apartment on Antone Street on Jan. 8, 1987. Her body was covered with blankets and contents of her purse had been dumped out, according to Daily Bee archives.
Investigators believed the motive for the murder was robbery because Bristow was paid a sum of money on the day she was killed. The money was discovered missing.
Investigators testified at a preliminary hearing that a 16-inch piece of firewood had been used to twist a 1/4-inch tent guy line around Bristow’s neck.
A 31-year-old transient named Frederick Henry Gauerke was charged with her murder after a Bible that belonged to Bristow was found in his possession. However, the charge was dropped in November 1987, after an FBI analysis of fiber evidence failed to link Gauerke to the crime.
The case went cold, largely due to the limitations with DNA testing at the time.
However, the killing never left the minds of former detectives Andy Anderson and Steve Feldhausen, in addition to former Chief Bill Kice. They passed the baton to detectives Mike Aerni and Skylar Ziegler.
“I should emphasize that nobody forgot Tammy Bristow over the years,” Aerni said during a press conference at City Hall on Friday.
Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall and Chief Corey Coon resolved in 2016 to apply some heat to the case, but the Idaho State Police lab initially lacked the capability at the time to conduct touch DNA testing.
“It sounds easy to do, but the reality is when you’re dealing with literally hundreds of pieces of evidence and if your local state lab is not able to test those, every single sample that we sent to a private lab for evidentiary purposes can be upwards of $5,000 (per test),” Marshall said during the news conference, which was livestreamed to Facebook by city officials.
Marshall said skin cells recovered from Bristow’s fingernails were DNA tested. The results definitively ruled out Gauerke as a suspect in the slaying. The DNA sample was then entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which returned a match for Acosta, 49.
The case against Acosta was presented to a grand jury empaneled at the Bonner County Courthouse on Thursday, which led to his indictment and a warrant for his arrest.
Marshall was grateful Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills for allowing touch DNA testing in the case.
“Without their help we wouldn’t be here today,” said Marshall.
Marshall said Acosta has spent the intervening years in Idaho and Arizona.
Acosta pleaded guilty to robbing a Sandpoint cab driver in a 1988 case and was released from prison in 1993, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. Arizona Department of Corrections records indicate Acosta was sentenced to five months in prison for a 1986 aggravated assault. He served a three-year term for leaving the scene of a fatality crash in 1996 and a seven-year term for aggravated assault on a law officer in 2000, ADOC records show.
Marshall said it’s unclear which criminal case caused his DNA to be entered into CODIS, but suspects it related to his 2000 assault case in Maricopa County, Ariz.
Acosta was living in Ponderay at the time of his arrest. Gauerke relocated to the upper Midwest following his release in Idaho. Marshall said it remains unclear how he came to possess the Bible Bristow was known to carry in her purse.
Bristow was born in Sandpoint in 1967 and attended Northside and Farmin elementary schools, according to her obituary. She graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1986 and played in concert and pep bands. Bristow, who enjoyed music and bowling, held jobs in the SHS kitchen, Falks and Dairy Depot.
“We feel honored to be here today, to find some resolution to the case,” Aerni said.
Acosta is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court on July 15.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.