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Are BDSM Practitioners Dangerous? | Jane Bashara Case Analysis
Dr. Todd Grande's 16-minute overview: the quickest complete way into the case.
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Jane E. Bashara was a 56-year-old senior marketing manager for KEMA Services, an energy consulting and testing company in Detroit, Michigan. A native of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, she held bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Central Michigan University and the University of Detroit Mercy. She had two children and had served as a past president of the Grosse Pointe South High School Mother's Club. She lived in Grosse Pointe Park with her husband, Bob Bashara, a businessman and property owner who had been active in local philanthropy and had served as president of the Grosse Pointe Rotary Club. The couple had been married for 26 years at the time of her death.
Jane Bashara was last seen by co-workers on the afternoon of January 24, 2012, following a meeting in downtown Detroit. Her husband filed a missing person report with the Grosse Pointe Park Police Department that night. On January 25, 2012, a tow truck driver discovered her body in the back seat of her Mercedes-Benz SUV, abandoned in an alley on the east side of Detroit. Police determined that she had died from strangulation and noted bruises and broken fingernails consistent with a struggle. Investigators later concluded she had likely been killed inside her own home before her body was moved to the vehicle.
The case drew intense local media attention given the relative affluence and low crime rate of the Grosse Pointe communities. A candlelight vigil was held at Grosse Pointe South High School the evening after her body was found, and her funeral at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church drew hundreds of mourners, including U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke.
The investigation was conducted jointly by the Grosse Pointe Park police, the Detroit Police Department, and the Michigan State Police. On January 27, 2012, police named Bob Bashara a "person of interest," and reports indicated he had failed a polygraph test regarding his wife's death. Reporting in early February 2012 described Bob Bashara's alleged involvement in sadomasochism and a reported "sex dungeon" in a building he owned, as well as an alleged extramarital relationship with a woman later fired from her job at Wayne State University; police said she was not a person of interest. Joseph Gentz, a handyman with an IQ of 67 who rented property from Bob Bashara, was reported in early February 2012 to have confessed to helping dispose of the body, telling police that Bob Bashara had paid him money and an old Cadillac to kill his wife. Gentz was arrested on March 3, 2012, and charged with first-degree murder. Reporting in mid-2012 indicated Bob Bashara was later accused of attempting to arrange the murder of Gentz.
On December 18, 2014, Bob Bashara was found guilty of murdering his wife. On January 15, 2015, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Vonda Evans sentenced him to life without parole. The judge denied post-trial motions for relief from judgment, a decision later affirmed by the Michigan Supreme Court. In January 2016, Gentz signed an affidavit claiming he had committed perjury under police pressure and that Bob Bashara was not involved, but he later recanted the affidavit. Bob Bashara died in prison on August 18, 2020, at age 62.
