The Soccer Mom

5 days ago

5 min read

The Soccer Mom

The Pasa family of Centerville, Iowa lived a picture-perfect life. At least it seemed that way on Barbara Pasa’s Facebook account. Barb and her husband Tim had been married for almost twenty years and had two beautiful children. Barb was a surgical nurse at the local hospital while Tim worked for Alliant Energy. The couple had an active social life when they weren’t busy watching their son and daughter play soccer. They seemed like the perfect family. Everything is not always as it seems, however.

Timothy Pasa was born August 4^th, 1967, in Centerville, Iowa. He graduated from Centerville High School in 1985 and went on to get a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services from the Buena Vista University. Tim had a passion for music and played the guitar in several bands. While playing one night in 1999, he met Barbara Glasscock. Barbara was also from Centerville. The two fell in love and married. They became the parents of a boy and a girl, which became the center of Tim’s world.

Barb and Tim were doting parents, present at every event to cheer on their children. Tim continued to play guitar in bands in his spare time as well as collect action figures and comic books. He was an avid Raiders and Cardinals fan. Barb enjoyed decorating her house and shopping. She also enjoyed socializing with other couples. Barb was very proud of her home and vehicles. She liked to have the best of everything, including buying her kids name brand everything.

On the morning of May 5^th, 2018, Barb woke up early and prepared snacks for the kids before heading out for a soccer tournament that both kids were playing in that Sunday. She left Tim home alone, sleeping. Around 7:30 am, a neighbor noticed smoke coming from the Pasa home and called 911. When fire fighters arrived, the home was ablaze. When the fire was finally controlled, they found the body of fifty-year-old Tim Pasa in the bedroom of the home. He was dead.

Firefighters were informed by neighbors that the home belonged to a family of four. First responders had to determine if Barb and the children were also in the home somewhere. Neighbors frantically began trying to reach Barb on her cell phone, but she was very difficult to reach. When they finally were able to get ahold of her, they notified her that her home was on fire. She confirmed that she and the children were safe and quickly returned home.

When first responders told Barb that Tim was dead, she showed very little emotion. This is not necessarily suspicious as everyone handles grief and shock differently. She insisted on seeing Tim’s body, despite warnings that his body was severely burned in the fire. She was given time to be with him inside the ambulance. As a nurse, she felt she had been exposed to injuries like her husband’s, and she wanted to see him.

There were a few red flags at the scene that investigators questioned Barb about. First, they found both smoke detectors, one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen, had been disabled with the batteries out of them. Barb explained that she had been cooking the evening before and had burnt something. She had asked Tim to disable the smoke detectors in order to stop them from going off. Second, they found a candle next to the bed where Tim was found. Barb explained that she had lit the candle and placed it on the bedside table before she left to cover the smell of dog pee. Both explanations seemed plausible.

The most concerning red flag was Barb’s behavior when investigators told her that Tim’s body would undergo an autopsy. Barb was very angry about this. She insisted she did not want an autopsy and that there was no reason for it. Investigators explained to her that it was mandatory per Iowa law. Police officers, many of whom knew Barb and Tim personally, wondered if Barb was just overwhelmed with the grief of losing Tim.

Once the autopsy was complete, it became clear why Barb had been so resistant. Tim had no sought in his lungs. This means that he had not taken a breath during the fire and did not die of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was dead before the fire had started. So how did Tim Pasa die? The autopsy did not find any signs of blunt force trauma or obvious injuries to explain his death. Initial toxicology reports did not show any substances in system. None of his organs showed damage to suggest a natural death either.

Investigators went to work. They learned that the Pasa marriage was falling apart before Tim’s death. In fact, Barb and Tim were headed for divorce. They were also in massive debt. Barb’s spending habits had mounted up massive credit card debt and their home was in foreclosure. Tim had told friends he believed his wife was trying to poison him. She had even told friends that if she wanted to get rid of someone, she knew how to do it!

Friends of the couple stated that Barb did not want the divorce as it would have changed the way the community saw her and her family. She also did not want to lose her home. She had recently increased her homeowner’s insurance. Not only that, she had recently increased Tim’s life insurance through her employer from $50,000 to $200,000.

Investigators considered Barb their main suspect in the case. As a surgical nurse, she had access to many substances not typically tested for during routine toxicology tests. They decided to test for some of these drugs, including propofol. Propofol is a general anesthetic medication used to sedate patients for surgery or for mechanical ventilator use. In high enough doses, the medication is deadly. In fact, it’s the medication that killed Michael Jackson. Toxicology tests showed that Tim Pasa had been injected with propofol before his death.

Further evidence included a neighbor who stated Barb’s vehicle was still at the Pasa home at 7:22 am, although she claimed to have left before 7 am. As for the candle next to the bed, it was not the source of the fire. The fire was started on the bed itself with an accelerant. The fire investigators believe Barb planted the candle as a distraction. On May 18^th, 2018, Barbara Pasa was arrested and charged with first degree murder and arson.

At the trial, Barb took the stand in her own defense. Her testimony was not convincing, however. The evidence against her included the propofol, her statements to others about hating her husband and being able to kill someone, the financial issues of the family, the increases in the insurance policies, the inconsistencies in her stories, and other circumstantial evidence. The autopsy evidence was the most convincing. Eyewitnesses put her at the home just before the fire started. It is reported that her own children believe she killed their father.

It took the jury just three hours to convict her and on November 15^th, 2019, Barbara Pasa was sentenced to a mandatory life without parole plus an additional 20 years in prison. In a documentary about the Iowa Women’s Prison, Barbara claims she is innocent but states she hopes her children forgive her one day. Her appeals have been denied, and she continues to serve her sentence.