Woman charged with water theft, failure to register as sex offender


Tiffany Bauer

Tiffany Bauer, 40, of Theodosia, has recently had two criminal cases filed against her - one for stealing water from the Public Water Supply District of Theodosia and another for failing to register as a sex offender. Both are felony charges.

Bauer was arrested Jan. 22, and appeared for an arraignment before Associate Judge Raymond Gross. She was released on her own recognizance the same day. 

She was ordered to reappear in both cases at 9 a.m. Jan. 28, for a criminal setting. Results were of that hearing were not available at press time. 

 

Stealing $1,750 in water

Although the case was filed last week, the charge of stealing $750 or more in services involves an Aug. 14, 2024, incident. 

According to the probable cause statement in that case, prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Rhoades, a report was made to the sheriff’s department about Bauer stealing utilities in Theodosia.

“The... manager... reported the suspect owed approximately $1,000 in past dues for water. A lock was placed on her meter. The lock was cut, and according to the meter readings she used another $750+ in water before the cut lock was discovered,” Rhoades’ report says. 

On Aug. 16, 2024, Rhoades contacted Bauer at her house. Prior to taking her into custody, he asked her about the water bill, and she reportedly told him that she had been trying to pay for the past $1,000 water bill but was disputing the amount when they placed the lock on her water meter. 

She said she had not had water since that time, and she didn’t know how the lock was cut or how there was an additional $750 bill afterward. 

 

Failure to register as sex offender

The newer case is one in which Bauer is charged with failing to register as a sex offender. 

According to the probable cause statement in that case, prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman, he was conducting sex offender compliance checks on Jan. 5, and found that Bauer’s last registration was dated Oct. 10, 2024. It expired Jan. 3, two days prior. 

She was arrested and transported to jail. Sherman helped her update her sex offender registration prior to being released with a new registration of April 2025. 

Bauer is required to register as a sex offender based on her conviction of statutory sodomy in 2015. The case involved the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old girl. Her husband at the time, now ex-husband, 62-year-old David Bauer was also convicted in the case.

The case came to light in April 2015 after the Missouri Division of Children’s Services received a hotline call alleging educational neglect for a girl who had lived with the Bauers from August 2014 to March 2015. 

The hotline call, received shortly after the girl moved to Branson to live with her father, alleged that she had forgone public school or homeschooling during the time she lived with the Bauers in Theodosia. When a children’s service worker went to a Branson-area school to speak with the girl about the lack of schooling, she reportedly told the worker she had been involved in sexual acts with David while Tiffany was present.

Both David and Tiffany adamantly denied all allegations and said they believed the child was coached by the girlfriend of the girl’s father to report the allegations. They were found guilty of the charges by court trial.

Tiffany was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018, and she served 120 days of that sentence. She was in prison from March 22, 2018, until July 20, 2018, when she was placed on supervised probation. 

David Bauer was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He is currently serving that sentence.

Ozark County Times

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