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Twelve-year-old Michella Welch and thirteen-year-old Jennifer Bastian of Tacoma, Washington, were s*xually assaulted and murdered in 1986, causing a feeling of terror amongst the community members. Their seemingly identical cases remained unsolved for nearly three decades as detectives rallied to find one culprit using DNA evidence found on Michella's body.
The investigation only reached a major turning point in 2013 when a second DNA sample was found on Jennifer's swimsuit, proving the involvement of not one but two killers. Eventually, two suspects—Gary Hartman and Robert Washburn—were arrested after their respective DNA samples matched the ones found during the investigation. Both were sentenced in connection with the murders.
This article will further delve into a few important details from the cold case murders of Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian ahead of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's upcoming episode titled Evil Was Watching, which airs on Oxygen this July 4, 2023, at 9:00 pm ET.
The official synopsis reads:
"The 1986 murders of Michella Welch and Jenni Bastian in Tacoma, Wash., remained unsolved for decades until someone else their age grew up to become a detective and looked into their deaths."
The Tacoma murders: Four key facts to know about Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian's killing from 1986
1) Both victims were murdered within months of each other
Michella Welch was attacked in Puget Park on March 26, 1986, as per Oxygen. She rode her bike to the park with her two younger sisters. The 12-year-old briefly parted ways with her sisters before going missing. A search dog was able to locate Michella's body that night near a makeshift fire pit in the midst of trees. She had been beaten and s*xually assaulted, with her throat slashed.
About five months later, in August, Jennifer Bastian rode her bike to Point Defiance Park, not far from where Michella was murdered. The 13-year-old failed to return home that day. Her badly decomposed body was found three weeks later after an extended search. Jennifer had also been s*xually assaulted, but unlike the previous victim, she was strangled to death.
2) DNA found on Michella Welch's body did not match the one collected from Jennifer Bastian's swimsuit
According to NBC, detectives found DNA evidence from semen found in Michella's body, which failed to produce any results or prove beneficial during the initial stages of the investigation. Meanwhile, the decomposed state of Jennifer's body hindered the process of collecting physical evidence, and detectives did not test her swimsuit for any evidence, assuming that it had already been removed when she was assaulted and murdered.
Both their cases went cold until Tacoma Police Detective Lindsey Wade re-opened the case more than two decades later, in 2009. They eventually tested Jennifer's swimsuit for possible evidence and found a different DNA sample from the one found in Michella's body, proving that there were two killers.
3) Genetic genealogy aided detectives in arresting two different suspects over 30 years later
Detectives learned about the involvement of two culprits in Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian's cold case murders in 2013, and in the years that followed, they used advancing DNA technologies to find potential matches to both samples, especially with the help of Parabon Nanolabs. The results led to the arrests of Gary Hartman in Michella's murder and Robert Washburn in Jennifer's murder in 2018 after their DNA samples matched the ones found during the investigation.
4) Robert Washburn pleaded guilty while Gary Hartman was convicted by a judge
![Jennifer Bastian [left] and Michella Welch [right] (Image via Scary Mysteries/YouTube)](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/07/d7e33-16885074824330-1920.jpg)
According to The Cinemaholic, the FBI asked Robert Washburn to provide his DNA sample for investigation purposes, and he cooperated. His DNA was a match to the one found on Jennifer Bastain's swimsuit. In 2019, he pleaded guilty in connection with the murder and was sentenced to 26-and-a-half years in prison.
Meanwhile, Gary Hartman was under surveillance, and his DNA was collected from a used napkin. The sample matched the one found in Michella's body. He pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence. Gary was found guilty of first-degree murder by a judge in a bench trial and was also given a 26-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen will further delve into Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian's cases this Tuesday.
