The Tacoma Murders

In 1986, two girls were murdered in Tacoma, Washington, less than five months apart. On March 26, 12-year-old Michella Welch was at Puget Park with her younger sisters when she disappeared, and search dogs found her body in the park that night. On August 4, Jennifer “Jenni” Bastian, 13, vanished while riding her bike in Point Defiance Park. She was found in the park’s woods weeks later. Both girls had been sexually assaulted and killed.

For years many assumed one man was responsible for both deaths. DNA testing, including male DNA from Jenni’s swimsuit, eventually showed that two different men were involved, and Tacoma detective Lindsey Wade turned to genetic genealogy. On May 10, 2018, Robert Washburn, who had given investigators a DNA sample, was arrested at his home in Eureka, Illinois, for Jenni’s murder. In June 2018 police arrested Gary Hartman, a nurse at Western State Hospital, after a detective picked up a napkin he had used at a restaurant and its DNA matched evidence from Michella’s case.

Washburn pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in January 2019 and was sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison. Hartman chose a trial before a judge, who convicted him of murder and rape in March 2022 and sentenced him to 26 and a half years. Washington lawmakers named a DNA law after the two girls.