What happened to Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch? Details explored ahead of Dateline on NBC
Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch, two young girls abducted while riding their bikes in Tacoma, Washington, in 1986, will be the focus when Dateline revisits the case this Saturday in Evil Was Watching, airing June 14, 2025, at 10/9c and reported by Keith Morrison.
As per NBC’s official synopsis, the cases remained unsolved for decades until cold case detectives re-examined the evidence using advanced DNA techniques. Jennifer Bastian, 13, vanished while cycling through Point Defiance Park in August 1986. Months earlier, 12-year-old Michella Welch was found murdered after going missing in nearby Puget Park.
For years, authorities believed a single suspect was responsible. However, as per a KOMO News report dated March 22, 2022, DNA analysis later confirmed two different perpetrators. According to a FOX6 report dated May 15, 2018, Robert Washburn was arrested for Bastian’s murder in 2018 and sentenced in 2020.
The Dateline episode will explore how forensic genealogy and persistence finally led to justice in the Jennifer Bastian case.
Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch: From 1986 Tacoma bike-ride abductions to DNA-driven justice spotlighted on Dateline
Dateline revisits one of Tacoma’s darkest chapters when Evil Was Watching airs on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at 10/9c. The broadcast recounts how 13-year-old Jennifer Bastian and 12-year-old Michella Welch were abducted in separate city parks during the summer of 1986 and how modern DNA techniques finally identified two different killers after more than three decades.
Welch disappeared from Puget Park on March 26, 1986, while fetching lunch for her younger sisters. Searchers found her body that night. She had been s*xually assaulted, beaten, and her throat had been cut. Roughly five months after the first attack, 13-year-old Jennifer Bastian disappeared from Point Defiance Park while taking her new bicycle out for a trial ride.
Her remains were located three weeks later, concealed in the underbrush; she had been strangled and s*xually assaulted. Initial investigators believed one offender was responsible, but evidence collected in 2013 showed the DNA from Welch’s attacker did not match a profile recovered from Bastian’s swimsuit, proving there were two perpetrators.
Breakthroughs from Forensic Genealogy
Cold-case detectives Gene Miller and Lindsey Wade reopened both files in 2009. They created a master list of 2,300 names drawn from every tip and police report, then used Y-STR analysis, SNP sequencing, and public genealogy databases to narrow the field. Between 2016 and 2018, the team collected 160 voluntary DNA samples.
One matched the profile in Jennifer Bastian’s case, leading to the 2018 arrest of Robert Washburn, an Illinois resident who had once phoned in a tip about Welch’s murder. He pleaded guilty and received a 27-year sentence in 2020.
For Welch’s case, Parabon NanoLabs traced crime-scene DNA to two brothers living near the park in 1986. Detectives followed Gary Hartman, then 66, and obtained his discarded napkin from a restaurant.
Laboratory comparison confirmed the match, and Hartman was arrested in June 2018. At his March 2022 bench trial, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 26.5 years, effectively life.
As per an NBC News report dated April 6, 2019, retired detective Lindsey Wade stated,
“I just remember that it was really scary to me as a young girl,..There would be certain times where if I was out riding my bike or if I was walking, you know, through — a little trail to shortcut to get to school or something like that,”
reflecting the atmosphere that shaped her later career. As per a KOMO News report dated March 24, 2022, Gary Hartman apologized in court:
“I’m so sorry. God knows I’m so sorry. That doesn’t help. I’m just sorry.”
Where the case stands now
Washburn remains in a Washington state prison, eligible for release in the mid-2040s, while Hartman is incarcerated under a similar term. Saturday’s Dateline episode will trace the investigative timeline, the role of forensic genealogy, and the community impact of losing Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch.
Viewers will also hear how the victims’ families and Wade pushed for “Jennifer and Michella’s Law,” expanding DNA collection for future cases. By combining archival reports, new interviews, and scientific detail, Dateline aims to show how persistence and DNA finally answered the question of what happened to Jennifer Bastian and Michella Welch.
Stay tuned for more updates.
