Any time a child goes missing it's a scary thing. You know there's evil out there She was almost 13. Do you remember what that was like? It was terrifying.
It's this sickening feeling that just overtakes you Bloodhounds came police were there. This was a little girl. It was doing nothing more than riding her bicycle in a park The similarities blonde blue eyed riding a bike somebody who was targeting young girls exactly. I Would have a suspect that I was working and I would wonder okay.
Could this guy be responsible? My working theory was this guy somehow slipped through the cracks. How many names did you have? About 2,300 names Yes It's really the first big development in human identification in 20 years.
I knew it was a big step in the case now. It's like no way I just couldn't believe it. I believe in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil I think they're in for a big surprise again and again. She came here stood under the ancient canopy Walked the damp narrow paths to the places the killer used to hide what he had done as if looking once more after all these Years would tell her something as if the dense under girls would part and finally reveal a name It's so peaceful here.
It's not the kind of place you would associate with violent crime. That's for sure No, no and nothing like this has ever happened at this park before Lindsey Wade was just 11 years old that terrible summer in Tacoma, Washington I just remember that it was really scary to me as a young girl It was really scary not just for me but for everybody and the questions about that place and that summer fall of her Up through the ranks of the Tacoma Police Department until as detective Lindsey Wade She came here to wrestle with something like an obsession a mystery that laid dormant for more than three decades The story they could finally be told. It was March 1986 Things were finally looking up for Barbara Leonard I hadn't been easy She said and after her husband left her to raise three girls alone But here in Tacoma, Barbara had at last found a good job a home and Prospects I was working in a real estate office and then just bought a house in the north end of Tacoma scraped and saved money Even a little extra to sign up her daughters for piano lessons Youngest was Nicole there was Angela in the middle and the eldest was Michelle She was almost 13. She wasn't a rebellious child, but kids at that age she want to be a little more independent and it was spring break So Michelle pay your mom.
She wanted to go to the park with her sisters and be there before the piano lesson Puget Park a patch of green on the north end of Tacoma just across the street from their lessons a couple of miles from home Michelle and sisters will never forget that day. We were approved for like half an hour So like a half an hour, but we went like two and a half hours group freedom They rode their bikes to the park where they realized they'd forgotten their lunches at home So Michelle is a psycho all the problem and then in the meantime we had to go to the bathroom So there's no bathroom at the playground back then. Yeah, so where'd you go? So we went down the street It took a while and when they finally got back Michelle it should have been there too, but she wasn't her bike was there And it was locked and we started looking we have this family call Mm-hmm, and it echoes just far and wide and so we was a family call.
Yeah, okay Yeah, and so we you who'd for her and we didn't hear anything. That's when it happened when the cold fear flooded their bodies And like at that moment, I knew I just knew something and happy. Yeah, but it was there was it was wrong. It's very wrong I left work.
I remember that day and just I was praying I wouldn't get a speeding ticket But I was probably doing 70 miles an hour on the road. Do you remember what that was like? It was terrifying You're hoping you're gonna see the kid come walk around the corner Gene Miller was a patrol officer then to call the police It was a special kind of horror drive that goes with a little girl coming missing like that any time a child goes missing It's a scary thing Where was Michelle the police looked of course, but as the animals take by my god, there's nothing There's an emptiness there you just time kind of stands still yeah, and then then it's all of a sudden it's gone I mean Salt was dark. They said we're gonna call in search and rescue because we haven't found her It was late when they took search dogs into a nearby overgrown the gulch and then I was in one of the police cars And they told me that That they'd found her body head, you know when you say find a body.
It's not the purpose of that Sorry, they found her near a makeshift fire pit jibben beaten and sexually assaulted her throat cut It's this sickening feeling that just overtakes you and life is never gonna be the same as you know it And I think that it does one of two things to you It's either gonna eat you up or it's gonna motivate you to find a bad guy Day after day they searched for the killer all that dismal spring one of Michelle's classmates told the police She saw a man in the park looking at the girls They made a sketch and tips flooded in one of them seemed to specially worrisome a man out jogging reported Seeing someone who looked like the sketch in a different park a place called Point Defiance Park a few miles away scouting his next victim Fear gripped the city though for Barbara. It felt more like rage. She got a gun permit got the gun in her car I go pull up at a stoplight and I remember looking over and there was a man in the car and I was thinking could you have done this? Did you do this because they had no clues for months months and months and it was fog you just living in a fog Then it was summer five months have passed August that year was fabulous in the Pacific Northwest and Woke up a little late Jenny woke up a little late just the two of them Patty Bastion and her 13-year-old Jenny and we were sitting in the dining room on the floor in front of the patio doors Bathing ourselves in the sun a moment in time so treasured and so terribly fleeting About 11 or so at night.
There's a knock on the front door It's somebody with the police department with the blood house another missing girl another anguished family another awful search There were literally hundreds of people looking through the park for her. Everybody wanted to find Jenny It was summer 1986 the Sun kissed morning a few miles from the park where they found Michelle's body Patty Bastion was enjoying a quiet moment at home with the younger of her two daughters Jenny a blonde blue-eyed dynamo If there was a ball she had it in her hand if there was a bat she had it in her hand Jenny was 13 She had a brand new Schwinn bicycle. She was preparing for an imminent bike tour She wanted a master of the bike. She didn't want anybody to be waiting for her She wanted to have the stamina to keep up She planned a training ride with a friend the friend backed out and so that's sunny day August 4th Jenny called her dad and asked her permission to do the five mile drive around Point Defiance Park by herself And he said yes, but be home by 630.
So she wrote a little note and left it on the kitchen table P.D. on Jenny's note to her mom stands for Point Defiance Jekoma's huge and loved urban forest park Jenny's older sister Teresa 15 at the time Where did a day camp there? It's majestic I mean all these overdone, you know words of the poets don't begin to describe the just the primeval forest and it's beautiful The five mile drive around the park was paved well marked a popular hike Patty left for her evening shift at a store about 40 minutes away and then the day just becomes like any other day Until the phone call comes in the evening It's my husband saying that I need to come home Jenny was hours late. Patty heard the fear her husband's voice.
She drove home terrifying police were looking in the park told her stay home Wait, and then about 11 or so at night. There's a knock on the front door It's somebody with the police department with the bloodhounds They want a piece of Jennifer's clothing something they can get a cent off of they didn't find Jenny that night or the next day To come up a police closed point to find spark for three days hundreds of people joined the search NBC affiliate king 5 covered it Jenny's sister Teresa pleaded for help Meanwhile police worked the angles was it a kidnapping maybe they were gonna ask for ransom or you just didn't know Or maybe Jenny got lost or was badly hurt. There were literally hundreds of people Looking through the park for her everybody wanted to find Jenny Jean Miller helped run down hundreds of suspected sightings There was a lot of good faith effort on the part of citizens to call in and say I think I saw her here I think I saw her there Patty waited still hoping her Jenny would walk right in the door She was at home when she got a visit from another mother Barbara Michelle is mom there to offer support It seemed like the thing to do. She was very very sweet very nice.
I said thank you She left and I said to a friend who was sitting there. I'm not sure why she came Jennifer's not dead You represented the outcome. She desperately did not want to have that exactly exactly and she didn't want that Be her reality, but was it it seemed like all of a coma feared the worst after about I don't know 20 days I decided I needed to do something beside hang out in the backyard drinking coffee Yeah, and I decided to paint the dining room And that's where she was one the detective arrived took the brush or roll around in my hand So help me down the ladder sat me on the chair in the dining room and said we found her This is police video from the next day they have found Jenny in a thickly wooded spot near a narrow foot path She had been sexually assaulted and strangled and her killer had hidden her body and her new Schwinn bicycle and a second mother Learned all about permanent heartbreak. Have you let your mind go to what probably happened to her that day?
I have my fairy tale. I think and I'll just live with it She was riding her bike the monster came out of the woods and grabbed her and killed her More than that. I can't wrap my brain around Twice in five months and the victims very similar blonde blue eyed riding a bike in a city park And after kids in Tacoma lost the freedom to roam alone. Just like that Turns on a dime.
Yes, it was immediate It was like we couldn't go down the street and play with our friends anymore and we should run everywhere Yeah, because there was evil out there a man a monster needed to be found Everybody it seemed wanted to help the police at one point I think we were up to nine or ten binders full of just tips and it was everything from I saw a strange person in the park that day to My neighbor has got issues Police released another sketch of a possible suspect a man in his 20s Wearing mirrored sunglasses a chip led to the man who drove this van He was familiar with point-to-fiance. He was familiar with the five-mount drive. They took a good hard look at him, but Dead end dead end. There were many dead ends that year and in the years that followed The police collected all the evidence they could but really there was only so much they could do the science of DNA was in its infancy And eventually the murders of Johnny and Michelle went cold It changed the way people thought of other people when the bad guy's still out there and when you don't know who the bad guy is The whole town carries it around absolutely Absolutely Miller carried it around two for two decades and then he met a young detective who was just a kid that summer of 1986 But did she remember?
Yes, she did it definitely Scared the heck out of me. Yeah, there would be certain times where if I was out riding my bike or if I was walking It would be something that I would think about another detective joined the case and after all these years old evidence was about to yield a new clue It was a shocker Lindsay Wade wasn't friends with Michelle or Jenny, but she certainly could have been I Definitely I guess identified with a little girl out riding her bicycle. Oh sure She was 11 years old back then in the summer of 1986 and because she lived in Tacoma Of course you heard about those girls just like her how they've been snatched in broad daylight and murdered it definitely Scared the heck out of me. Yeah, there would be certain times where if I was out riding my bike or if I was walking It would be something that I would think about The layer of that glossy childhood varnish forever stripped away Probably for the first time made us recognize that there's really bad people out there Takes away a little innocence, isn't it?
Yeah? Yeah, definitely She got the thinking about bad people in high school She read a book about the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy who was from here who's from Tacoma? Yes, and I was fascinated by the book and Terrified at the same time and I just decided that that's what I wanted to do for a living I wanted to catch people like him But even after she joined the Tacoma Police Department and earned her way through patrol and narcotics and sex crimes She never forgot about Jenny and Michelle and the summer of 86 I would have a suspect that I was working and I would wonder okay could this guy be? responsible The mystery kept its grip on Jean Miller to inspired him to start a cold case unit here I mean things have changed dramatically in how cases are investigated.
There's so much more that can be done Eventually in 2013 Detective Wade joined him eager to dig into the case of Michelle and Jenny binders And binders of police reports and interviews and leads 27 years of dead ends and point defiance like a giant ever-present question So her bicycle was back here in this area and it was lying on its side The suspect had taken some of these fern fronds and ripped them out and then laid them across the top of the bike to camouflage it And further down the path deeper into the woods where they found Jenny hidden from you very hidden They discovered her body in a shelter of sorts One of the original detectives actually described it as something like an igloo almost. So like a cave that was made out of The vegetation what do you get out of being at the place where she was found for me as an investigator? It was important for me to come out here and actually see it to try to understand a little bit better What happened and try to get myself into the mindset of the killer? I mean there were days when I would get frustrated sitting in my office working on the case And I would just drive down here and park my car and sit down here hoping that something would come to mind One thing that did come to mind A list of all the names in those binders persons of interest witnesses any male who had intersected with the original investigation So how many names did you have about 2300 names?
Yes, my working theory at that time was this guy's got to be somebody who's been convicted of a sex crime or another murder and Somehow he slipped through the cracks back in 1986 investigators had recovered semen from Michelle's body But when that semen was tested years later It didn't match anyone in the FBI's national DNA database known as codus They didn't have any DNA from Jenny's body though They did still have a swimsuit she'd been wearing that day So detective Wade sent that out for testing when the crime lab looked at swimsuit They found semen in the cracker for swimsuit for decades Everyone believed the same man murdered both girls and now finally they had a way to prove it But when they compared the two DNA samples it was a Chocker Michelle it was so fierce. There really wasn't anything that intimidated her at all. She just took life head on It never left them the spirit that was their sister Followed them all around their growing up years and when they had families of their own and they knew always did that their mom had lost a Piece of herself. We'd be all together in this family environment and then this disclosing would come down.
Yeah, she just ball. Yep. You want Mom back the mystery of who killed Michelle and Jenny haunted two families for nearly 30 years All they knew or thought they knew was it some unknown man assaulted and killed those little girls this man who killed once had killed again Absolutely, there couldn't be two monsters in Tacoma, but they were wrong DNA doesn't lie the male DNA found on Jenny's swimsuit. Did I match the other case?
No, there wasn't just one killer There were two I was absolutely dumbfounded. I don't think I could speak. I was like no way I think we were all this we had to kind of take a moment to regroup Yeah Because all this time you're looking for one thing and it's actually something else Mm-hmm, but it was exciting at the same time because now we had a new lead the DNA from Jenny swimsuit a brand new piece of evidence It might lead them to her killer But when they entered that into the national database no match once again They seemed to be right back where they started. You're just in the hurry of the wait mode.
You're waiting For your offender to get their DNA in the database because of a conviction or whatever And that could be a long wait in 2014 Jean Miller retired leaving Detective Wade in charge of the cold case unit and she had a new helper Jenny's mom Patti 29 years after her daughter's murder my career was winding down I thought I should probably do something and so I volunteered to help Patti wasn't allowed to touch the two girls murder files, but she could help in other ways and we just hit it off she was so supportive and So positive and just volunteered for anything she could do to help us make our jobs easier Around then Detective Wade decided to try something new with the crime scene DNA She consulted this woman dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick an expert in something called forensic genealogy in an informal sense has been referred to as CSI Any truths, maybe you've taken a home DNA test a lot of people have you can sometimes track down distant relatives by uploading your DNA profile to public genealogy websites Dr. Fitzpatrick searches all that DNA data defined not necessarily matches, but telling similarities It's really the first big development in human identification. I think in years in 20 years Her method can link an unknown DNA profile to possible relatives and therefore possible last names Detective Wade was skeptical at first.
It kind of sounded like smoke and mirrors to me But I thought well, I'm gonna give it a shot. I mean I want to solve this case Yeah She sent Dr. Fitzpatrick the two DNA profiles from Michelle's and Jenny's crime scenes and she did her magic She entered into her genealogy databases There were no exact matches, but there were some possible family names I certainly you know dug into the names and there wasn't anybody who jumped off the page The only name that seemed remotely interesting was Washburn because there was a guy by that name in the case file But he wasn't a suspect. He was a witness.
He was a jogger who told police He saw someone in Point Defiance Park who resembled the sketch of Michelle's killer But even more confusing Dr. Fitzpatrick genealogy research had linked the name Washburn to the DNA and Jenny's murder Which detective Wade knew happened months after Washburn phoned in that tip about Michelle So it's all just a fluke probably and so it was something that I kept in the back of my mind as we continued on with the investigation She also went to a company called Parabon that turned DNA profiles into computer generated images showing what the suspects probably looked like In 2016 armed with those Parabon snapshots these two are solvable the Tacoma Police Department told the public They were searching for two killers and needed help to find them. Jenny's sister Teresa was hopeful I didn't know exactly where it was gonna end up But I knew it was a big step in the case We had to point open and we got multiple tips on the same person because he actually looked so much like the sketch But when they checked him out they eliminated him as a suspect so much for new approaches Detective Wade once again looked at the huge lists she made 2300 men connected to the two cases She couldn't test all of them against the crime scene DNA, but there were several hundred that really did stand out because they did have documented History for violence and sexual assault so she set out to collect the DNA of those men She called them high priority suspects. She also included one guy who wasn't a suspect at all the witness Washburn And though they were scattered all over the country with the FBI's help one by one She tracked him down.
We asked people knock down their door literally told them we were investigating a cold case and you know We'd like to eliminate you as a potential suspect. Would you give us your DNA? We had in total about a hundred and sixty people that we got DNA samples from 160 samples they all needed to be compared with the DNA samples from the two crime scenes Easier said than done isn't like the movies. This would take months.
No idea if any of it would pay off First batch goes out there none of these guys were a match and then I send the next batch out and it's the same thing It was really frustrating because there were some people that looked like fantastic suspects up until the point that they were eliminated weeks months a year of dead ends at then came the phone call No way for more seasons came and went into coma, Washington as ever so methodically in batches of 20 Detective Lindsey Wade sent her collected samples of DNA to the lab DNA taken from 160 men looking for two killers first batch goes out there I Wait months months and months and then you know get a report back that none of these guys were a match And then I send the next batch out and it's the same thing It was really frustrating because there were some people that looked like fantastic suspects up until the point that they were eliminated a Year DNA tests and not a single match It was enough to wear any detective down even one as passionate as Lindsey Wade She'd given her best but now she made a tough decision It was time for me to move on in the spring of 2018 Lindsey Wade retired from the Tacoma PD She'd investigated both Jenny and Michelle's cases for years and saying goodbye wasn't easy especially to Jenny's mom by that time I mean you grown pretty close to Patty. Mm-hmm. Yeah, she's a very special cow. I told her mother.
I'm going to adopt her Before she left Wade sent one last small batch of samples to the DNA lab. No point brilliant waiting for the results We're down to the last 18. I'm doubtful that we're gonna get a match So she said goodbye and went on with her life and 25 days later My phone buzzed and I went down. It was her replacement on the cold case unit I answered the phone and he said there's a match on Jennifer Bastian.
I asked who was it? What's the name? And he said Robert Washburn and I was like No way. I knew exactly who it was But I just couldn't believe it Robert Washburn He was the guy who phoned in a tip about Michelle's murder He was never a suspect on her short list only because of that genealogy analysis Why did Washburn's name end up on the list to be tested for DNA because of his last name?
Just the last name because he was in that listen was sent to you. Correct At the time it seemed like a coincidence a fluke but now here it was no doubt Robert Washburn's DNA on Jenny Bastian's swimsuit It was head spinning and the funny thing is that he was not a high-priority suspect He certainly hadn't acted like one. They learned that in the years after the murder rape of Jenny Bastian Robert Washburn just blended in the middle of America Literally he moved to Illinois got a job paid his taxes paid out of trouble. In fact when investigators came knocking at his door He voluntarily gave them a DNA sample Now more than three decades after that terrible day in the park Washburn was arrested at home And then the new cold case detective Steve Reapel spoke with him.
How did he react? He was scared? He was very nervous. He was sweating.
He asked me is this about that swab I gave the FBI a year ago and then he told me I didn't kill that little girl With Washburn and handcuffs it was time to let Jenny's mom know and that job went to retire detective Wade So of course I had rehearsed what I was gonna say and and I went out the window by the time I got there I can't remember what I was gonna say and and she walked in I could tell she had been crying and She said we got him and that's really all I could say the next thing we were doing is crying and hugging each other After 32 years Jenny's alleged killer was finally in custody But what about Michelle's murderer his identity was still a mystery of the 160 man whose DNA was tested none matched Did you get to the point where you thought this is just we'll just live with this never gonna be solved? Oh, yeah, but it was solved or not wasn't ever going to bring her back But I did not ever want that to have another children. So in my mind, it would be a great idea to find this guy Remember back in 2016 Parabon made a sketch based on the suspect's DNA, but it didn't lead to a suspect So in 2018 the company decided to try a newer more advanced version of forensic genealogy And what do you know how could you find somebody? How could somebody still be out there one mother still seeking answers and one more phone call out of the blue I believe in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil I think they're in for big surprise to be called that nothing else can fit no amount of comfort the loss of her daughter Michelle Hit Barbara Leonard like one of the sufferings of Job and the grief There's never an end to it and there won't be I don't think it'll see her again and I have that hope and promise The Bible is true and the Bible says that the dead are sleeping.
They will be resurrected That's where you find your comfort and of course it is. That's how I've been able to maintain A relationship and understand other people's pain Of course, Barbara was glad for the bastion family when she heard there been an arrest in Jenny's case in May 2018 But she knew it wouldn't shed any light on Michelle's murder It was two different people two different distinct persons So maybe they solved the other case, but they'd never solve yours. Yeah So it seemed for 40 days and 40 nights until june 20th 2018 when Barbara's phone rang Police chief calls and says we've apprehended the man we feel is responsible for your daughter's murder After 32 years the breakthrough was once again genealogical DNA through this process two brothers were identified as possible suspects At the cheese press conference detective Steve Riavel told how he shattered one of the brothers to a restaurant where he got lucky I observed him using the napkin multiple times and I was able to collect it and get that submitted to the lab And it was a match. It was surreal because After all this time, how could you find somebody?
How could somebody still be out there? Michelle is a leg killer. Gary Hartman was a nurse of all things in a psychiatric hospital A working-class guy with no history of violent crime just like Robert Washburn I believe in the devil. I believe fully in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil.
I think they're in for big surprise I Barbara Leonard and her daughters were in court. The day Hartman was charged with Michelle's murder I was looking at him and I thought who is this person? How could someone that looks so normal do something like this? In January 2019, Robert Washburn the suspect and Jenny Bastian's murder was back in court This was the final step and a plea deal.
How do you plead? You do. Washburn pleaded guilty the first degree murder. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison I had prayed that he would not go to trial.
I just wanted to be over As part of the plea agreement Washburn had to tell the court about the murder in a statement read by the judge He said he grabbed Jenny by the arm brought her into the woods and strangled her And that was it which for Patti Bastian was not enough at all. I will always have this question in my head So you woke up on August 4th. It was a beautiful sunny day. You went to the park Did you intend to kill a little girl?
Why? Why did you do this? Did you know what you did? You know how many birthdays you missed?
How many Christmases? How many smiles? How many laughs? Do you have any expectation that he's going to answer that why question or any hope that he will?
Yes Yes And the reason for that is not for me The reason is for future To help psychologists parents detectives understand What can be in a human being? What what what make him this person? And also why did Washburn call in the tip about Michelle's murder months before he killed Jenny? That's another question that we would all like to know the answer to Could you be planning it all that time?
I don't know watching for somebody. It's certainly possible Three years after Jenny's killer pleaded guilty March 2022 Lindsey Wade sat in another courtroom along with Michelle's mom and sisters As Gary Hartman was found guilty of first degree murder for killing Michelle Feeling after all the tears and shook back emotions tears crying and wondering whose black heart of darkness could have done this This is the day he faces the judge. I say lock him up and throw with key The judge sent his apartment to 26 years in prison Two killers now behind bars for what will likely be the rest of their lives in large part Thanks to the determination of Lindsey Wade, but she wasn't quite done Each state gets to determine their own laws regarding DNA collection who they can collect DNA from and when it was make it easier for you folks No, no, it doesn't So she decided to do something about that in Washington state the governor signed a law that expanded DNA collection and made sure it got Into a national registry right away with his bill We may be able to solve more crimes. It's called Jennifer and Michelle's law It's one way to honor those two little girls Two innocents writing their bikes through a park on a sunny day Friday night on an all-new day line can't be her she can't be gone a young law student's murder became a family's fight for justice The frustration of the feeling of helplessness until the truth finally emerges was called me and we have a name I was just freaking out and I'm like everybody get to headquarters An all-new take line at Friday night at 90 central only on NBC