After 32 years a Tacoma mother got to see the man who police say sexually assaulted and killed her 13-year-old daughter Jennifer Bastian in 1986.
“It's just a journey and I don't know where it's going. He's here, he's off the streets and he can't hurt anyone else,” said Pattie Bastian, Jennifer’s mother
Robert Dwayne Washburn, 60, made his first appearance in Pierce County Court and entered a not guilty plea to first-degree premeditated murder charges. His bail has been set for $5 million.
Theresa Bastian, Jennifer's sister, was also in court by her mother's side.
"It's been a long 32 years as it is and it’s the right thing to do to have justice prevail. And if this person has any mercy, he will confess or he will plead and not put his family or mine or this community through a long trial," said Theresa.
While the family is happy Washburn is behind bars and being charged with premeditated murder, they are not in favor of the death penalty.
"Nothing is going to bring Jennifer back and I certainly don't want to be responsible for somebody else’s life. That's just not how my heart runs," said Pattie Bastian.
Charges against Washburn had been elevated to premeditated murder. The amended complaint includes aggravating factors of sexual motivation and deliberate cruelty to allow prosecutors to seek an exceptional sentence, according to Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.
“Our goal is to hold the defendant fully accountable,” Lindquist said in a release.
Washburn was originally charged with first-degree murder of Jennifer Bastian and arrested earlier this month in Eureka, Ill., east of Peoria. Washburn waived extradition and arrived in Washington state Wednesday night.
Bastian left her home on the afternoon of August 4, 1986. She rode her bike to Point Defiance Park to train for an upcoming bike tour. She left a note saying she would be home by 6:30 p.m.
Several people reported seeing her in that area as late as 6 p.m., but she never returned home. Her body was found three weeks later in a wooded area off Five Mile Drive.
According to probable cause documents, evidence indicated Bastian was strangled and was the victim of sexual assault.
Semen was found on the blue one-piece swimsuit Bastian wore that day. It wasn't until November 2013 that the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab was able to create a DNA profile from the semen.
A list was created three years later of suspects from whom investigators needed to collect DNA. One of them was Washburn, according to probable cause documents.
He ultimately became a suspect because he called in a tip to police dispatch back in 1986 about another murder – Michella Welch – which happened just days before Bastian's murder. The documents state Washburn told police he was jogging in the park and saw a man fitting the description of a suspect sketch in the Welch murder. He also reported having smelled a foul odor as he was running Five Mile Drive and allegedly told police he had been at the park the day police cordoned it off, which they did for three days after Bastian was reported missing.
Washburn agreed to have his DNA collected by investigators, police say. The WSP crime lab matched his DNA with the semen found on Bastian's swimsuit, according to probable cause documents. Police say the odds of selecting an unrelated person at random with a matching profile is one-in-57 trillion.
