Accused Child Murderer Arrested In Illinois Gave His DNA To FBI

EUREKA, IL — Police arrested a 60-year-old Illinois resident in connection with the murder and sexual assault of a 13-year-old Tacoma, Washington girl 32 years ago. Jennifer Bastian was one of two young girls in the town to be turn up brutally killed in the spring of 1986, and the two cases were long thought to be the work of the same person. But a man's DNA evidence from her bathing suit was tested in 2016 and investigators learned there were two suspects.

Robert D. Washburn, 60, was arrested Wednesday at an apartment building in the 700 block of East Bullock Street in Eureka by the Tacoma Police Department with the help of Illinois State Police and the Woodford County Sheriff's Office.

The murders of the two girls shook the community. Michella Welch was first to go missing, abducted on March 26, 1986 in Puget Park while taking care of two under sisters, according to the Tacoma News Tribune. On May 14, after a composite sketch of a suspect was released, Washburn called police. He said he had seen someone similar as a fellow jogger in Point Defiance Park, where Bastian would go missing months later.

Jennifer Bastian left home on Aug. 4, 1986 on her bicycle to train for an upcoming bike tour in Washington's San Juan Islands, police said. She left a note saying she would be back by 6:30 p.m. Several people saw her riding her bike around the park that evening, but she never returned home.

Bastian's parents reported her missing when she didn't return home by 8:30 p.m. Her body was found two weeks later by a jogger in a wooded area with her new 18-speed Schwinn bicycle nearby.

Washburn, who lived just nine blocks from the Bastian's home, was interviewed again by police in December 1986, KOMO reported. According to court documents, he told detectives he had smelled a "foul odor" while jogging around the wooded area where Bastian's body was later found after an extensive search.

The case grew colder, but was never closed. After semen from Bastian's bathing suit was tested in 2016, Washburn was on the list of people detectives wanted to check it against. He agreed to provide his DNA to the FBI, according to the News Tribune. In May, the results came back linking him to her death.

Neighbors of Washburn in the 5,400-person town of Eureka said he never wanted to talk about his past, set up a camera at his house and kept his car covered with tarp all the time, WEEK-TV reported. One resident was especially shaken to learn of the arrest. She said her 11-year-old daughter would regularly go over to the apartment of the suspected child murderer.

"We all knew him, and nobody suspected anything like this ever. He had a very severely handicapped daughter, he did amazingly great with her, from what we know," she said. "I just don't understand, I am totally blown away."

Washburn was being held Friday at the Woodford County jail awaiting extradition to Washington state, which is not expected to take place before Monday.

Top photo: Composite image, Woodford County Sheriff's Office/YouTube