New DNA Evidence Used to Solve 2 Cold Cases from 1986
12-year-old Michella Welch and 13-year-old Jennifer Bastian were both murdered in the Tacoma, Washington area. After 30 years, their cold cases were solved.
On March 26, 1986, 12-year-old Michella Welch was babysitting her two younger sisters in Tacoma, Washington. Michella had taken her sisters to a nearby park to play. Around noon Michella got on her bike to go home and make some sandwiches for the girls.
While Michella was gone, her sisters went to a nearby business to use the washroom. They also made a call home to check on their older sister, but no one picked up at the house. Michella returned to the park and was unable to locate her sisters. She was last seen at 1:30 pm, talking to an unidentified man.
Her sisters returned to the park, waited, and when Michella didn’t find them, they went back home and called police. Around 11 pm, a tracking dog located Michella’s body in an isolated area, more than a quarter-mile away from the park. Michella had been raped, and her throat had been slit.
The initial suspect in the investigation was the man that Michella had last spoken too in the park. A witness described the man as tanned, or possibly Hispanic, twenty-five to thirty-five years old, 5'8 with…
