Two Girls, Two Parks, Two Killers: Michella Welch & Jennifer Bastian | Tacoma, Washington

In 1986 the North and West End neighborhoods of Tacoma trusted their parks. That was, until two girls disappeared from public parks in Tacoma, Washington within a few miles and a few months of each other, both stories ending in tragedy. Twelve-year-old Michella Welch disappeared from Puget Park on a bright Wednesday afternoon in March. Thirteen-year-old Jennifer Bastian vanished from Point Defiance Park while riding her brand-new Schwinn bike that same year in August.

For nearly three decades, investigators believed the girls had been killed by the same man. The circumstances were too similar to imagine otherwise. As Jennifer's mother Pattie put it, there couldn't possibly be two monsters in Tacoma. And yet – there were. In this episode we walk through what happened to Michella and Jenni, the assumption that shaped multiple decades of the investigation, the evidence that finally broke that assumption apart, and the two very different paths that led to justice.

Their cases also led to Jennifer & Michella's Law – the 2019 Washington legislation that expanded mandatory DNA collection for convicted felons and now stands as a legislative legacy for both girls. Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian were just little girls who should have had the chance to grow up. Both were blonde, blue-eyed girls on their bikes, doing exactly what kids had always been trusted to do – enjoying their local park. If the story moves you, we'd love it if you shared the episode - it helps the show, and most importantly these two girls deserve to be remembered by name.

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