>> veil's family kept her memory there. >> we are the constant. we want her to feel protected, loved, everything i know her mom would have given her. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. a >> and this is "dateline." >> anytime a child goes missing, it's a scary thing. you know there's evil out there. >> reporter: first, michela. then, jenny. >> bloodhounds came, police were there. >> this is a little girl that was doing nothing more than riding her bicycle in a park. >> two young girls taken. >> the similarities. blondeme blonde, blue-eyed, riding a

bike. >> somebody who is targeting little girls. >> exactly. as a little kid, it definitely scared the heck out of me. >> she was a girl then, too. solving these mysteries became her mission. >> so, how many names did you have? >> about 2,300 names. >> reporter: could cutting-edge technology crack an ice-cold case? >> i was like no way. >> i believe in the devil. and people that don't believe in the devil, i think they're in for a big surprise. >> hello and welcome to "dateline." michela and jenny were just like most kids their age. they loved riding bikes and playing outdoors. the fun-loving girls didn't know each other, but they would be forever connected through tragedy. decades later, a detective would leave no stone unturned on a quest for justice. and in the process, uncovered a twist that left investigators speechless. here is keith morrison with

"evil was watching." >> reporter: 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 undergrowth 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: and the questions about that place and that summer followed 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 lay dormant for more than three decades. a story that can finally be told. it was march, 1986. things were finally looking up for barbara leonard. hadn't been easy, she said, 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 i just bought a house in the north end of tacoma. scraped and saved money. >> reporter: even a little extra to sign up her daughters for piano lessons. her youngest was nicole. there was angela in the middle. and the eldest was michella. >> she was almost 13. she wasn't a rebellious child but kids that age want to be a little more independent. >> reporter: michelle begged her mom. >> she wanted to go to the park with her sisters, and be there before the piano lesson. >> pugot park, a couple of miles from home. michella's sisters will never forget that day. >> for like a half an hour. but we went like two and a half hours early. >> reporter: freedom. they rode their bikes to the park where they realized they'd forgotten their lunches at home.

>> so michela was just like, i'll go grab them and come back. >> in the in the meantime, we had to go to the bathroom. so -- >> there's no bathroom at the playground, back then. >> so where'd you go? >> we went down the street. >> it took a while. and when they finally got back, michela should have been there, too. but she wasn't. >> her bike was there. and we started looking. >> we have this family call and it -- and it echoes just far and wide. and so, we -- >> what's the family call? >> woo! >> okay. >> yeah. and so, we yoo-hooed for her and we didn't hear anything. >> reporter: that's when it happened. when the cold fear flooded their bodies. >> and like, at that moment, i knew. >> knew what? >> i just knew something had happened. >> yeah. that it was -- it was wrong. it was very wrong. >> something was really wrong. >> i left work. i remember that day. and i just -- i was praying i

wouldn't get a speeding ticket but i was probably doing 70 miles an hour on the little road. >> do you remember what that was like? >> it was terrifying. >> you're hoping you're going to see the kid come walking around the corner. >> reporter: gene miller was a patrol officer, then. tacoma police. >> it's a special kind of horror or dread that goes with a little girl going missing like that. >> any time a child goes missing, it's -- it's a scary thing. >> reporter: where was michela? the police looked, of course. but as the hours ticked 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, so, it was dark. they said we're going to call in search and rescue because we haven't found her. >> reporter: it was late when they took search dogs into a nearby, overgrown gulch.

and then. >> i was in one of the police cars, and they told me that -- that they'd found her body. and, you know, when you say you found a body, it's not the person. it's terrible. sorry. >> reporter: they found her near a makeshift fire pit. she had been beaten and sexually assaulted. her throat, cut. >> it's this sickening feeling that just overtakes you. and life is never going to be the same, as you know it. >> and i think that it does one of two things to you. it's either going to eat you up or it's going to motivate you to find the bad guy. >> reporter: day after day, they searched for the killer. all that dismal spring. one of michela's classmates said she saw a man in the park looking at the girls. they made a sketch and tips flooded in. one of them seemed especially

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. kept a gun in her car. >> i'd 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. >> reporter: then, it was summer. five months had passed. >> august, that year, was fabulous in the pacific northwest. and woke up a little late. jenny woke up a little late. >> reporter: 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. we were talking all about the upcoming camp, all about what she was going to do the rest of the day. we just visited. it's not something we regularly did. we just did it, that day. i think we needed to. >> reporter: a moment in time, so treasured and so terribly fleeting. >> coming up. >> there's a knock on the front door. it's somebody with the police department. >> 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. >> when "dateline" continues. hes

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1986. a sun-kissed morning. a few miles from the park, where they had found michella's body, patty bastian was enjoying home with her daughters. jenni, 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. >> jenni was 13. she had a brand new bicycle. >> she wanted to master the bike. she didn't want anybody to be waiting for her. she wanted to have the stamina to keep up. >> reporter: she had planned a training ride with a friend. the friend backed out. and so, that sunny day, august

4th. >> jenni called her dad, and asked for permission to do the 5-mile drive around point defiance park by herself. >> reporter: and he said yes but be home by 6:30. >> so she wrote a little note and left it on the kitchen table. >> reporter: pd on jenni's note to her mom stands for point defiance. jenni's older sister, theresa, 15 at the time, worked at day camp there. >> it's ma jettijestic. i mean, all these overdone words of the poets don't begin to describe the forest. it's beautiful. >> reporter: 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, a phone call comes in the evening. it's my husband saying that i need to come home.

>> reporter: jenni was hours late. patty heard the fear in her husband's voice. she drove home, terrified. police were looking in the park. told her, stay home and wait. >> and then, about 11:00 or so at night, there's a knock on the front door. it's somebody with the police department, with the bloodhounds. >> oh, boy. >> they want a piece of jennifer's clothing, something they can get a scent off of. >> reporter: they didn't find jenni, that night. or the next day. tacoma police closed point defiance park for three days. hundreds of people joined the search. nbc affiliate, king 5, covered it. jenni's sister, theresa, pleaded for help. >> just take time. just think back. sit down and remember. any little bit would help. >> reporter: meanwhile, police worked the angles. was it a kidnapping? >> maybe, they were going to ask

for ransom. or, we just didn't know. >> reporter: or, maybe, jenni got lost or was badly hurt. >> there were, literally, hundreds of people looking through the park for her. >> everybody wanted to find jenni. >> reporter: gene 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 or i think i saw her there. >> patty waited. still, hoping her jenni would walk right in the door. she was at home when she got a visit from another mother. barbara. michella's mom. there, to offer support. >> just 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 happen. >> exactly. exactly. and she didn't want that to be her reality.

>> reporter: but, was it? it seemed like all of tacoma 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. i don't know. >> reporter: and that's where she was when the detective arrived. >> took the brusher, roller, out of my hand. sat, helped me down the ladder. sat me on the chair in the dining room. and said we found her. >> today's date is august 29th. >> reporter: this is police video from the next day. they had found jenni in a thickly-wooded spot near a narrow footpath. 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 fairytale, 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. >> no. >> reporter: twice, in five months. and the victims, very similar. >> blonde. blue-eyed. riding a bike in a city park. >> reporter: and after, kids in tacoma lost the freedom to roam alone, just like that. >> turns on a dime after jenni. >> yes, it did. it was immediate. >> it was like we couldn't go down the street and play with our friends anymore. >> chaperoned everywhere. >> yeah. >> reporter: because there was evil out there. a man. a monster who needed to be found. everybody, it seemed, wanted to help the police. >> at one point, i think we were

up to nine or ten bind rers ful of just tips. and it was everything from i saw a strange person in the park that day. to my neighbor has got issues. >> reporter: police released another sketch of a possible suspect. a man, in his 20s, wearing mirrored sunglasses. a tip led to the man who drove this van. >> he was familiar with point defiance. he was familiar with the 5-mile drive. >> reporter: 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 jenni and michella 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 kind of carries it around. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> reporter: miller carried it around, too. 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. >> coming up. >> it definitely scared the heck out of me. >> another detective joins the case. and after all these years, old evidence is about to yield a new clue. >> it was a shocker. >> when "dateline" continues. ws

>> reporter: lindsey wade wasn't friends with michella or jenni. but she certainly could have been. >> i definitely, i guess, identified with a little girl out riding her bicycle. >> oh, sure. >> reporter: she was 11 years old, back then, in the summer of 1986. and because she lived in tacoma, of course, she had heard about those girls, just like her. how they'd been snatched in broad daylight and murdered. >> it definitely scared the headache out of heck out of me. there would be certain times where if i was out riding my bike or if i was walking, it would be something i would think about. >> reporter: the layer of that glossy, childhood varnish,

stripped away. >> probably, for the first time, made us recognize that there's really bad people out there. >> takes away a little innocence, doesn't it? >> yeah. definitely. >> reporter: she got to thinking about bad people. in high school, she read a book about the notorious serial killer, ted bundy. >> who was from here. >> he was 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. >> reporter: but, even after she joined the tacoma police department and earned her way through patrol and narcotics and sex crimes, she never forgot about jenni and michella and the summer of '86. >> i would have a suspect that i was working, and i would wonder, okay. could this guy be responsible?

>> reporter: the mystery kept its grip on gene miller, too. inspired him to start a cold-case unit, here. >> i mean, things have changed, dramatically, in -- in how cases are investigated. there's so much more that can be done. >> reporter: eventually, in 2013, detective wade joined him, eager to dig into the case of michella and jenni. 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 frauns and ripped them out. and then, laid them across the top of the bike to camouflage it. >> reporter: and further down the path, deeper into the woods, where they found jenni. >> hidden from view. >> very hidden. >> reporter: they discovered her

body, in a shelter, of sorts. >> and 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 and 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. >> reporter: one thing that did come to mind? assembling 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 name ts ds did have? >> about 2,300 names. >> that's a lot of 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. >> reporter: back in 1986, investigators had recovered semen from michella's body. but when that semen was tested, years later, it didn't match anyone in the fbi's national dna database, known as codis. they didn't have any dna from jenni's body. though, they did still have the swimsuit she had been wearing that day. so, detective wade sent that out for testing. >> when the crime lab looked at the swimsuit, they found semen in the crotch of her swimsuit. >> reporter: 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 shocker.

>> coming up. >> i was absolutely dumbfounded. >> a revelation is about to change the case. >> all this time, you're looking for one thing and it's actually something else. >> uh-huh. but now, we had a new lead. >> they'd also get a cutting-edge, new clue. >> i thought, well, i'm going to give it a shot. >> when "dateline" continues. cats. so, we got griswalda. dinner's almost ready. but one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our renters insurance. yeah, switching and saving was really easy! drink it all up. good! could have used a little salt. visit geico.com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be. you're not welcome here! get out of my face! hpv can cause certain cancers when your child grows up. get in its way. hpv can affect males and females...

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hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. former new jersey governor, chris christie, checked into a hospital saturday after testing positive for the coronavirus. in a statement, christie said that seeking hospitalization was a precautionary measure, due to his history of asthma. los angeles dodgers hero, lou johnson, has passed away at the age of 86. the baseball outfielder was nicknamed sweet lou for his infectious smile. johnson is credited with a pivotal home run in the dodgers

dodgers' 1965 world series win. now, back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm notal i'm natalie morales. lindsey wade was just a girl when two young girls in her hometown were murdered, within a matter of months. wade's obsession with the case grew. now, she was a detective and hoped advances in dna technology would help her unmask the killer. but what she was about to learn would completely transform the investigation. here, again, is keith morrison with "evil was watching." >> michella was so fierce. there really wasn't anything that intimidated her, at all. she just took life head on. >> reporter: 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 just closing would come down over her. >> yeah. and she'd just bawl. >> yep. you want mom back. >> reporter: the mystery of who killed michella and jenni haunted two families, for nearly 30 years. all they knew, or thought they knew, was that some, unknown man assaulted and killed those little girls. >> this man who had killed once, had killed again. >> absolutely. there couldn't be two monsters in tacoma. >> reporter: but they were wrong. dna doesn't lie. and the male dna found on jenni's swimsuit. did it match the other case? >> no. >> there wasn't just one killer. there were two. >> i was absolutely dumbfounded. >> yeah. >> i don't think i could speak. >> i was like no way. >> i think we were all just -- 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. >> uh-huh. but it was exciting, at the same time, because now we had a new lead. >> reporter: the dna from jenni's 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-up-and-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. >> reporter: in 2014, gene miller retired. leaving detective wade in charge of the cold case unit. and she had a new helper. jenni's mom, patty. 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.

>> reporter: patty 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. >> reporter: 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, it's been referred to as csi meets roots. >> 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 to find, not necessarily matches but, telling

similarities. >> it's really the first, big development in human identification, i think, in years. in 20 years. >> reporter: 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 going to give it a shot. i mean, i want to solve this case. >> yeah. >> reporter: she sent dr. fitzpatrick the two dna profiles from michella's and jenni's crime scenes. >> she did her magic. she entered into her genealogy databases. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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 the jogger, who told

police he saw someone in point defiance park who resembled the sketch of michella's killer. but even more confusing, dr. fitzpatrick's genealogy research had linked the name washburn to the dna in jenni's murder, which detective wade knew happened months after washburn phoned in that tip about michella. so, it was 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. >> reporter: she, also, went to a company called parabond. they turn into computer generated images, showing what the suspects probably looked like. in 2016, armed with those snapshots. >> these two are solvable. >> reporter: the tacoma police department told the public they were searching for two killers. and needed help to find them. jenni's sister, theresa, was hopeful. >> i didn't know, exactly, where it was going to end up.

but i knew it was a big step in the case. >> we had a tip line open and we got multiple tips on the same person because he actually looked so much like the sketch. >> reporter: but, when they checked him out, they eliminated him as a suspect. 2,300 men connected to the two cases. >> it 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 them down. >> we asked people. knocked on 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 160 people that we got dna samples from. >> reporter: 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. >> coming up. >> so, first batch goes out there. none of these guys are a match. then, i send the next batch out. and it's the same thing. >> weeks. months. a year of dead ends. then, came the phone call. >> i was like, no way. >> when "dateline" continues. tu. this isn't some dealership test drive around the block. it's better. this is seven days to put your carvana car to the test and see if it fits your life. load it up with a week's worth of groceries.

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>> reporter: four more seasons came and went in tacoma, 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. and then, get a report back that none of these guys are 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. >> reporter: a year of dna tests and not a single match. it was enough to wear any detective down, even one as passionate as lindsey wade. she had given her best but now she made a tough decision. >> it was time for me to move on. >> reporter: in the spring of 2018, lindsey wade retired from the tacoma pd. >> working on cold cases is typically more frustrating than rewarding because you can work and work and work and work. and do a ton of investigation and come up with zero. >> and then, walk away. >> yeah. >> reporter: she'd investigated both jenni and michella's cases for years. and saying good-bye wasn't easy. especially, to jenni's mom. >> by that time, had you grown

pretty close to patty? >> uh-huh. yep. >> she's a very special gal. i told her mother i'm going to adopt her. >> reporter: before she left, wade sent one, last, small batch of samples to the dna lab. no point, really, in waiting for the results. >> we're down to the last 18. i'm doubtful that we're going to get a match. >> reporter: so, she said good-bye and went on with her life. and 25 days later. >> my phone buzzed and i looked down. >> reporter: 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 is it? what's the name? >> uh-huh. >> and he said robert washburn? and i was like, no way. i knew exactly who it was.

but i just couldn't believe it. >> reporter: robert washburn. he was the guy who phoned in a tip about michella'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. >> he was in that list that 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 jenni bastian's swimsuit. it was head-spinning. >> and the funny thing is he was not a high-priority suspect. >> he certainly had not acted like one. they learned after the murder and rape of jenni bastian, he moved to illinois, got a job, paid his taxes, stayed 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 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. >> reporter: with washburn in handcuffs, it was time to let jenni's mom know. and that job went to retired detective wade. >> so, of course, i had rehearsed what i was going to say. and it all went out the window by the time i got there. couldn't remember what i was going to say. >> 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. >> yeah. >> reporter: after 32 years, jenni's alleged killer was finally in custody. but what about michella's murderer? his identity was still a mystery. of the 160 men, whose dna was tested, none matched. >> did you get to the point where you thought this is just -- just live with this? never going to be solved? >> oh, yeah. >> whether it was solved or not wasn't ever going to bring her back. but, i did not ever want that to happen to other children. so, in my mind, it would be a great idea to find this guy. >> reporter: 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? >> coming up. >> how could you find somebody? how could somebody still be out there? >> one mother, still, seeking answers. and one more phone call from out of the blue. >> i believe in the devil and people that don't believe in the devil, i think they're in for a big surprise. >> when "dateline" continues. fo big surprise. >> when "dateline" continues ♪ wild thing, ♪ ♪ you make my heart sing ♪ ♪ wild thing i... think i...

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welcome back. for more than 30 years, the

tacoma police worked every angle to solve the murder of two little girls. case files passed through three generations of detectives before forensics gave them their first, big break. now, jenni's suspected killer was behind bars. and investigators were determined that michella's would be next. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "evil was watching." >> it's a hole. it's a big hole that nothing else can fit. no amount of comfort. >> reporter: the loss of her daughter michella hit barbara leonard like one of the sufferings of jobe. and the grief? >> there's never an end to it and there won't be, i don't think, until i 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, huh? >> of course, it is. that's how i've been able to

maintain a relationship and understand other people's pain. >> reporter: of course, barbara was glad for the bastian family when she heard there had been an arrest in jenni's case in may 2018 but she knew it wouldn't shed any light on michella's murder. >> it was two different people. two different, distinct persons. >> so maybe, they'd 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 apprehended the man we feel is responsible for your daughter's murder. >> after 32 years. the breakthrough was, once again, gene yoe logical dna. >> two brothers were identified as possible suspects. >> reporter: at the chief's press conference, detective told

how he shadowed 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. >> reporter: 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? >> reporter: michella's alleged killer, 67-year-old 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 a big surprise. >> reporter: barbara leonard and her daughters were in court the day hartman was charged with michella'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?

>> reporter: hartman pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. his trial is still pending. his attorney sent us a letter, which reads, in part, the defense is pursuing various investigative leads. i ask the public accord mr. hartman the presumption of innocence, to which he's entitled. in january 2020, robert washburn, the suspect in jenni bastian's murder, was back in court. this was the final step in a plea deal. >> how do you plead? >> guilty. >> reporter: washburn pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. he was sentenced to 27 years in prison. >> i had prayed that he would not go to trial. i just wanted it to be over. >> reporter: 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 jenni by the arm. brought her into the woods and strangled her. and, that was it which, for patty 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? do you know how many birthdays she missed? how many christmases? >> any expectation he's going to answer that why question or any hope that he will? >> yes. yes. and the reason for that is not to help psychologists, parents, detectives. understand. >> reporter: and also, why did

washburn call in the tip about michella's murder, months before he killed jenni? >> it's another question that we would all like to know the answer to. >> could he have been planning it all that time? >> i don't know. >> watching for somebody? >> certainly, possible. >> reporter: after 32 years, jenni's case had finally ended. but the bastian-wade partnership had not. the two joined forces to get a bill passed in washington state that expands dna collection, and makes sure it gets into a national registry, right away. it's called jennifer and michella's law. >> it would be great. it would be terrific. to memorialize these two girls, that -- that did not deserve this. >> in may, 2019, washington governor jay inslee signed that law into effect.

two little girls. two innocents riding their bikes through a park, on a sunny day. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie"dateline." thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i did not want to believe it. my sister's dead. and i just -- sorry. just kind of fell apart. >> inside a silent home, an eerie scene. water pouring through the rooms. >> you heard the water running? >> yes. it was just like gushing. i saw her in the bathtub. >> facedown? >> right. >> drowned? no. >> she was badly beaten.