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. 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. in 2014, gene miller retired. leaving detective wade in charge of the cold-case unit. and she had a new helper. jenni s mom, pattie. 29 years after her daughter s murder. my career was winding down. i thought i should probably do something. and so, i
saturday. now back to dateline. saturday now welcome back to datelin i m natalie morales. lindsey wade was just 11 years old when two young girls in her hometown were murdered within a matter of months. as the years passed, wade s obsession with the cases 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. 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
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 new 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. she also went to a company that turned dna profiles into computer-generated images. showing what the suspects probably looked like. in 2016, armed with those snapshots. these two are solvable. the tacoma police department told the public they were searching for two killers, and needed help to find them. jenni s sister theresa was
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. 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 em out. and then, laid them across the top of the bike, to camouflage it. and further down the path, deeper into the woods, where they found jenni. hidden from view? very hidden.
you grown pretty close to pattie? uh-huh. yeah. she is a very special gal. i told her mother, i m going to adopt her. before she left, wade sent one last, small batch of samples to the dna lab. no point, really, in waiting for the results. we are down to the last 18. i m doubtful that we re going to get a match. so, she said good-bye and went on with her life. and 25 days later. my phone buzzed, and i looked down. it was her replacement on the cold-case unit. i answer the phone, and he said, there s a match on jennifer bastian. i asked, who who is it? what s the name? and he said, robert washburn? and i was like, no way. i knew exactly who it was. but i just couldn t believe it.