Murderers stole these two Tacoma girls’ lives along with a city’s innocence

Saturday marked 32 years since 13-year-old Jenni Bastian biked into Point Defiance Park and was never seen alive again.

On Saturday, her childhood friend, Dean McGrath, recalled how in 1986 he and the other 12-year-old pallbearers at Jenni’s funeral huddled together in a church parking lot and sobbed.

“There were so many groups of friends, so many groups of families that had that sadness and fear creep into their lives,” McGrath said. “There was a Tacoma forever changed.”

McGrath, Jenni’s family members and people she never knew gathered Saturday in Tacoma’s Kandle Park for “Justice 4 Jenni.” The event was to remember Jenni, along with Michella Welch, 12, who was murdered four months before Jenni in Puget Park.

“We will no longer stand in the shadow, the shadow that was cast upon us when a monster changed our lives some 30 years ago when we lost our sweet and gentle Jennifer,” McGrath said.

Though the cases are unrelated, authorities say, suspects in both cold cases were arrested within weeks of each other: A suspect in Jenni’s murder in May and Michella’s in June. DNA technology was used to identify suspects in both cases.

Within days of the announcement of an arrest for Jenni’s murder, her childhood friends began planning Justice 4 Jenni, they said. Saturday’s event featured remembrances from Jenni’s friends and her mother Pattie, T-shirt sales to fund a scholarship in Jenni’s name, and the unveiling of a memorial bench that will be placed in Kandle Park.

Kristine Hanberg and her family have lived in the neighborhood near Kandle Park since 1972. Their house is directly across from Jenni’s former home.

“I can never look at that house and not think of Jenni...” Hanberg said.

Jenni babysat Hanberg’s children.

“She could play the piano like you couldn’t believe,” Hanberg said. “You could hear her with the doors open.”

Michella’s and Jenni’s murders changed Tacoma, Hanberg said.

“We always had somebody with them,” Hanberg said of her and other neighborhood children. “They were never allowed to walk to the grocery store or walk alone anywhere.”

Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell attended Saturday’s event. He was a rookie cop in 1986, living in the North End when Jenni and Michella were murdered.

“To me, this is what community is all about,” Ramsdell said. “This is a community that never forgot. It’s a police department that never forgot.”

Pattie Bastian knew many people at Saturday’s event. But she was glad there were many she didn’t know. That meant the event wasn’t just for her family and friends, but for the entire community.

“It’s a healing time,” she said. “Not just for the family but for the people who care.”

Bastian said she never gave up hope that her daughter’s killer would be caught.

“You think you want something for so long, you don’t know what you’re going to feel when you get it,” she said.

After the speeches were made, Bastian was led to the park’s edge. A covered object sat in a truck’s bed.

A metal bench, with Jenni’s name and life span cut into it, was unveiled. “Forever in our hearts,” it read.

Bastian’s face contorted in emotion.

Jenni’s friends, men and women who are now in their 40s, gathered around Bastian for a long hug.

Despite a three-year age difference, neighbor Kari Madden became close with Jenni, she said Saturday.

“We rode all over the North End together,” Madden said. “She truly was my best friend.”

After posing for photos, Bastian had a message for the families of other cold case victims.

“Never give up,” she said. “Right, Barbara?”

Barbara Leonard, Michaella’s mother, had just walked up to Bastian. The two women, united in tragedy, have long been friends.

Like Bastian, the news that her daughter’s alleged killer had been caught was a new, unknown chapter in Leonard’s life.

“It took me a while to process that,” Leonard said of the news.

“A long while, both of us,” Bastian agreed.

Then Bastian turned to Leonard.

“I didn’t want to call you,” Bastian said. “Because they hadn’t found Michella’s killer. And it made me feel like I was in a different place. It felt unfair.”

“It was,” Leonard said. “It’s not fair for the people who don’t have resolution, whether it happened yesterday or 40 years ago.”