Here is a timeline for the case of Michella Welch, a 12-year-old killed in Tacoma park
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The Michella Welch case
Michella Welch, 12, was the first of two girls killed in 1986. Cold case detectives investigated for decades until in 2018, DNA was used to link two different suspects the deaths of Michella and Jennifer Bastian, 13. Here is The News Tribune’s coverage of the Michella Welch investigation.
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For decades, Tacoma police believed the same man was responsible for the killings of Michella Welch, 12, and Jennifer Bastian, 13, in 1986. Cold case detectives continued working and in 2018, DNA was used to link two different suspects in the girls’ deaths. Welch’s killer was found guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday and sentenced to 26 years and six months in prison.
Timeline in Michella Welch case
March 26, 1986, 10 a.m. - Welch and her two younger sisters leave their home in the 1500 block of North Oakes for Puget Park at 3100 N. Proctor St.
11-11:30 a.m. - Welch leaves her sisters in the park and pedals home to make lunch.
1-1:30 p.m. - An employee at Welch’s school saw Welch speaking with a man gesturing toward the gulch inside Puget Park.
1:15 p.m. - Welch’s sisters return to the park but don’t see Welch. They continue playing.
2 p.m. - Welch’s sisters find her bike and the lunches, then call their regular babysitter. She alerts the girls’ mother and police.
3:10 p.m. - Police begin searching the park for the missing girl.
11:25 p.m. - Welch’s body is found in the gulch near a makeshift fire pit.
2009 - Tacoma police create a cold-case unit to investigate more than 150 unsolved murders, including Welch and Jennifer Bastian.
2013 - Detectives test a DNA sample from the Bastian crime scene and discover different men killed Welch and Bastian.
2016 - Parabon NanoLabs develops phenotype composites to find out characteristics of the two killers.
May 2018 - Tacoma police hire a genetic genealogist to test the DNA sample from Welch’s killer.
June 5, 2018 - Tacoma police collect Gary Hartman’s DNA from a paper napkin he used at a fast food restaurant.
June 19, 2018 - The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab notifies the department that Hartman’s DNA matches DNA from the Welch crime scene.
June 20, 2018 - Hartman is arrested during a traffic stop in Lakewood.
June 25, 2018 - Hartman is arraigned on suspicion of first-degree murder and first-degree rape and ordered held on $5 million bail.
March 22, 2022: Hartman is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 2:25 PM.
