Robert Washburn, 61, appears in court to plead guilty to first-degree murder for Jennifer Bastian’s death at Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma on Friday. (Joshua Bessex/The Tacoma News Tribune via AP)

Robert Washburn, 61, appears in court to plead guilty to first-degree murder for Jennifer Bastian’s death at Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma on Friday. (Joshua Bessex/The Tacoma News Tribune via AP)

Man sentenced to 27 years for killing Tacoma teen in 1986

The girl was training for a San Juan Islands bike tour when she was abducted from a Tacoma park.

  • By Wire Service
  • Saturday, January 26, 2019 6:40am
  • Northwest

Associated Press

TACOMA — A man arrested in the killing of a 13-year-old Tacoma girl over three decades ago has been sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison.

The News Tribune reports 61-year-old Robert Washburn pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Jennifer Bastian Friday before he was sentenced.

Washburn abducted Bastian while she was on a bike ride in a Tacoma park on Aug. 4, 1986. Her body was found several weeks later in a wooded area. She’d been sexually assaulted and strangled. The girl had been training for a bike tour in the San Juan Islands when took her new Schwinn bicycle to the Tacoma park.

Test results from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab came back last year linking Washburn to the crime after he agreed to provide a DNA sample to the FBI.

He was arrested at his Illinois home in May 2018.

Washburn said in a statement in court that he was deeply sorry.

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Pattie Bastian, Jennifer Bastian’s mother, listens as Robert Washburn, 61, pleads guilty to first-degree murder for Jennifer Bastian’s death in Tacoma on Friday. (Joshua Bessex/The Tacoma News Tribune via AP)

Pattie Bastian, Jennifer Bastian’s mother, listens as Robert Washburn, 61, pleads guilty to first-degree murder for Jennifer Bastian’s death in Tacoma on Friday. (Joshua Bessex/The Tacoma News Tribune via AP)

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