Member-only story
Copycat Killers: The Horrific Slayings of Michella Welch and Jennifer Bastian
Innocence Lost
At around 10:00 a.m. on March 26, 1986, twelve-year-old Michella Welch and her younger sisters, ages nine and eleven, hopped on their bikes and set out from their home in Tacoma, Washington for nearby Puget Park. Hoping to make every minute of their spring break count, they planned to spend most of the day on the playground. Their mother Barbara, who was at work at the time, had given them the okay — but only on the condition that their babysitter Linda would join them at lunchtime to supervise the afternoon’s activities.
An hour or so later, Michella realized that she had forgotten to grab their sack lunches. Rather than interrupting everyone’s fun, she had volunteered to make the quick trip home on her own. As they watched her peddling out of sight, her siblings were unaware that they would never see her again.
Expecting Michella to return in short order, her sisters had gone to the restroom to wash up before their meals arrived. With so many things to do, they got sidetracked along the way, throwing them a bit off schedule. When they made it to the picnic area just after one o’clock, their lunches were waiting for them, but their sister was conspicuously absent.
