TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A man arrested in the killing of a 13-year-old Tacoma, Washington girl over three decades ago has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
60-year-old Robert Washburn pleaded not guilty Thursday in Tacoma, Washington, to murder with aggravated factors of sexual motivation and deliberate cruelty in the death of Jennifer Bastian.
Washburn is accused of abducting Bastian while she was on a bike ride in a Tacoma park on Aug. 4, 1986. Her body was found 14 days later in a wooded area. She'd been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Test results from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab came back in early May linking Washburn to the crime after he agreed to provide a DNA sample to the FBI last year.
He was arrested at his home in Eureka, Illinois, on May 12.
Washburn's bail was set at $5 million.
