Pasco victim’s family looked over shoulders for 32 years. Killer’s plea ends nightmare

Robert J. McDonald was a scuba diver who dreamed of one day traveling to the Caribbean, where he could explore coral reefs and ship wrecks with the hope of finding a treasure.

But the hard-working father’s life was cut short on Feb. 25, 1986.

The bludgeoned body of the 40-year-old carpenter foreman was found floating face down in the Pasco Boat Basin, his hands bound together with a T-shirt. He had been raped.

His killer got away with it for 32 years, leaving McDonald’s family to constantly look over their shoulders wondering if they would be next.

This week — two years after he was identified as the suspect — Theodore Milam finally brought a little bit of justice to his victim’s loved ones with a guilty plea.

“For a long time, I didn’t know how to react or feel to losing a parent. Back when this all happened, there weren’t the resources like there are now,” Jennifer Calderon wrote in a letter to the judge. “As a young child, one had to process the information and move on with life, not understanding or knowing what to do, say or feel.”

Murder reduced to manslaughter

Calderon was 11 when her father was killed. She said she’s always known the gory details and brutal circumstances surrounding McDonald’s death, but remains haunted with numerous questions.

“No one this far knows, except for Theodore Milam, what happened before, during and after this heinous act resulted in murder,” she wrote. “Even as an adult, one can only ask, ‘Why?’ “

Milam, now 56, originally was charged in Franklin County Superior Court with first-degree murder. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter.

The plea was part of an “agreed global resolution” that prosecutors in Franklin County and Spokane County spent a year working on.

It included both the 1986 Tri-Cities murder and a 1999 rape case near Shadle Park.

Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant said they took time to meet with McDonald’s loved ones and the rape survivor and reach a prison sentence that was appropriate for both cases.

18 1/2 years in prison

Milam was sentenced to 8 1/2 years for killing McDonald. He already is serving 10 years for the Spokane rape.

The two sentences will be served consecutively so he will do 18 1/2 years total.

“Special thanks to the Pasco Police Department for their never ending effort to bring justice for victims in 34-year-old cases,” Sant said in a news release.

He said prosecutors took into consideration Milam’s age and current health conditions in reaching the agreement.

Advances in DNA science, using crime scene swabs, linked Milam to the Pasco cold case in 2018. The test results also showed his DNA profile was a match in the unrelated Spokane rape case.

That case was prosecuted first since Milam, who lived in Deer Park, was arrested there. After being sentenced in that case in January, he was moved to the Franklin County jail to answer to McDonald’s murder.

Family robbed of dad

Two young boys playing with their father discovered McDonald’s body below the small park at the south end of Fourth Avenue and Washington Street, according to Tri-City Herald archives.

The boat basin is now known as Schlagel Park.

McDonald, who was in the shallow bay, had been in the water for several hours, police said.

An autopsy determined he’d been hit in the head. Milam then threw McDonald into the Columbia River after the beating, court documents show.

McDonald died from drowning. His orange pickup was parked nearby.

Jim McDonald, the victim’s brother, said his parents were in California at the time and had to fly back to bury their son.

Since it remained a cold case for more than three decades, they died before there was a closing to this nightmare, he wrote in a letter to the court.

Then, once Milam was named, all they wanted to know was why it happened and if Bob McDonald was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Calderon said Milam robbed their family of life with McDonald and his killer needs to be punished for that.

“I can say as of right now, with the anxiety that I feel towards this process, it is going to take a lot more time for those feelings to fade, as personally I haven’t finished processing all of this yet,” Calderon wrote.

“I will always feel like I missed out on growing up with my dad and it’s enraging and frustrating, knowing he was taken from me unwillingly.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.