Information courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Gary Leon Ridgway, Case Files: Part Two.
Green River Killer
Correspondence Between John Henry Browne and Ted Bundy (…and the Green River Task Force).
While reading John Henry Browne’s book ‘The Devil’s Defender’ while helping with my local election I discovered a few letters between Ted and John Henry Browne (and one sent to the Green River Task Force) that I never read before. I decided to include them here.
October 31, 1976:
Dear John,
Thank you for your letter of October 27. I too, wish the circumstances of our first contact since last February were different. I had intended to write to you on several occasions during the past several months to express my appreciation for the moral and processional support you have given me and my girlfriend and others close to me.
Recent developments seem to indicate that I will be desperately in need of such support in the near future. I have had a tendency to be overly analytical about the motivations of the Colorado authorities in filing their case at this time. I suppose my real concern should not be ‘why’ they filed but ‘what,’ they filed. Whatever their reasoning, they have taken the plunge and are now committed to follow through. However, according to their own admission, their affidavit outlines the same case they had eight months ago. It is safe to say that bringing the case at this time was prompted by considerations other than the circumstantial evidence contained in the arrest warrant affidavit.
Whether or not their case is a strong one, and I am convinced it is not, the threat I face is considerable for numerous non-evidentiary reasons. First and foremost is the publicity. Next comes my conviction for kidnapping in Utah. The third strike against me involves the significant potential for official misconduct (i.e. falsifying evidence) on the part of those who, ‘believe’ in my guilt and feel as it is their duty to being about my conviction.
Finally, I am at an extreme disadvantage due to both a lack of funds to hire attorneys, investigators and experts. And to the prosecutors seemingly unlimited investigative resources; resources which can, quote, ‘create’ an image of credibility when no case exists. It is this last point [that] most concerns me. If I could fight them on an equal footing I have no doubt I would be acquitted. One man, an attorney. [name removed] no matter how skilled or competent, is no match to prepare a defense to equal the complex case the prosecution has created. Without more assistance, the consequences to my life could be fatal.
You have no obligation to come to my aid, but I am begging you to do so because my life hangs in the balance. I am asking you to provide whatever services you can offer, because I am immensely impressed by your legal intelligence and more so because I like you and feel comfortable with you. I need your help now more than I ever have needed help before in my life. What more can I say except ‘please’ help me?
Sincerely,
Ted
PS: I will avoid discussing details of the Colorado case in letters. I will only talk about the case directly to my present attorneys. If you should have questions, submit them through my present attorneys, and if you haven’t read Colorado’s affidavit, I will ask my present attorney to send you a copy, should you be in a position to help, that is.
November 1976:
Dear John,
I received your letter of November 10 today and find some encouragement in your news, if only because it indicates your continuing willingness to help. I would like to keep my options open regarding my final choice of counsel. I have no contact with my present attorney and will be unable to make a decision about him until I have talked to him personally and at length. I hope you will understand ,my reservations as it is my belief that I must have complete confidence in someone in whose my life will be placed.; I have written my present attorney asking his opinion on several critical matters, including extradition, and requesting a meeting with him before I go to Colorado.
Of course I would prefer an alliance between my present attorney and you. If I had a choice at this moment between the two of you, I would choose you, but I am not sure I can afford that choice.
I am in complete agreement concerning guaranteed reimbursement for expenses and lost salary should I ask you to handle my case. Is there any way you can give me some general estimate of what this might amount to for Ressler and you? I know how difficult this would be, but if I had an idea, I would be able to determine whether or not I am capable of raising such an amount at all.
I wouldn’t hold you to an estimate in any event, but if you are out of the ballpark, I had better know now.
The question of extradition carries more significance for me than whether by fighting it I can avoid it. I will be extradited too no matter what, but by opposing extradition, are there advantages which outweigh the disadvantages?
In your opinion, in a habeas corpus hearing on the matter, would not it be possible to expose more of the prosecution’s case, if indeed there is more, as well as, quote, ‘freeze’ what they already have? I think there is a positive potential here.
Second, I am convinced that much time will be required to prepare my defense. The prosecution has been investigating and building their case for fourteen months. God knows how many man-hours and how much money has been expended. Positions, such as admitting evidence as a, quote, ‘common scheme and plan,’ involving incidents in other jurisdictions have been thoroughly briefed. I need time, and I would rather spend it in the Utah State Prison than in the Pitkin County Jail, fighting extradition. Fighting extradition will buy some time, don’t you think?
The negative consequences to such a fight would be, as you observed, publicity and inferring my uncooperativeness. This is a difficult issue, which ultimately involves the whole area of pretrial publicity in my case.
The first question is what is the volume and substance of publicity at this point in the Glenwood Springs/Aspen area, and what is it likely to be in the future?
I will ask my attorney to make a study of this, should a motion for postponement on grounds of pretrial publicity be warranted. Will my opposition to extradition do any further harm? I am not convinced that it will, especially since I intend to make it clear the reasons why I am fighting extradition: 1) I was not in Colorado at the time of the commission of the crime; and 2) Need time to overcome great prosecution advantage.
Bad reasons, you know. I just thought the effect of fighting extradition is not nearly as damaging as the impact of losing that fight, which will eventually happen.
Now I have changed my mind a lot. Damn it. I think it is perfectly suicidal to rush into a strange state and be represented by an unknown attorney who has but a few weeks to prepare against a case, which the prosecution has been plotting for over a year. I believe it is literally suicide. What do you recommend?
This is a case which will be won or lost by the ability of the defense to do the following: 1) thoroughly field investigate; and 2) Suppress testimony related to other crimes.
I will elaborate more on that issue later. Can’t fit anymore paper in this envelope. Thanks again for the letter.
Hang in there,
Ted
November 29, 1976:
Dear John,
My issue of the Wednesday, November 24, 1976, Seattle Times contains an article on A4 with a bold heading, quote: ‘FBI Links Hair Samples to Bundy.’ This is just not something I expected from the Times. What are they doing, warming up the cross for my execution?
This is one of the most flagrant examples of prosecution by the press that I have ever seen. The worst thing about this Seattle Times article is that it will be carried by the wire services and broadcast in the Denver and the Aspen area.
Damn it John, I can’t get used to this abuse. The impact of this article is deadly, without the knowledge that hair samples are far from being identification.
He goes on to mention, quote, ‘several’ eyewitnesses, when, as you may know, there was one woman who picks my picture one year after the Colorado disappearance and stated that she had passed a, quote, ‘strange’ man in the hall the night of the disappearance, who looked like me, and observation she neglected to mention to police until a year later.
Note also how the fallacious escape materials, also how the escape material allegations is injected to magnify the inferences of guilt.
The intent of the article is purely malicious and prejudicial. I feel powerless as I watch my conviction firsthand by the media. I see this article as part of a calculated attempt to convince the public of the official belief in my guilt, and to influence the outcome of the Colorado trial.
I had to do something. Enclosed you will find a letter to the editor of the Times. Would you read it and if it seems appropriate, do what you can to have it published? ‘Thanks.’
Best regards,
Ted
July 7, 1977:
Dear John,
Good heavens… it has been over three weeks since my early morning call to you upon my return to captivity, and I am just getting around to saying, quote, ‘thank you,’ to you for coming to my aid, coming to aspen, and just generally making mew feel less like a fumbling, stupid idiot I was behaving like.
Aw, but the adventurous chapter is behind me, or so I would like to think at this moment. The ghosts of my escapade will return [in] the form of five counts and a new information. I will behave like the hardened convict I am and say, quote, ‘Fuck it. I have got broad shoulders.’ This is what a hard con would say, isn’t it?
Since my return, I have been in procrastination, in a procrastination inspired slump. (‘I have got plenty of time; the suppression hearing isn’t for two months’).
Instead of working, I have been doing push-ups, pull-ups, jumping rope, and have done my best to emulate Tarzan. I am eating nuts, took vitamins, gagged on nutritional yeast, and in the process have (at least to my own mind) become a superb physical specimen.
Now I am sitting here wondering what makes me want to be so damned healthy.
Today I emerged from both my ‘slump’ and my Fourth of July depression, and decided to entertain myself with the criminal law again. What a shameful attitude. However, working on the case has become both fun and distracting, an attitude which no doubt reinforces the point of view that I shouldn’t be handing this case- bit Christ, if a person can’t enjoy the work, why do it? It is just plain challenging.
It is also just a bit frightening at times, too.
Today, for instance, I decided to research the area of suppression of evidence material and favorable to the defense. Since several re-readings of the documents in question convinces me that they alone might warrant a new trial.
I took the amicus brief that you wrote in the Wright case. I looked up a few cases, the most recent US Supreme Court being US vs. Aggers. What a horrendous case. The Berger Court is very unsound. Agurs [sic], on top of Brady, is like mustard on top of a chocolate cake. It just doesn’t make sense and gives me indigestion. Until… I talked to an attorney (I knew they were good for something); the attorney just happened to mention that aggers came down in June 1976 and that all of the discovery in my case took place between November 1975 and February 1976. Thus, Brady and its progeny, free of the Aggers sliding rule (this is where ethe prosecutor slides everything into the police files and says he never saw the stuff, honest!) would be applied in my case.
Still, this is no guarantee, but I am more confident about receiving a new trial now than ever before.
At this point, however, I think I would lose a new trial in the kidnapping case, but hell, getting there would be half the fun, anyway. So I am fat and healthy, munching on something called, ‘peanuts and caramel log,’ one of many goodies sent to me by my friends. Sounds disgusting, and it is, but I have a munchy mentality and I truly love it.
Thanks again. You have done a great deal for me. I want you to know how I recognize it and appreciate it. Now try to take that to the bank. How much is it worth to you to have me tell you that I can’t imagine a finer defense attorney than yourself? It’s true. I consider myself an expert on the good ones and the bad ones.
Best wishes,
Ted
June 1, 1977:
Dear John,
During the time you stayed in Tallahassee, we had a chance to discuss at length developments in the case. If you feel anything like I do, you are sick and tired of hearing about the Bundy case.
It was great seeing you and talking with you again. There can be little question as to why you are doing so well in your practice’ you are an exceptionally bright and concerned person. You are much more than that, but that way in which you reach out to those whose causes you advocate is extraordinary.
I am fortunate to have you on my side and there is no adequate manner to express my gratitude for the time and expense you took to come help me, except to give you a deeply felt, quote, ‘thank you,’ in every way.
Best regards,
Ted
October 15, 1984*:
Dear John,
Are you still there? I mean, are you still in the Smith Tower? I hope this is forwarded to you if you are not.
How are you? Still Running? It has been a while since we have been in touch. Carole told me that she and out daughter, Rosebud, just paid a visit to you around Christmas time last year.
I have a favor to ask you. Would you mind taking the enclosed letter I have written to someone associated with the Green River Task Force who has some sense and can be trusted to take the right steps to see that the letter both receives proper consideration and remains confidential?
I know firsthand how professional egos and agency rivalries and conventional police close-mindedness can drastically reduce the effectiveness of an organization like the Task Force.
I am pretty sure I can provide them with some valuable information if we can transcend such limitations. So please give it to someone with an open mind and creative outlook on investigating such cases. Does such an animal exist? On October 1, I wrote a letter to the Task Force, which I sent via a superior court judge in Tacoma, a longtime family friend. I asked him to let me know that he had received and forwarded it, but in two weeks I have heard nothing from him or the task force.
Actually, I would have sent the letter through you in the first place, but it just didn’t occur to me until after I mailed the letter.
So what’s do you think of the Task Force? What do you know about it? Is it chasing its tail/ It is disorganized? Does it have competent people? Is it well run? Would the people there resent or reject out-of-hand my offer of information and assistance?
There are a number of reasons why I offer my help to the Task Force at this time (please go ahead and read the letter I have written to them, by the way, and it may give you a better understanding of what I am doing). Basically, through, the case fascinates me and challenges me. I would like to figure out what makes the Green River guy tick, and I figure I have as good a chance of doing that than anyone on the Task Force. And I also think that the time seems right in some inexplicable sort of way, and I dins myself saying, quote, ‘why not put some of your knowledge and unique perspective to use. It could be interesting.’
I don’t fancy myself playing detective, but I will bet I can play the man or men they are looking for better than any of them.
Please let me know you received this and what, if anything, happened when you passed it along.
Thank you for your help. Take care of yourself.
Peace,
Ted
PS: And remember, you can arrange to reach me by phone, if you wish.
*I do want to point out that in Robert Keppels book (and movie), ‘The Riverman,’ the letter was sent directly to Keppel and bypassed John Henry Browne completely.
October 15: 1984:
Dear Task Force Members:
On October 1, 1984, I wrote a letter to you and sent it via a superior court judge in Tacoma. I asked the judge to give me some kind of indication that he would- he had received and forwarded that letter to you.
During the intervening two weeks, I have heard nothing from the judge or you, I don’t know what the problem is, or even if there is a problem, but I thought I had better try another means of contacting you in case, for whatever reason, the first failed.
Therefore, I send this letter to you through John Henry Browne, a Seattle criminal defense attorney, who I know and trust.
I must admit that I am being cautious on approaching you. It would not look good to my fellow prisoners if it became known that I offered to help and provide information for your investigation.
This is one reason I do not want to let it be known that I am writing to you.
Mail passes through many hands before it leaves this place, and there are too many curious minds for me to address a letter to you directly.
As broader concern of mine is that my offer of information and whatever other assistance you determine I can provide not be made known outside the Task Force, especially not to the news media, in part because of the reasons I stated above, and in part because such publicity could hamper your investigation in some way.
Olay, with that in mind, I will tell you, as I told you in my other letter, that I have information which I believe would be useful in your investigation. I have a unique perspective on the Green River case, which, while I may not provide you with anything you haven’t thought of before, may cause you to refocus and read re-examine [sic] things you may have neglected or dismissed for some reason or another.
Let me explain how I came to realize I had something of value to offer you at this late date.
While I gather that the Green River matter has been a source of concern in the Pacific Northwest for a couple of years or so, news of these murders did not begin to filter down to this far corner of the country until maybe a year ago, as far as I can recall. Even then, news accounts here were infrequent and very brief. I am sure the news coverage here was microscopic compared to what has been seen in the Seattle Tacoma area.
Not having access to regular, detailed, and comprehensive news coverage, I did not have an opportunity to gain any kind of feel for the Green River situation. I had no basis for developing any ideas or insights. I had no reason to go out of my way to learn more about the cases. There were other things on my mind.
Then two to three months ago, I began receiving a local newspaper from Tacoma. It was the first time in over five years I have received a daily newspaper from the Northwest. It was about a month ago that I got my first real taste of the local coverage of the Green River investigation when the body of a woman, believed to be linked to the Green River cases, was discovered in a remote area of Pierce County.
The news coverage of that discovery, and subsequent and related articles were something of a revelation. I got a feel for what was happening, albeit tentative, and was based on pitifully few facts. But I know your man in a way that facts alone cannot accomplish.
I do not know his face, but I have some pretty good ideas on where you can look to see him for yourselves. There are many reasons why I want to see if I can be of some help to you. I won’t claim some noble, civic-minded motivation. Basically, the case has really begun to intrigue me. But I am sure it intrigues lots if people. The difference is I have knowledge and a point of view to add to your case investigation like no one else does.
I may simply have reached the point where I realized I have something of value and the chance to use it productively.
I would like your assurance that this letter, and any other communications we may have will be kept strictly confidential, and that no one outside of the Task Force will be made aware of what I have said here or will say should we enter into a dialogue.
If you wish to communicate to me by mail, please do so by sending a letter though my prosecutor, lawyer, or a judge that is clearly marked, ‘legal mail.’ Such mail is opened in my presence and not read. Other mail is opened in the mailroom and may be read.
If you would rather send someone to talk with me, I would welcome the opportunity. Eventually, I think you stand to gain more if you meet with me personally. If you do decide to send someone to Florida, I suggest that you have someone from a local office of the FBI help you gain entrance to the prison without divulging the exact reason for your visit.
Well, there you have it. If have no way of knowing if you need or want anything I have to offer. All I can do is let you know I am willing to help any way I can. The rest is up to you.
Good luck.
Sincerely,
Ted Bundy
Wendy Lee Coffield.*
Background: Wendy Lee Coffield was born on April 17, 1966 to Herbert and Virginia (nee Eaton) Coffield in Renton, WA. Herbert ‘Bert’ Ralph Coffield was born on April 1, 1937 in Bellingham, WA and Virginia Lee Eaton was born on September 6, 1945 in Kellogg, Idaho (although one source said the event took place in Portland, OR). Upon returning home from the Korean War (he was drafted in Fairbanks, Alaska on April 5, 1955) Bert married Virginia Eaton on February 26, 1965 and the couple had two children together: Wendy and her older sister Patricia ‘Patsy’ Lee, who was born on February 27, 1965. According to Patsy, Wendy had been causing difficulties ‘starting from the minute she was born,’ and she ‘had a way of running into trouble,’ but Virginia was a bit less critical, and said where she her younger daughter was definitely a ‘spitfire’ she ‘wasn’t a troublemaker,’ and was more ‘mischievous. I don’t think she was what you’d call real trouble.’
When Wendy was thirteen her parents divorced on October 17, 1979, and after the split she stayed with her mother, who said that her daughter was: ‘wild in a lot of ways, but I don’t think it was a harmful kind of wild. The only one it hurt was herself.’ Mrs. Coffield said her behavioral problems intensified after the two had left the family farm in Black Diamond and moved about a half-hour away into low-income housing in Kent, WA.
Adolescence: Virginia said that when Wendy was still in her care she would frequently disappear for days at a time, and when she eventually returned would never tell her where she had been; she clarified that she didn’t consider her to be a runaway because she ‘always came back.’ Despite officially being listed as a prostitute, Mrs. Coffield said she strongly felt that her daughter was more likely to have tried to con money from the men, and wouldn’t have had sex with them.
Wendy’s mother said her daughter had been ‘a good little girl’ when they were living in the country, but her ‘trouble’ began when they moved to Kent then Auburn (which are both relatively small when compared to nearby Seattle or Tacoma). The Coffield’s never had much money and Virginia seemed to especially struggle after her divorce; mother and daughter quickly jumped around from one low-rent residence to another, and there was even a brief period in the warmer spring and summer months when they were forced to live in a tent, eating blackberries from nearby bushes that they also sold to buy food.
One night, when Wendy was fourteen or fifteen Virginia recalled that she had come home disheveled and upset: ‘she said some guy raped her while she was hitchhiking. That’s the way she got around. Hitchhiking. I told her that’s what happens. After that, she changed.’ Mrs. Coffield acknowledged that her daughter had ‘one brush with hard drugs,’ and had been involved in other minor infractions like ‘drinking in school and trying to sell a health food supplement as a drug.’ At the time Wendy disappeared her mother had only been thirty-six and had barely made it through her own painful childhood: her parents had been far more worried about getting drunk and her needs sadly fell to the wayside, as Vigrinia had come from ‘a big family of drinkers.’
At sixteen Virginia had become pregnant and had given that baby up for adoption, and from there, she spent two years at Maple Lane, a juvenile corrections facility for young ladies located in Grand Mound,WA: ‘I felt like I was a misfit; nobody understood me. She (Wendy) was seeking help just like I did, but they put her out (of juvenile detention) when they should have given her supervision. She just needed a couple of years off the street to grow up.’ Mrs. Coffield said her problems with drinking, coping with divorce, and a boyfriend much like her junior that Wendy was also interested in romantically only contributed to her problems.
1982: By the middle of 1982, Virginia and Wendy were living in yet another run-down apartment in downtown Puyallup, and after she stopped going to junior high she enrolled in Kent Continuation School in a half-assed attempt to keep up with her education (she reportedly preferred to spend her time partying and drinking). She was known to use drugs on a frequent basis and occasionally engaged in sex work, and by sixteen she had already been arrested multiple times. At the time of her murder in July 1982 she was romantically involved with a twenty-one-year-old, and instead of making her daughter end it Virginia began to date him, and even moved him into their apartment; he turned out to be physically abusive to both of them, and mother and daughter would often fight over him. Shortly before Wendy was murdered her mother had finally admitted to herself that she had lost control of her, and that she ‘just started having trouble’ and had been well-known to LE in both King and Pierce Counties: ‘the last thing she did was she took $140 in food stamps from one of our neighbors.’
Mrs. Coffield said that in the earlier part of 1982 Wendy had been sent to Reman Hall in University Place after she stole lunch tickets from Sumner Junior High School, and had returned home that May. Upon their reunion Virginia said her daughter apologized for what she did and told her that she loved her, but her good behavior didn’t last long and the authorities had to be called after she stole food stamps from a neighbor and used them to fill her mother’s cupboards (which she discovered one night after returning home from bingo). After the incident the two ‘decided together’ that the best place for Wendy was in an ‘alternative placement,’ and after they signed the papers they cried together; Virginia also said that at one point her daughter told her that: ‘she hated me and never wanted to see me again. But I knew inside she didn’t mean it. She was hurt. She was trying to help me, she thought.’
July 8, 1982: There seems to be some uncertainty when it comes to the final hours of Wendy Lee Coffield’s life: according to her Virginia, she was allowed to leave the foster home that she had been living in at the time, but there was a court-imposed curfew. She reportedly visited with her for the last time on July 8, 1982, and from there one source claimed that she told her mother of plans of spending the night at her grandfather’s house later that same day, and that her foster mother had given her permission, but it was later discovered she was only supposed to ‘go for a walk.’ It was the last time she was seen alive.
In the months that followed her daughter’s murder Virginia said she wished she had spent more time getting to know her and that she had developed a better understanding of her; she said that where Wendy wasn’t an ‘angel by any means’ she was still lonely without her: ‘I just wish that it was over, that it was solved and he (Wendy’s killer) was locked up somewhere. I just wish she was here and we didn’t have to go through this.’
According to a psychologist’s report that was conducted by the Seattle Youth Department after one of her arrests, Wendy generally: ‘did not look at me and was consistently sullen throughout the examination. At times she expressed herself angrily. She generally appeared reluctant to extend herself mentally and tended to give up over-easily. She evidenced a general dysmorphia and pessimism about herself and her situation. She was an angry, resistant, immature young woman who seems deeply unhappy with herself and with her external world. All in all, I believe Wendy is certainly not capable of managing her own life constructively and in socially appropriate directions.’
The Discovery: Seven days after Coffield was last seen alive on July 15th, 1982, Gallan Hirschi and his friend Robert were riding their bikes in Kent when they noticed remains of a woman snagged on pilings against an old river post underneath the southern side of the Peck Bridge located on Meeker Street in Kent, WA. In the summer months of 1982, the water in the Green River wasn’t very deep, and as a result she would have been in plain sight of anyone that crossed the bridge. Close to where Wendy’s body was found, there was a restaurant called ‘The Ebb Tide,’ and only a block away was a topless bar, a meat-packing plant, a two-story motel, as well as a handful of fast-food eateries.
Because of the low water level in the Green River in the summer of 1982, much of its rocky shoreline and reedy grasses was exposed, so it wouldn’t have been very difficult for someone to carry Wendy from their car down to the river (although it obvious would have to been in the cloak of darkness at night). At first glance, the two fifteen-year-olds thought the object in the water looked like a large bag or possibly even a mannequin, but after they got off their bikes and went closer to get a better look they realized they were looking at human hair and a jacket. According to Hirschi, ‘the thing that caught my eye was tennis shoes. That doesn’t go away.’ The incident was followed by years of nightmares and an intense fear of walking close to water, and to this day he doesn’t like the sight of hair under water.
King County Medical Examiner Dr. Don Reay noted that the young victim had five tattoos: a vine around a heart on her left arm, two tiny butterflies above her breasts, a cross with a vine around it on her shoulder, a Harley Davidson motorcycle insignia on her back, and the unfinished outline of a unicorn on her lower abdomen. In the days that immediately followed the discovery, the King County ME was able to determine that she hadn’t drowned and had already been dead when she was left in the Green River. After a description of the young woman’s body art was published in the local Seattle newspapers, a tattoo artist recognized his work and came forward and identified the victim as Wendy. According to reports, he said, ‘I think she lives in Puyallup with her mother. She’s only sixteen.’
Detectives eventually located Virginia, and although she appeared to be in shock, she murmured to herself, ‘I kind of expected it.’ She then explained that she wondered if Wendy had been working as a prostitute and that she may have been attacked and killed by a ‘John.’ I know that was the kind of life she chose for herself. We taught her the best we could.’
The medical examiner’s office determined that Wendy had been strangled to death with her own pants in a different location then had been brought to Peck Bridge to be discarded, where she had remained for several days before she had been found; according to Ann Rule’s book, ‘Green River, Running Red,’ Coffield had been ‘partially naked’ when she had been recovered and had been ‘violently choked with her own panties.’ Because she was reported missing on July 8th, 1982, it is possible that she had been dead for up to a week and by the time she had been recovered her remains were badly decomposed because of the summer temperatures.
Virginia Coffield says she remembered her younger daughter as a ‘cute, little blue-eyed blonde, full of life,’ … ‘It’s sick. When you see your baby there all discolored and not all there.’ In an interview with The News Tribune reporter Teresa Cronin, Virginia Coffield said that she wished that she didn’t turn Wendy over to authorities the second time that she got in trouble, and had she known what was going to happen she would have kept her at home and disciplined her there.
Lawsuit: In February of 1983 Herbert and Virginia Coffield filed a lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court alleging that the state of Washington along with the supervisors at the foster home that their daughter was residing at were negligent in her care and supervision. The family’s attorney Roger Wilson stated that Wendy should have been in a ‘more secure’ facility and that the state did not properly inform the home of her history, for example her previous threats to run away from Remann Hall; both the state and the foster parents denied responsibility for the child’s murder.
The suit was dismissed in April 1986 after a judge ruled in favor of ‘Jeannie Powers and her husband’ (who were the operators of the foster home) because ‘state juvenile law prevented them from holding the girl against her will’ and ‘the state and foster home had no duty to police the minor under their jurisdiction.’
Gary Leon Ridgway: When King County LE pulled the body of Wendy Lee Coffield out of the Green River,they had no idea it was the beginning of a nightmare that would go on for well over ten years, and before 1982 was over, a truck painter and husband/father of one named Gary Leon Ridgway would go on to murder fifteen women. Only nine days after Wendy Coffield was last seen alive, seventeen-year-old Gisele Ann Lovvorn disappeared on July 17, 1982; her remains were uncovered a little over two months later on September 25, 1982. The first time that Ridgway came up on police radar was on April 30, 1983 after his victim Marie Malvar disappeared: her boyfriend followed a pick-up truck that was connected to her disappearance that was later proven to belong to him.
Gary Leon Ridgway was eventually charged with killing Wendy Lee Coffield in April 2003, and it was eventually determined that he was responsible for the murders of at least forty-nine women across Seattle between 1982 and 1984. In March 2003 a private laboratory called ‘Microtrace’ discovered tiny spheres of spray paint on the clothes of Wendy Coffield and Debra Estes, which was structurally identical to the highly unique DuPont Imron paint that was used at the Kenworth Truck Plant outside of Seattle where Ridgway worked as a truck painter.
Conclusion: Herbert Coffield died at the age of sixty-eight on October 10, 2005 in Bellingham, WA. According to his obituary, over the course of his life Bert had worked many jobs across multiple states, including Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, and at one point even owned his own business called ‘Bert’s Janitorial Services’ in Fairbanks. In addition to blue collar work, he also owned a company called ‘The Tohunga Co.’ in Kent, which made contemporary and primitive art pieces.
In his younger years Bert collected firearms and owned multiple motorcycles, and in 1954 he rode his Harley from Fairbanks to Bellingham using the Alcan Highway (which is unofficially referred to as ‘The Alaskan Highway’) when it was still very new and primitive. A nature lover and artist, Mr. Coffield was always doing and creating something, whether it was carving wood, oil painting, or drawing; he also loved to read and was always in the middle of a book in an attempt to ‘discover the answers to life’s deeper mysteries.’ He had a ‘consummately generous spirit’ and was always ‘giving things away’ in an attempt to share the recent things that he had recently learned and picked up. He didn’t believe in death at the end, but ‘as a transfer point to the next level of consciousness.’
In her final few years on this earth Virginia lived with Patsy and died after what seems like a life full of struggles and mental illness on June 19, 2018 at the age of seventy-three. I was easily able to find Patsy’s Facebook page, and in her (public) posts she made no secret that her mother had suffered from self-harm tendencies and often resorted to verbal threats and physical abuse when she didn’t get her way.
Wendy’s sister Patsy Lee was only fifty-eight when she passed away in her sleep in her home in Enumclaw on January 28, 2024. In her adult life, she worked at Circle K and Seven Eleven for several years before she later found employment at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort in Auburn, retiring around 2022. According to her obituary, Patsy adored her late parents and sister and missed them all greatly, and she enjoyed sharing her memories about them.
* I do feel that it is important to note that Wendy Lee Coffield is not technically Gary Ridgway’s first victim: at the age of sixteen he stabbed a six-year-old boy, critically injuring him; LE ignored the child when he blamed him for the attack and he went unpunished. In 1980, Ridgway was arrested for allegedly choking a prostitute, but no charges were filed after he claimed that the woman had bit him. Two years later he was arrested for solicitation, and it’s strongly speculated that he began murdering women shortly after.
Gary Ridgway, 2001 Summary of Evidence.
Another Bundy Blog. 