Jane Doe B-10: an unknown white female between twelve and nineteen that was discovered in 1984 close to the body of Cheryl Wims; she most likely was killed in the summer of 1983 and it’s suspected she had brown hair, stood around 5’5″ tall, and weighed 120 pounds. She was most likely left-handed and at one point in her adolescence had an injury to the front, left side of her head.
Jane Doe B-17: this victim most likely died in 1983 and their victims bones were found twice: some were found in 1984 and others were found in 1986. She was most likely a white female, aged 14-19, around 5’4”- 5’8” and average weight, around 120-140 lbs. Ridgway said she died in Spring or Summer 1983. Isotope testing shows she is possibly from the Northern United states (Alaska, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota) or Canada.
Jane Doe B- 20: discovered in 2003 after Ridgway led investigators to her remains, however her skull was never recovered so no composite sketch could be created (her race could also never be determined); it is known that she died some time in between 1973-1993 (but it most likely occurred sometime in the late 1970’s) and was most likely around thirteen to twenty-four years old. Ridgway confessed that he killed her sometime in the summer of either ’82 or ’83 and she was white and around twenty-years-old and had with brown or blonde shoulder length hair; he claimed to have started his crime spree in ’82 but it could have been earlier and doesn’t remember killing anyone in the 1970’s, but admitted it was possible.
Gary Ridgway’s first confirmed victim, sixteen-year-old Wendy Lee Coffield. Wendy briefly visited with her mother Virginia on the afternoon of July 8, 1982, and during their time together she said that her foster mother had given her permission to leave and spend the night at her grandfather’s house; it was later determined to have been a lie and she was only supposed to go out ‘for a walk.’ Coffield was never seen alive again and her remains were discovered on the banks of the Green River eight days later on July 15, 1982, underneath the Meeker Street Bridge.Seventeen-year-old Gisele Annette Lovvorn, who was a fun-loving Dead Head with an IQ of 145 (she had been a straight-A student before she dropped out). After traveling around the US with her boyfriend she eventually settled down in Washington at some point and became involved in sex work; while there she moved in with an older gentleman named John Tindal, who relied on her financially. Gisele was last seen around 1 PM on July 17,’1982 with plans of turning ‘three or four tricks,’ and even though Tindal was the one that reported her as missing in the initial stages of the investigation he was the King Country Sherrif’s Departments prime suspect. Her remains were discovered on September 25, 1982.Kasee Ann Lee, who was born on February 26, 1966 in Spokane, WA. I wasn’t able to find anything about her childhood but it has been established by the time she was sixteen she had began engaging in sex work and married a man (that was believed to be her pimp) only a few months before her murder. It’s strongly felt that she had someone in her life that was abusing her, as she often returned home with cuts and bruises, but when asked she would never share who was responsible. Lee was last seen by her husband on August 28, 1982 after she ran to the store to buy some ingredients for dinner and was last seen near the Sea-Tac International Airport at around 11:30 PM; her husband reported her missing two days later. After his arrest Ridgway confessed that he strangled Lee shortly after her disappearance and dumped her body near either a drive-in theatre or behind a bowling alley, and even though Ridgway told investigators the location of Kasee’s remains, they failed to locate them, and because they have never been found he has never been charged with Lee’s murder.Kelly Kay McGinnis, who was only eighteen when she was killed after checking into the ‘Three Bears Motel’ at South 216th Street and Pacific Highway South in Des Moines, WA; before she disappeared; she was employed as a prostitute and had been living on the streets of Seattle since she was fourteen, and at the time she went missing had a fourteen-month old daughter, that had been residing in a foster home. Immediately following her disappearance, it was presumed that Kelly was a victim of the Green River Killer, and sure enough Ridgway confessed to her murder in November of 2003 (in an attempt to avoid the death penalty). After he confessed to leaving her body near Lake Fenwick, investigators tried to locate her remains but were unsuccessful, and it was confirmed that she was last seen with him parked near a baseball field on Pacific Highway South. Gary Ridgway was never formally charged with McGinnis’ murder.Patricia ‘Patty’ Anne Osborn, who was born in Seattle on February 29, 1964. At some point, Patty began using hard drugs and got involved in sex work, and even though she left home at seventeen she was still in contact with her mother on a regular basis. She was last seen in Seattle on October 20, 1983 after she left her motel room and started walking down Aurora Avenue to a nearby restaurant, where she had plans to meet a John for ‘a date,’ but she never arrived. The exact date is unknown, but Patty was added to the list of possible Green River Killer victims sometime before August 1984, and after Ridgway was arrested he told detectives that he believed he was responsible for her death but didn’t remember any additional details. Due to the fact that little evidence existed and her remains were never found, he was never charged with Osborn’s murder.Mary-Jane Molina Malvar, who was born on April 1, 1965, in Manila in the Philippines. After her family relocated to the US, she somehow ended up in Washington state, where she became involved in sex work. She was last seen by her boyfriend along Pacific Highway South getting into a man’s truck, and after he became suspicious he got in his vehicle and attempted to follow it but was unsuccessful. Four days later, he contacted the King County Police and told them that he found the truck parked in front of a house, which happened to be owned by Gary Ridgway… Police brought him in for questioning, but he told them he knew nothing about Marie’s disappearance, and they were forced to release him due to lack of evidence. She was immediately suspected of being a victim of the Green River Killer, and her name was officially added to the list of suspected victims shortly after she vanished. After his confessed Ridgway led detectives to a ravine in Auburn, where a skull was found; dental records confirmed it was Marie’s.April Buttram, who was born in California on September 1, 1965. Details about Aprils childhood are unknown, but during her teenage years she was described as a ‘good kid’ but was turning into a troubled teenager. She was last seen on August 18, 1983 in Seattle and she was reported missing by her mother on an unknown date; she was added to the list of suspected GRK victim’s in July 1984. When asked about her remains, Ridgway took detectives to a wooded area near Snoqualmie, where they discovered a set of remains that were later determined to belong to April. On their way, he mistakenly ID’ed them as belonging to Keli McGinness, and told investigators that he frequently confused Kelly and April with one other, as he felt they had ‘similar physiques.’Patricia Ann Osborn, who was the oldest of ten children and was born in Havre, Montana on April 7, 1960; she was a member of the Chippewa-Cree Nation. Most of the details surrounding her childhood are not known, however her family eventually relocated to Seattle. The mother of three was a heavy drinker and a frequent drug user, and she was last seen between August 4 and 6, 1998; her body was discovered on the morning of August 6, 1998, near Des Moines Way South. Immediately after her death it was suspected she had suffered from an accidental overdose therefore it was not ruled a homicide. Patricia’s family was shocked when Ridgway confessed to her murder.Debra Lorraine Estes, who was born in Washington on September 12, 1967. As an adolescent, Debra loved horses, baseball, and riding her bicycle, and in her later teen years she ran away from home and became a sex worker. Deb was known to be friends with another victim of the GRK named Becky Marrero, and she was last seen at a Motel in SeaTac on September 20, 1982. On May 30, 1988 her remains were discovered at an apartment building in Federal Way, WA by workers digging post holes. While her cause of death couldn’t be determined, it was deemed to be a homicide. Little is known about the immediate aftermath of Debra’s disappearance. When her body was found, detectives immediately added her name to the list of victims.Colleen Renee Brockman, who was born on December 4, 1967. During her childhood, Colleen lived with her father and brother but ran away from home in her early teenage years. She became involved in sex work and worked the SeaTac strip, and was last seen in Seattle on December 24, 1982 leaving a downtown motel. Her remains were discovered on May 26, 1984 and she was identified a month later after her father recognized descriptions of her braces, which were still on her teeth after her skull was found; a cause of death couldn’t be determined but her case was immediately deemed a homicide.Yvonne Shelly Antosh, who was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 8, 1964. Most of the details about her childhood are unavailable, but she moved to Washington shortly before her murder and quickly became involved in sex work. Shelly was last seen in the SeaTac area on Mary 31, 1983, along Pacific Highway South and her remains were found in Auburn on October 15, 1983. In a spot that was very close to those of Mimi Pitsor, Lori Razpotnik, and Sandra Major. Yvonne’s cause of death couldn’t be determined, and because of how close her remains were to other victims, her murder was immediately suspected to be linked to the Green River Killings; she was officially added to the list of victims in November 1983.Carol Ann Christensen, who was born on May 22, 1961, in Weippe, Idaho. At some point in her life, Carol Ann moved to Washington and at the time of her murder she had a five-year-old daughter and had been separated from her husband. She had been as a waitress at a local tavern and was last seen on May 3, 1983, in SeaTac leaving her POE after eating lunch with plans of returning later that evening to work her scheduled shift, but she never showed up. Her remains were found in Maple Valley by a family hunting for mushrooms: there had been a bag placed over her head and two clean fish had been placed on her body. Additionally, she had a bottle of wine in her hand and there was a raw sausage near her body. When investigators arrived, they determined she had been strangled and at one point had been completely undressed, splashed with water, then reclothed. The one shoe she had been found with had been put on the wrong foot, and her other one has never been recovered. She was also raped, as semen was found in her body; in 2001 it came back a match to Gary Ridgway.Linda Rule, who was born in Seattle on March 20, 1966. Details regarding her childhood are mostly unknown, but she is known to have gotten into some minor legal trouble after her parent’s divorce when she was a teenager. After she dropped out of high school she began engaging in drug use and its possible she was a sex worker. The sixteen year old had plans of getting married to her boyfriend at the time of her murder and had been last seen on September 26, 1982 leaving their shared motel room walking to the Kmart on Aurora Avenue north, to buy some clothes, and when she never came home her boyfriend had merely assumed that she had been arrested, but he couldn’t find her incarcerated at any of the local jails. The boyfriend (who is not thought to be Rule’s pimp) didn’t think she was working as it was rare to see girls working Aurora Avenue in the middle of the day and immediately filed a missing person’s report. Rule’s body was discovered on January 31, 1983 near a hospital in Seattle, and four days she was identified via dental records. Linda’s murder remained unsolved until Ridgway confessed to it in 2003.Kimi ‘Melinda’ Kai Pitsor, whjo was born on October 21, 1966 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Details about her childhood are unavailable, though she likely moved to Washington sometime before her murder. She loved ‘glitter, unicorns, and the color purple,’ and left home at sixteen to move in with her boyfriend/pimp in downtown Seattle. Her boyfriend last saw her on April 17, 1983 talking to a date in a blue pickup and when she never returned home that evening he called LE and gave them a description of the vehicle. Mimi’s remains were found in Auburn just outside Mountain View Cemetery on December 14, 1983.Cheryl Lee Wims, who was born on May 23, 1964 in Washington. Most of the details about her youth are unknown, but as she grew older she gravitated towards drugs and at the time of her murder had been working at as busgirl in a Seattle restaurant. Wims was last seen on her eighteenth birthday on May 23, 1983, in Seattle and her body was recovered north of the SeaTac airport on March 22, 1984 during a search of the area after the remains of Wendy Stephens were found earlier in the same general area. Cheryl wasn’t connected to the Green River killings before her remains were found, but she was connected to the murders soon after her remains were recovered. Strangely enough, Chery’s sister, Deborah also disappeared on October 25, 1990 and she is also suspected of being a victim of the GRK. Her remains have never been recovered. It wouldn’t be until 2001 that her killer, Gary Ridgway, would be apprehended. Gary Ridgway was convicted of killing Cheryl however he denied murdering Deborah (although though LE strongly suspect he may be lying).Cindy Ann Smith, who was born on November 3, 1966 in Colorado. Smith ran away from her home in Seattle, Washington to California, when she began working as a topless dancer at the tender age of thirteen and shortly after began engaging in sex work. Right before her murder, Cindy’s mother bought her a plane ticket home to Seattle after she called her and told her she wanted to come home. and she disappeared mere hours after arriving home and she was last seen hitchhiking on the Pacific Highway South. On June 27, 1987 three boys were in a ravine behind the Green River Community College when they came across her partially buried remains; shortly after Smith was added to the list of confirmed GRK victims.Shawnda Leea Summers, who was born on June 28, 1965 in Akron, Ohio. Her family relocated to Bellevue, WA at some point in her childhood and she was known to have gotten involved in sex work in her teenage years. The seventeen-year-olds remains were discovered north of the SeaTac Airport on August 11, 1983, and she identified two months later in October 1983.Fifteen year old Patricia Ann Barczak, who was arrested on August 8, 1982 for being a sex worker. Barczak was placed in the custody of the Department of Social and Health Services and was sent to live in a youth shelter, and during an outing with DSHS on August 12, 1982 she ran away from her group and was never seen or heard from again. She was added to the list of suspected victims of the Green River Killer in May 1993, due to the location of her disappearance and her being a sex worker. When Ridgway was asked about Patti, he said he couldn’t recall any details about her, however Green River investigator Tom Jensen believes he is responsible for her disappearance.Shirley Marie Sherrill, who was born in Seattle on January 16, 1964. Details of her childhood are unavailable, but the eighteen year old is known to have become involved in sex work and she was last seen by a friend when they had lunch in Seattle’s International District sometime between October 20 and 22, 1982 in Seattle’s International District. Shirley was connected to the Green River killings in December 1983 and her skull was discovered in Tualatin, Oregon, on June 21, 1985; she was identified via dental X-rays three days later. Denise Darcel Bush, a twenty-three-year-old Portland resident that had relocated to the SeaTac strip after she heard that money was better there. Most of the details surrounding her childhood are unavailable other than that she had epilepsy and had become a sex worker at some point. A month before her murder in September 1982, she was arrested and charged with stealing at least six wheelchairs from a hospital (along with two other women); it’s unknown what became of the charges. She was last seen on October 8, 1982 crossing a street in Seattle to buy cigarettes and was never reported missing; her friends had assumed she had simply returned home to Portland. Her skull was discovered in Tualatin, Oregon, on June 12, 1985 (the body of Shirley Sherrill were later found in the same area), and on February 10, 1990 remains and teeth found in Tukwila were quickly tied to Denise. After Ridgway confessed to Denise’s murder in 2003, he told police he put Denise’s skull in Oregon to intentionally throw off the investigation.Andrea M. Childers, who was born on March 29, 1964 and spent most of her childhood in California but moved to Seattle to live with her father and stepmother when she was sixteen. At some point in her life, she became involved in sex work and had been arrested for it around a year before she was last seen alive. She was very close with her elderly grandmother and had dreams of becoming a dance teacher; she was last seen at a bus stop in Seattle on April 14, 1983, in Seattle. On October 11, 1989 her remains were discovered near the SeaTac Airport by a Port of Seattle worker that had been cutting brush in the area. Her missing persons report had been purged from police files after someone contacted law enforcement and told them they saw Andrea crossing the Canadian border, which is likely not true; the only file related to her disappearance that hadn’t been purged was one in possession of the GRK Task Force.Mary Bridget Meehan, who was born on May 16, 1964 in Washington. Mary was described as ‘very outgoing’ and was a talented artist and was a big lover of animals, however once she started middle school she began getting into trouble and started skipping class and was known to run away (although she would always return). Mary was also known to be a sex worker, however right before her murder she gotten pregnant by her boyfriend and started to turn her life around (she had also recently obtained her GED). Meehan was last seen in the SeaTac area on September 15, 1982 after she left the Western Six Motel to go for a walk; he remains were discovered in a shallow grave almost two months later by the Tyee Golf Course in the SeaTac area on November 13, 1983; she had been eight months pregnant at the time.Kelly Ware, who was born on November 19, 1960 in Washington. Details about her childhood are unavailable, but she is known to have become involved in sex work. She was last heard from by her mother on July 18, 1983 after she called home from a payphone in the Central District of Seattle; her remains were discovered in SeaTac on October 29, 1983, just south of the airport during a search of the area after the remains of Constance Naon were found nearby two days before. Because Kelly was never reported as missing in 1983 she was never added to the list of suspected GRK victims, which meant that after her remains were found she remained unidentified; Ware was officially reported as missing in late 1984, and because she was a sex worker, police immediately suspected that she was a victim of the GRK, which lead to the identification of her remains via dental records later in the year.Constance Naon, who was born on June 29, 1962 in Washington. Many details about her background are unavailable, but before her murder, she was semi-financially stable and had a job as a clerk in a retail store… but, the twenty-year-old had a nasty cocaine habit and had started to engage in sex work to help fund it. She was last seen leaving a friends house on June 8, 1983 and her car would later be found parked in SeaTac, near Pacific Highway South. Constance’s remains were discovered on October 27, 1983, just south of the airport; two days later the remains of Kelly Ware would be found in the same area (she remained unidentified until December 1984).Sandra K. Gabbert (or ‘Sand-e’ as she was known by her family), who was born on March 7, 1966 in Seattle. Her parents divorced when she was young and in her teenage years, she was the star of her high school basketball team but dropped out at seventeen before graduating. She moved in with her boyfriend and became involved in sex work on the SeaTac strip in an attempt to help make ends meet (she was known as ‘Smurf’ on the street). Despite the lifestyle she led Sandra maintained a close relationship with her mother, who she told one time made more turning one trick than she did working an entire week at KFC, and she understood her daughter’s desperation but still begged her to ‘be careful.’ Sandra was last seen in SeaTac on April 17, 1983, along Pacific Highway South and her body was found in April of 1984 at in an isolated spot in the Star Lake Road area around Auburn.Pammy Annette Avent, who was born on November 23, 1966 in Seattle. She was a sex worker and was known to travel between Portland and Seattle; she was last seen on October 26, 1983 leaving her home to go see a John and was reported missing by her mother on October 30, 1983. Pammy was added to the list of suspected victims of the Green River Killer in May 1984. Agfter his arrest when Ridgway was asked about where Avent’s remains may have been, he led detectives to Highway 410 (which was an old logging road) east of Enumclaw, where they discovered a skeleton that was identified as hers was found there; her family conducted a memorial service for their daughter on November 8, 2003.Roberta ‘Bobby Jo’ Hayes, who was born on June 9, 1966 in Seattle. She ran away from home when she was twelve and during her teenage years was featured in the 1984 Oscar-nominated film ‘Streetwise,’ that documented the lives of kids living on the streets of Seattle. Bobby Jo was working as a waitress at the time of her murder and was last documented leaving a Portland, Oregon jail on February 7, 1987; its strongly suspected that she had plans of hitchhiking back to Seattle, but it’s unknown what happened to her after that. Haye’s stepmother reported her missing in 1988 after not hearing from her and her remains were discovered along Highway 410 on September 11, 1991; they remained unidentified for many years and it wasn’t until King County Detective Tom Jensen did a routine check of the area’s unsolved missing persons cases that he came across Bobby Jo’s missing persons report. After he added her file to the to the National Crime Information Center database the system immediately came up with a match to her unidentified remains. The ME did a comparison of dental records and a match was quickly confirmed but King County detectives held fast to their belief that the young victim wasn’t a Green River victim; Gary Ridgway confessed to her murder after his arrest in 2001.Marta Reeves, who was born on April 11, 1953 in Hungary, and at some point before her murder she got married and had four children. She later got involved in the drug scene and developed a pretty serious cocaine habit and got involved in sex work to help pay for it. Marta was known to work in Seattle’s Central district, and was last seen either on March 5th or 6th, 1990. Her remains were discovered on September 20, 1990 by mushroom pickers along Highway 410, east of Enumclaw, WA. She was discovered wearing clothes, including pink size six running shoes, jeans with a 28-inch waist, a dark crew-neck sweater, and a single strand of white beads. Her husband tried to report as her missing to both Seattle and Edmonds police, but both agency’s believed that the case was the other one’s jurisdiction. Because of to this, Marta wasn’t reported missing for a prolonged period of time.Martina T. Authorlee, who was born on March 21, 1965, in Fürth, Germany after her father was stationed there in the US Army; the Authorlee family lived there until 1968, when they relocated to Tacoma in Washington, where it is believed she lived in numerous foster homes for an unknown reason. Martina’s interests included roller skating, basketball, baseball, and swimming and she after she graduated from high school she joined the National Guard, however she was discharged for medical reasons. Authoree reportedly became involved in sex work at the age of fifteen and she was last seen in SeaTac on May 22, 1983, along Pacific Highway South. Martina was reported missing by her mother on January 30, 1984 and her remains were discovered off Highway 410, near Enumclaw on November 14, 1984.Mary Sue Bello, who was born on December 22, 1957 in Seattle. Described by her family as intelligent but also very rebellious, Mary would help anyone that needed her, and was also an excellent cook. Despite all of her positive traits, Mary had a troubled life: at the age of thirteen she got involved in sex work, and began taking drugs and ran away to a different state in an attempt to meet her dad, who had one time tried to rape her. Mary was last seen in downtown Seattle on October 11, 1983 leaving her residence to engage in sex work. Mary’s mother reported her missing on November 17, 1983 and despite some confusion that she had been found safe and well in Odessa, her remains were recovered on October 12, 1984 and were identified via dental records.Debbie May Abernathy, who was born in Dallas, Texas on May 25, 1957. Most of the details about her childhood are unknown but she moved from Texas to Seattle only weeks before her murder with her boyfriend and son with hopes of a fresh start. After relocating, she turned to sex work and was last seen in Seattle on September 5, 1983 near the Rainier Avenue area. Debbie’s remains were discovered just east of Enumclaw on March 31, 1984.Kimberly Nelson (who also went by the alias, Tina Tomson), who was born on January 26, 1963 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At some point during her adolescence, she moved to Seattle and along with the help of a pimp, got involved in sex work. She was last seen near a motel in SeaTac on November 1, 1983 and her remains were discovered by the GRK Task Force near North Bend on June 14, 1986. The alias that Nelson used led detectives to the identification of a previous victim, Tina Thompson, whose remains had been recovered in April 1984.Lisa L. Yates, who was born somewhere in Washington state on January 22, 1964. Most of the details surrounding her childhood are not known, however she was described by her family as ‘being gifted, loving and funny.’ At some point in her life, Yates became involved in sex work and she was last seen on December 23, 1983 in Seattle heading towards Rainier Avenue; her remains were discovered near North Bend on March 13, 1984. Lisa was not reported missing until her sister (who had been living in Hawaii) noticed reports of a woman that matched her description that had been found murdered near Lake Kapowsin on September 13, 1984. Fearing the remains belonged to Lisa, she got a friend to give investigators her sisters information. She was ruled out as being the then-unidentified body, however forensic experts tested her against the unidentified victims of the GRK and they came up with a match. The body found near Lake Kapowsin was later identified as twenty-one-year-old Lucille Kay Jones, who was last seen on August 11, 1984 and isn’t believed to be a victim of Gary Ridgway.Delise ‘Missy’ Louise Plager, who was born on May 16, 1961 and had been previously known as Jane Doe B-8 or Bones 8. After barely making it through her birth, Delise (who went by Missy) spent her early childhood being raised in a poor environment, and at the age of five her and her twin brother were removed from the home and adopted into separate families; to make matters worse, her brother’s new family forbade Missy from contacting him. At some time in her adolescence, Plager had been diagnosed with ADHD and by the time she vanished at the age of twenty-two she had given birth to three children. In 1977 when she was sixteen, had gotten into a car accident and suffered from a skull fracture as well as a broken jaw and hip. In 1982 a woman in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area approached Missy and said to her, ‘you know, you look enough like my boyfriend to be his twin,’ and as it turned out, she was; sadly, the reunion was anticlimactic and didn’t work out well for her. Later in the year she had tried to reconnect with her biological mother Patricia as well, but that went even worse: over the years Patricia’s alcoholism had gotten bad, and she was less than sympathetic to the hard life her daughter had, and at one point during their encounter (after having one too many cocktails) said something along the lines of: ‘you’ve got so many problems, maybe it would have been better if they hadn’t resuscitated you when you were born.’ After this cannon event Missy developed a drug problem and began to rely solely on sex work to support herself and had even tried to commit suicide at some point. She had been last seen at a bus stop in the Beacon Hill area of the Seattle suburbs on October 30, 1983, and had been on her way to deliver a Halloween costume to a friend’s child shortly before she was killed. Her remains were discovered near North Bend on February 14, 1984 but remained unidentified until April 1985 when they a match was made via dental records and X-rays.Maureen Sue Feeney, who was born on October 5, 1963 in Seattle, Washington. During her teenage years, Feeney suffered from low self-esteem and didn’t date much; she was also reportedly into self-harm and even hinted at suicide to one of her friends. In the months leading up to her murder, Feeney got a job as an assistant at a local daycare, and it was around the same time that her personality changed: she started drinking heavily and often went out to clubs. She also may have been dating a man that had ties to sex work (even though her family claimed she wasn’t) and may have had plans of quitting her job, as she was earning money through an unknown means. Maureen was last seen leaving her Seattle apartment on September 28, 1983 and she was was reported missing by her mother two days later; her remains were found near the intersection near Issaquah on May 2, 1986.Tina Marie Thompson, who was born in Oregon on October 26, 1960. Also known as Jane Doe B-14 or Bones 14 while unidentified, most of the details about her background are unknown, but at the time of her murder she was living in Portland, Oregon and was employed as a waitress (even though she was known to have been involved with in sex work). Tina was last seen in Seattle on July 25, 1983 after she was released from the King County Jail, the reasons that she was away from home remain unknown. Thompson’s remains were discovered near Highway 18 in Maple Valley and were supposedly found by a self-described psychic named Barbara Kubik-Patten that had been working the case’ independently’ (whatever that means). Because Tina wasn’t reported as missing her remains weren’t immediately identified, however they were linked to the Green River killings soon after their discovery. Her remains were identified in 1986 after King County investigators were looking into the aliases of Kimberly Nelson, and one of them happened to be ‘Tina Lee Tomson.’ When detectives realized that Tina shared many of Jane Doe B-14’s characteristics, they did a comparison of her dental records and in July 1986 a positive match was made.Carrie Ann Rois, who was born on February 15, 1968 in California but moved to Washington at some point in her adolescence. At some point before her murder fifteen-year-old Carrie began telling people that she was being abused at home, and for unknown reasons, she was placed in various group homes (although it was known that she was an established run away). She got along well with her peers in the state facilities and dreamed of one day becoming a model. She was known to have gotten involved in sex work only weeks before she disappeared and was last seen between May 31 and June 15, 1983; Carrie’s remains were discovered on March 10, 1985 in Auburn near Star Lake Road. She was connected to the GRK case on March 6, 1984, along with Carol Christensen.Delores Laverne Williams, who was born on June 29, 1965. Very little is known about her childhood, however she reportedly had many previous arrests on her record for being a sex worker. Ms. Williams was last seen walking along Pacific Highway South in the SeaTac area sometime between March 8 and 17, 1983. Her remains were discovered in Auburn close to Star Lake Road on March 31, 1984 at around the same time as three other sets of remains, those belonging to Alma Smith, Sandra Gabbert and Terri Milligan. It’s unlikely Delores’ case was immediately connected to the GRK in the days right after her disappearance, but all the remains found were connected shortly after. She remained unidentified until December 1984 when the GR Task Force came into possession of her missing persons report and dental records.Alma Ann Smith, who was born on August 1, 1964, in Walla Walla. When asked what she was like, Alma’s best friend said she was ‘extremely generous,’ but when she was a teenager, she began running away from home, often hitchhiking her way to Seattle. At some point in her teenage years, she became involved in sex work and was last seen walking along the Pacific Highway South on March 3, 1983 in SeaTac. Alma’s remains were discovered in Auburn near Star Lake Road, on April 2, 1984 at around the same time as Delores Williams, Sandra Gabbert and Terri Milligan. In 2001 Gary Ridgway confessed to luring Alma to his home and strangling her to death.Opal Charmaine Mills, who was born on April 12, 1966 in Washington. Her childhood nickname was ‘Little Opal,’ and she grew up with an abusive father (even though she was very close to her older brother, who said she ‘struggled to fit in in a racially divided world’); as she was moving through her teenage years, Opal frequently hitchhiked to get around, and was described as being ‘boy crazy’ and she dropped out of formal schooling sometime in her teenage years (but she did begin taking classes through a continuation school shortly before she was killed). It’s unknown whether Mills was a sex worker at the time of her murder and she was last heard from by her brother on August 12, 1982 when she reached out and asked him for a ride; she also told him in that same conversation that she was planning on doing a painting job near Angel Lake Park with her friend, Cynthia ‘Cookie’ Hinds. Opal Mills was identified as being one of three bodies pulled from the Green River on August 15, 1982, along with Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, who was coincidentally the same the friend Opal had plans meeting with when she disappeared; it’s unknown if the two friends ever crossed paths that fateful day and Cynthia was last heard from the day before Mills was last seen alive.Terry Renee Milligan, who was born in Seattle on January 26, 1966. When Terri was a child, she was described as being brilliant and had dreams of attending Yale University; she was also very active in her local church. After Milligan got pregnant in middle school she was forced to drop out, and at the time she was killed lived with her boyfriend in a motel; it’s unknown when, but the sixteen-year-old got involved in sex work at some point and was last seen on August 29, 1982 leaving her motel room. Her remains were discovered in Auburn on April 1, 1984 around the same time as three other victims (Delores Williams, Sandra Gabbert and Alma Smith).Cynthia Jean Hinds, who was born on February 23, 1965 in Seattle. Seventeen-year-old Cynthia frequently associated with the wrong people and had a long history of running away from home, however in the months leading up to her murder it was said that she was trying to turn her life around and she had a job as a cook at a barbecue restaurant in the Southern part of Seattle. Hinds was last seen on August 11, 1982 after she left her job and she was identified as being one of three bodies that had been pulled out of the Green River on August 15, 1982, (along with Marcia Chapman and Opal Mills, whom Cynthia was known to be friends with). All three women were either nude or partially clothed and had also been raped, as semen was found in their bodies. In 2001, it was determined that the semen collected from the three women matched that of Gary Ridgway.Gail Matthews, who was born on February 5, 1959 in Seattle and was known as Jane Doe B-2 or Bones 2 before she was unidentified. Most of the details surrounding her childhood are unknown but she had gotten divorced shortly before she was murdered. Matthews was last seen getting into a truck on Pacific Highway South in the SeaTac on April 10, 1983 and her remains were discovered in Auburn near Star Lake Road on September 19, 1983; Gail’s family reported her missing in April 1984. Around 1985, one of her cousins was reading a newspaper article about the GRK case that gave detailed descriptions of the killer’s unidentified victims, including Gail. After they read that one of the victims had a healed pelvis/shoulder from an injury that were consistent with the injuries Gail sustained from a boating accident in 1980; in February 1985 after the cousin submitted a tip to King County LE, Matthews was identified after some treatment records from the accident were compared to her remains.Tracy Ann Winston, who was born on September 29, 1963 and was also known as Jane Doe B-18 or Bones 18 while unidentified. In school, Winston played basketball and was on the boys little league team (at a time where few girls were allowed to join); by the time she got to her teenage years, Tracy began getting into trouble and according to her brother had also associating a man who was described as a ‘con man.’ She also became involved in sex work (which she was arrested for) and after spending a day in jail, she called her parents, saying the experience had affected her and she was going to turn her life around and earn her GED. Tracy was last seen near the Northgate Mall in Seattle on September 12, 1983; her partial remains were discovered on March 27, 1986 in Kent close to the Green River and on November 20, 2005, a skull was found by a hiker near Issaquah that was later identified as belonging to her.Marcia Chapman, who was born on July 9, 1951 somewhere in Arizona. At some point in her life, she relocated to Washington and at the time of her murder she was a single mother with three children; a detective that was familiar with Marcia described her as ‘a nice person with a kind heart.’ Because Chapman was unable to provide for her little ones with a traditional job, she turned to being a sex worker; she had once been approached by a man that offered to be her pimp for protection, but she denied his thoughtful offer as she wanted to bring home the most money possible for her children. Marcia was last seen leaving her apartment on August 1, 1982 which was very near to Pacific Highway South and was identified as being one of three victims pulled from the Green River on August 15, 1982 (the other victims being Cynthia Hinds and Opal Mills); all three women were either nude or partially clothed and had been raped, as semen was found inside of their bodies. In 2001, after he confessed the semen collected from the bodies of Chapman, Mills, and Hinds all matched that of Gary Ridgway.Debra Lynn Bonner, who was born on October 31, 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. One of three brothers and sisters, Debra dropped out of high school shortly before she was supposed to graduate and had become a sex worker to help make ends meet. At the time of her murder, Bonner was trying hard to turn her life around: she had been paying fines related to prior arrests, frequently checked in with her parents, was working on getting her GED, and had dreams of one day joining the US Navy; sadly only days before she disappeared she told a friend she was trying to escape an abusive boyfriend and had been last seen on July 25, 1982, leaving a motel on Pacific Highway South. Debra’s nude body was discovered floating in the Green River by an employee at the Kent slaughterhouse on August 12, 1982; she had been strangled to death. She was the second GRK victim to be discovered after Wendy Coffield.Wendy Stephens, who was born sometime in 1968; she was known as Jane Doe B-10 or Bones 10 while she remained unidentified. She initially disappeared from Colorado on February 6, 1983 and she was reported missing by her family shortly after; sand its strongly believed that she was killed shortly after arriving in Washington. The Jane Doe’s skeletal remains were found on March 21, 1984. Medical experts determined that she had died a year or more before the discovery, sometime in the early 1980s. Wendy’s remains were discovered close to the remains of another victim, Cheryl Wims (who was discovered a day later) on the north side of the SeaTac airport on March 21, 1984; her cause of death was determined to be from strangulation. Both Wendy and Cheryl were linked to the Green River killings very soon after they were found. In 2001, Gary Ridgway confessed murdering Wendy Stephens. In 2020, the DNA Doe Project announced they were using genetic genealogy to identify Stephens remains, and in January 2021 they announced that they had identified Wendy, and her case was finally solved. Her remains were cremated and scattered close to her mother’s home in Colorado.Lori Ann Ratzpotnik, who was born on November 13, 1967 and was formerly known as Jane Doe B-17 or Bones 17. Growing up, Lori was a straight-A student and her interests included horses, sports, cooking, and dogs. Described by her mother as a ‘firecracker’ and ‘just pure joy,’ as Lori grew older, she began to pick up some bad habits: skipping school, shoplifting, and running away from home. Lori ran away from her home in Lewis County sometime in 1982, after a particularly bad argument with her mother about getting a horse. During Thanksgiving in either 1982 or 1983, Lori called her mother one last time, saying she was happy living in Seattle and promised that she’d send presents home to them on Christmas… but she never did. On February 18, 1984, Lori’s partial remains were found in Federal Way, and not even two years later on January 2, 1986, more partial remains belonging to Lori were found in Auburn as it was determined they were determined to have come from the same person as the remains found in 1984. After Lori stopped contacting her mother, she hired a private investigator to try and find her, nothing ever panned out. After he got caught Ridgway said that confessed to killing her in the Spring or Summer of 1983. Due to this, it’s likely Lori last contacted her family on Thanksgiving 1982, not ’83. In December 2023, with assistance from Parabon Nanolabs, Jane Doe B-17 was identified as Lori. Isotope testing before her identification suggested she wasn’t native to the area, but Lori was actually from the area.Tammie Liles, who was also known as Jane Doe B-20 before her 2024 identification was born on May 9, 1967. In May 1983 sixteen-year-old Tammie ran away from her home in Tualatin, Oregon and she was last seen alive somewhere in Seattle on June 9, 1983. In the days that followed her disappearance, Tammie wasn’t immediately reported missing, most likely because she had ran away in the past, and it wasn’t believed that she had been met with foul play. Liles skull and partial remains were discovered near a golf course in Tualatin, Oregon on April 23, 1985 during a subsequent search of the area after the remains of Angela Girdner were recovered nearby the day before. Tammie remained unidentified until early 1988, when her parents finally reported their daughter as missing; and upon obtaining her dental records, detectives were able to make an identification of her remains later that March. After Ridgway was captured in 2003, he unknowingly led King County Detectives to Tammie’s remains as the scene that he took them to contained somewhere between twenty-five to thirty bones (some of which belonged to her). Sadly, Angela Girdner remained unidentified until 2009, when a positive match was made using dental records. When Ridgway was asked about Tammie and Angela’s he denied killing them both, and he was convicted of Tammie’s murder but not of Angela’s. After the rest of Lile’s remains were discovered in 2003, they were sent to Othram Labs in January 2024 and came back a match; she was Ridgway’s last victim to be unidentified after Lori Razpotnik in December 2023.
He lives alone. Never married and failed in relationships with women.” – Theodore Robert Bundy regarding the identity of the Green River Killer, 1984.
Gary Leon Ridgway was born February 18, 1949 to Thomas and Mary (nee Steinman)ma Ridgway of Salt Lake City, Utah. The family eventually relocated to Washington state where Thomas got a job as a bus driver and would frequently complain about the presence of sex workers on his driving route. His mother was employed as a sales clerk at JCPenney’s and was frequently called domineering by the people around her. Gary was the middle child and had two brothers (Gregory Leon born in November 1947 and Thomas Edward) and it’s widely known that his older sibling Gregory was the family favorite. It’s often theorized that he felt inferior to him, who ran for student office while in high school and went on to major in physics at Studied Physics Major at the University of Washington. In comparison, Gary was diagnosed with dyslexia, was held back twice in school, and had an IQ in the low 80’s. An attorney for the prosecution, Patty Eakes was able to shed some insight into Ridgway’s state of mind, claiming the only time she ever saw him express any sort of real emotions was when talking about his own intelligence: ‘he was so obviously limited, intellectually. The one time he genuinely cried was when he talked about how afraid he was of being put on the ‘short bus.’ I suspect that having a brilliant brother was a big thing that shaped him. Gary’s the troubled one, not the smart one. I suspect that was a big issue for him throughout his life. Perhaps being a killer of women was something he could succeed at.’ … ‘He came from a very middle-class family. There was nothing really that remarkable about him.’
Aside from feeling inferior to his older brother, Ridgway’s home life was considered incredibly dysfunctional: he was a chronic bed-wetter until the age of 13, and after each episode Mrs. Ridgway would wash her sons’ genitals. He would later tell psychologists that he had both feelings of extreme rage and sexual attraction toward her, and often fantasized about killing her. Some behavioral scientists feel that his crimes may have been a case of ‘displaced matricide’ and he was unconsciously ‘killing his mother over and over again’ even though he didn’t actually take her life.
Gary graduated from Tyee High School in 1969 at twenty years old and the following year married Claudia Kraig, his longtime sweetheart. He then joined the Navy and served onboard a supply ship after being sent to Vietnam. During his time in the service Ridgway was frequently unfaithful to his new wife, often engaging in activities with sex workers. Despite becoming angry after contracting gonorrhea, he continued his risky behavior without using any sort of barrier protection; the couple divorced in 1972. Ridgway wasn’t single for long and married Martha Wilson in 1973. This relationship also ended in divorce because of his frequent infidelity. He encouraged Wilson to participate in risqué activities like sex in locations where he dumped some of his victims and she even accused him of putting her in a chokehold at some point during their marriage. Ridgway shared a son with her they named Matthew (b. 1975), and reportedly had him in his truck during some of the murders that took place on the weekends. He later admitted to detectives that if his son would have developed any sort of inkling as to what was going on he would have killed him immediately to silence him.
After returning from Vietnam, Ridgway got a job painting semis at the Kenworth Trucking Company, and in 1982 bought his house on 32nd Place South. The same year, teenage runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from major roadways throughout King County, Washington. Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, Ridgway confessed to murdering at least 71 teenage girls and women in the Seattle/Tacoma area (although that number is speculated to be about 90 or more). In order to gain their trust and lower their defenses, on occasion Ridgway would show the women a picture of his son. After a few minutes of sexual intercourse from ‘behind,’ he would often strangle his victims by wrapping his forearm tightly around their necks, then use his other arm to pull back as tightly as he could. Ridgway killed the majority of his victims in his home then dumped their remains in wooded areas. Multiple bodies wound up making their way to the river and eventually washed up to shore, giving him the nickname ‘The Green River Killer.’ Ridgway would frequently contaminate the crime scenes with gum and cigarette butts (even though he wasn’t a smoker or a gum chewer) just to throw law enforcement off his trail. He would also dump his victims body in one place, leave it for a while, then return and transport it to a second location in order to create a false trail; at least two of his victims were transported as far away as Portland, Oregon.
In the early 1980’s, the King County Sheriff’s Office formed the ‘Green River Task Force.’ In November 1984, Ted Bundy contacted the department after seeing an article in a local newspaper about the Green River case. The doomed serial killer was on death row when the murders began in 1982, and a part of me thinks he was jealous of the attention that ‘the Riverman’ was receiving, as he was no longer in the spotlight. So, six years into his death sentence Bundy sent a 22-page letter to King County chief criminal investigators Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert asking if they’d like his assistance to help solve the Green River case. In the letter, Bundy said: ‘don’t ask me why I believe I’m an expert in this area, just accept that I am and we’ll start from there.’ Regarding being contacted by Bundy, Dr. Keppel said: ‘it was a letter from a ‘wanna-be’ consultant and the most unlikely person I ever expected to be of assistance in the Green River murders. The letter came from a cell on death row in Florida; the sender was Theodore Robert Bundy. I was stunned.’ Turns out I was right about my jealousy theory: Keppel and Reichert both stated that they sensed a bit of jealousy from Ted regarding the GRK stealing his thunder. At the time Bundy sent the letter to detectives he was still the primary suspect in many unsolved homicides across multiple states. Because of this, the two detectives accepted the serial killer’s ‘help’ when in actuality they were only interested in seeing if they could get any sort of information regarding their unsolved cases.
In 1972, Bundy graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and around 1974 young girls and women in the general Seattle area started disappearing. There were rumblings of an attractive young man wearing an arm sling or using crutches as a ruse to help lure pretty young coeds into his car by asking for assistance. After he made a mistake at Lake Sammamish on July 14, 1974 by not only taking two victims on the same day (from the same place) AND using his real name, he quickly left the area and enrolled in law school at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. We all know he was eventually pulled over and arrested there on August 16, 1975. After Bundy escaped not once but twice, he fled to Florida where he was eventually caught after killing Chi Omega sisters Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman as well as sweet little 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
Two years before Bundy ‘created’ his criminal profile of the GRK, in 1982 FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas had already come up with his own profile that was fairly accurate and mentioned a few key points: the unsub was a divorced, white male who drove an older model vehicle. He often visited with sex workers and was very familiar with the area where he disposed of the bodies. Douglas also felt the killer was somewhere between the ages of 25-35, and it just so happens that at the beginning of his rampage Gary Ridgway was 33-years-old. However, a profile is not considered to be evidence, simply a tool used to help narrow down a list of suspects. Despite Bundy’s impact on the Ridgway case being completely overblown, numerous movies, documentaries, and books have been made over the years simply for the sake of shock value. This is a great example as to how Ted’s capabilities and ‘intelligence’ is frequently exaggerated for the sake of a good story. For some, the idea of a serial killer helping track down another serial killer is straight out of a movie, and the fact that it may have sort-of happened is far too fascinating to be thwarted by facts.
Ted also theorized to Keppel and Reichert that the GRK was returning to his dump sites to have ‘intimate relations’ with his victims: ‘I think he might be … intending to return to the scene to either view his victim, or in fact, interact with the body in some way.’ He went on to tell the detectives that if they ever stumbled upon a ‘fresh grave’ they should stake it out and wait for him to come back. During his allocution, Ridgway admitted that he did indeed return to his victims’ remains and violated their corpses. Bundy also told the detectives that they could possibly catch the killer if they staked out his old dump sites, and Keppel admitted they did that but the media would often show up and blow their cover.
Reichert: ‘Do you think that he parks his vehicle?’ Bundy: ‘Oh sure and just watches. My feelings about the guy is he’s very low key and inoffensive.’ He went on to say: ‘I think there’s an excellent chance that he picked up a number of prostitutes that he has later released for any number of reasons. He knows what these girls are like and what they need. Employment, money, or drugs.’
Once again, Bundy got it right: after he was in custody, Ridgway did share with detectives that he not only would park his pickup truck and watch the prostitutes walk by, but he also promised some of them extra cash or a chance of ‘honest’ employment, even going so far as to staying in touch with few of them by the phone. They were all empty promises, and not a single one was fulfilled.
Bundy also advised Keppel and Reichert that the police department most likely already had contact with the perpetrator of these heinous crimes at some point in the past, saying: ‘there’s a chance this guy has already been reported. Field card here, arrested there, reported over here, license plate shows up over here.’ Again, Bundy got another trait correct: in the 1980’s, Ridgway came into contact with the police at least ten times. Some matters were routine but others involved some of his victims.
One victim did stand out to Ted as not being a victim of the GRK: Amina Agisheff, saying, ‘it seems to me those circumstances, but not necessarily, eliminates Agisheff as a victim of the Riverman. This is most likely because at 36 she was older than many of the other victims, and the minute amount of time between Agisheff’s disappearance and that of Wendy Coffield.’ When Ridgway was in custody, detectives inquired about an unsolved murder just to see if he would confess; he denied it saying, ‘why if it isn’t mine? Because I have pride ….. in what I do, I don’t wanna take it from anybody else.’
About the convicted serial killer, Keppel said ‘Bundy was right on the money all the way around. He knew what to expect out of this guy. That’s the experience of a real killer.’ Reichert commented that Bundy had several traits in common with Ridgway, especially regarding his mindset: ‘first off, there’s no remorse. He doesn’t have any feelings toward anybody, his family included. And that’s what I saw in Bundy and what I saw in Ridgway.’ In an interview with the New York Times, Reichert said: ‘like Mr. Bundy… Mr. Ridgway craved attention and control and was prideful when discussing his killings.’
In 1985, Ridgway started seeing Judith Mawson after they met at the White Shutters Tavern; he eventually made her his third wife in 1988. Mawson claimed in a 2010 TV interview that when she moved into his house the floors were bare and there was no carpet. Detectives told her that Ridgway most likely wrapped a body in the carpet and never bothered to replace it. He did in fact bring most of his victims back to his house before murdering them. In that same interview, Mawson mentioned that her husband would frequently leave for work very early in the morning on some days, telling her it was for ‘overtime.’ She theorized that Gary must have committed some of his atrocities while allegedly working this early morning OT. Judith went on to say that she had no knowledge of his activities until she was contacted by detectives in 1987, even claiming to have had no knowledge of the Green River Killer at all due to the fact that she did not watch the news or read the paper.
During an interview with writer Pennie Morehead in prison, Ridgway pointed out that while he was married to Mawson his kill rate greatly decreased due to the fact that he was happy and genuinely loved her. In fact, of the 49 women he slaughtered he only killed three while he was involved with Judith. In an interview with the same reporter, Mawson said: ‘I feel I have saved lives … by being his wife and making him happy.’ She at one time called Ridgway the ‘perfect husband’ and that despite being together for 17 years he always treated their relationship as if they were newlyweds. Ridgway did confess he was tempted to kill Mawson on multiple occasions, and the feeling only passed when he realized it would have increased the odds of him getting caught. Despite his psychopathic tendencies, Ridgway did admit that he loved his wife.
Gary Ridgway’s first attempt at murder wasn’t a very successful one: he was sixteen and went after a six-year-old boy in his neighborhood. The children weren’t fighting or disagreeing about anything in any capacity: they were just two kids from the same neighborhood that had just met moments earlier. The young boy was close to home when Ridgway asked if he wanted to go build a fort in the wooded area nearby. Moments later, he stabbed the child in his midsection, puncturing his liver. ‘Why did you kill me?’ the young child implored to Ridgway, who simply laughed and answered, ‘I always wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.’ He served no jail time for this crime. About this, Ridgway told Bob Keppel, ‘a boy was playing and I stabbed him inside. Didn’t kill him…. I just took the knife outta my pocket and stabbed him in the ah, side…I wanted to see how to stab somebody.’
Many of Ridgway’s victims were known to be sex workers, teenage runaways, and women in other vulnerable circumstances. After the first five bodies were pulled out of the river the press granted him the nickname ‘The Green River Killer.’ Ridgway typically strangled his victims by hand but on occasion would use ligatures. After taking their lives, he would leave their bodies in overgrown, wooded areas in King County, often returning to the bodies to have sexual intercourse with them. As a side note, this sounds almost exactly like behavior Bundy participated in. Ridgway was originally convicted of 48 murders, however in 2011 one more conviction was added to the count, bringing the total number up to 49. This helped establish him as the second most prolific serial killer in United States history. The first is Samuel Little, who confessed to the murders of 93 women across multiple states between 1970 and 2005. He died in prison in 2020.
Ridgway was arrested in 1982 and 2001 on charges related to soliciting prostitution. He officially became a suspect in the Green River killings in April 1983 when 18-year-old Marie Malvar disappeared after being seen getting into a truck that looked exactly like Ridgways. Her pimp and boyfriend Robert Woods remembered the vehicle because of the way it ‘sped up:’ from his experience, Johns usually drove away much slower. The following day, Woods and Malvar’s father went looking for the mystery pickup and found it parked outside of Ridgway’s house in his SeaTac neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was not enough evidence for police to arrest him, and of course he denied any contact with the missing teenager. Even though police had no evidence to prove he was lying it did help put Ridgway on their radar.
It wasn’t until June 1983 when Keli Kay McGinness was last seen getting in a pickup truck that looked exactly like Ridgways that he was officially bumped up to a ‘top priority’ suspect. After the 18-year-old vanished without a trace, law enforcement immediately zeroed in on Ridgway and got a search warrant for his house, and despite searching the property with a fine-toothed comb there was not enough evidence found to incriminate him in any crimes. In 1984 Ridgway was administered a polygraph test and passed. On April 7, 1987, law enforcement obtained warrants for samples of his hair and saliva, which was used to successfully match him to semen left behind at the crime scenes.
Roughly 20 years after being identified as a potential suspect in the Green River murder case, on November 30, 2001 Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested as he was leaving his place of employment. He was officially charged for the brutal slayings of four women thanks to DNA evidence as well as paint flecks found at the crime scenes and at his job. A forensic scientist found microscopic particles that matched a specific brand and composition of spray paint he used at his job during the specific time period when these victims were killed.The four victims were Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds, and Carol Ann Christensen. This means it was actually science that led to Ridgway’s arrest, NOT Ted Bundy’s criminal profile. In March 2003 three more victims were added to the indictment: Wendy Coffield, Debra Bonner, and Debra Estes.
As part of his plea bargain arrangement, Ridgway was given a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was spared the death penalty on the condition that he tell law enforcement where he left the bodies of his victims. He took law enforcement to the locations of where he dumped several of his victims, even sharing with them intimate details on how he killed each one. On December 18, 2003, Ridgway was sentenced to 48 consecutive life sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary; ten additional years were added to each sentence for the crime of tampering with evidence which increased his prison term by 480 years. In 2011, a 49th body was discovered and linked to the Green River killer, adding another life sentence to his already absurdly long term. Gary Ridgway took the lives of more people than Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam, and BTK combined.
Keppel stated, “Our man Ridgway is as clever or maybe even cleverer than Bundy ever thought he was. Because this guy has a methodology to him that is unprecedented anywhere. Try and find a killer that’s gone on as long as he had, as intense as he did, with the apparent ability to turn the faucet on and off any length of time that he wants.”
Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida’s electric chair in January 1989 and wasn’t alive to see the capture of the Green River Killer; he’ll never know how accurate his profile of the serial killer was. Dr. Robert Keppel wrote the book “The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer” about his time spent with the serial killer, and where Bundy didn’t really aide law enforcement in solving the case of “the Riverman,” he was pretty spot on regarding his profile. Unlike Bundy, Gary Ridgway is alive today and is currently 72 years old. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. In Thomas Harris’s 1988 best selling novel “Silence of Lambs,” Bundy was used as inspiration for the villainous Buffalo Bill, who feigned injury when approaching women asking for help before knocking them out then abducting them. Like Buffalo Bill, one of Bundy’s primary methods of killing was strangling his victims. Although Harris has not publicly spoken about the similarities between his fictional killer and Ted Bundy, he did attended parts of Bundy’s Florida trial and even sent him a copy of Red Dragon, which introduced the character of Hannibal Lecter.
Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida’s electric chair in January 1989 and wasn’t alive to see the capture of the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway is alive as of September 2023 and is currently 74 years old. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. Truthfully, before I started this article I didn’t know much about him; I knew he was married three times but I was shocked to learn he fathered a child. I dug a little deeper into Matthew Ridgway and was a little surprised to learn he wasn’t like Bundy’s daughter Rose/a, and has done some interviews with the media. I want to mention an article I found about Matthew, who remembers a very different version of his father than the one depicted on TV… To him, Gary Leon Ridgway was just ‘Dad’: a frugal, chill man who rarely yelled or raised his voice. That helped teach him how to play sports and never missed one of his baseball or soccer games. The day after his dad was arrested, Matthew told investigators: ‘even when I was in fourth grade, when I was with soccer, he’d always, you know, be there for me… I don’t think I ever remember him not being there.’ He told detectives that he had no idea who his father really was until he was 24 years old, after he was arrested. Gary Ridgway had given him a normal and happy childhood, something that he would always be thankful for. After high school Matthew joined the Marines, got married, and now works as a trained chef. Gary’s father Thomas passed away in 1998 at the age of 71 and his mother died on August 15, 2001.
A young Gary Ridgway strangling a cat. A pic of Ridgway as a child in coloreakes.Gary Ridgway’s freshman year picture from the 1966 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway’s sophomore year picture from the 1967 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway in (one of) his sophomore year pictures 1968 Tyee High School yearbook.Gary Ridgway’s senior year picture from the 1969 Tyee High School yearbook.Ridgway joined the Navy in 1969 after graduating from high school (he was 20-years-old). He was almost immediately sent to fight in the Vietnam War.A photo of Ridgway’s arrest from soliciting a prostitute on May 12, 1982. Ridgway was long suspected in the killings but not arrested until 2001.Ridgway’s first wife, Claudia L Kraig-Barrows. They were married from 1970-1972. Photo courtesy of the 1969 Lincoln High School yearbook.Ridgway’s second wife, Marcia Lorraine (Brown) Coldiron. They were married from 1973–1981.Washington, US, Marriage Records from December 19, 1973 for Gary Leon Ridgway and his second wife, Marcia Brown.Washington, US, Divorce Index, June 23, 1991 for Gary L Ridgway.Judith Mawson.Gary and Judith Ridgway on their wedding day.Gary and Judith cutting the cake on their wedding day.Gary and Judith sharing a drink on their wedding day.Judith Mawson was Ridgway’s third wife, the pair met and danced at the White Shutters Tavern on Highway 99 in 1985 and were married three years later. Following their marriage, Ridgway’s murder rate dropped significantly: only about 6% of his 71 suspected murders took place between 1988 and 2001.Ridgway and Judith.Gary and Judith.Gary and Judith standing in front of one of the semi’s from the Kenworth Truck Factory.Gary and Judith with one of their pups standing in front of an RV.Judith and one of her dogs.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old birthday card.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old card.A handwritten note from Gary to Judith from an old card.Regarding his crimes, Ridgway said: ‘I have tried a long time to get these things out of my mind. I tried for a long time to keep from killing any more ladies.’Gary Ridgway’s mugshot from his 2001 arrest.Ridgway sat stoic throughout the entirety of his court appearances and broke down only once: when Robert Rule forgave him for killing his 16-year-old daughter (Linda) in September 1982: ‘There are people here that hate you. I’m not one of them. I pity you, sir. You won’t have a Christmas. You won’t have the love around you that everyone needs at Christmas time.’I looked everywhere to see if Ridgway suffers from trichotillomania, which is a compulsion to rip ones hair out due to underlying anxiety. I couldn’t find anything telling me he has this condition, so this must have been on a bad hair day.After listening for more than two hours as his victims’ loved ones told him how he’d devastated their lives, Ridgway apologized, saying: ‘I’m sorry for killing all those young ladies. I have tried to remember as much as I could to help the detectives find and recover the ladies. I’m sorry for the scare I put in the community.’A 2017 mugshot of Ridgway from Walla Walla, Washington.A side by side of the Green River Killer and Ted Bundy, ‘The Ladykiller.’Gary Ridgway’s dad, Thomas.Mr. Ridgway with Gregory in 1948.Mary Ridgway. Friends and family described her as someone who frequently would wear short skirts, low cut tops, lots of make-up and bigger hair, which was not the norm at the time. A friend of the family stating that she ‘always looked glamorous.’Thomas Jr. and Mary Ridgway in 1995. She died on August 15, 2001; the cause of her death is not public information. She was 73 years old is laid to rest in Federal Way, WA. Mary Ridgway.Mary Rita Ridgway was born on January 22, 1928 and died on August 15, 2001 at age 73. She was laid to rest in Gethsemane Cemetery in Federal Way, WA next to her husband Thomas Jr, who was 74 when he passed in early 1998.Gary’s older brother, Gregory Leon Ridgway.On December 1, 2001 Matthew Ridgway told investigators, ‘even when I was in fourth grade, when I was with soccer, he’d always, you know, be there for me.’ … ‘I don’t think I ever remember him not being there.’Gary Ridgway was married three times, and Matthew (b. 1975) is a product from his second marriage to Marcia Lorene Brown. They got married in 1973 and divorced in 1981. Because of the separation, Gary was not a constant presence in Matthew’s life, but he did have visitation rights for every other weekend.Gary Ridgway’s victims. As you can see, he did not discriminate by age or race, as some of his victims are as young as 14 years old.A picture of Ridgway in shackles at court.A photograph of detectives searching a shed in the back yard. Despite scouring the property from top to bottom, investigators were unable to find any evidence to incriminate him.Investigators move the body of a woman found slain on July 11, 1983. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On November 22, 1983, Jenne Gibbs was one of about 36 people who demonstrated demanding that police crack down on prostitution along state Route 99 near Jackson International Airport in south King County. Police say victims of the Green River killer were linked to prostitution in the area. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.Bill Haglund, right of the King County Medical Examiner’s Office helps remove human remains found near a baseball field just north of Sea-Tac Airport in March 1984. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On September 20, 1984 an elderly couple found the body of a young woman who apparently was killed within the prior few days and was found yards from the Green River. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On June 20, 1985, Washington County, Oregon deputy sheriffs and explorer scouts search a heavily wooded area on for clues that may link the deaths of two women to Seattle’s Green River killer. Numerous bones were found at the site and were expected to be linked to an unidentified teenage girl. Another set of bones found last week were identified as the remains of Denise Darcel Bush, 23, who disappeared near Sea-Tac Airport in October 1982. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On August 13, 1983 members of an Explorer Search & Rescue unit comb a field north of Sea-Tac Airport. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.On October 27, 1983, port police and investigators for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office comb the area where a full human skeleton was found. It was partially buried in a grave some 200 yards north of South 192nd Street. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.A photo of the Green River taken sometime in the 1980’s.Detectives Dave Reichert (center, green jacket) and Pat Ferguson gather evidence from sites where bodies were found south of Sea-Tac Airport in the fall of 1983. Photo courtesy of MOHAI.A photo of the Green River Task force.One of the members of the Greek River Task Force.Two members of the Green River Task Force.One of the victims of Ridgway.A victim of the Green River Killer being loaded into a transport vehicle.A dive team exploring the Green River.Members of the Green River Task Force.The Green River Task Force bringing a body to a transport vehicle.Law enforcement investigating the Green River.The Green River.This police sketch of the Green River Killer was drawn in 1986 from a description by Paige Miley.In response to the volatile fuel prices and shortages resulting from the oil embargo of the 1970’s, Kenworth engineers developed the industry’s first truly aerodynamic model, the Kenworth T600 with its sloped hood. In this pic, Kenworth employees look on as the first production model T600 rolls off the assembly line at the Seattle manufacturing plant in 1985. Photo courtesy of Kenworth Truck Co’s Facebook page.Ridgway’s pickup truck.Ridgway took his victims to his master bedroom at his first house to have sex. Ironically he choose a wall mural that resembled the lonely woods where he planned to leave their bodies.A letter from Gary to his lawyers Michelle Shaw and Mark Prothero.A Google Street View image from September, 2011. Photo courtesy of oddstops. An older photograph of the back yard. On the left, you can see two trailers. On the right, you can see a wooden shed. Photo courtesy of oddstops. A dead end sign at the beginning of Gary Ridgway’s former neighborhood on 32nd Pl South in SeaTac, Washington. Photo taken in April 2022.Gary Ridgways home. Photo taken in Aprl 2022.Ridgway sold the house on May 28th, 1999 for $112,950, two years before he was arrested as the Green River Killer. Photo taken in April 2022.In 2021, Zillow estimated that the 32nd Pl S address is worth $392,800. Photo taken in April 2022.The 3 bedroom/1 bath house is 1,150 square feet and it was built in 1970. Photo taken in April 2022.This guard pup reminded me of the Seattle PD car stationed near the scene where Georgann Hawkins was abducted. Photo taken in April 2022.Gary Ridgways former backyard at his first home. Photo taken in April 2022.The backyard of Ridgways first home. Photo from April 2022.A side view of Ridgways first home. Photo from April 2022.Ridgway got his nickname because of his habit of dumping his victim’s bodies near the Green River in Washington. Photo from April 2022.A satellite photograph of the Green River Killer’s house in SeaTac. Photo courtesy of oddstops.An aerial photograph showing the back of the property. Photo courtesy of oddstops. In September of 1997, Gary and Judith move to this home at 4633 South 348th St. in Auburn, WA.A cover of ‘The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer,’written by Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes. Robert D. Keppel was the chief consultant to the Green River Murders Task force who helped develop the strategy behind the arrest of current suspect Gary Ridgway. He has since retired as the chief criminal investigator for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. He has received a number of grants from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration to aid local police agencies in tracking serial homicides.A poster for ‘The Riverman’, a made for TV movie made in 2004 starring Bruce Greenwood as Robert Keppel, Sam Jaeger as Dave Reichert, Cary Elwes as Ted Bundy and David Lawrence Brown as Gary Ridgway. This is the best movie adaptation of the story (in my opinion). It also has the highest IMDB score of the lot as well,with a whopping 5.9/10.A movie poster for ‘The Capture of the Green River Killer,’ a TV Mini Series made in 2008 that starred Tom Cavanaugh. The actor who plays Gary Ridgway, John Pielmeier, co-wrote the script.A poster for the 2005 straight to video film, ‘Green River Killer.’ This got the lowest IMDB score of the bunch, coming in at an impressive 1.8/10. The most interesting piece of trivia I could find regarding this was that it recycled the same sets from Zombie Nation (2004) and Cannibal (2006).A poster for ‘Bundy and the Green River Killer’ made in 2019. Most of the dialogue between Detective Richards and Gary Ridgway in the police interview scene is based on the real life taped interview between King County Sheriff David Reichert and Gary Ridgway that was recorded shortly after his arrest in 2001.A second movie poster for ‘Bundy and the Green River Killer’ made in 2019.
Another Bundy Blog. 