Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings

[Jen]

I don't know how many of you follow true crime the way I do (LOL), but a suspect was arrested in the Green River Killings. In the early 80's over 49 women were abducted and murdered in the Seattle area. They used DNA evidence to link this guy to 4 of the Green River victims. Seeing as the killings seemed to have stopped in the mid 80's, it's very suspicious...serial killers usually don't stop killing. It makes you wonder if he never did stop, and if not, where he went. Considering his victims were all prostitutes, it draws a frighteningly similar picture to the situation with Vancouver prostitutes...over 30 have gone missing in the past few years.

Anyway, they arrested a 52 year old man from Federal Way. The families must be so relieved that finally something has come of the investigation. He was a suspect since the killings began.

[The1calledTKE]

Wow I thought they would never solve that. Do you know what new evidence was found that led to the killer?

[Jen]

It's official...Gary Leon Ridgway, a truck painter from Auburn, and one of the original Green River suspects, has confessed to killing 48 victims (42 from the original list, 6 women that were not on it.). Four of these victims have still not been identified.

He's also the suspect in about 6 other Green River cases.

The entire court proceedings were on TV this morning, so I was glued to them. He had absolutely no emotion, saying he didn't know their names or faces, just buried them in clusters, which he'd drive past every so often to remember. He killed these women because he hated prostitutes. Most of them were teenaged girls, the youngest only 15, and one of them an 18 year old who was 8 1/2 months pregnant. When they found her skeletal remains, there were fetal bones in her pelvis.

This plea bargain ensures he will not get the death penalty. I wonder how long he'll actually last in prison.

I think aside from seeing the families in court, the most touching aspect was when they emptied the court room. It was very methodical, Ridgway and lawyers leaving first, then the prosecution team. As Task Force member (from the beginning) Dave Reichert stood up to leave, the families applauded him.

Apparently what linked him in the beginning and led to his arrest so long ago was saliva. He gave a saliva sample in 1987 - brilliant forethought on the part of the investigators. They extracted the DNA and matched it to four victims, allowing Ridgway to finally be arrested.

[pirepresent]

Here's the article from CNN....

Ridgway confesses to 48 killings in Green River case

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) --Accused Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgway pleaded guilty to murder Wednesday after admitting count by count to the killings of 48 women in northwest Washington since 1982.

Ridgway, a 54-year-old former truck painter, entered his plea under an agreement with prosecutors that spares his life. He will instead agree to life without parole.

Count by count, Ridgway affirmed a statement admitting to the killings as prosecutor Jeff Baird read the document aloud in court.

"In most cases, when I murdered these women, I did not know their names," Ridgway's statement to the court said. "Most of the time, I killed them the first time I met them. I do not have a good memory for their faces. I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight."

Some relatives of the victims wept in the courtroom as Ridgway made the confessions.

Judge Richard A. Jones said sentencing would happen six months from Wednesday's hearing to allow investigators to question Ridgway in more detail. Baird told Judge Jones that prosecutors would ask the court to sentence Ridgway to 48 life terms in prison without possibility of parole.

In his statement, Ridgway said he targeted prostitutes "because I thought I could kill as many as I wanted without getting caught."

"I hate most prostitutes. I did not want to pay them for sex," he acknowledged. "I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up, without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away, and might never be reported missing."

Ridgway had been scheduled for trial in July 2004 in connection with the deaths of seven of the women. Prosecutors said DNA evidence linked him to at least some of the seven slayings and had been seeking the death penalty against him.

Before the hearing, authorities would not confirm what many speculated, that Ridgway provided information in exchange for a plea deal that would save him from the death penalty and give him life without parole.

However, two of the bodies on the official list of Green River victims were found in Oregon, which has capital punishment, and it is still unclear whether Ridgway will plead guilty to those murders.

The Green River Killer's slaying spree began in 1982, targeting women in the Seattle area, mainly runaways and prostitutes. The first victims turned up near the banks of the Green River south of Seattle, giving the killer his name.

The remains of dozens of women turned up near Pacific Northwest ravines, rivers, airports and freeways in the 1980s. Of them, investigators officially listed 49 women as probable victims of the Green River Killer.

One of the victims of the Green River killing spree was Patricia Yellow Robe.

"I find it incredible that an individual was able to cause that many deaths, perpetrate that much suffering and misery on so many people," said Joe Yellow Robe, father of Patricia.

Investigators had hoped for a quick arrest, but were stumped for years. Nobody was arrested until 2001, when DNA evidence led to seven murder charges against the 54-year-old Ridgway.

Until recently, lawyers for Ridgway had said he was going to plead not guilty. But this summer, four more bodies were located, the first time in years missing victims had been found, leading to speculation Ridgway was offering information for a deal.

Investigators also recently found human bones in two other locations near Seattle, which raised questions about how so many victims could be discovered at once. Investigators say six women are still missing from the Green River case.

The plea agreement was reached in June, but submitted to the court only Wednesday. Prosecutor Baird said the 41 of the 48 cases might not have been resolved without the agreement, and he said most of the victims' families agreed with the deal.

"These individuals are all in a state of grief. They are angry and upset," he said. "But I believe I can say with assurance that most of them -- a majority of them -- agree in principle with the plea agreement, and there are a few, I'm told, that do not."

Ridgway's pleas to 48 counts give him more convictions -- though not necessarily more slayings -- than any other serial killer in the nation's history.

John Wayne Gacy, who preyed on men and boys in Chicago in the 1970s, was convicted of killing 33. Ted Bundy, whose killing started in Washington state, confessed to killing more than 30 women and girls, but was convicted only of killing three before he was executed.

CNN correspondent Gary Tuchman contributed to this report.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/05/green.river.killings/index.html

[Jen]

He did in fact plead guilty to 2 (maybe 3?) of the 4 whose bodies were found in Oregon. I think what they have to prove is that they were killed there. Denise Bush and Shirley Sherrill both disappeared from Seattle but were found in Oregon. Liles wasn't on his list and I'm not sure if the unidentified body in Oregon is one he copped to or not.

[vanda]

Didn't it come out that he had a cop friend that threw everyone off of his trail during the original investigation and that's why he was able to keep killing?

[CutiePie2000]

Yup, the perp is pleading guilty to 48 murders....
it is hard to believe that there are TWO of these monsters in the Pacific Northwest; Gary Ridgeway and
Willy Pickton (see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/bc_missingwomen.html)



http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/ridgway031105

Green River killer pleads guilty
Last Updated Wed, 05 Nov 2003 13:53:13
SEATTLE - A Washington truck painter has admitted that he is the Green River serial killer.

Lawyers for Gary Ridgway confirmed Wednesday in a Seattle court that he is pleading guilty to 48 murders.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors will not ask for the death penalty.

FROM DEC. 5, 2001: Murder charges laid in Green River serial killer case

"I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight," he said in a confession that was read aloud in court.

"I wanted to kill as many women as I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could," the statement said.

Deal doesn't cover any crimes outside King County

The plea agreement disclosed in King County Superior Court was reached in June.

It does not cover any crimes Ridgway might be responsible for outside King County.

And it does not bar the death penalty in other cases.

The murders began in 1982, involving women in the Seattle area, most of them runaways and prostitutes.

The first victims turned up in the Green River, a small river just south of Seattle. Other bodies were discovered near ravines, airports and freeways.

Prosecutors believed the murders stopped in 1984, but one of the killings Ridgway admitted to was in 1990 and another in 1998.

Ridgway, from the Seattle suburb of Auburn, was arrested in 2001.

Prosecutors said they were able to match a saliva sample taken from Ridgway in 1987 with DNA samples taken from the bodies of three of the earliest victims.

Written by CBC News Online staff

[Jen]

I am amazed at the foresight of the investigators.

They had the knowledge to get that saliva sample back in 1987...never knowing if it would ever pan out. And it was the whole reason they caught this guy. That one moment broke the entire thing wide open.

It's actually not hard to believe the PNW has all these quacks. Ted Bundy killed all over the Seattle, area, then the Hillside Stranglers made their way up to Bellingham and murdered someone. Green River, Clifford Olson, Westley Allan Dodd, Robert Yates in Spokane, Willy Pickton....with thin law enforcement, lots of area to cover, an abundance of natural resources to hide in, as well as the more loose, liberal atmostphere, it's not that surprising that killers think this is the place to get away with it all.

I'm just happy that they AREN'T getting away with it.

[honeychile]

Didn't he admit to killing 2 women years after "the spree"? One can't help but wonder if he's just going for bragging rights, too. Ted Bundy was only ever convicted for 3 murders, but at one point, he said that the total was in "three digits" - over 100 women killed for his sexual pleasure! For those who haven't read any of the books on the Green River Killer, some of his victims were as young as 15 - one had braces.

One of the dump sites he used was very close to my ex-husband's family farm. I got the creeps everytime we'd take the shortcut past it. blech.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by ariesrising
It's actually not hard to believe the PNW has all these quacks. Ted Bundy killed all over the Seattle, area
I went to a presentation at West Vancouver Secondary School a few years back where Anne Rule gave a talk (she wrote "The Stranger Beside Me" and knew Ted Bundy personally...she worked with him on a suicide hotline). She thinks that Ted Bundy may have even been in BC at one point too (I pretty sure that he would have found his way up to Whistler). Not totally implausible.
And yet....so creepy.

And don't forget David Snow, who attacked a woman by The Bridgehouse Restaurant, (on Capilano Road) and also abducted and held some woman in the woods right opposite Westview Shopping Centre. This was in July 1992, when there was still a traffic light there on the highway (no overpass). I think the woods have now been pretty much levelled.
http://www.nsnews.com/issues98/w072798/snow.html

[honeychile]

Originally posted by CutiePie2000
I went to a presentation at West Vancouver Secondary School a few years back where Anne Rule gave a talk (she wrote "The Stranger Beside Me" and knew Ted Bundy personally...she worked with him on a suicide hotline). She thinks that Ted Bundy may have even been in BC at one point too (I pretty sure that he would have found his way up to Whistler). Not totally implausible.
And yet....so creepy.

And don't forget David Snow, who attacked a woman by The Bridgehouse Restaurant, (on Capilano Road) and also abducted and held some woman in the woods right opposite Westview Shopping Centre. This was in July 1992, when there was still a traffic light there on the highway (no overpass). I think the woods have now been pretty much levelled.
http://www.nsnews.com/issues98/w072798/snow.html

I don't know that I should admit it, but I've read just about every one of Ann Rule's books!

[madmax]

Originally posted by brooklineu
I don't know how many of you follow true crime the way I do (LOL), but a suspect was arrested in the Green River Killings. In the early 80's over 49 women were abducted and murdered in the Seattle area. They used DNA evidence to link this guy to 4 of the Green River victims. Seeing as the killings seemed to have stopped in the mid 80's, it's very suspicious...serial killers usually don't stop killing. It makes you wonder if he never did stop, and if not, where he went. Considering his victims were all prostitutes, it draws a frighteningly similar picture to the situation with Vancouver prostitutes...over 30 have gone missing in the past few years.

Anyway, they arrested a 52 year old man from Federal Way. The families must be so relieved that finally something has come of the investigation. He was a suspect since the killings began.


Wasn't there a serial killer in Atlanta in the 80's?
I think kids were being killed and dumped in rivers. Did they ever catch the killer?


Didn't they catch the guy in the Vancouver case? I think he was a pig farmer and he was grinding up the bodies and feeding them to the pigs.

[Rudey]

I bet K Sig RC is pretty pissed right now. He keeps those girls in business and when they hurt, he hurts.

-Rudey
--I say we give Rob a DNA test and see what hooker crimes that's linked to.

[vanda]

Originally posted by madmax
Wasn't there a serial killer in Atlanta in the 80's?
I think kids were being killed and dumped in rivers. Did they ever catch the killer?



His name was Wayne Williams. He's serving two consecutive life sentences.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by madmax
Didn't they catch the guy in the Vancouver case? I think he was a pig farmer and he was grinding up the bodies and feeding them to the pigs.

Yes, he is on trial now. They are still excavating the land and it will likely take years.
Willy Pickton is the criminal
(see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/bc_missingwomen.html)

[Kevin]

He should be sent to Syria and umm... er.. interogated.;)