Gary Ridgway is the most prolific serial killer in American history. He managed to escape from the authorities for twenty years until he was captured in November 2001. He pleaded guilty and is now serving 48 life sentences. Friends and family are still baffled that a seemingly normal man could kill so many women. But how could he outsmart the authorities for so long?
Life course
Gary Leon Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the middle of 3 sons of Tom and Mary Ridgway and he grew up in Seattle. His father worked as a bus driver and was dominated by his mother. Ridgway was close to his mother, but less so to his father. He was in close contact with his parents and cared for them as they grew older.
Ridgway had difficulty studying and had to repeat a year twice in high school before being allowed to move on to the next year. In 1969, he graduated from high school and with no further education in sight, Ridgway decided to enlist in the Navy. Before he was deployed to Vietnam, he married his high school sweetheart Claudia. During his time in Vietnam he used prostitutes extensively, while his wife began an affair with another man at home in Seattle. Once they returned, it turned out that the marriage could no longer be saved and they divorced in 1971. After his discharge from the Navy, Ridgway began working as a commercial vehicle painter. He still had this job when he was arrested in 2001. In 1973 he met and married his second wife Marcia Winslow. In 1975 his son was born. During this marriage he became obsessed with religion and went door to door converting people. In addition, Ridgway still had an obsession with prostitutes and visited them regularly. In addition, the marriage suffered from the meddlesome behavior of Ridgway’s mother. When Marcia had a stomach reduction done in the late 1970s and lost a lot of weight, the couple had even more arguments. Ridgway found it difficult to cope with the increase in attention and in 1981 the marriage was over. In 1985, Ridgway met his third wife Judith Mawson. After an abusive marriage, Judith thought she had found her true self. They married in 1988 and, according to Judith, had a happy marriage.
Crimes
It is striking that most of Ridgway’s victims were murdered between 1982 and 1984. The majority of the victims were prostitutes or young teenagers who had run away from home. Most were between the ages of 15 and 25 and died from strangulation.
The first victim was found in July 1982 in the Green River near Seattle. Wendy Lee Coffield, a teenage runaway, had been strangled with her own underwear and there were few clues. A month later, Debra Bonner’s naked body was found in the river. On August 15, a passerby made a gruesome discovery; he found the bodies of Opal Mills and Cynthia Hinds. An officer found a third body while investigating the area. The police realized that a serial killer was at work here. He was called the Green River Killer after the place where the first victims were found. A special unit was set up to solve these murders. However, the unit could not cope with the enormous amount of information and much evidence was lost or overlooked. An example of this is the case of Debra Estes. In September 1982 she reported rape. After identifying her attacker (not Ridgway) she left the police station and was never seen again. The police only found out she was missing 2 years later and it later turned out that she too had become a victim of Ridgway.
Meanwhile, 14 girls disappeared between September 1982 and April 1983, and 19 girls disappeared between the spring of 1983 and December 1983. The pressure on the unit was great to find the killer. Although several suspects were identified, no definitive evidence was found. In 1984, serial killer Ted Bundy offered to help. He gave the unit several advices and interesting insights, but it did nothing to find the killer. During the investigation, it also came to light that the Green River killer had several dumping grounds for his victims. Initially they were dumped in or near the Green River, later in 1983 bodies were found near SeaTac airport and in 1984 bodies were found near Interstate 90. Despite multiple leads and suspects including Ridgway, there was not enough evidence to convict anyone.
Ridgway had come to the attention of police after trying to strangle a prostitute in 1980. He claimed it was self-defense because she bit him during oral sex. The case was not investigated further and dropped. In 1982, Ridgway was questioned by police while Keli McGuinness was in the truck with him. She was never seen again and her body was never found. In 2003, Ridgway admitted to killing her. In 1983, Marie Malvar got into an unknown man’s truck. Her friend decided to follow the truck, but lost them at a traffic light. He didn’t see his girlfriend again. A week later, the friend saw the same truck again and decided to follow it again. He ended up at Gary Ridgway’s house. Police questioned him, but he denied knowing Marie Malvar. The police did not investigate the matter further. Marie Malvar’s body was not found until 2003 and Ridgway confessed to killing her.
Between 1984 and 1987, 22 victims were found. Some had been missing for years. In 1987, Ridgway again attracted police interest when further investigation into his past was conducted. In 1984 he was arrested for picking up a prostitute who turned out to be an undercover police officer. They also found his criminal record, which included the attack on the prostitute in 1980. The police decided to search the house and took body samples. However, once again there was insufficient evidence and by 1991 there was only 1 detective left in the Green River unit. The big breakthrough did not come until 2001. The unit was revived and with new techniques such as DNA, which were not yet available in the 1980s, they wanted to finally catch the Green River killer. DNA material found at various crime scenes was compared with samples taken from Gary Ridgway in 1987. They turned out to be a match. On November 30, 2001, Gary Ridgway was arrested for the murders of Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds, Marcia Chapman and Carol Ann Christensen. He decided to fully cooperate with the police to avoid the death penalty. On November 2, 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of murder and was sentenced to 48 life terms. In December 2010, the body of Rebecca Morrero was found. Ridgway had already confessed to killing her, but no body had been found by 2003. He was convicted of this murder in 2011.
List of victims for which Ridgway was convicted
Although Ridgway has been convicted of 49 murders, there are still many unsolved murders and disappearances that can be linked to Ridgway. He has confessed to killing 71 women, but says he has also lost count. Unfortunately, it will never be completely clear how many women were victims of the Green River killer.
|
# |
Name |
Age |
Disappeared |
Found it |
|
1 |
Wendy Lee Coffield |
16 |
July 8, 1982 |
July 15, 1982 |
|
2 |
Gisele Ann Lovvorn |
17 |
July 17, 1982 |
September 25, 1982 |
|
3 |
Debra Lynn Bonner |
23 |
25 juli 1982 |
12 augustus 1982 |
|
4 |
Marcia Faye Chapman |
31 |
1 augustus 1982 |
15 augustus 1982 |
|
5 |
Cynthia Jean Hinds |
17 |
11 augustus 1982 |
15 augustus 1982 |
|
6 |
Opal Charmaine Mills |
16 |
12 augustus 1982 |
15 augustus 1982 |
|
7 |
Terry Rene Miligan |
16 |
29 augustus 1982 |
1 april 1984 |
|
8 |
Mary Bridghet Meehan |
18 |
September 15, 1982 |
November 13, 1983 |
|
9 |
Debra Lorraine Estes |
15 |
September 20, 1982 |
May 30, 1986 |
|
10 |
Linda Jane Rule |
16 |
September 26, 1982 |
January 31, 1983 |
|
11 |
Denise Darcel Bush |
22 |
October 8, 1982 |
June 12, 1985 |
|
12 |
Shawnda Lee Summers |
17 |
October 9, 1982 |
August 11, 1983 |
|
13 |
Shirley Marie Sherrill |
18 |
October 20-22, 1982 |
June 14, 1985 |
|
14 |
Rebecca Morrero |
20 |
December 3, 1982 |
December 21, 2010 |
|
15 |
Colleen Renee Brockman |
15 |
December 24, 1982 |
May 26, 1984 |
|
16 |
Alma Ann Smith |
18 |
March 3, 1983 |
April 2, 1984 |
|
17 |
Delores LaVerne Williams |
17 |
March 8, 1983 |
March 31, 1984 |
|
18 |
Gail Lynn Mathews |
24 |
April 10, 1983 |
September 18, 1983 |
|
19 |
Andrew M. Childers |
19 |
16 April |
11 October |
|
20 |
Sandra Kay Gabbert |
17 |
17 April |
1 April |
|
21 |
Kimi-Kai Pitsor |
16 |
17 April |
15 December |
|
22 |
Marie M. Mallow |
18 |
30 April |
29 September |
|
23 |
Carol Christensen |
21 |
3 May |
8 May |
|
24 |
Martina Theresa Authors |
18 |
22 May |
November 14, 1984 |
|
25 |
Cheryl Lee Wims |
18 |
May 23, 1983 |
March 22, 1984 |
|
26 |
Yvonne Shelley Antosh |
19 |
May 31, 1983 |
October 15, 1983 |
|
27 |
Carrie Ann Rois |
15 |
May 31-June 13, 1983 |
March 10, 1985 |
|
28 |
Constance Elizabeth Naon |
21 |
June 8, 1983 |
October 27, 1983 |
|
29 |
Kelly Marie Ware |
22 |
July 19, 1983 |
October 29, 1983 |
|
30 |
Tina Marie Thompson |
22 |
July 25, 1983 |
April 20, 1984 |
|
31 |
April Dawn Buttram |
17 |
August 18, 1983 |
August 30, 2003 |
|
32 |
Debbie May Abernathy |
26 |
September 5, 1983 |
March 31, 1984 |
|
33 |
Tracy Ann Winston |
19 |
September 12, 1983 |
March 27, 1986 |
|
34 |
Maureen Sue Feeney |
19 |
September 28, 1983 |
May 2, 1986 |
|
35 |
Mary Sue Bello |
25 |
11 October |
12 October |
|
36 |
Pammy Anette Avent |
15 |
26 October |
16 August |
|
37 |
Delise Louise Plager |
22 |
30 October |
14 February 1984 |
|
38 |
Kimberley L. Nelson |
26 |
1 November |
14 June |
|
39 |
Lisa Yates |
26 |
23 December |
13 March |
|
40 |
Mary Exzetta West |
16 |
6 February 1984 |
8 September |
|
41 |
Cindy Anne Smith |
17 |
March 21, 1984 |
June 27, 1987 |
|
42 |
Particia Michelle Barczak |
19 |
October 17, 1986 |
February 1993 |
|
43 |
Roberta Joseph Hayes |
21 |
Last seen February 7, 1987 |
September 12, 1991 |
|
44 |
Marta Reeves |
37 |
March 5, 1990 |
March 20, 1990 |
|
45 |
Patricia Yellow Robe |
38 |
January 1998 |
August 6, 1998 |
|
46 |
unidentified white woman |
12-17 |
before May 1983 |
March 21, 1984 |
|
47 |
unidentified black woman |
18-27 |
1982-1984 |
December 30, 1986 |
|
48 |
unidentified white woman |
14-18 |
1980-1984 |
January 2, 1986 |
|
49 |
unidentified black woman |
13-24 |
1973-1993 |
August 2003 |
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