Who was the Green River Killer and how was he caught?

In the summer of 1984, women’s dead bodies began showing up on the banks of the Green River near Seattle, launching one of the lengthiest criminal investigations in U.S. history. In 2001, Gary Ridgway — dubbed the Green River Killer — was arrested and pleaded guilty to murdering 49 women.

In addition to the murders Ridgway confessed to, there are still other missing women and unidentified sets of remains possibly linked to Ridgway. Some estimate Ridgway killed as many as 90 women. Ridgway said he lost count.

Who was Gary Ridgway?

Gary Ridgway was born in 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He reportedly stabbed a boy in the 1960s as a teen. He served in the Navy after high school. By 1980, Ridgway settled in the Seattle area, and began soliciting sex workers. Around that same time, Ridgway was arrested for soliciting and accused of choking a sex worker, but charges were never filed. Ridgway was married three times and had a son.

It was also in the early 1980s that Ridgway began to kill women, leaving their bodies along the Green River. Despite the massive investigation, the case went cold, hampered by limited DNA testing technology from that period. As many as 1,300 suspects were considered.

How was Gary Ridgway caught?

Years later, in 2001, advances in DNA testing helped the investigation narrow in on Gary Ridgway, long considered a suspect in the case, after he was arrested again for solicitation. At first, Ridgway claimed he was innocent, but soon, he confessed to the murders in a plea deal to save his own life. Ridgway said he targeted sex workers because he “hated” them, and because they might not be reported missing.

In 2003, Ridgway received 48 life sentences for murder plus 480 years for evidence tampering with no chance for parole. As of 2023, he’s in his 70s, and serving those sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla, Washington. Based on his confession, Ridgway is considered among the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

In 2023, one set of remains thought to be a Green River Killer victim was identified as teenager Lori Anne Razpotnik, missing since 1982 from the Seattle area, USA Today reported. The same year Lori Anne Razpotnik’s remains were identified, NBC News reported that microscopic traces of paint found on one of the Green River Killer’s remains might have identified Ridgway sooner, who painted trucks for a living. That evidence, however, was inexplicably overlooked.