A timeline of the Green River killings, and the arrest and prosecution of Gary Leon Ridgway:
July 15, 1982: Body of Wendy Lee Coffield, 16, Puyallup, found in the Green River south of Seattle.
Aug. 12, 1982: Body of Debra Bonner, 23, found in Green River.
Aug. 13-15, 1982: Bodies of Cynthia Hinds, 17, Opal Mills, 16, and Marcia Chapman, 31, found in or near Green River.
Aug. 16, 1982: King County police establish task force on the killings.
April 27, 1983: Green River killer becomes target of largest murder investigation in the country. Sheriff Vern Thomas estimates cost for 1983 at $2 million.
April 30, 1983: Marie M. Malvar, 18, disappears. Boyfriend follows pickup truck suspected in the disappearance; pickup is identified as Ridgway’s. Des Moines police respond and Ridgway denies any contact with Malvar.
May 3, 1983: Carol Christensen, 21, disappears from Pacific Highway S., south of Seattle. Her body is found five days later in wooded area in Maple Valley, southeast of Seattle.
Nov. 20, 1983: Police say the same man killed 11 young women found murdered in south King County since summer 1982.
April 2, 1984: Five more sets of skeletal remains found. Official number of victims at 20.
April 20, 1984: Two more sets of remains found, including those of Amina Agisheff, 36, near North Bend.
Dec. 9, 1984: Toll rises to 42 — 28 identified bodies and 14 other women missing.
April 8, 1987: Police search Ridgway’s Kent home and vehicles. Two witnesses say he was seen with at least two of the victims, now thought to number 46. Police take bodily samples from Ridgway but there is insufficient evidence to arrest him.
May 30, 1988: Body of Debra Estes, 15, found in Federal Way, last seen on Sept. 20, 1982. Sept. 20, 1990: Body of Marta Reeves found along Highway 410 near Enumclaw southeast of Seattle.
July 1991: Green River task force reduced to one investigator.
Aug. 6, 1998: Wrecking crew finds body of Patricia Ann Yellow Robe, 38, Seattle. Death certificate says she died of accidental drug and alcohol overdose, but investigators later tell relatives she was among the Green River killer’s victims.
Nov. 2, 1999:
March 2001: State crime lab begins examining Green River evidence using the new DNA testing method.
Nov. 30, 2001:
Dec. 5, 2001: King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng files aggravated first-degree murder charges against Ridgway in deaths of Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, Opal Mills and Carol Christensen. Ridgway pleads innocent two weeks later.
March 27, 2003: Ridgway charged with three more counts of aggravated first-degree murder in deaths of Wendy Lee Coffield, Debra Estes and Debra Bonner. He again pleads innocent.
June 13:
Aug. 16: Crews searching a wooded area east of Enumclaw find remains of Pammy Avent, 16, of Seattle, who disappeared in October 1983.
Aug. 21-23: Detectives find human bones in wooded area in Kent.
Aug. 30 and Sept. 2:
Sept. 28-29: Crews searching wooded area near Auburn find remains of Marie M. Malvar, 18, who disappeared April 30, 1983.
Nov. 5: Ridgway pleads guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
Dec. 18: Ridgway sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms without possibility of release and ordered to pay $480,000 in fines.
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