Green River suspect arrested

By Gene Johnson

Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE — A 52-year-old man was arrested Friday for investigation in four of the Green River killings, the nation’s worst unsolved serial murder case.

The killing spree claimed at least 49 women in the early 1980s.

Gary Leon Ridgway, who lives in suburban Auburn, was arrested for investigation of homicide as he left his job at a Renton truck company, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert said.

DNA tests on a 1987 sample of Ridgway’s saliva matched DNA found on three of the 49 victims, Reichert said, and the sheriff’s office has other evidence linking him to a fourth victim. He declined to elaborate.

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"I always felt that Gary Ridgway was one of the top five suspects," said Reichert, who served on the Green River Task Force. "There was always a top five, and Gary Ridgway was always one of those, right up in front."

Word of the arrest had Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart hopeful that some killings in his community may be closed as well. Bart, who served for most of the 1980s as a homicide detective, said his investigators will look for potential links to the King County suspect.

"If they have DNA, you can bet we will be dragging those cases out and trying to find if we have something to compare with," he said.

None of the victims of the Green River killer disappeared from Snohomish County streets, but local investigators believe one or more serial killers has been active here over the years.

In 1991, sheriff’s detectives took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging that several unsolved murders here since 1983 might be the work of serial killers. Most involved victims who were dumped along the U.S. 2 corridor between Monroe and Index. Some were women from King County who had been arrested for prostitution.

The review came after the dismembered remains of a man and woman were found in the same illegal garbage dump along High Bridge Road south of Monroe.

Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said homicide detectives will be looking at information King County investigators have on the suspect to determine where he may have been when local unsolved killings occurred.

The case was named for the south King County river where the bodies of the first victims were found in 1982. The killer was blamed for the deaths of women in the Seattle area and Portland, Ore.; most of them were strangled.

"I cannot say with certainty that Gary Ridgway is responsible for all of those deaths … but boy, have we made one giant step forward," Reichert said.

The sheriff said Ridgway was being investigated in the deaths of Opal Mills, Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, whose bodies were found in the river on Aug. 15, 1982, and Carol Christensen, found on May 8, 1983, in woods in nearby Maple Valley.

Authorities began trying to contact relatives of the other victims on Friday.

"We’re just glad that after 17 years they caught him," Robert Christensen, Carol’s brother-in-law, said as he broke down during a telephone interview with KOMO-TV. "We miss her."

The break in the case came when forensic scientists were able to link Ridgway’s DNA to Mills, Chapman and Hinds, the sheriff said.

In past years, DNA tests had proved inconclusive, said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

"At that point we just sat back and hoped the technology would get better, and it has," he said.

In March, the department decided to test the saliva. The successful results came back two months ago, and detectives put Ridgway under surveillance. They are investigating potential connections to additional Green River and other unsolved killings.

Reichert said investigators would be examining the possibility that Ridgway was involved in other killings of women in the region.

"We have a number of unsolved female homicides in Western Washington and up into Vancouver, British Columbia," he said.

Ridgway was first interviewed in the case in 1984, and a saliva sample was obtained by court order in 1987. He was the subject of intensive background investigation during that period.

Ridgway had been arrested twice in the past 19 years, Reichert said — in 1982 for approaching a police decoy during a prostitution sting and earlier this month, when he was arrested for loitering for the purpose of prostitution. He was found guilty or pleaded guilty in both cases, Reichert said.

The deaths of the victims — mainly young prostitutes and runaways taken from a red-light district south of Seattle — were attributed to the Green River killer from 1982 through 1984.

While authorities have questioned other suspects and made at least one arrest, in 1982, no one has ever been charged in the slayings.

No decision on charges against Ridgway will be made until early next week, said spokesman Dan Donohoe in the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Ridgway could have an initial court appearance today in the King County Jail, Donohoe said.

Herald writer Scott North contributed to this report.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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