Green River task force gets a new lease on life

By Janie McCauley

Associated Press

SEATTLE — More than 70 investigators continued combing through four residences and collecting other evidence on Sunday against Gary Leon Ridgway, being held in the slayings of four women in the Green River killings.

Meanwhile, a King County Sheriff’s spokesman said it was likely that a new task force would be convened on the slayings of 49 women from 1982-84 — long the nation’s worst unsolved serial killing case. At the height of the investigation in the mid-1980s, scores of investigators were assigned exclusively to the killings of young women, mostly runaways and prostitutes.

The houses and four victims tied to Ridgway "are our focus now, and when we wrap that up I think we’ll probably go to a task force," spokesman John Urquhart said.

But he declined to speculate on whether the bodies of several women discovered after the official 49 victims would be added to the Green River list, as some investigators have urged.

"It doesn’t matter," he said. "They’re still going to be investigated with the same enthusiasm and the same thoroughness. The fact that they’re on the list or not doesn’t change that fact at all."

Detective Tom Jensen, who was the lone investigator on the case after the King County task force was disbanded in the early 1990s, has said the killer’s actual death toll may be somewhere in the mid-50s or higher.

The skeletal remains of several women were discovered in the greater Seattle area into at least 1991, but none was classified as a Green River death. Jensen has blamed earlier departmental politics and said he hoped the cases would get a closer look.

Expanding the official list of 49 "probably would have made a difference back then from a political standpoint, because it was really a political decision by police commanders to disband the task force," Urquhart said. "As of right now, it doesn’t matter."

Ridgway, 52, of Auburn, was arrested Friday as he left his job at Kenworth Truck Co. in Renton, where he has worked as a truck painter since 1969.

Ridgway was being held without bail in the King County Jail for investigation in the deaths of four women — among 49 whose deaths or disappearances are attributed to the so-called Green River Killer. He waived his initial court appearance Saturday.

Prosecutors have until Wednesday to file charges.

Detectives on Sunday searched his home in Auburn, as well as previous residences.

Urquhart said investigators were not interviewing Ridgway on Sunday.

Investigators say DNA linked Ridgway to three of the victims — Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, and Carol Christensen. Chapman’s body was found in the Green River on Aug. 15, 1982; Mills’ was found the same day on a nearby river bank, and Christensen’s was found May 8, 1983 in Maple Valley.

Detectives say circumstantial evidence ties Ridgway to a fourth victim, Cynthia Hinds, whose body was found submerged in the Green River next to Chapman’s.

Advancements in DNA technology are credited for the break in the case. A saliva sample was taken from Ridgway, who has long been a suspect, under court order in 1987.

A public defender for Ridgway, Mark Prothero, declined to say on Sunday how he expected his client to plead. But Prothero noted that Ridgway has maintained his innocence for 18 years.

"We’re just in the early stages," said Prothero, who spoke by phone Sunday with two other potential defense attorneys. The full team had not been set.

He said specific defense strategies would emerge out of discussions with other attorneys and Ridgway.

"He has to get to know us, and we have to get to know him," he said. "When you’re meeting four attorneys the first 48 hours, it gets kind of difficult."

Public defenders planned to discuss the case in person for the first time today, a meeting postponed from Sunday, Prothero said.

The defense may be concerned about the time frame after Ridgway’s arrest, Prothero said. He was arrested at 3 p.m. and did not request an attorney until 4:30 p.m. A lawyer arrived to see him at 6 p.m.

Prothero said he did not know to what extent investigators questioned Ridgway in the 90 minutes before he requested a lawyer.

Two senior attorneys will be assigned to lead Ridgway’s defense, Prothero said. Neither had been assigned as of Sunday, but Prothero appears likely to be one of them. He has worked as a public defender since 1983 and his expertise is DNA evidence.

The deaths or disappearances of at least 49 women, from July 1982 until March 1984, are attributed to the Green River killer. Some investigators believe the number is a conservative estimate; they have expanded their investigation to include other unsolved homicides along the West Coast and into British Columbia.

The case was named for the south King County river where the bodies of the first victims were found. Most were strangled.

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

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