Murder suspect’s neighbors stunned by arrest

By Mia Penta

Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE — Gary Leon Ridgway was married, raised a son and held down a job with the same company for 32 years. But for nearly two decades, he was also a prime suspect in the killings of almost 50 women.

Neighbors were stunned Friday to learn that Ridgway, whom they described as a pleasant man, was arrested for investigation of homicide in the deaths of four women, all believed to be slain by the Green River killer.

King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, who was on the initial task force investigating the Green River deaths in the 1980s, said Ridgway had been one of his top five suspects from the beginning.

Although police questioned Ridgway several times over the years and searched his home in 1987, there was never enough evidence to arrest him until now, Reichert said.

Ridgway was arrested at 3 p.m. in Renton as he was leaving his job at the Kenworth Truck Co., a subsidiary of Bellevue-based Paccar, the world’s No. 3 truck maker.

His home, in a middle-class neighborhood in Auburn about 20 miles south of Seattle, was surrounded by yellow police tape Friday night. Calls made to his home were not answered.

Neighbors described Ridgway as a man who lived with his wife and worked in his yard on weekends. Ridgway also has a grown son, police said.

"I would have never thought he was capable of this," neighbor Jered Mattoon told KOMO-TV.

Ridgway had been identified as a suspect as early as 1984, two years after the first victim was found. He had been questioned by police several times. Reichert said investigators were never able to tie him to the killings with anything but circumstantial evidence.

But during a 1987 interview with investigators, Ridgway complied with a request to chew on a piece of gauze. Police hoped the saliva sample would give them enough evidence to do a blood match.

The Green River killer was seen by witnesses driving a primer-spotted pickup truck with a canopy. Mattoon said he remembered that Ridgway drove a white and brown truck with a camper, where his son sometimes slept.

Ridgway also had been twice arrested on prostitution charges. In May 1982, he was arrested after soliciting prostitution from an undercover officer. Just two weeks ago, on Nov. 16, he was charged with loitering for the purpose of soliciting prostitution, Reichert said. He pleaded guilty in the most recent case and was also convicted in the earlier case, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said.