Consequently, the pair did not share a very close bond then. But this did not mean that they never spent time together. Matthew saw his father as a quiet man, who was frugal with his money and had a few friends. They would spend time together on the weekends driving to garage sales and swap meets so that Gary could buy items like broken watches, toys, and furniture just to fix them again. They also played baseball together and rode motorcycles.
He also had memories of them going to doughnut shops early in the morning. In fact, Gary had also served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and the two grew closer once Matthew enrolled as well. A confession that Gary made stated that for one of the murders, he had taken along his son in July Once again, science and determined investigative work advanced the case.
In exchange for the Prosecutor not seeking the death penalty, Ridgway agreed to plead guilty to all murders that he committed in King County. He agreed to provide complete, truthful and candid information concerning the crimes that he had committed in King County and answer all questions during interviews conducted by the detectives or the prosecuting attorney.
Ridgway agreed to disclose the existence and precise location of all undiscovered remains of victims. Over the next several months, detectives of the Green River Task Force interviewed Ridgway extensively. During each interview, members of the King County prosecution team and lawyers from the Ridgway defense team were present. The Task Force transported Ridgway throughout King County for the purpose of identifying the key locations where he disposed of victims' remains.
Ridgway directed investigators to numerous sites where he remembered placing a victim. Because of this investigative tactic, four sets of human remains were found and tied to three suspected victims.
On August 15, , Robert Ainsworth, 41, stepped into his rubber raft and began his descent south down the Green River toward the outer edge of Seattle's city limits. It was a trip he had made on many occasions, yet this time it would be different.
As he drifted slowly downstream, he noticed a middle-aged balding man standing by the riverbank and a second, younger man sitting in a nearby pickup truck. Ainsworth suspected that the men were out for a day's fishing. He asked the older man if he had caught anything.
The man replied that he had not. According to Smith and Guillen's book, The Search for the Green River Killer , the man standing then asked Ainsworth if he found anything, to which Ainsworth replied, "Just this old singletree.
Moments later he found himself surrounded by death. As he peered into the clear waters his gaze was met by staring eyes. A young black woman's face was floating just beneath the surface of the water, her body swaying beneath her with the current. Believing it might be a mannequin, Ainsworth attempted to snag the figure with a pole. Accidentally, the raft overturned as he tried to dislodge the figure from a rock and Ainsworth fell into the river. To his horror, he realized that the figure was not a mannequin, but a dead woman.
Seconds later he saw another floating corpse of a half nude black woman, partially submerged in the water. Quickly, Ainsworth swam toward the riverbank where the truck stood earlier.
In shock, he sat down and waited for help to arrive. Within a half hour, he noticed a man with two children on bicycles. He stopped them, told them of his gruesome discovery and asked them to get the police. Before long, a policeman arrived at the scene and questioned Ainsworth about his find. The officer disbelievingly walked into the shallow river and reached out toward the ghostly form.
The officer immediately called for backup. Soon after reinforcement arrived at the scene, detectives sealed off the area and began a search for evidence. During the search, a detective made another macabre discovery. He found a third body, that of a young girl who was partially clothed. Unlike the other two girls, this one was found in a grassy area less than 30 feet from where the other victims lay in the water.
It was obvious that she had died from asphyxiation. The girl had a pair of blue pants knotted around her neck. She also showed signs of a struggle, because she had bruises on her arms and legs. She was later identified as Opal Mills, It was believed that she had been murdered within 24 hours of her discovery. Following an examination of the bodies at the scene, Chief Medical Examiner Donald Reay determined that all three girls died of strangulation.
The two girls found in the water, later identified as Marcia Chapman, 31, and Cynthia Hinds, 17, were both found to have pyramid-shaped rocks lodged in their vaginal cavities. They were both held down by rocks in the water.
Reay further determined that Chapman, a mother of two who had gone missing two weeks earlier, had been dead for over a week. She had shown advanced signs of decomposition. However, Hinds was believed to have been in the river for a period of only several days. The three bodies were not the only ones to be found in and around Washington state's Green River. Several days earlier, the body of a woman named Deborah Bonner was discovered. Her nude body had been found slumped over a log in the Green River.
She too had been strangled to death. Just a month earlier, another young girl, identified as Wendy Lee Coffield, was found strangled and floating in the Green River. Moreover, six months prior to Coffield's discovery, the body of her friend Leanne Wilcox was found several miles from the river in an empty lot.
It was not believed that the Green River Killer murdered Wilcox, but the opinion of the investigators has been recently challenged. Within the space of six months, six bodies had been discovered in or near the river.
The police detectives at the scene quickly realized that there was a serial killer on the loose. They knew that they had to find and catch him as soon as possible before any more women disappeared. A special task force was assembled of King County detectives to investigate the Green River murders.
According to The Seattle Times, it was the largest police task force ever assembled since the Ted Bundy murders less than a decade earlier. They enlisted the help of FBI serial killer profiler John Douglas and criminal investigator Bob Keppel, who was known for his unique and successful approach of compiling evidence in the Ted Bundy case eight years earlier.
The investigation got off to a shaky start because a massive influx of information swamped the police force within a relatively short period of time. They simply did not have the means to process the ever-increasing amount of data and evidence and much of it was lost, misplaced or overlooked entirely.
In fact, the situation got so bad that at one point they enlisted the help of volunteers to assist the police in the ongoing investigation.
During their investigation, detectives learned that the many of the murdered girls knew each other and shared a similar history of prostitution. Investigators decided to begin their search for the killer in the area where the girls were known to frequent. They conducted hundreds of interviews with many prostitutes who worked the main strip in Seattle, stretching from South th Street to South nd Street.
Investigators tried to obtain information on any suspicious characters they might have encountered. However, many of the girls were reluctant to talk because of their blatant mistrust for the police. One of the prostitutes who worked the strip filed a report with police, stating that a man who raped her made reference to the Green River murders.
Soon after the report, the task force began to search for the assailant. On August 20, , the police announced that they had him in custody as a potential suspect in the Green River murders. However, they were unable to find any plausible evidence connecting him with the crime. He was eventually released and the search resumed for the killer. There were other prostitutes who filed reports with the police that were of special concern to the task force.
It was believed that the reports could be related to the Green River murders. Interviews taken by two separate prostitutes claimed that a man in a blue and white truck abducted them and attempted to kill them. According to one account by Susan Widmark, 21, a middle-aged man in a blue and white truck solicited her. Once Widmark was in his truck, he pointed a pistol to her head and sped off toward the highway. He took her to a desolate road, turned off the engine and proceeded to violently rape her.
Following the rape, he allowed her to dress while he began to drive away from the scene with her still in the car. While driving, he made reference to the recent river murders, while continuing to hold a gun to her head. Fearing for her life, she managed to escape from the vehicle while at a stoplight. Widmark was able to make out part of the registration number of the truck before the man sped away. A similar incident happened to Debra Estes, 15, who filed a report with police in late August , concerning a rape.
Estes told police that she was walking down the highway when a man in a blue and white pick-up truck approached her and offered her a ride. She accepted and climbed into the vehicle. To her amazement, the man pulled a pistol out and pointed it at her head. He violently forced her to give him oral sex before releasing her into the woods, handcuffed and driving off. She immediately fled the scene looking for help. Seeing an emerging pattern that could have been related to the Green River murders, the task force decided to follow the lead and search for the truck and driver.
They hoped that new information concerning the man would lead them to a break in the case. That September, a meat butcher named Charles Clinton Clark was pulled over in his blue and white truck while driving along Seattle's main strip. After a background check was conducted, it was learned that Clark owned two handguns. Investigators believed that Clark might be the man they were looking for.
They obtained his driver's license photo and showed it to both Widmark and Estes. Both women positively identified Clark as their attacker. Clark was arrested and his house and vehicle were searched. The police found the two handguns that were allegedly used in the assaults. After interrogation by police, Clark admitted to attacking the women. However, there was speculation as to whether he was the Green River Killer because he was known to release his victims following an attack.
Moreover, Clark had a solid alibi during the time many of the Green River victims disappeared. When Clark was being booked with the rape of Widmark and Estes, year-old Mary Bridgett Meehan disappeared during a walk. Meehan was more than eight months pregnant and went missing near the Western Six Motel. The motel was located on the strip and was a frequent hangout and workplace for many of the prostitutes that fell victim to the Green River Killer.
Based on a hunch, Detective Reichert began to suspect that one of the volunteer civilians working on the case might be the Green River Killer. A year-old out-of-work taxi driver became the focus of the investigation and was vigorously interviewed by the police. They were concerned because two weeks prior to Meehan's disappearance, two year-old girls, Kase Ann Lee and Terri Rene Milligan, mysteriously disappeared.
They too were thought to have had a history of prostitution. It was suspected that they had fallen victim to the Green River Killer. According to Douglas, the Green River Killer was a confident, yet impulsive middle-aged man who would most likely frequent the murder scenes, in order to reenact the crimes in his mind. The killer was probably familiar with the area and was likely to have deep religious convictions. Moreover, Douglas believed that he might have an active interest in police work, especially the investigation into the recent murders.
The killer might even contact the police in an effort to assist in the ongoing investigation. During most of the winter of , police heavily monitored the taxi driver's movements, although he continuously denied having anything to do with the Green River murders. The taxi driver eventually became the primary suspect in the killings. He was arrested for unpaid parking tickets, because investigators had no solid evidence connecting him to the murders, except that he knew five of the victims.
On September 26, , the decomposing remains of a year-old prostitute named Gisele A. Lovvorn were discovered. She had gone missing for more than two months before a biker found her nude body near abandoned houses south of the Sea-Tac International Airport.
She had been strangled to death by a pair of men's black socks. Intriguingly, at the time of her disappearance, she was blonde. Yet, when her body was discovered her hair was dyed black.
Although her body was not found in the direct vicinity of the now infamous river, police believed that she was a victim of the Green River Killer. Between September and April , approximately 14 girls disappeared. Most of the girls, ages ranging from between 15 and 23 years old, were known prostitutes who frequented the strip.
The Green River Task Force's attention was temporarily drawn to one possible suspect, allegedly involved in the disappearance of the last girl to go missing, Marie Malvar. On April 30, , Malvar's boyfriend saw her talking with a potential customer in a dark-colored truck as she was soliciting on the strip.
The boyfriend claimed that he saw Malvar get into the truck before it sped away. According to Smith and Guillen, Malvar's boyfriend stated that Malvar and the unknown man seemed to be engaged in an argument.
Suspicious of the driver of the truck, the boyfriend followed them. Before long, the truck with his girlfriend in it gave chase and eventually disappeared when the boyfriend was held up by a stoplight.
It was the last time he ever saw his girlfriend. He later notified the police of Malvar's disappearance. Less than a week after the incident, he, along with Malvar's father and brother, spotted the suspicious truck near the place where he initially lost sight of it days earlier.
They followed the truck to a house located on South th Street and called the police. The police eventually arrived at the house and spoke with the owner, Gary Ridgway, who denied having ever seen Malvar. Satisfied, the police left the residence and failed to pursue the matter any further.
A similar truck to that owned by Ridgway was also involved in the April disappearance of a young prostitute named Kimi Kai Pitsor.
While in the process of turning a trick, Pitsor's pimp saw her getting into a dark green pick-up truck with an attached camper. He described the driver of the vehicle as having a pockmarked face. He watched as the two drove off and he never saw Pitsor again. He later informed police, but the information concerning Pitsor's disappearance and Malvar's was never fully connected. By the spring of , the investigation into the Green River Killer and related murders was collapsing.
The task force detectives realized that the probability of the taxi driver being the killer was low, yet they continued to keep him as a prime suspect. They had no new leads and prostitutes continued to rapidly disappear throughout the city.
Inundated with an avalanche of tips, the task force was unable to keep up with the massive influx of information. They enlisted the help of Bob Keppel to help organize the mountain of information.
In late April, Keppel spent three weeks going through all the information available pertaining to the murders believed to have been attributed to the Green River Killer. Upon completion of his analysis, he compiled a report for the sheriff of King County, Vern Thomas. To the task force's dismay, the report was highly critical of the ongoing investigation. According to Keppel in his book, The Riverman , if the killer were to be found, many changes needed to be made.
The report compiled by Keppel stated that most of the data, including evidence, files and witness accounts connected with the crimes were in total disarray. The first thing that was needed was a complete reorganization and accurate categorization of all the data. Then, once that was completed, similarities and dissimilarities among the cases needed to be identified in order to find common threads possibly connecting the murders to one or more killers.
There was no doubt that a successful and thorough investigation would cost the county a lot more time and money than they previously expected. Already the investigation was the largest operation in the history of the country.
However, something needed to be done in an effort to stop the murderous rampages of the killer. On May 8, , another body was discovered that was later identified as Carol Ann Christensen, Her remains were found by a family hunting for mushrooms in a wooded area near Maple Valley. When Christensen's body was found, the killer displayed her corpse in an unusually gruesome way. Christensen was found with her head covered by a brown paper bag. When it was removed, it was found that she had a fish carefully placed on top of her neck.
Smith and Guillen state that the killer also placed another fish on her left breast and a bottle between her legs. Her hands were placed crossed over her stomach and freshly ground beef was placed on top of her left hand.
Further examination revealed that she was strangled with a cord. Intriguingly, she also showed signs of having been in water at some point, even though the river was miles away. The task force speculated that she was yet another victim of the Green River Killer. During the spring and summer of , nine more young women, many of whom were prostitutes, disappeared. A majority of the girls were placed on the ever-growing list of possible Green River Killer murders.
However, there were some who did not make the list because they were found outside of the parameters where the Green River Killer was known to dump many of the bodies. That summer, several more bodies were discovered. In June, the unidentified remains, which were believed to be of a 17 to year-old white woman was found on SW Tualatin Road.
One day later the remains of another body, which remained unidentified, was found at the Sea-Tac Airport North site. The fall and winter of would also yield as many disappearances and even more corpses. Between September and December of , nine more women went missing and seven bodies were discovered, all of whom were believed to have been abducted and murdered by the Green River Killer.
Those whose bodies were discovered included Delores Williams, 17, who had gone missing March 8, Her remains were discovered on September 18 at Star Lake. That same day, the remains of Gail Matthews, 23, were also discovered at Star Lake.
Over the next few months, the bodies of five more women were discovered. She was one of the few victims to have had a missing person's report filed on her. Twelve days later, the partially buried skeleton of Constance Naon was found in an area south of Sea-Tac Airport. The task force investigators believed that there were probably more bodies to be found in that area, so they decided to conduct a search with the assistance of a team of teenaged Explorer Boy Scouts.
On October 29, during a sweep of the empty lots surrounding the airport, one of the scouts found a skeleton covered with trash beneath some bushes. The remains were later identified as Kelly Ware, The killer's deadly rampage claimed two more victims whose bodies were discovered before the New Year.
On November 13, following an extensive search of several lots surrounding an area south of Sea-Tac near South nd Street, the badly decomposed remains of Mary Meehan and her unborn baby were found.
According to the Cold Serial Web site , Meehan and her child were the only victims attributed to the Green River Killer, who were fully buried. Several unexplainable items were found on or close to the body, including two small pieces of plastic, a large clump of hair near the pubic region of the body, a patch of skin attached to the skull, which contained fibers on it, three small bones, two halved yellow pencils and clear plastic tubing.
It seemed as if the killer found a new burial site to place his victims. It would be the fifth known "dumping ground" used for the disposal of the bodies. Two weeks following Pitsor's discovery, the Green River Task Force increased by more than half, due to the increasing number of murders in the area. It was feared many more murders would occur in the coming months. Their predictions would prove to be correct. Although the "official" count of Green River victims was estimated at this time to be 11 or 12, the number has been and continues to be challenged.
The precise number to this day remains unclear and it is believed to be much higher than initially estimated. Near the final months of , there were approximately 18 bodies discovered in the Seattle region. Many victims were not included on the list, even though they were killed in very nearly the same fashion as the other victims.
There was no explanation given as to why the women were excluded from the list. In January , the Green River Task Force came under new leadership headed by Captain Frank Adamson, who previously headed the police department's internal affairs unit.
During the first few months of Adamson's assignment, drastic changes took place. He first decided that it would be in the investigation's best interest to relocate the task force headquarters to the Burien County precinct, which was near the airport and closer to where the crimes were occurring. Following Keppel's advice, Adamson divided up various tasks and assigned them to individuals within the team.
It was believed that this method would facilitate a more thorough organization, integration and assemblage of the vast amounts of information and lead to more successful results in the case. Another team of similar construction was assigned to information pertaining to probable suspects.
Adamson then assigned three detectives to a newly-constructed crime analysis section, whose duties involved the follow-up of leads and analysis of possible trends and methodologies utilized by the killer, as well as other pertinent information relevant to the case.
Twenty-two police officers were also assigned to the task force's proactive squad, which developed new strategies to monitor prostitute activities on The Strip and any unusual events or dealings in the area. Moreover, a new strategy was imposed by Keppel that changed the investigators' focus from a suspect's possible guilt to the suspect's possible innocence.
The implication of this strategy allowed investigators to quickly eliminate people under suspicion who had alibis and instead concentrate on more probable suspects. The suspects that remained were prioritized according to their threat: those who were most closely linked to victims, fit the profile of the killer and his movements were put in category "A"; those who were less closely linked with the crimes were assigned to categories "B" or "C" before being eventually eliminated.
Just when it seemed as if the newly revised task force was better prepared to capture the Green River Killer, the inevitable occurred. On February 14, , the skeletal remains of a woman, who was later identified as Denise Louise Plager, were discovered 40 miles from the city close to interstate She was the first victim to be found that year, but not the last. Over the next two months approximately nine more bodies would be found. The other victims remained unidentified. Most of the girls had one primary thing in common, a history of prostitution.
Although it appeared as if the Green River Task Force was making few advances in the investigation, distinct patterns began to emerge that allowed the team to create a more accurate profile of the killer and his movements.
The killer seemed to have several dumping grounds where he would dispose of the bodies of his victims. With the exception of Meehan, the bodies that were discovered were found partially buried or covered with garbage or foliage.
Most of the bodies had been found off of isolated roads in or near illegal waste dumping areas. The FBI's profiler John Douglas concluded that the bodies were dumped in the areas because the killer thought of the women as "human garbage. During dumping grounds moved away from the river and concentrated mostly around the Sea-Tac Airport and Star Lake.
In , the victims' remains were concentrated in the areas of Mountain View Cemetery and North Bend off of or near to Interstate The victims were also disappearing from two primary areas, the strip and the downtown area of Seattle. The task force worked under the assumption that the killer worked or lived close to the area where he was disposing the bodies. The task force determined that the areas where the bodies were found, when plotted on a map, roughly formed a triangular shape.
It was believed that the killer might live somewhere within that triangle. An important discovery was also made in April when the skeletal remains of some of the victims were found.
Shoe impressions, possibly that of the killer, were revealed when investigators removed the brush that partially concealed the bodies. Upon examination of the prints, investigators learned that they were made by a size 10 or 11 man's walking shoe. It was a vital piece of evidence that could connect the killer with his victims.
In mid April, a volunteer task force worker and psychic, Barbara Kubik-Pattern, had a vision that another woman's body would be found close to Interstate Kubik-Pattern immediately contacted the police and told them about her vision, but became increasingly frustrated when they failed to act on the new information.
Taking matters into her own hand, she and her daughter set out to find the woman. Following the leads revealed by her vision, Kubik-Pattern and her daughter eventually came across another body.
Immediately after the discovery, the two women drove to a nearby search area that was patrolled by the police. When she informed one of the officers of her discovery, she was rebuffed and even threatened with arrest for obstruction of the guarded perimeter.
Angered, Kubik-Pattern informed reporters that were stationed nearby of her discovery. Finally, members of the task force approached her as she talked with the reporters and asked her to show them the body. Shortly thereafter the police were confronted with the gruesome discovery. The decomposing remains were that of Amina Agisheff, She was last seen on July 7, walking home from her work at a restaurant in downtown Seattle.
Agisheff did not fit the description of many of the other victims. She was older than the other victims and a waitress, not a prostitute.
Agisheff was also in a stable relationship at the time of her disappearance and was a mother of two. Although there were obvious differences between Agisheff's lifestyle and those of the other victims and the location of where her body was disposed, investigators believed that she was the victim of the Green River Killer.
Moreover, she was listed as one of the killer's first victims, even though several murders prior to her disappearance matched the M. On May 26, two children playing on Jovita Road in Pierce County were shocked when they discovered a skeleton.
The police and task force were immediately alerted to the new finding. Following a medical examination, it was discovered that the remains were that of fifteen-year-old runaway Colleen Brockman. Investigators still had no new leads to the identity of the killer, apart from the location of the bodies and the shoe print. After almost three years, the murderous killing spree continued. Following the discovery of Brockman, the rash of murders seemed to be diminishing. However, the desire to catch the killer remained a top priority for the task force.
In August investigators believed their big break in the case arrived when two criminals in a San Francisco jail confessed to the Green River murders. After extensive interviews with the two prisoners, the confessions were determined to be a hoax. Several months later, the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy offered from his prison cell on death row to assist Keppel and the task force in finding their man.
Bundy offered his old antagonist a rare glimpse into the mind of a serial killer, an offer that Keppel could not refuse. The two men conversed mostly via letters, where Keppel asked detailed questions that he hoped Bundy could answer. Much of the information that Keppel received greatly interested Keppel and the task force investigators. Bundy suggested that the killer knew his victims, probably even befriending them before he lured them to their deaths.
According to Keppel's book The Riverman, Bundy suggested that the killer likely disposed of even more bodies where they found the more recent ones. Moreover, he believed the disposal pattern of the bodies led closer to the killer's home. Bundy was able to give unusual insight from a killer's prospective, much of which was helpful to the case. The information received from Bundy assisted the detectives in their general understanding of serial killer behavior.
In fact, Bundy became one of the primary consultants, next to Douglas and Keppel that contributed to the build-up of the killer's profile. Despite this unusual advice, the task force remained stymied as to the identity of the Green River Killer. Although the murders seemed to have slowly diminished, they did not cease altogether. Both bodies were found off of Highway The total body count had climbed to 31, although only 28 of the victims actually made it on the ever-growing "official" Green River murder list.
Fourteen women were still believed to be missing. On March 10, , another partially buried body was found near Star Lake Road. The victim was eventually identified as Carrie Rois, He is known to be one of, if not the single, most prolific serial killer in the United States.
Go deeper into the life and mind of Gary Ridgway, one of the most unsettling serial killers in history. Gary Ridgway was born in and moved to King County, Washington at age 11 The highway near where he lived was known for a high population of sex workers, and highway was also the sight of many murders committed by Ridgway.
Gary Ridgway did not have a happy childhood. Like many serial killers, he was a frequent bed-wetter. This bed-wetting was often the reason for various forms of bizarre punishment from his mother, including freezing cold baths. He was frequently abused and humiliated by his mother, in verbal, physical, and sexual ways.
But rather than murder his mother, he ended up developing a sexual attraction for his mother. He felt that this attraction was uncontrollable. Sigmund Freud, who is most known for his writings on the Oedipal Complex, believed that young boys feel sexual attraction for their mothers as they feel anger toward their father.
This attraction ends when they learn to develop a respect for their father. He took the abuse from his controlling and violent life. He worked at a mortuary, and many believe that his influence was part of why Ridgway engaged in necrophilia. At school, Ridgway did not excel. He had dyslexia and an IQ in the low 80s. He was even held back, which continued to elevate the tension with his abusive mother. By the time he was a teenager, he started displaying other common behavior among serial killers: hurting animals and setting fires.
These two behaviors, along with bed-wetting, are known as the Macdonald triad, or the homicidal triad. Ironically enough, this triad was first proposed when Gary Ridgway was a teenager. Before graduating high school at age 20, Ridgway had stabbed a random boy on the street.
Around the same time, he sexually assaulted a girl at school. He was never arrested for these crimes. This was his first experience hiring a sex worker, a habit that would later define his infamy as a serial killer. His next wife was Marcia Lorene Brown. Together, the couple had a child - Matthew Ridgway. Ridgway and his wife had various sexual quirks and fetishes that reflect the ways that Ridgway committed murders against women.
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