Police Have Finally Identified A Victim of “Green River Killer” Gary Ridgway (2024)

1949-present

Gary Ridgway Today: A Victim of the “Green River Killer” Has Been Newly Identified

For decades, officials in Washington state have held onto a set of human remains they believed were linked to serial killer Gary Ridgway. On December 19, the King County Sheriff’s Office announced it had identified the victim: Lori Anne Razpotnik, a 15-year-old who ran away from her home in nearby Lewis County in 1982 and was never seen again.

Officials discovered her remains in December 1985 while investigating a report of a car that had driven over an embankment in Auburn and named them “Bones 17” until they could be identified through DNA technology. In 2002, Ridgway directed investigators to the area, admitting he had placed two victims there. The Green River Killer is currently serving multiple life sentences at Washington State Penitentiary.

Razpotnik’s mother, Donna Hurley, told The New York Times she had repeatedly wondered if Ridgway played a role in her daughter’s disappearance but dismissed it. “It was easier to go on with life thinking that she was alive and well and raising a family and, you know, just being herself,” Hurley said.

Serial killer Gary Ridgway, originally from Utah, held a job painting trucks for 30 years and was married three times. He began murdering women in 1982 and was caught in 2001 when a DNA test had revealed a match. Ridgway has claimed he killed as many as 75 to 80 women along Route 99 in south King County, Washington. He eventually pleaded guilty to 49 counts of aggravated first-degree murder and has received multiple life sentences in prison, where he remains today.

FULL NAME: Gary Leon Ridgway
BORN: February 18, 1949
BIRTHPLACE: Salt Lake City, Utah
SPOUSES: Claudia Barrows (1970-1972), Marcia Brown (1973-1981), and Judith Lynch (1988-2002)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Gary Leon Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City. Raised near Seattle’s Pacific Highway, a deprived neighborhood near SeaTac airport, Ridgway was a poor student and was sent to Vietnam after high school. When he returned, he got a job painting trucks, which he kept for 30 years. Although he married three times and was fanatical about religion, Ridgway was a frequent customer of prostitutes.

Ridgway’s slayings began in 1982, when young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from state Route 99 in south King County, Washington. He brought many of them to his home and strangled them, then left them in woodsy, remote sites. The first few bodies turned up along the now-notorious Green River.

Dubbed the Green River Killer, Ridgway eluded the law until 2001, when King County sheriff Dave Reichert, the first officer assigned to the case in 1982, called a meeting to re-examine evidence using newly developed DNA-testing technology. The analysis produced a match between evidence from the victims and Ridgway, and he was charged with four counts of aggravated murder in December 2001. Ridgway eventually pleaded guilty to 49 counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

Facing the prospect of execution, Ridgway made a deal with investigators to revealed where he had hidden the bodies of several of the young women who had yet to be found while also agreeing to plead guilty to any future cases where his confession could be substantiated by evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison in December 2003, having committed more murders than any serial killer in American history. Ridgway is currently incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary.

An additional body was found in 2011, with Ridgway receiving another life sentence. In 2013, he claimed in a media interview that he had murdered 75 to 80 women, with speculation over Ridgway was telling the truth or seeking further attention.

In 2020, police identified 14-year-old Wendy Stephens as Ridgway’s youngest known victim. Stephens had run away from home in August 1983, and her remains were recovered from a swamp behind a baseball field the following year.

Three years later, in December 2023, the King County Sheriff’s Office in Washington announced it had identified another victim through DNA technology: Lori Anne Razpotnik, who ran away from home at age 15 in 1982 and was never seen again. Her remains were discovered in 1985 and became known as “Bones 17” during the investigation. Ridgway admitted in 2002 that he placed two of his victims in the area where Razpotnik was found.

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