Ridgway reportedly admits killing as recently as 1998

By Steve Miletich
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Gary Ridgway is to appear in court next week.
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In a deal that would spare his life, Gary L. Ridgway plans to plead guilty next week to more than 40 murders in the Green River serial-killings case, including two slayings that occurred in 1990 and 1998 and had not been attributed to the Green River serial killer, according to a source close to the investigation.

The additional killings represent a stunning development in a case that had been officially limited to a series of 49 deaths between July 1982 and February 1984.

One of the new victims is a woman whose death was previously deemed accidental.

Ridgway, 54, a truck painter from Auburn, was arrested in November 2001 based on DNA evidence. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in seven of the Green River slayings. He faced the death penalty if convicted in those cases.

But under the plea deal, he would admit to more than 40 killings and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release, the source said.

Tony Savage, one of Ridgway's defense attorneys, said yesterday he cannot talk about a plea deal.

He said he expects Ridgway to appear in court at a regularly scheduled status conference on Wednesday.

As part of the negotiations, Ridgway has told investigators that some of the 49 deaths attributed to the Green River killer were not committed by him, the source said, without providing a specific number.

But Ridgway provided details on the deaths of two women who weren't on the official list of Green River victims, the source said, identifying them as Patricia Ann Yellow Robe, 38, of Seattle, who was found dead on Aug. 6, 1998, and Marta Reeves, 36, who was killed in 1990.

Yellow Robe's death was listed as an accidental poisoning by drugs on her state death certificate. Her occupation was listed as nursing aide.

Reeves disappeared in spring 1990. Her body was found Sept. 20, 1990, eight miles east of Enumclaw off Highway 410. She was believed to have disappeared from Seattle, where she had been arrested twice for prostitution.

Many Green River victims were prostitutes who worked along Pacific Highway South in South King County. Others were runaways.

Although she was not on the official list, Reeves was listed on a database compiled by The Seattle Times as a possible Green River victim in light of the circumstances of her death.

Reeves' skeletal remains were found in a marshy area near where remains of three other Green River victims were found in 1983. Reeves was separated from her husband and four daughters and was working the streets when she disappeared.

At the time, police said the Reeves case was similar to those of Green River victims, but her death fell outside the window of time the killer was most active. Reeves' daughters believed then that window should have been expanded.

After Ridgway's arrest in 2001, one of Reeves' daughters, Nicole Reeves, called the Green River Task Force. At the time, Nicole Reeves said she was 75 percent sure the Green River killer killed her mother, but she didn't discount the possibility that copycats were responsible for some of the unsolved deaths.

Investigators notified relatives of Yellow Robe and Reeves in the past few days of Ridgway's admissions, the source said.

Yellow Robe's body was found in the parking lot of a Boulevard Park wrecking yard, at South 96th Street and Des Moines Memorial Drive South. Her last known address was Box Elder, Mont.

There were no obvious injuries to her fully-dressed body, and investigators with the King County Medical Examiner's Office yesterday said records show she died of a drug-and-alcohol overdose. They called Yellow Robe's death an accident.

James Apa, spokesman for Public Health-Seattle & King County, would not comment on Yellow Robe's case but said, "If new significant evidence were to come to light for any case, we would review it and re-evaluate the cause and manner of death."

Since summer, Green River Task Force members and volunteers have meticulously searched about two dozen locations and uncovered four sets of bones.

Three sets have been identified as women on the original list of 49 Green River slaying victims: Pammy Avent, April Dawn Buttram and Marie Molina Malvar. The other set has not been identified.

Ridgway began cooperating with investigators several months ago, providing them with details on the Green River killings and helping to locate bodies of women, sources said.

Although King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng had said he would not plea-bargain in Ridgway's case given the severity of the charges, he altered his view when presented the chance to close some of the Green River killings and to provide answers to families of victims, the source said.

Maleng's decision was not based on the multimillion dollar cost associated with the prosecution or problems with evidence, the source said.

The cost of prosecuting and defending Ridgway has reached millions of dollars and promised to go higher as both sides pored over hundreds of thousands of documents gathered during the 20 years of investigating by police.

Closing Ridgway's case would avoid a lengthy trial and years of appeals that could leave many questions about the Green River case unanswered, the source said.

A plea deal would have to be approved by King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones, who is overseeing the case.

Seattle Times reporters Michael Ko, Rachel Tuinstra and Duff Wilson contributed to this report.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com

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