Public's assistance sought in Green River ID

When Green River killer Gary L. Ridgway was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for the murders of 48 Seattle-area women, four of his victims were identified only as "Jane Doe."

Yesterday, more than 1-½ years later, investigators made a plea to the public to help identify the four victims, known only as bones 10, 16, 17 and 20. They are asking individuals who may know about people who went missing in King County in the 1970s and 1980s to contact them.

"After a year and a half of investigation, we're no closer to identifying these bones than when we started," said Tom Jensen, veteran Green River investigator with the King County Sheriff's Major Crimes Unit. "We're just drawing a blank. We've done I don't know how many DNA tests and nobody is matching these bones. We're grasping at straws here."

To reinvigorate their case, investigators returned to the site where the remains of the victim known as "Bones 20" were found and recovered an additional vertebra early last month near Kent-Des Moines Road just east of Military Road South near Kent. But that find hasn't brought them any closer to naming the victim, Jensen said.

In that case, establishing a name and date of death to a victim could help investigators link Ridgway to additional murders beyond the 48 killings for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ridgway pleaded guilty to slaying 48 women and girls, many of whom were prostitutes, dating to 1982. But Ridgway once said he killed as many as 71 women, according to transcripts of interviews between the serial killer and investigators released last year.

However, in the case of "Bones 20," investigators say they believe that the woman's remains could be as much as 30 years old, making this Ridgway's first-known victim and putting her slaying outside the time frame that Ridgway gave for his killing spree, said Jensen. Forensic anthropologists estimate that she was between 16 and 26 years old when she died.

However, investigators cannot be certain of the date of her death — she may have been killed as late as 1993 or as early as 1973, said Jensen.

If Ridgway had begun killing in the '70s rather than in 1982, there are other remains from that time period to which he could be tied, said Jensen. Furthermore, he added, it brings into question the legitimacy of what he told investigators over six months of interrogation.

If police could build a case around new victims, Ridgway could be tried for additional murders, said John Urquhart, King County sheriff's spokesman.

Investigators are hoping someone will rereport a missing person that will lead to a DNA match between the four unidentified Green River remains, said Jensen.

"We want to hear from the former boyfriend, former girlfriend, the friend, the next-door neighbor or the lady down the street who is a busybody and knows everybody. ... Anybody who knew of a person that turned up missing," he said.

Even if a person had been reported missing, it's possible that those records have been purged, especially if that missing person was a teen runaway, said Jensen. When the missing teen turned 18, the record was erased because that person was an adult.

Other missing persons' records were simply erased after six or seven years of inactivity, Jensen said.

People with information about missing people that might be beneficial to the Green River investigation should call 206-296-7575.

Brian Alexander: 206-464-2349 or balexander@seattletimes.com