Green River Murder Suspect Arrested

Police say they have linked Ridgway to the deaths of four women: Opal Charmaine Mills, 16; Cynthia Jean Hinds, 17; Marcia Faye Chapman, 31; and Carol Ann Christinsen, 21.

The bodies of Mills, Hinds and Chapman were all found in the Green River in August of 1982, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert said at a press conference late Friday afternoon. Christensen’s body was found in a wooded section of Maple Valley in May of 1983. Reichert said “certain facts” link Christensen’s death to the other three.

"I cannot say with certainty that Gary Ridgway is responsible for all of those deaths ... but boy, have we made one giant step forward," the sheriff said.

Ridgway was an early suspect in the case. He has been arrested twice on prostitution charges: once in May of 1982 and once in November of this year in the City of SeaTac. He either pled guilty or was found guilty in both cases, Reichert said.

Reichert was an officer with the Sheriff’s department in 1987 when when Ridgway’s SeaTac home was searched as part of the investigation. Ridgway had also been interviewed in 1984.

Reichert said that between 1984 and 1987, police did an extensive background investigation of Ridgway, but were unable to develop any evidence linking him to the crimes.
The first DNA test results linking Ridgway to the case came back two months ago, and authorities have had him under surveillance since then, Reichert said, as investigators continued trying to link him to other cases.

Reichert said investigators would be examining the possibility Ridgway was involved in other killings of women in the region.

"We have a number of unsolved female homicides in Western Washington and up into Vancouver, British Columbia," he said.

Ridgway is married and has an adult son. His DNA was linked to three of the four victims named Friday after modern DNA analysis was performed on a piece of gauze that Ridgway was asked to chew on when he first became a suspect.

“I always felt that Gary Ridgway was one of the top five suspects,” Reichert said.


Named for the river near Seattle where his early victims were found, the killer is believed to be responsible for the murder by strangulation of 49 people between 1982 and 1984.


Most were believed to be prostitutes, all from the Northwest.
Not all of the bodies have been recovered. Seven women thought to be victims of the Green River Killer have still not been found

And some of the victims are still turning up

Investigators two years ago identified the remains of Tracy Ann Winston, long believe to be another victim, 16 years after her initial disappearance. Winston was 19 when she vanished.

Like almost all the other victims, her body had been reduced to skeletal remains by the time it was found. in a park near the Green River.

She had been missing for three years.

In the immediate aftermath of the killings, the team investigating swelled to as many as 50 local police detectives and FBI investigators.

They considered 20,000 possible suspects, searched several homes and have even zeroed in on some suspects who turned out to be not connected to the case.

After millions were spent on the case, all police had was a series composite drawings, any one of which could have been the killer and that he might have driven a primer paint-spotted pickup.

An FBI profiler suggested the killer was probably a white man in his 30s or 40s who had issues with women and spent a lot of time in the woods.

While authorities have questioned other suspects and made at least one arrest, in 1982, no one has ever been charged in the slayings.

No decision on charges against Ridgway will be made until early next week, said spokesman Dan Donohoe in the King County prosecutor's office.

Ridgway could have an initial court appearance Saturday in the King County Jail, Donohoe said.

KING5.com reporter Liza Javier and the Associated Press contributed to this report.