Gary Leon Ridgway, 52, a longtime resident of the area, was arrested on November 30, 2001. County Executive Tim Hill disbanded the Green River Task Force in 1989, but the case remains open. It was subsequently presumed that the killer had left King County. The last victim, Cindy Smith, was found in March 1984.
Until the arrest of Ridgway, formal charges were never brought against any suspect despite the expenditure of $15 million and tens of thousands of staff hours, the assistance of famed profiler Bob Keppel and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and tips from psychics and citizens. The list of suspected Green River victims rose to 49 over the next two years.
As new victims turned up in or near the Green River, King County Executive Randy Revelle and new Sheriff Vernon Thomas organized a special Green River Task Force, first directed by Frank Adamson.
THE GREEN RIVER KILLER VICTIMS SERIAL
In consultation with other police departments, they linked the Bonner killing with the earlier unsolved murders of Wendy Coffield and Leann Wilcox, and reached the conclusion that a serial killer might be stalking street prostitutes in the south King County area. King County Police Major Bob Kraske and Detective David Reichert (later elected County Sheriff) led the initial investigation of Bonner's murder. This essay contains a list of the women killed. After a years-long, frustrating investigation, on November 30, 2001, police will arrest suspect Gary Leon Ridgway, whose DNA is associated with the bodies of four of the victims. Over the next two years, a total of 49 victims, mostly young prostitutes and dancers known to frequent the Highway 99/Pacific Avenue South "strip" near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, will be attributed to the same killer.
As more bodies are discovered in or near the Green River over the next few days, police conclude that a serial murderer - dubbed the Green River Killer - is on the loose. Police quickly link her death to those of earlier victims, Wendy Coffield, 16, and Leann Wilcox, both known prostitutes. The remains are later identified as those of Debra Lynn Bonner, age 23, a convicted prostitute who had disappeared on July 25. On August 12, 1982, Frank Linard discovers the body of a young woman floating in the Green River, yards from the Kent slaughterhouse where he worked.
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