Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 9-12) (9/21/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 9-12) (9/21/26) · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to continue on, continuing on, with
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the evidence against Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. 1.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Terry Milligan Terry Milligan disappeared on August 29, 1982. Terry
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: was last seen at approximately 6 p.m. She, like victims
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Denise Bush, who Ridgway murdered less than six weeks later,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and Martina, authority, was living at the Moonrise Motel. at
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: PHS and 144th, and working as a prostitute on PHS.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: She was 16. Ridgeway did not work that day, which
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: was Sunday. He was two hours late to work the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: following morning. On April 1st, 1984, Terry's skeletal remains were
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: discovered near the northern, downhill end of Star Lake Road,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: shortly after the discovery nearby of the remains of Dolores Williams.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: A striped blouse with buttons was still around the neck
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and upper arms. The blouse matched the description of the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: one that Terry was wearing when she was last seen.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Both hips were flexed at nearly a 90-degree angle, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: both knees were bent inwards at approximately the same angle.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: This unusual position led investigators to conclude that her killer
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: deliberately posed the body. In 2003, Ridgway provided investigators with
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a detailed account of murdering Terry Milligan and dumping her body. Typically,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: he did not recall her by name or appearance. He
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: knew he killed her in 1982 and thought it was
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: August or September of that year. Ridgway correctly recalled Terry's
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: race and that she was his first victim after Opal Mills. Moreover,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: he correctly recalled that when he killed Mary Meehan two
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: weeks later, he had already placed one body at Star Lake.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said that he killed Terry where he had killed
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and left Giselle LaVorn during the previous month. Ridgway was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in the area that night aboard a Seattle police officer
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: contacted him some eight blocks from where Luverne's body was discovered.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: He said that two boys had seen him in the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: area during his date with Terry, so he decided that
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he had to dump her body elsewhere. He identified the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: area along Star Lake Road where he dumped Terry's body.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Ridgway correctly recalled that she was the first victim dumped
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: at the Star Lake site. He also correctly recalled that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of all the victims he subsequently dumped there, her body
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: was the closest to the bottom of the hill As
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the road ascends, Ridgway said that he recalled leaving a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: blouse with buttons on one of his early victims and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: guessed that she was the first woman he left at
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Star Lake. When he was shown a photograph of the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: blouse found with Terry's remains, he said that he recognized it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: He said he didn't bother to take the blouse off
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the body and suggested that he did not because he
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: was in a hurry to leave the area where he
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: killed her because he was seen there earlier with her.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said he returned the following day to the place
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: where he dumped Terry and had sexual intercourse with her body.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: He said that the body had developed rigor mortis and
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that he had to pry her legs apart. When he
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: was shown a photograph of Terry's skeletal remains, with the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: hips spread wide and the knees completely bent, he said
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that he was sure that he left her in that position. 2.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Alma Smith On March 3rd, 1983, at approximately 9 p.m.,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Alma Smith disappeared from the street outside the Red Lion
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Inn at 188th and PHS. Two other victims, Dolores Williams
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and Constance Neon, disappeared from this location. Alma was working
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: as a prostitute at that location with her roommate, who
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was her closest friend. Her roommate turned the trick. When
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: she returned some 40 minutes later, Alma had disappeared. A
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: bystander had told her that her roommate, Alma, had left
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: with a man, meaning Ridgway's description, in a blue pickup truck.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: While the roommate remained outside the Red Lion Inn, waiting
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: for Alma to return, a man parked a blue pickup
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: truck in the hotel parking lot. He got out and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: tried to persuade her to date him. He asked her
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: about her blonde girlfriend. Alma was blonde. Her roommate was
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: already anxious about Alma's disappearance, and the man spooked her.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: She refused to date him, and he drove off. On
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: that day, Ridgway got off work at 3.20 p.m., His
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: home was less than three miles from where Alma was
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: last seen. In 1986, this roommate was shown photographic lineup
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and picked a photo of Gary Ridgway as the person
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: who looked like the man who tried to pick her
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: up the night that Smith disappeared from PHS. Her identification
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: was tentative. She said she thought the man had longer
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: hair and thinner lips. In early 1987, she identified, not positive,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a photo of Ridgway's pickup truck as the one driven
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: by the man she saw on the night of Amma's disappearance.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway did not own a blue pickup truck at the time. However,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: his brother, who lived nearby, owned a 1969 one-half-ton Dodge
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: pickup that was painted turquoise. Gary's girlfriend during this time
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: confirmed that Ridgeway would use his brother's truck. In 2003,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway admitted that he'd borrowed the truck and took at
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: least one of his victims to Star Lake in that vehicle.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Another woman claimed that she knew one of Alma's regular
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: tricks and said she dated him at his residence with Alma.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: She said the trick lived east off of PHS. Ridgway
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: lived east off of PHS at 216th and Military Road
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: at the time and drove a red pickup with a
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: white canopy. Ridgway drove a maroon pickup with a white canopy.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: In 1986, the woman picked Ridgway's photograph out of a
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: trick book shown to her by a detective. She said
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the photo resembled Smith's regular trick. Smith's remains, a scattered skeleton,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: were discovered on April 2, 1984, in the woods along
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Star Lake Road. The remains were approximately 50 yards off
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the road, 200 yards southwest of Gail Matthews' dump site,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and 200 yards northeast of the site where the remains
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: of Sandra Gabbert were discovered. In 2003, Ridgway told detectives
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that he remembered the night that he killed Alma Smith
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and dumped her at Star Lake. Ridgway recalls these events,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: he said, because that was the night when he tried
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to kill two consecutive women. Ridgway said he picked up
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a woman one night near the bus stop at the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: corner of 188th and PHS. This is the location of
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the Red Lion Inn where Alma was last seen. He
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: said he took the woman to his house, killed her,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and dumped her at Star Lake. Ridgway said the killing
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: of Alma went smoothly. He recalled that he did not
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: become incontinent when he strangled her, which meant that he
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: did not have to put his bedding in the washing
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: machine before leaving to dump the body. He said it
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: only took him an hour or so to pick Alma up,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: take her to his house, kill her, dump the body,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and return. Ridgway correctly recalled that he had already dumped
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: at least one victim of the Star Lake site before
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: he left Alma there. He incorrectly believed that he had
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: dumped Alma just uphill from Milligan. He placed Dolores Williams,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the third victim, there. Ridgeway said that things went so
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: smoothly that he decided to kill another woman that same night.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: According to Ridgeway, as soon as he dumped Alma's body,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: he returned to the same place where he had picked
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: her up and parked in the lot by the Red
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Lion Inn. He said he approached another woman, he tried
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to date her, she refused and he told investigators he
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was unable to find a second victim that night. A
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: psychiatrist asked Ridgeway whether there were times when his urge
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to kill overcame his customary caution. Ridgeway said that this
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: had happened on a night When he tried to kill
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: two women, he told the psychologist that he picked up
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a woman, killed her, dumped her body, and then returned
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to the same spot where he picked her up and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: tried to date another woman. This was a mistake because
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: he said a witness at that spot had seen the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: first woman get into his truck. 3. Dolores Williams Dolores
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Williams was the third victim that Ridgway dumped along Star
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Lake Road. She was 17 years old when Ridgway murdered her.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Dolores disappeared sometime between March 8th and March 17, 1983,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: within two weeks after Ridgway killed Alma Smith and dumped
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: her body at the Star Lake site. The exact date
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: of Dolores Williams' murder is not known, but roommates with
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: whom she was sharing an apartment on PHS at the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: time recall the night she disappeared. Just like Alma Smith,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the woman who preceded her to the Star Lake dump site,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Dolores vanished while working as a prostitute near the bus
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: stop outside the Red Lion at 188th and Highway 99.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: There were no witnesses. Ridgway was in King County working
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the day shift at Kenworth during the week or so
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in which Williams disappeared. On March 31, 1984, Dolores' skeletal
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: remains were discovered near the Star Lake Road. It appeared
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to investigators that Dolores' body, like many of the Green
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: River victims at the Star Lake dump site and elsewhere,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: had been covered with branches and debris. No clothing was
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: found with the body. A rock was found in the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: area of the pelvis. In the fall of 2003, Microtrace,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a nationally renowned private forensic laboratory, reported that even after
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: multiple analysis, paint fragments recovered with Dolores' remains are indistinguishable
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: from paint recovered with the remains of Cheryl Wims, disappeared
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: May 3, 1983, found at North Airport dump site, and
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Tina Thompson, disappeared July of 1983, found at Highway 18.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Ridgway claimed he had no specific recollection of Dolores Williams.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: He knew that her body was the second or third
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: body that he left at Star Lake. He guessed incorrectly
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that she was white. He knew that he had dumped
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: her at Star Lake before he dumped the lady by
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the log. Sandra Gabbert. 4. Gail Matthews On April 10th, 1983,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: one month after Ridgway murdered Dolores Williams and dumped her
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: body at Star Lake, Gail Matthews disappeared. Like the woman
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: whose body preceded and followed hers to the Star Lake
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: dump sites, Gail was working as a prostitute on PHS.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: She was the oldest of the Star Lake victims. Gail
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was 23. Gail's boyfriend last saw her at approximately 6 p.m.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: on April 10, 1983. That was a Sunday Ridgeway did
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: not work that day. When her boyfriend saw Gail, he
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: was walking along PHS, and she was sitting in the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: passenger seat of a pickup truck on that street. The
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: truck in the southbound lane of PHS was stopped at
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the traffic light at the intersection of PHS and South
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: 216th Street. The driver of the pickup was a man.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Gail's boyfriend watched as the light changed and the pickup
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: truck turned left east onto South 216th. He waved at
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Gail trying to get her attention, but she did not
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: appear to notice him. He never saw her again. At
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the time, Ridgeway lived one block south of 216th on
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Military Road. Military Road is east of PHS. Ridgeway lived
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a little more than half a mile from the intersection
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: where Gale was last seen in the pickup truck. South
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: 216th is the most direct route to Ridgeway's house from
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: that section of PHS. Gale's boyfriend said the driver of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the pickup truck was a white man. He said the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: man had blondish, curly-ish hair. This description and composite drawing
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: he subsequently created does not particularly resemble Ridgeway. Gale's boyfriend
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: variously described the color of the pickup truck, in which
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: he last saw her, as pastel green, greenish, and blue.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: He said it had a canopy. While Ridgeway did not
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: own a blue pickup truck at the time, his brother,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: who lived nearby, owned a turquoise pickup. In 2003, Ridgeway
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: told investigators that he used his brother's truck to take
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: at least one of his victims to Star Lake. Indeed,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a color sample selected by Gale's boyfriend in 1984 closely
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: matches the color of Ridgway's brother's pickup truck at the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: time of Gale's disappearance. After Gale disappeared, Ridgway painted his
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: brother's truck a different color. Gale's mostly skeletonized remains were
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: discovered near Star Lake on September 19, 1983. In 2003,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Ridgway told detectives that he did not recognize Gale Matthews
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: from a photograph. He recalled the time when, Contrary to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: his usual careful practice, he killed a prostitute even though
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a witness had seen him with her shortly before. He
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: described picking a woman up on PHS, taking her home,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and killing her. He remembered that en route to his house,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: as he waited to turn left on South 216th, a
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: man standing on the street saw the woman in his
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: truck and waved at her. Ridgway said the woman did
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: not notice, but it appeared that the man knew her.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said he took the woman to his house, murdered her,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and took her body somewhere in the pickup truck and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: dumped it. He said he could not recall where he
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: dumped the body. However, he later discussed the Star Lake
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: site with the detectives. Ridgway said that one of the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: women he dumped might have been the one who had
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: been seen in his truck at PHS and South 216th.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to wrap up this episode right here. And
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: in the next episode, we're going to pick up with
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: number five, Sandra Gabbert. All of the information that goes
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: this episode, we're getting back to the evidence against Gary Ridgway,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the Green River Killer. Five, Sandra Gabbard. Sandra Gabbard disappeared
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: on Sunday, April 17th, 1983, one week after Gail Matthews.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Like Gail, Sandra was working as a prostitute along PHS.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Like Amma Smith and Dolores Williams, who were killed and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: dumped at Star Lake before her, Sandra regularly worked at
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the bus stop outside the Red Lion Inn at 188
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and PHS. At the time of her death, Sandra and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend Pimp were living in a motel on PHS.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: That day, she returned to the motel room in the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: early evening and gave him $ 70 that she had earned.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: She said she was going back out to catch two
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: more dates at the covered bus stop nearby. He last
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: saw her at the 7-Eleven store at 142nd and PHS.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: This is also where, according to both Ridgeway and the witness,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway met Denise Bush before killing her. He never saw
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: her again. That night when Ridgeway murdered her, Sandra was
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: 17 years old. Sandra's body was discovered on April 1, 1984,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in the woods just 100 feet below Star Lake Road.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: The body was lying on a steep hillside in a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: small depression between a large log and the uphill side
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: of the slope. The body had been covered with brush
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and branches. Joel Harden, an expert tracker, analyzed the scene.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: After carefully examining the area around Sandra's body, Harden reported
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: in 1984 that the body had been concealed by one
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: man who made repeated, calm, and organized trips from the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: body to a brush pile and back. According to Harden,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the man made no wasted movements and showed no signs
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of panic. A man who regularly jogged along Star Lake
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Road reported in 1984 that one morning in the spring
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of 1983, He ran past a pickup truck parked along
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the road just as the man stepped out from behind
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the truck into his path. His description of the man
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: he saw by the pickup truck was generic. His description
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of the pickup truck is remarkably consistent with Ridgway's brother's truck.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: As with virtually all of his victims, Ridgway said he
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: did not recognize Sandra Gabbard from a photograph. However, when
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Ridgway was taken to the Star Lake site in 2003...
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: he remembered dumping a woman where Sandra's remains were recovered.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: He recalled rolling the body down the hill and said
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that it came to rest against a large log. He
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: said that he camouflaged the body by covering it with brush,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: yard waste, that someone had thrown down the slope. He
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: said he made several trips from the brush pile to
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the body and back. He also said he did this
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: during the daytime. All these facts are consistent with deductions
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Harden made at the scene 20 years earlier. Ridgway also
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: correctly recalled that the woman he placed by the log
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was the next to the last woman he dumped at
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Star Lake site. Moreover, he recalled that he placed her
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: by the log before he killed Kimmy Kai Pitzer, whom
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: he killed within a day of Sandra, and that during
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that same time he was also using the Mountain View
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Cemetery dump site. Ridgway was asked if he recalled a
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: jogger who might have encountered him returning to his truck
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: along Star Lake Road. He said that there might have
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: been such a man, but that it did not faze
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: him because he had already dumped the body by that time. 6.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Carrie Royce The last known victim, left near Starlake Road,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Carrie Royce, disappeared sometime between May 31st and June 15th, 1983.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: The circumstances of her disappearance are not known. Earlier that year,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: she had been arrested for prostitution on PHS outside a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: motel at South 144th. According to a friend of hers,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Carrie frequented the two-block area between South 144th and South
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: 142nd on PHS. This area includes the 7-Eleven, where according
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to both a witness and Ridgway, he met Denise Bush
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: before he murdered her. It's the location of the sheltered
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: bus stop where Sandra Gabbert was working when Ridgway killed
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: her and dumped her body at the Star Lake site
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: less than two months before he did the same to Roy's.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Tina Thompson, Martina Autherly, Yvonne Antosh and Kim Nelson were
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: all staying in motels at this location when they disappeared.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: While under surveillance in 1987, Ridgeway was observed cruising for
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: prostitutes at this location. Carrie was the youngest Starlake victim.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: She was 15. Carrie's remains were found on March 10, 1985,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in a relatively flat, swampy area approximately 50 yards downhill
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: from Starlake Road and only about 25 yards downhill from
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: from Sandra Gabbert's remains. Two acquaintances of Carrie's reported that
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: she said she had not experienced in the spring of
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: 1983 with a man who she said took her up
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: to Snoqualmie Pass. Both of these individuals saw Carrie return
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: from this trip in a pickup truck. One of these
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: witnesses provided investigators with an extremely detailed description of the truck,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: which closely resembles the pickup truck owned at the time
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: by Ridgway's father, who lived in South King County. A
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: credit card receipt shows that Gary Ridgway bought gas for
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this truck in March of 1983. As was almost inevitable
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: in the case, Ridgway failed to recognize Carrie from the photograph.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: He did, however, describe placing one of his Star Lake
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: victims at the bottom of the hill, below Sandra Gabbert's remains.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: He did not recognize that scene in photographs, he said,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: because he placed her there at night. C. The South
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Airport Victims Mary Meehan Andrea Childers, Constance Naone, and Kelly Ware.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway alternated between using several dump sites. After placing his
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: first victims at Star Lake, he began another dump site,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: an area that would be called South Airport, or TIE
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: for a nearby golf course. This site would become the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: first dump site discovered after the five women in the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Green River. With this discovery, it became clear to law
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: enforcement and to the community that a serial killer was
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: operating in King County. In late October of 1983, on
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a stretch of land just south of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: some citizens made a grisly discovery. On October 27, 1983,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: two people riding their bikes in the area of 25th
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: South and South 192nd stumbled across a body buried in
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a shallow grave. Police responded and began processing the scene.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: It was decided, in light of the growing number of
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: dead and missing prostitutes in the county, that an extensive
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: search of the area was warranted. Using volunteer searchers, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: cadaver dogs, police began a methodical grid search of the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: vacant lot land surrounding the body. Two days into the search,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: one of the volunteers found what police suspected, and this
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: was another one of the Green River Killer's dump sites.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: This second body was approximately 100 feet from the first,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: again buried in a shallow grave. As police undertook the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: task of processing that scene, they continued their search. Approximately
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: two weeks later, directly across the street from the two
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: buried bodies, a search dog uncovered a third grave. The
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: two previously discovered victims had been found in shallow graves,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: but this third set of remains was different. The killer
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: had gone to a lot of effort to fully bury
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: his victim. The only parts of her anatomy that protruded
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: from the ground were her teeth. Six years later, in
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: October of 1989, investigators discovered that they had missed one
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: victim during the 1983 searches. The fourth body was approximately
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: 40 feet north of the spot where the bike riders
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: had made the first discovery. Like the others at South Airport,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the victim had been concealed from view. Her remains, remarkably intact,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: had been covered by a car fender and a wooden tabletop.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: In all, the killer left four women at 25th South
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and South 192nd, Each was naked, each had been strangled,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: each had been hidden from view, and each had been
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: engaged in prostitution at the time of their disappearance. They were,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: in the order in which they were found, Constant Neon,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Kelly Ware, Mary Meehan, and Andrea Childers. In 2003, Ridgway
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: readily admitted responsibility for all of the four murders and
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: recounted in detail what he recalled about killing and dumping
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: each of those young women. Ridgway was taken to the
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: area where the bodies were found and accurately pointed to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the locations where these four sets of remains were found.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: He also correctly identified the position of each body in
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: relation to the others. Mary Meehan Mary Meehan disappeared sometime
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: after 8.30 p.m. on September 15, 1982. Mary was living
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: at the Western Six Motel at 165th and PHS. She
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: was known to engage in prostitution along PHS. She was
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: seven months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. According
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to her boyfriend, Mary's pregnancy was not so obvious as
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to deter potential dates. She was 19 years old. On
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: November 13th, 1983, Mary's remains were found directly across the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: street from Constantinone and Kelly Ware. Her grave was approximately
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: 18 inches deep and long enough to accommodate her entire body.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: She was lying face up. She was missing her clothes,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: her jewelry, and the purse she was seen carrying the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: night of her disappearance. During interviews in 2003, Ridgeway had
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: a distinct memory of picking Mary up and killing her.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: According to Ridgeway, she was the first victim he killed
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: at South Airport and the first victim he ever buried.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Although he cannot pinpoint exactly where he killed her, Ridgeway
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: said he began using the airport site after the first
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: dump site, the Green River. He said it was a
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: summer night sometime after 9 p.m. when he contacted Mary
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: on PHS. They agreed to date, and he drove to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the Sandstone Motel. Ridgway parked his truck in there and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: persuaded Mary to walk several blocks to the area of
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: 25th and South and South 192nd so the two could
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: have sex outdoors. Ridgway claims Mary agreed to this arrangement.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said that when they arrived at the wooded area,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Mary would only agree to engage in oral sex, not
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: vaginal intercourse. This apparently angered him. Ridgway repeatedly told investigators...
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: in 2003, that he was paying for the vagina, not
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: for oral sex. Ridgway described Mary performing the act. Ridgway
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: said that he was not getting hard, so he quickly
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: jumped behind Mary and began choking her. After killing Mary,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said he was concerned that the body was too
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: close to the road. He decided to bury her and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: retrieved a shovel from his truck. He dug a shallow grave,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: undressed Mary, and laid her down. He then covered her
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: with the soil, put the grassy sod back on top,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and pressed down on it. Ridgeway said he placed Mary
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: somewhat on her side, with her face pointing up towards
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the sky. This is exactly how she was discovered. He
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: then collected her clothing and jewelry, and he left. Ridgeway
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: was vigorously questioned about Mary's pregnancy. Throughout interviews, Ridgeway maintained
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that he did not know she was pregnant. He claimed
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: that she was not naked until after her death, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: by that time, he said it was dark and he
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: could not see her body clearly. Ridgeway did say, however,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that even if he had known she was pregnant, he
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: still would have killed her. All right, we're going to
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: wrap up this episode here, and then the next episode
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: we're going to pick up with Andrea Childers. All of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the information that goes with this episode can be found
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: in the description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome back
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to the program. In this episode, we're going to get
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: right back to the unmasking of Gary Ridgway, the Green
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: River Killer, to Andrea Childs. On April 14th, 1983, 19-year-old
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Andrea Childs disappeared. She was last seen in Seattle at
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a bus stop located at 21st Street and Union and
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was reportedly headed to South Center Mall. Not much is
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: known about her disappearance, although she was known to engage
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: in prostitution and had been arrested for this offense by
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Seattle police just one month earlier. Six months after the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: discovery of the remains of Mary Meehan, Constance Naone, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Kelly Ware, At the South Airport site, a Port of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Seattle employee stumbled on the remains of Andrea Childs. Her
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: body was found only 40 feet from the remains of
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Consent Neon. Like the others, she had been covered to
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: conceal her from view. Her skeleton was remarkably intact because
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it was beneath a car fender and a large piece
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of wooden tabletop, which had protected her from the elements
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and the animals. In the area of her body were
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: numerous blackberry bushes and garbage. On the skeleton itself were
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: pieces of rotted twigs and branches. She'd been positioned face down,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: with her legs spread wide. In 2003, Ridgway admitted killing
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Andrea Childers. He correctly recounted that he killed her within
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: months of Constance Naone and Kelly Ware. Ridgway could not
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: recall where he met Andrea, but he said that he
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: drove her to the South Airport location, where they walked
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to a place to have sex. Ridgway recounted that he
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: later killed and buried Constance Naone at the spot where
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: he had sex with Andrea. According to Ridgway, he had
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: sex with Andrea then strangled her. Ridgway said he believes
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: that Andrea may have defecated when he killed her and
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: that he cleaned her up and removed her clothes and
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: her jewelry. Once she was dead, Ridgway dragged Andrea's body
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: about 50 feet toward a fence where he began digging
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a grave. While doing so, Ridgway realized he could be seen.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: He filled in the hole and dragged the body 50
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: yards or so to the east near some blackberry bushes.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said he covered her body with dead brush, tree limbs,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and other garbage he found there. Ridgway also recalled that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: he might have had sex with the corpse. Ridgway recalled
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: correctly that Andrea's body was the one he dumped farthest
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to the east at the South Airport site. 3. Constance
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Naone Less than two months later, Ridgway returned to South
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Airport with the woman who would become his third victim
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: at that location. In June of 1983, Constance Connie Neon
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: was working at Alberto's, a local sausage factory. She had
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: an expensive cocaine habit, but she funded it by engaging
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: in prostitution. According to her friends, Connie would drive her
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Prized Camaro to the Red Lion Inn at 188th and PHS,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: park in the lot at the hotel, and find customers
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: by walking from car to car and soliciting the drivers.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: When she had earned enough cash to purchase her cocaine,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Connie would quit for the day. Connie had been working
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: as a prostitute for just a few months prior to
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: her disappearance. On June 8, 1983, Connie left work, returned
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, changed her clothes,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and told her boyfriend that she was going to a
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: friend's house to buy cocaine. She left sometime around 4.30
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: or 5. She called about an hour later and said
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that she would be home in about 20 minutes. She
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: never arrived. Several weeks later, her family and friends found
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Connie's Camaro still locked in the parking lot of the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Red Lion Inn. It appears that Connie disappeared from the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: area of PHS near the Red Lion Inn. Ridgeway has
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: admitted killing three other women who disappeared from that location
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: a few months earlier, Alma Smith, Dolores Williams, and Martina Authorly.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Over four months later, on October 27, 1983, some bicycle
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: riders discovered Connie's body at a vacant lot on 25th
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: South and South 192nd. Her remains were partially buried in
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: a shallow grave, beneath three to four inches of soil
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that had been covered with some dirt and some leaves.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: In the pelvic area of the skeleton was a small,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: triangular-shaped rock, reminiscent of the rocks found in the vaginas
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: of Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hines, found in the Green
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: River the previous year. Her clothing and jewelry were missing.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: In 2003, Ridgway admitted that he killed Connie Neon. He
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: recalled meeting her at the Red Lion Inn, they agreed
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to go on a date, and Ridgway drove in his
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: truck to the vacant lot south of the airport where
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: he parked. Ridgway said they had sex some 20 feet
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: from the truck. Ridgway claimed that Connie would not allow
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: him to touch her breasts. He said that this angered him,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and that he immediately, after he strangled Connie to death,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: he bit her on the breast. After killing her, Ridgway
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: used a shovel from his truck to dig a shallow grave.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: He estimated only three inches of dirt covered the body.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: When asked why he buried Connie, Ridgway claimed that he
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: did so to suppress his urge to return to have
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: sex with the body. Ridgway also admitted putting a rock
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: in Connie's vagina after she was dead. Ridgway claimed to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: recall that she had a Camaro, Although he could not
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: remember whether he saw it, she told him that she
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: had one, or he saw a Camaro emblem on her
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: key ring. He said he considered stealing the Camaro, but
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: rejected the idea. Ridgway accurately described the location of Neon's remains,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: which were found between those of Kelly Ware and Andrea Childs. 4.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Kelly Ware In July of 1983, a little over one
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: month after Constance Neon was killed, the next victim, found
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: at South Airport, Kelly Ware, disappeared. Kelly had worked as
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: a prostitute for several years. Her sister reported that Kelly
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was afraid to work downtown or the Sea-Tac area, but
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: was very comfortable working Chinatown and Aurora. On July 18, 1983,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Kelly called her parents home and was never heard from again.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: In December of 1984, her sister reported her missing. Kelly
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Ware was 22 years old when Ridgway killed her. Kelly's
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: remains were discovered in late October of 1983. two days
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: after those of Constantinone. Like Connie, Kelly was covered with
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a thin layer of soil. Her remains were approximately 100
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: feet west of Connie's. Kelly's body was lying on its
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: back with the arms outstretched and the legs extended straight down.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Kelly's remains went unidentified for over a year. In 2003,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Ridgway correctly recalled that Kelly Ware was the last of
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the South Airport victims. He stated that he picked her
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: up on a weekend and dated and killed her near
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the other bodies at the site. Ridgway said that he
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: returned to Kelly's body a few days after killing her.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: He recalled that it was night and that his son
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: was sleeping in the truck. Ridgway said that he believed
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that this occurred when he and his family were celebrating
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: his son's birthday. Kelly disappeared on the weekend of Ridgway's
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: brother's birthday. Ridgway said that he returned to have sex
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: with the body. Just as he finished the sex act,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Ridgway said, he heard and saw a police car. According
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to Ridgway, a Port of Seattle police officer, pulled up
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and asked him what he was doing. Ridgway claims he
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: calmly explained that he had stopped to urinate and the
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: officer did not investigate further. Ridgway said it was the
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: police contact that caused him to stop using the South
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Airport dump site. This contact with Ridgway cannot be verified
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: through police records. However, one year earlier, a Port of
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Seattle police officer contacted Ridgway 100 feet from where Kelly's
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: body was subsequently found. Ridgway said that within a day
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: or two after his police contact, he returned to the site.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: He moved Kelly's body, had sex with her, yet again,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and then dug a shallow grave and buried her. Ridgway
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: claimed he was most proud of killing Kelly Ware because
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of the fine way he hid the body. In his writings,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Ridgway noted that he would have covered Kelly's grave with
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: grass from the site because she was close to the road. D.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Linda Rule 16-year-old Linda Rule was last seen on Sunday,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: September 26, 1982, at around 2.30 p.m. She was on
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: her way to the Kmart at Aurora and 130th Street
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: in North Seattle. She worked as a prostitute on the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Aurora Strip and was known to date at the parking
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: lot of Northwest Hospital in Seattle. Four months later, on
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: January 31, 1983, construction workers found Linda's skeletal remains in
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: a wooded area at Northwest Hospital. All of her clothes
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and property were missing. Though Linda was never included as
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a victim of the Green River Killer, her murder had
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: all the characteristics of a Green River case and occurred
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: during the period of time the Green River murders took place.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Like most of the official Green River victims, she was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: involved in prostitution and her body was both unclothed and
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: outdoors when discovered. That Sunday, Ridgeway was in the county
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and withdrew $ 50 from an ATM machine. In 1984, Ridgway
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: admitted to a task force detective that he dated prostitutes
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: he picked up on North Aurora Avenue. In June of 2003,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Ridgway admitted killing Linda Rule. During the first day of
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: interviews with the task force detectives in 2003, and prior
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: to any questioning about her case, Ridgway announced that he
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: had killed a woman and dumped her body at Northwest Hospital.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: He recalled meeting Linda on Aurora Avenue on during the
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: day and driving to a field near Northwest Hospital. We
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: were just driving around and found a vacant lot in
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: front of the hospital and had a date, and I
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: killed her there, outside the truck. He choked her from behind.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: After killing Linda, Ridgway claimed that he went through her
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: pockets and found matches. Twice, he lit the back of
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: her hair on fire. He was afraid that someone would
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: see the smoke, and he extinguished the fire. When Ridgway
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: was shown Linda's picture, he stated that she looked familiar.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: On July 10, 2003, Ridgeway was taken to Northwest Hospital.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: He was unable to pick out the exact location where
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: he left Linda's body. Construction since 1982 had changed the campus.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: There was now a parking lot where the body was found. Alright,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: we're going to wrap up that episode there. And in
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the next episode, we're going to pick up with Part E.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Victims found in Oregon. Denise Bush and Shirley Sherrill. All
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: of the information that goes with this episode can be
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: found in the description box. What's up everyone and welcome
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: back to the program. In this episode, we're getting right
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: back to the unmasking of Gary Ridgway. E. Victims found
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: in Oregon. Denise Bush and Shirley Sherrill. Denise Bush and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Shirley Sherrill, both known to work as prostitutes, disappeared within
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: two weeks of each other in October of 1982. Denise
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: disappeared from PHS on October 8th. Shirley disappeared from the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Chinatown area near downtown Seattle between October 20th and 22nd,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: nearly three years later. In June of 1985, incomplete remains
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: of both women were found off a rural road in Tigard,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: just south of Portland, Oregon. This discovery led to the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: speculation that the Green River Killer had moved south. Ridgway
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: would later admit that he killed these women and moved
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: their remains in an effort to confuse the task force. 1.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Denise Bush On October 8, 1982, Denise Bush disappeared from PHS.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: She and an acquaintance were staying at the Moonrise Motel
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: located across the street from Larry's Market and 7-Eleven, at
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: 144th and PHS. At the intersection is the sheltered bus
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: stop where Sandra Gabbert and Kim Nelson were working when
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway picked them up and killed them. Tina Thompson, Martina Autherley,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and Yvonne Antosh were all staying in motels at this
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: location when they disappeared. Denise left the Moonrise for a
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: pack of cigarettes around midday and never returned. She was
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: 23 years old. That day Ridgeway was off work, for
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a claimed eye ailment and purchased $ 26 worth of gas
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: from a station near the Moonrise Motel, where Denise was
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: last seen. On October 7, 1982, the night before Denise's disappearance,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: she met a girlfriend across the street from the Moonrise
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: at the 7-Eleven. When her friend arrived, Denise was talking
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: to a man who appeared to be working on his
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: pickup truck. Denise's girlfriend described him as being 5'10, between
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: 29 and 30 years old, wearing a blue plaid shirt
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: and boots. The friend thought that the man was driving
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: a dirty or dull green GMC truck with oxidized paint.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: The hood of the truck was up and something about
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: the man made Denise's friend suspicious. She later told police
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: that when the man saw her looking at him, he
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: jerked his head around and hid it under the hood
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: as if he did not want to see her face.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: She thought he looked like he had something to hide.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Denise's friend asked Denise who the man was. Denise dodged
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: the question but did say that she was going to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: meet with him later. While the truck that Denise's friend
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: saw did not match anything owned by Ridgeway at the time,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: it was similar to his brother's turquoise truck. In the 1980s,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: police interviewed Denise's friend about the man she saw at
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the 7-Eleven. She provided enough detail to create a composite
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: sketch of him. Twenty years later, in 2002, the friend
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: selected Ridgeway's photo from a montage and said he was
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the man whom she had seen talking to Denise the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: night before she disappeared. In June of 1985, a construction
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: crew discovered Denise's skull in Tigard, Oregon. Police secured the
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: crime scene but allowed construction to continue on the far
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: side of the lot. Search crews also discovered Denise's femur
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: and pelvis. A few days later, a worker discovered more
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: remains at the site. Those of Shirley Sherrill. Discussed in
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the next section. Five years later, in February of 1990,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: a citizen discovered more of Denise's remains near a PHS
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: in Tukwila. Among the remains found in Tukwila were her
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: mandible and a shunt that had been placed in Denise's
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: skull six months prior to her disappearance. Her skull, without
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the shunt, had been found in Oregon five years earlier.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: The presence of the shunt and mandible in Tukwila proved
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: that Denise's body had decomposed in Tukwila and that the
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: killer came later and took some of her bones to Oregon.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: During interviews with the task force detectives in 2003, Ridgeway
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: admitted killing Denise and transporting her remains to Tigard, Oregon,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: He correctly recalled that Denise was African American and correctly
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: estimated her height. Ridgway told detectives he picked Denise up
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: on PHS and killed her where her remains were found
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: in Tukwila. He thought that Denise had chosen the place
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: for them to date. He said that the site was
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: an easy location and that he was probably been there
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: in the past. The Tukwila site is a minute or
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: so drive from the intersection of PHS and 144th where
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Ridgway picked up other victims. Ridgway said he used his
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: arm to strangle Denise, and told her that if she
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: did not scream, he would let her go. After he
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: killed Denise, he covered her body with some type of plastic.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: While Ridgway did not admit that he was the man
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: talking to Denise at the 7-Eleven on the day before
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: she disappeared, he acknowledged that at times he would park there,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: open the hood of his truck, check the oil, and
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: look for a prostitute. He believed that people at 7-Eleven
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: knew him by sight, a steady customer, and knew that
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: he was picking up prostitutes. He said he would meet
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the women there and make arrangements to meet them at
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: another location where he could pick them up without drawing
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: attention to himself. Ridgway acknowledged that in an effort to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: throw off the task force, he moved Denise's remains and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: those of Shirley Sherrill to Oregon in the spring of 1984.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: One weekend, he took his son on what he described
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: as a camping trip to Oregon. He transported the remains
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: with his son's clothes and bicycle in the trunk of
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the Plymouth satellite. Ridgway paid cash for his food and
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: gas on his trip and was careful not to leave
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: any record linking him to Oregon. Based on Ridgway's statements
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and financial records, investigators determined that he was most likely
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: in Oregon the first week of April 1984. In 2003,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: his son recalled taking a last-minute trip with his father
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: to Oregon in the satellite. In June 2003, Ridgway led
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: detectives to the site in Tukwila where he killed Denise
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Bush and left her body. According to a detective familiar
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: with the crime scene, Ridgway led the task force right
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: to the spot where Denise's remains were found. Ridgeway did
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: this despite the changes to the area since 1982. 2.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Shirley Sherrill Shirley Sherrill began working as a prostitute in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Portland and Seattle in the summer of 1982, just a
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: few months before she disappeared. Around this time, she also
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: worked at the Goodwill store in Seattle on Dearborn Street.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: She was 18 years old. Shirley was last seen sometime
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: between October 20th and 22nd, 1982. Her pimp, who could
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: not recall the precise date, reported that he last saw
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Shirley when he dropped her off on Seattle's International District
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: in the morning. A fellow prostitute reported that he last
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: saw Shirley at approximately 4 p.m. talking to two white
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: men in a black pickup truck with a canopy. The
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: pickup was big, possibly a Ford circa 1977 or 1978.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: The other prostitute left on a date, and when she returned,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Shirley was gone. In June of 1985, construction crews found
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: most of Shirley's remains, including her skull, along with Denise Bush's,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: in Tigard, Oregon. In 2003, Ridgway admitted killing Shirley. He
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: claimed he could not remember any details about killing her
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: other than transporting her remains to Oregon. Ridgway initially claimed
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: that he had left Shirley at a site in King
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: County and later returned and quickly picked up her skull
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: and a few bones to take to Oregon. In 2003,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the task force searched the site and did not find
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: any remains. Most of Shirley's bones were found in Oregon,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: not simply the few that Ridgway initially claimed he picked up.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: When confronted with this, Ridgway equivocated on whether he just
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: took Shirley's bones to Oregon or whether, after he killed her,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: he transported her entire body there. F. The North Airport victims,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Shonda Summers, Jane Doe, B-10, and Cheryl Wims. In the 1980s,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the task force discovered another dump site used by the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Green River Killer, an area directly north of the Sea-Tac Airport.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Three victims were found there, Shonda Summers, Cheryl Wims, and
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: an unidentified Caucasian female designated Jane Doe B-10. Two of
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the women were found 200 yards apart, and the third
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: was one-half mile away. In the early 1980s, the road
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: near where the women were found was largely undeveloped, aside
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: from a few vacant lots, baseball fields, and a tow yard.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Shonda and Cheryl both worked as prostitutes and disappeared within
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: eight months of each other. The background and circumstances surrounding
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: the disappearance of the unidentified women are, of course, unknown.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: The remains of all three women were found unclothed. The
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: cause of their death was unspecified homicidal violence. In 2003,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Ridgeway admitted to killing all three women. He referred to
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: the North Airport site as one of his clusters, an
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: area in which he grouped multiple victims. so he would
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: not forget where he placed them. He was also familiar
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: with the area. A former girlfriend said that she and
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Ridgway had sex near the site and police had contacted
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: him dating a prostitute nearby. He also stated that he
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: took advantage of the frequent flights overhead and acknowledged that,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I used the noise for advantage of one thing, you know,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: cut down any noise in case she screamed. The North
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Airport site has undergone significant development since the early 80s,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: A Boeing Company warehouse is now located where the police
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: found Shonda's remains. The water tower is still there, and
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the baseball fields where Cheryl and Jane Don't Be were
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: found still exist. A fourth baseball diamond has been added.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: The vacant lots are all gone, and much of the
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: surrounding area has been either paved or developed. 1. Shondra
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Summers 17-year-old Shonda Summers was last seen alive sometime during
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the first week of October 1982. She was known to
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: work as a prostitute along PHS. There were no witnesses
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to her disappearance. Shonda's stepfather filed a missing persons report
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: just weeks after she disappeared. Her mother traveled from California
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: to search for her. They never saw her again. At
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the time of Shonda's disappearance, during the first week of
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: October 1982, Ridgway was working at the Kenworth plant. During
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: that time, he killed another woman he picked up on PHS,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Denise Bush. On August 11th, 1983, Shonda's remains were found
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: near the northwest corner of South 146th Street and 24th
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Avenue South. She had been placed in a shallow grave
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: underneath an apple tree. Across the street and to the
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: south of the dump site was a large circular water tower.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: A vacant lot where homes were frequently placed on blocks
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: before they were moved elsewhere was located to the south
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: between her body and South 146th Street. In 2003, Ridgeway
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: admitted she murdering Shonda and placing her body by a
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: water tower near SeaTac Airport. Though he recalled that she
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: was black, he was unable to recognize her photograph. Ridgway
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: said that he took Shonda to the North Airport site,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: had sex with her, and then choked her with his arm.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: While killing her, he wrapped his legs around her to
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: keep her from moving. He then took off her clothes
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and jewelry and left. Ridgway cannot recall whether he covered
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Shonda's body. He believed he killed her at night, and
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: remembered that there was a house on blocks in a
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: vacant lot near where he killed her, approximately 4 to
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: 5 feet up off the ground. In June 2003, Ridgeway
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: led task force detectives to the location where he killed
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Shonda and left her body. According to a detective familiar
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: with the crime scene and present with Ridgeway during the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: visit to the North Airport site, Ridgeway pointed out and
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: described the specific area in which Shonda's body was found. Alright,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: we're going to wrap up this episode here. And in
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the next episode, we're going to pick up with two
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Jane Doe B10. All of the information that goes with
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box.