Timeline of Green River Killings
Story Published:
Nov 5, 2003 at 11:00 AM PDT
Story Updated:
Apr 26, 2007 at 1:36 PM PDT
SEATTLE - A timeline of the Green River killings, and the arrest and prosecution of Gary Leon Ridgway:
- July 15, 1982 - Body of Wendy Lee Coffield, 16, Puyallup, found
floating in the Green River south of Seattle.
- Aug. 12, 1982 - Body of Debra Bonner, 23, found in Green River.
- Aug. 13-15, 1982 - Bodies of Cynthia Hinds, 17, Opal Mills, 16,
and Marcia Chapman, 31, found in or near Green River.
- Aug. 16, 1982 - King County police establish a task force on the
killings.
- Aug. 20, 1982 - Police announce arrest of a "potential
suspect" in slayings but he is later released.
- April 27, 1983 - Green River killer becomes target of largest
murder investigation in the country. Sheriff Vern Thomas estimates
cost for 1983 at $2 million.
- April 30, 1983 - Marie M. Malvar, 18, disappears. Boyfriend
follows pickup suspected in the disappearance; pickup is identified
as Ridgway's. Des Moines police respond and Ridgway denies any
contact with Malvar.
- May 3, 1983 - Carol Christensen, 21, disappears from Pacific
Highway South, south of Seattle.
- May 8, 1983 - Body of Christensen found in wooded area in Maple
Valley southeast of Seattle.
- Nov. 20, 1983 - Police say the same man killed 11 young women
found murdered in south King County since summer 1982.
- April 2, 1984 - Discovery of five more sets of skeletal remains
could bring total victims to more than 30. Official number of
victims is 20.
- April 20, 1984 - Remains of Amina Agisheff, 36, found near North
Bend. She was last seen in Seattle in 1982. Another set of remains
found.
- Dec. 9, 1984 - Death toll rises to 42 - 28 identified bodies and
14 other women missing.
- April 8, 1987 - Police search home and vehicles of Kent-area
man. Two witnesses say man was seen with at least two of the
victims, now thought to number 46. Police take "bodily samples"
from the man but there is insufficient evidence to arrest him. The
man was Gary Ridgway.
- May 30, 1988 - Body of Debra Estes, 15, found in Federal Way,
last seen on Sept. 20, 1982.
- Sept. 20, 1990 - Body of Marta Reeves found along Washington 410
near Enumclaw southeast of Seattle. She is not listed among Green
River victims at first.
- July 1991 - Green River task force reduced to one investigator.
No killer has been found despite years of investigative work.
- Aug. 6, 1998 - Wrecking crew finds body of Patricia Ann Yellow
Robe, 38, Seattle. Death certificate says she died of accidental
drug and alcohol overdose, but investigators later tell relatives
she was among the Green River killer's victims.
- Nov. 2, 1999 - New DNA process used to identify remains found
near Green River in 1986 as Tracy Ann Winston, 19, last seen near
Northgate in Seattle in 1983.
- February 2000 - State crime lab begins using sophisticated new
DNA testing method.
- March 2001 - Crime lab begins using new process to test Green
River killer evidence.
- Nov. 30, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway, a married man from Auburn who
painted trucks for Kenworth Truck Co. in Renton, arrested in
connection with four slayings. Ridgway's DNA is linked to three
victims. Ridgway is jailed without bail.
- Dec. 5, 2001 - King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng files
aggravated first-degree murder charges against Ridgway in deaths of
Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, Opal Mills and Carol Christensen.
- Dec. 18, 2001 - Ridgway pleads innocent to those four murder
counts.
- Sept. 22, 2002 - Prosecutors recommend a March 2004 trial date
for Ridgway. More than 375,000 documents received by defense from
prosecutors in past few months.
- Oct. 5-6, 2002 - Crews search wetland in Kent for more remains,
nothing found.
- Oct. 18, 2002 - Trial date set for March 16, 2004.
- March 27, 2003 - Ridgway charged with three more counts of
aggravated first-degree murder in deaths of Wendy Lee Coffield,
Debra Estes and Debra Bonner. A total of 49 women are listed as
victims of the serial killer.
- April 3, 2003 - Ridgway pleads innocent to Coffield, Estes and
Bonner murder counts.
- May 13, 2003 - Trial date delayed to July 14, 2004.
- Mid-June 2003 - Ridgway secretly transferred out of King County
Jail to an undisclosed location in custody of sheriff's office.
- Aug. 16, 2003 - Detectives and search crews find human skeletal
remains in a wooded area near Washington 410 east of Enumclaw.
Authorities will not confirm reports that Ridgway is cooperating
with investigators in hopes of avoiding the death penalty.
- Aug. 18, 2003 - Remains found near Enumclaw identified as Pammy
Annette Avent, 16, Seattle, who disappeared in October 1983.
- Aug. 21-23, 2003 - Detectives find human bones in wooded area in
Kent.
- Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, 2003 - Detectives find human bones in
wooded area near Snoqualmie, in east King County.
- Sept. 4, 2003 - Task force searches site near North Bend,
nothing found.
- Sept. 6, 2003 - Task force searches three locations east of
Enumclaw, nothing found.
- Sept. 26, 2003 - Remains found near Snoqualmie identified as
April Dawn Buttram, 17, last seen in 1983.
- Sept. 28-29, 2003 - Skeletal remains, including skull, found in
wooded area near Auburn.
- Oct. 1, 2003 - Bones found near Auburn identified as Marie M.
Malvar, 18, who disappeared April 30, 1983.
- Nov. 5, 2003 - Ridgway pleads guilty to 48 counts of aggravated
first-degree murder.
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