Green River Killer may have struck in 1970s

King County investigator Tom Jensen said that if the woman known in court papers as Jane Doe "B20" was killed in the 1970s, "it could open up a whole new range of people" Ridgway might have killed.

Green River investigators are now asking for the public's help in identifying the woman, one of four Ridgway has admitted killing but whose remains so far have remained unidentified. Ridgway pleaded guilty in November 2003 to killing 48 women.

Scattered remains of Jane Doe B20, including 21 bones and three teeth, were found in a ravine off the Kent-Des Moines Road in Kent after Ridgway took investigators there in August 2003.

Scientists concluded that the woman's body was dumped at the site 10 to 30 years ago -- but they believe it much more likely, Jensen said, that her remains had been there for close to 30 years, making her a victim in the 1970s.

Detectives returned to the site last month and discovered additional human vertebrae they believe belong to the same woman.

The death of the woman became the 48th and last count of murder Ridgway pleaded guilty to.

Jensen said that from Ridgway's recollections and other evidence, investigators believe that the woman was 16 to 26 years old when she was killed, that she was Caucasian or of mixed race, had a thin or medium build and had shoulder-length light brown hair but few other distinguishing features.

Sheriff's detectives are asking that anyone who knew a woman fitting that description, who either disappeared or was killed in the 1970s, call the Green River tip line at 206-296-7575.

Jensen speculated that the unidentified woman might have been an "experimental" killing for Ridgway as he escalated from assault to murder. Jensen also said he believed that the unidentified woman may not have been a prostitute -- a deviation from Ridgway's pattern that could explain why he's been reluctant to explain more about the killing. Almost all of Ridgway's known victims were prostitutes.

In court documents, Ridgway said he killed prostitutes because "they were the ... easiest. I went from, uh, havin' sex with 'em to just plain killing 'em."

The teenager regularly referred to as Ridgway's first Green River victim, Wendy Lee Coffield, 16, disappeared July 8, 1982. Her body was found a week later in the Green River near Kent.

Yet during his hours of interviews with detectives in 2003, Ridgway admitted that it was "very possible" he had killed women in the 1970s while living in Maple Valley with his second wife, according to King County prosecutors.

"Even after rigorous interrogation and a review of potentially relevant cases," prosecutors wrote, "Ridgway's first homicide(s) remain unknown."

In a video recording of an interview detectives conducted with Ridgway on Sept. 2, 2003, Ridgway said he believed he killed the woman investigators are now trying to identify in 1982 or 1983. But he also told investigators he could have killed her in the 1970s.

He killed her, he said, after picking her up somewhere on Pacific Highway South, then bringing her home.

He said he then brought her the next day to a spot near the Kent-Des Moines Road, just east of Military Road South, and buried her, naked, after digging a makeshift grave with a shovel. Ridgway said he believed she was 16 to 20 years old.

Jensen, who has been stalking Ridgway since 1984, said Monday that Ridgway erred or lied when he told investigators he killed his last victim in the mid-1980s, and not in 1998, when he killed Patricia Yellow Robe.

Thus it's possible, Jensen said, that Ridgway could also be hiding the true date when he began his rampage.

"This case could go some way in determining what type of person" Ridgway may have been searching for in the 1970s, he said. "I think it's important to find out exactly where Gary Ridgway started. The first one is always supposed to be significant."

P-I reporter Sam Skolnik can be reached at 206-467-1039 or samskolnik@seattlepi.com.

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