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[Narrator]: For two decades,
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an unknown killer terrorized the Pacific Northwest.
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[Man]: Police found the badly-decomposed nude body
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of a woman Saturday night.
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[Man]: Another terrible discovery in the woods.
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[Man]: A sexual psychopath who preys on young prostitutes.
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[Amanda]: Every time they arrive at a scene,
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there's multiple women.
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They were dealing with something huge.
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[Michael]: The number of bodies that are turning up
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is almost hard for us to even wrap our head around.
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[John]: We're talking 40 people here.
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This is unprecedented.
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[Stephanie]: Mothers, daughters, sisters, friends,
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and they were loved by people and missed by people.
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[Dave]: The bodies were piling up.
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We had a serial killer on our hands.
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[Man]: The victims of the Green River Killer--
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[Man]: The Green River Killer--
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[Man]: Then called the Green River Killer
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ever since the first bodies were pulled from this river.
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[Pennie]: The public was running out of patience.
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It was like, "Come on, catch this guy!"
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[Narrator]: Now, on the 20th anniversary of the arrest
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that shook the nation,
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we're revisiting one of the most twisted stories
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in the annals of American crime to ask
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how did this monster remain hidden in the shadows
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for so long?
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[Stephanie]: He was incredibly successful
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at convincing the world that he was Ned Flanders,
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just a nice guy and a good family man.
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[Narrator]: Why couldn't the cops catch him?
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[Frank]: A polygrapher said he didn't do these crimes.
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He's innocent.
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[Narrator]: And what did those closest to him,
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including his own son, know?
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[Michael]: Matthew was torn between his love for his dad
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versus the reality of what was going on.
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[Narrator]: Husband, father, colleague, killer.
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This is the Sins of the Father: The Green River Killer.
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It was kill, kill, kill.
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[Narrator]: July 15th, 1982.
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A pair of boys are riding their bikes
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across the Peck Bridge just south of Seattle
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when suddenly...
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[Stephanie]: They stopped for a moment on the bridge,
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and as they looked down into the rushing water,
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they saw something that caught their eye.
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[Amanda]: Initially, they think, okay, is this a mannequin
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that's been discarded down in the river,
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and they go down to investigate.
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[Narrator]: The boys slowly wade into the Green River,
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then stop short of the object.
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[Olivia]: They actually see it's not a mannequin.
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They can see the hair of a young woman sort of flowing
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underneath the water
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[Stephanie]: She was naked.
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She had jeans wrapped around her neck.
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[Narrator]: Detectives hurry to the scene.
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[Dave]: The Kemp Police Department
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determined her name was Wendy Coffield.
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The cause of death was asphyxiation.
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We had the ligature,
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and that was placed into evidence.
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[Olivia]: They could tell there was quite a struggle.
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Her arm was broken.
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There was some visible bruising as well.
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[Narrator]: Wendy Coffield is just 16 years old.
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Her mother Virginia tells investigators
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the teen was no stranger to trouble.
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[Stephanie]: She said,
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"Well, I kinda knew this was gonna happen.
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"She was going down the wrong path."
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Wendy was known to be a hitchhiker.
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There was also a rumor that she had been on a strip
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acting as a sex worker,
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so they knew that she was in dangerous situations.
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[Amanda]: She was living on the street for survival.
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She was involved in drugs.
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She'd actually been in juvenile detention
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for a recent theft and had snuck on on
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kind of a day pass to visit with her family
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and she hadn't returned to the juvenile detention center.
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[Narrator]: The horrific murder sends shockwaves
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throughout the town of Kent.
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[Mark]: It's a small suburb, no significant violent crime,
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relatively safe environment
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what most people would call a quiet community.
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So any type of violent crime, anybody would be aware of it.
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[Diane]: Everybody was scared. It was just frightening
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'cause we had no idea who the killer is.
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[Narrator]: While police begin
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investigating the teen's killing,
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10 miles away in Renton,
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it's just another day in the life
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for seven-year-old Matthew Ridgway,
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on summer break from nearby East Hill Elementary School.
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[Stephanie]: Matthew would spend his summers riding his bikes,
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playing outside with his friends running around the neighborhood,
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coming home too late for dinner.
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He had a very good life.
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[Narrator]: A life he shares with his single mother Marcia.
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[Brittany]: Marcia just had a job at a dental office,
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so she wasn't making a whole lot of money,
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but she was trying to make ends meet.
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Life for any single mom is really hard.
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[Narrator]: The pair are still trying to find their footing
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one year after Marcia's contentious divorce
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from Matthew's father, Gary.
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[Brittany]: They had Matthew two years into their marriage,
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and everything seemed good
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until Matthew was about five years old,
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and Marcia tells a story where
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they were engaging in BDSM
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and Gary choked her, and he went too far,
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and that was the first time
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that she was really afraid of him,
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and she put a stop to any of the activities,
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which of course made Gary very upset.
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[John]: The relationship that Gary and Marcia had
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wasn't great for Marcia.
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Gary really wanted her to just cook, clean,
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basically do everything.
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He wanted sex constantly, two, three times a day,
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and that just started to become a bit much for Marcia.
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[Narrator]: Gary, for his part, tells friends at his job
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at the nearby Kenworth truck factory a different story.
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[Diane]: He worked in the paint department.
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Mostly worked mornings.
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I think we got along because our lockers were so close.
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I would go in early,
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and he'd be the only one in there,
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so we had a lot of time to talk.
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He had a crush on me.
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He would tell me about his family and his wife.
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He gets irate when he thinks about her
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because she's screwed him over for child support
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and then spousal support.
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He could hold a grudge forever.
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There was two Garys: nice coworker Gary,
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and then there was crazy-eyed Gary.
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When he'd get really mad,
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his eye would get all watery and crazy-looking.
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Don't F with Gary today.
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[Narrator]: But when it comes to his son Matthew,
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Ridgway is quick to table his anger.
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[Diane]: He'd turn into Good Dad Gary,
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and he'd have the happy face, his eyes'd start sparkling again
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He really did love his son.
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Gary spoiled him.
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Said he gives him everything he wants.
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[Narrator]: Decades later, in a police interview,
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Matthew recalls those formative years
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with his single dad.
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[Olivia]: Gary had a great relationship
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with his son Matthew.
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Matthew has said that his dad really kind of
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went the extra mile to try to make all the time
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they spent together memorable and special.
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[Narrator]: While Gary and his son enjoy
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their carefree summer together, in nearby Kent,
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the mood grows increasingly terrifying.
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There, on August 12th, 1982,
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an employee at a meat packing plant
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along the banks of the Green River
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is taking a smoke break when he looks up.
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[Stephanie]:He spotted something sort of caught up on a log
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in the middle of the rushing river,
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and he thought, maybe it's a dead animal.
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He decided to go down, get a closer look,
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and at that point,
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he realized it was another naked dead woman.
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[Narrator]: Police identify the body as 23-year-old
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Debra Lynn Bonner.
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Her corpse is found less than half a mile
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from where Wendy Coffield's was discovered
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only a month earlier, and the MO is strikingly similar.
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[Frank]: She was also naked and had also been strangled,
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and when the detectives began to look into her death,
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they determined that she was also a prostitute.
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[Narrator]: Detective Dave Reichert
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of the King County Sheriff's Office
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catches the case and digs in.
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[Dave]: Questions in my mind are, you know,
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is this related, are these two related?
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I knew they were in the river.
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I knew they were up against the river bank.
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I knew that they were submerged in water.
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All those things are kind of going through your mind.
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[Narrator]: But before Reichert can connect those murders,
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authorities discover two more young women
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in the Green River.
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[Amanda]: The bodies almost seemed to be staged or placed.
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They were in the water.
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One woman was facing up, one woman was facing down
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with large rocks on them to keep them in that position.
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The killer had inserted rocks into their genitals.
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It was a horror scene.
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[Narrator]: Forty years laters,
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Reichert can still vividly recall the nightmarish tableau.
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[Dave]: One of the victims was on her back,
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and you could see her face,
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and one hand was loose in the river,
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and as the river swept over them slowly around it,
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and her hand just kind of waved back and forth,
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and I remember thinking she's just sort of saying,
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"Hey, I'm here, I'm right here." You know, "Help me."
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And, uh, those are memories, of course,
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that stay with you forever.
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[Narrator]: Investigators beging processing the scene,
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only to make another shocking discovery.
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[Dave]: The grass is tall,
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it's filled with blackberry bushes,
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and I was moving down the bank of the river
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and taking notes and photographs,
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and we found another young female body
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laying the tall grass.
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She was unclothed for the most part.
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Her bra was pulled up over the top of her breasts.
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She had a ligature around her neck,
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and it had not been there very long.
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[Amanda]: It's like every time they arrive at a scene,
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there's multiple women.
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They find so much more than they ever bargained for,
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and it felt like they were dealing with something huge.
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[Narrator]: Police identify the three women as
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Cynthia Hinds, Marcia Chapman, and Opal Mills.
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[Amanda]: Cynthia and Opal were only about
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17 and 16 years old respectively.
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They were actually friends.
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Marcia, on the other hand, was in her early 30s.
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She's a young mom, and she was a known sex worker.
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All of these women had been strangled
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with ligatures of some kind,
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sometimes pieces of their own clothing,
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or just the bare hands of an assailant.
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[Narrator]: The striking similarities lead detectives
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to a grim conclusion.
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[Dave]: We did believe we had a serial killer on our hands.
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[Narrator]: Word of the killings
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quickly spreads across the greater Seattle region.
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[Man]: In Seattle this morning,
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police are hunting a mass murderer--
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[Man]: A sexual psychopath who preys on young prostitutes.
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[Olivia]: This story absolutely explodes.
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People immediately want to know what's being done.
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[Woman]: I'm scared. I really am.
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I'm almost afraid to open up my doors.
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So now we've gone from a couple of bodies found
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to three more,
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which brings us up to five over the course of a month,
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and the community is terrified,
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especially for their daughters, their sisters, their wives.
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It really felt like they were dealing with
257
00:13:47,159 --> 00:13:50,963
a mad man on the loose. No one knew if they were safe.
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[Narrator]: In nearby Renton, Marcia and Gary Ridgway
259
00:13:54,900 --> 00:13:57,036
keep the increasingly alarming news
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00:13:57,136 --> 00:13:59,004
from their young son Matthew.
261
00:14:07,179 --> 00:14:08,914
[Narrator]: But try as his parents may
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00:14:09,014 --> 00:14:11,317
to shield him from the horrors,
263
00:14:11,417 --> 00:14:14,420
Matthew Ridgway will become forever linked to one of
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00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:19,825
the most prolific serial killers in the history of American crime
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[Man]: The victims of the Green River Killer--
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00:14:21,794 --> 00:14:23,095
[Man]: The Green River Killer--
267
00:14:23,195 --> 00:14:24,630
[Man]: Then called the Green River Killer
268
00:14:24,730 --> 00:14:28,267
ever since the first bodies were pulled from this river.
269
00:14:28,367 --> 00:14:29,869
[Brittany]: A lot of newspapers
270
00:14:29,969 --> 00:14:31,303
called them the Green River killings,
271
00:14:31,403 --> 00:14:34,073
and he became the Green River Killer from that point on.
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00:14:42,581 --> 00:14:44,817
[Narrator]: Police in King County, Washington
273
00:14:44,917 --> 00:14:48,087
are hunting a man dubbed the Green River Killer
274
00:14:48,187 --> 00:14:51,257
after discovering the bodies of five suspected prostitutes
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00:14:51,357 --> 00:14:53,192
dumped in or near the river
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00:14:53,292 --> 00:14:56,128
running through the Seattle suburbs.
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00:14:56,228 --> 00:14:59,198
[Dave]: The media of course wants answers right away.
278
00:14:59,298 --> 00:15:02,501
The families want answers right away.
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00:15:02,601 --> 00:15:06,305
[Crowd]: One, two, three, four, we won't take it any more!
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[Amanda]: The community is starting to get upset.
281
00:15:09,141 --> 00:15:11,310
I mean, there's literal protesting in the streets
282
00:15:11,410 --> 00:15:16,916
demanding, "Why haven't you found the predator
283
00:15:17,016 --> 00:15:20,152
"that is terrorizing our community?"
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[Dave]: We're just at the beginning stages
285
00:15:22,821 --> 00:15:24,123
of the investigation.
286
00:15:24,223 --> 00:15:26,058
We don't have all the answers.
287
00:15:26,158 --> 00:15:30,729
So the pressure is intense, and it's on immediately.
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00:15:30,829 --> 00:15:32,264
[Narrator]: Although Marcia Ridgway
289
00:15:32,364 --> 00:15:34,466
and her seven-year-old son Matthew are living
290
00:15:34,566 --> 00:15:37,636
just 10 miles away from the crime scenes,
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they'll later tell investigators they are quite familiar
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00:15:40,940 --> 00:15:42,708
with the killer's dumping ground.
293
00:17:31,650 --> 00:17:35,954
[Stephanie]: Marcia did ask Gary about what was happening
294
00:17:36,055 --> 00:17:39,091
with the bodies turning up at the rivers,
295
00:17:39,191 --> 00:17:42,361
and he would just be very dismissive of it.
296
00:17:42,461 --> 00:17:44,830
He acted very chill about the whole thing like,
297
00:17:44,930 --> 00:17:46,198
yeah, this is happening,
298
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but, you know, they're prostitutes.
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[Narrator]: With five murdered women on their hands
300
00:17:54,706 --> 00:17:56,475
and no leads,
301
00:17:56,575 --> 00:17:58,977
the task force gets an unexpected break
302
00:17:59,078 --> 00:18:01,580
one month into their investigation
303
00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:05,584
when 43-year-old Melvin Foster walks into the sheriff's office
304
00:18:05,684 --> 00:18:07,219
to file a report.
305
00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:10,055
[Olivia]: Melvin Foster is a cab driver
306
00:18:10,155 --> 00:18:12,591
who works primarily on The Strip,
307
00:18:12,691 --> 00:18:17,196
and he tells investigators he feels that he has information
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00:18:17,296 --> 00:18:20,132
that could help them find the killer.
309
00:18:20,232 --> 00:18:21,967
[Stephanie]: This particular part of Seattle
310
00:18:22,067 --> 00:18:24,503
was known as the Sea-Tac Strip.
311
00:18:24,603 --> 00:18:27,539
It was sort of right by the airport,
312
00:18:27,639 --> 00:18:31,510
and it became a seedy area that included places like
313
00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:36,849
topless bars running 24/7, and obviously with that,
314
00:18:36,949 --> 00:18:41,120
it brought a good deal of sex work to the streets.
315
00:18:41,220 --> 00:18:44,990
Melvin was very well-versed on the Strip area.
316
00:18:45,090 --> 00:18:48,160
He would often give these girls rides.
317
00:18:48,260 --> 00:18:49,795
He said, it's Seattle, it's raining.
318
00:18:49,895 --> 00:18:51,964
They don't wanna be standing out in the rain,
319
00:18:52,064 --> 00:18:53,432
so I'll give them a ride,
320
00:18:53,532 --> 00:18:55,501
or I'll give them and their john a ride.
321
00:18:55,601 --> 00:18:58,470
[Narrator]: Foster suggest the killer could be a cab driver
322
00:18:58,570 --> 00:19:02,307
and volunteers to help detectives idenitfy him.
323
00:19:02,407 --> 00:19:04,376
[Brittany]: Melvin gave off bad vibes from the beginning.
324
00:19:04,476 --> 00:19:06,178
He was really into younger women.
325
00:19:06,278 --> 00:19:08,213
He'd been married five different times.
326
00:19:08,313 --> 00:19:10,182
He was a former thief who had gone to jail
327
00:19:10,282 --> 00:19:12,918
for stealing a car.
328
00:19:13,018 --> 00:19:16,188
[Narrator]: Investigators are immediately suspicious.
329
00:19:16,288 --> 00:19:21,093
They ask Foster to take a polygraph test,
330
00:19:21,193 --> 00:19:24,463
and he fails it.
331
00:19:24,563 --> 00:19:27,199
[Dave]: I sat down, I interviewed him.
332
00:19:27,299 --> 00:19:30,235
He had first denied knowing any of the victims,
333
00:19:30,335 --> 00:19:34,239
and then when pressed, he knew all of the victims,
334
00:19:34,339 --> 00:19:36,542
had them in his taxi cab.
335
00:19:36,642 --> 00:19:38,110
[Amanda]: It seemed like he wanted
336
00:19:38,210 --> 00:19:40,045
to be close to the investigation,
337
00:19:40,145 --> 00:19:41,480
and investigators are thinking,
338
00:19:41,580 --> 00:19:44,550
okay, is this the person we're looking for?
339
00:19:44,650 --> 00:19:49,154
[Stephanie]: That was, I think, what really made the police feel
340
00:19:49,254 --> 00:19:52,224
that they were on the right path with Melvin.
341
00:19:55,794 --> 00:19:58,263
[Narrator]: Detectives begin round-the-clock surveillance
342
00:19:58,363 --> 00:20:01,833
on Foster, believing it's only a matter of time
343
00:20:01,934 --> 00:20:04,069
before he strikes again.
344
00:20:04,169 --> 00:20:05,504
Not only that, they want to see,
345
00:20:05,604 --> 00:20:07,105
while we have him under surveillance,
346
00:20:07,206 --> 00:20:11,577
if the murders stop, this is another sign that he's our guy.
347
00:20:11,677 --> 00:20:13,579
He was the primary suspect.
348
00:20:13,679 --> 00:20:15,614
He was an odd sort of person.
349
00:20:15,714 --> 00:20:20,586
He was intelligent, but he was different.
350
00:20:20,686 --> 00:20:24,256
[Olivia]:You can see the footage in some of the interviews,
351
00:20:24,356 --> 00:20:25,857
he came off strange.
352
00:20:25,958 --> 00:20:28,260
He definitely made a few strange comments
353
00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:30,629
to reporters that, uh,
354
00:20:30,729 --> 00:20:32,965
really stood out to investigators.
355
00:20:33,065 --> 00:20:35,867
[Woman]: Are you scared at all?
356
00:20:35,968 --> 00:20:37,903
Scared? No.
357
00:20:38,003 --> 00:20:40,439
Fright is for the guilty.
358
00:20:40,539 --> 00:20:42,274
When you think of the profile
359
00:20:42,374 --> 00:20:45,377
of somebody who is targeting young women,
360
00:20:45,477 --> 00:20:48,480
he just seemed to be the right fit.
361
00:20:50,716 --> 00:20:52,884
[Narrator]: Police search Foster's house,
362
00:20:52,985 --> 00:20:55,287
but find nothing.
363
00:20:55,387 --> 00:20:58,490
Still, it doesn't quell their suspicions.
364
00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:00,726
[Mark]: He's saying, like, "I knew a lot of the girls,
365
00:21:00,826 --> 00:21:02,794
"I take the girls different places."
366
00:21:02,894 --> 00:21:05,063
You know, "I've been in a lot of these areas,
367
00:21:05,163 --> 00:21:06,498
"I know these areas."
368
00:21:06,598 --> 00:21:08,600
So things, like, for them, are matching up.
369
00:21:08,700 --> 00:21:13,305
Adam Lyon here. Did you kill all those women or what?
370
00:21:13,405 --> 00:21:16,508
No, but I wish I did. I wish I did know who did.
371
00:21:25,817 --> 00:21:28,186
[Narrator]: When local cab driver Melvin Foster
372
00:21:28,287 --> 00:21:31,823
suddenly inserts himself into the Green River investigation
373
00:21:31,923 --> 00:21:33,859
in the autumn of 1982,
374
00:21:33,959 --> 00:21:37,095
it raises alarm bells for detectives.
375
00:21:37,195 --> 00:21:39,631
Unbeknownst to investigators,
376
00:21:39,731 --> 00:21:43,669
32-year-old divorced dad Gary Ridgway is also raising
377
00:21:43,769 --> 00:21:47,639
the eyebrows of his colleagues at the Kenworth truck factory
378
00:21:47,739 --> 00:21:50,709
with his own strange behavior.
379
00:21:50,809 --> 00:21:52,344
[Diane]: When I first met Gary,
380
00:21:52,444 --> 00:21:54,513
I just thought the weird little stuff he would say
381
00:21:54,613 --> 00:21:56,315
was just like quirks.
382
00:21:56,415 --> 00:21:57,749
Some of the girls that worked there
383
00:21:57,849 --> 00:22:01,053
he couldn't stand, he'd call them sluts
384
00:22:01,153 --> 00:22:05,857
'cause all they wanted to do is hook up and get F'ed,
385
00:22:05,957 --> 00:22:08,360
and I was like, "Calm down, Gary."
386
00:22:08,460 --> 00:22:09,861
Every time he turns red,
387
00:22:09,961 --> 00:22:12,664
I know he's gonna start saying crazy stuff.
388
00:22:12,764 --> 00:22:16,802
He would hide around the shop and stare at people.
389
00:22:16,902 --> 00:22:20,339
My sister-in-law would say stupid stuff to him.
390
00:22:20,439 --> 00:22:22,074
I used to tell her, "What are you doing?
391
00:22:22,174 --> 00:22:24,843
"You're poking the lion!" Just keep in your mind that
392
00:22:24,943 --> 00:22:28,714
he could be the Green River Killer.
393
00:22:28,814 --> 00:22:31,883
[Narrator]: While the killer continues to elude authorities,
394
00:22:31,983 --> 00:22:35,287
he does leave another calling card,
395
00:22:35,387 --> 00:22:36,822
only this time,
396
00:22:36,922 --> 00:22:41,093
it's nearly six miles away from the Green River.
397
00:22:41,193 --> 00:22:44,396
[Man]: Motorcyclist found a badly-decomposed nude body
398
00:22:44,496 --> 00:22:45,931
of a woman Saturday night.
399
00:22:46,031 --> 00:22:48,467
Police do believe that this latest victim
400
00:22:48,567 --> 00:22:51,737
is related to the Green River case.
401
00:22:51,837 --> 00:22:53,472
[Amanda]: She's found in a new spot.
402
00:22:53,572 --> 00:22:55,540
This was a wooded area that was very close
403
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:59,277
to the airport but still pretty secluded,
404
00:22:59,378 --> 00:23:01,680
pretty well-covered.
405
00:23:01,780 --> 00:23:04,983
[Narrator]: Police ID the body as Gisele Lovvorn,
406
00:23:05,083 --> 00:23:09,921
a 17-year-old sex worker missing for over two months.
407
00:23:10,021 --> 00:23:12,924
[Stephanie]: Gisele was smart. She had a 145 IQ.
408
00:23:13,024 --> 00:23:15,560
She had a lot going for her, but then of course,
409
00:23:15,660 --> 00:23:18,864
she met the wrong guy, and Gisele worked the streets
410
00:23:18,964 --> 00:23:24,436
in order to provide for her boyfriend/pimp.
411
00:23:24,536 --> 00:23:26,671
[Narrator]: Investigators soon realized
412
00:23:26,772 --> 00:23:30,509
they've stumbled upon another dumping site.
413
00:23:30,609 --> 00:23:32,477
The killer's change in dumping venues
414
00:23:32,577 --> 00:23:35,113
initially throws authorities.
415
00:23:35,213 --> 00:23:39,718
[Amanda]:I'm not sure how common it is to switch up your sites.
416
00:23:39,818 --> 00:23:41,319
[Man]: Another terrible discovery in the woods
417
00:23:41,420 --> 00:23:42,721
in south King County.
418
00:23:42,821 --> 00:23:44,990
They fear another victim of the Green River Killer.
419
00:23:45,090 --> 00:23:47,459
[Narrator]: Some suspect he's simply trying to stay
420
00:23:47,559 --> 00:23:48,994
one step ahead.
421
00:23:49,094 --> 00:23:51,596
[Amanda]: At the time, it was all over the media,
422
00:23:51,696 --> 00:23:56,067
so he was probably watching and following these stories
423
00:23:56,168 --> 00:23:57,969
and realized, okay,
424
00:23:58,069 --> 00:24:00,739
this is an area that they're watching very closely.
425
00:24:00,839 --> 00:24:02,741
So I think that was an act of self-preservation,
426
00:24:02,841 --> 00:24:05,310
honestly, to just kind of move a little bit
427
00:24:05,410 --> 00:24:07,479
where we're gonna go to dump these bodies
428
00:24:07,579 --> 00:24:10,649
so that I can evade capture.
429
00:24:10,749 --> 00:24:13,819
[Narrator]: By the fall of 1982,
430
00:24:13,919 --> 00:24:16,388
police attribute six murdered
431
00:24:16,488 --> 00:24:18,457
and scores of missing sex workers
432
00:24:18,557 --> 00:24:20,592
to the Green River Killer.
433
00:24:20,692 --> 00:24:24,496
[Dave]:People became frustrated: the media, the community,
434
00:24:24,596 --> 00:24:25,931
the command staff,
435
00:24:26,031 --> 00:24:28,433
the politicians who were providing the money
436
00:24:28,533 --> 00:24:30,635
to fund the task force,
437
00:24:30,735 --> 00:24:33,572
started to grow a little bit irritable.
438
00:24:33,672 --> 00:24:35,440
[Stephanie]: They were mothers, they were daughters,
439
00:24:35,540 --> 00:24:37,776
and they were sisters, they were friends,
440
00:24:37,876 --> 00:24:41,279
and they were loved by people and missed by people.
441
00:24:41,379 --> 00:24:42,881
They were important to somebody,
442
00:24:42,981 --> 00:24:45,183
and that's what really needed to register,
443
00:24:45,283 --> 00:24:49,488
and I think this became something people could relate to
444
00:24:49,588 --> 00:24:50,856
[Diane]: And I was scared to death
445
00:24:50,956 --> 00:24:52,924
because they couldn't find them.
446
00:24:53,024 --> 00:24:55,794
They were finding bodies every week.
447
00:24:55,894 --> 00:24:59,598
I mean, they were just dropping like flies.
448
00:24:59,698 --> 00:25:02,534
And I thought, man, this is horrifying.
449
00:25:02,634 --> 00:25:06,037
It's like a movie.
450
00:25:06,137 --> 00:25:07,606
[Narrator]: Marcia Ridgway is also
451
00:25:07,706 --> 00:25:09,641
growing increasingly concerned.
452
00:25:11,743 --> 00:25:14,479
The victims all worked in the Sea-Tac Strip
453
00:25:14,579 --> 00:25:17,883
near her ex-husband Gary's place,
454
00:25:17,983 --> 00:25:21,152
a place their seven-year-old son Matthew often visits.
455
00:25:23,355 --> 00:25:25,991
[Diane]: That's the Strip where a lot of the prostitutes
456
00:25:26,091 --> 00:25:28,693
will walk because it's close to the airports,
457
00:25:28,793 --> 00:25:32,597
and there's a bunch of cheap motels up and down there.
458
00:25:32,697 --> 00:25:35,367
And every time I've driven down that roads,
459
00:25:35,467 --> 00:25:39,271
there's at least 20 of them just hanging out down there.
460
00:25:57,923 --> 00:25:59,524
[Brittany]: Marcia was specifically fixated
461
00:25:59,624 --> 00:26:02,460
on the fact that Gary liked to take walks
462
00:26:02,561 --> 00:26:03,962
and go jogging in the area
463
00:26:04,062 --> 00:26:07,198
where these women were being abducted.
464
00:26:07,299 --> 00:26:10,001
[Stephanie]: As time went on, people began to get nervous,
465
00:26:10,101 --> 00:26:12,938
wondering if this man, if he's capable of
466
00:26:13,038 --> 00:26:15,407
killing these people over and over again
467
00:26:15,507 --> 00:26:19,911
where you're finding bodies in clusters around the city,
468
00:26:20,011 --> 00:26:23,281
then he's capable of anything.
469
00:26:23,381 --> 00:26:24,716
[Narrator]: With no other leads,
470
00:26:24,816 --> 00:26:26,952
detectives bring their main suspect back in
471
00:26:27,052 --> 00:26:30,956
for questioning, Melvin Foster.
472
00:26:31,056 --> 00:26:33,992
But the grilling goes nowhere.
473
00:26:34,092 --> 00:26:38,430
[Brittany]:He always denied that he had any direct part
474
00:26:38,530 --> 00:26:40,065
in the Green River killings.
475
00:26:40,165 --> 00:26:44,336
In fact, he told the task force he was going to sue them.
476
00:26:44,436 --> 00:26:45,770
He went to the local press.
477
00:26:45,870 --> 00:26:48,673
He said that they were harassing him.
478
00:26:48,773 --> 00:26:50,875
[Amanda]: More women were actually going missing
479
00:26:50,976 --> 00:26:53,612
while he was being tailed and surveilled,
480
00:26:53,712 --> 00:26:56,114
so it was starting to look more and more like
481
00:26:56,214 --> 00:26:57,716
he wasn't their guy.
482
00:27:02,587 --> 00:27:04,990
[Narrator]: By the spring of 1983,
483
00:27:05,090 --> 00:27:09,461
21 sex workers are reported missing,
484
00:27:09,561 --> 00:27:13,898
including 18-year-old Marie Malvar,
485
00:27:13,999 --> 00:27:17,736
only this time, there's a witness.
486
00:27:17,836 --> 00:27:19,137
[Stephanie]: What happened was,
487
00:27:19,237 --> 00:27:21,272
Marie ended up getting into a vehicle.
488
00:27:21,373 --> 00:27:22,674
This was a maroon truck,
489
00:27:22,774 --> 00:27:24,476
and what was distinctive about it was it had
490
00:27:24,576 --> 00:27:26,878
a spot of primer on it,
491
00:27:26,978 --> 00:27:30,248
and her boyfriend/pimp saw this from afar.
492
00:27:30,348 --> 00:27:33,351
He was watching, and he said it seemed like Marie was arguing
493
00:27:33,451 --> 00:27:35,620
with the guy a little bit but then she got in
494
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,222
and she drove away.
495
00:27:37,322 --> 00:27:39,824
[Amanda]: Marie's boyfriend had a bad feeling about it.
496
00:27:39,924 --> 00:27:42,227
He actually decided, "I'm gonna follow them."
497
00:27:42,327 --> 00:27:44,863
So he's following them,
498
00:27:44,963 --> 00:27:48,700
but then the maroon truck loses him,
499
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,403
and he can't find them.
500
00:27:54,439 --> 00:27:57,208
[Olivia]: Marie doesn't come back that night,
501
00:27:57,308 --> 00:27:58,643
so the next day,
502
00:27:58,743 --> 00:28:00,779
Marie's boyfriend goes to her father's house,
503
00:28:00,879 --> 00:28:02,981
tells him what he saw, and the father says,
504
00:28:03,081 --> 00:28:06,284
"Okay, you and I need to go find that truck."
505
00:28:06,384 --> 00:28:08,553
[Narrator]: The men search the surrounding area
506
00:28:08,653 --> 00:28:10,555
and eventually find what they believe
507
00:28:10,655 --> 00:28:13,058
is the same maroon pickup truck.
508
00:28:13,158 --> 00:28:16,928
It's parked in front of the home of a 34-year-old divorced dad
509
00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:20,965
and paint shop worker named Gary Ridgway.
510
00:28:25,003 --> 00:28:27,405
In early September 1983,
511
00:28:27,505 --> 00:28:30,909
Marie Malvar's family reports the missing 18-year-old
512
00:28:31,009 --> 00:28:34,913
sex worker's last known location to the local police,
513
00:28:35,013 --> 00:28:40,018
the home of 34-year-old divorced dad Gary Ridgway.
514
00:28:40,118 --> 00:28:43,388
Police arrive to question Ridgway when his son Matthew
515
00:28:43,488 --> 00:28:45,757
is staying at his mother's.
516
00:28:45,857 --> 00:28:47,459
The police officer who knocked on the door
517
00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:50,261
had actually gone to school with Gary Ridgway,
518
00:28:50,361 --> 00:28:52,263
so they knew each other,
519
00:28:52,363 --> 00:28:56,801
and the police basically asked, hey do you know this girl Marie?
520
00:28:56,901 --> 00:28:59,938
Gary said no. Do you know where she is? No.
521
00:29:00,038 --> 00:29:01,573
Is there anybody here with you?
522
00:29:01,673 --> 00:29:03,575
No. And the police left.
523
00:29:03,675 --> 00:29:06,044
They didn't ask to go inside, they didn't look inside.
524
00:29:06,144 --> 00:29:09,748
They didn't press him any further.
525
00:29:09,848 --> 00:29:12,050
[Olivia]: That's as far as it goes,
526
00:29:12,150 --> 00:29:15,053
which, to a lot of people, may seem crazy
527
00:29:15,153 --> 00:29:18,790
with so many women going missing and being murdered.
528
00:29:18,890 --> 00:29:21,126
[Amanda]: Maria was considered a missing person
529
00:29:21,226 --> 00:29:23,762
and was added to a list of names
530
00:29:23,862 --> 00:29:26,297
that were actively being investigated,
531
00:29:26,397 --> 00:29:31,603
and her story just kind of faded into the background.
532
00:29:31,703 --> 00:29:33,037
[Narrator]: For his part,
533
00:29:33,138 --> 00:29:35,874
Gary Ridgway quietly returns to his job
534
00:29:35,974 --> 00:29:38,810
at the Kenworth truck factory
535
00:29:38,910 --> 00:29:40,979
and spending weekends with his son Matthew,
536
00:29:41,079 --> 00:29:44,115
who turns 11 that same month.
537
00:29:44,215 --> 00:29:45,650
[Diane]: He loved his son.
538
00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:47,786
He'd say he was a good kid,
539
00:29:47,886 --> 00:29:50,655
and he was proud of him and stuff.
540
00:29:50,755 --> 00:29:54,192
He'd talk about how smart he was.
541
00:29:54,292 --> 00:29:55,994
[Narrator]: But while Gary and his son retreat
542
00:29:56,094 --> 00:30:02,033
to their happy home, outside, the darkness grows.
543
00:30:04,302 --> 00:30:07,739
By the end of November 1983, police have recovered
544
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:10,275
the bodies of 13 young women
545
00:30:10,375 --> 00:30:13,311
and list an additional 25 missing.
546
00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:18,917
Investigators look for a pattern to the locations,
547
00:30:19,017 --> 00:30:20,985
but can't find one.
548
00:30:21,085 --> 00:30:24,923
However, they do find other similarities.
549
00:30:25,023 --> 00:30:26,558
[Amanda]: The one thing that's connecting
550
00:30:26,658 --> 00:30:28,459
all of these cases to each other
551
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,361
was the cause of death.
552
00:30:30,461 --> 00:30:32,964
All of these women were strangled.
553
00:30:33,064 --> 00:30:36,100
[Narrator]: It's a fetish Marcia Ridgway knows well
554
00:30:36,201 --> 00:30:38,536
at the hands of her ex-husband, Gary.
555
00:31:12,370 --> 00:31:15,039
[Amanda]: Marcia said the sex became more aggressive,
556
00:31:15,139 --> 00:31:18,142
a little more violent, that they were going into
557
00:31:18,243 --> 00:31:21,045
some things that she wasn't very comfortable with,
558
00:31:21,145 --> 00:31:24,449
experimenting with a little bit of bondage and BDSM,
559
00:31:24,549 --> 00:31:28,186
and this was scary for Marcia. She really did not like it.
560
00:31:28,286 --> 00:31:30,722
[Stephanie]: The marriage between Marcia and Gary
561
00:31:30,822 --> 00:31:33,892
was a very unequal and toxic one.
562
00:31:33,992 --> 00:31:35,360
He was very controlling with her,
563
00:31:35,460 --> 00:31:37,962
and I think that this stemmed from his first wife
564
00:31:38,062 --> 00:31:39,530
leaving him for somebody else.
565
00:31:39,631 --> 00:31:44,969
That level of rejection for him, he never wanted to feel it again
566
00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:47,438
Gary Ridgway's first wife, Claudia,
567
00:31:47,538 --> 00:31:51,276
he basically married her right out of high school.
568
00:31:51,376 --> 00:31:53,144
The two of them had a little bit of
569
00:31:53,244 --> 00:31:54,913
a whirlwind romance.
570
00:31:55,013 --> 00:31:57,348
One could say it was highly physical,
571
00:31:57,448 --> 00:32:00,752
and then they got married at the end of the summer.
572
00:32:00,852 --> 00:32:04,222
[Narrator]: After graduation, Gary enlists in the Navy
573
00:32:04,322 --> 00:32:07,592
and is deployed to the Philippines.
574
00:32:07,692 --> 00:32:10,028
[Stephanie]: While he was away,
575
00:32:10,128 --> 00:32:12,096
Claudia started seeing somebody else,
576
00:32:12,196 --> 00:32:15,300
and by the time he got back, she was in another relationship,
577
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,037
so this marriage ended very poorly.
578
00:32:19,137 --> 00:32:22,540
[Michael]: I think Gary Ridgway, who was so susceptible to
579
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,410
profound feelings of rejection and abandonment,
580
00:32:25,510 --> 00:32:28,913
lashes out and he accuses her, "Oh, you must be a prostitute
581
00:32:29,013 --> 00:32:31,950
"if you're off sleeping with other people."
582
00:32:32,050 --> 00:32:35,053
[Narrator]: On May 8th, 1983,
583
00:32:35,153 --> 00:32:37,121
authorities discover what they believe
584
00:32:37,221 --> 00:32:40,692
is the Green River Killer's 14th victim
585
00:32:40,792 --> 00:32:42,060
when they find the body of
586
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,195
21-year-old Carol Anne Christensen
587
00:32:44,295 --> 00:32:48,666
in a wooded area southeast of Seattle.
588
00:32:48,766 --> 00:32:50,668
But some members on the task force
589
00:32:50,768 --> 00:32:52,837
aren't so sure.
590
00:32:52,937 --> 00:32:54,672
[Stephanie]: When Carol's body was found,
591
00:32:54,772 --> 00:32:58,343
it was completely different from all of the other victims.
592
00:32:58,443 --> 00:33:02,480
She was found with an empty bottle of wine
593
00:33:02,580 --> 00:33:07,385
in her hand and there were fish laid across her body.
594
00:33:07,485 --> 00:33:09,554
Another weird thing was she was dressed,
595
00:33:09,654 --> 00:33:13,891
but her clothes had been put on backwards.
596
00:33:13,992 --> 00:33:16,427
[Amanda]: It was just a bizarre scene
597
00:33:16,527 --> 00:33:18,696
that seemed very meticulously staged,
598
00:33:18,796 --> 00:33:21,165
almost in a ritualistic way,
599
00:33:21,265 --> 00:33:25,436
and it was very headscratching for investigators.
600
00:33:25,536 --> 00:33:30,041
[Narrator]: And there's another anomaly.
601
00:33:30,141 --> 00:33:32,243
Unlike like most of the other victims,
602
00:33:32,343 --> 00:33:36,314
Carol Christensen isn't a sex worker.
603
00:33:36,414 --> 00:33:38,216
[Stephanie]: She was a single mother raising a child
604
00:33:38,316 --> 00:33:41,419
and she had just gotten a job working at a restaurant.
605
00:33:41,519 --> 00:33:43,921
On her second day at this job,
606
00:33:44,022 --> 00:33:47,658
she was scheduled to come back that evening at the dinner shift
607
00:33:47,759 --> 00:33:49,727
She never came back to work that night.
608
00:33:49,827 --> 00:33:54,065
She never came home to be with her young daughter,
609
00:33:54,165 --> 00:33:55,566
and everybody who knew Carol
610
00:33:55,666 --> 00:33:58,669
knew that it was completely out of character.
611
00:33:58,770 --> 00:34:00,438
[Frank]: The detective that was working that
612
00:34:00,538 --> 00:34:03,007
had pretty much eliminated her ex-husband
613
00:34:03,107 --> 00:34:06,711
and had pretty much come to a dead end.
614
00:34:06,811 --> 00:34:08,613
[Dave]: There were detectives that believed that
615
00:34:08,713 --> 00:34:11,582
it wasn't connected, but there were those of us
616
00:34:11,682 --> 00:34:14,285
who said, look, she's been strangled
617
00:34:14,385 --> 00:34:16,054
and she's been placed in the woods,
618
00:34:16,154 --> 00:34:18,222
and we're in the middle of a serial murder case
619
00:34:18,322 --> 00:34:20,758
where females strangled, placed in the woods
620
00:34:20,858 --> 00:34:22,560
should be on our list
621
00:34:22,660 --> 00:34:25,963
as a possible potential Green River victim.
622
00:34:26,064 --> 00:34:29,267
Reichert and his colleagues went out.
623
00:34:29,367 --> 00:34:31,469
Carol Anne Christensen is not only declared
624
00:34:31,569 --> 00:34:35,239
the Green River Killer's 14th victim,
625
00:34:35,339 --> 00:34:39,644
she may hold the key to crack the case wide open.
626
00:34:39,744 --> 00:34:43,548
[Frank]: They found a very small amount of semen
627
00:34:43,648 --> 00:34:46,184
on the outside of her clothing, and that was collected
628
00:34:46,284 --> 00:34:50,054
basically for a blood type analysis.
629
00:34:50,154 --> 00:34:52,557
We were looking for actually a blood type,
630
00:34:52,657 --> 00:34:55,059
because DNA was not a science, it was too soon.
631
00:34:55,159 --> 00:34:59,430
The science was not quite there yet.
632
00:34:59,530 --> 00:35:01,199
[Narrator]: In the early 1980s,
633
00:35:01,299 --> 00:35:03,768
DNA analysis hasn't become standard
634
00:35:03,868 --> 00:35:07,138
in criminal investigations,
635
00:35:07,238 --> 00:35:10,408
so authorities preserve the sample hoping one day
636
00:35:10,508 --> 00:35:12,810
it will prove the lynchpin in their case
637
00:35:12,910 --> 00:35:14,212
and finally bring
638
00:35:14,312 --> 00:35:17,448
the Green River Killer to justice.
639
00:35:23,554 --> 00:35:25,423
[Man]: Medical examiners pick up the remains
640
00:35:25,523 --> 00:35:28,559
in a relatively small bundle readying them for autopsy.
641
00:35:28,659 --> 00:35:30,962
Detectives say they expected to find one skeleton
642
00:35:31,062 --> 00:35:32,630
after a skull was found Saturday,
643
00:35:32,730 --> 00:35:37,235
but the unexpected discovery of three has left them shaken.
644
00:35:37,335 --> 00:35:38,569
[Stephanie]: Over the following weeks,
645
00:35:38,669 --> 00:35:40,938
they would go on to find four more bodies
646
00:35:41,038 --> 00:35:43,508
in this same area, this cluster,
647
00:35:43,608 --> 00:35:48,279
and one of these women was 18-year-old Mary Bridget Meehan.
648
00:35:48,379 --> 00:35:50,448
She was eight months pregnant.
649
00:35:50,548 --> 00:35:52,316
[Narrator]: Unlike the other victims,
650
00:35:52,416 --> 00:35:55,319
Meehan does not come from a broken home.
651
00:35:55,419 --> 00:35:57,388
She was born to an Irish Catholic family.
652
00:35:57,488 --> 00:35:59,524
She was very religious.
653
00:35:59,624 --> 00:36:01,626
This was a very good family.
654
00:36:01,726 --> 00:36:04,295
With Bridget's parents, they cared very deeply,
655
00:36:04,395 --> 00:36:06,864
and they tried to protect her, but in the end,
656
00:36:06,964 --> 00:36:09,233
she did end up getting in with the wrong crowd,
657
00:36:09,333 --> 00:36:12,103
even though she was very smart.
658
00:36:12,203 --> 00:36:13,538
Every couple of weeks,
659
00:36:13,638 --> 00:36:15,406
another girl's body was turning up.
660
00:36:15,506 --> 00:36:17,108
Every time you turned on the news
661
00:36:17,208 --> 00:36:19,310
or opened the paper, you saw,
662
00:36:19,410 --> 00:36:23,748
"New Green River Killer victim found."
663
00:36:23,848 --> 00:36:27,852
[Dave]: In January of 1984, a new sheriff was appointed,
664
00:36:27,952 --> 00:36:29,554
and right away said,
665
00:36:29,654 --> 00:36:31,656
"We need to do something about this case,
666
00:36:31,756 --> 00:36:34,692
"and we're going to put together an enhanced taks force"
667
00:36:34,792 --> 00:36:36,928
because the bodies were piling up,
668
00:36:37,028 --> 00:36:39,096
because we had so many leads.
669
00:36:39,197 --> 00:36:41,899
We just needed help.
670
00:36:41,999 --> 00:36:44,802
[Narrator]: By the end of 1984,
671
00:36:44,902 --> 00:36:49,140
authorities have recovered a total of 27 bodies,
672
00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:53,377
and 14 women are still missing.
673
00:36:53,477 --> 00:36:57,348
Because the tip linking Gary Ridgway with Marie Malvar
674
00:36:57,448 --> 00:37:00,184
is never registered with the task force,
675
00:37:00,284 --> 00:37:04,188
investigators are left with one viable suspect.
676
00:37:04,288 --> 00:37:08,292
Did you kill all those women or what?
677
00:37:08,392 --> 00:37:09,961
No, but I wish I did.
678
00:37:10,061 --> 00:37:12,096
I wish I did know who did.
679
00:37:12,196 --> 00:37:16,434
I talked to the detectives and I asked,
680
00:37:16,534 --> 00:37:18,336
who are your suspects?
681
00:37:18,436 --> 00:37:20,671
Who's your best suspect?
682
00:37:20,771 --> 00:37:26,644
And David's best suspect at the time was Melvin Foster.
683
00:37:26,744 --> 00:37:29,413
[Narrator]: When Foster suddenly puts his car up for sale,
684
00:37:29,513 --> 00:37:33,484
an undercover officer buys it for $1200,
685
00:37:33,584 --> 00:37:35,386
hoping a thorough search will provide them
686
00:37:35,486 --> 00:37:37,622
with the evidence they need.
687
00:37:37,722 --> 00:37:39,323
[Dave]: We discovered nude photographs
688
00:37:39,423 --> 00:37:41,659
in the trunk of his car of young prostitutes.
689
00:37:41,759 --> 00:37:45,296
We found women's clothing and underwear
690
00:37:45,396 --> 00:37:49,400
hidden under the mat and under the backseat.
691
00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:51,435
[Amanda]: They comb it top to bottom,
692
00:37:51,535 --> 00:37:56,474
but in terms of evidence, they come up with nothing.
693
00:37:56,574 --> 00:38:00,111
[Narrator]: Then, in 1985,
694
00:38:00,211 --> 00:38:02,613
just like that,
695
00:38:02,713 --> 00:38:05,416
the killings appear to stop.
696
00:38:05,516 --> 00:38:06,984
[Amanda]: A lot of times, this will happen
697
00:38:07,084 --> 00:38:11,255
if a suspect was maybe arrested on other charges.
698
00:38:11,355 --> 00:38:14,358
Maybe the suspect died without investigators
699
00:38:14,458 --> 00:38:16,527
ever knowing who this person was.
700
00:38:16,627 --> 00:38:20,698
Maybe they had a big life change that just, maybe they moved away
701
00:38:20,798 --> 00:38:23,267
I mean, there are things that can happen
702
00:38:23,367 --> 00:38:25,503
that kind of trigger these cooling-off periods
703
00:38:25,603 --> 00:38:28,339
in a serial killer investigation.
704
00:38:28,439 --> 00:38:30,441
[John]: To go from that sort of volume
705
00:38:30,541 --> 00:38:33,978
to really not seeing much movement at all.
706
00:38:34,078 --> 00:38:35,980
Kind of made things more difficult, you know?
707
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:38,416
People just don't stop killing out of the blue.
708
00:38:38,516 --> 00:38:41,052
Serial killers continue to kill until they're caught,
709
00:38:41,152 --> 00:38:43,654
so this was very hard to work with
710
00:38:43,754 --> 00:38:46,424
for the Green River task force.
711
00:38:46,524 --> 00:38:48,192
[Narrator]: But the killer doesn't disappear
712
00:38:48,292 --> 00:38:51,896
before first passing a macabre milestone.
713
00:38:51,996 --> 00:38:57,134
He becomes the most prolific serial killer in US history
714
00:38:57,234 --> 00:39:00,471
with a body count in the 40s.
715
00:39:00,571 --> 00:39:04,008
[Michael]: The number of bodies is almost hard for us
716
00:39:04,108 --> 00:39:05,543
to even wrap our head around.
717
00:39:05,643 --> 00:39:07,545
At a certain point, they stop being individuals
718
00:39:07,645 --> 00:39:10,748
and it starts being a statistic.
719
00:39:10,848 --> 00:39:14,719
[Frank]: It was terribly depressing,
720
00:39:14,819 --> 00:39:18,356
working these cases and not solving them
721
00:39:18,456 --> 00:39:21,459
and thinking there's other victims out there,
722
00:39:21,559 --> 00:39:26,597
and in some way, you know, we're repsonsible for that.
723
00:39:26,697 --> 00:39:30,234
I was burned out. I'd gone to too many scenes.
724
00:39:30,334 --> 00:39:34,205
Too many bones, too many dead bodies.
725
00:39:34,305 --> 00:39:35,706
[Narrator]: As the task force stalls,
726
00:39:35,806 --> 00:39:39,076
life for Gary Ridgway heats up
727
00:39:39,176 --> 00:39:43,414
when he begins dating 41-year-old Judith Mawson.
728
00:39:43,514 --> 00:39:45,015
[Amanda]: Judith had been coming out of
729
00:39:45,116 --> 00:39:49,220
an abusive relationship herself, and so when she meets Gary,
730
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,356
he's sort of like the all-American man,
731
00:39:52,456 --> 00:39:55,259
and they connected immediately.
732
00:39:55,359 --> 00:39:56,627
It was almost like love at first sight
733
00:39:56,727 --> 00:39:58,696
between the two of them.
734
00:39:58,796 --> 00:40:02,633
[Stephanie]: She thought he was handsome and strong and safe,
735
00:40:02,733 --> 00:40:05,169
and he was good to her.
736
00:40:05,269 --> 00:40:07,338
I think that's what attracted her more than anything,
737
00:40:07,438 --> 00:40:08,706
the way he treated her,
738
00:40:08,806 --> 00:40:13,811
the way that he made her feel about herself.
739
00:40:13,911 --> 00:40:16,347
[Pennie]: Eventually, Judith found out that
740
00:40:16,447 --> 00:40:20,418
Gary was the father of Matthew, and Judith got to know Matthew,
741
00:40:20,518 --> 00:40:22,586
and she really, really liked the boy.
742
00:40:22,686 --> 00:40:25,923
They went on bicycle rides, they went camping,
743
00:40:26,023 --> 00:40:28,292
they went hiking.
744
00:40:28,392 --> 00:40:29,794
[Narrator]: Hiking in the same woods
745
00:40:29,894 --> 00:40:33,197
the Green River Killer's secretly depositing his victims.
746
00:40:38,803 --> 00:40:42,573
Then, years after Marie Malvar is last seen climbing
747
00:40:42,673 --> 00:40:46,010
into a dark red pickup of an unknown john,
748
00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:48,813
the task force learns the identity of the man
749
00:40:48,913 --> 00:40:53,484
she was last seen with: Gary Ridgway.
750
00:40:55,553 --> 00:40:58,022
They also discover Ridgway had been picked up
751
00:40:58,122 --> 00:41:03,694
for soliciting prostitution three years earlier in 1982.
752
00:41:03,794 --> 00:41:06,964
Investigators ask Ridgway to come in for an interview,
753
00:41:07,064 --> 00:41:10,334
and he readily agrees.
754
00:41:10,434 --> 00:41:11,869
[Stephanie]: He had this very open tone.
755
00:41:11,969 --> 00:41:14,004
He'd be like, "Hey, guys, what's going on?"
756
00:41:14,104 --> 00:41:15,473
And Gary basically said,
757
00:41:15,573 --> 00:41:18,409
yes, I've had sex with prostitutes before,
758
00:41:18,509 --> 00:41:20,544
but I didn't kill any of them.
759
00:41:20,644 --> 00:41:22,346
and then they asked him to take a polygraph.
760
00:41:22,446 --> 00:41:24,081
He said, okay.
761
00:41:24,181 --> 00:41:27,952
[Olivia]: It's somewhat unclear what happened with
762
00:41:28,052 --> 00:41:32,189
Ridgway's polygraph, but it's been widely reported
763
00:41:32,289 --> 00:41:34,458
that he passed.
764
00:41:34,558 --> 00:41:36,627
It definitely wasn't the smoking gun
765
00:41:36,727 --> 00:41:40,097
they were looking for, and in light of that,
766
00:41:40,197 --> 00:41:42,399
they let him go.
767
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:46,170
[Narrator]: Once again, the case stalls.
768
00:41:46,270 --> 00:41:49,073
That's when investigators get a surprising offer
769
00:41:49,173 --> 00:41:51,709
from an unlikely ally.
770
00:41:51,809 --> 00:41:54,879
[Dave]: We received a letter from Ted Bundy,
771
00:41:54,979 --> 00:41:58,048
who was in prison in Starke, Florida,
772
00:41:58,148 --> 00:42:01,819
and the letter said, "I've been following this case,
773
00:42:01,919 --> 00:42:04,655
"and I believe that I can be of some help.
774
00:42:04,755 --> 00:42:07,892
"Don't ask why I think I can be of help,
775
00:42:07,992 --> 00:42:11,629
"but just know that I know I might be able to help you
776
00:42:11,729 --> 00:42:15,065
"and your investigators get into the mind
777
00:42:15,165 --> 00:42:17,234
"of a serial killer."
778
00:42:17,334 --> 00:42:18,736
[Narrator]: At the time,
779
00:42:18,836 --> 00:42:21,105
Bundy is the most notorious captured serial killer
780
00:42:21,205 --> 00:42:23,941
in American history,
781
00:42:24,041 --> 00:42:27,211
suspected of killing 30 women across seven states
782
00:42:27,311 --> 00:42:30,814
between 1974 and 1978.
783
00:42:33,784 --> 00:42:38,556
Detectives fly to Florida to meet with Bundy on death row.
784
00:42:38,656 --> 00:42:40,357
[Dave]: I remember when I first met him,
785
00:42:40,457 --> 00:42:41,992
and he was so excited.
786
00:42:42,092 --> 00:42:43,827
Wanted to shake hands, just so, you know,
787
00:42:43,928 --> 00:42:46,830
"Pleasure to meet you and have you here in my prison,"
788
00:42:46,931 --> 00:42:49,767
and I remembered thinking, how many lives
789
00:42:49,867 --> 00:42:53,737
has this hand squeezed out, has snuffed out?
790
00:42:53,837 --> 00:42:55,272
[Narrator]: The men talked for hours,
791
00:42:55,372 --> 00:42:58,776
with Bundy offering some surprising insights.
792
00:42:58,876 --> 00:43:00,978
[Stephanie]: One thing that Ted Bundy did say that
793
00:43:01,078 --> 00:43:03,047
he believed that the Green River Killer,
794
00:43:03,147 --> 00:43:06,717
whoever he might be, could be returning to the scenes
795
00:43:06,817 --> 00:43:10,421
and having sex with the dead bodies of his victims.
796
00:43:10,521 --> 00:43:13,657
[Amanda]: Ted Bundy infamously is also a necrophile,
797
00:43:13,757 --> 00:43:15,693
so it's almost like he could see
798
00:43:15,793 --> 00:43:17,795
the monster in himself playing out in
799
00:43:17,895 --> 00:43:19,730
the Green River Killer.
800
00:43:19,830 --> 00:43:22,766
[Brittany]: Nobody at that point had even considered
801
00:43:22,866 --> 00:43:26,103
that the Green River Killer was also a necrophile.
802
00:43:26,203 --> 00:43:31,575
It's a whole different layer of disgusting.
803
00:43:31,675 --> 00:43:33,744
[Narrator]: In June 1986,
804
00:43:33,844 --> 00:43:37,648
the skeletal remains of 19-year-old Kimberly Nelson,
805
00:43:37,748 --> 00:43:40,584
a known sex worker last seen on the Sea-Tac Strip
806
00:43:40,684 --> 00:43:42,386
three years earlier,
807
00:43:42,486 --> 00:43:46,757
are discovered in a wooded area 35 miles east of Seattle.
808
00:43:48,859 --> 00:43:52,696
Paige Miley, Nelson's associate, tells detectives that
809
00:43:52,796 --> 00:43:55,232
after her friend disappeared,
810
00:43:55,332 --> 00:43:58,902
she was approached by a strange man in his mid-30s
811
00:43:59,003 --> 00:44:01,905
driving a maroon pickup truck.
812
00:44:02,006 --> 00:44:05,175
[Amanda]: She was actually able to sit down with investigators
813
00:44:05,275 --> 00:44:08,312
and give a description of this man that led to
814
00:44:08,412 --> 00:44:12,049
what was, really, the first comprehensive
815
00:44:12,149 --> 00:44:15,052
usable sketch
816
00:44:15,152 --> 00:44:19,523
to be presented in this case.
817
00:44:19,623 --> 00:44:20,824
[Diane]: You could tell it was Gary.
818
00:44:20,924 --> 00:44:22,359
It's a mirror image.
819
00:44:22,459 --> 00:44:27,164
The hair, the piercing eyes, the nose, everything.
820
00:44:27,264 --> 00:44:30,401
It looked just like him.
821
00:44:30,501 --> 00:44:33,303
[Narrator]: Shortly after police release the sketch,
822
00:44:33,404 --> 00:44:37,341
20-year-old Rebecca Garde comes forward with this claim
823
00:44:37,441 --> 00:44:39,176
about a man who picked her up.
824
00:45:17,548 --> 00:45:19,550
[Narrator]: Garde recalls the man was also driving
825
00:45:19,650 --> 00:45:24,254
a dark-colored pickup truck with a canopy top over the bed,
826
00:45:24,354 --> 00:45:28,358
and he's a dead ringer for the composite sketch.
827
00:45:28,459 --> 00:45:30,728
[Stephanie]: She says, yes, that looks like my attacker,
828
00:45:30,828 --> 00:45:32,696
and then she starts going through mugshots,
829
00:45:32,796 --> 00:45:35,766
and she picks out the mugshot of Gary Ridgway.
830
00:45:41,305 --> 00:45:43,774
[Narrator]: Based on two eyewitness accounts,
831
00:45:43,874 --> 00:45:45,943
investigators believe they are zeroing in
832
00:45:46,043 --> 00:45:47,878
on the Green River Killer,
833
00:45:47,978 --> 00:45:52,983
37-year-old divorced dad Gary Leon Ridgway.
834
00:45:53,083 --> 00:45:55,119
[John]: They had Gary's photo in the system,
835
00:45:55,219 --> 00:45:56,887
and when they showed it to Paige Miley
836
00:45:56,987 --> 00:46:01,825
and Rebecca Garde Guay, they said, "That's him."
837
00:46:01,925 --> 00:46:04,094
[Olivia]: Rebecca coming forward with her story
838
00:46:04,194 --> 00:46:07,264
and ultimately identifying Ridgway as her attacker
839
00:46:07,364 --> 00:46:12,603
was really what put him in the forefront
840
00:46:12,703 --> 00:46:15,973
as the prime suspect.
841
00:46:16,073 --> 00:46:20,077
[Narrator]: Police immediately place Ridgway under surveillance
842
00:46:20,177 --> 00:46:21,678
[Stephanie]: They followed him, they watched him,
843
00:46:21,779 --> 00:46:24,681
they saw him going to the Strip, they saw him talking to women,
844
00:46:24,782 --> 00:46:26,917
but he never killed anybody.
845
00:46:34,258 --> 00:46:36,727
[Narrator]: On April 7th, 1987,
846
00:46:36,827 --> 00:46:40,297
police search Ridgway's vehicles,
847
00:46:40,397 --> 00:46:43,233
home, and work locker.
848
00:46:45,669 --> 00:46:48,605
[Diane]: One of my friends called me at home and said,
849
00:46:48,705 --> 00:46:50,340
"You're not gonna believe this.
850
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,310
"They came and got a bunch of stuff from Gary.
851
00:46:53,410 --> 00:46:55,612
"They took his clothes and everything."
852
00:46:55,712 --> 00:46:59,016
It felt like a punch in my stomach.
853
00:46:59,116 --> 00:47:01,018
[Narrator]: Investigators comb through every item
854
00:47:01,118 --> 00:47:04,254
in Gary Ridgway's possession, looking for anything
855
00:47:04,354 --> 00:47:06,490
that might connect him to the murders.
856
00:47:10,894 --> 00:47:12,429
The news leaves Gary's son,
857
00:47:12,529 --> 00:47:16,200
Matthew, who is 12 years old at the time, confused.
858
00:47:42,292 --> 00:47:44,328
[Stephanie]: Marcia told Matthew to say, "No comment,"
859
00:47:44,428 --> 00:47:47,231
most likely because she didn't want him involved.
860
00:47:47,331 --> 00:47:50,000
She didn't want his face on the news.
861
00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:53,570
She didn't want him to be known as the son of
862
00:47:53,670 --> 00:47:57,875
a potential killer, or even a suspected killer.
863
00:47:57,975 --> 00:47:59,710
[Narrator]: Perhaps no one's more shocked than
864
00:47:59,810 --> 00:48:04,581
Ridgway's new girlfriend, Judith Mawson.
865
00:48:04,681 --> 00:48:08,552
[Judith]: He was reassuring me that everything would be okay.
866
00:48:08,652 --> 00:48:09,853
It was painful.
867
00:48:09,953 --> 00:48:11,622
Judith was crying.
868
00:48:11,722 --> 00:48:15,993
She was sobbing into his chest and asking, "What is happening?
869
00:48:16,093 --> 00:48:17,928
"Why are they talking to you?"
870
00:48:18,028 --> 00:48:21,965
And she said that Gary was calm, matter-of-fact.
871
00:48:22,065 --> 00:48:24,601
He just simply said, "The police are doing their job,
872
00:48:24,701 --> 00:48:27,471
"and they're looking at a lot of different individuals.
873
00:48:27,571 --> 00:48:29,840
"They made a mistake. "They got the wrong guy.
874
00:48:29,940 --> 00:48:32,209
"Everything's gonna be fine."
875
00:48:32,309 --> 00:48:33,877
[Amanda]: I can't even imagine how frustrating
876
00:48:33,977 --> 00:48:36,413
this entire investigation must have been
877
00:48:36,513 --> 00:48:37,915
for the task force,
878
00:48:38,015 --> 00:48:41,084
because now they've had multiple strong leads,
879
00:48:41,184 --> 00:48:43,020
and they have another really strong lead
880
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:46,223
pointing them to Gary Ridgway.
881
00:48:46,323 --> 00:48:48,592
[Stephanie]: However, the police found nothing.
882
00:48:48,692 --> 00:48:50,060
Literally nothing.
883
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:51,929
Nothing in his house, nothing in his car,
884
00:48:52,029 --> 00:48:55,532
nothing in his locker, completely clean.
885
00:48:55,632 --> 00:48:58,802
[Brittany]: Gary Ridgway came off as a normal loving dad,
886
00:48:58,902 --> 00:49:00,370
a doting husband.
887
00:49:03,674 --> 00:49:06,176
[Narrator]: One year later,
888
00:49:06,276 --> 00:49:08,478
Ridgway's luck continues to improve
889
00:49:08,578 --> 00:49:13,650
when he and his girlfriend Judith Mawson marry.
890
00:49:13,750 --> 00:49:16,787
[Amanda]: They have a lovely little intimate wedding.
891
00:49:16,887 --> 00:49:19,089
A neighbor hosted it in their yard.
892
00:49:19,189 --> 00:49:21,758
One of his coworkers is his best man.
893
00:49:21,858 --> 00:49:25,362
It's just a very happy joyful time.
894
00:49:25,462 --> 00:49:27,864
Judith really loved Gary's son Matthew,
895
00:49:27,965 --> 00:49:30,000
and Matthew spent a lot of time at the house
896
00:49:30,100 --> 00:49:31,335
with Gary and Judith.
897
00:49:31,435 --> 00:49:32,970
They really blended their families
898
00:49:33,070 --> 00:49:35,272
in a pretty seamless and beautiful way,
899
00:49:35,372 --> 00:49:38,542
and they had a lovely life together.
900
00:49:38,642 --> 00:49:43,547
[Judith]: He made me feel like a newlywed every day.
901
00:49:43,647 --> 00:49:46,283
[Narrator]: It seems Gary is finally ready to turn the page
902
00:49:46,383 --> 00:49:49,619
on his contentious divorce with his ex.
903
00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:51,455
[Brittany]: Gary shows up at Marcia's house
904
00:49:51,555 --> 00:49:55,158
with a box of women's lingerie and clothing items,
905
00:49:55,258 --> 00:49:58,061
and he insists that these must be things
906
00:49:58,161 --> 00:50:01,798
that she left at the house, and Marcia tells him,
907
00:50:01,898 --> 00:50:04,801
"Well, these are all items from a much smaller woman.
908
00:50:04,901 --> 00:50:06,169
"Take them back," and he goes,
909
00:50:06,269 --> 00:50:07,838
"Oh, well, I thought they were yours."
910
00:50:07,938 --> 00:50:10,307
And he just leaves the box at her house
911
00:50:10,407 --> 00:50:14,444
in an almost perverse way of letting her know
912
00:50:14,544 --> 00:50:17,114
that he's having sex with other women.
913
00:50:17,214 --> 00:50:18,915
[Narrator]: As Gary and his new bride
914
00:50:19,016 --> 00:50:21,318
quietly enjoy their new life together,
915
00:50:21,418 --> 00:50:25,689
the Green River task force continues to stall.
916
00:50:25,789 --> 00:50:29,459
In 1989, it disbands entirely,
917
00:50:29,559 --> 00:50:33,997
bringing its six-year manhunt to a painful end.
918
00:50:34,097 --> 00:50:35,365
[Dave]: I was angry about that.
919
00:50:35,465 --> 00:50:37,401
All those years of beating your head
920
00:50:37,501 --> 00:50:40,070
against the wall with all that information.
921
00:50:40,170 --> 00:50:43,774
I packed all my stuff up in a little cardboard box.
922
00:50:43,874 --> 00:50:48,145
I said, well, you know, after all that effort, this is it?
923
00:50:48,245 --> 00:50:50,280
[Amanda]: I think people really felt like
924
00:50:50,380 --> 00:50:52,249
this was a cold case
925
00:50:52,349 --> 00:50:55,485
and that they may never know what happened to these women
926
00:50:55,585 --> 00:50:58,188
or who was responsible for their deaths.
927
00:51:03,493 --> 00:51:07,497
[Narrator]: Nearly 40 murders remain unsolved.
928
00:51:07,597 --> 00:51:10,534
Close to a decade passes without the discovery
929
00:51:10,634 --> 00:51:13,370
of any new bodies.
930
00:51:13,470 --> 00:51:15,272
It seems like the Green River Killer's
931
00:51:15,372 --> 00:51:20,077
long shadow over the Seattle area is finally receding,
932
00:51:20,177 --> 00:51:23,346
but Dave Reichert can't let it go.
933
00:51:23,447 --> 00:51:26,716
In 1997, he's appointed King County Sheriff
934
00:51:26,817 --> 00:51:30,187
and reopens the case.
935
00:51:30,287 --> 00:51:33,156
[Dave]: The pictures of their faces
936
00:51:33,256 --> 00:51:35,792
and the pictures of the sites where they were found,
937
00:51:35,892 --> 00:51:38,228
they're still fresh in my mind.
938
00:51:38,328 --> 00:51:40,163
To be able to be all of a sudden
939
00:51:40,263 --> 00:51:41,965
be in a position now to make that decision,
940
00:51:42,065 --> 00:51:44,634
we're going to solve this case.
941
00:51:44,734 --> 00:51:46,336
[Narrator]: Reichert's recently heard of
942
00:51:46,436 --> 00:51:48,405
a new cutting-edge technology
943
00:51:48,505 --> 00:51:51,641
that might finally help crack it:
944
00:51:51,741 --> 00:51:54,444
DNA testing.
945
00:51:54,544 --> 00:51:58,181
[Dave]: There was a lot more discussion about DNA science
946
00:51:58,281 --> 00:52:00,851
and the progression of DNA science and where it was
947
00:52:00,951 --> 00:52:05,088
and the possibilities of some lab being able to examine
948
00:52:05,188 --> 00:52:07,491
our DNA evidence.
949
00:52:07,591 --> 00:52:09,326
[Amanda]: They were able to collect semen
950
00:52:09,426 --> 00:52:11,495
from three of the victims.
951
00:52:11,595 --> 00:52:14,197
They also had some DNA from the suspects.
952
00:52:14,297 --> 00:52:15,632
They had some saliva.
953
00:52:15,732 --> 00:52:19,035
They also had a little bit of hair.
954
00:52:19,136 --> 00:52:20,437
[Narrator]: If investigators
955
00:52:20,537 --> 00:52:22,639
can connect the victims' DNA samples to those
956
00:52:22,739 --> 00:52:26,176
collected from their potential suspects,
957
00:52:26,276 --> 00:52:28,745
it could be the smoking gun they need to bring
958
00:52:28,845 --> 00:52:31,948
the mysterious killer's nearly 20-year reing of terror
959
00:52:32,048 --> 00:52:33,717
to an end.
960
00:52:37,888 --> 00:52:40,257
[Narrator]: Two decades after the disocvery of
961
00:52:40,357 --> 00:52:44,361
the Green River Killer's first victim,
962
00:52:44,461 --> 00:52:46,663
Sheriff Dave Reichert is on the verge of cracking
963
00:52:46,763 --> 00:52:50,433
the deadliest cold case in American history.
964
00:52:50,534 --> 00:52:52,402
[Brittany]: The crime lab called Dave Reichert
965
00:52:52,502 --> 00:52:54,971
and said that they think that they have enough
966
00:52:55,071 --> 00:52:59,242
to potentially make a connection.
967
00:52:59,342 --> 00:53:02,078
[Narrator]: In 2001, the Washington crime lab
968
00:53:02,179 --> 00:53:04,381
matches the DNA profile of the semen
969
00:53:04,481 --> 00:53:09,519
found on one of the victims to a suspect.
970
00:53:09,619 --> 00:53:15,058
Reichert recalls the moment he received the landmark news.
971
00:53:15,158 --> 00:53:16,693
[Dave]: I looked at Tom and I said,
972
00:53:16,793 --> 00:53:22,566
"Tom, are you trying to tell me that we caught the guy?"
973
00:53:22,666 --> 00:53:25,168
And he just kind of smiled a little bit,
974
00:53:25,268 --> 00:53:27,070
and then he reached into his pocket
975
00:53:27,170 --> 00:53:30,273
and he pulled out this envelope and he handed it to me.
976
00:53:30,373 --> 00:53:33,910
He says, "Yeah, Dave, and his name is in here."
977
00:53:34,010 --> 00:53:37,113
I opened it up, and it's the mugshot of Ridgway
978
00:53:37,214 --> 00:53:40,550
when he was arrested in early 1982
979
00:53:40,650 --> 00:53:44,221
for patronizing a prostitute.
980
00:53:44,321 --> 00:53:47,524
It was quite an emotional...
981
00:53:47,624 --> 00:53:49,292
Quite an emotional moment.
982
00:53:52,429 --> 00:53:54,497
[Narrator]: Gary Ridgway,
983
00:53:54,598 --> 00:53:58,969
the unsuspecting father, husband and factory worker.
984
00:54:02,038 --> 00:54:05,008
On November 30th, 2001,
985
00:54:05,108 --> 00:54:08,511
after nearly two decades terrorizing the Seattle region
986
00:54:08,612 --> 00:54:11,881
and captivating the nation,
987
00:54:11,982 --> 00:54:15,919
investigators quietly arrest Gary Ridgway at his job
988
00:54:16,019 --> 00:54:18,088
at the Kenworth truck factory.
989
00:54:18,188 --> 00:54:21,124
[Amanda]: They actually just let him finish his shift,
990
00:54:21,224 --> 00:54:23,260
and they confronted him as he was walking
991
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:25,462
out of the building, and allegedly,
992
00:54:25,562 --> 00:54:28,265
when they read him his rights and arrested him,
993
00:54:28,365 --> 00:54:29,899
he just sort of said, "Okay."
994
00:54:32,035 --> 00:54:35,972
[Dave]: As he walked past me, I looked him straight in the eye,
995
00:54:36,072 --> 00:54:39,609
and he looked at me, and I said, "Got you, asshole."
996
00:54:42,779 --> 00:54:45,081
[Diane]: My brother called me and he said, "Guess what?
997
00:54:45,181 --> 00:54:46,883
"They caught the Green River Killer!"
998
00:54:46,983 --> 00:54:50,020
And I said, "His name wasn't Gary Ridgway, was it?"
999
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:51,921
And he goes, "How did you know?"
1000
00:54:52,022 --> 00:54:54,991
I'd been telling you, I worked with him at Kenworth!
1001
00:54:55,091 --> 00:54:59,162
I was one of the fooled, because he could be charming.
1002
00:54:59,262 --> 00:55:01,531
He could be fun, he could be helpful.
1003
00:55:01,631 --> 00:55:03,933
He's a very intelligent person.
1004
00:55:06,303 --> 00:55:07,604
[Narrator]: Police bring in
1005
00:55:07,704 --> 00:55:09,873
Ridgway's 26-year-old son Matthew
1006
00:55:09,973 --> 00:55:12,976
now serving with the Marines in California for questioning.
1007
00:55:47,444 --> 00:55:48,878
[Michael]: When you listen to those tapes,
1008
00:55:48,978 --> 00:55:52,515
Matthew's behavior and emotional range
1009
00:55:52,615 --> 00:55:55,885
was very underwhelming, very flat and two-dimensional.
1010
00:55:55,985 --> 00:55:59,756
I get the sense that Matthew was torn between
1011
00:55:59,856 --> 00:56:01,691
what he thought of his dad, protecting his dad
1012
00:56:01,791 --> 00:56:04,794
and his love for his dad versus the reality of
1013
00:56:04,894 --> 00:56:07,630
what was going on and trying to accept it.
1014
00:56:07,731 --> 00:56:10,500
[Amanda]: He couldn't fathom this man,
1015
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:12,836
the man he knew, the man he loves,
1016
00:56:12,936 --> 00:56:18,575
being the Green River Killer. It wasn't possible to him.
1017
00:56:18,675 --> 00:56:21,010
[Narrator]: Gary's wife of 13 years, Judith,
1018
00:56:21,111 --> 00:56:23,546
is also in shock.
1019
00:56:23,646 --> 00:56:28,718
[Judith]: I was in shock that day when I heard someone
1020
00:56:28,818 --> 00:56:31,154
driving up in the driveway and...
1021
00:56:34,491 --> 00:56:37,727
It's-- I couldn't believe it.
1022
00:56:39,929 --> 00:56:44,067
I still can't believe it, but it has happened.
1023
00:56:44,167 --> 00:56:47,370
It was like a brick wall dropped in front of me,
1024
00:56:47,470 --> 00:56:50,640
and didn't know what to do.
1025
00:56:50,740 --> 00:56:53,676
Everything stopped.
1026
00:56:53,777 --> 00:56:56,312
[Frank]: When you hear this for the first time,
1027
00:56:56,413 --> 00:56:58,882
your reaction is, no way.
1028
00:56:58,982 --> 00:57:02,051
"There's no way, I know my dad,"
1029
00:57:02,152 --> 00:57:04,387
or, "I know my husband."
1030
00:57:04,487 --> 00:57:05,955
"There's absolutely no way.
1031
00:57:06,055 --> 00:57:07,924
"They've got this completely wrong."
1032
00:57:08,024 --> 00:57:11,694
So you basically have a cube, and on this side of the cube
1033
00:57:11,795 --> 00:57:15,198
is the killer, the hunter, the predator,
1034
00:57:15,298 --> 00:57:16,666
and on this side of the cube
1035
00:57:16,766 --> 00:57:19,903
is the father, husband, caretaker,
1036
00:57:20,003 --> 00:57:24,474
and it depends on which side you want to show to the person
1037
00:57:24,574 --> 00:57:27,210
you're dealing with.
1038
00:57:27,310 --> 00:57:31,815
[Narrator]: On December 18th, 2001, Ridgway enters court,
1039
00:57:31,915 --> 00:57:35,952
and makes this stunning declaration.
1040
00:57:36,052 --> 00:57:40,957
[Man]: Mr. Ridgway, his plea is not guilty to all charges.
1041
00:57:41,057 --> 00:57:43,660
[Amanda]: Ridgway said you don't have anything on me.
1042
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:48,264
You have my DNA on prostitutes, and you already know that
1043
00:57:48,364 --> 00:57:51,434
I was with a lot of prostitutes. I admitted that outright,
1044
00:57:51,534 --> 00:57:54,671
so why wouldn't my DNA be found on them?
1045
00:57:54,771 --> 00:57:57,373
[Narrator]: Prosecutors know DNA evidence alone
1046
00:57:57,474 --> 00:58:00,743
will not be enough for a conviction,
1047
00:58:00,844 --> 00:58:04,948
but they have another ace up their sleeve.
1048
00:58:05,048 --> 00:58:08,485
When investigators examined the work coveralls Ridgway wore
1049
00:58:08,585 --> 00:58:10,753
while spraypainting trucks at his job,
1050
00:58:10,854 --> 00:58:13,690
they notice small specks of paint.
1051
00:58:13,790 --> 00:58:15,558
They then reexamine the clothing
1052
00:58:15,658 --> 00:58:17,894
and ligatures recovered from several victims
1053
00:58:17,994 --> 00:58:21,631
and discover similar paint specks.
1054
00:58:21,731 --> 00:58:23,366
[Brittany]: It was a very specific
1055
00:58:23,466 --> 00:58:25,468
kind of paint that was high-end
1056
00:58:25,568 --> 00:58:28,538
and only found on trucks
1057
00:58:28,638 --> 00:58:31,708
and essentially what Gary did for a living,
1058
00:58:31,808 --> 00:58:37,347
and that confirmed that he had killed Wendy Coffield,
1059
00:58:37,447 --> 00:58:41,718
Debra Bonner, and Debra Estes.
1060
00:58:46,789 --> 00:58:48,291
[Dave]: The paint evidence,
1061
00:58:48,391 --> 00:58:50,760
it blew the defense attorney away.
1062
00:58:50,860 --> 00:58:55,164
Then they came to us and said, "We want to make a deal."
1063
00:58:55,265 --> 00:58:57,500
[Narrator]: But police are only able to connect Ridgway
1064
00:58:57,600 --> 00:59:01,070
to seven of his nearly suspected 50 victims.
1065
00:59:01,170 --> 00:59:03,673
[Olivia]: Detectives and prosecutors realized
1066
00:59:03,773 --> 00:59:06,843
the only way we are going to be able to get
1067
00:59:06,943 --> 00:59:09,979
the confirmation for the victims' families,
1068
00:59:10,079 --> 00:59:14,050
the only way we're gonna be able to truly close these cases
1069
00:59:14,150 --> 00:59:17,353
is if he confesses.
1070
00:59:17,453 --> 00:59:21,958
[Dave]: So we ended up making a deal with the devil.
1071
00:59:25,161 --> 00:59:27,530
[Narrator]: Prosecutors tell Ridgway if he will make
1072
00:59:27,630 --> 00:59:29,899
a full confession and help them recover
1073
00:59:29,999 --> 00:59:32,001
the bodies of any other victims,
1074
00:59:32,101 --> 00:59:34,604
they won't push for the death penalty.
1075
00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:39,642
[Brittany]:Despite the fact that he killed so many other people,
1076
00:59:39,742 --> 00:59:42,145
Gary Ridgway was absolutely afraid of dying,
1077
00:59:42,245 --> 00:59:46,616
and so the only way to live was to tell the truth,
1078
00:59:46,716 --> 00:59:48,217
then he would do that.
1079
01:01:07,530 --> 01:01:09,832
[Narrator]: On Father's Day, 2003,
1080
01:01:09,932 --> 01:01:11,534
Ridgway leads investigators
1081
01:01:11,634 --> 01:01:15,004
to the remains of three additional victims,
1082
01:01:15,104 --> 01:01:18,841
including that of Marie Malvar, last seen with Ridgway
1083
01:01:18,941 --> 01:01:22,845
when she disappeared in April 1983.
1084
01:01:22,945 --> 01:01:25,581
[Olivia]: It really came full circle because
1085
01:01:25,682 --> 01:01:30,119
Marie was, really, the first victim
1086
01:01:30,219 --> 01:01:33,823
to point investigators in Ridgway's direction
1087
01:01:33,923 --> 01:01:37,460
all those years ago when her boyfriend and her father
1088
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:40,830
found Ridgway's truck.
1089
01:01:40,930 --> 01:01:43,266
[Amanda]: Looking back now, investigators believe that
1090
01:01:43,366 --> 01:01:46,402
Marie may have been present in that home at the time
1091
01:01:46,502 --> 01:01:48,938
that police came to question him.
1092
01:01:49,038 --> 01:01:52,675
They were just so close so many times,
1093
01:01:52,775 --> 01:01:54,210
it's heartbreaking.
1094
01:01:56,946 --> 01:01:59,382
[Narrator]: Five months later,
1095
01:01:59,482 --> 01:02:03,486
Gary Ridgway finally brings the case to a close.
1096
01:02:03,586 --> 01:02:05,621
Guilty. Guilty.
1097
01:02:05,722 --> 01:02:07,023
Guilty.
1098
01:02:07,123 --> 01:02:08,391
[Narrator]: When he pleads guilty
1099
01:02:08,491 --> 01:02:12,929
to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
1100
01:02:13,029 --> 01:02:16,733
Judith was sitting on the sofa in her home
1101
01:02:16,833 --> 01:02:19,469
holding hands with her best friend,
1102
01:02:19,569 --> 01:02:22,505
and together, they watched Gary say those words,
1103
01:02:22,605 --> 01:02:24,640
"Guilty, guilty, guilty."
1104
01:02:24,741 --> 01:02:27,176
She told me that when she saw the tears
1105
01:02:27,276 --> 01:02:30,847
running down Gary's face, she saw his lips quivering,
1106
01:02:30,947 --> 01:02:33,416
and she thought, "My god, this is it.
1107
01:02:33,516 --> 01:02:35,118
"He really is a killer."
1108
01:02:39,889 --> 01:02:44,026
You son of a bitch. Why did you do this to me?
1109
01:02:44,127 --> 01:02:46,329
Why did you put me through all this?
1110
01:02:57,206 --> 01:03:00,209
- [Man]: Good afternoon, Gary. - Afternoon.
1111
01:03:00,309 --> 01:03:02,645
[Narrator]: With the Green River Killer now unmasked,
1112
01:03:02,745 --> 01:03:06,048
prosecutors and investigators spend the next five months
1113
01:03:06,149 --> 01:03:08,918
plumbing the depraved depths of his mind.
1114
01:03:59,001 --> 01:04:01,637
[Stephanie]: It's not even so much what he said,
1115
01:04:01,737 --> 01:04:03,105
it was the way he said it.
1116
01:04:03,206 --> 01:04:06,242
It was so matter-of-fact, so level,
1117
01:04:06,342 --> 01:04:09,245
like he was talking about what he had for lunch.
1118
01:04:09,345 --> 01:04:14,517
[Amanda]: He's so disconnected and so nonchalant
1119
01:04:14,617 --> 01:04:20,656
about his crimes that just seeing him on a screen
1120
01:04:20,756 --> 01:04:23,559
makes me feel sick to my stomach.
1121
01:04:41,177 --> 01:04:44,847
[Narrator]: Ridgway then makes an even more shocking claim.
1122
01:04:44,947 --> 01:04:47,884
His body count isn't 49 women.
1123
01:04:47,984 --> 01:04:51,420
It's nearly 70.
1124
01:04:51,520 --> 01:04:55,524
And his most disturbing revelantion is yet to come.
1125
01:05:02,231 --> 01:05:05,301
- [Man]: Good afternoon, Gary. - Afternoon.
1126
01:05:05,401 --> 01:05:07,637
[Narrator]: After admitting to killing 70 women
1127
01:05:07,737 --> 01:05:11,173
during his two-decade rampage,
1128
01:05:11,274 --> 01:05:14,410
Gary Ridgway finally comes clean about a victim
1129
01:05:14,510 --> 01:05:20,016
detectives originally debated was even one of his kills:
1130
01:05:20,116 --> 01:05:22,652
single mother Carol Anne Christensen,
1131
01:05:22,752 --> 01:05:26,055
who Ridgway now admits to killing and dressing backwards
1132
01:05:26,155 --> 01:05:28,291
and posing with food items.
1133
01:05:30,426 --> 01:05:33,996
And in another revelation, Ridgway confesses that,
1134
01:05:34,096 --> 01:05:37,366
unlike all his other victims,
1135
01:05:37,466 --> 01:05:42,038
he and Carol Anne had actually been dating.
1136
01:05:42,138 --> 01:05:44,640
[Amanda]: I think they were on maybe their third date.
1137
01:05:44,740 --> 01:05:47,476
They'd had consensual sex. She was, you know,
1138
01:05:47,576 --> 01:05:49,111
gonna be running late for her shift,
1139
01:05:49,211 --> 01:05:51,147
and they were engaged in sexual activity.
1140
01:05:51,247 --> 01:05:53,215
She said, you know, "Hey, I have to get going.
1141
01:05:53,316 --> 01:05:56,319
"Can you hurry up?" And he completely lost his mind.
1142
01:06:44,467 --> 01:06:47,303
[Narrator]: While Ridgway has almost a photographic memory
1143
01:06:47,403 --> 01:06:51,140
for the locations where he dumped the 49 bodies,
1144
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:54,710
he remembers little about the women themselves.
1145
01:06:54,810 --> 01:06:57,546
[Stephanie]: He didn't look at these women or these young girls
1146
01:06:57,646 --> 01:06:58,981
as human beings.
1147
01:06:59,081 --> 01:07:00,683
He said that they knew they were gonna die
1148
01:07:00,783 --> 01:07:03,219
and they begged for their lives. He didn't care.
1149
01:07:11,594 --> 01:07:14,930
[Katherine]: Ridgway put sex workers into a category.
1150
01:07:15,031 --> 01:07:16,332
They were worthless.
1151
01:07:16,432 --> 01:07:18,401
There was no reason to have any empathy for them
1152
01:07:18,501 --> 01:07:21,404
because they were society's throwaways.
1153
01:07:31,113 --> 01:07:33,115
[Mark]: All he cared about was the pleasure
1154
01:07:33,215 --> 01:07:36,185
and the power that he got from killing them,
1155
01:07:36,285 --> 01:07:38,854
and then they were just like objects to be used
1156
01:07:38,954 --> 01:07:42,625
and trash to be discarded when he was done with them.
1157
01:07:42,725 --> 01:07:43,859
[Man]: Morning.
1158
01:07:43,959 --> 01:07:46,595
[Narrator]: Investigators continue probing Ridgway's mind,
1159
01:07:46,695 --> 01:07:49,198
hoping to discover what turned him into one of
1160
01:07:49,298 --> 01:07:54,070
the most prolific serial killers in history.
1161
01:07:54,170 --> 01:07:56,405
He cites his experience with sex workers
1162
01:07:56,505 --> 01:07:58,240
while stationed in the Philippines
1163
01:07:58,340 --> 01:08:00,776
during the Vietnam War as part of his motivation.
1164
01:08:18,561 --> 01:08:20,863
[Narrator]: Ridgway also reveals that it was the breakup
1165
01:08:20,963 --> 01:08:24,366
of his second marriage to Marcia and his loss of custody
1166
01:08:24,467 --> 01:08:27,670
to Matthew that really pushed him over the edge.
1167
01:08:42,218 --> 01:08:43,486
[Katherine]: There's a misunderstanding
1168
01:08:43,586 --> 01:08:45,254
that psychopaths have no emotion.
1169
01:08:45,354 --> 01:08:48,724
They have a lot of emotions: anger,
1170
01:08:48,824 --> 01:08:51,527
um, arrogance.
1171
01:08:51,627 --> 01:08:54,196
They certainly can develop relationships.
1172
01:08:54,296 --> 01:08:55,898
How deep do their emotions go?
1173
01:08:55,998 --> 01:08:58,601
How deep do their feelings go to their kids? We don't know.
1174
01:09:31,634 --> 01:09:34,470
[Narrator]: Ridgway also claims that meeting Judith Mawson,
1175
01:09:34,570 --> 01:09:38,407
his current wife, in 1985 curbed his urge to kill.
1176
01:09:52,755 --> 01:09:55,491
[Amanda]: There was definitely something about Judith
1177
01:09:55,591 --> 01:10:00,396
that tapped into some tiny
1178
01:10:00,496 --> 01:10:03,098
bit of humanity in Gary.
1179
01:10:03,199 --> 01:10:06,669
Gary told me, um, in an interview
1180
01:10:06,769 --> 01:10:10,739
that he loved Judith and he thought she was
1181
01:10:10,839 --> 01:10:14,310
the best woman for him, and he even told me that
1182
01:10:14,410 --> 01:10:16,812
if he had met her earlier,
1183
01:10:16,912 --> 01:10:19,548
maybe he wouldn't have killed as many women.
1184
01:10:19,648 --> 01:10:22,818
I asked Judith over and over,
1185
01:10:22,918 --> 01:10:26,722
"Did you ever witness Gary losing his temper?
1186
01:10:26,822 --> 01:10:28,891
"Did he mistreat you?"
1187
01:10:28,991 --> 01:10:31,227
And she said, "Pennie, being married to Gary
1188
01:10:31,327 --> 01:10:33,929
"was the absolute best time of my life.
1189
01:10:34,029 --> 01:10:35,631
"He never mistreated me."
1190
01:10:35,731 --> 01:10:37,333
It was completely unbelievable to her
1191
01:10:37,433 --> 01:10:39,568
that the other Gary existed.
1192
01:10:41,670 --> 01:10:43,672
[Katherine]: Judith wouldn't see any signs because
1193
01:10:43,772 --> 01:10:46,175
what signs would we be looking for?
1194
01:10:46,275 --> 01:10:47,643
He's not psychotic.
1195
01:10:47,743 --> 01:10:51,080
Most of the signs are things that we get out of
1196
01:10:51,180 --> 01:10:54,250
serial killer fiction and film.
1197
01:10:54,350 --> 01:10:58,654
Those are not signs in ordinary relationships.
1198
01:10:58,754 --> 01:11:00,556
[Stephanie]: Gary was incredibly successful
1199
01:11:00,656 --> 01:11:04,159
at convincing the world that he was Ned Flanders,
1200
01:11:04,260 --> 01:11:08,764
that he was completely harmless, that he was just a nice guy
1201
01:11:08,864 --> 01:11:10,899
and a good family man.
1202
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:15,104
[Diane]: How did he keep his shit together?
1203
01:11:15,204 --> 01:11:18,841
How did he keep himself so hidden during those times
1204
01:11:18,941 --> 01:11:22,177
going back to his wife and coming to work
1205
01:11:22,278 --> 01:11:26,482
and talking with us?
1206
01:11:26,582 --> 01:11:28,317
I'm thinking he was in a battle.
1207
01:11:28,417 --> 01:11:31,320
He was in a battle for good and evil,
1208
01:11:31,420 --> 01:11:33,455
and evil usually won.
1209
01:11:38,360 --> 01:11:39,895
[Narrator]: Gary also confirms
1210
01:11:39,995 --> 01:11:45,768
fellow serial killer Ted Bundy's shocking prediction to police.
1211
01:11:45,868 --> 01:11:49,538
He had in fact returned to some of his victim's corpses.
1212
01:12:12,995 --> 01:12:16,532
Necrophilia is all about power and control,
1213
01:12:16,632 --> 01:12:19,835
which is all Gary was seeking his entire life.
1214
01:12:19,935 --> 01:12:22,471
And if you have sex with a live human,
1215
01:12:22,571 --> 01:12:24,973
they can say no. They can reject you.
1216
01:12:25,074 --> 01:12:26,542
A dead body can't do that.
1217
01:12:26,642 --> 01:12:29,411
He had ownership and control over those women.
1218
01:12:29,511 --> 01:12:31,680
[Narrator]: Ridgway admits that his desire to kill
1219
01:12:31,780 --> 01:12:34,683
quickly became an urge he simply could not control.
1220
01:12:49,665 --> 01:12:51,367
[Stephanie]: Killing women, strangling women,
1221
01:12:51,467 --> 01:12:54,002
he was good at it, and it was his career,
1222
01:12:54,103 --> 01:12:55,571
and he was proud of it.
1223
01:12:55,671 --> 01:12:59,675
He really thought he was the best serial killer out there.
1224
01:12:59,775 --> 01:13:01,343
[Narrator]: Just when investigators think
1225
01:13:01,443 --> 01:13:02,911
it can't get any worse,
1226
01:13:03,011 --> 01:13:06,815
Ridgway drops his biggest bombshell yet.
1227
01:13:06,915 --> 01:13:09,818
To help accomplish his unspeakable objectives,
1228
01:13:09,918 --> 01:13:14,089
the evil father used the person closest to him:
1229
01:13:14,189 --> 01:13:16,725
his son, Matthew.
1230
01:13:22,931 --> 01:13:27,636
[Amanda]: Gary, from the outside, looked so normal
1231
01:13:27,736 --> 01:13:32,107
that it was almost impossible to imagine that anything else
1232
01:13:32,207 --> 01:13:33,609
could've been going on.
1233
01:14:08,143 --> 01:14:12,781
[Narrator]: Not only could Ridgway control his two worlds,
1234
01:14:12,881 --> 01:14:18,120
he could also merge them to achieve his unspeakable ends.
1235
01:14:18,220 --> 01:14:19,621
To appear less threatening,
1236
01:14:19,721 --> 01:14:22,291
the father would occasionally take his young son Matthew
1237
01:14:22,391 --> 01:14:24,993
with him to help lure his victims.
1238
01:14:59,428 --> 01:15:02,030
[Narrator]: Detectives ask Gary what he would have done
1239
01:15:02,130 --> 01:15:06,068
if Matthew had gotten out of the truck and seen him.
1240
01:15:06,168 --> 01:15:08,170
His response is chilling.
1241
01:15:22,484 --> 01:15:23,886
[Katherine]: Would he have, who knows,
1242
01:15:23,986 --> 01:15:29,391
but that he gave thought to that that his ability to keep doing
1243
01:15:29,491 --> 01:15:31,560
what he was doing was far more important
1244
01:15:31,660 --> 01:15:33,996
than his son's life.
1245
01:15:34,096 --> 01:15:36,832
That tells me that he doesn't have
1246
01:15:36,932 --> 01:15:39,635
a deep sense of attachment to his son.
1247
01:15:39,735 --> 01:15:41,837
His son is expendable.
1248
01:15:47,109 --> 01:15:51,113
Mr. Ridgway, the time has come for the final chapter
1249
01:15:51,213 --> 01:15:54,349
of your reign of terror in our community.
1250
01:15:54,449 --> 01:15:56,451
Today has been a long time coming
1251
01:15:56,552 --> 01:15:59,588
for the brutal murders that you committed.
1252
01:15:59,688 --> 01:16:01,757
[Narrator]: One month after Ridgway pleads guilty,
1253
01:16:01,857 --> 01:16:04,693
he's sentenced to 48 consecutive life sentences
1254
01:16:04,793 --> 01:16:07,629
with no possibility of parole.
1255
01:16:07,729 --> 01:16:09,665
[Olivia]: They made sure that
1256
01:16:09,765 --> 01:16:13,468
he would never, ever get out of prison.
1257
01:16:13,569 --> 01:16:19,207
They knew that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars
1258
01:16:19,308 --> 01:16:21,944
[Narrator]: During that hearing, several of the victim's families
1259
01:16:22,044 --> 01:16:27,182
stand and condemn Ridgway for his unconscionable actions.
1260
01:16:27,282 --> 01:16:30,586
[Woman]: Today is not about Gary Ridgway,
1261
01:16:30,686 --> 01:16:33,655
but about my sister, Cynthia Jean Hinds,
1262
01:16:33,755 --> 01:16:37,960
and the other 47 women whose lives he chose to take.
1263
01:16:40,562 --> 01:16:44,066
For the 20-some-odd years, my family and I,
1264
01:16:44,166 --> 01:16:47,269
our lives have been like a rollercoaster, but today,
1265
01:16:47,369 --> 01:16:49,972
that rollercoaster has ended.
1266
01:16:50,072 --> 01:16:52,841
[Carol]: She was just a immature teenager
1267
01:16:52,941 --> 01:16:57,412
trying to find her way in life before it was snuffed out
1268
01:16:57,512 --> 01:17:00,449
by Gary Ridgway.
1269
01:17:00,549 --> 01:17:02,217
I will never forgive him for that.
1270
01:17:02,317 --> 01:17:06,788
He's gonna go to Hell, and that's where he belongs.
1271
01:17:06,888 --> 01:17:08,957
[Woman]: I was only five when my mother died,
1272
01:17:09,057 --> 01:17:14,296
when my dad told me that she was never coming home.
1273
01:17:14,396 --> 01:17:18,000
I found out on Mother's Day.
1274
01:17:18,100 --> 01:17:21,603
[Woman]: Gisele was a wonderful, caring, loving young girl.
1275
01:17:21,703 --> 01:17:23,171
A few months after she disappeared,
1276
01:17:23,271 --> 01:17:27,442
I received a phone call saying they found her body.
1277
01:17:34,349 --> 01:17:38,387
We miss her every day, and it will never stop.
1278
01:17:38,487 --> 01:17:40,122
Not a day goes by over these years
1279
01:17:40,222 --> 01:17:44,893
that I haven't wondered what she would've become.
1280
01:17:44,993 --> 01:17:47,062
[Man]: There are many things I would like to say about
1281
01:17:47,162 --> 01:17:50,032
my sister, Mary Meehan, and the short life she had,
1282
01:17:50,132 --> 01:17:51,700
but I feel it would fall upon
1283
01:17:51,800 --> 01:17:53,802
deaf ears from the one individual
1284
01:17:53,902 --> 01:17:57,205
Gary Ridgway who needs to hear it the most.
1285
01:17:57,305 --> 01:17:58,840
He doesn't care.
1286
01:17:58,940 --> 01:18:00,809
He could care less.
1287
01:18:00,909 --> 01:18:04,146
[Woman]: You've robbed me of my oldest sister.
1288
01:18:04,246 --> 01:18:07,182
You've robbed my son of his auntie.
1289
01:18:07,282 --> 01:18:09,251
You offered her a ride and persuaded her
1290
01:18:09,351 --> 01:18:11,119
to get into your car.
1291
01:18:11,219 --> 01:18:14,456
May God have no mercy on your soul.
1292
01:18:14,556 --> 01:18:16,425
You're, in one word, evil.
1293
01:18:16,525 --> 01:18:20,562
[Woman]: I heard that she struggled for her life,
1294
01:18:20,662 --> 01:18:22,130
and I told my mom, I said,
1295
01:18:22,230 --> 01:18:23,865
how am I supposed to live knowing that?
1296
01:18:23,965 --> 01:18:25,667
How am I supposed to go through this life
1297
01:18:25,767 --> 01:18:27,469
knowing that in my mind?
1298
01:18:27,569 --> 01:18:30,305
It was devastating to listen to.
1299
01:18:30,405 --> 01:18:34,710
The impact statements were obviously emotional.
1300
01:18:34,810 --> 01:18:37,245
There were moments where it almost appeared that
1301
01:18:37,345 --> 01:18:39,581
Gary Ridgway himself was getting emotional
1302
01:18:39,681 --> 01:18:41,616
about some of these victims.
1303
01:18:41,717 --> 01:18:45,754
I'm sorry for killing these ladies.
1304
01:18:45,854 --> 01:18:50,992
They had their whole lives ahead of them.
1305
01:18:51,093 --> 01:18:55,764
I'm sorry for causing so much pain to so many families.
1306
01:18:55,864 --> 01:19:00,168
One of the moments that really struck me
1307
01:19:00,268 --> 01:19:06,241
was the father who told Ridgway, "I forgive you."
1308
01:19:06,341 --> 01:19:09,444
Mr. Ridgway, um...
1309
01:19:11,680 --> 01:19:15,083
There are people here that hate you.
1310
01:19:19,020 --> 01:19:21,656
I'm not one of them.
1311
01:19:21,757 --> 01:19:25,360
I forgive you for what you've done.
1312
01:19:31,099 --> 01:19:36,805
You've made it difficult to live up to
1313
01:19:36,905 --> 01:19:39,508
what I believe,
1314
01:19:39,608 --> 01:19:43,011
and it is what God says to do,
1315
01:19:43,111 --> 01:19:45,947
and that's to forgive.
1316
01:19:46,047 --> 01:19:50,485
And He doesn't say to forgive just certain people.
1317
01:19:50,585 --> 01:19:55,757
He says to forgive all, so you are forgiven, sir.
1318
01:19:55,857 --> 01:20:00,028
And seeing Ridgway actually have an emotional reaction to that,
1319
01:20:00,128 --> 01:20:03,231
I think that was profound.
1320
01:20:03,331 --> 01:20:05,233
[Amanda]: Gary was sort of forced in that moment
1321
01:20:05,333 --> 01:20:09,871
to feel the weight of what he had done.
1322
01:20:09,971 --> 01:20:11,206
[Man]: And looking at your life,
1323
01:20:11,306 --> 01:20:13,308
it comes as no surprise that you had
1324
01:20:13,408 --> 01:20:18,380
such little disregard for the lives of your victims.
1325
01:20:18,480 --> 01:20:21,817
You violated the sanctity of every relationship
1326
01:20:21,917 --> 01:20:25,086
in your life, including your own son.
1327
01:20:25,187 --> 01:20:26,588
When he was of a tender age,
1328
01:20:26,688 --> 01:20:30,792
you even used his existence and presence as a means
1329
01:20:30,892 --> 01:20:33,595
to gain confidence of your victims.
1330
01:20:37,532 --> 01:20:39,868
[Narrator]: In the years since Ridgway's conviction,
1331
01:20:39,968 --> 01:20:41,970
other skeletal remains have been found
1332
01:20:42,070 --> 01:20:45,373
in wooded areas surrounding Seattle.
1333
01:20:45,473 --> 01:20:49,744
Some believe they are Ridgway's additional victims.
1334
01:20:49,845 --> 01:20:51,813
[Amanda]: I don't know if we'll ever know
1335
01:20:51,913 --> 01:20:56,251
the exact magnitude of Gary Ridgway's kills.
1336
01:20:56,351 --> 01:21:01,990
He was put away for 48, he confessed to upwards of 75.
1337
01:21:02,090 --> 01:21:04,059
My instinct is to believe that that's true,
1338
01:21:04,159 --> 01:21:05,927
but that's something that we just may never
1339
01:21:06,027 --> 01:21:07,929
get the answer to.
1340
01:21:08,029 --> 01:21:09,631
[Stephanie]: I'm sure there are certain places
1341
01:21:09,731 --> 01:21:13,435
where more victims of his are, but he kept those to himself.
1342
01:21:13,535 --> 01:21:15,470
It's his little secret, something to hold on to
1343
01:21:15,570 --> 01:21:17,739
as he sits in his cell for the rest of his life,
1344
01:21:17,839 --> 01:21:21,610
knowing his precious property is out there not being disturbed
1345
01:21:21,710 --> 01:21:25,380
by law enforcement or human hands of any kind.
1346
01:21:25,480 --> 01:21:28,316
[Narrator]: Whatever secrets Gary Ridgway still has,
1347
01:21:28,416 --> 01:21:31,453
he will likely take to his grave.
1348
01:21:31,553 --> 01:21:34,856
The 73-year-old serial killer continues serving
1349
01:21:34,956 --> 01:21:37,559
his life sentence in solitary confinement
1350
01:21:37,659 --> 01:21:42,063
at the Washington State Penitentary in Walla Walla.
1351
01:21:42,163 --> 01:21:44,733
Not much is known about his son Matthew
1352
01:21:44,833 --> 01:21:46,968
or his wife Marcia.
1353
01:21:47,068 --> 01:21:51,072
Both avoid the public spotlight.
1354
01:21:51,172 --> 01:21:54,676
And Gary's third wife, Judith, has cnanged her name
1355
01:21:54,776 --> 01:21:58,179
and lives in an undisclosed location,
1356
01:21:58,280 --> 01:22:01,383
all because of the sins of the father.
1357
01:22:01,483 --> 01:22:04,185
[Man]:This was your life, right? You were the Green River Killer.
1358
01:22:04,286 --> 01:22:06,821
[Gary]: I don't know how I get it out of my head
1359
01:22:06,922 --> 01:22:08,723
to get it to you.
1360
01:22:08,823 --> 01:22:10,492
It didn't mean anything to me,
1361
01:22:10,592 --> 01:22:12,594
just killing them and get rid of 'em.
1362
01:22:18,300 --> 01:22:20,435
[Man]: But I know as you walk out of this courtroom
1363
01:22:20,535 --> 01:22:21,937
at the end of the day,
1364
01:22:22,037 --> 01:22:25,273
after Mr. Ridgway has been sentenced and gone,
1365
01:22:25,373 --> 01:22:29,244
I know that your heart will still be heavy with sorrow.
1366
01:22:29,344 --> 01:22:33,315
I ask you to remember those 48 young women
1367
01:22:33,415 --> 01:22:36,451
as people who had unexplored dreams,
1368
01:22:36,551 --> 01:22:42,023
hopes, aspirations and families that loved them deeply.
1369
01:22:42,123 --> 01:22:45,694
Hold on to those memories, cherish those memories,
1370
01:22:45,794 --> 01:22:50,665
and try to abandon the others.
1371
01:22:50,765 --> 01:22:53,134
Mr. Ridgway, I trust that your lawyers have shared with you
1372
01:22:53,234 --> 01:22:57,405
the letters written by the victim families.
1373
01:22:57,505 --> 01:23:01,109
I hope you read those letters and I hope you heard the message
1374
01:23:01,209 --> 01:23:03,578
of their families as they poured out
1375
01:23:03,678 --> 01:23:07,649
their emotions then and today describing the young victims
1376
01:23:07,749 --> 01:23:09,617
as real persons,
1377
01:23:09,718 --> 01:23:15,557
real persons who were loved and had lives in front of them.
1378
01:23:15,657 --> 01:23:18,360
While you could not face them as you took their lives,
1379
01:23:18,460 --> 01:23:23,465
if you have a drop of emotion anywhere in your existence,
1380
01:23:23,565 --> 01:23:27,669
you will face those young women in your dreams
1381
01:23:27,769 --> 01:23:32,107
and private thoughts of your grisly deeds,
1382
01:23:32,207 --> 01:23:35,543
and sir, if you have that drop of emotion,
1383
01:23:35,643 --> 01:23:39,381
you will be haunted for the balance of your life.
105766
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