Lost in the body count of the Green River Killer was Meehan’s unborn baby. Even though killed by the same hands that squeezed the breath out of its mother, the baby has never appeared on any publicized list of victims attributed to the Green River Killer or Killers. Even the ever-relentless members of the news media forgot about the unborn baby.
The north end of the airport and the noisy flight path of approaching jetliners was where the skeletal remains of Shawnda Leea Summers, a black 17-year-old female, were found by fruit pickers on August 11, 1983. Summers disappeared in October 1982 from South 144th and Pacific Highway South, just 20 blocks from her dump site. Most believed that the vast area north of the airport—once a teeming single-family residential area but long since abandoned and left overgrown with weeds, blackberry bushes, and empty cement foundations—would be the site of future discoveries.
We discovered another one of the killer’s dump sites farther away from the airport on Star Lake Road. The remains were found near where Star Lake Road nearly intersects Pacific Highway South and about four miles south of the main Sea-Tac strip. There is a one-mile stretch of that road where tall fir trees closely border the narrow winding road, which is marked by frequent pull-outs for cars to dump garbage. It was an obvious comfort zone for the killer, who knew the area well. The remains of the first of six victims that were found along Star Lake Road belonged to Gail Lynn Mathews, an American Indian female, 23 years old; her body was discovered on September 18, 1983. She would remain unidentified for nearly two years. A member of her family reported that she was last seen on April 8, 1983, at South 216th and Pacific Highway South, even though it was her pimp who actually saw her last. Another family member claimed to have seen her after that date and reported it to police, so she was taken off the missing-persons list. Then the King County Medical Examiner’s Office had forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow from Oklahoma examine all the unidentified skeletons for identifiable characteristics not previously recognized. Dr. Snow discovered that one set of remains had, at one time in the recent past, probably suffered an accident, because her pelvic bone had healed from a previous fracture. Once this information was publicized, a family member came forward with Mathews’s name again. This time, the identification was confirmed through medical and dental records.
On December 18, 1983, another dump site was discovered along the Mountview Cemetery Road, located about three miles from Star Lake Road. It, too, was a narrow winding road bordered by a steeply rising wooded area. It was at a desolate spot along the side of that road where we found the skull of Kimi-Kai Pitsor, a 16-year-old white female, sitting upright right near the sign that read AUBURN CITY LIMITS. No other remains were found in a several-hundred-yard ground search of the area. Some speculated that the killer intentionally left the skull in that location so it would be found. Others felt the local predators had dragged it to that point from an original dump location of Pitsor’s body outside the perimeter of the search.
Each of those five dumping grounds would be the future resting place for at least three sets of remains. They would be the most influential evidence that led us to believe that a serial killer was in operation, for they were all classified as multiple-body recovery sites.
As we uncovered more and more dump sites in the forested areas surrounding the Green River, it was only natural that we would expect to keep finding more and more of the killer’s victims. But the discoveries of bodies came at random and were agonizingly slow. Even though investigators located several other victims, it was only a small portion of the total count yet to be found. From the years 1982 to 1984 inclusive, the Green River Killer was a very busy man, preying like a demon on the prostitute population around the Seattle area. And we were still playing catch-up with history because the missing-persons reports had been filed months or even years before we found the remains. We knew there were more bodies out there, but couldn’t account for the gaps between victims. We thought at first that the killer had left the area for long periods or had been arrested for another offense. But we were wrong. We just hadn’t yet recovered those prostitutes who were decomposing in deeply concealed wooded areas of King County. We also didn’t know, until he confessed in 2003, that the Green River Killer hadn’t stopped killing until just before his arrest in November 2001. But that was to change on March 13, 1984, with the start of a series of discoveries of a multitude of murder victims. That day marked the beginning of a new notoriety for the Green River Murders Task Force. It would eventually become famous in the media for processing outdoor crime scenes for body parts and evidence.
A wandering moss hunter stumbled upon the first body as he was searching a wooded area just off I-90, about 38 miles east of Seattle. Hidden within the confines of fallen and rotten trees were the skeletal remains of Lisa Lorraine Yates, white, who was just 19 years old when she was killed. Yates was last seen leaving a friend’s residence to work the johns in the area of Rainier Avenue and South Graham Street on December 23, 1983. Less than one month earlier, she had been arrested by Seattle police for offering and agreeing to an act of prostitution.
Naturally, the finding of Yates’s body during the initial work of the task force caused some excitement and unfounded expectations that the killer would have left his signature. Within the four months that it had lain in the wooded area, her body was totally skeletonized, leaving her cause of death a mystery. Not a scent of the killer was found at Exit 38—only another murdered prostitute to fill December’s gap in the task force’s calendar of horrors.
Through May 1984, a succession of 10 more female murder victims of the Green River Killer were discovered. That pressure-packed three-month period left task force members literally running from one skeleton to another. It was very obvious to all that everyone had seriously underestimated the extent of the murders. The task force of 50 people was formed on the basis that there were 13 murder victims in all. But, in reality, by January 1984, the prolific slayer was suspected of killing at least 47 females, making the total task force contingent itself only the minimum crew of personnel that would have been necessary to handle the investigations. Ultimately Gary Leon Ridgway would confess to the murders of 48 women in a plea bargain that let him escape the death penalty.
Suspects
While some detectives were busy trying to identify the 10 new victims and retrace their last steps, others were corroborating information previously gathered on the first 13 victims. Having drawn every other cover and picked up no scent of the killer, I tried my luck with tips that had been gathered in each case to that point. Much to my surprise, no one had done any type of review of the old Green River cases. After I thought about this for a moment, I realized that was probably because seven more victims were found in 1983 and leads in those cases were worked by our short-staffed team instead.
The first thing I noticed when I began my follow-up was that the investigation of suspects was an incredibly difficult process. By June 1984, over 100 potential suspects had been intensively investigated and only a few were absolutely eliminated. The rest of the investigations went just so far before there was simply nothing more to do in many of them. Many of the suspects’ whereabouts were essentially untraceable because there weren’t enough people around them to keep track of their travels. Most Green River suspects never left a paper trail by writing checks and using credit cards for purchases. The only certainty was that most of them had been arrested previously, and that was the only reliable indicator of their whereabouts at certain times—when they were behind bars. Corroborating their alibis was next to impossible. Compounding the inquiries even more, many suspects were uncooperative with police, unlike suspects in the Ted murders. Only one person didn’t cooperate in the Lake Sammamish murders, and that was none other than Theodore Robert Bundy himself. Regrettably, only a handful of suspects were totally cooperative with detectives in the Green River cases.
After six months as commander of the task force, Captain Adamson was concerned that what we were doing wasn’t worki
ng. After half a year and the accrual of a lot more evidence, we were still no closer to the killer. Adamson was starved for ideas about what to do. So he assigned me the task of contacting the commanders of successful serial murder investigations to ask them what worked best at catching a killer. And, in retrospect, was there anything they would have done differently to catch the killer sooner. Of course there was. What we did not know back in 1985 was that three years earlier, in 1982, Gary Ridgway, the individual who would be identified as the Green River Killer, had been arrested for soliciting a prostitute by an undercover police officer. And in 1983, Ridgway had been interviewed by two local Des Moines police in connection with the disappearanc of Green River victim Marie Malvar (whose remains were recovered in 2003 after Ridgway led Task Force detectives to her burial site as part of his plea agreement Confession). In 1987, Task Force detectives interviewed Ridgway, who would become, for the next 11 years, one of the five major suspects in the Green River murders.
The first person I contacted was Morris Redding, the former commander of the Atlanta Child Murders Task Force and the chief of police of Atlanta. I was already aware of how Wayne Williams was apprehended, so I was more interested in what Chief Redding would have done differently. Almost without being asked, he said, “He was right in front of our noses the whole time.” As the Atlanta police were going into elementary schools warning children about the possibility of impending danger to them and how to avoid it, Wayne Williams was coming out of the same schools after having taken photographs of those same children for their class pictures. Also on several telephone poles around where children were missing, a sign was posted that read:
Can you? Sing or Play An Instrument
If You Are Between “11-21” (male or female)
And Would Like To Become A Professional Entertainer.
“YOU” Can Apply for POSITIONS with Professional Recording Acts
No Experience Is Necessary, Training Is Provided
All Interviews Private & Free
For More Information Call
3PM-7PM
404/794-8980
The telephone number was for Wayne Williams.
7
Ted Versus the Riverman
One day in October 1984, I was buried in a pile of paperwork at my desk. I looked up to see Detective Ed Striedinger of the Seattle Police Department. He had retrieved a letter from a judge in Pierce County who wanted it delivered to task force staff. It was a letter from a “wannabe” consultant and the most unlikely person I ever expected to be of assistance in the Green River murders. The letter came from a cell on death row in Florida; the sender was Theodore Robert Bundy. I was stunned.
The Offer
Ted wrote that he had some information that he thought could prove useful in apprehending the Green River Killer or Killers. But his offer of assistance was conditional. He wanted our assurance that his correspondence and subsequent communications would be kept confidential. He did not want anyone outside our task force, especially members of the news media, to become aware of his offer. Even though I felt Ted’s offer was sincere and honest, I was wary because Ted Bundy always seemed to have a hidden agenda.
At the moment that I opened his letter, I couldn’t begin to determine what that was.
Did Ted believe that we would take his advice, whatever that was, and catch the killer, and somehow news of his assistance would help his appeals? Other killers had tried to trade their help or information with law enforcement as a means of convincing reluctant courts that they were worth more to society alive than dead. Was Ted going to use the Green River cases as a forum to tell us about his murders? Or did he want to become involved just for his own perverse satisfaction? After all, Ted had been locked up for a long time—his pent-up fantasies might well be ready to explode. Or was he up to some trick? Was he planning a way to get us in a position of confidence, thereby catching correction officers with their guard down and escaping? Whatever Ted was up to, I was sure his motives weren’t at all altruistic.
Breaking the ice with us slowly, Ted first claimed to have occasionally read about the Green River murders and complained that the coverage in Florida was sensational, superficial, and sporadic. He did not have any special or exceptional reaction to the news of the Green River cases beyond what most other people in that part of the country had, except that by being from the Seattle÷Tacoma area, his interest was, perhaps, keener than most. Ted wrote that his daily access to media coverage increased when he began receiving a subscription to the Tacoma News Tribune. It was at that point that he developed what he believed were valuable insights into the Green River murders. His interest was piqued by the discovery of the body of a woman in a remote area of Pierce County, his home territory. He explained that the descriptions of the scene in a News Tribune article, general though they must have been, were far more detailed and evocative than any he had read before. Apparently, CNN’s accounts of the latest possible Green River murder site aroused in Ted some vivid impressions about the behavior of the person or persons responsible for the series of murders. Did Ted see the Riverman, which is what he called the Green River Killer, as a mirror image of himself? Or did Ted so envy the Riverman, who could fulfill his violent sexual fantasies and go undetected, that he had to experience the Riverman’s crimes vicariously and then take part in the hunt for him?
Setting his hook slowly, Ted claimed that it was presumptuous of him to believe that we would be interested in anything he could provide. We may have already developed impressions, observations, and hunches similar to the ones he had. Justifying the inadequacy of his own theories, Ted was quick to point out that we had access to an enormous amount of information on the case that he didn’t. However, in spite of this, Ted suggested that an investigator be sent to talk to him only about the Green River matter. Any investigator we sent would have his hands full with the task of interviewing this “expert.”
Before the dust had settled on Ted’s first letter, another came rolling in, this time through John Henry Brown, a Seattle attorney whom Ted trusted. It was similar to the first in content, but in this one, Ted was more humble. Not claiming some noble, civic-minded motivation for offering his help, he simply stated that the Green River cases really intrigued him. He went on to say that he was sure the series of killings probably interested a lot of people, but the difference was that he had knowledge and a point of view that no one else did. Quite candidly, he admitted that he had something productive to offer. Imagine, a brutal killer like Ted Bundy desiring to be a helpful citizen.
Ted’s offer of assistance in the Green River murders rekindled the hope I had held since investigating his case of speaking to him someday about the murders he had committed. Captain Adamson felt Ted couldn’t help the Green River investigation much, but agreed that it couldn’t hurt to talk with him. Maybe Ted wouldn’t help with this case, but he could confess to murders that we hadn’t nailed him for yet.
Before we contacted Ted, I wanted to get in touch with Dr. John Berberich, a clinical psychologist, and Dr. John Liebert, a psychiatrist. Both of them were vital in producing a profile of the Ted killer in 1974. We had spoken extensively in the past of Ted Bundy’s rare personality type. Now it was time to devise a strategy to deal with the real Ted Bundy, with the ultimate goal of obtaining a confession to his murders.
The Confession Strategy
First of all, we decided that any written correspondence back to Ted must be short and contain phrases similar to the ones he used in his letters so he wouldn’t misconstrue our intent. We had to agree with everything he said. If anything, our words must mirror his; otherwise, he might become suspicious of our motives for speaking to him. On the other hand, we had to play somewhat hard to get. After all, we just couldn’t run down there at his first request. If we did, he’d have the upper hand psychologically—he’d know he had us hooked from the beginning. The strategy of the day was to make him squirm a little, make him really want us.
I wrote to him:
Dear Ted:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter to the Green River Task Force dated October 1, 1984. Your request that any communications we may have be kept in “strictest of confidence” is absolutely honored. I, too, am concerned that any comments made by you could be detrimental to the Green River Investigation.
I am interested in what information you have that could prove useful in apprehending the person(s) responsible for the Green River murders. In order to assess the immediacy of your assistance, could you provide just some facts about the nature of your help? I could, tentatively, visit Florida in the middle of November in conjunction with other investigative duties. I have made inquiry to your local FBI to arrange a possible visit. You may hear from them. The sensitivity of this matter was emphasized.
I respect your statement of “playing no games,” and, frankly, playing games with you is presumptuous on my part and a waste of my time. I am interested in what is useful in resolving the Green River killings and what your contribution is. We will communicate at your request only about the Green River murders and “nothing else.”
Bundy’s Initial Analysis
In less than two weeks, Ted responded with a 22-page letter. I didn’t expect him to write so soon, and certainly not at length as he did. By being so informative, Ted gave me the chance to analyze his effort at assistance and plan questions for our future meeting.
The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer Page 23