The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

by Robert Keppel; William J. Birnes; Ann Rule

  They continued on, eastbound on Highway 18 to the I-90 junction, but there were no other roads going off to the right. They drove Marcia back to the turnoff to Kerriston Road. However, they were only able to go a short distance up the road because there was a locked bar—type gate across the roadway. Marcia stated that the road, as she remembered it, did have a gate similar to this one, but again she did not recognize it as being the same one. Keeping in mind that there had been a time lapse of approximately twelve years, she did admit that the area could look much different now than it had then. Detectives Doyon and Haney did not advise Marcia that the skeletal remains of Green River victim Amina Agisheff had been recovered just beyond the locked gate on Kerriston Road.

  Detectives Haney and Doyon and Marcia Winslow continued east on Highway 18 toward the I-90 junction; just prior to that location they turned into a large wooded area, where the remains of Green River victim Tina Thompson had been found. Marcia pointed out this area as being a place that she and Ridgway had stopped at several times and she recalled them once shooting shotguns there. She said Ridgway had stepped out into the woods one or two times at this location to urinate. Then they crossed Highway 18, westbound, to another turnoff, where the remains of Green River victim Maureen Feeney had been recovered. Marcia told the detectives that she did not recognize the area. They continued along Highway 18, under I-90, toward Echo Glen, but went no farther than the Highway 18 portion of the roadway.

  Doyon, Haney, and Marcia then traveled eastbound on I-90 past North Bend toward Ken’s Truck Town by taking the Edgewick Exit off I-90. Marcia stated that when she and Ridgway had been frequenting this area of Ken’s Truck Town, the new I-90 had not been built, so the area no longer looked like it did back then. She directed the detectives to two paved roads that went toward the middle fork of the Snoqualme River. Marcia said she believed that this was the area to which she and her husband had gone several times to have sex together.

  Next, the detectives and Marcia drove to Exit 38, where the remains of Green River victims Delise Plager, Lisa Yates, and Kim Nelson had been recovered. Marcia recognized Exit 38 as being one of the locations she and Ridgway had frequented, and she stated that there was an exit very close to there, she believed, where she and Ridgway had gone several times, and there were fire trucks behind a fence in this same area. They then drove to the next exit, which is Exit 42 for Tinkham Road, where the old fire-training center used to be. Marcia recognized this road as being the one she and Ridgway had used several times for inner tubing in the snow.

  The task force detectives next drove Marcia to the Greenwater area east of Enumclaw on Highway 410. While en route to this location, Marcia related that Ridgway had always had plastic Visqueen and a blanket in their car and truck. Ridgway would often bring home rolled-up pieces of plastic in his lunch pail from his job at Kenworth. She also stated that Ridgway would mark on a standard Washington State map the areas where he preferred to go camping and the areas he liked.

  Marcia said that after she and Ridgway were married, and not long after their son, Matthew, was born, they began attending a Southern Baptist church and Ridgway had become “fanatical” about religion. They later started going to a Pentecostal church; Ridgway easily made the transition to the new church, participating in going door-to-door but getting angry when people would close their doors on them. They had quit going to church by the time they separated. Marcia remembered that at night Ridgway would sit quietly watching TV with an open Bible on his lap and that he would frequently cry during or after the church service.

  Marcia said that prior to her divorce from Ridgway and during their separation, he had accused her of going to motels on Pacific Highway South with other men. He told her that he wanted custody of Matthew and that he was going to use photographs he had taken of her dressed like a prostitute while going to these motels with other men. She said that her husband might have had photographs of her, but not of her going into any motels with other men. She also stated that when it came time for the divorce, Ridgway had not contested it and never did show any photos of her.

  Marcia said that while they were married and she was working, an incident occurred involving her going to the Bear Cave Tavern/Topless Bar with a girlfriend who had asked her to stop by one afternoon after they got off work. Marcia had never been there before, but she agreed to go inside. However, after they went in, Marcia quickly became embarrassed, finished her drink, and then told her girlfriend that she was going to leave, which she did. After she got home, her husband came in, very upset, and accused her of dancing topless at the Bear Cave Tavern. He said that his foreman had seen her there dancing topless, and even though Marcia told him she had not done it and tried to explain, he never did believe her.

  The detectives asked Marcia what type of relationship her husband had with his parents, and she said that Gary and his mother were very close but that he and his father were not. She said that Ridgway’s mother ran the household and she was continually yelling at his father. As an example, Marcia related an incident that occurred while she and her husband were both at his parents’ house: Mrs. Ridgway was upset with Mr. Ridgway and became angry. She broke a dinner plate over his head while he was seated at the table. Marcia said that her father-in-law did not retaliate in any manner, only got up and left. She also said that the first time she saw Mrs. Ridgway, she did not believe she was Gary’s mother because Mrs. Ridgway was wearing a lot of makeup and tight clothes and, to Marcia, looked like a prostitute. Marcia later learned that Gary’s mother always dressed that way, even at home.

  The two task force investigators, Doyon and Haney, and Marcia Winslow continued their drive, and after arriving in the Greenwater area, she directed them to a fire service road that turned north from Highway 410, just prior to a railroad trestle approximately a half-mile east of Greenwater. Off this fire service road, Marcia said, she and Ridgway and Ridgway’s family had camped. On the way back from this camping area toward Enumclaw, Marcia made the statement that Ridgway was very familiar with the entire area from Greenwater to Enumclaw. This is the area where the remains of Green River victims Bello, Authorlee, and Abernathy were recovered.

  Marcia next directed Detectives Haney and Doyon to the Auburn—Federal Way area. At Highway 18 and West Valley Highway, Marcia said that when she and Ridgway lived in the Twin Lakes area of Federal Way, Ridgway would take the Peasley Canyon Road and the Mountview Cemetery Road home. He preferred to use the back roads rather than the main highways. The Mountview Cemetery Road is where Green River victim Kimi-Kai Pitsor’s remains were found as well as two sets of unidentified remains. Green River victim Brockmann was found in Jovita Canyon, which is the next canyon to the south, going from the West Valley Highway up toward the Federal Way area. Marcia said that her husband would take back roads traveling to and from work, looking for “dumping areas”—places where people would drop off their garbage on side and deadend roads. He would then go through the garbage looking for anything he could salvage. He also enjoyed going to swap meets, including the one located at Angle Lake.

  Haney and Doyon then took Marcia to Star Lake Road because she had stated that she and Gary Ridgway had swum and fished in Star Lake. While driving down Star Lake Road, Marcia stated that she still believed this was the lake where they had gone swimming and fishing but she no longer recognized it. Marcia was unable to locate an area where she thought there were picnic tables and a beach for swimming. She said that all this had taken place a number of years earlier. The remains of Green River victims Smith, Matthew, Rois, Gabbert, Williams, and Milligan were found and recovered on Star Lake Road. All of these victims were found close to where people dumped garbage.

  Marcia was next driven to Frager Road and she pointed out areas where she and Ridgway had gone bicycling and then engaged in sex. These areas included the grassy banks by P. D. & J. Meats and also under a large tree next to a pond by the Peck Bridge, the location where Green River victims Cofield, Bonner, Mills, Chapman, and Hinds were
found.

  Farther north of Frager Road, Marcia pointed out an area across the street from Cottonwood Grove Park, where she and her husband had engaged in sex several times underneath a large tree. (Police recovered the skeletal remains of Tracy Winston on March 27, 1986, at Cottonwood Grove Park.) Just past the park to the north, Marcia pointed out a fenced road leading to a landfill, where she and Ridgway had engaged in sex, and also pointed across the street at the old boat launch on the Green River.

  Marcia directed the detectives to an area south of the Sea-Tac Airport, South 200th and 20th Avenue South, where she said that she and Ridgway had picked blackberries and apples. This is now an abandoned area since the Port of Seattle purchased the land pursuant to a noise abatement program. The area is now fenced, and the detectives were unable to verify Marcia’s directions. However, this is almost the exact location where Green River victim Lavvorn’s remains were recovered. Also, just a few blocks away, Green River victims Naon, Meehan, and Ware were found.

  Vehicles Associated with Gary Ridgway

  1975 Dodge pickup, Washington license PR-5996, maroon in color with a black hood and numerous rust-colored primer spots. This pickup was known to have two canopies associated with it, one white and the other black. The truck was purchased on 6/5/77 by Gary Ridgway and totaled in an accident on 2/21/84. This vehicle has since been destroyed.

  1973 Plymouth Satellite, 4-door, brown in color, Washington license FRD275. This vehicle was purchased by Girlfriend C on 12/2/83 and sold to Gary Ridgway on 2/22/84. Girlfriend C was Ridgway’s girlfriend during 1982, 1983, and early 1984.

  1970 Dodge pickup, blue-green (aqua) in color, with a white cab-high canopy, Washington license A48731. This vehicle was later painted dark blue by Gary Ridgway. The vehicle was purchased on 7/9/81 by Gary Ridgway’s brother, Thomas E. Ridgway.

  1977 Dodge pickup, brown and gold in color, Washington license XS5535. This vehicle was purchased on 10/18/78 by Gary Ridgway’s father, Thomas N. Ridgway, and sold on 8/11/83.

  1983 Ford pickup, red and white in color, with cab-high canopy, Washington license HZ6684. This pickup was purchased on 8/11/83 by Gary Ridgway’s father, Thomas N. Ridgway, and sold on 8/15/86.

  1970 Ford pickup, off-white or very faded light green in color, Washington license A01419. This pickup was previously owned by Girlfriend C and her ex-husband, who signed off his interest in the pickup on 8/17/82 as part of a divorce settlement. Girlfriend C sold the pickup on 5/7/83.

  1977 Ford pickup, brown in color, Washington license PZ9609. This pickup was purchased by Gary Ridgway on 4/16/84 and occasionally had a gold-and-white 8-foot camper on it.

  1969 Dodge Dart, 2-door, beige/brown in color, Washington license OLF212. This vehicle was purchased by Gary Ridgway on 2/13/85 from his brother, Thomas E. Ridgway, who purchased this vehicle from his brother, Gregory L. Ridgway, on 3/24/75.

  1992 Ford Ranger pickup, red in color with red canopy, Washington license 75935Y. This vehicle is currently registered to Gary Ridgway.

  1992 Mercury Sable, 4-door, tan in color, Washington license 721EXO. This vehicle is currently registered to Gary and Judith Ridgway.

  1992 Flair Motorhome, beige in color, Washington license 131EKO. This vehicle is currently registered to Gary and Judith Ridgway.

  It is also possible that Ridgway’s employment allowed him unfettered temporary use of vehicles he was assigned to work on. Ridgway, in his statement to Detective Randy Mullinax, also said that he used his father’s 1978 Dodge pickup, which was brown and tan and did not have a canopy associated with it. Dawn White, in her first interview, told Detectives Mullinax and Dave Reichert that she believed Ridgway had just sold a white pickup truck.

  The Disappearance of Alma Smith

  Alma Smith was last seen by a friend, Cynthia Basset-Ornelas, when they were working together as prostitutes on March 3, 1983, in front of the Red Lion Hotel on Pacific Highway South. At about nine P.M., Ornelas got a date, and when she returned about thirty minutes later, Smith was gone. Ornelas saw a white and blue pickup truck in the Red Lion parking lot and thought Smith might be on a date in it, so she went over and looked inside. Smith was not inside. The truck was occupied by a white male, 27 to 30 years old, approximately six feet tall, 160 pounds, with dark brown hair and blue eyes, and wearing jeans and a jeans jacket. The truck was described as white and blue in color, a standard-size pickup, of unknown 1970s make.

  This male occupant asked Ornelas what she wanted, to which she replied, “Not you.” She then began to walk away and the man exited the pickup and began following her. Ornelas told the man to leave her alone, and he then asked her where her blond friend was. (Alma Smith was blond. Ornelas had never previously worked with Smith on Pacific Highway South, and this contact is similar to Ridgway’s contact with Paige Miley concerning Kim Nelson.) A short time later, Ornelas was told by a separate subject that Smith had left in that same pickup.

  On December 30, 1986, Ornelas was shown a six-person photomontage, which included a photograph of Ridgway. Ornelas picked out Ridgway as “looking like the guy but having longer, thinner hair and thinner lips.” She stated that she could not positively say that Ridgway was the driver of the pickup she had seen in the Red Lion parking lot.

  The Disappearance of Gail Mathews

  Gail Mathews was known to be involved in prostitution activities on Pacific Highway South from field interview reports and witness accounts. On April 10, 1983, Mathews was with her boyfriend, Curtis Weaver, at the VIP Tavern on South 208th and Pacific Highway South. Shortly before six P.M., Weaver left Mathews at the tavern and walked to South 216th and Pacific Highway South so that he could catch a bus to another tavern, where he planned to gamble. Neither Mathews nor Weaver had money to pay for a room that night at the New West Motel at South 216th and Pacific Highway South.

  Approximately ten minutes after Weaver left Mathews at the tavern, he saw her sitting in a blue-green pickup truck that had a white canopy over the bed. The driver was described as a white male, 25 to 35 years of age, with curly brown hair and wearing a flannel shirt. Weaver described the truck as having numerous primer spots down the passenger’s side. The truck was sitting in the left-hand turn lane of the Pacific Highway South, southbound, waiting to turn eastbound onto South 216th. Weaver said he attempted to get Mathews’s attention but she appeared to be in a trance and never acknowledged his gestures. She continued to look straight ahead as if he weren’t there. After watching the truck disappear eastbound on South 216th, he never saw the truck or Mathews again. Gail Mathews’s remains were found on Star Lake Road on September 18, 1983, an area that yielded the remains of five additional Green River victims.

  The Disappearance of Kimi-Kai Pitsor

  Kimi-Kai Pitsor was last seen by her boyfriend of two years, Stephen Smith, on April 17, 1983, at about ten P.M. in downtown Seattle working as a prostitute. Smith said that a white male adult, in his mid-twenties, with dark hair, a two-inch tattoo on his right arm, and wearing a white T-shirt, drove past both Pitsor and him. Pitsor was approximately a half-block ahead of him and waved to the driver as he approached her, as if he were a known “date.” The pickup slowed and Pitsor began to run toward it as it went past her. Both Pitsor and the pickup disappeared from Smith’s view as it pulled into a parking lot and Pitsor followed it. Smith ran to see if Pitsor was going to make the date, only to discover both Pitsor and the pickup gone. Smith waited for seven hours for Pitsor to return, but she never did, and he never saw her again.

  Pitsor’s skull was discovered at Mountview Cemetery on December 18, 1983. On January 9, 1987, Smith was shown a six-person photomontage, which included the photograph of Gary Ridgway. Smith tentatively picked out Ridgway as the driver of the pickup truck. Smith requested to see a side view of Ridgway to attempt a more positive identification. On January 13, 1987, Smith was shown another montage including a side view of Ridgway. Smith again tentatively identified Ridgway but said that he “couldn’t be a thousand percent sure.”

  Su
rveillance of Gary Ridgway

  Gary Ridgway was surveilled between October 9, 1986, and October 24, 1986, when he was working the second shift (3:40 P.M. to 12:10 A.M. Monday through Friday) at Kenworth on East Marginal Way. He was surveilled from the time he left his residence in the morning hours until he arrived at work in the afternoon. Ridgway was driving his 1977 Ford truck. He was also periodically surveilled after leaving work.

  During the time that Ridgway was surveilled, he displayed his familiarity with the area on and around Pacific Highway South near Sea-Tac Airport and was observed cruising Pacific Highway South and parking in areas known to be high areas of prostitution. Specifically, he was seen parked at Larry’s Market, located at South 144th and Pacific Highway South, and at the 7-Eleven located at South 142nd and Pacific Highway South. Several Green River victims disappeared from these locations: Sandra Gabbert, Kim Nelson, Tina Thompson, Denise Bush, Terry Milligan, Shawnda Summers, Carol Christensen, and Yvonne Antosh. Ridgway was also observed on several occasions eating at fast-food restaurants in the immediate area. He also visited his parents’ house, located at 4404 South 175th in Sea-Tac, several times.

  On one occasion during this period of surveillance, Ridgway went to Rainier Avenue South between Seward Park Drive and Andover Street, where he drove back and forth two times. This section of Rainer Avenue South is also a very popular location for prostitution, and several Green River victims disappeared from it, specifically Lisa Yates, April Buttram, Pammy Avent, and Mary West.