This story was originally published on MynorthWest.comWritten by Charlie Hargar, Seattle Mourning News.
For several months, mystery surrounded Gary Ridjway, one of the worst serial killers in American history. Why did he move from his cell in prison in Walla, to the King’s County Prison from 9 to 13 September, 2024?
With 49 confirmed murders, Ridjway has become the most abundant serial killer in American history. But many believe that the actual number is much higher. In an interview with 2014, Ridjway claimed that he had killed up to 85 women.
The authorities have been silent about the reason for moving Ridgway, which leads to speculation and uncomfortable. Some have asked if he finally led the investigators to more victims, while others suspect that he simply played another manipulation game.
Now, the newly discovered court documents reveal the truth.
Click Reading: Movement and Certificate to Seal the documents
Gary Ridjway agreed to lead the detectives to remains
According to a proposal by the Deputy Prosecutor in the King’s County Marie County. Barbosa, Ridjway agreed to transfer investigators to sites allegedly left remains that have not yet been recovered.
“Previous efforts to find these sites based on the verbal descriptions presented by the defendant did not succeed. The defendant indicated that he believed that he could find these sites personally.”
Ridgway investigators have returned to the sites that he claimed left the remains of the victims. They were hoping that this would be their last chance to get real answers from it. But again, mislead them.
Click Reading: The Court order to transfer Gary Ridjway to King’s County
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The investigators were skeptical.
Ridjway, 76, has insisted on a long time failure that investigators did not bring him to every site where he threw objects.
The investigators were skeptical, but with the time running out, they risked. If there is even the slightest possibility to close families, it is worth following.
Movement of anxiety for his safety, officials kept the Ridjway secretly.
The Barbosa movement highlighted the risks of making the plan publicly, saying: “If the media gets this, the public will learn from the specific dates in which the defendant will be accommodated with Dajd and that he will leave Dajd with KCSO investigators during his period in King’s province.”
She also warned that public awareness could endanger investigators, interfere with investigations, and create security risks. The last thing they wanted is popular anger or someone trying to air justice.
Click Reading: Movement and Certificate to Seal the documents
Ridgway took the investigators to search
For several days, investigators brought Ridjway to the sites where the remains of the victims were claimed, following the operation described in the Barbosa movement.
“Given the defendant’s life and health, this process is expected to take several days,” she wrote.
The King Sharif County Office had arranged for the trip, ensuring coordination with the Department of Reform and Local Law enforcement. They were completely searched, using corpse dogs, ground penetration radar, and forensic experts. Hold in the hope that this time will be different.
But nothing was found.
“Many of the things he used to say to the detective were not hurt.” “Some investigators believe that he was making completely new sites as a sick pride.”
Investigators found the experience very frustrated, but they knew that they had the opportunity. Even if they did not trust Ridgway, they owe the families of the victims to exhaust all the recent possibilities.
Click Reading: Movement to check
Endless sadness for families
For the families of the Ridgway victims, this was the last disappointment of another painful reminder of the cruelty he attached, not only for women who killed them, but on those who left behind.
“You hear the word closure all the time, but there is something about a place to go to,” said Down Engelich, an incubator mother who cares about one of the suspects of Ridjway’s victims. “We cannot put flowers on her grave because there is no grave to put flowers.”
The English language, which has strengthened Patricia Lieblank, is still wondering what happened to the girl whose daughter once contacted.
“It is not logical that it did not call. Of course, the more time it passes and does not call, the more and more it becomes.”
Although the Leblanc case was not officially linked to Ridgway, the English language has no doubt.
It fits the profile a lot. Timing, what she was doing, was right in the middle. She said that my idea was – perhaps. “
The latest identity of the victims and continuous research
The authorities recently confirmed that the last known residues associated with Ridgway belongs to Tami Lilis, who is 16 years old, a victim has already been identified decades ago.
“It is a tremendous feeling of contentment that in this case, he started in the early eighties, we can identify all Gary Ridjway victims. They are all 49 of them.”
Despite this confirmation, it is still possible to connect many cases that have not been resolved to Ridgway.
“Ridjway said that he killed 65 to 70 young women and had young girls, and so far he was guilty in 49 years and closed 51 cases. But it is also possible that 49 is the real number, and that every additional claim is just another way for him to inflate his own evil … as I said, there are other cases that have not been resolved there or not or not related to Ridgway, but there are still parents looking for answers about the death of their daughter. “
Tension along the investigators
Rob Fitzgerald, a volunteer person who devoted years of his life to find missing victims, was in 2014 for his efforts and frustrations.
Fitzgerald has communicated with Ridjway for years, believing that his cooperation could lead to more survival. Instead, Ridgway led him in circles, providing sufficient information only to keep the voltage, but not really enough to help.
During the 2014 interviews with Ridgway, he often spoke as if he wanted to help, although his words always carry an atmosphere of manipulation.
He told me: “This is all about the victims.” But in reality, enjoy control.
“I think he wants to appear to the world, here I, Gary Ridjawi, the truck painter from Kenworth, the man who everyone thought was slow since the primary school. But, I am here, and I am the best in something,” he remembers.
The era of the green killer is the horror of terrorism
The history of Ridgway is one of the prolonged terrorism.
Women targeted along the Pacific Highway in the south in King’s Province in the early 1980s. Most of them were fugitives or sex workers, weak and often ignored by society.
Ridjawi told me in 2014, a chilling confession that emphasized the methodological brutality of his crimes.
For years, the police struggled to determine the killer.
“For any reason, I managed to slide under their radar for a long time,” I told him. Agree, and provide a little remorse. “The thing, some of these cases, you just have to pass it. I am not tense.”
Detention and trial
Ridjawi was finally arrested in 2001 after DNA has linked him to several victims. The progress in forensic science had recently discovered with him, and his previous crimes could no longer remain buried. In 2003, he admitted that he was guilty of 48 murders in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
He later told me: “I had to have enough balls to say, allow me to go out and show you the place where I put it in,” referring to the crime scenes that he had previously refused to reveal.
However, even in the courtroom, no remorse appeared. The families of his victims sat only a foot away, in the hope of obtaining answers, closing, or even an apology. They did not get any of them. Instead, listen to telling the crimes of killing him with the same emotional tone that I had in the interviews.
He told me: “You know, the amount I told them and showed them does not match what they accused.” It is regularly commented on the possibility of more victims while giving mysterious or misleading details, and he may know very well that there is no longer more.
“I think they do not find them because the remains do not last long. Many animals eat them, as you know.”
With 49 confirmed murders, Ridjway has become the most abundant serial killer in American history. But many believe that the actual number is much higher.
The last years of the Green River killer
Ridjway’s health failed. 76 years old, weak, and the majestic number was no longer. His voice, once fixed and monitoring, now carries a slight tremor in aging.
He told me in 2014: “I am not the same man I was. I can’t change what I did.”
Despite his deteriorating condition, he continues to manipulate law enforcement, and desperate to adhere to any form of control.
For the families of its victims, justice will never be offered. The pain does not end with a comet, and does not fade over time.
“You find peace, not closing, because he never went,” he told me English. “But there is no place to go to and say, as you know, it’s Batti’s birthday. Let’s take the flowers. There is no place for that.”
Dozens of families are still waiting for answers. But as long as these answers depend on Gary Ridjway, they will never come. He is a liar. He is evil. Even in his last days, he refuses to give the families of the victims the closure they deserve.
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