Classified Serial Killings ie., Gary Ridgway and more

[Toler]

ClassifiedSerial killings: Unsolved, and unpublicized, slayings of women fill FBI files
THOMAS HARGROV
RICHARD BRIAN/SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Mortuary workers and members of the Clark County (Nev.) Coroner’s Office remove the lid of a vault as they exhume the body of an unidentified woman at Palm Mortuary in Las Vegas on Aug. 18. The body was exhumed as part of a program to identify the dead through modern DNA technology.


Authorities in Indiana and Ohio have launched investigations into suspected serial killings after a Scripps Howard News Service study of FBI computer files found many alarming clusters of unsolved homicides of women across the nation.

Also, police in Nevada confirm for the first time that they are hunting a likely serial killer who has targeted up to seven women, mostly prostitutes, and has scattered their partial remains across three states.

Many of the suspected serial killings detected in the study have never before been disclosed to the public.

All told, authorities in seven cities have confirmed that a statistical analysis of federal crime files conducted by Scripps has detected known - or strongly suspected - serial homicides in their communities.

The study was based on computer records of 525,742 homicides committed from 1980 to 2008. The FBI provided most of the data. But Scripps supplemented these using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain detailed records of 15,322 killings that local police did not disclose to the federal government's entirely voluntary crime reporting system.

The resulting database - which crime experts say is the most complete accounting of homicide victims ever assembled in the United States - was created to determine if serial killings could be identified among the nation's 185,000 unsolved homicides.

"I remember we had three of them, all elderly women who were strangled," said Lake County, Ind., Deputy Coroner Jackie DeChantal of a series of unsolved killings about four years ago in the Gary, Ind., area. "I remember talking about it then. We couldn't get anyone else to say that they were connected."

DeChantal has since reviewed coroner's case files and added three more suspicious homicides to a list of 14 strangulations identified in the Scripps study, some dating back to the early 1990s. She plans to review the cases with investigators from the Gary Police Department.

"We thought it was just odd when they happened," she said. "Why would you kill somebody old like that, unless you were robbing them? But that didn't appear to be the case at the time."

The Scripps study also prompted police in Youngstown, Ohio, to begin a fresh review of decades-old files and evidence storage boxes related to several homicides.

"In the early 1990s, we thought we had a serial murderer running around. Yes, we definitely thought we had one," said Capt. Rod Foley of the city's homicide squad.

Foley is contacting other police departments, looking for any physical evidence from a series of suspected rape-murders in his area that could be shipped to Ohio authorities for DNA analysis.

"We had a suspect back then," Foley said. "We thought he had a pattern. He would rape them. Sometimes he'd shoot them or do some other things to them."

The Scripps study highlighted communities where police failed to solve at least three-quarters of the homicides of women who were of similar age and killed through similar methods. The study focused on women because officials at the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program report that 70 percent of all known serial murder victims were female.

The study identified 161 clusters in which 1,247 women of similar age were killed through similar means. At least 75 percent of the cases in each cluster were unsolved at the time they were reported under the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report program.

"No one has done what you have done," said University of Maryland criminologist Charles Wellford, who in 1999 published a landmark study into how police can improve murder investigations.

Nevertheless, experts warn that the Scripps study is unlikely to detect mobile serial killers like homicidal truck drivers, a group that was targeted in the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative.

"Your method is fine, but it certainly underestimates the true number of serial killings," said criminologist Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University and a nationally prominent scholar of serial and mass murder.

He said the problem is that serial killers often vary their methods and even their choice of victims, which makes detection more difficult. "They get bored," Levin said.

Contained in one of the study's four clusters of unsolved female killings in Las Vegas was the grisly death of Misty Saens, a prostitute whose torso was discovered off Nevada Route 159 west of Las Vegas in March 2003. It took police two years to identify her.

It took even longer for police to discover that Saens was the first victim in an apparent sequence of gruesome killings.

"We have a series of cases where we believe six or seven women, mostly prostitutes, have been killed in southern Nevada and other places, possibly by a truck driver," said Lt. Lew Roberts of the Las Vegas Homicide Unit. "We think we have one serial killer who's out preying on these women."

That statement marks the first time Las Vegas police have said they are hunting a serial killer who targets prostitutes. The city has never issued a formal warning, although local news media published and broadcast stories in 2008 speculating the possibility of a serial killer.

The U.S. Justice Department, as a policy, recommends that police issue a warning when a serial killer has been detected.

"If we determine that there may be a serial killer operating and that a certain population therefore is at risk, then, certainly, warning the public is of paramount concern," said Supervisory Special Agent Mark Hilts of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, which specializes in profiling serial killers.

But he said the final decision rests with local law enforcement.

"We don't have a policy on this," said Las Vegas police public information officer Barbara Morgan. "We want to be transparent on cases of serial rapists or serial murderers, of course. But I can't remember ever putting out a statement about an active serial killer."

Police will not identify all the killings, or disappearances, that they suspect could be the work of a single person targeting Las Vegas prostitutes. In late September, they issued a statement to Scripps about two related cases: Police in 2003 recovered the torso of Jodi Brewer near Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, Calif., and in 2005 found the severed legs of Lindsay Harris, later identified through DNA analysis, along Interstate 55 south of Springfield, Ill.

The Scripps study flagged Brewer's killing among a cluster of 14 homicides of women who the FBI reported were of "unknown age" killed by "type unknown weapons" in the San Bernardino area. None of those cases was solved at the time they were reported to federal authorities.

"It's my understanding that she (Brewer) was strictly a body dump," said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff. "We have a lot of desolate highways here. A couple of times a year, people will come upon a body that we determine was not actually killed in our jurisdiction."

Harris' case has prompted the Illinois State Police to look "at almost every highly publicized case from here to Las Vegas involving dismembered bodies," said Mike Jennings, a special agent with the force.

"You start to realize that there are a lot of these people (serial killers) out there. One's bad. But to know that there are dozens or possibly even more … The general public has no idea."

The study failed to detect Lindsay Harris' case because Illinois state authorities do not participate in the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report, although the Chicago Police Department has chosen to report directly to the federal agency.

Scripps Howard, in the early stages of the study, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Illinois State Police seeking disclosure of the missing homicide records. The state denied the request on the grounds that the information does not exist because Illinois does not assemble computer files detailing murder victims.

Similar requests of authorities in Florida and Washington, D.C., were successful, however.

Police confirmed the Scripps study has correctly identified previously known serial murder victims in Anchorage, Alaska, Buffalo, N.Y., Los Angeles and Seattle. The study flagged 32 of "Green River Killer" Gary Leon Ridgway's estimated 48 victims in Seattle.

The study identified possible cases of serial killings of women in Detroit, Phoenix or Dallas, but police could not confirm these.

The Detroit Police Department refused a Freedom of Information Act request by Scripps Howard for information about 10 unsolved strangulations of teenage girls and women of undetermined age who were killed from 1991 to 2000.

Since Detroit didn't use computers to track homicides until 2003, reviews of older cases would require a "manual search of all homicide files" that would probably include travel to an "off-site storage facility," according to Detroit city counsel Ellen Ha.

Phoenix police did review 11 homicides of women flagged by the Scripps study, but found no evidence that any were the result of serial murder. However, the city also has about 1,900 unsolved homicides committed since 1990 and is building its own database to search for possible serial killings.

"We have renewed our interest in cold-case investigations," said Lt. Joe Knott, head of the city's homicide unit. "We don't have any specific cases tied to any one individual, but that doesn't mean that there may not be."

The study found six clusters of mostly unsolved killings of 74 women in the Dallas area. Although none was easily identified to be a serial homicide, city police are quick to admit that undetected serial killings are likely among the city's more than 350 unsolved killings of women.

"We've had some horrendous murders here," said Sgt. Larry Lewis of the Dallas Cold Case Homicide Unit. "I'm sure there are serial killers in that pile, but I'm trying to figure out a way to find them."



http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/nov/20/serial-killings-hidden-trail/

[Nut44x4]

Published: November 25, 2010 3:00 a.m.
Study opens serial killer probes in Indiana, Ohio

Thomas Hargrove | Scripps Howard News Service
Authorities in Indiana and Ohio have launched investigations into suspected serial killings after a study of FBI computer files found clusters of unsolved homicides of women across the nation.

Also, police in Nevada are hunting a likely serial killer who has targeted up to seven women, mostly prostitutes, and has scattered their partial remains across three states.

Many of the suspected serial killings detected in the study have never before been disclosed to the public.

All told, authorities in seven cities have confirmed that a statistical analysis of federal crime files conducted by Scripps Howard News Service has detected known – or strongly suspected – serial homicides in their communities.

The study was based on computer records of 525,742 homicides committed from 1980 to 2008. The FBI provided most of the data. But Scripps supplemented these using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain detailed records of 15,322 killings that police did not disclose to the federal government’s voluntary crime reporting system.

The resulting database – which crime experts say is the most complete accounting of homicide victims ever assembled in the U.S. – was created to determine whether serial killings could be identified among the nation’s 185,000 unsolved homicides.

“I remember we had three of them, all elderly women who were strangled,” Lake County Deputy Coroner Jackie DeChantal said of a series of unsolved killings about four years ago in the Gary area. “I remember talking about it then. We couldn’t get anyone else to say that they were connected.”

DeChantal has since reviewed coroner’s case files and added three more suspicious homicides to a list of 14 strangulations identified in the Scripps study, some dating to the early 1990s.

The Scripps study also prompted police in Youngstown, Ohio, to begin a fresh review of decades-old files and evidence storage boxes related to several homicides.

“In the early 1990s, we thought we had a serial murderer running around. Yes, we definitely thought we had one,” said Capt. Rod Foley of the city’s homicide squad.

Foley is contacting other police departments, looking for any physical evidence from a series of suspected rape-murders in his area.

“We had a suspect back then,” Foley said. “We thought he had a pattern. He would rape them. Sometimes he’d shoot them or do some other things to them.”

Experts warn that the Scripps study is unlikely to detect mobile serial killers like homicidal truck drivers, a group that was targeted in the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative.

Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said the problem is that serial killers often vary their methods and even their choice of victims, which makes detection more difficult. “They get bored,” Levin said.

Contained in one of the study’s four clusters of unsolved female killings in Las Vegas was the grisly death of Misty Saens, a prostitute whose torso was discovered west of the city in March 2003. It took police two years to identify her. It took even longer for police to discover that Saens was the first victim in an apparent sequence of gruesome killings.

“We have a series of cases where we believe six or seven women, mostly prostitutes, have been killed in southern Nevada and other places, possibly by a truck driver,” said Lt. Lew Roberts of the Las Vegas Homicide Unit. “We think we have one serial killer who’s out preying on these women.”

That statement – given after Scripps asked Las Vegas authorities whether they had active serial killer investigations – is the first time Las Vegas police have said they are hunting a serial killer who targets prostitutes. The city has never issued a formal warning, although local news media published and broadcast stories in 2008 speculating the possibility of a serial killer.

The U.S. Justice Department, as a policy, recommends that police issue a warning when a serial killer has been detected.

Police will not identify all of the killings, or disappearances, that they suspect could be the work of a single person targeting Las Vegas prostitutes. In late September, they issued a statement to Scripps about two related cases: Police in 2003 recovered the torso of Jodi Brewer near Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, Calif., and in 2005 found the severed legs of Lindsay Harris, later identified through DNA analysis, along Interstate 55 south of Springfield, Ill.

The Scripps study flagged Brewer’s killing among a cluster of 14 homicides of women who the FBI reported were of “unknown age” killed by “type unknown weapons” in the San Bernardino area.

“It’s my understanding that she (Brewer) was strictly a body dump,” said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff. “We have a lot of desolate highways here. A couple of times a year, people will come upon a body that we determine was not actually killed in our jurisdiction.”

Harris’ case has prompted the Illinois State Police to look “at almost every highly publicized case from here to Las Vegas involving dismembered bodies,” said Mike Jennings, a special agent with the force.

“You start to realize that there are a lot of these people (serial killers) out there. One’s bad. But to know that there are dozens or possibly even more ... The general public has no idea.”

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101125/NEWS03/311259994/1066/NEWS03

[Nut44x4]

FBI hopes computers can help catch serial killers

By THOMAS HARGROVE - Scripps Howard News Service   
First Posted: November 26, 2010 - 7:28 am
 
QUANTICO, Va. - FBI agents are trying to teach computers how to spot serial killers, enlisting artificial intelligence to identify patterns in the nation's growing number of unsolved homicides.

The process - called automated case matching - is the brainchild of a small cadre of crime researchers at the bureau's famed Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (or ViCAP) housed in a row of unmarked office buildings near the Quantico Marine Training Base south of Washington, D.C.

Federal authorities hope computers can sift through more than 60,000 unsolved homicides currently in ViCAP records, looking for common clues that would link one killer to multiple crimes. Detectives nationwide log 3,000 new killings of the roughly 6,000 unsolved cases each year into the system to discover if their homicides are similar to killings in other areas.

"It's very hard for an analyst to go through all of those cases since there are so many facets to them," said FBI Special Agent Michael Harrigan, who led the ViCAP program from 2007 to 2010. "We need a tool that can run behind the scenes and continuously try to match cases."

A less-sophisticated version of the matching tool, developed a decade ago, failed to produce any significant leads. FBI officials decided to try again in 2008.

"We are redesigning it from top to bottom, using new techniques and new research methods to make sure it's more accurate than the old one. We're going to put some AI - artificial intelligence - into it," Harrigan said.

The ViCAP database contains 1,398 known serial murders, 187 cases of attempted murder committed by serial killers, and 737 serial sexual assaults. Analysts are testing their automated search algorithms against these documented cases of serial crimes.

It's a daunting task.

Detectives may report that a woman was strangled with her own stockings. Or they may describe the murder weapon as "hosiery" or "nylons." A human would immediately draw a comparison in the similar descriptions of murder weapons, but computers must be taught that objects often have many different names.

FBI analysts hope to teach computers to compare abstract concepts such as the time of day when murders are committed, whether crime scenes are geographically similar and located near common objects like bridges or major roads, or whether offenders in cases of attempted murder or rape speak to their victims using similar phrases or ideas.

Federal officials hope to deploy the next-generation automated matching system before the end of the year.

They are, in essence, trying to teach machines to do what Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation analyst Terri Turner did in 2003 when she received a report that the nude body of an unidentified middle-aged woman bound with duct tape was found along an on-ramp to Interstate 40 in eastern Oklahoma.

"Because the victim was unidentified and because of the nature of the crime, it is normal to put out a teletype about it to surrounding states," Turner said. "Within 72 hours, we got a number of responses. But two, in particular, were notable."

The body along I-40 was eventually identified as Sandra Beard, 43, a truck stop prostitute. The bodies of two other women -- Margaret Gardner, 47, and Jennifer Hyman, 24, both prostitutes -- were found in similar circumstances and later linked to Beard's killing through forensic evidence.

Turner's ability to correctly link three different roadside killings made police reconsider previous notions that serial killers prefer to operate in a fixed geography. The discovery led the FBI to create the Highway Serial Killers Initiative, which documented more that 500 unsolved homicides of victims found dead along major highways. At least 200 different killers are believed responsible.

Although the three killings that Turner linked seven years ago are still unsolved, at least 10 arrests have been credited to the Highway Serial Killer Initiative, including recent guilty pleas by North Carolina trucker Adam Leroy Lane, who confessed to fatal stabbings of two women in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Turner, now a member of the ViCAP advisory board, supports the attempt to automate the search for serial killers. "We would be remiss not take advantage of a computer's ability to flag cases that show similarities," she said. "And, yes, I think it can work."

Criminologist Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University, said the FBI's attempts to use computers to track serial killers is worth trying. But he sees several limitations.

"The first is missing data," Levin said.

A study by Scripps Howard News Service found that 185,000 homicides have gone unsolved since 1980, based upon data provided by the FBI and other Justice Department sources. But local police have reported only 60,000 homicides to ViCAP in the FBI's totally voluntary program. "That's only about a third," Levin said.

Even more serious is the underlining assumption that serial killers will stick to patterns "both in their victims' characteristics as well as in their methods of killing," Levin said. "But we know many killers will have neither. We find that their methods often change from victim to victim."

For example, the Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, exclusively targeted female victims during the late 1970s in the hills above Los Angeles.

"They got bored just strangling their victims, so they started to torture them first," Levin said. "Sometime killers will change their modus operandi (method of operating) because they get bored. Also, frankly, it is practical. They want to throw the police off who are looking for a pattern."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/serial-fbi112610/serial-fbi112610/


I am thinking this thread should go under unsolved crimes >???

[Nut44x4]

OMG they have recovered yet another long suspected GRK victim.

RECENT REMAiNS FOUND ID'd as 1982 GRK victim

Skull found in Auburn was likely Green River killer victim
Story Published: Dec 23, 2010 at 1:35 PM PST
Story Updated: Dec 23, 2010 at 2:10 PM PST

AUBURN, Wash. -- A human skull found in a ravine on Tuesday afternoon near Auburn was likely a victim of Green River killer Gary Ridgway, the King County Sheriff's department said Thursday.

An official with the King County Medical Examiner's office identified the remains as Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

Several kids found the skull west of West Valley Highway near South 292nd Street on Tuesday.

Marrero was last seen on December 3, 1982 when she left a motel room at S. 168th and Pacific Highway South, Urquhart said. According to The Charley Project, Marrero received a phone call, asked her mother to watch her 3-year-old child for the evening, and left he home. She wasn't ever seen again. Marrero was 20 years old at the time.

Marrero was reported missing to the Sheriff's Office by her mother on July 20, 1984. Her disappearance was investigated by the Green River Task Force, and she was believed to be a Green River victim.

Urquhart says Marrero was likely one of Ridgway's earliest victims.

"As far as we know, he started killing in 1981-1982, so she was a very early victim," Urquhart told KOMO NewsRadio.

Ridgway was arrested on November 30, 2001 and charged with the aggravated murder of four young women who were thought to be early victims of the Green River Killer. After prosecutors and detectives exhausted investigative leads on over four dozen unsolved murder cases, Ridgway was charged with three additional counts of murder, for a total of seven homicides, said Dan Donohoe with the King County Prosecutor’s office.

In a subsequent plea agreement, Ridgway agreed to confess to every murder he committed in King County. In exchange for his confession and leading investigators to the remains of missing women, Ridgway did not face the death penalty. He eventually led investigators to the remains of four missing women. Marrero's remains were never found but Urquhart says Ridgway was interviewed extensively about Marrero in 2003.

Two years later he plead guilty to the murder of 48 women and was sentenced to 48 consecutive live terms. He was not charged in the Marrero case based on the evidence of the time.

"The prosecutor's office is going to have to make that call," Urquhart said. "They did have a deal with (Ridgway) back in 2003, so they'll be relooking at the agreement they had and what he said about her disappearance when he was interviewed."

Donohoe says prosecutors will now review the investigation into her disappearance and death. "Investigators will examine all aspects of the case including any potential involvement of Ridgway," Donohoe said.

The remains of Marie Malvar were found on September 28, 2003 in the same general area where Marrero was found, Urquhart said. Malvar was last seen in 1983 at S. 216th and Pacific Highway South. Ridgway was convicted in the Malvar murder.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/112396554.html

omg they have been looking for her for a very long time.... RIP Becky, you can go home now.

If any of you have followed the GRK case like I have, you will remember this face


Rebecca "Becky" Marrero

[Nut44x4]

December 23, 2010 at 3:40 pm   

The King County Prosecutor's Office released this statement this afternoon regarding the find of the remains of Rebecca Marrero, who is believed to be a victim of the Green River Killer:

Prosecutors to Review Open Homicide Case of Rebecca Marrero

King County Prosecutors are working closely with detectives of the King County Sheriff's Office after human remains found two days ago in a ravine in Auburn were positively identified as those of Rebecca T. Marrero. Marrero was last seen alive in December of 1982 at a hotel along Pacific Highway South in Sea-Tac. She was 20 years-old at the time of her disappearance. She had left her 3 year-old daughter with her grandmother and was only to be gone a short while. Her family never heard from her again.

Detectives have long believed Marrero to be a victim of convicted serial killer Gary Ridgway. Marrero was listed as one of several missing women on the original Green River Taskforce list of 49 possible victims in the 1980s.

In 2001, prosecutors charged Ridgway with the aggravated murder of four young women who were thought to be early victims of the Green River Killer. After prosecutors and detectives exhausted investigative leads on over four dozen unsolved murder cases, Ridgway was charged with three additional counts of murder, for a total of seven homicides.

In a subsequent plea agreement, Ridgway agreed to confess to every murder he committed in King County. In exchange for his confession and leading investigators to the remains of missing women, Ridgway did not face the death penalty. He eventually led investigators to the remains of four missing women. Marrero's remains were never found. Ridgway ultimately entered guilty pleas to a total of 48 counts of murder. He was not charged for the murder of Marrero based upon the evidence available at the time.

With the discovery of Ms. Marrero's remains detectives and prosecutors will now review the investigation into her disappearance and death. Investigators will examine all aspects of the case including any potential involvement of Ridgway.

Prosecutors will announce the results of the review at a later date.


http://blog.thenewstribune.com/crime/2010/12/23/king-county-prosecutors-statement-on-marreros-death/

[Nut44x4]

'Green River Killer' Could Face New Murder Charge

Dec 28, 2010 – 5:12 PM

Gary Ridgway, known as the "Green River Killer," already is serving life in prison for the murders of 48 women. Now the Washington state serial killer could face the death penalty, following the recent discovery of human skeletal remains that police believe are linked to his killing spree.

The discovery was made on Dec. 21 by three teenagers who were playing in a wooded ravine in Auburn, near Seattle.

"We had to go over a log and it was slippery," Skye Hagan told NWCN.com. "I kind of fell and came face to face with a human skull."

The boys notified the Auburn Police Department, which confirmed that the remains were human and turned the investigation over to the King County Sheriff's Office. Additional bones were later located at the bottom of the ravine, police said.

A forensic odontologist has since positively identified the skull found
in the ravine as that of Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, a 20-year-old woman who investigators have long suspected was a victim of Ridgway's.

"With the discovery of Ms. Marrero's remains, detectives and prosecutors will now review the investigation into her disappearance and death," the King County Prosecutor's Office said in statement to the media. "Investigators will examine all aspects of the case including any potential involvement of Ridgway."


Ridgway, 61, was arrested in November 2001, after DNA evidence conclusively linked him to four unsolved homicides. Additional victims were later added to the indictment. The media dubbed Ridgway the "Green River Killer," because his first five victims were found in the Green River in King County.

In 2003, Ridgway was spared the death penalty when he entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. Per the terms of that agreement, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder and agreed to cooperate in locating the remains of additional victims.

In his confession, Ridgway acknowledged that he targeted prostitutes because they were "easy to pick up" and said he hated most of them.

"I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight," Ridgway wrote in a statement for the court.

For his crimes, Ridgway was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms in prison.

For the past seven years, Ridgway has kept a relatively low profile at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. The discovery of Marrero's remains, however, has again thrust him into the spotlight and resulted in renewed interest among investigators.

Marrero was last seen on Dec. 3, 1982, leaving a motel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. For 27 years, her family was left wondering what happened to her.

"She came back for Christmas in December, which is a blessing," Marrero's younger sister, Mary Marrero, told KING 5 News. "She left in December; she came back in December."

According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the location where the remains were found is in the same general area where authorities discovered the remains of Marie Malvar in September 2003. Malvar, a 17-year-old prostitute, was murdered by Ridgway in April 1983.

Ridgway was questioned during taped confessions in 2003 about Marrero's disappearance, but he was unable to provide enough details about her case to convince police he was culpable for her death. Consequently, she was left out of his plea agreement. As a result, prosecutors could now decide to charge him with an additional count of capital murder.

Sponsored LinksRidgway's former attorney, Mark Prothero, told KING 5 News in Seattle that said he doesn't believe Ridgway will face the death penalty because of this latest discovery.

"This case was discussed, he disclosed as much as he could. I like to think it's not something new that's going to reopen those possibilities," Prothero said.

However, Mary Marrero told KING 5 News that investigators are confident they can make a case and are holding her sister's remains as evidence.

"Hopefully [he will be] given the death penalty," she said.

The King County Prosecutor's Office said it will review all the evidence and announce its decision "at a later date."
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/28/green-river-killer-gary-ridgway-could-face-new-murder-charge/

[Nut44x4]

I think most of you know I always say Fry em'! This time I say no. There is always a chance he will give up more info (although doubtful). I have read everything there is out there on Gary and IMO there are way more than 48/49 victims. Convict him again for Rebecca? Yes. DP? No.

Here is a fantastic write up......

Will The Green River Killer Face The Death Penalty?
By Don Ward, Wed., Dec. 29 2010 @ 10:41AM

The discovery of remains last week of a woman believed to be a victim of the Green River Killer has reopened the book on the nation's longest killing spree. The problem is whether investigators can conclusively prove that Gary Leon Ridgway murdered a prostitute named Rebecca Marrero and dumped her remains in an Auburn ravine. And if so, will Ridgway face the ultimate punishment--the death penalty--for his crimes?

Marrero, who was last seen on December 3, 1982, is the first potential victim of the Green River Killer to be discovered in King County since Ridgway's 2003 conviction. The King County Prosecutor's Office is currently investigating the case and it will likely be weeks, if not months, before a decision is made whether or not to formally charge Ridgway, who is serving 48 consecutive life sentences at the State Penitentiary in Walla Walla with an additional 480 years tacked on for 48 counts of tampering with evidence. It is unlikely that he'll ever see the light of day, regardless of whether he's charged in Marrero's death.

In exchange for his life, Ridgway plead guilty to killing 48 women. The deal was brokered by Ridgway's attorneys and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. Bringing Ridgway to trial, convicting and sentencing him on all counts would have taken years and cost the county millions of dollars. And even with forensic evidence and the notoriety of the crimes involved, there was always the chance that a jury could have acquitted him.

The plea was an attempt to bring closure to all the families of the victims. As part of the deal, Ridgway was supposed to lead investigators to the remains of all the bodies he had dumped. With the discovery of Marrero's remains on Dec. 21, it turns out he may have reneged on the deal.

Congressman Dave Reichert is probably the most visible figure involved with the story of the Green River Killer. He led the Green River Killer Task Force in the 1980s and was serving as King County Sheriff when Ridgway was finally apprehended in 2001.

Reichert says the difficulty, even now, is forensically tying Marrero's murder to Ridgway. It is the same problem that stymied law enforcement for two decades. The women he preyed upon lived in the shadows of society. When one disappeared, it was often months or even years before the victim was reported missing. Bodies which were discovered were often so decomposed that they were only able to be identified using dental records. Three of his victims have yet to be identified.

"It will be pretty tough," Reichert explains, saying the remains, which have been buried for 28 years will be skeletal, which eliminates any hope of recovering DNA from bodily fluids. But if the killer left any clothing, which by now will be badly decomposed, with the victim, physical evidence might come into play. Ridgway worked as a painter at the Kenworth Plant in Renton, and microscopic paint particles found on some of the victims' clothes were tied to paint used at his job.

"It will be a needle in a haystack search effort to find any clothing, which you'll have to screen and hope to find microscopic paint spheres," Reichert says. Of the 48 victims that Ridgway has admitted to killing, investigators were only able to tie seven forensically to the Green River Killer--four from DNA evidence, three from paint.

Investigators at the Marrero crime scene will have to sift through yards of dirt, hoping to find a piece or shred of rotten clothing, which may or may not be there, on the off chance that a few microscopic paint particles can be found attached to it. On the other hand, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence which ties Ridgway to the murder. Marrero's remains were found near those of Marie Malvar, whom Ridgway murdered in 1983.

In his book, Chasing the Devil, Reichert described Ridgway, who has an 82 IQ, as an "idiot savant when it came to murder." Ridgway preyed on prostitutes on the infamous "SeaTac Strip", where he engaged in sex with his victims before strangling them and dumping their remains in vacant lots and woods throughout South King County. With only a few exceptions, he wore condoms when he was having sex with his victims, before and after their deaths, leaving behind no body fluids. It was an almost mechanical process that he was able to repeat over and over again.

Marrero, who worked the strip, was last seen leaving her motel room at S. 168th Street on Pacific Highway South, and her murder fits the MO of the Green River Killer. Ridgway was interrogated for hundreds of hours and there is the possibility that he confessed to the murder. The King County Sheriff's Office confirms that they questioned him about Marrero although, citing policy, refuses to discuss what was or wasn't said "during the investigation of open cases".

Why Ridgway didn't lead detectives to Marrero's remains in the first place is yet another mystery. It's a question only he can answer. Malvar's remains were found on September 23, 2003 a short distance away from Marrero. It wouldn't have taken much effort for Ridgway to point them out. And by this time it would have made little difference to Ridgway if he was convicted of 49 murders instead of 48.

Having killed so many women, Ridgway could have simply forgotten about the body. It's a theme that has been prominent in the recent news coverage. However, there could be a more sinister explanation.

"With so many victims, [Ridgway] gets them mixed up," Reichert says. "But there is a part where he is not telling everything he has done. He lives in a fantasy world. One of the ways these men survive in prison is to fantasize and hold on to their memories."

There are still at least a dozen women who were killed or are missing that are suspected of having ties to the Green River Killer. Ridgway is also a suspect in the murders of several prostitutes in Oregon.

Until last week, it was widely thought that conclusively solving these Oregon murders would provide the best route to seek capital punishment for the Green River Killer. Reichert was asked specifically whether or not he thought Ridgway should be eligible for the death penalty in Marrero's case. He weighed his private views with that of a law enforcement officer of 32 years.

"Personally, if anyone deserves the death penalty, it's the monster Gary Ridgway," Reichert answered. "But you also have to uphold the law."

It takes years and even decades to bring a killer from the courthouse to the execution chamber between trials, sentencing and appeals. Ridgway, now 61, will likely be in his seventies or eighties by the time the process is complete. If prosecutors decide not to seek the death penalty, there isn't any way to punish Ridgway further from a practical standpoint, as it makes little difference if he serves 48 or 49 consecutive life sentences. Either way, he'll be spending the remainder of his days behind bars regardless.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/12/green_river_killer_death_penalty.php#

[Nut44x4]

More possible human remains found in Auburn ravine
Story Published: Jan 1, 2011 at 1:27 PM PST

AUBURN, Wash. - Searchers have found more possible human remains in the same ravine where a woman's skull was discovered last week, as the hunt for more victims of the Green River killer took on new life.

More than 50 searchers were combing through the steep terrain on Saturday, looking for evidence, as a follow-up to the recent discovery of a skull belonging to Rebecca "Becky" Marrero.

Marrero, considered a likely a victim of Green River killer Gary Ridgway, had not been seen since 1982. Her skull was found last week west of West Valley Highway near South 292nd Street by a group of teens.

King County sheriff's deputies and search-and-rescue volunteers probed the area Saturday, using mountaineering gear to rappel down the steep slopes of the ravine and special tools to cut through the thick brush.

Some "potential remains" were found after a few hours in one area of the ravine. Shortly afterward, more possible remains were found a short distance away in another area.

The items were carefully collected and bagged for analysis by the King County Medical Examiner, deputies said.

The search was prompted by the Dec. 21 discovery of a skull that was later identified as the remains of Rebecca Marrero.

Marrero was last seen on Dec. 3, 1982, when she left a motel room at S. 168th and Pacific Highway South, Urquhart said. According to The Charley Project, Marrero received a phone call, asked her mother to watch her 3-year-old child for the evening, and left home. She was not seen again. Marrero was 20 years old at the time.

Marrero was reported missing to the Sheriff's Office by her mother on July 20, 1984. Her disappearance was investigated by the Green River Task Force, and she was believed to be a Green River victim.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart says Marrero was likely one of Ridgway's earliest victims.

Ridgway was arrested on Nov. 30, 2001, and charged with the aggravated murder of four young women who were thought to be early victims of the Green River Killer. After prosecutors and detectives exhausted investigative leads on over four dozen unsolved murder cases, Ridgway was charged with three additional counts of murder, for a total of seven homicides, said Dan Donohoe with the King County Prosecutor’s office.

In a subsequent plea agreement, Ridgway agreed to confess to every murder he committed in King County. In exchange for his confession and leading investigators to the remains of missing women, Ridgway did not face the death penalty. He eventually led investigators to the remains of four missing women. Marrero's remains were never found but Urquhart says Ridgway was interviewed extensively about Marrero in 2003.

Two years later he pleaded guilty to the murder of 48 women and was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms. He was not charged in the Marrero case based on the evidence of the time.

"The prosecutor's office is going to have to make that call," Urquhart said. "They did have a deal with (Ridgway) back in 2003, so they'll be re-looking at the agreement they had and what he said about her disappearance when he was interviewed."

Donohoe says prosecutors will now review the investigation into her disappearance and death. "Investigators will examine all aspects of the case including any potential involvement of Ridgway," Donohoe said.

The remains of Marie Malvar were found on Sept. 28, 2003 in the same general area where Marrero was found. Malvar was last seen in 1983 at S. 216th and Pacific Highway South. Ridgway was convicted in the Malvar murder.

"It's in the right area for Gary Ridgway and some of the other Green River victims sites," said Rep. Dave Reichert, the former King County Sheriff who headed the Green River Task Force.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/112751959.html

I hope they find the rest of Becky and also any other victims located there. Gary had a tendency to dump several at one spot.

[Nut44x4]

Remains at Green River Killer site are animal bones
KOMO-TV STAFF

AUBURN, Wash. - A renewed search for victims of the Green River Killer turned up more remains in the same ravine where a woman's skull was discovered last week - but they turned out to be animal bones.

The remains were carefully collected and bagged for analysis, which later determined that they were bones from an animal.

"Nothing found appears to be human," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Office. He said there were no plans to return to the area.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/432620_green01.html

[Nut44x4]

Updated: 12:12 pm PST February 7, 2011

SEATTLE -- At a news conference on Monday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said Green River Killer Gary Ridgway has been charged with the murder of a woman whose remains were found in December in a steep ravine in Auburn.

The charge is his 49th count of first-degree aggravated murder.

 UNCUT: Complete Prosecutor News Conference

snipped..........
After finding Marrero’s body, investigators said they finally had the evidence needed to charge Ridgway with Marrero’s death.

In a plea agreement made by late King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng in 2003, Ridgway agreed to plead guilty to any future cases in which his confession could be corroborated with reliable evidence uncovered by investigators. In return, Ridgway was spared the death penalty.

Though Ridgway is already serving a life sentence for murdering 48 women, Satterberg said it was important to convict Ridgway for the Marrero family and for the record of the case.

Satterberg he believed Marerro's slaying occurred "fairy early" in Ridgway's killing spree, which began in the 1980s. 
snipped................
Ridgway is expected to plead guilty to Marrero’s slaying on Feb. 18 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/26775980/detail.html

[Nut44x4]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/435763_greenriver18.html

snipped
Ridgway pleads guilty in 49th slaying, sentenced to life


Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, in the courtroom of Judge Mary E. Roberts.


Charged earlier this month, Ridgway pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to aggravated first-degree murder as required by a plea agreement struck in 2003 following his arrest. Already serving 48 life sentences -- one for each woman he was convicted of killing following the plea deal -- Ridgway was again sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Led into King County Superior Court by a Department of Corrections detail, Ridgway admitted his guilt then looked on as Marrero's sister Mary Marrero lamented that he would not be put to death.

"Kill him," Mary Marrero asked Judge Mary Roberts. "He beat the system just like he beat his victims. …

"I hate your guts Gary Ridgway," she continued, facing her sister's killer. "Your day is coming soon."

more at link

my note: Gary didn't beat them, he strangled them...just sayin' 

[Nut44x4]

Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, in the courtroom of Judge Mary E. Roberts. He pleaded guilty to a 49th killing, the 1982 slaying of Rebecca "Becky" Marrero.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/435763_greenriver18.html

[MuffyBee]

Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, in the courtroom of Judge Mary E. Roberts. He pleaded guilty to a 49th killing, the 1982 slaying of Rebecca "Becky" Marrero.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/435763_greenriver18.html

http://blog.sfgate.com/djsaunders/2012/04/24/death-penalty-foes-oppose-plea-bargains-for-killers/
Death penalty foes oppose plea bargains for killers

 ::snipping2::
Facing 48 counts of aggravated murder, Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgway cut a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty in 2003. To Garcetti and Van de Kamp, this deal may be tainted and unethical, but it put away Ridgway for life while saving taxpayers money and doing away with any risk of acquittal.
 ::snipping2::

[KittyMom]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47865229/ns/local_news-seattle_wa/#.T9_3irWvKSo

TV movie leads to identification of Green River murder victim

In April, Major's cousin in New York called Det. Jensen after seeing a TV show about the Green River killer. They knew Sandra had moved out to Seattle, and when they learned four women still hadn't been identified, they feared she was among them.

They were right.

I'm a little lost on posting a date.  This is what it says (c/p)
updated 2 hours 17 minutes ago

[Nut44x4]

More remains tied to Green River killer identified

10:54 p.m. CDT, June 18, 2012
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Remains of a woman killed by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer" convicted of killing 49 women, were identified 30 years after she went missing thanks to DNA evidence provided by her family, authorities said on Monday.

Cold case detectives with the King County Sheriff's Department identified the previously unnamed remains of one of Ridgway's victims as Sandra Denise Major, whose body was found in the Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn, Washington, about 30 miles southeast of Seattle on December 30, 1985.

Major was identified through DNA provided by a cousin who contacted the sheriff's office in April after watching a made-for-television movie about the Green River murders.

 ::snipping2:: ::snipping2:: ::snipping2::


Ridgway is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Under a plea deal Ridgway made in 2003, he was spared the death penalty in exchange for confessing to all of the murders linked to him at the time or any that were later discovered.

Ridgway has confessed to nearly 70 murders, most of his victims young female prostitutes or runaways. He was dubbed the Green River killer because the bodies of several of his victims in the early 1980s were found in or near the river, which runs through south King County.

Major was found near the bodies of two other women. One was identified as Kimi-Kai Pitsor, whose skull was found at the site in December 1983, and the other, "Bones 17," remains unidentified, according to court documents.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-greenriver-killerbre85i05h-20120618,0,7191728.story




Jane Doe B-16 Identified
6-18-12
http://greenriverkillings.com/Blog/2012/06/18/jane-doe-b-16-identified/

[jamcakes]

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/west/view/20120619family_members_call_leads_to_discovery_of_womans_remains_in_green_river_case/srvc=home&position=recent

Family member’s call leads to discovery of woman’s remains in Green River case

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - Added 2 hours ago

SEATTLE — After Sandra Denise Major, 20, climbed into a truck in North Seattle almost 30 years ago, she was never heard from again.

Some members of her family in upstate New York assumed she had met the same fate as dozens of prostitutes who worked in the Seattle area in the early 1980s: death at the hands of Green River killer Gary L. Ridgway, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

But it wasn’t until April that Major’s cousin, after seeing a Lifetime channel movie about Ridgway, called the King County Sheriff’s Office. At the end of the show there was a plea for anyone with information about Ridgway’s unidentified victims to call.

It was the first time anyone from the missing woman’s family had reached out to law enforcement, said sheriff’s Detective Tom Jensen.

"He knew his cousin had come out here in ’82. He said she was involved in prostitution and she disappeared," said Jensen, a longtime member of the Green River Task Force.

That phone call led to the announcement Monday that a woman’s remains found in 1985 in Auburn were those of Major, ending another mystery tied to one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers.

A friend of Major’s had reported her missing to Seattle police on Dec. 24, 1982, several days after she was seen getting into a truck. Police never forwarded the report to Green River detectives, and it’s unclear whether the missing-person case was investigated.

After the call from Major’s cousin, police in Rochester, N.Y., collected DNA samples from the missing woman’s two brothers and sister, authorities said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children asked the University of Texas Center for Human Identification to speed up the testing, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

"I just always had a feeling from the beginning. She fit the physical description of the victim. The circumstances were right. I felt like this is it. This has got to be her," Jensen said.

Since their discovery in 1985, Major’s remains have been referred to as Jane Doe B16, or bones 16. It was the 16th set of unidentified remains found, authorities said. Three sets of remains remain unidentified.

Major’s remains were found down a steep embankment on the outskirts of Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn on Dec. 30, 1985, according to court filings in Ridgway’s case.

After Ridgway’s arrest in 2001, then-King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng agreed he would not seek the death penalty against him in exchange for his cooperation in locating the remains of dozens of victims. Ultimately, Ridgway admitted to nearly 70 slayings, but at the time prosecutors said they had evidence linking him to only 48 cases.

When questioned in 2003 as part of his plea agreement, Ridgway "claimed that he could not recall any specifics" about Major or another set of remains found nearby. Ridgway told investigators that he killed one of the victims, then killed a 16-year-old girl identified as Kimi-Kai Pitsor, and then killed another woman.

The three sets of remains were found around the cemetery; Ridgway pleaded guilty to all three. Until now, Pitsor was the only one of the three who had been identified.

The third victim’s remains found near Mountain View Cemetery have not been identified. She is believed to be a Caucasian female in her teens, court filings said.

MORE...page 2
 ::snipping2::

[trimmonthelake]

http://nypost.com/2013/09/18/convicted-green-river-killer-claims-he-had-more-victims/?utm_source=SFnewyorkpost&utm_medium=SFnewyorkpost
America’s worst serial killer: 30 more bodies to my name
By Associated Press
September 18, 2013 | 12:25pm
SEATTLE — Police who have dealt with serial killer Gary Ridgway say it’s worth continuing the search for his missing victims after Ridgway suggested he could help find them, but add the Green River Killer will “play games” and lie.

Ridgway has said he might be able to locate the bodies of more women he killed. Ridgway told KOMO that the Green River Task Force mostly kept him in a van in 2003 when he directed them to sites in the Seattle area where he dumped bodies in the 1980s. He’d like to revisit every site on foot and says he could have had as many as 80 victims.
<snipped>

[Nut44x4]

Washington state authorities skeptical of new claims by 'Green River Killer'
9-18-13
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Authorities in Washington state voiced skepticism Wednesday about a claim by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer," that he can help find the bodies of more of his victims.

The serial killer made the statement to Seattle-based KOMO Newsradio in a telephone interview posted Tuesday to the outlet's website, where he said the total number of victims is 75 to 80.
Ridgway was convicted a decade ago of 48 murders, mostly of young women who were prostitutes or runaways, with an additional murder conviction added in 2011. He committed the bulk of the killings in the 1980s in areas around Seattle, but some of his slayings there continued into the 1990s. 

much more
 


http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/18/20567880-washington-state-authorities-skeptical-of-new-claims-by-green-river-killer?lite