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Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, was suddenly transferred from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla to the King County Jail in Seattle on Monday, but the reason for the unexpected move remains a mystery.
Ridgway, 75, is currently serving 49 life sentences for the 49 women he murdered between 1982 and 1998 in the Pacific Northwest.
According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Ridgway was booked at 10:42 a.m. Monday on an “institutional hold” by the King County Sheriff’s Office.
This marks Ridgway’s first time back in Seattle in 21 years. But authorities have not said why the killer was transported across the state.
“Since Gary Ridgway’s arrest in 2001 pertaining to the Green River murder investigation, the KCSO continues to actively investigate potentially related cases,” KCSO spokesperson Brandyn Hull told KOMO News in a statement.
The news of the sudden move shocked many of the victims’ families, including Donna Hurley, the mother of Lori Anne Razpotnik, a 15-year-old who was killed by Ridgway in 1983.
“It just sent a wave of nausea through me,” Hurley told KOMO.
“My heart goes out to those detectives and those families who are waiting on this parasite. He’s going to face his own final judgment. And I prefer to leave that in a higher power’s hands.”
Hurley’s daughter, previously known as “Bones 17,” was only discovered last year after authorities were able to use DNA evidence to identify her, nearly 40 years after her remains were found in Auburn, Washington.
Hurley told KOMO News she thinks there is a possibility that Ridgway is working with authorities to “unearth victims who’ve never been found or identified.”
“If people think (victims’ loved ones) don’t carry this in their hearts every day, they’re wrong,” she said. “It’s affected a lot of lives.”
In January 2024, the remains of his last known victim were identified as 16-year-old Tammie Liles of Everett, Washington —but officials say there are “other unsolved cases” that may be connected to the infamous murderer.
Liles had previously been identified as one of Ridgway’s victims by matching her dental records to remains discovered near Tigard, Oregon, in 1988.
Ridgway later led authorities to the second set of Liles’ remains in southern King County in 2003. However, the partial remains found at that time were labeled “Bones 20,” due to an inability to confirm identity.
Investigators took a DNA sample from that second set of remains and uploaded it to a national law enforcement database to search for matches at the time, but none were found.
In 2022, the Sheriff’s Office contracted with Othram, a Texas-based genetic genealogy company that specializes in forensic DNA work.
Othram built a DNA profile for the unknown victim and the company’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team tentatively identified her as Liles. Investigators then got a DNA sample from her mother and confirmed the match.
Ridgeway was long a suspect in the Green River killings — so called because the first victims were found in the waterway, which runs through suburbs south of Seattle.
Detectives were unable to prove his role until 2001, when advances in DNA technology allowed them to link a saliva sample they had obtained from him in 1987 to semen found on several victims.
Ridgeway does not face the death penalty as Washington State officially abolished the punishment in April 2023, but he’s currently serving 49 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
