I have been following this case, the Green River case, since 1982. 12 years old sitting in Calgary watching the Seattle news via the Spokane stations, and it seemed like every weekend there was a new horror – another one lost or another one found and always in bunches. I kept notes of the streets and areas mentioned and tried to find them on maps from the school library. I had nightmares thinking that the Green River Killer was gonna come and take my sister, who was the right age, and who had started running away. I remember watching a special report one night, almost until the sun came up when they thought they had him, but nope, it was that fur-trapper guy, B. McLean. Then that Stevens guy was surely the killer (but nope). They never charged Stevens and then news of the Green River Killer just kind of drifted away, popping up now and again whenever a skeleton was found. The first time I had a chance to get on the internet, 1998ish, the first question I typed in was Who was the Green River Killer? and was shocked to find out that they still hadn’t got him. Around that time, he was like a ghost, like someone with a charm or spell around him. When you consider, after those five women in the river – girls really, most of them – King County sent 25 detectives out to get him, and they knew exactly where he was finding his victims, and he still managed to murder 45 more. 45. It's incomprehensible.
With these remains now known, that is the last of the unidentified victims. Maybe there will be more skeletons found in the future, but it looks like this closes a chapter, or at least a paragraph, in the Green River case. What amazing work the genealogists and groups like Othram are doing.
I do, however, have questions. The Seattle Times notes that Bones-20, who we now know as Tammie Liles, consisted of a few bones and teeth. (
Last known set of remains linked to Green River killer identified as Everett teen).
Smith and Guillen in 1991 wrote that the portion of Tammie Liles that was taken to Oregon was identified in 1985 when her sister contacted the task force to say that Tammie had been missing for a while. Liles was subsequently identified through dental records. (The Hunt for the Green River Killer, 2004 Paperback edition, page 426).
Am I foolish to think that Liles as Bones-20 should have been identified in 2003, when Ridgway first gave her up? I mean, isn’t that something you’d put together? ‘This one is missing some teeth, that one is only teeth…’ So, if Bones-20 was identified as Liles in 2003, what does that mean for Angela Girdner who was found near Liles? Could the knowledge that she was a victim of Ridgway in 2003 change the way they pursued that case? Surely Girdner should now be classified as an official victim, so are they gonna go at Ridgway again over this? That guy’s been trying to lure the authorities back under the guise of more victims and more locations but they seem to be done with him. Water under the bridge, I guess.
Now, I don’t want to make this look like a criticism of the detectives. Reading about, say, Tom Jensen, and the amount of dedication and frustration he went through due to this case almost brings a tear to your eye, but… she should have been ID’d 20 years ago.
This case is... frustrating as so many serial murder investigations are. You've got a detective with the worst case of tunnel vision in the history of tunnel vision; you've got a psychic finding a body; you've got a victim's family members taking the police to the killer's front door - literally - some eighteen years and 25 or so victims before he is ultimately arrested.
I really hope they can somehow find the still missing women associated with this case.
