The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer (75 page)

During Ridgway and Marcia’s marriage, they used to ride bikes on Frager Road along the Green River past P. D. & J. Meats and
the Meeker Street Bridge in Kent. She said they would have sex in the tall grass of the Green River as well as inside a fenced area (the landfill off Frager Road). She also said that on occasion they would get off their bikes and splash in the water at the riverbank. They used to have sex in a wooded area by Ken’s Truck Stop near North Bend and also while camping in the Greenwater area past Enumclaw. She described an incident while they were on their way to Spokane, when they pulled off onto the shoulder of the road prior to entering the city, climbed a fence, and had sex in a wooded area. They used to go to Swan Lake, where they swam and fished.

Ridgway, she said, used to frequent the Ravensdale Tavern and the Playmore Tavern east of Kent. He told her about a place near Sea-Tac Airport, where there were blue lights that he used to go to. However, she never went there with him. She also said they used to travel Highway 18 to Highway I-90 and they’d stop at the intersection of the two roads. She mentioned a road that went off to the east of Highway 18, where they’d driven. Marcia said they had also driven toward Echo Glen on Highway 18.

Marcia said she felt that Ridgway viewed her as a sex object and housekeeper, that he would often request anal sex, and that he had tied her up on one or two occasions. She said that he preferred sex either out in the woods or in the open. Also, she said that Ridgway would often ask her to perform oral sex while he drove down the road in their vehicle. Ridgway asked to use an ashtray that was shaped like a penis on her on several occasions, but she refused.

The Ridgways had a son, Matthew, who was born on September 5, 1975. She said Ridgway spent the majority of his weekends at his parents’ residence. During their marriage they attended two churches, one Baptist and the other Pentecostal. Ridgway owned a motorcycle during this time, Marcia said, and he did all of his own auto-body work and owned a paint compressor, a tool frequently used to paint vehicles.

Ridgway told Marcia that the garage area was his private place and for her to stay away from it. He once told her that he had considered becoming a military policeman while in the service so he could become a police officer upon his discharge. He also told her he had applied locally to be a police officer but had been turned down.

Ridgway was often gone in the evenings for long periods of
time, Marcia said, often returning to the house dirty or wet. He explained his condition by saying that his vehicle broke down while he was out driving. Marcia said that during the latter years of their marriage Ridgway began coming home later and later without a logical explanation. She also said that Ridgway did not have any personal friends during their marriage.

Marcia related an incident in which she and Ridgway were returning home from a party where they’d been drinking. She got out of the van, stumbled, and then went to the front door. She started to reach for the door and the next thing she knew, Ridgway had his hands around her neck and was choking her from behind; his hands were getting tighter and tighter. She thought it was somebody else and started screaming. Then she realized it was Ridgway and started fighting him. He finally let go and kind of pushed her, and by the time she got her balance back, he had walked around to the other side of the van and tried to convince her that it was somebody else who had run off. She tried to get him to call the police, and he wouldn’t do it. She knew then that it was Ridgway and thought maybe it was because they’d had too much to drink and that he was just playing around. She told the interviewers that it was a police-type hold, with his forearm and upper arm, and then he got his hands around her neck.

She said he always liked to sneak up behind her and scare her. He liked to hide in corners to scare her as she walked around them, or he’d push her into an arm-type choke hold. He liked to see how softly he could walk so that he’d be totally noiseless, which, she said, he was able to do.

It was Ridgway’s mother, Marcia said, who “wore the pants in the family.” Also, Ridgway’s younger brother, Eddie, had been in prison for attempting to murder someone while he was in the army, an incident that has been verified by military records.

On September 14, 1986, Detectives Doyon and Haney of the King County Police Green River Task Force took Ridgway’s ex-wife, Marcia Winslow, to several locations she pointed out that she and Gary Ridgway had frequented during their relationship, the first of which was eastbound on Highway 18 from her residence.

Marcia had already told police that there was a small dirt road off Highway 18 just prior to the I-90 junction where they had gone several times to have sex. She was unsure of the exact time period but believed it was around 1974. As they neared Kerriston Road, Marcia asked them to slow down, which they did on Highway 18. She looked at the turnoff for Kerriston Road and decided that this was not the road because it now looked different to her. There was a guardrail on Highway 18 that she did not remember.

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.