The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer (93 page)

Ridgway later joined Leisure Time Resorts specifically because he knew he had placed a body nearby. “I, um, talked my parents into buying a membership, uh, of the campground there because I could always go up and walk that road and, uh, knowing that there’s a woman there,” he told interviewers.

He said that he and his current wife would camp in the area several times a year and walk their dogs on the road near the dump site. His son also recalled family walks along that road.

In June 2003, Ridgway was taken to the Leisure Time site, and he identified an area where he was “one hundred percent” certain that he had left a body. He claimed that the area was “grown up” and that the trees had been “baby trees” at the time he dumped a body. Historical aerial photographs from the early 1980s confirm that the area had been clear-cut before Ridgway dumped the body in 1983.

In late August and early September 2003, task force detectives conducted an extensive search of the area identified by Ridgway and recovered two human bones. A mtDNA profile was developed from the bones and the results proved it to be April Buttram’s.

In August 1983, 19-year-old Maureen Feeney moved from Bellevue to an apartment in Seattle, and her lifestyle began to change dramatically. Maureen was working at a day-care facility, and around the time of her move, her co-workers had noticed a change in her attitude and behavior. While in Seattle, Maureen became involved with a new boyfriend. The boyfriend eventually admitted that Maureen became involved in prostitution though he denied knowing any details of her activities.

On September 26, 1983, two infractions were written to “Kris Ponds,” a probable alias for Maureen. “Ponds” had the same physical description, birth date, telephone number, address, and employer as Maureen. “Ponds” had been cited in Seattle for jay-walking, a common citation written to suspected prostitutes. The next day, Maureen quit her job at the day-care center. The following day, on September 28, Maureen’s boyfriend reported that she left her apartment sometime in the afternoon and never returned. Ridgway’s work records reveal that he left work around 3:20
P.M.
that day and returned to work the next day. Maureen’s family learned of her disappearance from her boyfriend and, on September 30, 1983, reported her missing to the Seattle police. Her family went to considerable efforts to find her.

Nearly three years later, on May 2, 1986, an employee at the Echo Glen juvenile detention center was looking for an escapee
when he came across some of Maureen’s remains on the west side of Highway 18 at 105th, a short distance south of the intersection of Highway 18 and Interstate 90. A pull-out and utility shed were near the area. Tina Thompson’s remains had been found two years earlier on the other side of Highway 18. The task force subsequently recovered Maureen’s remains, which were spread out over some distance. Some bones were found near a barbed-wire fence.

During interviews with the task force in 2003, Ridgway admitted killing Maureen. He recalled that he picked her up in Seattle. He claimed that he killed her at night in the back of his truck. He recalled that Maureen was a white woman and had brown hair, and thought she was between 18 to 22 years old.

In June of 2003, while directing task force detectives to the as-yet undiscovered Leisure Time dump site, Ridgway suggested that he show detectives where he dumped two other bodies nearby. He pointed out the area where he left Tina Thompson’s body and also said he had dumped a body across Highway 18 next to a fence and near the shed where Maureen was found. Ridgway recalled that he dropped her off around midnight, and, while he was there, a work crew came by and some lights came on. He also admitted that he had sex with the body after he placed her near the fence.

In September 1983, 19-year-old Tracy Winston was staying with her boyfriend at the 99 Motel on Aurora Avenue in the north end of Seattle. She had just finished serving a jail sentence for prostitution on September 12, 1983; later that day she called a man whom she had previously dated and asked him to meet her and give her money to pay her rent. The man drove to the 99 Motel and gave Tracy some money. After paying rent, Tracy asked for and received a ride to the Northgate Mall. The man dropped her off around six
P.M.
Although another acquaintance reports seeing Tracy three days later on September 15, 1983, it is believed that Tracy disappeared on the night of September 12. She never returned to the 99 Motel and her family had no further contact with her.

In March 1986, two park employees discovered human remains at the base of a large tree in Cottonwood Park in Kent, a relatively small piece of land along the banks of the Green River. The remains
were approximately one-quarter mile from the Peck Bridge, where Wendy Coffield’s body was found in July 1982. The remains essentially consisted of a human torso. Despite an extensive search, detectives were unable to find either the skull or any other portion of the skeleton. Without the skull or mandible, an identification of the remains could not be made. However, thirteen years later, in 1999, advances in DNA analysis made identification of these bones possible. The mtDNA profile of the bones revealed that they were the remains of Tracy Winston.

In June 2003, Ridgway admitted he killed the woman found at Cottonwood Park. Ridgway has little memory of killing Tracy. Despite his lack of specific memory, he has convincingly maintained that he was responsible for her death and included her on a list of his victims that he provided to investigators shortly after interviews began in June 2003. Ridgway recalled that he killed Tracy at night and that he dumped her body in or near the park. He previously visited the park multiple times and had sex with one of his wives and a girlfriend, not far from where he left Tracy. He explained why he chose the park as a dump site: “Like Cottonwood Park was a good place, along the river, and it was a while after the other ones were found, so that’s why I chose it.”

Cottonwood Park is within a quarter-mile of where Ridgway dumped the bodies of six other women he murdered: the five women left in the Green River and the unidentified woman, referred to as Jane Doe “B20,” found just off the Kent-Des Moines Road. Ridgway equivocated on the exact location of where he placed the body, eventually deciding that it was not far from the road and likely in the park itself. He was unable to account for those parts of Tracy’s skeleton that have not been found.

Ridgway has admitted that he killed three women—Delise Plager, Kim Nelson, and Lisa Yates—whose bodies he dumped near Exit 38, off Interstate 90. All three women were prostitutes, and they disappeared from Seattle or Pacific Highway South within approximately three months of one another. The bodies of Delise Plager and Lisa Yates were left on different sides of the Exit 38 road, not
far from each other. Ridgway placed the body of Kim Nelson a few miles up a dirt road.

Delise Plager, 22 years old and working as a prostitute in downtown Seattle, was living with a friend in the city at the time of her disappearance, Sunday, October 30, 1983, at approximately three
P.M.,
when she was dropped off at a bus stop in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. She promised to return with a Halloween costume for her friend’s child. She was never seen again. Ridgway was off work the Sunday that Delise disappeared.

Almost five months later, on February 14, 1984, Delise’s remains were discovered at Exit 38 off Interstate 90, underneath a pile of logs. At the time the bones were not identified, possibly because Delise had not yet been reported missing. In April 1984, a friend reported her missing because she thought Delise matched the Green River victim profile. A year later, the King County Medical Examiner identified Delise’s remains through a comparison of medical records.

During interviews, Ridgway stated that he killed and placed three women near Exit 38. He correctly recalled that he placed two women on opposite sides of the Exit 38 road (the old Interstate 90). Delise Plager and Lisa Yates were on opposite sides of the road from each other.

Ridgway recalled that he placed Delise on the south side of the road between two logs. He further recalled that it was raining and that he was in a hurry to dump her. He has suggested that he went back and had sex with the body. Ridgway claimed to remember virtually nothing about killing Delise other than where he dumped her body. He mistakenly said she was black; Delise was white. Ridgway said he was angry during this period of time because he was forced to work the night shift at Kenworth beginning on November 1, 1983.

In 2003, the task force took Ridgway to Exit 38. He had difficulty pointing out precisely where he’d placed his victims. He accurately recalled that Delise was on the other side of the street from Lisa Yates. He also accurately recalled that the women were left on different sides of a bridge. The Exit 38 road also bridges a stream near the dump sites.

Less than two days after Delise was killed, Ridgway picked up and killed another woman, 21-year-old Kim Nelson, who worked as a prostitute in several cities on the West Coast. She was distinctive in appearance, nearly six feet tall with very short, bleached blond hair. Kim came to Seattle in August 1983, and was arrested numerous times.

On October 30, 1983, she was released from the King County Jail and began staying at the Ben Carol Motel at South 144th and Pacific Highway South with fellow prostitute Paige Miley. Two days after Kim’s release from jail, on the morning of November 1, 1983, at approximately eleven
A.M.,
Kim and Paige went to the bus stop in front of the car wash at South 144th and Pacific Highway South. Shortly after arriving at the bus stop, Paige got a car date and left Kim alone at that location. Paige turned her quick car date nearby and returned to the bus stop to find Kim gone. Kim never returned. This was the only time the two had been on Pacific Highway South together.

Several nights later, while Paige was working on Pacific Highway South, a man driving a red pickup truck approached her and asked for a car date. Paige later described him as a white man, late 20s to early 30s, with brown hair and a wispy mustache. The truck had a white, cab-high canopy over the bed. This description matches the truck Ridgway was driving at the time. The man asked Paige where her tall blond friend was, an obvious reference to Kim Nelson. Knowing that she and Kim had only been together on Pacific Highway South for a very short time on the day that Kim disappeared, Paige suspected that this man was involved in Kim’s disappearance, and she refused to go with him. A few days later, Kim was reported missing and Paige told police about the man who had asked her about Kim.

In April 1984, Ridgway was interviewed about his contacts with prostitutes on Pacific Highway South and admitted that he had seen Kim and had contact with her roommate shortly after her disappearance. Ridgway claimed that the roommate had told him she believed the Green River Killer had gotten Kim. In June 1986, almost three years after she disappeared, Kim’s skull and a few bones were recovered in a deeply wooded area off I-90 and Exit 38. Two other
murdered women, Delise Plager and Kim Yates, had been found near this location a couple miles away.

In 1987, as the investigation into Ridgway progressed, Paige was re-contacted and shown a montage containing Ridgway’s photo. Paige quickly identified Ridgway as the person who had approached her on Pacific Highway South and inquired about Kim Nelson.

In 2003, Ridgway admitted that he murdered Kim and provided a fairly detailed description of killing Kim and disposing of her body. Ridgway recalled that he had just gone on the night shift and that he picked up Kim during the morning hours. He stated that he picked her up near a car wash on Pacific Highway South on the day after Halloween. He recalled that she was tall and blonde.

Ridgway admitted he approached Paige Miley and asked her for a date. When asked why he mentioned Kim Nelson to her, Ridgway claimed that he had not given it much thought and was simply trying to date Paige Miley.

Ridgway claimed that he took Kim to his house and killed her in his bedroom. He thought that she fought with him and noted that she was taller than he was. After he killed her, he took her clothing and jewelry. He wrapped her body in a rug, pulled his truck up to his front door, and swung her over into the truck bed. He covered the body with his green rug and drove out to Exit 38. He recalled driving up a long dirt road because it was in the middle of the day and he wanted to take her where no one could see him. He pulled her out and placed her on the left side of the road, which sloped downhill. He said the dirt road ran parallel to Interstate 90. Ridgway’s description of where Nelson’s body was found was accurate. Although he had difficulty recognizing the area in 2003, Ridgway claimed it was due to the fact that trees had grown significantly since he’d deposited Kim’s body.

Nineteen-year-old Lisa Yates worked as a prostitute on Rainier Avenue in Seattle and on Pacific Highway South. According to her pimp/boyfriend, he last saw Lisa sometime in December 1983. She left at approximately eleven
A.M.
to work on Rainier Avenue. She was never reported missing. Three months later, on March 13, 1984, a soldier in a convoy that stopped at Exit 38 discovered Lisa’s remains. The body was north of the road, lying between two
large logs, part of an old logging skidder. She was not far from the stream that ran next to the road.

Ridgway admitted killing a woman and leaving her in the area where Lisa’s remains were found. He recalled that he killed her at night in the winter and that it was cold and wet. He recalled that he was in a hurry when he dumped her body at Exit 38. He thought there was a bridge near the dump site, and he was correct; there is a bridge nearby. He also correctly recalled that he killed this victim after he killed Kim Nelson. He claimed not to recall any details about killing Lisa and could not remember where he picked her up.