Remains belonging to the Green River Killer’s last known victim have been identified, 20 years after the killer himself showed authorities where the victim had been left.
Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, was a prolific serial killer who murdered women and teenage girls throughout the 1980s and ’90s, until he was caught in 2001. He has pleaded guilty to the murders of 49 women and is suspected of killing upwards of 90.
In 2003, Ridgway led authorities to an area where he said he had left his final victim, the King’s County, Washington, Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) said in a press release. There, law enforcement found the partial remains of a teenage girl, but without the ability to identify her when her remains were located, she was labeled Bones 20, and remained with that identification for the next two decades.
In 2022, authorities had given the bones to Othram Inc., a private laboratory that has been helping law enforcement solve crimes and identify bodies by comparing DNA to databases of those who have voluntarily provided DNA to genealogy kits, like “23 and Me,” and finding family members of the deceased.
In August 2023, Othram told the KCSO they had developed a DNA profile for the unknown victim, and had tentatively identified her as Tammie Liles. Liles has previously been identified as a murder victim in 1988 after a separate set of remains were discovered in King County. Dental records from those remains identified the victim as Liles.
Liles’ mother was contacted after Othram’s tentative identification, and a DNA sample was obtained from her. The University of North Texas was able to determine that the victim was, indeed, Tammie Liles.
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Just last month, authorities were able to identify another victim of the Green River Killer. In 1985, authorities discovered two sets of human remains, which were labeled Bones 16 and Bones 17. Bones 16 were identified in 2012 through DNA testing as Sandra Majors.
Bones 17 remained unidentified until December 2023, when investigators working with Parabon NanoLabs used forensic genetic genealogy to identify the remains as Lori Anne Ratzpotnik, CBS News reported at the time.
Ratzpotnik, 15, and Liles, 16, were both runaways.
“It’s an immense feeling of satisfaction that in this case, that started in the early 80s, we are able to identify all of Gary Ridgway’s victims. All 49 of them,” KCSO spokesperson Eric White told the Seattle Times.
Ridgway is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Washington State Penitentiary, the New York Post reported.