The body of the last known victim of the Green River Killer has been identified as a Washington State teenager – although investigators say there may still be other unsolved cases linked to the notorious killer.
Some of the remains have been identified as Tammie Liles, of Everett, the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) announced.
“With this identification, there are no other unidentified bodies linked to the Sungai Hijau Case,” the sheriff’s office said.
The incomplete set of bones and teeth were first discovered in 2003, when serial killer Gary Ridgway – known as the Green River Killer – led detectives to the spot where he claimed to have left his victim’s body, KCSO explained.
As no immediate identification could be made, authorities labeled the body as “Bone 20”.
However, in the fall of 2022, KCSO has contracted the Texas-based Othram lab to build a DNA profile from the remains using forensic genetic genealogy testing, the statement said.
Gary Ridgway has pleaded guilty to 49 counts of murder. AP
In August 2023, the lab tentatively identified the body as Liles – a finding that was later confirmed using a DNA sample from the teenager’s late mother, who was still alive.
“The King County Sheriff’s Office is very grateful for the work of the Othram Forensic Sequencing Laboratory, the University of North Texas, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office and everyone else who worked to help identify Tammie Liles,” King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall said of the discovery.
Liles was just 16 when she disappeared from downtown Seattle in June 1983, the Seattle Times reported.
Investigators search for the body of one of the Green River Murder victims. Getty Images
She was later identified through dental records as one of two unidentified women whose bodies were found near Tigard, Oregon, in 1985.
He has been considered one of Ridgway’s potential victims since 1988, KCSO said.
The Liles family did not want to talk to the media, Cole-Tindall explained.
Ridgway killed women and girls in the Seattle area for over 20 years. AP
“We appreciate your support in giving the family the privacy they are looking for at this time,” he told the media.
Ridgway, now 74, strangled dozens of vulnerable women and girls in the Seattle area throughout the 1980s and ’90s, CBS News said.
He was the prime suspect in the Green River murders – named after the waterway where the first victim was found – for several years before he was linked to the crime through DNA in 2001, according to the outlet.
The murder was named after the Green River, where the first victim’s body was found. Getty Images
He eventually pleaded guilty to 49 counts of first-degree murder – including the death of the then-unknown woman known as Bones 20.
Ridgway is currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole at the Washington State Penitentiary.
Just a month ago, authorities identified the second-to-last unidentified Green River victim as 15-year-old Lori Anne Rotzpotnik, CBS said.
Gary Ridgway is currently serving a life sentence without parole. Reuters
“It is a great feeling of satisfaction that in this case, which started in the early 80s, we were able to identify all of Gary Ridgway’s victims. All 49 of them,” KCSO spokesman Eric White told the Seattle Times.
But there may still be other unidentified victims waiting to be identified, Dave Reichert with the sheriff’s office, told KIRO-TV.
“Ridgway said that he killed 65 to 70 young women and little girls and so far he’s pleaded guilty to 49 and we’ve closed 51 cases,” Reichert explained.
“So like I said there are other unsolved cases out there that may or may not be related to Ridgway but there are still parents out there looking for answers about their daughter’s death and murder,” he added.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
