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Timeline

Crime Files

Timeline

18 February 1949 Gary Leon Ridgway is born7 July 1982 Waitress Amina Agisheff, 36, leaves work for home. But she will never see her children. Some suspect she becomes Gary Ridgway’s first victim. Others believe her stable relationship, her job, and her age mean she’s too atypical of his usual victimology. 8 July 1982 Gary Ridgway, now in his mid 30s, kills Wendy Coffield, 16, a runaway.August 1982 Debra Estes, 15, files a report with the police stating a man in a blue and white pick-up truck who offered her a lift but then pulled a pistol and forced her to give him oral sex.15 August 1982 The bodies of Opal Mills, 16, Cynthia Hinds, 17 and Marcia Chapman, 31 are discovered. All have been strangled and sexually assaulted. The hunt for a serial killer begins.30 April 1983 Marie Malvar is seen arguing with Ridgway. When police later question him, he persuades them he’s never met her. Her body will not be found till 2003.8 May 1983 The body of Carol Ann Christensen is found. Her head is covered by a brown paper bag. When removed, a fish sits arranged on her neck. DNA traces on her body will eventually tie Ridgway to her killing.10 March 1985 The body of Carrie Rois is discovered. She was just 15.1987 Ridgway takes a polygraph test and passes. His says later he passed it by simply relaxing.1990 The Green River Taskforce is disbanded.September 2001 Detective Dave Reichert is informed that Ridgway’s DNA matches that found on the bodies of the Green River Killer30 November 2001 Ridgway is arrested as he’s leaving his workplace5 December 2001 Ridgway’s formally charged with the deaths of four women.5 November 2003 Ridgway avoids the death penalty by confessing to the murder of 48 women.18 December 2003 Ridgway is sentenced to 48 life sentences with no possibility of parole.7 February 2011 Ridgway is charged with a 49th murder, that of 20 year old Rebecca Marrero in 1982, a mother who worked as a prostitute to support her family. Her sister recently buried her saying, ‘Finally my sister’s not out in the rain and the snow. She’s somewhere warm now.’POSTSCRIPT The problem with the above timeline is that it shows Ridgway had a killing spree between 1982 and 1984, and then stopped and started again in 1990 and 1998. This, while not impossible, is unlikely. What’s more probable is that Ridgway never stopped killing and that many, many more bodies are waiting to be discovered