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The
Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
by Robert Keppel
July 15, 1982: 3 woman's strangled body was filed, caught
on the pilings of Washington state's Green River. Before long,
the "Green River Killer" would be suspected in at least 49
homicides, with no end in sight. Then authorities received
a letter from Bundy -- on death row -- offering to help catch
the Green River Killer. But he would only talk to Robert Keppel,
the former homicide detective who helped track Bundy's cross-county
killing spree.
The
Search for the Green River Killer by Carlton Smith,
Tomas Guillen
This reckoning of the deaths of almost 50 women in Seattle
is distressing not only for the gruesomeness of the crimes
but also for reasons probably not intended by Smith and Guillen,
who reported on the murders for the Seattle Times.
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Washington
State - Long after 1984, women were disappearing.
King County Sheriff's
Office is looking at cases of other women who disappeared or were
found dead in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties of WA since 1985,
said John Urquhart, a sheriff's spokesman. "It's
not that we weren't still finding bodies, but they didn't have enough
of the characteristics to be put on the list."
Lewis County Sheriff's
Office said it had three unsolved homicides whose victims may fit
the profile of the Green River cases.
Monica
Anderson, 32 -- On Aug. 12, 1984 was found dead along
the Chehalis River. She was seen getting into a brown van on Commerce
Street in Tacoma and was the first of 3 victims whose bodies were
found in Lewis County. Initially, Anderson's death was only remotely
linked to the Green River killings, because of her lifestyle and
the discovery of her body along a river.
Susan
Krueger, 42 -- May 5, 1985, her body was found along
a guardrail on Interstate 5. She was last seen 2 months earlier
leaving the Pierce County Jail.
Mignon
Hensley, 21 -- On Aug. 5, 1991, her body was found on
Highway 12. She was also last seen 2 months earlier leaving the
Deja Vu dance club on Pacific Highway South in Federal Way after
asking about a job as an exotic dancer. She
was 8 months pregnant when she died.
151 cases statewide share
at least one factor with the Green River killings from body locations
to lifestyle according to Homicide
Information Tips Systems. HITS
claims 68 of those unsolved cases are in King, Pierce, and Snohomish
Counties. They
started in 1985, 1 year after Green River Killings "officially"
ended and continued up to Dec. 31, 2000, when Anitra Mulwee disappeared
from a downtown Seattle New Year's Eve party.
In the early 80's The
Spruce, Ben Carol, and the Moonrise (now the Boulevard Motel), were
motels popular in the seedy sex for pay industry. Ben Carol Motel
was close to a bus shelter popular with prostitutes and johns wanting
to hook up, where many victims were last seen and some were known
to frequent.
Further south is the
Barn Door tavern. Carol Christensen,
was a barmaid and last seen there. The tavern served beer, hot dogs
and peanuts. Nothing fancy, it had a pool table and pull-tab machines.
It is no longer in business.
South 146th Street, near
24th Ave. S, the skeleton of Shawnda Summers was found in October
1983, near where the remains of 2 other victims were found. The
areas these bodies were found was a Little League Baseball field
and a popular spot for johns and prostitutes to meet up and where
Ridgway was stopped and questioned
by police.
On the strip, the 7-Eleven
where Denise Bush left her motel room
to go buy cigarettes is still in business. On
the west side of the highway, was "My Place" a popular
strip club in the early 80's, no longer there.
Across the street, what
was the Red Lion Hotel (now a DoubleTree Hotel) is where Connie
(Constance) Naon, 21, was picked up. Her body was found on S 192nd,
in the brush, surrounded by fir trees, not far from the skeletons
of Mary Bridget Meehan, Kelly Ware
and Andrea Childers. Angle
Lake Park.
Right across from South
192nd Street, is where Opal Mills made
a her last phone call at about 1:30 p.m. from a pay telephone to
ask her brother for a ride home. She died less than three hours
later.
Bullpen Tavern at S 200th
Street is as it was when the remains of Gisele Lovvorn, 17, were
uncovered in near by brush. July
1982, Bonner was last seen in The Three Bears Motel, at S 216th
Street. This intersection
is where Marie Malvar and Gail Lynn
Mathews were last seen in a pickup in 1983. Left
is the Green River, off Military Road South, close to where
Ridgway lived. Military Road South runs parallel with most of
Pacific Highway South and provides easy access to the areas where
the victims were either last seen or found. Aug.
12, 1982, the body of Debra "Dub" Bonner',
23, was found in a slaughterhouse on the bank. 100 yards south,
the bodies of Mills, Chapman and Hinds
were found, 3
days later. Going west is South Star Lake Road, a picturesque country
road. In spring 1984, a mushroom hunter found the skull of Delores
Williams, 17. Police found the skeletons of Sandy Gabbert, 17, Terry
Milligan, 16 and Alma Smith, 18 within days.
Copyright Kari Sable Burns 1994-2006
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Green
River Discussion List -- A list to discuss the nations most
prolific, unsolved serial killings from the early 1980's in Washington's
SeaTac area. Currently, Gary Ridgway is detained and awaiting trial
for the murder.
Serial
Killers Page
Historic
Green River Pages
Green
River Killer or Not?
The
Falsely Accused
Body
Count of Possible Victims
The
Crime Scenes
FBI
Profile Elements
Signature of
a Killer
The
Victims
Locations
of Missing Women
Crime Scenes
Civil
Suit
Gary
Leon Ridgway
Growing Up
Wives &
Lovers
His Homes & Vehicles
Job History
Hobbies
Law Enforcement Relationship
Ex-wife Helps Detectives
The
Arrest
Civil
Suit
Death's
Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab/the Body Farm/Where the
Dead Do Tell Tales -- A pioneer of modern forensic
anthropology reveals secrets of the world's first-and only-laboratory
devoted to death.
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