Where Is Gary Ridgway Now?
Gary Leon Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 18, 1949. Ridgway, who grew up on Seattle’s Pacific Highway in a disadvantaged neighbourhood near SeaTac Airport, was a poor student who was sent to Vietnam after high school. When he returned, he found work painting trucks, which he did for the next…
Gary Leon Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 18, 1949. Ridgway, who grew up on Seattle’s Pacific Highway in a disadvantaged neighbourhood near SeaTac Airport, was a poor student who was sent to Vietnam after high school. When he returned, he found work painting trucks, which he did for the next 30 years. Despite his three marriages and religious zeal, Ridgway was a frequent customer of prostitutes.
Ridgway’s murders began in 1982, when young runaways and prostitutes vanished off state Route 99 in south King County, Washington. He brought many of them to his house, strangled them, and then abandoned them in remote wooded areas. The first remains were discovered along the now-famous Green River. Ridgway, dubbed the Green River Killer, escaped capture until 2001, when King County sheriff Dave Reichert, the case’s initial officer assigned in 1982, convened a meeting to re-examine evidence using newly obtained DNA-testing equipment. The study revealed a link between the victims’ evidence and Ridgway, and he was charged with four counts of aggravated murder in December 2001. Ridgway eventually pleaded guilty to 49 counts of first-degree aggravated murder.
Where Is Gary Ridgway Now?
Gary Ridgway is incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary.
