SEATTLE — Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, was transferred from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla to Seattle's King County Jail on Monday.
Ridgway is currently serving 49 life sentences for murders he committed starting in 1982.
According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, he was booked at 10:42 a.m. Monday on an institutional hold. His case is still being handled by the Department of Corrections (DOC).
Why we don't know more about the transfer
The judge granted a seal of the transport order, which is effective until Aug. 22, 2025.
According to court documents, the judge granted the order to protect any ongoing homicide investigations. Additionally, no objections were noted by the DOC, the order could protect the privacy of potential victims and their families and the timeline of one year is "no broader in its application and duration than necessary."
Possible reasons for this type of transfer
“I think there are three possibilities,” said KING 5 law enforcement analyst and former King County Sheriff John Urquhart. “Gary is 75 years old. There's a chance they brought him here for medical treatment. I think that's a long shot, but it's a possibility. Secondly, perhaps he says he has information that he can only divulge or will only divulge in person. Or number three, they've figured out a way to come up with additional charges or a charge, and they brought him up here so he could appear in court."
Urquhart said his return to King County specifically is "pretty significant."
“I'm still wondering what it means. I don't know. I don't have any inside information,” Urquhart added.
'Gary's a monster'
Ridgway has been questioned throughout the years by the KCSO concerning ongoing investigations.
"Several years after he was incarcerated, we would send detectives down there once or twice a year, sometimes on our own, just to talk to him, and maybe we had a little bit of information. ‘Gary, do you remember anything about this?’ But other times he would reach out to us and say, ‘Hey, you know, I remember such and such, come down and talk to me.” Said Urquhart.
It led to cases solved, but not all of them.
"He has said that he's committed 71. I don't think he knows. I don't think that's a good number necessarily. We are convinced that in King County alone, he's good for 55 homicides,” said Urquhart. "Gary's a monster. He deserves to be where he is at the very minimum. But there are still a lot of families out there, and they need information. I hope we can bring as much closure to the victims as we possibly can."
Green River Killer case background
Ridgway terrorized the Pacific Northwest for decades until his eventual arrest in 2001. He was first questioned by police for his involvement in 1983. He targeted young, vulnerable women and girls. Many of the victims were prostituted people or young girls who ran away from home.
Detectives were unable to prove his role until 2001 when advancements in DNA technology allowed them to link a saliva sample they had obtained from him in 1987 to semen found on several victims. In 2001, he was charged in the deaths of four women: Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds and Carol Ann Christensen.
For a complete list of the women and girls who lost their lives at the hands of Ridgway, click here.
Ridgway confesses to murders
In exchange for the prosecutor not seeking the death penalty, Ridgway pleaded guilty to the 48 murders he was charged with in King County in June 2003. As part of the agreement, he also had to lead investigators to where he left the bodies of the women and girls he murdered. Then, he pleaded guilty to the 49th charge in February 2011 for the 1982 killing of 20-year-old Rebecca Marrero. He received his 49th life sentence.
“Gary Ridgway does not deserve our mercy, and Gary Ridgway does not deserve to live," Republican King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng said in November 2003. “The mercy provided by today's resolution is not directed toward Gary Ridgway, but toward the families who suffered so much and to the larger community.”
Ridgway claimed responsibility for dozens of other crimes, but none have been definitively linked to him.
So, can he still be sentenced to death?
According to the KCPAO, Ridgway can still face the death penalty if he is convicted of murder outside of King County.