Timeline of the Green River killer case

Timeline of the Green River killer case:

July 15, 1982: Children playing near Kent find strangled body of Wendy Coffield, 16, of Puyallup, in the Green River.

Dec. 3: Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, 20, is last seen leaving a SeaTac motel, but isn't reported missing until July 20, 1984.

Aug. 16: After the bodies of four more young women are found in or near the Green River, King County police set up the biggest police task force since the Ted Bundy murders of the 1970s.

April 30, 1983: The first apparent police attention to Gary L. Ridgway occurs when victim Marie Malvar disappears. Her boyfriend follows a pickup suspected in the disappearance. The pickup is identified as Ridgway's. Ridgway denies any contact with Malvar.

Nov. 20: Police say the same man had killed 11 women found in South King County since summer 1982.

May 1984: Ridgway contacts the Green River Task Force, ostensibly to offer information. He passes a polygraph examination.

Dec. 9, 1984: The suspected toll of victims rises to 42.

April 8, 1987: Police search the home and vehicles of Ridgway, who was the last person seen with at least two of the victims. The victim list is now thought to number 46. Police take "bodily samples" from Ridgway, but there is insufficient evidence to arrest him.

March 2001: State crime lab starts using the new DNA method to test Green River killer evidence.

Nov. 30: King County Sheriff Dave Reichert announces the arrest of Ridgway, then 52, of Auburn, in connection with the slayings of four of the early victims of the Green River killer. Ridgway's DNA is linked to three of them.

Nov. 5, 2003: Ridgway pleads guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder. Marrero's slaying is not included because her body has not been found.

Dec. 21, 2010: Marrero's remains are found in an Auburn ravine. The site is roughly three miles from Mountain View Cemetery, where Ridgway disposed of a number of his victims.

Feb. 7, 2011: Ridgway is charged with aggravated murder in connection with Marrero's slaying.

Feb. 18: Ridgway pleads guilty to Marrero's slaying.

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