During a two and a half year period in the early
1980s,
the Green River Killer is believed to have murdered as many as 50 people in the
Seattle,
Tacoma,
Washington area, and possibly in the
Portland, Oregon area. The victims were largely female
prostitutes and teenage runaways, picked up along Pacific Highway South (Washington State Route 99), and strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in and around the
Green River, except for two victims in the Portland area.
In November, 2001, nearly 20 years after he had first been suspected in the killings, Gary Ridgway[?] was arrested on suspicion of murder for a number of the deaths, after DNA evidence linked him to three of the victims. His trial is not expected to start until 2004.