The 1982 Green River disappearances that still haunt King County detectives

The first body was pulled from the Green River in the summer of 1982.

She was not the last.

Between July 1982 and early 1984, a series of women — many of them sex workers, runaways, and vulnerable young women — disappeared from the Pacific Highway South corridor in King County, Washington, near Seattle.

The river gave the case its name.

The bodies kept appearing far beyond it.

They were found in the river.

They were found along roadsides.

They were found in ditches.

They were found in wooded areas.

Some were not discovered for months.

Some were not discovered for years.

The first victims were discovered in the Green River, giving the case its name.

The rest were scattered across a landscape that seemed to have no end.

One body here.

Another body there.

The county stretched, and the searches stretched with it.

The case became one of the largest serial murder investigations in U.S. history.

Dozens of victims were attributed to a single offender over time.

That attribution came later.

At this point, the record does not establish who the offender was.

The women were gone.

The river held its own.

The roadsides held theirs.

Ditches and wooded areas held theirs.

A task force would eventually form, but that is a later section.

For now, the disappearances simply accumulated.

Each one a report.

Each report a missing person.

Each missing person a family waiting.

The river was the first clue.

It was not the only one.

THE TASK FORCE AND THE COLD YEARS

The task force formed in 1984.

It brought together detectives from multiple agencies.

Dave Reichert was the lead detective for much of the investigation.

He would carry the case for years.

The searches were extensive.

Teams dragged the Green River. They combed roadsides. They walked ditches and wooded areas.

Hundreds of suspects were examined.

The exact number is not specified in the record.

That number is not established.

The case went cold.

It stayed cold for years.

The river kept its dead.

Then, in the late 1980s, investigators began using DNA analysis on evidence from victims.

It was a new tool.

It was also a slow one.

The science required samples. It required comparison. It required waiting.