The truck painter who led detectives to 49 Green River victims — and the DNA that closed in on him

He painted trucks for a living.

Gary Leon Ridgway lived in Auburn, Washington, a suburb south of Seattle.

He was married multiple times. He had a son.

For nearly two decades, the Green River murders went unsolved.

Then, in 2001, a DNA match linked Ridgway to the murders of four victims.

The evidence against him included paint chips and fibers from his truck and his home.

The same truck he used for work. The same home where he raised a family.

What kind of man paints trucks by day and, according to investigators, kills women by night?

The record does not establish a motive.

It does not establish a psychological profile.

It establishes only the DNA match, the paint chips, the fibers.

He was arrested in November 2001.

A working man, a father, a husband.

The neighbors must have wondered.

The co-workers must have wondered.

His own family must have wondered.

He was a truck painter from Auburn.

That is what the case summary says.

That is what the record shows.

The rest is theory.

The rest is what the evidence does not say.

THE FIRST BODIES

The first bodies were discovered in 1982 along the banks of the Green River.

Between 1982 and 1998, a series of women were murdered in and around the Seattle–Tacoma area of Washington State.

Many of them were sex workers, runaways, and drug users.

The victims were typically strangled.

Their bodies were dumped in remote wooded areas, riverbanks, and ditches.

Dozens were found over the following years.

The case became known as the Green River murders.

The exact number of victims was not known at the time.

The official count was later set at 49.

That number came after a suspect was identified through DNA evidence in 2001.

In 1982, the record shows only the river and the bodies.

Investigators did not yet know how many women were missing.

They did not yet know how many were dead.

They did not yet know if one person was responsible.

That would require evidence.

The scale of the killings was still taking shape.

The horror was real.

The count was not.

THE TASK FORCE YEARS

The year was 1982.

The first bodies were pulled from the Green River.

The investigation began, led by detective Robert Keppel of the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Keppel had worked the Ted Bundy case before this one.

He knew what the scale of a serial killer’s work looked like.

A task force was formed.

At its peak, it involved dozens of investigators.

The exact number is not specified in the record.

Neither is the exact duration of the task force.

What is documented is the weight.

Early difficulties piled up.