Gary Ridgway's house

This is the former home of Gary Ridgway.

It is located at 21859 32nd Place South in SeaTac, Washington.

Ridgway is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. A truck painter by trade, he murdered at least 49 women during the 1980s and 1990s.

He was nicknamed the "Green River Killer" because he disposed of his victims' bodies near the Green River.

Victims

Ridgway targeted vulnerable women, including sex workers and teenage runaways. Some victims were as young as 15.

He was formally charged with 49 murders, though investigators believe his true victim count is at least 71. During his confession, he admitted that he "lost count" of how many women he killed.

Ridgway would pick up sex workers and murder them in his house or truck:

I killed most of them in my house near Military Road, and I killed a lot of them in my truck, not far from where I picked them up. I killed some of them outside. I remember leaving each woman's body in the place where she was found.

Investigation

Ridgway first became a suspect after the disappearance of Marie Malvar.

On April 30, 1983, the 18-year-old sex worker was working near the corner of Pacific Highway South and South 216th Street when she got into a pickup truck.

Malvar's boyfriend and pimp saw her arguing with the driver and attempted to follow them but soon lost sight of the vehicle.

Days later, her boyfriend and relatives found the truck parked outside Ridgway's house.

A police officer visited the house, but Ridgway denied picking up Malvar.

Later that year, detectives learned that the Port of Seattle Police had previously pulled him over while he was with a sex worker named Kelly Kay McGinnis.

McGinnis disappeared four months after the traffic stop.

The police searched Ridgway's property but found no clothing, jewelry, or other physical evidence linking him to the victims.

He passed a polygraph in 1984, which diverted suspicion from him. Later, he explained that he didn't do anything special to pass the test. He "just relaxed."

Ridgway eluded capture for nearly two decades. However, in 2001, investigators finally connected his DNA to samples found on some of the victims.

On November 30, 2001, officers arrested him while he was leaving his workplace in Renton.

Two years later, he pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. Part of the plea agreement involved him helping investigators locate the remains of missing women.

I placed most of the bodies in groups, which I call "clusters." I did this because I wanted to keep track of all the women I killed. I liked to drive by the "clusters" around the county and think about the women I placed there. I usually used a landmark to remember a "cluster" and the women I placed there.

Marriage

In 1985, Ridgway met his third wife, Judith Mawson, at the White Shutters Tavern on Highway 99. They married three years later.

Ridgway's killings decreased significantly during their marriage. Approximately 94% of his suspected murders occurred between 1982 and 1987, before he married Mawson.

Mawson was cleaning out the garage when two detectives arrived to inform her of his arrest.

She struggled to believe that her husband was the Green River Killer, as the man she knew was kind and considerate. There was nothing in his behavior to suggest he was capable of violence.

She stood by him until he confessed to the murders.

Later, Mawson admitted that she had been in denial.

The house

The 1,150-square-foot house was built in 1970. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom.

Ridgway sold the property on May 28, 1999, for $112,950, just two years before his arrest and subsequent identification as the Green River Killer.

Following the sale, Ridgway and his wife purchased a new home in Auburn.