Last known remains of Green River Killer victims identified, other cases still unsolved

The last known victim remains of the Green River Killer have been identified, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Partial remains found in 2003 and labeled as Bones 20, have been positively identified as Tammie Liles.

“It’s great news to hear that the last set of remains held in the medical examiner’s office has finally been identified,” said Dave Reichert with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Liles’ family can now put her to rest.

“Every time a family who has had a missing child for years and finally gets answers to questions that they have been waiting for, for years, it creates two emotions,” said Reichert. “One I think anxiety comes across every family that’s had any association with the Green River Killer, especially those that have lost a daughter.”

A forensic sequencing laboratory contracted by the King County Sheriff’s Office identified Liles after extensive genetic genealogy testing.

“The care that we took in going through each of those sites helped us recover those remains every hair, every bone, every tooth, every petrified fingertip, I’m naming off things we found over those many years, pieces of clothing, pieces of fiber and I can go through a whole list of evidence,” said Reichert. “But over 10,000 items of evidence collected and logged and stored prepared to go to trial when Ridgway was arrested.”

A DNA sample was obtained from Liles’ mother and sent to the University of North Texas, which used traditional STR and mitochondrial DNA testing to identify her.

Some of Liles’ remains were found in 1985 near the Tualatin Golf Course near Tigard, Oregon.

“This is not the first time that Gary Ridgway has moved body parts and placed victims in Oregon,” said Reichert.

In 2003, Gary Ridgway -- the Green River Killer -- led investigators to a site on the Kent-Des Moines Road, where some additional bones and teeth were found.

Those remains were not identified at the time and were labeled as Bones #20.

Ridgway would plead guilty in Nov. 2003 to the murder of Bones #20 and was sentenced to life in prison, instead of the death penalty.

“The decision in 2003 to take the death penalty off the table was not about Gary Ridgway it was not to give him mercy, he doesn’t deserve mercy it was about the families of the victims because without that they wouldn’t have found the victims like this young woman or many of the other victims,” said Casey McNerthney with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

However, the 2003 deal could be taken off the table.

“If he is convicted of another murder in another county outside of King County that wouldn’t apply to the deal he was given in 2003,” said McNerthney.

Reichert said that although the last remains in the medical examiner’s office have been identified, there are still more unsolved cases.

“Ridgway said that he killed 65 to 70 young women and little girls and so far he’s plead guilty to 49 and we’ve closed 51 cases,” said Reichert. “So as I said there are other unsolved cases out there that may or may not be connected to Ridgway but there are parents still out there looking for answers about the death and murder of their daughter.”

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