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Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as "The Green River Killer", is a serial killer responsible for the murders of at least 49 women.

Background
Gary Leon Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 18, 1949 and raised in SeaTac, Washington. His father, Thomas Newton Ridgway, worked as a bus driver who often complained about the prostitutes who frequented the streets on his route. His mother, Mary Rita Ridgway (née Steinman), ruled the household and was physically and mentally abusive towords Gary and also to his two brothers, Gregory and Thomas Jr., and even her husband. Gary was a frequent bedwetter and also tortured animals, locking a cat into a refrigerator until it died on one occasion. In 1963, aged 14, Gary attempted to kill a 6-year-old boy by stabbing him, but wasn't caught. He claimed to have committed his first murder when he was a teenager, drowning a young boy by wrapping his legs around him while swimming and holding him underwater until he drowned. Gary

Killings, Arrest and Incarceration
Ridgway committed his first confirmed serial murders in the 1980s, most of them in 1982 and 1983.

Modus Operandi
Ridgway's victims were prostitutes. He would pick them up, take them somewhere secluded, have sex with them, often from behind in order to get the drop on them, and kill them by strangling them, usually with his arm, though he later started using various ligatures such as rope, fishing line, belts, extension cords, socks or even a T-shirt. Some were killed in his home or his truck. The bodies were then dumped in the wilderness, usually nude and sometimes posed. He had a habit of dumping them in "clusters" in different locations over a period of time, usually near some nearby landmark, or in the water. He would return to the bodies to watch them decompose and change color and to engage in sexual acts with them.

Known Victims
Note: For the female victims, the dates mark the date of their disappearance
 * Date unknown: Unnamed boy
 * 1963: Unnamed boy
 * 1982:
 * July 8: Wendy Lee Coffield, 16
 * July 17: Gisele Ann Lovvorn, 17
 * July 25: Debra Lynn Bonner, 23
 * August 1: Marcia Fay Chapman, 31
 * August 11: Cynthia Jean Hinds, 17
 * August 12: Opal Charmaine Mills, 16
 * August 29: Terry Rene Milligan, 17
 * September 15: Mary Bridget Meehan, 18
 * September 20: Debra Lorraine Estes, 15
 * September 26: Linda Jane Rule, 16
 * October 8: Denise Darcel Bush, 23
 * October 9: Shawnda Leea Summers, 16
 * October 20-22: Shirley Marie Sherrill, 18
 * December 3: Rebecca Marrero, 20
 * December 24: Colleen Renee Brockman, 15
 * 1983:
 * March 3: Alma Ann Smith, 18
 * March 8-14: Delores LaVerne Williams, 17
 * April 10: Gail Lynn Matthews, 23
 * April 14: Andrea M. Childers, 19
 * April 17: Sandra Kay Gabbert, 17
 * April 17: Kimi-Kai Pitsor, 16
 * April 30: Marie M. Malvar, 18
 * May 3: Carol Ann Christensen, 21
 * May 22: Martina Theresa Authorlee, 18
 * May 23: Cheryl Lee Wims, 18
 * May 31: Yvonne "Shelly" Antosh, 19
 * May 31-June 13: Carrie Ann Rois, 15
 * June 8: Constance Elizabeth Naon, 19
 * July 18: Kelly Marie Ware, 22
 * July 25: Tina Marie Thompson, 21
 * August 18: April Dawn Buttram, 16
 * September 5: Debbie May Abernathy, 26
 * September 12: Tracy Ann Winston, 19
 * September 28: Maureen Sue Feeney, 19
 * October 11: Mary Sue Bello, 25
 * October 26: Pammy Annette Avent, 15
 * October 30: Delise Louise Plager, 22
 * November 1: Kimberly L. Nelson, 21
 * December 23: Lisa Yates, 19
 * 1984:
 * February 6: Mary Exzetta West, 16
 * March 21: Cindy Anne Smith, 17
 * 1986:
 * October 17: Patricia Michelle Barczak, 19
 * 1987:
 * February 7: Roberta Joseph Hayes, 21
 * 1990:
 * March 5: Marta Reeves, 36
 * 1998:
 * January: Patricia Yellowrobe, 38
 * Four additional unidentified women:
 * A white female who died prior to May 1983, 12-17
 * A black female killed sometime between 1982 and 1984, 18-27
 * A white female killed sometime between December of 1980 and January of 1984, 14-18
 * A woman killed sometime between 1973 and 1993, 13-24

On Criminal Minds
Ridgway has been mentioned a few times on Criminal Minds. The first mention was in Unfinished Business when the team goes through a letter from the Unsub which mentions several crime scene details, even what the victims were wearing, and Morgan remarks that Ridgway couldn't even remember where most of his victims were dumped, much less what they were wearing. He is mentioned again in The Perfect Storm as an example of serial killers who go from manual strangulation to ligature strangulation. In About Face, Rossi and Reid bring up Ridgway's habit of dumping his bodies in the water when they visit a pond in which a weighed-down victim was dumped. They remark that Ridgway didn't weigh his victims down because he had no personal connection to any of them, leading them to realize that the UnSub did so with his victim. Ridgway was mentioned again in Catching Out when Hotch learns that the local investigators have nicknamed the Unsub "The Highway 99 Killer" after the highway near which the victims were killed. He remarks that part of the reason why the Green River case took so long to solve was that the investigators focused their investigation on the Green River area because the first cluster was found there. Ridgway was mentioned again in ...A Thousand Words as an example of serial killers who have children.