KING COUNTY, Wash. — The last unknown human remains associated with the Green River Killer Gary Ridgway were identified by a forensic sequencing lab contracted by the King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO).
The remains belong to a victim of Ridgway who was already identified named Tammie Liles. This means there are no other unidentified remains connected to the Green River case, according to KCSO.
Liles' remains were discovered in 1985 near the Tualatin Golf Course near Tigard, Oregon, alongside the remains of another victim. Ridgway was interviewed about those bodies and the bodies of two other women by detectives in 2002 and 2003. He admitted to moving two of the women from Washington to Oregon but denied responsibility for Liles' death and for the other woman who was found with her.
In 2003, Ridgway led detectives to a site on Kent-Des Moines Road where he said he left a victim's body. A search of the area turned up several bones and some teeth, but a skull and most major bones were absent. Samples were sent to the University of North Texas, which obtained a DNA profile of the victim. That profile was uploaded to a national database. Those remains were labeled Bones #20 by investigators.
While Liles had initially been identified as a victim through dental records in 1988, the remains found near Kent-Des Moines Road would not be identified as hers for 35 more years.
In the fall of 2022, KCSO met with representatives from Othram, a forensic sequencing laboratory hired by the department to build a DNA profile and conduct forensic genetic genealogy testing. In August of last year, Othram notified KCSO that they were able to build a suitable DNA profile and had tentatively identified the remains as Liles.
Liles' mother provided a DNA sample to the University of North Texas which used STR and mitochondrial DNA testing to confirm the match.
Othram is a laboratory that specializes in assisting law enforcement with identifying human remains and solving violent crimes, according to the company. Scientists there can analyze human DNA from trace quantities of degraded or contaminated forensic evidence which other labs may be unable to process, building DNA profiles from evidence that is otherwise considered to be "intractable" or "unusable," according to the company.
DNA technology was also used to identify the remains of another unknown victim in December of 2023. Lori Anne Razpotnik went missing in 1982 when she was just 15 years old. Her body was discovered in 1985, but she would not be identified for 38 more years.