In the summer of 1982, the life of 16-year-old Wendy Coffield was tragically cut short. A White female, Wendy disappeared on July 8, 1982, after leaving her foster home in Tacoma, Washington. She was a runaway who had previously escaped from a juvenile detention center. Friends and family would not see her alive again. A week later, on July 15, 1982, her body was discovered floating in the Green River near the Meeker Street Bridge in Kent by two teenage boys.
Investigators determined that she had been strangled to death with her own clothing.
Wendy's murder marked the beginning of a years-long reign of terror by a serial killer who would come to be known as the Green River Killer. Her death was the first of what would become a horrifying tally of dozens of young women, many of whom were runaways or involved in prostitution, who fell victim to the same predator. For nearly two decades, the identity of the killer remained a mystery, casting a long shadow of fear over the communities of South King County. The investigation into the Green River killings became one of the longest and most extensive in American history.
The long-awaited breakthrough in the case came in 2001. On November 30 of that year, police arrested Gary Leon Ridgway, a 52-year-old truck painter who had been a longtime resident of the area. Advances in DNA technology finally provided the evidence needed to link Ridgway to several of the victims. In April 2003, Ridgway was charged with the murder of Wendy Coffield. To avoid the death penalty, he entered into a plea agreement, ultimately pleading guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder, including the murder of Wendy Coffield, on November 5, 2003.
