In the winter of 1982, a young Black woman named Sandra Denise Major vanished from a Seattle street corner, sparking a mystery that would remain unsolved for decades. At 20 years old, Sandra was last seen on December 24, 1982, by a friend who witnessed her getting into a truck near North 90th Street and Aurora Avenue North. After that moment, she was gone, leaving her family in New York with only a Seattle postmarked letter and a haunting silence.
They had last seen her earlier that year and never heard from her again.
For years, Sandra's fate remained unknown. Her case grew cold until December 30, 1985, when skeletal remains were discovered in the Mountview Cemetery in Auburn. Alongside the remains of another identified murder victim, Kimi Pitsor, and a third unidentified woman, were the bones of a person who would be designated as "Bones 16." For 27 years, "Bones 16" would remain unidentified, a nameless victim in a string of horrific crimes that terrorized the Seattle area.
The break in the case came unexpectedly in April 2012. A cousin of Sandra's, living in Rochester, New York, was watching a television movie about the Green River Killer and a chilling thought emerged. The family had long suspected that their missing relative might have fallen prey to the notorious serial killer. This prompting led them to contact the King County Sheriff's Office. Investigators, armed with new advancements in DNA technology, obtained samples from Sandra's family. These samples were a match to the DNA profile that had been developed from "Bones 16." After nearly three decades of uncertainty, Sandra Denise Major finally had her name back.
The identification of Sandra's remains brought a somber conclusion to her family's long search for answers. It was confirmed that she was a victim of Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. In 2003, as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, Ridgway had pleaded guilty to the murder of the woman then only known as "Bones 16," along with the murders of the other two women found at the cemetery. He admitted to killing Sandra and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
