On her eighteenth birthday, May 23, 1983, a young Black/African American woman named Cheryl Lee Wims vanished from Seattle, Washington. She was on her way to pick up a birthday gift at the time of her disappearance. A former boss at a downtown restaurant described her as "quiet, conservative and conscientious," and her mother recalled that the biggest issue she had with Cheryl was missing too much school.
While her family mentioned she had a drug problem, they did not believe she was involved in sex work, though police indicated she had some involvement in it.
For nearly a year, her family held out hope, but that hope turned to grief in March 1984. On March 22, 1984, investigators discovered her skeletal remains in an area north of the Sea-Tac Airport. Her body was found in the vicinity of two other victims of a then-unidentified serial killer who was terrorizing the region. The discovery of her remains was a devastating blow to her family, particularly her mother, Ruth, who had been anxiously awaiting any news.
The mystery of who was responsible for Cheryl's death, along with the murders of many other young women in the area, haunted investigators and the community for years. The perpetrator came to be known as the Green River Killer. It wasn't until decades later that a suspect was definitively identified. Through advancements in DNA technology, Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested in 2001.
In 2003, Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder, including the murder of Cheryl Wims. As part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, Ridgway agreed to cooperate with investigators and disclose the locations of his victims' remains. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The resolution of the case brought a measure of justice for Cheryl's family, though the pain of her loss, especially on what should have been a day of celebration, would forever remain. Tragically, the Wims family would face further heartache when Cheryl's sister, Deborah, disappeared under similar circumstances in 1990.
