Marta Reeves, a 36-year-old Caucasian woman, was last heard from on March 5, 1990, when she made a phone call to her estranged husband. At the time of her disappearance, she was a mother of four who was separated from her family and struggling with a crack cocaine addiction that led her to prostitution in Seattle. Her life had taken a difficult turn in the last two years of her life, leading to two arrests for prostitution just a month before she vanished.
Six months after her last
contact with her family, on September 20, 1990, Marta's skeletal remains were discovered in a marshy area along Highway 410, about eight miles east of Enumclaw. The location was unsettlingly close to where the remains of three of the Green River Killer's victims had been found years earlier. Due to the condition of her remains, an autopsy could not determine the exact cause of death but ruled it as homicidal violence, with possible asphyxia.
For years, Marta Reeves' case remained unsolved, and though there were striking similarities to the Green River killings, her death occurred outside the primary timeframe of his known activity. Her case was considered by some investigators as an "unofficial Green River case". The investigation into the string of murders that terrorized the Seattle area for years was overwhelming for law enforcement.
The break in the case finally came with the arrest of Gary Leon Ridgway on November 30, 2001, after advances in DNA technology linked him to several of the Green River murders. As part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, Ridgway agreed to cooperate with investigators and disclose the locations of his victims. In his confession, Ridgway admitted to killing so many women that he had lost count. Marta Reeves was one of the 48 women he pleaded guilty to murdering on November 5, 2003. Her family, who had long awaited answers, expressed their gratitude for the closure that the plea deal provided, remembering Marta as a kind and loving wife and mother.
