CNN
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For nearly 40 years, the human remains discovered near Seattle in 1985 were known to investigators only as Bones 17. And 17 years later, the police confirmed that the remains were those of the victim. The so-called “Green River Killer”. – but they still don’t know the victim’s name.
Until this week.
King County authorities announced Tuesday that they have identified the remains of Lori Anne Rasbotnik, a teenager who ran away from her family’s home in Lewis County, south of Seattle, in 1982. That was the last time his family saw him alive.
In December 1985, Rasbotnik’s remains were found near a second remains — identified as Bones 16 — in Auburn, after police were called to investigate a car trunk, the King County Sheriff’s Office said. Press release.
The Green River Task Force was called in to oversee the investigation, but the remains were not identified, the statement said.
Years passed before there was a break in the case: there was Gary Ridgway Arrest In November 2001, DNA evidence linked him to the early victims of unsolved murders in the Seattle area.
In 2002, Ridgway led investigators to the site where Bones 16 and Bones 17 were found and admitted to placing the victims there, a Sheriff’s Office release said.
Two sets of remains, still unidentified, are among 48 gruesome murders, Ridgway said He confessed to the crime In 2003, making him one of the wealthiest Serial killers in American history. He pleaded guilty in 2011 to the 49th count of murder.
In 2012, DNA testing helped investigators identify Sandra Major’s remains as Bone 16.
This week, authorities announced Razpotnik’s positive identification, citing the help of advanced DNA testing by Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs that created a new DNA profile to begin the process of forensic genetics, combining DNA data with traditional genetics.
“After extensive research, they determined that the victim was Lori Anne Rasbotnik,” the sheriff’s office said.
A lab at the University of North Texas used a saliva sample provided by Rasbotnik’s mother to run a DNA comparison test and confirmed the match, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The King County Sheriff’s Office is extremely grateful for the work of Parabone Nanolabs, the University of North Texas, the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, the King County State’s Attorney’s Office, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office and the countless members who worked. in helping identify Lori Anne Razpotnik, formerly known as Bones-17,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement to CNN.
Ridgway is currently being held at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington. He was jailed without the possibility of parole, according to King County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric White. The “Green River Killer” moniker comes from a river south of Seattle where Ridgway began dumping victims in 1982.
All but two of his men were found near Seattle. Others were found in Oregon.
