After graduating from high school, Gary Ridgway joined the United States Navy at the age of 18. He served 4 years and completed a tour in Vietnam where we saw combat. Upon his return he married his high school sweetheart Claudia Barrows. Their marriage dissolved after his wife was unfaithful. Gary struggled to find his footing in the work force. His application to the police academy was rejected and he eventually found employment as an automobile painter in Bellingham, Washington.
Gary Ridgeway eventually found love and married Marcia Winslow. The couple had a son who they named Matthew. Records show that during his marriage to Marcia, Gary found religion and quickly became obsessed. His erratic devotion began to manifest by loudly reading the bible in the house every day and frequently crying during sermons. His
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Those weren’t his only brushes with the law. It turned out the he was a prime suspect when the first bodies found and was brought in for questioning. In 1985, he was accused him of grabbing from behind and putting her in a choke-hold. While as far back as 1982 and 1983, a witness saw one of the victims, Marie M. Malvar, get into his car.
For all of their effort and suspicion, the police were unable to pin the early murders to Ridgeway. In 1984, he passed a polygraph test. Later analysis, however, shows that he actually failed the test). In 1987 he was forced to provide hair and saliva to the police in addition to having his home searched but the police had to let him go for lack of evidence
By 1991, the Green River Task Force had been whittled down to a single detective, Tom Jensen and the cases were inactive for 10 years. It wasn't until 2001 that the murders were re-investigated and the task force included DNA experts. The police were able to match semen found on one of the victims to Ridgeway and upon testing other evidence; they were able to charge him with eight