Researchers at the DNA Doe Project don’t contact victims’ families, Binder said, but as the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, she could imagine the trauma they endured. Because the parent had provided their DNA before the policy change, and they had not subsequently opted in, Binder’s team didn’t see the parent’s DNA profile when they searched. But in 2019, GEDmatch changed its policies, better protecting the privacy of users by requiring them to opt in if they wanted law enforcement to be able to use their DNA in investigations. That would have provided a quick DNA hit. But it could have been even quicker: Years ago, one of Stephens’ parents entered DNA into the database GEDmatch, in hopes of finding her or any children she might have had, Binder said. It only took a few weeks for Binder’s team to come up with Stephens’ name. Investigators found a missing person report for Stephens that had been filed in 1983, and they matched her DNA directly with one of her parents. By building out a family tree with census, birth and other records, they pinpointed where the families intersected - Stephens’ parents. Tim Meyer, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.Ĭairenn Binder, who led the DNA Doe Project team that identified Stephens, said that by entering her DNA information into a genealogy website, they were able to locate distant cousins on both her mother’s side and father’s side. Stephens’ family requested privacy and declined to speak with reporters, said Sgt. The remains of another Ridgway victim, Cheryl Wims, were discovered at the same time.
She had been killed a year or more earlier, investigators believe, and she is thought to have been Ridgway’s youngest victim. Stephens’ remains were found in a wooded area next to a baseball field in what is now the suburb of SeaTac on March 21, 1984, after the groundskeeper’s dog came home with a leg bone. It unmasked the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, who pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges that spanned much of California between 19.
Green river killer victims identified serial#
Genetic genealogy has increasingly been used to track down unidentified criminal suspects and help solve scores of cold cases in recent years, some of them more than a half-century old or involving other serial killers. Researchers at theDNA Doe Project, a volunteer organization that uses publicly available DNA databases to find relatives of unidentified victims, helped make the identification. “We are thankful that Wendy Stephens’ family will now have answers to their enormous loss suffered nearly 40 years ago.” “Ridgway’s murderous spree left a trail of profound grief for so many families of murdered and missing women,” King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a written statement.
Four of the victims - including Stephens - had not been identified. Ridgway terrorized the Seattle area in the 1980s, and since 2003, he has pleaded guilty to killing 49 women and girls. Wendy Stephens was 14 and had run away from her home in Denver before Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, strangled her in 1983, the King County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday. SEATTLE (AP) - Genetic genealogy helped identify the youngest known victim of one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers almost 37 years after her remains were discovered near a baseball field south of Seattle. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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