One of America’s most notorious serial killers is nearing the end of his life behind bars, according to several people who’ve followed his case for decades.
Gary Ridgway – the “Green River Killer,” who admitted to killing dozens of women and girls in the Seattle area – is reportedly in end-of-life care in a Washington state prison.
But even as his health fades, the pain he left behind is still very much alive.
Rumors Of Failing Health Behind Prison Walls
KIRO 7 reporter Jake Chapman says multiple sources are now telling KIRO Newsradio that Ridgway is entering “near life stages” at a Washington state prison.
Chapman explains that radio reporter Charlie Harger spoke with five separate sources who are “incredibly close” to the case. Those sources say Ridgway is receiving end-of-life care and is in very poor health.
The Department of Corrections, however, is publicly pushing back.
According to Chapman, DOC officials called the reports “inaccurate” and said nothing has changed with Ridgway’s condition in recent years.
Harger told Chapman his sources wouldn’t share specific medical details, but they were consistent in saying Ridgway is very near the end. He also said he’s spoken with victims’ families for years and even with Ridgway himself – interviews that still haunt him because of Ridgway’s flat, emotionless way of describing murder.
On FOX 13 Seattle, reporter Alejandra Guzman spoke with retired detective and former congressman Dave Reichert, the man who spent decades chasing the Green River Killer.
Reichert told her he’s also been hearing about Ridgway’s decline for about a year.
“I’ve heard for the past year that he’s been in failing health, very ill,” Reichert said. He added that he has seen photos of Ridgway in a wheelchair, looking “pretty frail.”
More recently, Reichert says he’s heard rumors that Ridgway “is close to death.”
In other words, even if the DOC isn’t ready to confirm anything publicly, the people who spent their careers on this case are preparing themselves — and the families — for the end.
The Serial Killer Who Terrorized The Pacific Northwest
From the live desk at KIRO 7, Eric Thomas walked viewers back through the nightmare history that made Ridgway one of the most prolific convicted serial killers in American history.
Thomas reminded viewers that the Green River murders began in July 1982, when two boys found the body of a 16-year-old girl in the Green River south of Seattle.
Within a short time, five more bodies of young women were found along a single one-mile stretch of the river.
From there, the spree spread across King County and beyond.
Investigators eventually linked at least 48 murders to Ridgway. He later pleaded guilty to 49 murders, and Reichert told Guzman they closed 51 cases using his confessions and cooperation.
Reichert also said Ridgway himself claimed to have killed around 65 people. The true number may never be known.
For years, young women – many of them runaway teenagers, sex workers, or otherwise vulnerable – simply vanished from the streets of the Seattle area.
Their bodies were dumped in wooded areas, ravines, and along rural roads and rivers.
Reichert told Guzman that Ridgway spent years “stalking, prowling our community” and “kidnaping, raping and killing little girls, teenagers and young women.”
He said the killer didn’t just traumatize individual families.
He terrorized “the entire community” – and arguably the entire Pacific Northwest, especially after some victims were found as far away as Oregon.
One man created a horror that still hasn’t fully ended.
A Controversial Deal That Spared His Life
Thomas reminded KIRO 7 viewers that Ridgway was finally arrested on November 30, 2001, after detectives matched his DNA to one of the victims.
In 2003, he agreed to a plea deal. He would admit to dozens of murders, cooperate with investigators, and help lead them to remains in long-hidden dump sites. In exchange, prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.
King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Casey McNerthy told KIRO 7 that then–prosecutor Norm Maleng made the controversial decision to spare Ridgway from execution so that investigators could keep extracting information from him as long as possible.
McNerthy put it this way: “I think everybody knows that Gary Ridgway will die in prison, but trying to find the resolution for those victims’ families and do as much as investigators and prosecutors can while he’s still here is important.”
That decision is still debated.
Some people felt a man who admitted to killing so many should have faced death himself. Others agreed with Maleng’s calculation: keeping Ridgway alive meant there was at least a chance to find more victims and give more families answers.
Even after he was locked up, the investigation didn’t stop.
Chapman pointed out that in 2024, Ridgway was brought back to the King County Jail for several days because, according to investigators, he had new information about possible victims and grave sites.
Detectives searched the areas he pointed out.
This time, they came up empty-handed.
That’s part of what makes his declining health so urgent: when he dies, whatever he still knows dies with him.
Families Still Waiting For Answers
If there’s a theme running through both KIRO 7’s and FOX 13’s coverage, it’s this: for the families, Ridgway’s slow decline doesn’t bring simple closure.
Reichert told Guzman that when he heard Ridgway might be close to death, his thoughts immediately went to the families, not the killer.
He described those victims as daughters, sisters, nieces and cousins – “somebody’s cherished loved one.”
He pointed out that some were as young as 15 when their lives were “ripped from this family by this monster.”
Reichert said that even after decades, the grief he saw in living rooms and interview rooms is hard to put into words – the tears, the anger, the emptiness.
He compared it to losing his own parents but said it’s different when a child is murdered and left in the woods by a stranger.
He also reminded viewers that three victims are still missing, and the King County Sheriff’s Office has kept those cases open. He says people still call him even now with tips or suspicions, and he continues to pass that information on to investigators.
The families of those missing women are in an especially cruel position.
They’ve watched Ridgway age, give interviews, and maneuver in the legal system for more than 20 years – all while they still don’t know exactly what happened to their loved ones or where their remains are.
Ridgway’s approaching death might bring a sense of finality, but for many of them, it also freezes the case where it stands.
If he takes certain secrets to his grave, some families may never get the answers they’ve been hoping for since the 1980s.
The Uneasy Reality Of End-Of-Life Care For A Serial Killer
Chapman noted that all of this raises an uncomfortable question: what exactly are prisoners’ rights when it comes to medical care, even if that prisoner is a man like Gary Ridgway?
The law is clear that prisoners are entitled to basic medical treatment, including at the end of life.
Morally, though, it’s a hard pill to swallow for people who watched entire communities live in fear while Ridgway hunted women and girls for years.
On one hand, you have the image, described by Reichert, of a frail old man in a wheelchair, possibly close to death.
On the other, you have the memory of a younger Ridgway calmly describing how he strangled teenagers and left them in remote areas, with no emotion in his voice.
There’s a strange tension in seeing someone who committed monstrous acts now treated as a vulnerable patient.
It does not erase what he did. It does not balance the scale. At best, it says something about us – that even when we imprison someone for life, we still don’t turn into what they were.
But what stands out in the reporting from Chapman, Thomas, Guzman, Harger, McNerthy, and Reichert is that the focus keeps returning to the victims.
Not the killer’s comfort.
Not his last days.
Their work is a quiet reminder that when Ridgway finally dies, the Green River case will not vanish. The court files will remain. The markers in the woods and along the river will remain.
Most importantly, the families’ grief and love will remain.
Ridgway’s life is ending the way prosecutors always said it would: in prison, with no chance of release.
For many, that may feel like the bare minimum of justice.
But real justice, if it’s even possible in a case like this, will always be measured in something else – in how much truth was uncovered, how many names were learned, and how many families were finally able to say, “We know what happened,” even as their pain goes on.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
