Accident – death – Obituary News :

Victim of Green River Killer Identified through DNA Testing

A Lewis County teenager, who went missing in 1982, has been identified as a victim of the notorious Green River killer, thanks to DNA testing, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The remains of Lori Anne Razpotnik, known as “Bones 17,” were discovered approximately 38 years ago in Auburn. The Sheriff’s Office collaborated with a forensic DNA technology company, which successfully developed a new DNA profile to identify Razpotnik. This significant breakthrough was announced by officials on Tuesday.

Razpotnik is one of the 49 women and teenage girls that serial killer Gary L. Ridgway was convicted of murdering between the early 1980s and late 1990s. While all but one of the other victims had previously been identified, Razpotnik’s identity remained a mystery for decades.

The tragic story of Razpotnik began when she ran away from her Lewis County home at the age of 15 in 1982. Her family never saw her again. Three years later, near Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn, a car veered off the road and plunged down an embankment. This location was already significant as it was where the skull of 16-year-old Kimi-Kai Pitsor had been found in 1983. During the investigation of the car accident, two more sets of human remains were discovered, which were referred to as “Bones 16” and “Bones 17.”

The Green River Task Force, responsible for investigating the Green River killer’s crimes, was called in to oversee the case. They gave the names “Bones 16” and “Bones 17” to the victims found at the accident site. The rest of Kimi-Kai Pitsor’s body was also discovered in the embankment, approximately 100 yards away from her skull.

Ridgway, who was arrested in 2001, eventually agreed to disclose the locations of the graves of his still-missing victims as part of a plea bargain with King County prosecutors. In 2003, investigators asked Ridgway to guide them to the location where he had disposed of the bodies at Mountain View. Ridgway complied, and he accurately identified the precise location where the three sets of remains had been found.

Parabon Nanolabs, a Virginia-based forensic company, determined that “Bones 17” was Lori Anne Razpotnik. The University of North Texas conducted DNA comparison testing using Razpotnik’s mother’s DNA sample, confirming the findings.

The other victim found at the accident site, “Bones 16,” was identified in 2012 as Sandra Major through DNA testing. Sandra Major, a 20-year-old, was last seen getting into a truck in North Seattle in 1982. Her cousin contacted the Sheriff’s Office in 2012, suspecting that Major might be one of Ridgway’s victims. DNA samples from Major’s siblings provided the evidence needed to confirm her tragic fate.

During the 2003 investigation, Ridgway claimed that he could not recall any specific details about the murders of Sandra Major and Lori Anne Razpotnik.

In 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to the murders of Major and Razpotnik. He is currently serving 49 consecutive life sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Prior to the identification of Razpotnik, Wendy Stephens had been the most recent victim of Ridgway to be identified. Stephens’ remains were found in 1984 in a swamp behind a baseball field near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Her identification was confirmed in 2020.

Unfortunately, one set of remains, known as “Bones 20,” still remains unidentified.

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