“The Remains of Green River Killer’s Last Known Victim, Tammie Liles, Identified as Teenage Girl from Washington State”

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The remains of the last known victim of the notorious Green River Killer have recently been identified as a teenage girl from Washington state. However, authorities believe that there may be other unsolved cases connected to this infamous murderer.

The King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) announced on Monday that the remains have been identified as those of 16-year-old Tammie Liles from Everett, Washington.

Previously, Liles had been identified as a victim of Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, through dental records. Her remains were discovered near Tigard, Oregon, in 1988. Ridgway himself later led authorities to another set of Liles’ remains in southern King County in 2003, although the identity couldn’t be confirmed at the time.

In 2022, the Sheriff’s Office collaborated with Othram, a Texas-based genetic genealogy company specializing in forensic DNA work, to build a DNA profile for the unidentified victim. Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team tentatively identified her as Tammie Liles. The match was later confirmed after obtaining a DNA sample from her mother.

While all the remains in the medical examiner’s office have been identified, there are still other unsolved cases related to Ridgway, according to Dave Reichert from the King County Sheriff’s Office. Ridgway confessed to killing 65 to 70 young women and girls, pleaded guilty to 49 cases, and 51 cases have been closed. This leaves other parents still searching for answers about their daughters’ deaths.

Gary Ridgway, sentenced in 2003, is currently serving life without the possibility of parole at the Washington State Penitentiary. The Green River killings, named after the initial victims found in a waterway near Seattle, remained unsolved until 2001 when advances in DNA technology linked Ridgway to the crimes.

The identification of Tammie Liles comes shortly after the identification of another Green River Killer victim, Lori Anne Razpotnik, who went missing in 1982. Razpotnik’s remains were found in Alabama in 1985. With the help of DNA technology, the University of North Texas experts were able to identify her through a saliva sample provided by her mother.

The identification of these victims brings a sense of relief to the King County Sheriff’s Office, as they have now identified all 49 victims attributed to Gary Ridgway. Ridgway’s case remains one of the most notorious instances of serial killings in the United States.