Green River Killer victim identified as Lori Razpotnik 41 years after she went missing
Authorities have identified a victim of the Green River Killer, more than 40 years after she disappeared.
For more than four decades, the remains of Lori Anne Razpotnik, were known as Bones 17. According to a press release from the King County Sheriff’s Office, Razpotnik was 15 years old when she ran away in 1982 and was never seen again.
Her remains were discovered on December 30, 1985 when employees from Auburn, a city 25 miles south of Seattle were investigating a car that had gone over an embankment and two sets of remains were discovered. The remains could not be identified at the time and were named Bones 16 and Bones 17.
In 2002, the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, led investigators to the location and said he had placed victims there, according to the press release. The following year, Ridgway would be convicted of 48 counts of murder, CBS News reported.
Ridgway, now 74, is one of the most prolific serial killers in the U.S.
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DNA testing helped identify Green River Killer victims
With the help of DNA testing, Bones 16 were identified as Sandra Majors in 2012. It would be another 11 years, before Bones 17 would be identified as Razpotnik.
Parabon Nanolabs was contracted to do forensic genetic genealogy testing on Bones 17 and were able to develop a new DNA profile thanks to advances in DNA testing. Razpotnik's mother also submitted a DNA sample, and the two were compared by researchers at The University of North Texas, the sheriff's department said.
Razpotnik’s mother, Donna Hurley, told The New York Times that learning about how her daughter died was “overwhelming, but at the same time it just brought a sense of peace.”
Hurley told the Times that she speculated that her daughter could have been one of Ridgway's victims, but was never told anything.
“It was easier to go on with life thinking that she was alive and well and raising a family and, you know, just being herself,” Hurley said.
The Green River Killer
Gary Ridgway, pled guilty to the homicides of 49 women and girls, according to a page dedicated to the serial murders on the King County Sherriff's website.
Ridgway, who committed a string of murders in Washington State and California in the 1980s and 1990s, was dubbed the Green River Killer because five of his victims were found in the Green River. Most of his victims were strangled.
He was arrested in 2001 in King County, Washington. In 2003, he agreed to plead guilty to all the murders in the county in exchange for removing the death penalty off the table. As part of the agreement, he provided information on his crimes and victims.
He's currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
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Possible victims still not found or identified
The Sheriff's department says there's still two unidentified victims tied to Ridgway.
Additionally, three other women who have been missing since the 1980s from the Seattle area are thought to be potential victims. They are Kassee Ann Lee, Kelly Kay McGinnis and Patricia Ann Osborn. They remain missing and Ridgway was never charged in their disappearances.
Officials are also still searching for information on three other women who also disappeared in the early 1980's. One of those women was an associate of one of Ridgway's victims.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lori Anne Razpotnik identified as victim in Green River Killer case
