In a significant development, Lori Anne Razpotnik, a 15-year-old who disappeared from Lewis County, Washington, in 1982, has been identified using advanced DNA forensic genealogy as a victim of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway.
Razpotnik’s family lost contact with her in 1982. The key to solving her disappearance came from Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, whose state-of-the-art DNA technology provided crucial information.
A pivotal moment occurred on December 30, 1985, when Auburn, Washington, city workers found potential human remains near a car accident scene on Mount View Drive Southwest. The Green River Task Force, investigating bodies found along the Green River, discovered a second set of remains. Initially, these remains, Bones 16 and Bones 17, could not be identified.
The identification of Bones 17 as Razpotnik has been a major breakthrough in this cold case. The analysis, facilitated by a DNA sample from Razpotnik’s mother, was conducted at the University of North Texas.
Bones 16, identified a decade earlier in 2012 as Sandra Majors, belonged to an African-American woman aged between 20 and 25. Razpotnik, or Bones 17, was a Caucasian female aged 14 to 17.
Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was captured in 2001 and confessed in 2003, pleading guilty to 48 counts of aggravated murder, including the murder of Razpotnik. He is serving 49 life sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
Efforts by the King County Sheriff’s Office to identify further victims of Ridgway are ongoing.
