/ Green River Killer

01:36 PM PST on Monday, November 10, 2003

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Defense attorney Michele Shaw served as liaison between the defense team and the family of Green River Killer Gary Ridgway, who confessed last week to 48 murders of women since 1982.

In her law office is a thick photo album of Ridgway in other incarnations: A husband fixing a fence, a brother fishing in Cle Elum, a dad opening presents with his son at Christmas.

“They’re a loving, close family that cared about him,” she said. “He lived such a double life. Nobody saw it.”

Now, as Ridgway faces life in prison, his family — his older brother Greg, younger brother Ed and his 27-year-old son Matt, now living in San Diego — must face the truth.

KING Admitted serial killer Gary Ridgway appears in court, Nov. 5, 2003.

“They are definitely victims, too; they are mortified by grief,” Shaw said. “They are aware Gary has ripped hundreds of families apart. They’re having a very difficult time right now.”

When Ridgway was arrested in November 2001 and charged with four murders, the family was devastated, Shaw said.

They’d been through this before, when Ridgway was considered a suspect in the early 1980s. When Green River Task Force investigators said in 1986 they had no evidence against him, the family thought it was a closed chapter.

So they hoped the arrest two years ago was a mistake, and stood by him. Ridgway made collect calls to his older brother every Monday night. The brothers visited him regularly in jail and other family members came, too.

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Then last spring, new evidence emerged and Ridgway was charged with three more murders. The family hopes started to come apart.

“They were very concerned, shaking their heads,” Shaw said.

“They were very somber about the new information. It was becoming more difficult to explain away.”

Meanwhile, Shaw was establishing a relationship with Ridgway, meeting with him once a week to discuss his case. The discussions turned to God, family, books. She bought him birthday cards to send to relatives. She helped get his glasses fixed. They found their mothers shared the same birthday, Aug. 15.

In April, she asked if he wanted to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for his life.

He agreed and began sobbing. That meeting sparked the plea deal that over the summer turned up four additional sets of human remains — three identified as Green River victims — and resulted in his guilty pleas Wednesday.

In July, concerned about media speculation, Ridgway’s lead attorney, Anthony Savage, met with Greg Ridgway. On July 24, Shaw flew to California to meet with Ridgway’s only son and his wife, Dianne, who live on a military base outside San Diego.

“I said I was coming down because I had some other work in the area,” Shaw recalled.

“But they’re very bright, and I had a hunch they knew something was up. ... I was very nervous. I prayed for the right words. It was one of the scariest days for me.”

She told them Ridgway was going to admit to the killings and cooperate with authorities. Early in the evening, Matt was stiff, braced for bad news, Shaw said. Four hours later, he had “thawed out,” she said.

“After that initial shock, we talked about everything but Gary: the service, how Matt and Dianne met, computers, Seattle. Everyone has their own way of dealing with things,” Shaw said.

“My opinion on the reason that Matt took it so well was because I think he held out the possibility that his dad could have been” the Green River killer, Shaw said.

Last week, the family received a copy of the final charges against Ridgway — a lengthy document that contains Ridgway’s admissions and explicit details about the murders. Greg Ridgway read about one-third of it before becoming “physically sick,” Shaw said.

But Ridgway’s relatives “want to continue to have a relationship with Gary,” she said. Most have forgiven him, leaving judgment to God.

“Part of my faith ... you help those who are lost, forgotten, mentally ill, those that have troubled souls,” Shaw said.

“I looked at Gary as a person. I felt it wasn’t my place to judge him or condemn him,” she said.

“It’s difficult for people to understand how I could feel empathy, and there’s been criticism, but I’m happy to accept it.”