Ridgway admits 49th murder

SEATTLE – One of the nation’s most prolific killers pleaded guilty Friday to killing a 49th person.

Gary Ridgway already is serving 48 life terms at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He entered his plea on a murder charge at the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Ridgway, who has been dubbed the Green River Killer, confessed to killing Rebecca “Becky” Marrero in 1982 as part of a 2003 plea deal that spared him the death penalty.

Marrero, a 20-year-old mother, was last seen when she left a motel in 1982.

Prosecutors declined to charge Ridgway at that time because he was not able to provide conclusive evidence that he killed her. The 2003 plea deal required him to plead guilty to future King County charges based on new evidence.

Marrero’s remains were discovered Dec. 21 when teenagers found a skull in a ravine at Auburn, south of Seattle. They were found 100 feet from where investigators found another of Ridgway’s victims, Marie Malvar, in 2003.

After Ridgway entered the plea, Marrero’s sister, Mary Marrero, told county Superior Court Judge Mary E. Roberts that the family had agonized for 29 years, wondering what happened to her.

“I don’t agree with this plea deal to spare his pathetic life,” she said in a halting voice, as Ridgway turned in his chair to face her and two other family members at a lectern. “It makes me sick to my stomach that he beat the system.”