The remains of three victims of Green River killer Gary Ridgway may finally yield their identities

New DNA technology and testing have allowed Bode Technology of Lorton, Va., to extract DNA profiles of the remains, two of which were recovered in Auburn and Burien in the early 1980s.

The third set of remains was found in Kent in 2003 where Kent-Kangley Road curves up the side of the Valley just above the Green River.

The remains in Auburn were recovered in 1985 near the Mountain View Cemetery; the Burien remains were found in 1984 in a Little League field.

Gary Ridgway of Auburn pleaded guilty in 2003 to the murders of 48 women, including four that were never identified. He's serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

It was advances in DNA technology that led to his arrest in November 2001 outside the Kenworth Truck Co. plant in Renton, where he had worked for 30 years.

The three remains are among eight unidentified remains in the state the Virginia company was able to identify, under a National Institute of Justice grant. Seven of the eight are "full" profiles, while the eighth is a "strong" profile.

"These are remains that in some cases have gone to several prior labs without profiles being developed," said Sgt. Cindi West, a spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff's Office.

Dave Reichert, a Sheriff's Office detective who went on to become sheriff and then a U.S. congressman, led the investigation from its beginning three decades ago in 1982 on the banks of the Green River in Kent.

Now the profiles will go to the University of North Texas for review and uploading into the national DNA database. Investigators will attempt to match them against missing persons cases that have DNA profiles in the database.

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Advanced DNA technology may help identify three Green River Killer victims