(2 of 2)
In 1984 the task force spent $200,000 on a VAX minicomputer and then spent more than two years pumping more than a million bits of information into it. A specially designed software program helps detectives wade through crushing amounts of data on suspects, police tip sheets and details of similar homicides elsewhere in the country. Says Crime Analysis Supervisor Chuck Winters: "The computer is the heart of the investigation. But it's old- fashioned police work that will solve this case."
So far, it hasn't. After more than three unsuccessful years of searching for the killer, morale on the Green River task force has occasionally withered. The force has shrunk from 55 staffers last fall, its highest number, to the current complement, as personnel have been redeployed to join the fight against Seattle's growing drug problems.
Surprisingly, many Seattle residents seem unperturbed that the killer is still at large. "People hear the word prostitute and don't perceive it as their problem," says Task Force Detective David Walker. Pierce Brooks, an investigative consultant who worked on the California Onion Field killing of the 1960s and the Atlanta child murders of 1979 to 1981, believes the Green River slayer's name is already in the task force's files. Says Brooks: "The only way you're going to dig the name out is to hang on and keep going."
But another prospect concerns investigators: that the Green River Killer may emerge from his hibernation and provide fresh clues in the form of fresh victims.