Televised Manhunt Will Seek Clues to Serial Killer’s Identity

During the past six years, detectives have tried everything from interviewing witnesses to consulting a psychic in an effort to catch the enigmatic Green River Killer, suspected of slaying 48 female transients and prostitutes in Seattle and as many as 40 in San Diego.

Tonight, investigators will take another unorthodox step in the hope of finally halting the most numerous, longest-running serial murders in U. S. history. They will tell the Green River story live during a nationally syndicated television special, urging anyone with information about the victims, the deaths or the killer to call a toll-free number during the show.

Think of it as a murder-tip telethon.

Investigators expect to gather more than 10,000 tips during the two-hour special, “Manhunt: Live! A Chance to End the Nightmare,” which will air locally on KUSI (Channel 51) at 8 p.m. Patrick Duffy, whose own parents were victims of another killer, will narrate the special, a joint production effort of the Seattle-King County Chapter of Crime Stoppers and New Screen Concepts.

From the 50 million viewers nationwide, detectives hope one person in particular might be watching.

“Our pie-in-the-sky wish is that the Green River Killer will watch and hopefully call in and talk to me,” said Seattle Detective Dave Reichert, who has tracked the notorious killer since the slayings began in Seattle during the summer of 1982.

Since the string of killings ended there in late 1984, officials believe the killer may have moved south to San Diego, where about 40 women--most with connections to prostitution and drugs--have been found dead since 1985, their bodies dumped in rural areas throughout San Diego County.

Reichert will be joined on the air by his San Diego counterpart, Detective Tom Streed of the Sheriff’s Department. Streed originated the controversial theory that San Diego women are being murdered by the Green River Killer. No law enforcement officials in either Seattle or San Diego have publicly endorsed Streed’s theory, but sources close to the investigation say most higher-ups do think the Green River Killer, so named because the first five victims in Seattle were found along the banks of the Green River, is the same person that Streed once called the I-8 Killer (many of the bodies in San Diego were found on rural roads connected to Interstate 8).

Streed said he has been barred by his superiors from discussing the murder investigations, or the television special, with reporters.

Throughout the two-hour show, taped interviews with victims’ families will be interspersed with live comments from Streed, Reichert, other detectives and reporters familiar with the Green River case.

Viewers who think they have information about the slayings will be asked to call a toll-free number flashed on the screen. Reichert and Streed, who helped convince Crime Stoppers to produce the show, hope they will get the tip they need to break the case.

The most recent victim, Cynthia Lou McVey, 26, was found on the Pala Indian Reservation in North County last week. Investigators believe many victims were picked up on El Cajon Boulevard, long known as a hangout for prostitutes. A similar corridor exists in Seattle. Called “The Strip,” it is a stretch of highway near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport where the Green River Killer picked up most of his victims during the Seattle killing spree.

Reichert acknowledged that receiving a phone call from the killer is a one-in-a-million shot. However, it’s not the show’s sole aim.

“If the killer doesn’t call, hopefully there is someone out there who is close enough to him, or knows something about him, that will recognize what’s going on and will call or write to us,” Reichert said.

“Manhunt” will originate from Seattle. Three times, the show will cut away to live remotes in San Diego where Streed and two other members of San Diego’s Metropolitan Homicide Task Force--Sgts. Hal Goudarzi and Chuck Curtis--will discuss the murders of women in San Diego. The task force was formed in September to investigate the murder series and determine whether there is any connection to those in Seattle.

Since three women were discovered on Black Mountain in Rancho Penasquitos this summer, Reichert and other members of Seattle’s Green River Task Force have visited San Diego and searched the most recent sites where the bodies have been dumped. Footage of their work here is included in the show.

The special delves heavily into information about the killer, but it focuses primarily on the victims and their families.

“We want to point out that these young women were someone’s little girl at one time, and they had just as much right to live as anyone,” said Reichert, who with partner Fae Brooks talked extensively with hookers on The Strip while investigating Seattle’s slayings. “We went around for two weeks interviewing the victims’ families. And it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.”

Lou Gorfain, the show’s executive producer, said it was the victims’ families and friends, as well as the investigators’ desire to catch the killer, that persuaded him to produce the show.

“At first we didn’t want to do it. Why did we want to do something on serial killings? We do classy shows, not things like this. It seemed too sensational. However, we got religion. We went up to Seattle and were convinced by the commitment of the police to catching this guy. The second thing was the victims. These were real-life people, not just society’s throwaways. They have sisters, parents, friends . . . they’re real, live women.”

While Reichert hopes for a miracle clue that might lead him to the Green River Killer, the detective said he will be satisfied with the exposure the television special will give the growing problem of serial deaths. Also, he expects valuable information to come in that might help police name eight women who remain unidentified. In San Diego, 10 of the victims are still known only as Jane Does.

“All the effort put into this show will be worth it if one case is solved and one killer is taken off the streets,” Reichert said.