NATION IN BRIEF : From Times Staff and Wire Reports : WASHINGTON STATE : Hunt for Killer of 41 Reduced to Staff of 7

The Green River Task Force of police assigned to solve the deaths and disappearances of dozens of women is being cut to a unit of seven, The Seattle Times reported. King County police will take over the investigation, which once involved 56 agents of local, state and federal law enforcement, the paper said. The remains of 41 of 49 women reported missing from January, 1982, through March, 1984, have been found, but the killer or killers remain unidentified. The paper quoted King County Sheriff James Montgomery as saying that four detectives and three clerical assistants will be kept on the case through 1990. Although dozens of suspects have been questioned, no one has been charged in what is considered one of the nation’s largest unsolved serial murder cases.