Throughout the 80s and 90s, Gary Ridgway terrorized our area, killing dozens of women.
So far, the bodies of 49 women and girls, many of them teenagers, have been found and identified. And much has been written about Ridgeway.
But a new podcast, by former reporter Carolyn Ossorio and produced by Brandon Morgan, focuses the spotlight on the victims — "The Shadow Girls." Ossorio and Morgan joined New Day to talk about the podcast.
Carolyn was just ten years old in 1982 when the first victim was found, and it left a big impact on her. Years later, as an investigative journalist, she decided to do some digging into the case.
“I just had so many questions,” Carolyn said. “There's just a lot of things that you can't talk about in one-hour series, you know if you really want to do a deep dive, and that's what's so great about a podcast.”
Brandon also had a podcast about a murder that took place in his hometown, called ‘The Devil Within’, and wanted to follow a similar format for his podcast with Carolyn.
As a local, and as an investigative reporter, Carolyn had a unique view going into the making of this podcast. There are many things people may not be aware of in regards to the case, and many questions left unanswered, that she wanted to bring to light.
For example, why the case took 19 years to solve, and why Ted Bundy was interviewed as someone who could help the case.
“They were so desperate to try to like figure out how to get into [Gary Ridgeway’s] head,” Carolyn said. “Detective Dave Reichert who became Sheriff ended up going down there and interviewing [Ted Bundy], and he ended up being, you know, spot-on, and a lot of his surprise, surprise on a lot of his insights.”
In recent years, there has been a growing fascination with these “true-crime” podcasts and shows, and in particular, the people that set out to commit these heinous acts. Carolyn and Brandon wanted to instead, put the focus on the victims.
“That's what we really wanted to do with the Shadow Girls, is bring those stories out of the shadows,” Carolyn said.
Carolyn spoke about how doing this podcast has helped her identify patterns of manipulation, gaslighting, and other abuse tactics that she wouldn’t necessarily be able to piece together before.
“And that’s kind of the secret sauce in podcasting was Carolyn’s… willingness to be able to tell her story and how it aligns with some of the earlier the childhoods of the victims,” Brandon said. “To position herself as a voice for the voiceless here is very, very powerful.”
Now, years later, Carolyn and Brandon are able to bring these women out of the shadows and tell their stories.
Segment Producer Suzie Wiley. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.