The Case of Opal Charmaine Mills

Opal Charmaine Mills was 16 when she disappeared from the SeaTac area on August 12, 1982. Her body was discovered three days later near the Green River alongside the remains of Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds. The discovery of three victims at the same location became a defining early moment in the Green River Killer investigation. Gary Ridgway later admitted murdering Opal.

Opal Mills was 16 years old and lived in the SeaTac area of Washington. She disappeared on August 12, 1982, during the first month of the Green River investigation. She was last seen near a public telephone booth off the Sea-Tac strip, close to South 192nd Street. Opal disappeared only one day after Cynthia Hinds, another 17-year-old victim. Both girls would ultimately be found at the same Green River crime scene.

On August 15, 1982, Opal's body was discovered in vegetation near the Green River in Kent. Her body was found close to the remains of Marcia Faye Chapman and Cynthia Jean Hinds, who were also discovered that day. All three victims had been strangled. The discovery of three murdered women and girls at one location provided investigators with compelling evidence that the growing number of killings was connected to a single offender.

Opal's murder became part of the rapidly expanding Green River investigation. By the time her body was found, Wendy Coffield and Debra Bonner had already been discovered, and investigators were beginning to recognise a pattern among the murders of young women in the Seattle-Tacoma area. The discovery of Opal, Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds together on August 15 was a major turning point. Investigators began treating the killings as the work of a serial murderer, and the Green River Task Force was established to coordinate the investigation. Gary Ridgway became a suspect during the original investigation, but investigators lacked sufficient evidence to charge him. Nearly two decades later, advances in DNA testing provided the breakthrough that led to his arrest in November 2001. Ridgway was eventually charged with Opal's murder and later admitted killing her. He pleaded guilty to 48 murders in 2003.

Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to Opal Mills' murder in 2003 as part of his guilty plea to 48 aggravated murders. He received 48 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He later pleaded guilty to the murder of Rebecca Marrero, bringing his known conviction total to 49.

Opal's case is closely connected to those of Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, whose bodies were discovered at the same Green River location on August 15, 1982. Her murder also demonstrates how quickly Ridgway's known killings were occurring during the first month of the investigation: Opal disappeared on August 12, only four weeks after Wendy Coffield disappeared.