With her family’s support, Judith Mawson is now able to move on from a nightmare that began when two detectives pulled into her drive. In this week’s Woman’s Day she tells her horrifying story …
After my first marriage came apart, I wanted to meet a straight, normal man who was kind and loving and focused on me all the time.
Gary and I dated for three months and he was everything I dreamt he’d be. Then, his roommate decided he was going to move out.
“Judy, I’d love it if you moved in with me. Will you?” Gary asked me one night when we were out for a beer. “Oh Gary, I’d be thrilled. I love you so much.”
At the time, I was so involved in my own life I wasn’t watching the news or reading the papers. A few people had mentioned the Green River Killer, a maniac who’d murdered scores of women, but I tried to keep negative things out of my mind.
Gary and I lived the life of a normal couple. We’d go to dinner and for the odd beer. He even taught me how to do the two-step. We’d also go camping — alone and with his boy.
What I didn’t know at the time was that there was another person lurking inside of Gary.
Our lives took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2001. Our poodle Oscar died, then my mother-in-law, who I adored, died on September 11. But the worst was yet to come.
On November 30, 2001, my husband was taken away from me, but I should have known something terrible was going to happen. A couple of weeks before, Gary had been arrested for talking to a hooker.
“There’s no-one but you,” he reassured me. “The police think my truck looks like another guy’s who was talking to the hookers. It’s a case of mistaken identity.”
Gary always had the right explanation, and it made sense to me. He’d never given me any cause to doubt him.
But those illusions were quickly shattered on November 30. Around 3pm I heard someone pull into our driveway. It was two men in suits. “We want to talk to you about Gary Ridgway. He’s a suspect in something we’re looking into,” one of them said, unsmiling. I was hoping it was that silly prostitution thing. But they started bombarding me with questions about Gary.
“What’s he like?” one said. “Does he ever get angry?” “No,” I replied. “Gary is the kindest, most gentle man on the planet.”
My life and world ended that day. Finally, the detectives told me: “Gary Ridgway – your husband – is a suspect in the murders of 50 women. We believe Gary is the Green River Killer…”
For the full article, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on-sale September 22, 2008)
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