Account
Jan 28, 2026
Jan 28, 2026
Keli
Kay Mcginness
18
18
5'5 inches
160 lbs
White
Female
In the summer of 1983, a young woman named Keli Kay McGinness, aged 18, vanished from the Seattle, Washington area. She was last seen on the evening of June 28, 1983, near the Three Bears Motel on Pacific Highway South. On the night she disappeared, Keli was reportedly wearing blue jeans, a tan short-sleeved sweater, a long camel-hair coat, and high heels. A mother to a young daughter, Keli had plans to pick up her child, who was temporarily in foster care. Her failure to return for her daughter was highly uncharacteristic, causing immediate concern among those who knew her. Her pimp reported her missing two days after she was last seen. Keli's life had been marked by hardship from a young age. After her parents' divorce when she was a toddler, she was raised by her mother and stepfather. A traumatic assault when she was 13 years old preceded her running away from home and entering a life of sex work on the streets. Despite her circumstances, she was described as a devoted mother. She had two children, a son given up for adoption and a daughter she was eager to be reunited with. Initially, authorities considered that she might have left on her own, as she had expressed a desire to leave her life on the streets. However, the fact that she left her beloved daughter behind soon led investigators to suspect foul play. The investigation into Keli's disappearance eventually became linked to the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway. In 2003, Ridgway confessed to murdering Keli. He claimed to have killed her on the same day she was last seen and disposed of her body near Lake Fenwick. Ridgway had even been stopped by a police officer with Keli in his truck months prior to her disappearance, at which time she gave the officer an alias. Despite his confession and leading authorities to a location where he claimed to have left her, Keli's remains have never been found. At one point, Ridgway misidentified the remains of another victim as Keli's. Due to the lack of physical evidence, Ridgway was never formally charged with or convicted of her murder. The case of Keli Kay McGinness is a sorrowful story of a young life cut short. Though a notorious serial killer admitted to ending her life, the absence of her remains leaves her official status as a missing person, a painful reality for a family left without answers or a place to lay their daughter to rest.
Jun 28, 1983
Seattle
Washington
Seattle
King County Sheriff's Office
206-296-4155
06/05/2026
