Wendy Coffield was 16 when she disappeared from a foster home in Tacoma, Washington, on July 8, 1982. A White female who had run away and previously escaped from a juvenile detention center, she was not seen alive again by friends or family. Her body was found floating in the Green River near the Meeker Street Bridge in Kent on July 15, 1982, by two teenage boys. Investigators determined she had been strangled to death with her own clothing.

Wendy’s murder was the first confirmed killing later linked to the Green River Killer, the series of murders that targeted many runaways and women involved in prostitution across South King County. The investigation remained unresolved for years until an arrest on November 30, 2001, and Wendy was among the victims named when the suspect was later prosecuted. Does anyone have memories of Wendy or information about her life in Tacoma that could add to this record?