Debra Estes was a 15-year-old White girl who disappeared from the Seattle area; she was last seen on September 20, 1982. Described as a runaway involved in drugs and prostitution, she used aliases and had multiple encounters with law enforcement before vanishing. Her parents, Tom and Carol Estes, struggled with fragmented responses to runaway cases at the time while searching for her.

On May 30, 1988, workers digging postholes at a construction site for a new apartment complex near Federal Way uncovered skeletal remains. Forensic investigators identified the remains as Debra’s in part from a distinctive stainless-steel dental filling. Evidence indicated she had been murdered, her body left at the site and likely buried accidentally by earth-moving equipment.

In 2001 Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested and later in a plea deal admitted to picking her up and strangling her; he pleaded guilty in November 2003 to multiple counts including Debra’s. Did anyone who knew Debra or saw her in the weeks before September 20, 1982, ever speak up about her whereabouts?