Tracy Winston, 19, was last seen at Northgate Mall on September 12, 1983. She had recently completed a jail sentence on a prostitution conviction and was later presumed to be among the vulnerable women targeted in the Seattle-area disappearances of that period.

Human remains found in Cottonwood Park in Kent by park employees in March 1986 could not be identified at the time. Advances in DNA testing 13 years later confirmed the remains were Tracy Winston’s, although her skull was missing from that site. In November 2005 a hiker on an old logging road near Tiger Mountain found a skull that dental comparisons confirmed belonged to Winston.

The investigation into her death became part of the Green River Killer case. Gary Ridgway admitted dumping Winston’s body in the park and, as part of a plea bargain, pleaded guilty to numerous counts of aggravated first-degree murder and received consecutive life sentences. Ridgway could not explain why Winston’s skull was located miles from where the rest of her remains were found.

If anyone knew Tracy, saw her around Northgate Mall in September 1983, or has information about how her skull came to be moved, please share what is known.