AGNEW — Vern Thomas will likely spend some time today doing what he does when he needs to get away and think: mount his shiny red Harley-Davidson and take it for a spin around Clallam County roads.
He may even tend to his garden a bit, another useful distraction in times of unrest.
But for a time, at least, Thomas be watching national news coverage out of Seattle, where a King County Superior Court judge will sentence on one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history — a man who he spent nearly five years of his professional life pursuing.
“I have a lot of emotion wrapped up in this case,” said Thomas, a former King County Sheriff responsible for forming the Green River Task Force in 1984 in an attempt to solve mounting homicides south of Seattle.
Almost 17 years later, the task force arrested Gary Ridgway, compiling enough evidence to convince the Auburn man to plead guilty Nov. 5 to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
For Thomas, a Port Angeles native who in 1995 retired from law enforcement and moved to the Agnew area, today’s sentencing has a single purpose: to provide resolution for family members of Ridgway’s victims, all of whom will be allowed to speak to the judge before he hands down a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
That’s as it should be, Thomas said.
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The rest of the story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News.