This memorial website was created for Tracy Ann Winston, who was born in Washington on September 29, 1963 and passed away on September 12, 1983 at the age of 19.   Tracy was murdered by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River killer."  She had struck up an acquaintance with Ridgway and considered him a friend; he even promised her to help her look for a job.  However, he eventually strangled her to death.   

Ann Rule's research explains that Tracy was born in Tacoma, Washington. Her mother, Mertie Winston, worked for the phone company, and her father, Chuck, was preparing to enter the air force.  Her mother lived with Tracy's grandmother before she was born.  When Chuck Winston was sent to an air base in Savannah, Georgia, to pursue a career in military communications, the small family moved there.  After six months, the Winstons went to Sacramento, California.  When Tracy was three and a half, her brother Chip was born.  By 1967, Chuck Winston had decided to return to the Boeing Airplane manufacturing company in Seattle, but when he was laid off shortly thereafter, the whole family moved to Fresno, California, where Tracy's brother Kevin was born.  According to her mother, Mertie, the family remained in Fresno until Tracy was eight years old. Because of illness in their extended families, they returned to Seattle for good at that time.

Tracy was very close to her father, and she was a pitcher on the boys' Little League baseball team. Her father said, "She could throw from center field to home plate without bouncing it once."  Tracy was a forward on the Glacier High School first-string girls' basketball team.

As a teenager, Tracy hit the usual defiant streak.  She dated a nineteen-year old man who was a real "con man" and she went along with whatever he wanted.  After a period in which she lived away from home because she wanted to be with him all the time, especially after he was paroled from prison, she called her father and told him that he and her mother had been right, and that she needed to get back to school and get her GED, and get her life together. After that phone call, however, the Winstons heard nothing more from Tracy and were beside themselves with worry, especially after Detective Randy Mullinax from the Green River Task force called them to tell them that Tracy had been placed on the Green River victims list. 

In March, 1986, Tracy's spine and torso were found in Cottonwood Park in Seattle. They were not immediately identifiable, and it was not until 1999 that the remains were identified as Tracy's through testing of mitrochondrial DNA.  On November 22nd, 2005, Tracy Winston's skull was found in the woods by a hiker a long distance away from the rest of her remains.  Over time, the family hopes that more of Tracy's remains will be discovered.  Whether or not Ridgway remembers what he did with them is questionable.  He never remembered any of the girls' faces or names. He truly is a conscienceless sociopath.

The following poem was read at Tracy's memorial service.  At the request of her mother, I am putting it here:

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there.  I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the mornings hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.  
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Webmaster's note:
Consider making a difference in the life of someone who needs help in getting out of prostitution, by making a donation to Children of the Night.  They provide a valuable service in taking these girls out of this lifestyle and getting them out of danger.  Please see the website: http://www.childrenofthenight.org/

Webmaster's Note:
This website is checked DAILY for obscene or derogatory posts. Any post which is negative will be immediately removed and the offending poster banned permanently from this site. The offending poster's computer IP address will be noted and authorities contacted if such conduct occurs! This site is meant to honor the memory of a young woman who was brutally murdered much too young.

Background Music: "Moon River" by Jane Monheit.

For more information on the disappearance and death of Tracy Winston, please see the following sources:

"New Remains of Green River Victim Found", KOMO News, at: http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4169981.html

Eli Sanders, "DNA Test Ends Family's Turmoil", THE SEATTLE TIMES (Nov 3, 1999), at: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19991103&slug=2993021

THE SEATTLE TIMES, "Diary of a Manhunt: The Green River Killings (Nov 5, 2003), at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/greenriver/timeline.html