"Don't Look to the Left": A Former Coworker's Story of Gary Ridgway, KIRO 7, 2016

Name: "Don't Look to the Left": A Former Coworker's Story of Gary Ridgway, KIRO 7, 2016
Uploaded: 2025-12-02T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 29 s
Description: A woman who says she painted trucks beside Gary Ridgway at the Kenworth plant in Renton takes a KIRO 7 reporter to the railroad tracks where, she says, she once saw him dragging a large sheet of plastic.

A woman who says she painted trucks beside Gary Ridgway at the Kenworth plant in Renton takes a KIRO 7 reporter to the railroad tracks where, she says, she once saw him dragging a large sheet of plastic.

Subject: Gary Ridgway
Recorded: November 5, 2016
Runtime: 2:29

Content warning: Concerns the murders of women and the hiding of their remains; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is a 2-minute-29-second KIRO 7 News report from Seattle, broadcast on the morning of November 5, 2016, and posted by the station in 2025. Reporter Gary Horcher walks with Cheryl Pickering, who says she worked beside Gary Ridgway for many years as a truck painter at the Kenworth plant in Renton, along disused railroad tracks behind the plant. Ridgway is not heard.

Historical Context

Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, murdered women and girls in King County, Washington, from 1982. He was a spray painter at the Kenworth truck factory in Renton for many years and was arrested there on November 30, 2001. He pleaded guilty to 48 murders on November 5, 2003, and to a 49th in 2011. Under his plea agreement he led investigators to places where he had left remains, but the remains of several women he is suspected of killing, though never charged with, have never been found.

Circumstances

The report says Pickering came forward after seeing KIRO's story on a new King County effort to search areas where Ridgway claimed to have hidden victims. She says she was questioned on the day of his arrest and tried to tell an investigator about the tracks, and that the spot has never been searched. At the end the reporter says he passed her information to the King County Sheriff's Office and that detectives searching for remains would meet about it the following Monday. Whether a search followed has not been established.

What the Interview Covers

Pickering recalls that about 16 years earlier, walking home across the tracks, she came upon Ridgway in his work clothes "dragging up this big, big piece of plastic." By her account, he told her he walked there every day to clean the tracks, warned her about blackberry bushes and rats, and offered her a ride, and she walked past him telling herself, "Don't look to the left." She says the area "has never been checked" and urges a search of the blackberry bushes: "they will find something." The narration notes that several of Ridgway's victims have never been found.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It is a coworker's first-hand recollection of Ridgway at the plant where he worked for most of his killing years, recorded on the anniversary of his 2003 guilty plea.

Archival Importance

A later follow-up, not coverage from the time of the crimes.

Important Caveats

Ridgway is not heard; the words attributed to him are Pickering's recollection. Her account of the plastic sheet and the tracks is her own claim and is not corroborated in the report. No evidence has been found here that remains were ever recovered at this site, and page copy should not suggest otherwise. The 2016 King County search effort mentioned in the report was not independently verified for this handoff. The narration's "several of Ridgway's victims have never been found" is KIRO's wording; the women whose remains are missing are ones he is suspected of killing, not among the 49 he pleaded guilty to (Wikipedia). The spelling of Pickering's name comes from machine captions.

Gary Horcher: The woman you're about to meet worked with Gary Ridgway as a truck painter for many years, side by side, at this Kenworth plant in Renton. The day that Gary Ridgway was arrested, she was questioned, and she tried to tell an investigator. She believes that Gary Ridgway actually hid the bodies of one of his victims across a railroad track behind the Kenworth plant. But she says to this day, nobody's ever searched the place.

Cheryl Pickering: Trees right here.

Gary Horcher: As Cheryl Pickering led us down some inactive railroad tracks in Renton...

Cheryl Pickering: It's creeping me out being here.

Gary Horcher: She recalls the spot where 16 years ago she ran into Gary Ridgway. At the time, Cheryl and Ridgway worked side by side painting trucks at the Kenworth plant. But as she crossed the tracks walking home one day, she saw Ridgway standing near the tracks wearing work clothes, acting like he was hiding something.

Cheryl Pickering: He was dragging up this big, big piece of plastic. Said, I'm like, "Gary, what do you do?" And he's like, "Oh, I walk down here every day and clean the tracks." And I'm like, "Oh, okay."

Gary Horcher: Cheryl said Ridgway urged her to walk the other way.

Cheryl Pickering: No, he didn't want me down in this area. He told me, "There's blackberry bushes. You don't want to walk up there. You know, there's rats and all here. I'll give you a ride." And I'm like, "No, no, no."

Gary Horcher: And she walked right past him anyway.

Cheryl Pickering: When I was walking up, I kept on, "Don't look to the left. Don't look to the left."

Gary Horcher: Now, when Cheryl saw our story about King County detectives starting a new effort to scour unsearched areas where the Green River Killer claimed to have hidden some of his 49 victims...

Cheryl Pickering: This has never been checked.

Gary Horcher: ...she wanted to urge the same kind of search right here.

Cheryl Pickering: Any of this area right here.

Gary Horcher: Because even though Ridgway told investigators where to search and find remains, some of the areas have never been searched, and several of Ridgway's victims have never been found.

Cheryl Pickering: Why not check an area where he was walking with a big sheet of plastic? They said he rolls the people up in the plastic. I feel if they walk in those blackberry bushes, they will find something. [From "walk in those": captions and second machine pass; the Whisper text is cut off here.]

Gary Horcher: That's a lot of old, dark information, right? Well, I have passed all of that on to the King County Sheriff's Office, and we're told detectives specifically searching for victims' remains affiliated with Gary Ridgway are going to meet about this subject on Monday. We will let you know next what happens in this case. Reporting this morning from Renton, I'm Gary Horcher, KIRO 7 News. [02:26 to 02:29: no speech; near-silence.] ---