When “Trish’s” body was discovered, her cause of death was thought to be an accidental overdose.
Born in 1960, Trish was the oldest of ten children. She and her family were members of the Chippewa-Cree Nation, and were registered at the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation in Montana.
Trish moved to Seattle, and developed a drug and alcohol addiction and may have been involved in sex work. She visited her family frequently, and was adored by her siblings. One sister remembers, “She was always fun.She took care of me. I could talk to her. She took me to the fair and on shopping sprees, and she taught me how to drive.”
In the summer of 1998, Trish told her family that she planned to get clean and turn her life around. She never got the chance.
Trish was last seen in the Seattle area between August 4-6, 1998.
On August 6, 1998, the body of Trish Yellowrobe was found near Des Moines Way South. The medical examiner ruled her death an accidental overdose.
In 2001, Ridgway confessed to murdering Trish. This shocked her family and police, as her death was never considered a homicide. Later, Ridgway told detectives that he had killed Trish because he had picked her up, paid her for sex, and she had “failed” to satisfy him.
At Ridgway’s trial Trish’s sister, Rona Walsh, gave a statement. “When we grew up, our grandmother was blind, and we used to be her eyes. That’s the kind of person my sister was, Gary. I want to tell the other families that I know what it’s like to be driving, or to go into a store, and to suddenly break down crying.”
Trish’s father said, “I wish to leave you with the thought that I will read the newspaper, watch the TV news, always waiting to read or hear that the guard assigned to protect you was distracted for a moment and someone in the inmate population has exacted final payment from you. I wish you Godspeed [to] prison. Have a long and unhappy life.”
