Green River - Red Sea | Chapter Three

She looked like all the others and she smelled of sin, a sulfurous stench of fear, sweat, sweet perfume and sour wine. Her skin was white, but that didn't matter. White, black, brown – he didn't care about color. And as with the others, he had no trouble talking her into the car.

Silently, he counted to himself, though he knew the number well. Sixteen. Sixteen of them strangled since last August, and he was certain the police still didn't have a clue about what he was doing. This one was special, a sign from the Father that His will was being done. As with the early ones, he would offer her as a sign – for those with eyes to see. He hoisted her body onto his shoulder. I will not let the flames consume you.

No moon, and the sky was blotted by clouds. Darkness lay like a shroud over the stream, at the place he had come to think of as his private sanctuary. He thought of words from Exodus: He approached under the dark cloud where God was. There was no one for miles around – he was confident of that – but he would not use his flashlight.

He walked to the water's edge and waded into a shallow pool. The spring runoff had freshened the mountain stream, and the freezing water jolted him. He forced himself to pause for a few moments, drawing the chill up through his entire body. He breathed deeply, taking pleasure from his mastery. His eyes burned like hot embers against the cold night air.

Carefully, he rolled the woman's body off his shoulder and eased her into the water, face up. The stream bubbled and coursed over her naked flesh as she lay on the pebbled bed. Reaching under her, he pulled out a couple of rocks to make her more comfortable. A large one made a good pillow, upon which her head lay half out of the water, her face exposed.

In the dark, the man pulled a small white candle from his pocket, and stuck it in a lump of damp clay he had scraped from the streambed. Then he lit the candle. Oblivious to the cold, he knelt on a large rock for a half hour, in prayer. He closed his meditation by recalling all who had gone before him. Happy are those who have died in the Lord; let them rest from their labors for their good deeds go with them.

One by one, then, he chanted aloud a litany of the dead: family, friends, saints and those he had saved. The susurrus of the stream played softly against the mantric rise and fall of his voice as he called forth each soul, by name, to pray for those who awaited the coming of the Lord. And then, at last: "Carol Christensen, ora pro nobis."

His litany complete, he opened his eyes to a sky brilliant with stars, shimmering and dancing in the clear mountain air, creating a band of light as dense as the clouds they had dissolved. He extended his hands toward the sky and smiled a welcome to the angels of night. "Praise Him, all you shining stars. Praise Him, all you His angels."

Wading again into the stream, the man glanced back to get a good fix on the North Star. Only a slight adjustment and she was facing west. Dropping to one knee in the water, he leaned over her upper torso, took her hands in his, and pointed them out into the darkness, toward the west. He placed her arms back in the water and leaned over so that their faces were almost touching. Staring intently into her eyes, he pressed forward and touched his lips to hers. With the kiss he drew her moisture into his mouth. He stood straight up in the river, stretched his own hands to the west and spat into the darkness, proclaiming out loud, "I renounce you, Satan, author of every evil."

A few moments passed. Reaching into the water, he gently picked up the body and reversed its position 180 degrees. Now the woman faced east. He kissed her lightly. "The Lord is with you," he whispered. Then he lifted her to him and completed the ritual, embracing her, bringing her home to salvation.

The man placed the dead woman on the bank of the stream. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light," he again whispered. "Light of the resurrection, begotten before the morning star, who gives life through His radiance."

Now he was hurrying. He wanted to get this done. Returning to the car, he reached into the trunk and drew out a grocery sack, then walked quickly through the woods back to his new daughter of Christ. He fumbled a bit, as much from feeling unsure of himself as from the leaden weight of her body. Finally, he had her re-clothed. Minutes later, she was safely in the trunk and the aged sedan was pounding its way down the old logging road. Two hours remained until daylight, plenty of time to place her where he knew she would be found.

The staging of Carol Christensen surprised the King County detectives. It was not immediately evident to them that she was a victim of the Green River killer. They had been taught that serial killers might engage in some kind of staging of their victims, arranging or displaying the bodies to communicate a message. Despite the discovery of rocks in the women's vaginas the previous May, the police had recognized neither the staging nor the story being told. That Carol Christensen had been staged was obvious; it was the meaning of her staging that eluded them.

Carol Christensen was fully dressed, with rigor mortis still present, when mushroom hunters had come across her body just off a dirt road near Maple Valley. A brown paper grocery sack had been pulled down over her head, and two fish had been placed upon her body, one across her throat and the other over her left breast. A sausage-like patty of raw meat lay over her left hand. Her right hand was crossed beneath her left, the two hands resting on a green wine bottle. The bottle lay horizontally across her abdomen.

Why had Carol Christensen been picked to be staged from among the many Green River victims, especially since so little staging was evident outside of the river staging? In order to answer this question, we need to look first at the chronology of victims.

Amina Agisheff disappeared on July 7, 1982, and wasn't found until April 1984. She wasn't known to be a prostitute, nor was she on the Green River list of possible victims until found in a cluster with other dead women. Amina Agisheff was identified as the first of the forty-nine Green River murders.

Among the forty-nine, Wendy Coffield was the first to be discovered, floating in the Green River in July 1982. She had been strangled with her own pants. Next found was Debra Bonner, naked in the river, next to PD & J Meat Company slaughterhouse, on August 12, 1982. The discovery of Debra was followed by the river staging of three victims on August 15, only three days later and a short distance upstream.

The body of Gisele Lovvorn, missing since July 17, was discovered on a vacant lot near SeaTac Airport on September 26, 1982. Lovvorn was nude but for a pair of men's black socks tied around her neck. Although the killings would continue, no other bodies would be found until Carol Christensen's in May 1983, eight months later.

The six bodies discovered in the summer of 1982 all displayed elements of staging. Perhaps Amina's once did also, but it wasn't recognizable due to her much later discovery. The symbolism was derived from the limited possibilities found in the Old Testament and the book of Revelation concerning retaliation against the prostitute, including being stripped naked (Hosiah 2:3; Ezekial 16:37), and being in or near water (Revelations 17:2). All six of the victims had these threads in common, and were connected by symbolism employed by the killer as a signature.

In scripture, the prostitute is a metaphor for the unfaithful Israel. Israel is deserving of punishment from Yahweh because of her unfaithful ways, for breaking covenant with Yahweh. [See essay on Covenant, Constancy and Temple.] In these early murders each female was killed because of her sinful and unfaithful ways, and was displayed in a manner consistent with biblical retribution against the prostitute.

After the discovery of the river staging on August 15, 1982, at least sixteen other women prior to Carol Christensen were murdered – the police unaware throughout that the killer was operative. When found, Carol Christensen was not even immediately put on the Green River list. Despite rumors of missing prostitutes, the fact that the killer was still at work was not fully grasped until summer and fall 1983. By the time of Christensen's death, the police had found a likely suspect for the earlier victims. They were no longer watching the streets, nor were the prostitutes overly concerned.

With his earlier victims the killer wished to lend a signature to his "work." After killing Amina Agisheff, he did little to conceal the next six, which he left as signs for others to see and interpret. The killer then realized that he needed to conceal subsequent victims because the resulting media and police pressure would have been too intense. He had to go underground in order to continue to kill.

Like David Koresh, who led his Branch Davidians into a Waco standoff with the FBI, and then into an apocalyptic firestorm, the Green River killer responded to signs, an essential trait of the prophetic mind-set. The chronology of victim deaths indicates the killer displayed the early victims, except Agisheff, and then hid the following victims. The practice of concealing the bodies allowed him more freedom to kill. He broke the pattern and picked Carol Christensen for display because of the meaning of her name: Son of Christ.

The killer didn't go looking for someone named Christ. He picked up a woman (some believe she was hitchhiking), discovered the sign of her name and responded to this sign from God, believing that it was time for him to reveal his work. The Green River killer left Christensen's identification with her body, intentionally, in order to make the point about her name. The religious symbolism present in the staging focused on symbols of Christ and further reinforced this religious identification. Christensen's name means Christ, and the symbols pointed to Christ.

That Christensen would even be included among the Green River victims was not at first certain; it was the evidence of immersion that threw her in with the rest. Like the river victims, Christensen had been placed in water. "Washerwoman" wrinkles lined the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet; overnight dew could not possibly have caused such an obvious effect. The police concluded that the body must have been immersed in water for a brief time.

During the autopsy the medical examiner noted that Christensen's bra was on inside out. Also, her shoelaces were not tied. The police figured her killer had reclothed her after the murder. She had been immersed in water, and then re-dressed. As signs of rigor mortis were still present, the police further concluded that the murder had been committed shortly before the actual discovery of the body, probably within a day.

The murder scene was simple in appearance. The fully clothed body, with hands folded one over the other, appeared to be piously arranged. Solemnity pervaded this arrangement of death. The killer first performed baptism by immersion, apparently elsewhere, and then reclothed the body. Finally, he completed the ritual when he brought Christensen to her sacred place in the woods.

Two symbols of Christ were present in the Christensen staging. The first symbol was the fish. With the river staging, the two victims were restored by the presence of Christ within them: the pyramid rocks. With the Christensen staging, we see evidence of this victim "taking on Christ" in such forms as fish.

Fish is not a symbol for Christ in the New Testament, at least not in the way it began to be construed as a symbol for Christ in early Christianity. However, the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each describe Jesus performing a miracle with both loaves and fish (Jn 6:9). Jesus multiplied the available loaves of bread and fish in order to feed the people assembled to hear him.

It is interesting to note that commentators on the gospels place an emphasis on the multiplication of the loaves. A connection is made between the manna of the Old Testament (Ex 16:31) and the Eucharistic celebration of the Last Supper. The multiplication of the loaves is seen as pre-eucharistic. This act anticipates the offering that Jesus made of himself in the Last Supper when he shared the bread and wine with his disciples.

Despite the gospel's emphasis on bread, fish were also multiplied in the gospel accounts, and have come to be used as popular symbols for Christ. The Greek word for fish, ΙΧΘΥΣ, is an acronym for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior." The symbol for fish is often seen on various motor vehicles, presumably to indicate the faith of the driver's in Jesus Christ. Occasionally, the form of the fish includes the Greek letters within.

Two fish were laid upon Carol Christensen: one across her throat, the other over her left breast. But the latter was, actually, placed over the heart (romantic version of heart). "Stiff(ened) neck" and "hardened hearts" are expressions found in the Old Testament.

Carol Christensen had been strangled. Considered to be a sinner by her murderer, she would thus be seen as having a "stiff neck" and a "hardened heart." The Green River killer strangled his victims. Strangulation is not a scriptural method of sacrifice of animals or punishment of humans for sin. In other words, strangulation is not obviously biblical.⁽¹⁾ However, aside from its practicality and convenience, as opposed to other more grotesque and bloodier forms of execution, strangulation bears a certain appropriateness within the context of Biblical retribution for sin. Strangulation attacks breath.

In scripture the spirit of God is commonly understood to find expression in breath. God's presence is understood as breath, or breathing. In Genesis (Genesis 1:2), God's spirit "moves over the face of the waters." In the New Testament there was a "rush of mighty wind" and the apostles were "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4) – and this is remembered as Pentecost. Jesus called the apostles to give sinners a new life of breath.⁽²⁾

Also in scripture the heart is emphasized as the principle of morality. Words and actions are not believed to be honest unless they come from the heart. Both the Old and New Testaments contain frequent references to the heart.

From the killer's viewpoint, the re-inspiration of God's creative breath into Christensen would bring about the healing of Christ. Therefore, he placed the fish, representing Christ, across the damaged throat to symbolize healing and restoration of the body in unity with Christ. Healing and redemption constituted the metaphor. The killer symbolically draped the fish over the heart to represent conversion to true love in Christ. In fact, in early Christianity fish often represented baptism. As the fish cannot live without water, so too a man or a woman cannot live without baptism.

Taken together, fish placed upon the throat and over the heart emphasize the healing and restoration of life and moral purpose through baptism. The symbols of breath and heart, readily available from scripture, were employed in a manner that is scripturally coherent. [See essay on Scriptural Symbols of Life.] They make sense. The coherence is demonstrated most forcefully in the correspondence between verses found in Ezekiel and the spirit and heart symbols found with Christensen.

The above reading is commonly used as part of the baptism ritual. The next reading, also from Ezekiel, is similar and includes the notion of retribution for those whose hearts are hardened.

To suggest that heart and spirit, or breath, are important symbols in scripture is an understatement. The flesh of fish – of Christ – was laid over the heart to suggest a new heart of flesh. The flesh of Christ is also suggested by the meat laid upon the body (see Chapter Four for an explanation of the symbolism of meat). The first reading from Ezekiel combines elements of Baptism, that is, the pouring out of clean water, with the results of Baptism: "a clean heart and a steadfast spirit." (Psalm 51:10)

The presence of the symbols of Christ in both the river and the Christensen stagings, as well as the appearance of baptism, forms the connection between them. The river staging and the staging of Carol Christensen shared the ritual of baptism and the presence of symbols for Christ. In fact, the understanding of each of these stagings is reinforced and assisted by an understanding of the other.

Also apparent is an interesting transformation of symbol with Christensen. The stone heart was removed and substituted with a heart of flesh. With the two river victims, stones were also used as symbols, but in that staging they symbolized the flesh of Christ.

Carol Christensen was buried with Christ in his death. Her heart was healed through the waters of Baptism so that she might live a new life. She was raised to new life with Christ, reborn and breathing the new life of the spirit. For Carol Christensen, Baptism was the first rite of initiation. For Carol Christensen, the ritual would continue.

In Hebrew scripture, the principle elements of soul, breath, heart, and blood give spiritual life and energy to the human body. In the second chapter of Genesis, human beings are adamah – the Hebrew word for earth. Into the adamah or dust from which the hand of God made human beings, God breathed the breath of life. Unlike the dichotomy found within Greek thinking, a wholistic view of body and soul occurs within Hebrew thought.⁽³⁾ The Hebrew word nepe_ [pronounced nefesh], often translated as "soul," captures the sense of the whole person in relationship to God.⁽⁴⁾

A more literal translation of nepe_ is "throat" or "neck," giving us the concept of breath, and then, living creature. In other words, with the neck or throat humans draw breath and live. For the Hebrews, in many biblical passages where the term nepe_ is used, one's sense of self, one's cravings of hunger and thirst, one's emotions of love, sadness, impatience – even knowing, thinking, and choosing – can all be attributed to nepe_. The notion of soul as it is presented in the Hebrew scriptures, therefore, conveys the presence of the self, and of such desires, thoughts and feelings that can only be described as one's relationship with and ideas about God.

The Hebrew word ruah means "breath" or "wind," and conveys an idea complementary to nepe_. Ruah is the spirit of God, God's breath entering and giving breath to the human person. Ruah is a gift of God, which, with death, returns to God. Nepe_ provides us with the idea of human life. Ruah suggests the idea of God as energy and dynamic force – as the spirit of God affecting the strength and commitment of the human person, the nepe_, to God.

Where soul and breath are the spiritual energies of life, the scriptural symbol of the heart is seen as the center of the person. The Hebrew word for heart is leb. Just as the heart is anatomically approximately in the center of the body, in Hebrew scriptures the heart or leb is the symbolic center, the most intimate place of a person, where one enters into conversation with God. Emotions are centered within the heart. The heart also resonates intellect. The heart is where God's law is written, and is the center for life decisions and commitment. The full spectrum of emotions, from acceptance to rejection of God, flows from the heart.⁽⁵⁾

In biblical times, it was generally perceived that the character of a person was revealed through the decisions of his or her heart.

Another life symbol found in scripture, that of blood, is a symbol of the embodiment of life. The symbolic meaning of blood also changes in character from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament, God's breath was understood to reside in the blood, thus sanctifying it, making it sacred. For the life of every creature – its blood is its life (Leviticus 17:14). Blood within a human or animal signified life; blood drained was a sign of disaster and death. Among the Jews of the Old Testament, it was taboo to drink the blood of an animal. You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood (Genesis 9:4).

As understood by Christians, however, the taboo against drinking of the blood was broken by Christ when he offered wine to his disciples as a sign of his own blood. Thus, followers of Christ were invited to drink the wine and partake of Christ's blood, enabling them to enjoy divine life. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. (Jn 6:56)

To breathe in oxygen, and to have blood flowing in the veins that carries this breath of life… to know emotions of joy and sorrow, love and hatred… to be self-aware of one's existence and the ability to choose… these are the very essentials of being alive.

(1) Strangulation: In the book of Hosea there is the idea of breaking down Israel because of its divided heart. Breaking down is literally translated as "break the neck of."

(2) The metaphor of the breath of God encompasses the whole Trinity. We need not equate God's enlivening breath with only the first person of the Trinity, for "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The Word, Jesus Christ, breathes in us, at the center of our being. "I in them, and thou in me," Jesus prayed as he took leave of his disciples (John 17:23)
— Nancy L. Roth, The Breath of God: An Approach to Prayer (Cowley Publications, Cambridge, Mass., 1990), p. 22.

(3) "The word "soul" is used in Eng Bibles to translate the Hb nepe_. The translation is unfortunate; soul in common speech reflects a complex of ideas which go back to Gk philosophy as refined by medieval scholasticism. In the philosophy of Plato the soul is a pure spiritual principle, the subject of thought, really distinct from the body, and immortal; in Platonism the soul is really man. In Aristotelian philosophy the soul is united with the body as a form united to matter; it is the subject of thought, but its spirituality and immortality are less evident. Hb nepe_ reflects none of these ideas."
— John L. McKenzie, S.J.: Dictionary of the Bible, (Touchstone Publishing, New York, NY, 1995.), p. 837. (Question: include biblical references from quote?)

(4) "We have within us something that is not of us: God's gift of breath. God breathes into our nostrils the breath of life. God's breath enlivens the adamah that is our physical selves, creating us as whole human beings. If we think in these terms, we no longer can regard ourselves as two separate entities, "body" and "spirit," but as one: "bodyspirit." The Hebrews used the word nefesh to express the concept of bodyspirit, the unity which is body brought to life by God's spirit."
— Nancy L. Roth, The Breath of God: An Approach to Prayer (Cowley Publications, Cambridge, Mass., 1990), pp.19-20.

(5) "Psychic activity is usually associated in the Bible with various organs of the body. The chief of these and the organ most frequently mentioned is the heart. The ancients were unaware of the circulation of the blood and the physiological functions of the heart; but its emotional reaction is easily recognized, and the heart is the chief bodily focus of emotional activity… Biblical idiom differs from modern idiom in considering the heart as the seat of intelligence and decision, and heart is used in the Bible where in English we should use mind or will."
— John L. McKenzie, S.J.: Dictionary of the Bible, (Touchstone Publishing, New York, NY, 1995. Copyright 1965 by Macmillan Publishing Company), p. 343.