European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fur it Lor youth in the Street is a very desperate id dangerous situation Hunter says some of his friends have lived on the Street for 10 years As hustlers or drug dealers for years no social service Agency focused on Iho j Street youths. But in january 1984. Several Community and Church organizations founded the youth Center a f Block from the Bustle of Polk Gulch it s a counselling and referral censer providing medical and tutorial help aiding youngsters in locating shelter and providing a drop in Center where kids can come and just hang out Emerson says. Much of tha work involves gaming the youths. Confidence he says. You Don 1 run away from Home to go Inlo a shelter the next Day he says so we try to work Wilh the Street kids on a Long term basis to help them see that. Ultimately they have 1o confront the last they have to gel off the Street. We ask them whal Are you going to do when you re 187 what Are you going to do when you re 23?la s had because the Streel kids themselves get Inlo a real shod sarm mindset you can hardly find out what a youth will be doing in a week much less whal. Heir plans Are six months to a year from now because of that mindset and because the youths lend to Migrate up and Down Itic West coast a lot of whal we do is what we Call slash and Burn counselling " he says it s crisis intervention mils finest  Emerson says is Counselor have the most Success with youths who arrive fresh in the City before they learn the ropes of Hull Fig and with those who have been on the Streel for is months to a year or two those Are the kids who suddenly arc burning out. Who Are saying my god. I m going Lodie on the is eel " outreach workers Tike Oscr tjards wander Polk Streel nightly talking with hustlers trying to encourage them to visit Tho Center. Emerson says Ino Center contacts 1.200 to 1,300 Streel youths a year but the actual counselling caseload is about 30 kids a month Tho same number of Beds available in the City for homeless youths he says Tho Center s $270,000 annual budget does i  Lor More stall or More Beds about halt the youths contacted Are so Ual minority  meaning homosexuals Transve Liles or youth who really Aren l sure Al ihi5  he says the last group includes otherwise straight males who Hustle i news to survive. He says about 80 percent of Iho youths contacted Are irom outside san Francisco two thirds have attempted suicide he says. About 75 percent of the youths who get counselling and shelter through the censer Are successfully diverted from the Streel Emerson says some Are reunited with parents Olheis Are placed Wilh loser parents still others Are hrs led in locating jobs and apartments. Of All the kids who come through the censer. Only 30 percent Are resumed to their Home of  Emerson says. Ollen we make parental Contact and the Parent will say you take the kid. We Don i want to Deal with him " in Ostergard i Case Counselor placed him in an employment development program and into shelters Wile he gathered enough Money 10 find his own place. Simultaneously he was in a drug rehabilitation program to beat his dependency on  he got squared away he started doing Volunteer work Al the Center. It was sort of like giving Back whal 1 took from the situation he says. Lale last year. Ostergard was Oneal five californians chosen to receive the . Department of education s International youth of the year award. In March he became one of six paid staff members at the  life 1 guess you could say. Is full Speed ahead " he says. August 2,1986 up photo discovery of Young woman � body near Seattle in 1982 turned into America s longest Ana Peatt Bly biggest unsolved serial murder a. Most of the victims were prostitutes. Futile search for the Green River killer by Terry finn United press International it has been Lour years since Cycle gals peddling along a sluggish waterway found the body of ayoung woman believed the first victim of Iho Green River  who is sought Lor Iho deaths of 36 women and the disappearances of 10 others the july 15, 1982, discovery of Wendy Leo Coffield 16. A Street Urchin known to police floating in the Garcon River Al Seattle Wash. Sparked whal has become the nation s longest and possibly biggest unsolved serial murder Case the fourth anniversary still finds detectives assigned to inc Green River task Force a Multi Agency group Whoso Only responsibility is to catch the killer. The amount of evidence gathered in four years is staggering and gruesome 36 bodies and skeletal remains recovered from Remote shallow Graves hundreds of suspects investigated and thousands of lips logged on the task Force computer police have never disclosed exactly whal caused the deaths of the women most of them prostitutes but task Force maps show the killer chose to dump most of his victims in clusters of three or our in the South King county area and near the Seattle Tacoma International Airport two victims were found in a Portland Ore. Suburb and another in a Seattle Park in nearly every Case the victims Mcmains were unearthed months or years Afler their deaths. Some have been found without Ever having been listed As missing by their relatives. Merli Winston of Seattle last saw her daughter Tracy on Mother s Day 19s3 Early the next year. Tracy. 20. Was added to the Green River list of missing women i can Only imagine How hard it must be to track Down the countless leads they get. I have no complaints and Solher does my family Winston said asked if she behoves her daughter is alive she says the on a Way 1 can answer that is to say that i know my daughter la s inconceivable to me thai she would not have con Aclid us in three years time " the  team nearly 60 members Strong with an annual budget of Between $2 million and $2 5 million has been forced to watch the murderer b Trail grow colder and Tainter. When task Lorce commander Frank Adam con was assigned to inc Case in december 1983. Police were investigating the deaths of 12 known victims and 10 missing women the Hal has grown to so three of the dead have never been identified. The net Gesull is that we have come up with More Shan 7,300 pieces of physical evidence gathered irom crime silos he said the ask Force has collected up to 1,200 latent fingerprints and made More than 70 million comparisons Wilh fingerprints on lilo Wilh state and Federal agencies it lakes nine full time data Enlil clerks and a computer program manager to process inc information seven Fri agents have been assigned to work with the 1ask Force and the rest Are Lull time county and City police officers it s unlike any Normal investigation a police  has to Deal  Adamson said generally i can pin Down and read through a homicide report in a Hall hour to three hours. The Plain lad is thai i could bring someone in on his Case today and they would i finish Reading the re pods in two or three years. In a Normal Case you can work each Lead and before too Long you would come out Al the end of it in this Case because of the amount of information working to the end is nearly impossible " Many observers believe the task Force was embarrassed by its Surprise search of a Home South of Seattle last Winter and the All night interrogation of a construction worker picked up As a person of  the Man who attracted attention because he was an expert wrapper Familier Wilh areas m which victims were found was let go King county sheriff Vern Thomas who is evaluating the task Force budget for possible cuts said there Are no plans to disband the unit but there May he financial trimming and shilling of personnel to other Law enforcement areas Adamson says he does gel discouraged at limes of course it s frustrating he said there s always a feeling on the part of every investigator that you can t solve this Case Loo soon. One of those Days we Hope Well be Able to say. 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