Prisoner Suspect In Rape, Slayings

SPOKANE - A man serving a Montana prison term for rape and kidnapping was named yesterday in an arrest warrant in the rape-slayings of two teen-agers in 1983.

Martin Lee Sanders, 37, faces two counts of first-degree aggravated murder in the deaths of Rhonda Rima and Elizabeth Marks, both 15, said Spokane County sheriff's Lt. Norm Nickerson.

The Marks and Rima murders had long been seen as somewhat similar to the notorious Green River murders in King County.

But a Spokane police detective said yesterday that it seems almost certain that Sanders was not involved in any of the Green River crimes.

The 49 known Green River murders, committed from 1982 to 1984, remain the worst unsolved serial murder case in the nation.

Sanders is serving time at the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge on kidnapping and rape convictions in Mineral County, Nickerson said.

``We're going to start the paper work necessary to bring him back here for trial,'' he said.

Rima and Marks were last seen alive at a Lilac Festival carnival May 20, 1983. Their bodies were found a month later in the Spokane River.

Investigators found little evidence until last May, when Great Falls, Mont., Police Chief Robert Jones provided information that led to the arrest warrant, Nickerson said.

Sheriff Larry Erickson declined to say what evidence was uncovered to link Sanders, a truck driver who lived in Spokane until 1986, to the crime.

Green River Task Force detectives have been aware Sanders' possible connection to the Marks and Rima cases for months, said Spokane Detective Jim Hansen.

Hansen, who assisted Green River investigators last summer, said Green River detectives had previously determined that while Sanders was probably in Seattle occasionally in the early 1980s, he was probably not involved in any of the Green River murders.