Martin Lee Sanders was born on May 31, 1952, in Montana, U.S.

In 1980, Marsha Weatter, 18, and Kathy Allen, 19, were last seen in Ritzville, Washington, while hitchhiking across the Western United States. They had promised their families that they would return home by April 6, 1980. When they did not arrive, their parents hired investigators to search for them. Unfortunately, in October 1981, the bodies of Weatter and Allen were discovered along Interstate 90 in Washington. Both women had been shot to death.

In May 1983, two 15-year-old girls, Rhonda Rima and Elizabeth Marks, were reported missing after attending the Lilac Festival carnival in Spokane, Washington. Their bodies were found three weeks later in the Spokane River.

On May 18, 1986, Martin Lee Sanders kidnapped two hitchhikers in Missoula, Montana. He used an unloaded gun and handcuffs during the incident. One of the women was raped in the sleeping compartment of his semi-truck. Sanders was arrested in Wyoming on April 2, 1987, and extradited to Montana to face kidnapping charges. He received a 20-year prison sentence for this crime.

In 1989, while in prison, Sanders confessed to a cellmate about the murders of Rima and Marks. He provided specific details that only the killer would know. This confession led to authorities reopening the investigations into these murders. Sanders was extradited to Washington to face trial in 1990. To avoid the death penalty, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Rima and Marks and admitted his involvement in the earlier murders of Weatter and Allen. He received a life sentence and was sent to the Coyote Ridge Correctional Center in Connell, Washington. Sanders died of a heart attack on April 4, 2022, while he was still incarcerated.