| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| shy |
Posted - 30 March 2004 : 07:58:52 AM
Police still seek tips about BTK killer
Wichita police continue to collect tips from residents about the identity of the BTK serial killer.
The killer, who murdered seven people in the 1970s, resurfaced last week with a letter to The Wichita Eagle claiming responsibility for an eighth death in 1986.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| renaeshea |
Posted - 18 August 2005 : 11:00:08 PM
The 60-year-old Rader, who called himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," showed little emotion on the first day of the hearing.
But relatives of those he killed sobbed and hung their heads as they listened to how Rader stalked and slowly killed his victims, largely for sexual gratification, in a 17-year murder spree.
The testimony included photos of many of the bodies.
The agents told the courtroom that shortly after his arrest last February Rader confessed to 10 murders, telling them that in one killing Rader used toys to try to distract three small children as he bound and strangled their mother.
In another, he pulled a chair next to a bed so he could relax while 9-year-old boy suffocated in the plastic bag Rader wrapped around his head. And in yet another, he took his victim to a church at night where he photographed her in various sexually explicit ways.
Rader had told law enforcement agents that he found killing people was harder work than he had expected so, as he continued killing, he worked out to improve his strength.
His first victims were four members of the Otero family, whom he killed in their Wichita-area home in 1974. Rader said he went after the Oteros because he was attracted to the Hispanic features of 11-year-old Josephine.
He killed her parents and younger brother while Josephine wept and called for her mother. Then he led the girl to the basement, telling her she would soon join her family in heaven, Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Thomas testified.
Rader removed some of the girl's clothes, groped her and hung her from a sewer pipe, masturbating alongside her body as she died, according to Thomas.
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| renaeshea |
Posted - 28 June 2005 : 10:06:05 PM
From correspondents in Chicago
June 28, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
Dennis Rader ... has confessed to being the BTK killer / AP A SERIAL killer who gave himself the name BTK - Bind, Torture, Kill - has calmly told a court how he strangled, stabbed and shot 10 victims to satisfy his sexual fantasies.
Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old former home security company worker, haunted the midwestern town of Wichita, Kansas for decades as he silently stalked victims, broke into their homes and left them a tangled, broken mess.
Rader taunted police by sending them a series of letters full of spelling mistakes in which he named himself BTK for the grisly method he employed in seven violent attacks between 1974 and 1991 that left 10 people dead.
Dressed in a beige suit jacket and dark tie, Rader showed no emotion as he described the slayings, pausing only briefly to take sips of water as he told the court how he used various ruses to talk his way into some of the homes.
After posing as a telephone repairman, criminal on the run or a private detective, Rader said he pulled a gun on his victims and told them that he had "a problem with sexual fantasies" and was going to tie them up and rape them.
In several cases he tried to comfort his victims before he tied them up, sitting with them as they smoked cigarettes. But instead of raping the women, Rader strangled them with a belt or panty hose, masturbated over their dead bodies, took some of their personal belongings to keep as "trophies" and then made his way home to his wife and children.
Rader told the court that he "trolled" the city for most of his victims, waiting months or years for the right person to catch his fancy. But one day, when he was "all keyed up", he chose a woman at random.
Shirley Vian was home with her children on March 17, 1977 when Rader knocked on her door. Threatening her with a .357 Magnum, Rader told Vian he was going to tie her up and rape her and then got her to help him tie the children up as well.
"I explained to her that I'd done this before," he said. "I proceeded to tie the kids up but they were crying so that didn't work. So we put them in the bathroom."
The children were still upset, Rader told the court, so he and the mother gave them blankets and toys, locked the bathroom door and then pushed a bed up against it so they could not escape.
"She got sick, proceeded to throw up and so I got her a glass of water to comfort her and then I put a bag over her head and strangled her," he told the court in a flat monotone voice.
The BTK slayings confounded law enforcement for decades and left residents to anxiously await the next sadistic slaying.
Rader struck first in January, 1974, killing Joseph and Julie Otero and two of their children. He told the court he almost lost his nerve after he cut their phone line and was unsure of what he was doing.
"I had never strangled anyone before. I really didn't know how much pressure to put on a person or how long it would take," he said when describing how he killed Julie Otero as she lay beneath him with her hands and feet bound.
A few months later Rader broke into the home of Kathryn Bright where he was surprised to find her in the company of her brother. He beat, strangled and shot both of them, but Bright's brother managed to escape.
Rader struck twice in 1977 and then laid low until 1985. He killed again in 1986 and 1991, which authorities believe was his last slaying.
Authorities reopened their investigation in March 2004 after Rader, who had remained silent for decades, wrote to a local television station and sent a package containing the driver's license of a 25-year-old woman killed in 1986 whose death had not previously been linked to BTK. More taunts arrived, including a computer disk that was later traced to Rader's church.
Throughout his testimony Rader remained chillingly calm. He expressed a slight frustration when the judge was confused by his use of the word "trolling."
"If you've read much about serial killers, they go through what they call different phases," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "In the trolling stage, basically, you're looking for a victim at that time. You can be trolling for months or years, but once you lock in on a certain person, you become a stalker. (There) might be several of them but you really hone in on one person."
Rader referred to his victims as "projects" and said he often prepared for the slayings by bringing a "hit kit" and wearing "hit clothes" that he would dispose of after the murder. He frequently took Polaroid pictures of his victims, in one case taking the body with him so he could take more pictures of her in sadomasochist poses.
A Cub Scout leader, devout churchgoer and married father of two, Rader was a respected member of the local community before his arrest.
Rader will not be eligible for the death penalty because the murders occurred before Kansas reintroduced capital punishment in 1994.
District Attorney Nola Foulston said she will seek 10 consecutive life sentences for Rader at a sentencing hearing on August 15.
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| renaeshea |
Posted - 24 April 2005 : 11:42:14 AM
Police Chief Norman Williams announced that BTK is in custody
Cops say he terrorized Wichita for more than 30 years. But, when he finally went to court, Dennis Rader was only there a couple of minutes.
At a probable cause hearing on April 19th, Dennis Rader stood at the defendant's table and waived his right to hear the evidence prosecutors have against him.
This time, there was no scruffy face and red jump suit like in his booking photo. Rader was dressed in a gray suit and sported a full beard.
In total, the much-hyped hearing last only about one-and-a-half minutes. The next hearing is slated for May 3rd. Prosecutors may finally lay out some of the evidence gathered against Rader at that time.
The Arrest of BTK Suspect Dennis Rader
This picture of Rader is from the Park City website, he worked for the city as a compliance officer.
More capture photosPolice Give A Name To The Face Of Evil
Wichita Police say the BTK Killer is 59-year-old Dennis L. Rader. We are learning more about Rader's life. He's a married father of two and is a compliance officer for Park City, Kansas. That means the man police say is BTK spent his days enforcing municipal regulations. According to the city's website, the compliance officers deal with "animal control, housing problems, zoning, general permit enforcement and a variety of nuisance cases." Rader is also a cub scout troop leader and president of his church. Neighbors report him as being sometimes helpful, but also prickly and easily irritated. A neighbor whose property is adjacent says Rader would frequently take photographs of her property in attempts to find reasons to issue citations. Other neighbors report that Rader had an ongoing concern as to whether their lawns were maintained to his standards.
The AMW Forums are buzzing with Wichita residents sharing their knowledge of Dennis Rader.
New Murders Chalked Up To BTK
Dennis Rader formally charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder. Rader has been held in Sedgwick County jail on $10 million bond since his arrest on Friday. A judge Tuesday retained that amount. Cops say that's $1 million per victim.
Dennis Rader answered "Yes" when the judge asked if he understood the charges against him. Dennis Rader's arraignment has been set for 9am, March 15th.
Police indicate that he was charged with the murders of Joseph Otero, Julie Otero, Josephine Otero, Joseph Otero, Jr., Kathryn Bright, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox, and Vicki Wegerle, Marine Hedge and Delores Davis.
Police also said they now consider two other Wichita area murders closed cases.
On April 27, 1985, Marine Hedge was abducted from her home in Park City, Kan. Her body was found eight days later. She had been strangled and a knotted pair of pantyhose was found nearby.
Marine lived just three doors down from Dennis Rader in Park City.
On January 19, 1991 Delores Davis, 62, was abducted from her home. She was found 13 days later under a bridge in rural Sedgwick County. She had been strangled and bound with pantyhose. Delores lived in Park City.
While there is no statute of limitations for homicide, the death penalty would not apply to any of the murders currently associated with BTK, because Kansas did not have a death penalty until 1994.
Comparing BTK's Clues To Dennis Rader
Police long suspected that BTK had a tie to Wichita State University and professor P.J. Wyatt. Dennis Rader received a degree in administrative justice from WSU in 1979. But did he know Professor Wyatt? Here's a schedule of her classes from the 1970's.
In December, police released a list of clues to BTK's identity. They were based on actual communications from BTK in which he revealed "facts" about himself. How accurate were those facts? Check out AMW's gallery of clues. BTK claimed to have been born in 1939. Dennis Rader's birthday is March 9, 1945. Do any of the facts hold up?
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| renaeshea |
Posted - 19 April 2005 : 4:46:02 PM
hi i have just read today on other site that the btk killer after 30 years has finally been caught? |
| renaeshea |
Posted - 26 March 2005 : 12:30:18 AM
hi i was just wondering if anyone has any updates on the btk killer has he been caught , hhas he killed again |
| Helen Bach |
Posted - 15 June 2004 : 03:54:26 AM
shy, thank you for keeping us informed on btk. i am a regular on the ez board crime and justice, and we are all getting frustrated w/ no new information . many of us feel that the wpd could release more info to help the public catch this guy. someone somewhere knows this guy. also there is a new composite picture we have on c and j. it is not known yet the source of this composite. maybe from law enforcement, who knows? |
| presumedalive |
Posted - 26 May 2004 : 11:17:00 AM
BTK will just say ..when BTk is ready..and \I become very tired myself...when folks...think...regular folks..will know BTK
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| shy |
Posted - 18 May 2004 : 01:21:26 AM
BTK Strangler of '70s resurfaces with letter claiming '86 murder
WICHITA - His fearsome reputation was unquestioned 25 years ago, when he took credit for seven murders, six of them committed with his signature use of strangulation by cord or stocking.
But today's generation hardly knew him - until last week.
Now Wichita's BTK Strangler is back, and he wants credit for another victim.
"It's kind of freaky," Wichita State University sophomore Laurie Fluty said as she studied in the campus library where BTK used a photocopier to prepare a note to police in 1978. "Why would he wait so long?"
He announced his return in a chilling letter to The Wichita Eagle. In it, he sent photos of the victim of an unsolved crime, a woman found strangled in 1986. The photos could have been taken only by her killer.
The letter's postmark was March 17, the same date 27 years ago he killed Shirley Vian and left her naked body bound hand and foot, with a plastic bag over her head and a cord looped around her neck. She was his sixth victim in a string that began in 1974. As with several others, Vian was left face-down on her bed.
The new letter announcing an eighth victim had a typed return address reading Bill Thomas Killman, a fake name clearly chosen for its initials. It lists a return address for an empty apartment.
Investigators had never tied the killing of 28-year-old Vicki Wegerle to BTK. They have now.
The police department's announcement last week of the killer's return has left folks shaking their heads, and many in this aircraft industry town of 345,000 are worried. It seems impossible that after so many years the killer still is on the loose.
Now folks here wonder, with a mix of fear and curiosity, how concerned they should be about a serial killer who is probably in his 60s with an M.O. as outdated as the rotary phone.
"It's one of those stories people talk about, like an urban legend," said Danelle Phillips, a young recording artist/bartender who wears a folding knife clipped in the front pocket of her low-rider jeans for protection.
The sense of surprise is palpable, as Wichitans long had thought BTK - he picked the initials because he says he likes to "bind them, torture them, kill them" - either had died, gone to prison, or was doodling away his hours in a mental ward.
For families of the victims - including five sons and three daughters ranging in age from 20 to 45 - the strangler's return is particularly terrifying.
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| Helen Bach |
Posted - 11 May 2004 : 11:46:43 PM
shy, theres been another letter and they had a news conference monday. the letter was 3 pages. |
| shy |
Posted - 04 May 2004 : 7:34:23 PM
Kids receive reassurance on BTK
The Wichita school district wants students to know they are safe in school, and that the police hope they will be able to catch the Wichita serial killer who recently resurfaced.
That's part of the advice the district sent to all staff Monday to help teachers deal with questions students may have about the killer known as BTK. The name stands for a description of the attacker's crimes -- bind, torture and kill -- in a series of slayings aimed mostly at women during the 1970s and '80s.
Teachers were advised to answer students' concerns without dwelling on the subject or discussing gory details, and to review with students how to handle encounters with strangers to avoid danger.
"The healthiest thing for kids is to have an environment they can count on being safe," said Paul Schulte, an assistant principal at East High.
Schulte and administrators at Southeast High School and Seltzer and Peterson elementary schools said they haven't fielded many questions in the first two days back since spring break.
Seltzer principal David Lamp said his students seem more interested in the prospect of turning him into a giant ice cream sundae next week -- their reward for completing state tests -- than in the news.
"The kids seem to be as wrapped up in what we're doing as we are," Lamp said.
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| shy |
Posted - 03 May 2004 : 10:21:55 AM
Chat rooms awash in BTK theories
As news of BTK's return continues to spread, thousands of people have turned to the Internet to learn and chat about BTK.
Internet users can post messages anonymously. And they have, by the dozens.
One string, titled "BTK Strangler" at www.ezboard.com, has attracted more than 500 postings and 20,000 viewings.
The Web site touts itself as the world's largest message board network with more than 14 million registered users.
It's unclear whether Wichita police are monitoring this site or others. Police spokeswoman Janet Johnson would not comment Tuesday about whether it's part of theinvestigation.
Some users have wondered whether BTK himself is monitoring the site or has left messages.
"I'm sure he's watching," one person wrote.
Some users wrote that they have reported some postings deemed suspicious to Wichita police. Johnson wouldn't say whether such tips are among the hundreds police are continuing to comb through this week.
It's likely they will, though, said Brian Withrow, an assistant professor of criminal justice and director of the Midwest Criminal Justice Center at Wichita State University.
"Eventually, most investigators -- if they're doing what they're supposed to do -- will investigate every lead possible," he said.
The Internet offers BTK and others a chance to get information out quickly and without filters that are found with other media, Withrow said.
"He's going to use whatever means he has available to get his story out," he said.
Among other things, the Internet activity is an example of people's natural desire to seek out things people find horrific, alarming or shocking, said Brian Donovan, University of Kansas assistant professor of sociology.
Collecting bits of a puzzle can calm people because it makes them feel that they know the whole story, he said.
"If they can unlock a little mystery of that or a part of that, it's soothing," said Donovan, who teaches criminology.
The Eagle's discussion board at www.kansas.com also has attracted dozens of postings about BTK, some which contain theories on why he resurfaced.
"Maybe the 25-year absence is because he was in another city(s) or state(s) doing the same thing. Now he is back here because he was close to getting caught there," one reader wrote.
Similarly, BTK-related postings at ezboard.com, which date back to Oct. 17, 2003, contain theories about him and the case.
Information online may not be truthful, Donovan warned, including what's posted about BTK on message boards, which allow anonymity.
"There's more freedom to let loose, if you will, or spin stories without any fear of consequence," Donovan said
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| Helen Bach |
Posted - 02 May 2004 : 3:21:03 PM
hello everyone. im new here. i hope to see new friends. thanks for the info on btk, shy. |
| shy |
Posted - 29 April 2004 : 02:15:39 AM
Witnesses of 30 years ago failed to capture BTK's description
Police say the eight possible eyewitness accounts of BTK from 1974 through 1979 proved unreliable.
Despite eyewitness offerings from more than a half-dozen people, Wichita police do not have what is considered a reliable description of BTK.
Even if they did, those descriptions would now be more than 25 years old.
"I don't have any idea" what BTK looks like, said Clyde Bevis, who headed the Wichita Police Department's crime lab at the time of the serial killer's first murders in 1974, "and I don't think anybody else does."
Eight people offered descriptions of BTK based on sightings between 1974 and 1979, but each of them has been discounted.
"There hasn't been anybody that's been able to offer what you'd consider a valid description," former police investigator Mike McKenna said.
That isn't as surprising, said Brian Withrow, assistant professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University.
An eyewitness description of a suspect "is notoriously inaccurate," Withrow said.
It's not that people are trying to be deceptive, he said. Instead, they are often asked to recall something that they had no reason to remember in the first place -- and their attempts to reconstruct what they saw yield poor results.
A man on his way to take his mother to a doctor's appointment on Jan. 15, 1974, stopped to let a white station wagon back out of the driveway of the Otero house. When he later heard what had happened there, he offered a description of the man he had caught a glimpse of behind the wheel.
A composite drawing based on that description was widely distributed, but later discounted after extensive police work.
"It was just a brief sighting," McKenna said.
Siblings Kevin and Kathryn Bright had returned to her home at 3217 E. 13th St. on April 4, 1974, after co-signing on a loan. According to police reports, there was a man waiting for them in the house.
Kevin Bright was taken to a separate room and tied to a chair. Twice BTK tried to strangle him. Twice he shot Bright in the head. Bright feigned death, eventually worked himself free and fled the home.
He told police the assailant was a 5-foot-10 white man with a mustache and dark brown or black hair, and he was wearing a black stocking cap. Another artist's rendering was crafted, but police also discounted it.
"Kevin, as I recall, wasn't too reliable of a witness, after his wounds and all," McKenna said.
Shirley Vian's three children were herded by a stranger into the bathroom of their apartment at 1311 S. Hydraulic on March 17, 1977. Their mother was then murdered, but the children -- ages 4, 6 and 8 -- could not provide a description of the killer that police considered reliable.
On the morning of Dec. 8, 1977, a man called police from a pay phone at Central and St. Francis to report that there had been a homicide involving Nancy Fox. The call lasted only seconds.
A fireman who stopped to use the same pay phone saw that it was in use, went inside a store to get change, and saw the phone dangling by its cord when he came back out. He told authorities the man who was using the phone when he pulled up was a 6-foot-tall, blonde-haired man dressed in a gray industrial uniform and a hat with ear flaps.
Police were given an artist's rendering based on the description, but it was never made public.
"I wouldn't put two cents into what he said," said Bernie Drowatzky, who spent 20 years with the Wichita Police Department and is now the police chief in Kaw City, Okla.
"He pulled up, was going to use the telephone, comes back from the store, the phone's dangling and he just glances down the street to see who it was?
"I just never could feel comfortable putting any stock into his description."
A few weeks later, a woman told police she was driving home after a New Year's Eve party when she stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. That man told her he was BTK, she said, and she stopped and fled the car.
The man she described had long hair and a beard. But Wichita lawyer Robert Beattie, who is writing a book about BTK, said police consider her story too strange to be credible.
A postal clerk opening the downtown post office near Central and Main on June 16, 1979, found a man waiting for her at the front door at 4 a.m. He asked her to put an envelope into KAKE's mail box. Later that day, KAKE and an elderly woman both received letters from BTK.
The clerk later described the man as clean-shaven, white, about 5-foot-9 and about 30 years old. He was dressed in a jean jacket, jeans and gloves. His hair was cropped short above the ears, and he had a gap between his front teeth.
Withrow puts little stock in that description because there was little reason for the postal clerk to pay attention to the man. Without a special reason to remember what we're doing at a particular moment, such as 9/11 or the Kennedy assassination, Withrow said, accurate details are usually elusive.
If Drowatzky was still on the case, the first thing he said he would do is find Kevin Bright. The two men talked more than once after they both moved to Oklahoma, and Drowatzky said he was lucid and engaging.
"To me, he's the best witness," he said.
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| shy |
Posted - 27 April 2004 : 7:41:39 PM
Wichita hopes new technology will catch old killer
More than two decades have passed since a serial killer terrorized Wichita, strangling or stabbing seven victims and bragging about it to the media.
Police hadn't heard a peep from the killer in 25 years until now.
On March 19, a letter arrived at The Wichita Eagle with information on an unsolved 1986 killing, a copy of the victim's driver's license and photos of her slain body.
The letter, apparently from the killer known as the BTK Strangler, sparked increased demand around Wichita for home security systems.
But it also rekindled hope that modern forensic science can find some clue that finally will lead police to a killer who most thought was dead or safely locked in prison for some other crime.
"I don't know why he does all of this, but I hope this will be his fatal mistake by resurfacing this way," Dale Fox told the Associated Press.
Fox's daughter Nancy was bound and strangled in December 1977.
The letter sent to the Eagle was the first clue that the 1986 killing of Vicki Wegerle might have been at the hands of BTK, an acronym the killer used for "bind, torture and kill."
Six of BTK's victims were strangled; one was stabbed to death. Four were members of one family two children and their parents.
Letters claiming responsibility for the slayings were sent to The Wichita Eagle and KAKE-TV.
The serial killer's first letter was found in a textbook at the public library; he went on to send poems and called police with details of Nancy Fox's slaying. In one letter, he taunted: "How about some name for me, it's time: 7 down and many more to go."
Detectives are looking through lists of inmates who have recently been released, in case the reason they had not heard from the BTK Strangler since 1979 is that he was in prison.
The latest missive arrived at the Eagle on March 19. It contained a single sheet of paper with a photocopy of Wegerle's driver's license and three pictures, each showing the victim in a slightly different pose.
Word about the letter leaked Wednesday night. The news struck so hard for Dale Fox that he broke down Thursday when film of his daughter's home was shown on television during the news.
His daughter's body was so bruised it was hard for him to identify her.
"It was such a brutal murder," said Ruth Fox, Nancy Fox's step mother. "To brutally murder someone like BTK has done to his victims, I have no mercy for him at all."
At first, the letter that arrived at The Eagle generated little interest.
"We get letters like this all the time, letters that are not news," said police reporter Hurst Laviana.
On Wednesday, police told Laviana the letter was authentic. It is being processed for fingerprints and DNA evidence, and evidence from the Wegerle homicide is being reprocessed using technology not available in 1986.
The return address on the letter said it was from Bill Thomas Killman initials BTK. The address appeared to refer to a now- vacant building.
The letter was mailed in Wichita, Landwehr said Thursday. He said it contained no suggestion that the killer planned to strike again.
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| shy |
Posted - 22 April 2004 : 11:09:00 PM
Eagle receives letter thought to have come from 'BTK'
The Wichita Eagle has received a letter thought to have come from a serial killer known as the BTK strangler.
The Eagle received the letter Friday and is cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
BTK terrorized the city in the 1970s while committing a series of seven homicides.
Police said Wichita residents should take normal safety precautions and just be aware of their surroundings.
For more on this story and details on the letter, read Thursday's Wichita Eagle.
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