Dennis Rader

Dennis Rader
Mugshot of Rader by the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Born	Dennis Lynn Rader (1945-03-09) March 9, 1945 Pittsburg, Kansas, U.S.
Other names	BTK BTK Killer BTK Strangler
Education	Butler County Community College (AE) Wichita State University (BS)
Criminal status	Incarcerated
Children	2
Motive	Sexual sadism
Conviction	First degree murder – 10 counts
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 175 years (10 consecutive life sentences)
Details
Victims	10 confirmed (more suspected)
Span of crimes	January 15, 1974  –  January 19, 1991
Country	United States
State	Kansas
Date apprehended	February 25, 2005
Imprisoned at	El Dorado Correctional Facility
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service / branch	U.S. Air Force
Years of service	1966–1970
Rank	Staff sergeant

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945), also known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself for "bind, torture, kill"), is an American serial killer who murdered at least 10 people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although he occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, Rader typically targeted women. His victims were often bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either suffocated with a plastic bag or manually strangled with a ligature. In addition, he stole keepsakes from his female victims, including underwear, driver's licenses, and personal items.

Rader often sent taunting letters to police and media outlets, describing his crimes in detail. In 2004, after a thirteen-year hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is currently serving ten consecutive life sentences at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

Life and background

Dennis Lynn Rader was born in Pittsburg, Kansas, on March 9, 1945. His parents were bookkeeper Dorothea Mae Rader (née Cook) and Kansas Gas Service worker William Elvin Rader. He was the eldest of four sons. Growing up in Wichita, Rader later recalled feeling ignored by his mother. Both of his parents worked long hours and paid little attention to their children at home.

From a young age, Rader harbored sadistic sexual fantasies about torturing "trapped and helpless" women. He also exhibited zoosadism by torturing, killing and hanging small animals. Rader acted out sexual fetishes for voyeurism, autoerotic asphyxiation and cross-dressing, often spying on female neighbors while dressed in women's clothing, including women's underwear that he had stolen. He also masturbated with ropes or other bindings around his arms and neck.

Years later, during his "cooling off" periods between murders, Rader would take pictures of himself wearing women's clothes and a female mask while bound. He later admitted that he was pretending to be his victims as part of his sexual fantasy. However, Rader kept his proclivities well hidden, and was widely regarded in his community as "normal, polite, and well mannered."

After graduating from Wichita Heights High School, Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan University. He received only mediocre grades and dropped out after one year. Rader served in the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1970. On discharge, he moved to Park City, a suburb of Wichita, where he worked in the meat department of an IGA supermarket where his mother was employed as a bookkeeper.

Rader married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971. They had two children, Kerri and Brian. He attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate degree in electronics engineering in 1973. He then enrolled at Wichita State University and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in administration of justice.

Rader initially worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, an outdoor supply company. He then worked at the local Wichita office of ADT Security Services from 1974 to 1988, where he installed security alarms. Ironically, many of his clients were concerned homeowners seeking security from his own killings as BTK. Rader was a field operations supervisor for the Wichita area for the 1990 federal census.

In May 1991, Rader became a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City. In this position, neighbors recalled him as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict, as well as taking special pleasure in bullying and harassing single women. Two women he stalked in the 1980s, and one whom he stalked in the mid-1990s, filed restraining orders against him; one of these women also changed her address to avoid him. One neighbor complained that Rader killed her dog for no reason. Rader was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, and at one point was elected president of the church council. He was also a Cub Scout leader and would frequently use being with the scouts as his alibi when a BTK killing was discovered.

By the 2000s, the public's memories of the murders had begun to fade. Local author Robert Beattie began writing a book about the killings, Nightmare in Wichita, after being shocked that many young people he spoke to had never heard of the BTK case. Hungry for attention, Rader re-emerged as BTK in 2004 after learning that the book was being written.

On July 26, 2005, after Rader's arrest, his wife was granted an emergency divorce, waiving the normal sixty-day waiting period. In an interview with ABC News in 2019, his daughter Kerri stated she writes to her father and has now forgiven him, but still struggles to reconcile her "normal" childhood with the knowledge that she was raised by the BTK killer. However, at the 2024 Crime Con in Nashville, Tennessee, Kerri revealed excerpts from her father's journal that revealed he had sexually abused her as a young girl.

Case history

Confirmed murders

Otero murders

On January 15, 1974, four members of the Otero family were murdered in Wichita. The victims were Joseph Otero Sr. (38), Julia Maria "Julie" Otero (33), Joseph "Joey" Otero II (9) and Josephine "Josie" Otero (11). Their bodies were discovered by the family's three older children, who had been at school at the time of the killings. After his 2005 arrest, Rader confessed to the Otero murders. He claimed that he first targeted the family two months prior, when he spotted Julie leaving to take her children to school and followed them for 2-3 weeks self-admittedly.

On the morning of January 15, Rader parked his car and walked to the Otero home, scaled a fence, and cut the phone lines when in the backyard. It is during this that he dropped a knife in the backyard, which he called "main, big knife." It was after this at Joseph Jr, left the dog out the backdoor to the backyard that Rader confronted him and forced his way into the home at gunpoint. Initally, the family thought he was pulling a prank with Rader stating that Joseph Otero Sr had said "Is this a joke or something? My brother-in-law put you up to this." Rader asserted that it wasn't a joke and clarified that he had a .22 hollow point pistol.

Rader told the Otero family that he was a "wanted" man in California before he ordered them to lie on the living room floor at gunpoint. Then, he led the family into a bedroom and bound them with rope he had prepared ahead of time. Joseph and Joey were on the floor, while Julie and Josie were on the bed. The wrists and feet of Joseph and Julie were restrained. It was during this point that the family began complaining of circulation issues. Joseph Otero Sr complained of a cracked rib, so Rader put a pillow underneath for him. Around this time, Rader made the decision to kill them.

Joseph's head was covered by a plastic bag, which Rader then secured with ropes. After Joseph chewed a hole in the bag, another bag was tightened over his head, causing him to slowly suffocate to death. Rader attempted to strangle Julie, later recalling: "Mrs. Otero woke back up. She was pretty upset with what was going on, and she asked me to save her son, so I took the bag off. She screamed, 'You killed my boy! You killed my boy!' After the initial realization and shock, she communicated, 'God have mercy on your soul,' before I put her down, permanently." Rader strangled Julie to death with rope. During the strangulation of Julie, Josephine Otero was screaming "momma, momma" whilst watching it go down. With both parents dead, Rader then placed another plastic bag, followed by two T-shirts and an additional bag, over Joey's head, watching as he thrashed and suffocated, viewing it from a chair Rader had set up in the bedroom.

After every member of family in the house, aside from Josephine, was neutralized, Rader took Josephine down to the basement for what he called an "encore." Rader had undressed Josephine, and then tied a noose around a sewer pipe in the basement. Rader asked Josephine if her father had a camera because he wanted to take pictures. Josephine said no and asked "What's going to happen to me?" Rader responded, "Well, you're going to get in heaven like the rest of your family." Rader then hung the girl in the basement and masturbated as he watched her struggle on the rope.

On the way out of the house he got in the Otero family car and drove it to the parking lot of a Dillons grocery store. He realized his "main, big knife" was still in the backyard of the Otero home so he drove his car back to the house to retrieve the knife.

Rader reiterated that "My main targets were Mrs. Otero and Josephine. Little Joseph was just ... Bystander... He didn't have anything, althoughkilling a bad way, I really didn't have any drive for him." Later, Rader stated, "The Oteros, I was after her and the daughter and I wasn't afler the guys, but they just happened to be there."

Murder of Kathryn Bright

Rader planned to murder Kathryn Bright, referring to her as "Project Lights Out." Rader had spotted her when she was hanging out with friends in town. He then stalked her for awhile and watched her enter her home. It was then he decided to stalk and murder her.

On April 4, 1974, Rader broke into the home through a sliding glass door in the back. He had punched the door open, discovering nobody was home yet. Whilst waiting for Kathryn to return home, he began sweeping up the glass on the floor, when Kathryn did come home with her brother, Kevin.

He told the Bright's that he was a wanted man from California, and needed money and food. The Brights were forced into the southeast bedroom, where he forced Kevin to tight up Kathryn, before Rader tied up Kevin. Rader didn't bring his own restraints for this murder, and used materials present at the house such as bandanas. Kevin and Kathryn were seperated into seperate rooms with Kevin restrained to a bedpost, and Kathryn restrained to a chair. After this, Rader discovered a stereo system in the living room and immediately turned it on, and turned the volume up loud as a sort of cover sound to the murder he was planning.

He walked into the bedroom where Kevin was restrained to kill him first, but discovered that he had gotten just free enough from the restraints to be mobile. Rader then pulled his firearm, and fired a shot at Kevin, grazing his head. Kevin put up a good fight, getting his hands on the gun several times. Rader was able to get away from Kevin and shot him a 2nd time. Kevin faked being dead at this point.

Kathryn heard the gunshots. When Rader returned to Kathryn, she asked, "What's going on?" Rader told Kathryn that he had shot her brother. Kathryn "was starting to become hysterical and going crazy." Rader said"she couldn't defend herself real good" but "she fought like a hell cat." Kathry's resistance proved too strong for him to strangule her as planned, so Rader resorted to stabbing her repeatedly in the area under her ribcage.

During the stabbing, Kevin got up and ran out the front door and down the street calling for help. Rader heard this happen and immediately grabbed the keys Kathryn had and ran outside to try and start the truck parked outside to flee. It didn't start, so Rader ran away on foot to his car which he parked at the Wichita State University.

Kathryn Bright did not die at the house, but died in hospital from her wounds.

Murder of Shirley Ruth Relford

On March 17, 1977 Rader had a different victim other than Shirley planned for the day, but decided not to murder that specific planned victim when the victim wasn't home. He said he was frustrated by this and decided to find a random person to kill instead.

Whilst walking around looking for a potential victim, he came across Shirley's son, Steve Relford, walking down the street, and asked him if he could identify individuals in a photo he was holding. Rader was holding a photo of his wife and daughter. He asked Steve if the 2 women in the photo lived in the neighborhood, explaining that he was a detective. Steve had falsely said that the 2 women was his mother and sister. He then watched Steve walk back to his mother's house, where he had followed.

At the Relford residence, Rader asked Shirley if she could identify the same photo. During this interaction, Rader pulled a gun and forced his way into the home. He explained that he was a wanted man, and that they were being robbed. Rader attempted to tie up her 3 kids that Shirley had in the house with her, but found that doing was too difficult, leading him to force the children into a bathroom which he forced Shirley to help him barricade.

Rader figured the kids were all right because he "put some toys and some blankets and stuffin there for them, books, going to make them comfortable, because I told them, 'You guys stay in here.' And I think one of them told me I was going to break out, and I said, 'I don't think you want to, I'll shoot you, or blow your head off, or something like that.' And they were upset."

After this, Rader took Relford to the rear bedroom. Relford vomited before being tied to her bedpost by her legs and handcuffed. Rader strangled her with rope after placing a plastic bag over her head. During the murder, Shirley was sick and would ask for water, which was provided prior to the strangulation. During the murder, her children screamed and banged on the bathroom door.

Rader would express that he intended to eventually kill the children in the bathroom but didn't when the telephone rang, and the oldest child in the bathroom screamed that the call was from somebody who would be stopping by the home shortly. This caused Rader to flee the home.

Murder of Nancy Jo Fox

Rader noticed Nancy Fox enter her home, and decided that he was going to kill her also, stalking her for some time. He had given her the name "Project Foxhunt" due to her name.

On December 8, 1977, Rader broke into the home through a back window, after discovering that Nancy wasn't home at the time he knocked on the door. After some time, Nancy came home and began screaming at Rader to leave her house and that she was going to call the police. Rader informed her that her phone lines were cut and she wouldn't be able to do that. Rader informed her that he intended to restrain her, take photographs of her, and rape her. He let Nancy smoke a cigarette before this.

Fox asked, "Do you have to tie me up?" When Rader said "yeah," Fox said, "You're sick." Rader agreed. "Yeah, I'm sick, ma'am, but, I said, that's the way it's got to be." Rader allowed Fox to go to the bathroom but not before she assured him that she could not escape and after he "stuck a shoe or a piece of cloth so she couldn't slam the door and latch it in case there was a lock on the door." Rader ordered Fox to come out of the bathroom "partially undressed." Fox "came out with her sweater and her underpants and her bra, and I'm not sure whether she had nylons or not." Rader had begun to undress and he ordered her "to lay down." Rader asked, "Have you ever been screwed by your boyfriend in the butt?" Fox said "no." When Rader started to remove her sweater, Fox said, "Don't do that, don't do that."

Rader then began putting handcuffs on Nancy, ro which she protested and questioned the need for. Rader told her, "that's part of my deal. I got to have them or it won't work." Rader then began to crawl on top of Nancy, and wrapped his belt around her neck. He would repeatedly loosen and tighten the belt, allowing her to come close to unconsciousnes and then bring her back.

Rader then began to strangle Fox, this time with the intent of actually killing her, and whispered in her ear that he was the BTK killer and that he was "a bad guy." "After he whispered in her ear, Rader said, "And then she really - she really - she really squirmed and then - and then I pulled - put the pressure down on it." Rader said that Fox, while being strangled, reached back and grabbed “a hold of my nuts... Yeah, she did. And she was squeezing pretty hard. But it actually made it more excited."

The following day, Rader called police from a payphone, telling them they would find Fox's body at her home.

BTK asks for recognition

The subliminal message to Rader which was flashed by KAKE-TV in 1978

On February 10, 1978, Rader sent another letter to Wichita television station KAKE claiming responsibility for the murders. He suggested many possible names for himself, including "BTK." He demanded media attention in this second letter, saying, "How many do I have to kill, before I get a name in the paper or some national attention?" A poem was enclosed titled "Oh! Death to Nancy," a parody of the lyrics to the American folk song "O Death". In the letter, Rader claimed to be driven to kill by "factor X," which he characterized as a supernatural element that also motivated Jack the Ripper, the Son of Sam and the Hillside Stranglers. He also asked for the police to send him a hidden message. In response, and with the knowledge that the BTK killer watched KAKE, police decided to flash a subliminal message during one of the station's evening newscasts for a split second. The message stated: "Now call the chief," and featured a drawing of an upside-down pair of glasses, which were found at the Fox crime scene. They hoped the message would influence the killer to turn himself in, but it was unsuccessful.

Attempted murder of Anna Williams

During this time, Rader also intended to kill others, such as Anna Williams (63), who, in 1979, escaped death by returning home much later than expected. Rader explained during his confession that he became obsessed with Williams and was "absolutely livid" when she evaded him. He recalled spending hours waiting at Williams' home but becoming impatient and leaving when she did not return from visiting friends.

Murder of Marine Hedge

Rader had been stalking Hedge for some time, like with his other victims. He had given her the name "Project Cookie". She lived only a few houses up from Rader's house, which made Rader select her just to see if he could murder one of his neighbors.

Rader was attending a cub scouts outing on the night of the murder. He had faked a headache, blaming the rainy and muddy weather for his sickness, saying he was going to bed early. Instead of going to bed, he quietly left and drove a little bit to a deserted area where he quickly changed out of his cub scouts attire. He then drove to a bowling alley across the street from Brittany Center at 21st Street and Woodlawn. He walked in, ordered a beer, swished it in his mouth, and splashed it on his face and clothes. He then called a taxi using a fake slurred drunk voice. He was dropped off one street down from his and Hedge's street.

Rader cut the phones line to Hedge's home and managed to break into the home without damaging it too much. He then hid in a closet. After some waiting, Hedge came home with her boyfriend, leading Rader to wait even longer in the bedroom closet until he left, and for Hedge to get into bed. After he was confident Hedge was in bed, he creeped out of the closet and quickly flipped on the bathroom light switch. Hedge woke up and began screaming.

Rader "throttled her" and "got her under control." However, Rader was not "quite done." Handcuffs had to be put on. After the handcuffs, Rader "went ahead - I'm not sure whether I throttled her all the way or strangled her with a belt or something, but I think I throttled her... And then she was dead. She didn't come back."

Rader was pleased. His plan was going well. Next, Rader wanted to "tie her up and take pictures of her." The plan was to move her from the home. The keys to her car were located and mementos were gathered. Rader then stripped Hedge, and drug her out to her car. Rader then drove the body to the Christ Lutheran Church where he was a long-time member and had keys to the building. He dragged the body into the building, and covered the windows up with black garbage bag before turning on the lights in the church. He did this to make sure no lights were visible from the outside. After confirming that no lights were seen, he began positioning the body in the church and take photographs of the act.

As daylight was approaching, Rader cleaned the place up, removed the garbage bags off the windows, turned off the lights, and got the body back into the trunk. Rader drove a little distance away, and dumped the nude body of Hedge in a remote ditch and covered her with brush.

Murder of Vicki Wegerle

At this time, Rader was working for ADT and was out working when he saw Wegerle get into her car. He stalked her for a little bit, before learning she played piano ,after hearing her playing it when prowling around outside her house. He referred to her as "Project Piano."

On September 16, 1986, Rader used one of the company's hard-hats, and a Southwest Bell manual to act as a repairman or technician for the telephone company. Rader first gained entry into Wegerle's neighbors house, and pretended to do telephone work, before leaving and knocking on Wegerle's door. He did this to make her less suspicious.

Rader then went to the Wegerle home. He got in using the telephone ruse. "And her kid was there. And the little kid was there right in the play pen... she was even on the piano when I got there, because I heard the piano." Once in the house, Rader told Wegerle he had to check the "telephone terminals." Wegerle directed him to the phone near the dining room table. Rader made small with Wegerle as he pretended to check the phone. Rader used a "tester" during his charade. The tester was actually an instrument. Rader "used at work, we tested tones and stuff on it." Rader "monkeyed around with it, and then I said, 'Well, it looks like it works." Rader dropped the "tester" into his briefcase and pulled a gun on Wegerle. Rader told Wegerle, "Let's go to the bedroom."

Wegerle "got - she got really upset and started crying and everything." She asked, "Well, how about my kid?" Rader responded, "I don't know about your kid." Wegerle said, ""Well, my husband is going to be home pretty soon." Rader told her, "Well, I hope he's not going to be home too soon." Rader forced her in to the bedroom. "[W]hen I started tying her up, you know, I laid her on the bed and she was crying and upset." However, Wegerle did not submit without a fight. "[S]he broke it, she broke the bonds. Well, then she started fighting with me. And we fought really hard. We fought even harder than the Kathleen girl. And I think she either scratched me..." Wegerle fought so hard, Rader thought, "I probably still have the scratch somewhere on my face if you looked." Rader described the struggle. "And, you know, she was fighting for her life and I was trying to take her down. The dogs were barking and the windows were open, and I thought -- and her husband was going to walk in, I said this is a real nice mess." Rader did not have much time but he took pictures after he killed her. The pictures were taken for "sexual purposes." Rader had to act fast. "So this basically was a hit - a fast hit... Ijust basically pulled her clothes down and ...took some quick pictures."

He fled with the Wegerle car, and actually passed Vicki's husband on the way out, confirming that the husband likely would've walked into it if Rader had stayed later. Rader parked the car in a grocery store parking lot, and drove back home in his car. As he passed the Wegerle home, he saw EMS responding.

Murder of Dolores Davis

Rader had saw Dolores Davis not far from where he lived, and stalked her for awhile. Rader code named Davis "Project Dogside" because of the dog kennels north of her home. Rader "cased" the Davis home many times trying to figure out a plan, being unable to figure out a way to break in.

Rader used a Trappers Scout outing as cover for the murder. The Trappers were having their annual "dead ofwinter" outing. The outing was at Harvey County Park West. Rader went to the outing and "set up camp, got it all set up. And the rest ofthem were going to come in later that night or the next morning. And I fabricated some story like I had to go to town or back home for something in case, you know, if they got there before I got back, that's what I would just tell them. Well, Ihad to go back home to get something, or I had to run up to Newton and get something. And they wouldn't know when I left, so, basically, an alibi and a cover story." Rader recalled that is was very cold. Rader then drove to his parents house and got dressed out of the trapping scout clothes.

Rader then drove to Baptist Church, 1301 East 61st Street in Park City for his final preparation. Rader had a keyto the church because of the Boys Scouts. Rader left the church and walked to the Davis home. Rader crossed 61 Street and walked through wheat fields and cut through a cemetery. Rader recalled the cold and how bad his feet were hurting. The cold drove his decision to break-in by smashing the window rather than trying to break in more quietly.

The time was 10:30 P.M. to 11 P.M. when Rader arrived at the Davis home. Davis was reading and Rader saw her through the window blinds. Rader waited "and pretty soon the lights went out, and then I waited a while until I knew she was asleep." Rader threw a cinder block through the sliding glass door. Davis ran out of her bedroom yelling "What happened to my house? Did you hit my house?" Rader said she thought he hit her house with a car. Rader used his wanted man "russ" on her. "I said, No, I'm - I'm wanted by the - I'm wanted, they are after me. I need your house and your cars and your money." Rader lied to Davis, telling her. "Eventually I'm going to tie you up and I'm going to leave you. I am going to be a little time in here, because I need to - I need to get in and warm up, but I'm going to take your car and some food." Davis backed up and told Rader, "you can't be in the house." Rader warned, "Ma'am, you're going to cooperate. I've got a club, I've got a gun, I've got a knife, I suggest you do. You take your choice how you want it." Davis said, "ok, ok."

Rader obtained the keys to her car and rattled around in the kitchen pretending to look for food. While being tied with the pantyhose, Rader believed that Davis realized that he was going to kill her. Davis begged, "Don't kill me, don't kill me." In response, Rader "slipped the panty hose over her head and strangled her." Rader initally was going to stay and take photos with the body, but Davis had lied to him and said that somebody was coming soon, forcing him to leave ahead of time.

Rader took the body of Dolores Davis and put her in the trunk ofher car. Rader used a bedspread to drag her to the car. Rader drove her car to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) lake at 45th and Hillside where he dumped her body in the bushes. Rader drove back to the Davis home and threw her keys on the roof. Rader threw the keys on the roofbecause he recalled reading that the police had looked for the keys to the Otero car on the roof of buildings. Rader walked back to the Baptist Church to pick up his car. Rader drove back to the KDOT and collected the body. Rader drove out to a rural area, and dumped the body underneath a bridge. Rader recalled, "when I dropped her, it was snowing. And it was snowing, it was really cold." Rader did not take picture the night of the murder because "I had to get back to the camp ...I had a time constraints."

Davis was discovered on February 1, 1991 by a 15-year old boy, Nelson Schock, after the dog went under the bridge, presumably due to the smell of decomposition, and the boy went after the dog after being unable to call it back up to the street.

Suspected murders

On August 23, 2023, the Associated Press reported that Rader was considered the prime suspect in two further killings in Oklahoma and Missouri. Authorities discovered "possible trophies" from victims after launching a search for evidence at Rader's former Park City home, resulting in the investigation of his potential involvement in additional unsolved disappearances and murders:

• Cynthia Dawn Kinney (16) was last seen in Osage, Oklahoma, on June 23, 1976, at Osage Laundromat. Witnesses said she left the laundromat at 9:30 a.m. and got into a faded beige 1965 Plymouth Belvedere. In 2023, Osage Sheriff Eddie Virden claimed that Rader had been identified as a prime suspect after it was determined that he was involved in Boy Scout events in the area and when it was learned that Rader had included the phrase "bad wash day" in his writings. A bank was also having new ADT alarms installed across the street from the laundromat, when Kinney went missing; Rader was a regional installer for ADT at the time. Furthermore, Rader has allegedly claimed to have "fantasized about kidnapping a girl from a laundromat." Rader has denied involvement in the murder, which Virden believes is due to possibly being tried in Oklahoma and potentially being given the death penalty.

Fager homicide

Mrs. Fager's husband, Melvin, and two young daughters were murdered in the Fager home on December 27, 1987. 10 year-old Sherri Fager and 16 year-old Kelli Fager were found in an aboveground hot tub. Sherri, wearing her pajamas, had been drowned in the hot tub. Sherri was bound. Kelli had been strangled and placed in the hot tub approximately eight hours after Sherri. Kelli was naked. Melvin Fager had been shot.

Mary Fager received an envelope postmarked January 5, 1988. The envelope contained a poem titled "Oh God He Put Kelli Sherri in the Tub" and a picture of a young nude girl bound at the wrists and ankles lying next to a pool or hot tub. Rader sent this poem, but did not take credit for the murders, however stating his admiration for the homicides and stating he was impressed by them.

Rader was not tied to this homicide, but in interview he said "If the girls were bound with black plastic tape and drowned, that's pretty sexual in my category. That's hot stuff in my category. That's -- that's some sexual activity. You know, you know, if they were nude, that was even more so. You know, to do that, you got to control the victim, make them take their clothes off and bind them and drown them. You know, that's got some sexual overtures. That's the kind of stuff-- that's the kind of stuff that I would do or the kind of stuff that I like to collect. Sorry."

Cold case

By 2004, the investigation of the BTK killer was considered a cold case. However, Rader initiated a series of 11 communications to local media, which led directly to his arrest in February 2005. In March 2004, The Wichita Eagle received a letter from someone using the name "Bill Thomas Killman" claiming that he had murdered Vicki Wegerle in 1986. Enclosed with the message were photographs of the crime scene and a photocopy of Wegerle's driver's license, which had been stolen at the time of the crime. Prior to this message, it had not been definitively established that Wegerle was killed by BTK. DNA collected from under her fingernails provided police with previously unknown evidence. They began DNA testing hundreds of men in an effort to find the killer. Altogether, more than 1,300 DNA samples were taken and later destroyed by court order.

In May 2004, KAKE received a letter with chapter headings for the "BTK Story", fake IDs and a word puzzle. On June 9, a package was found taped to a stop sign at the corner of First and Kansas roads in Wichita, which contained graphic descriptions of the Otero murders and a sketch labeled "The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill." Also enclosed was a chapter list for a proposed book titled The BTK Story, which mimicked a story written in 1999 by Court TV crime writer David Lohr. Chapter One was titled "A Serial Killer Is Born." In July, a package dropped into the return slot at a public library contained more bizarre material, including the claim that BTK was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas, earlier that month. This claim was false, and that death was ruled a suicide.

After his capture, Rader admitted in his interrogation that he had been planning to kill again, that he had set a date (October 2004) and was stalking his intended victim. That month, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita. It contained many cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them, a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lieutenant Ken Landwehr and a false autobiography with many details about Rader's life. These details were later released to the public. In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the killer. This time, the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It contained the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen from the crime scene, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet with a plastic bag tied over its head.

In January 2005, Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck at a Home Depot in Wichita, but the box was discarded by the truck's owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader asked what had become of it in a later message. Surveillance tape of the parking lot from that date revealed a distant figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the box in the pickup. In February 2005, more postcards were sent to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location was found to contain another bound doll.

In his letters to police, Rader asked if his writings, if put on a floppy disk, could be traced or not. The police answered his question in a newspaper ad posted in the Eagle, saying it would be safe to use the disk. On February 16, 2005, Rader sent a purple 1.44-megabyte Memorex floppy disk to Wichita station KSAS-TV. Also enclosed were a letter, a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion and a photocopy of the cover of Rules of Prey, a 1989 novel by John Sandford about a serial killer. Police found metadata embedded in a deleted Microsoft Word document that was, unknown to Rader, still stored on the floppy disk. The metadata contained the words "Christ Lutheran Church" and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis." An Internet search determined that a "Dennis Rader" was president of the church council. When investigators drove by Rader's house, a black Jeep Cherokee—the type of vehicle seen in the Home Depot surveillance footage—was parked outside. This was strong circumstantial evidence against Rader, but they needed more direct evidence to detain him.

Police obtained a warrant to test a pap smear taken from Rader's daughter at the Kansas State University medical clinic. DNA tests showed a "familial match" between the pap smear and the sample from Wegerle's fingernails; this indicated that the killer was closely related to Rader's daughter and, combined with the other evidence, was enough for police to arrest Rader.

Arrest

Rader was arrested while driving near his home in Park City shortly after noon on February 25, 2005. An officer asked, "Mr. Rader, do you know why you're going downtown?" Rader replied, "Oh, I have suspicions why."

Officers from the Wichita Police, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and FBI and ATF searched Rader's home and vehicle, seizing evidence including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed and a cylindrical container. Christ Lutheran Church, Rader's office and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched.

At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announced, "The bottom line: BTK is arrested."

Police interview

The interview of Dennis Rader took place in the FBI offices at the Epic Center. The interview was recorded. Miranda rights were read at 12:43 P.M. At 12:45 P.M. on February 25, 2005, Rader agreed to speak with law enforcement. Lieutenant Ken. Landwehr and Special Agent Bob Morton of the FBI initially spoke with Rader. Rader described the crimes and other subjects in no particular order. Rader displayed an infatuation and obsession with himself to such a degree that he actually believed that the law enforcement officers were his friends. Rader felt so comfortable that, at one point, he told an officer to put "BTK" on the lid of his cup before putting it in the refrigerator, rather than his actual name, Dennis.

Rader had asked about the death penalty, and inquired several times about what his potential sentence would end up being. Rader then worried about his jail accommodations. "Now, are they going to -- if -- am I going to be in a special section of the jail - or am I going to be thrown in with a bunch of the loonies?" he had asked.

Rader began the confession by questioning Lt. Landwehr. "I need to ask you, how come you lied to me? How come you lied the me?" (The Wichita Police Department had communicated that a disk could not be traced.) Lt. Landwehr replied, "Because I was trying to catch you." Rader expressed shock that the police would lie to him.

Legal proceedings

On February 28, 2005, Rader was charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. Soon afterward, the Associated Press cited an anonymous source alleging that Rader had confessed to other murders in addition to those with which he had been connected. However, the Sedgwick County district attorney denied the story, yet refused to say whether Rader had made any confessions or if investigators were looking into his possible involvement in more unsolved killings. On March 5, news sources claimed to have verified by multiple sources that Rader had confessed to the 10 murders he was charged with, but no other ones.

On March 1, Rader's bail was set at US$10 million, and a public defender was appointed to represent him. On May 3, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Rader's behalf, as Rader did not speak at his arraignment; however, on June 27, the scheduled trial date, Rader changed his plea to guilty. He described the murders in detail to the court and made no apologies.

At Rader's August 18 sentencing, victims' families made statements, after which Rader apologized in a rambling 30-minute monologue that the prosecutor likened to an Academy Awards acceptance speech. His statement has been described as an example of an often-observed phenomenon among psychopaths: their inability to understand the emotional content of language. Rader was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, with a minimum of 175 years. Kansas did not enforce the death penalty at the time of the murders. On August 19, Rader was moved to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

Further investigations

Following Rader's arrest, police in Wichita and several surrounding cities looked into unsolved cases with the cooperation of the state police and the FBI. They particularly focused on cases after 1994, when the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas. Police in surrounding states also investigated cold cases that fit Rader's pattern. After exhaustive investigations, none of these agencies discovered any further murders attributable to Rader, supporting early suspicions that he would have taken responsibility for any additional murders that he had committed. As a result, the ten known murders were at that point believed to be the only murders for which Rader was actually responsible, although Wichita police are fairly certain that he stalked and researched a number of other potential victims. This includes one person who was saved when Rader called off his planned attack upon his arrival near the target's home due to the presence of construction and road crews nearby. Rader stated in his police interview that "there are a lot of lucky people", meaning that he had thought about and developed various levels of murder plans for other victims.

Psychological evaluation

Massachusetts psychologist Robert Mendoza was hired by Rader's public defenders to conduct a psychological evaluation and determine if an insanity-based defense might be viable. He conducted an interview after Rader had pleaded guilty on June 27, 2005. Mendoza diagnosed Rader with narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive and antisocial personality disorders: he observed that Rader has a grandiose sense of self, a belief that he is "special" and therefore entitled to special treatment; a pathological need for attention and admiration; a preoccupation with maintaining rigid order and structure; and a complete lack of empathy.

The videotape of Mendoza's interview ended up being used on NBC's Dateline. NBC claimed Rader knew the interview might be televised, but this was false according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement. On October 25, 2005, the Kansas attorney general filed a petition to sue Mendoza and Tali Waters, co-owners of Cambridge Forensic Consultants LLC, for breach of contract, claiming that they intended to benefit financially from the use of information obtained through involvement in Rader's defense. On May 10, 2007, Mendoza settled the case for US$30,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.

Victims

Name	Sex	Age	Date of murder	Place of murder	Cause of death	Weapon used
Joseph Otero	M	38	January 15, 1974	803 N. Edgemoor Street, Wichita	Suffocated	Plastic bag
Julia Maria Otero	F	33			Strangled	Rope
Joseph Otero Jr.	M	9			Suffocated	Plastic bag
Josephine Otero	F	11			Hanged	Rope
Kathryn Doreen Bright	F	21	April 4, 1974	3217 E. 13th Street N., Wichita (died at Wesley Medical Center)	Stabbed three times in abdomen	Knife
Kevin Bright	M	19	N/A (escaped on April 4, 1974)			Gun
Shirley Ruth Vian Relford	F	24	March 17, 1977	1311 S. Hydraulic Street, Wichita	Strangled	Rope
Nancy Jo Fox	F	25	December 8, 1977	843 S. Pershing Street, Wichita	Strangled	Belt
Anna Williams	F	63	N/A. (didn't come home on the night of April 28, 1979 when Rader was waiting for her)
Marine Wallace Hedge	F	53	April 27, 1985	6254 N. Independence Street, Park City	Strangled	Hand(s)
Vicki Lynn Wegerle	F	28	September 16, 1986	2404 W. 13th Street N., Wichita	Strangled	Nylon stocking
Dolores Earline Johnson Davis	F	62	January 19, 1991	6226 N. Hillside Street, Wichita (east of Park City)	Strangled	Pantyhose

Aftermath

In 2019, Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson, published her book A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming where she goes over her childhood and Rader's role.

Imprisonment

Rader talked about innocuous topics such as the weather during the forty-minute drive to El Dorado but began to cry when the victims' families' statements from the court proceedings came on the radio. He is now in solitary confinement for his protection. This will likely continue until his death.

In 2006, he was granted privleges during his imprisonment, allowing him to possess a television set, listen to the radio, read books, and possess art supplies.

Rader's daughter, Kerri, visited him in 2023 and reported him as "rotting" and "unhappy" reporting that "he's lost like 7 inches and he's in a wheelchair."

In media

Forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland compiled Confession of a Serial Killer from her five-year correspondence with Rader.

Multiple works draw on the case:

• Stephen King has said his novella A Good Marriage, and the film based on it, were inspired by the BTK killer.
• Novelist Thomas Harris has said that the character of Francis Dolarhyde in his 1981 novel Red Dragon is partially based on the then-unidentified BTK killer.
• The 2004 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Scavenger" is based on this case.
• Episode 15 of season 1 (2006) of Criminal Minds, titled "Unfinished Business" is based on Rader's murders.
• Rader's case is portrayed in Episode 2 of season 2 (2022) on the Netflix series Catching Killers.
• A character based on Rader played by actor Sonny Valicenti appears in the Netflix series Mindhunter.
• Writer-director Ulli Lommel depicted Rader's murder spree and subsequent capture in the highly fictionalized B.T.K. Killer (2005).
• Kane Hodder portrays Rader in the 2008 movie B.T.K., a half biopic and half fictionalized account of the murders.
• The antagonist from the movie The Clovehitch Killer was inspired by Dennis Rader.
• Thrash metal band Exodus wrote a song entitled "BTK" for their album Blood In, Blood Out, which was inspired by Rader's crimes.
• The song "Raider II" from Steven Wilson's 2011 album Grace for Drowning is written primarily about Rader's murders.
• The Netflix docuseries "Catching Killers" went over the BTK case on Season 2, Episode 1.

See also

• I Survived BTK
• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of serial killers by number of victims

Further reading

• Beattie, Robert. Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler. New American Library, 2005. ISBN 0-451-21738-1.
• Davis, Jeffrey M. The Shadow of Evil: Where Is God in a Violent World?. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996. ISBN 0-7872-1981-9. (Davis is the son of BTK victim Dolores Davis.)
• Douglas, John E. Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind Thirty Years of Hunting for the Wichita Serial Killer. Jossey Bass Wiley, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7879-8484-7.
• Ramsland, Katherine. Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer. Foredge, 2016. ISBN 978-1-5126-0152-7.
• Rawson, Kerri. A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming. Thomas Nelson, 2019. ISBN 978-1400201754.
• Singular, Stephen. Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer. Scribner Book Company, 2006. ISBN 1-4001-5252-6.
• Smith, Carlton. The BTK Murders: Inside the "Bind Torture Kill" Case that Terrified America's Heartland. St. Martin's True Crime, 2006. ISBN 0-312-93905-1.
• Wenzl, Roy; Potter, Tim; Laviana, Hurst; Kelly, L. Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door. HC an imprint of HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-124650-0.
• Welch, Larry. Beyond Cold Blood: The KBI from Ma Barker to BTK. University Press of Kansas, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7006-1885-9.

External links

• B.T.K. – The Worlds Most Elusive Serial Killer
• Sedgwick County 18th Judicial District collection of legal documents on the Rader case
• The Wichita Eagle Collection of articles and videos about BTK
• KAKE Collection of articles and videos on BTK
• Dennis Rader's listing on the Kansas Department of Corrections Kansas Adult Supervised Population Electronic Repository site, including current location and disciplinary actions.
• "Finding BTK" Investigation Discovery
• When your father is the BTK serial killer, forgiveness is not tidy