[angelize56]

This is great news!! I bet they caught the jerk by his saliva on the envelopes or perhaps some camera caught his image or car when he put the letters in the mail....I'm glad he is finally captured...another menace to society off our streets!!!

59-Year-Old Man Arrested In Serial Murder Case
Killer Responsible For 8 Killings In 30 Years, Officials Say

POSTED: 11:37 am EST February 26, 2005
UPDATED: 2:18 pm EST February 26, 2005

WICHITA, Kan. -- Police said Saturday they have arrested a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.

"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims' family members.

BTK investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr identified the suspect as Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday at his suburban home.

Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams speaks at a press conference, announcing the arrest of a man they suspect of being the "BTK" serial killer.

The BTK killer - a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" - had been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986. Police said Saturday they have attributed two more slayings to BTK, from 1985 and 1991.

No charges had been filed Saturday. Prosecutor Nola Foulston said that while there is no statute of limitations for homicide, the death penalty would not apply to any crime committed before 1994, when the death penalty was introduced in Kansas.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, attending a conference in Washington, said state highway patrol officials familiar with the case told her DNA evidence linked the suspect to the slayings.

"The way they made the link was some DNA evidence, that they had some DNA connection to the guy who they arrested," Sebelius said in an interview with The Associated Press.

BTK sent letters to media about the crimes in the 1970s, but stopped for more than two decades before re-establishing contact last March with a letter about an unsolved 1986 killing.

Since then, authorities said the killer has sent at least eight letters to the media or police, including three packages containing jewelry that police believed may have been taken from BTK's victims. One letter contained the driver's license of victim Nancy Fox.

The new letters sent chills through Wichita, but also rekindled hope that modern forensic science could find some clue that would finally lead police to a killer most thought was dead or safely locked in prison for some other crime.

Thousands of tips poured in, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation conducted hundreds of DNA swabs in connection with the BTK investigation.

A source with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity said surveillance gave police their "first big piece" of recent evidence, leading authorities to a vehicle and the suspect.

One of the victims newly identified by police, 53-year-old Marine Hedge, lived on Rader's street in Park City. She was abducted from her home in 1985, and her body was found eight days later along a dirt road.

Investigators searched Rader's house Friday and seized computer equipment.

"This has not been an easy task," Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans said Saturday. "Our fine police department has been, at times, questioned. Their competence was questioned, and their actions were often second-guessed.

"But all the while, these officers were steadfast in their commitment to solve the biggest police case in Wichita's history," Mayans said.

The BTK slayings began in 1974 with the strangulations of Joseph Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and their two children.

The letters began that same year, with poems and graphic descriptions of the crimes. The killer even called police with details of Nancy Fox's 1977 slaying.

When one of his messages, a poem sent to The Wichita Eagle-Beacon in 1978, was mistakenly routed to the classified ads department, BTK sent a letter to KAKE-TV days later complaining: "How many do I have to kill before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?"

Relatives of some of BTK's victims applauded when they heard the annoucement that a suspect was in custody.

Another letter to the newspaper also underscored BTK's need for recognition.

"How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go," it read in part. "I like the following. How about you? 'THE B.T.K STRANGLER, 'WICHITA STRANGLER', 'POETIC STRANGLER', 'THE BONDAGE STRANGER' OR 'PSYCHO', 'THE WICHITA HANGMAN', 'THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER,' 'THE GAROTE PHATHOM', 'THE ASPHYXIATER'."

The letters stopped in the late 1970s, but picked up last March, when 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 return address on the letter said it was from Bill Thomas Killman - initials BTK. The address appeared to refer to a now-vacant building.

Police have been extremely tight-lipped about the case in the past year.

In December, the arrest of a Wichita resident on minor charges sparked widespread speculation of a possible link to BTK. That man, who had no connection to the case, later filed a defamation lawsuit against media outlets.

[izme]

Hiya Mar

Right onnnnnnnnnnnnn!

CLSKRK "Curt" lives there, he would talk about him from time to time, a real sicko and I'm glad they caught his sorry arse

[angelize56]

Hiya Stephen! *Hugs*

How is Curt these days?

[izme]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Hiya Stephen! *Hugs*

How is Curt these days?

*hugs*

he is doing good, finally getting out of an apartment and into a brand new home! He is very excited

[angelize56]

Thanks..I'll have to drop him an email!

About BTK....can you imagine being his neighbors and not even knowing!

[CouchMaster]

Apparently his daughter knew/suspected something - she's the one who went to the police and provided the DNA sample to compare to the one they had from an earlier crime...

[angelize56]

Hi CouchMaster: I wonder what took her so long to suspect him....how old is she?

[CouchMaster]

Hi angelize56 - If I heard right she's 26 or 27 years old, and I'm wondering about the wife!

[angelize56]

You would think someone in the family would have suspected sometime sooner...not after all these years have passed...and isn't the wife always last to know!

I'm going to go read up some more on the case and see what else I can find out!

[angelize56]

Full Coverage of Dennis Rader's arrest as BTK Suspect

February 26, 2005

Law enforcement in Wichita are 99% sure that the suspect they have in custody, 59-year-old Dennis Rader, is the BTK killer, but while the tone of the news conference this morning was confident and self-congratulatory very little details of the investigation were divulged.

District Attorney Nola Foulston said there is no statute of limitations on murder. However, the dealth penalty was not approved in Kansas until 1994. No death penalty applies to murder cases committed before 1994. In other words, the BTK case may not a capital case, unless they can tie him to new murders that occurred in 1994 or later.

Prosecutors will not be discussing the case publically after any charges are filed, Foulston said, to ensure that information released does not harm the trial.

Two new victims have been uncovered in the investigation, bringing the number of BTK victims from eight to ten.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Steed said investigations closed the cases of two other victims. They are Marine Hedge, 53, and Delores "Dee" Davis, 62. Both women were abducted from their homes, strangled and dumped in rural areas.

The Wichita Eagle reported that Hedge, who was murdered on April 27, 1985, was found dead eight days later along a dirt road. It appeared as though she was strangled with knotted pantyhose.

Davis was murdered Jan 19, 1991. Her body was found 13 days later under a bridge. She, too, had been strangled. Her hands and feet had been bound.

Both women's phone lines had been cut and their cars had been driven to another location, two activities that were closely tied to other BTK victims. Now that informaion about these new victims has come to light, the question arises: why were these cases not attributed to BTK at the time?

It is rumoured that there is a DNA match between Rader and the DNA from one of BTK's victims and that Rader's daughter went to the police and provided DNA for police.

In 2004, there was a great deal of excitement when police arrested a man that the media believed was connected to the BTK case. At around 7:30 in the evening on December 1, 2004 after a day of heavy surveillance, police arrested a 64-year-old man at his south Wichita residence. It was initially reported that the arrest was made in connection with the BTK case and was prompted by a tip off from an unidentified caller into the BTK information hotline. However, investigators later denied that the man arrested was in any way linked to the murder investigation.

Nevertheless, the arrest sparked a flurry of media and public attention and a curious crowd of onlookers gathered around the man's house hoping to catch a glimpse of what many believed to be the BTK killer. Approximately two dozen investigators conducted a search of the man's house and confiscated a number of items, which were removed in plastic bags and taken to the police crime lab. The reason for the arrest and search was allegedly because the man violated housing-code regulations at a rental property that he owned and was involved in a domestic violence trespassing case, Tim Potter reported in the Wichita Eagle.

Even though the police claimed that the arrest of the man was not connected with the BTK case, he was forced to submit to a DNA test "against his will," the man's lawyer was quoted as saying. After the sample was analyzed, the man was eliminated as a suspect. He was released on bail the day after his arrest. The man, who drew national media coverage said, "he's unable to return to his home because of the risk of curious onlookers or crackpot vigilantism," Potter said.

There has been a lot of anger, especially from the arrested man's family, with the way the entire affair was conducted. According to a joint article by Potter and Abe Levy, the man's apprehension, the search of his home and his erroneous linkage to the BTK case has had an enormous negative effect on his family. Furthermore, there was irritation with the media for jumping quickly to conclusions before the facts were released. Some have even likened the search for BTK to a modern day witch-hunt.

The latest incident made it clear that the people of Wichita have had enough of BTK's games and are anxious to get him behind bars once and for all. Investigators decided to turn their attention towards other possible suspects in the case hoping for any break that might come their way.

While walking home that evening, an unidentified man found a suspicious white plastic bag wrapped in rubber bands in Murdock Park, which is located between Kansas and Minnesota Avenue. The man took the bag home and looked inside it, when to his surprise he noticed items that may have belonged to some of BTK's victims. The man first alerted KAKE News to his find and then the police were contacted.

Investigators examined the bag's contents and found a driver's license belonging to Nancy Fox and a letter, along with other objects. The letter was similar to one found earlier in May 2004, which displayed a list of chapters taken from this Crime Library story. However, some of the chapter titles were listed differently.

In the most recent letter chapter 13 was changed from "Will There More?" to "Will There Be More?" The chapter originally had a different title. Yet, after the May letter, the title was changed to "Will there (Be) More." In BTK's latest communication it is clear that he made a concerted effort to correct his grammatical errors. It also appears that he is an avid true crime reader.

Furthermore, in the letter found in the bag, chapters one, two and eight were left blank unlike those in the May letter. In an interview with Larry Hatteberg of KAKE TV, he theorized that the empty chapters might have been directly linked to Nancy Fox's murder date in 1977. He stated that "the chapters BTK left out, if put together in a specific sequence, would mark the date Nancy Fox was killed," 12-8 or December 8th. If this were the case, it would be a vital clue that might provide insight into BTK and the way in which he communicates.

The plastic bag was eventually handed over to the FBI. Information concerning the remainder of the bag's contents has since been withheld from the public in an effort to maintain the continuity of the ongoing investigation.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_k...17.html?sect=4

[xico]

Can you imagine what it must be like to find out your father or husband is a ghoul? The anguish and the pain must be horriifying. And then, for a bit, the feelings of loyalty. Turning in your own father, if you loved him, wouldn't be a very pleasant situation.

If he's the guy, glad they got him. But, imho, they should just make him incapable of ever harming anyone again, like removing 3 fingers on one hand and the other hand, the feet, and the eyes, and then put him in the stocks for a couple of weeks. If the victims familes wanted to stone him to death, that's cool. If not, his family could take him back home. He'd be able to feed him himself, but that's about all.

[angelize56]

Originally Posted by xico

Can you imagine what it must be like to find out your father or husband is a ghoul? The anguish and the pain must be horriifying. And then, for a bit, the feelings of loyalty. Turning in your own father, if you loved him, wouldn't be a very pleasant situation.

I can't imagine it either xico! The person you most love and trust your whole life...to find out they tortured and killed other human beings....it would be SO hard to turn in your own family member...but if you didn't....you'd have any new deaths he committed on your hands and conscience!

Originally Posted by xico

If he's the guy, glad they got him. But, imho, they should just make him incapable of ever harming anyone again, like removing 3 fingers on one hand and the other hand, the feet, and the eyes, and then put him in the stocks for a couple of weeks. If the victims familes wanted to stone him to death, that's cool. If not, his family could take him back home. He'd be able to feed him himself, but that's about all.

That's how I feel about anyone who molests or kills a child! Hopefully in the end they all end up where they belong....darkest, deepest, hottest pits with satan!

[Servant of Eru]

Why do killers and rapists always get so sloppy. Always leaving their DNA all over the freaking place when it's simple enough not to. Sure if you actually take precautions to keep your DNA on your person it would make your crime pre-meditated, but on the other hand, if you don't get caught, who cares?

[xico]

Originally Posted by angelize56

I can't imagine it either xico! The person you most love and trust your whole life...to find out they tortured and killed other human beings....it would be SO hard to turn in your own family member...but if you didn't....you'd have any new deaths he committed on your hands and conscience!

That's how I feel about anyone who molests or kills a child! Hopefully in the end they all end up where they belong....darkest, deepest, hottest pits with satan!

[MSM Hobbes]

Now, lets just hope that there are not going to be any other sick sob's that desire to be "famous" by being copy-cat's, now that this story is getting more press...