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"Lasers"

By 2004 the BTK investigation was considered to be a cold case. That is, until Rader began communicating with the local media, which led to his arrest in February 2005. In March 2004, The Wichita Eagle received a letter from someone with the return address Bill Thomas Killman. In the letter, the author claimed to have murdered Vicki Wegerle on September 16, 1986 – the letter included photographs of the crime scene & a photocopy of her driver’s licence, which had been missing from the crime scene. Before this point, it had never been definitively determined that Wegerle was killed by BTK. DNA collected from underneath Wegerle’s fingernails gave police new evidence, with which they tested hundreds of local men in an effort to find the killer. Over 1,300 DNA samples were taken & later destroyed by court order. In May 2004, TV station KAKE received a letter with chapter titles for the “BTK Story,” along with fake IDs & a word puzzle. On June 9, 2004, a package was discovered attached to a stop sign on the corner of 1st & Kansas in Wichita, containing graphic descriptions of the Otero murders with a sketch titled “The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill.” The enclosed chapter list closely mimicked a story written in 1999 by Court TV crime writer David Lohr. In July of the same year a package was left in the return slot at the downtown public library which contained more BTK material, including the claim of being responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas earlier the same month. The claim was false & the death was later ruled a suicide. Following his capture, Rader admitted that he was planning a new murder & had set a date of October 2004 – he had already begun stalking his intended victim. In October, an envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita containing cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted onto them, a poem threatening investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr & a false autobiography with details about BTK’s life. The details were later released to the public. In December 2004 Wichita police got another package from the BTK killer, this one found in Murdock Park. It contained the driver’s licence of Nancy Fox, which was noted as being missing from the crime scene, as well as a doll that was bound at the hands & feet with a bag over its head. In January 2005, Rader tried to leave a cereal box in the bed of a truck near a Home Depot store, but the box was thrown out by the truck’s owner. It was later found in the trash after Rader asked what had happened to it in a later missive. CCTV footage of the parking lot from that day showed a figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the package. In February more postcards were sent to KAKE & another cereal box was left in a remote location. The box contained another tied-up doll, meant to symbolise the murder of 11-year-old Josephine Otero. In letters to law enforcement Rader asked if his writings, if written on a floppy disk, could be traced. Police used a newspaper ad to tell him it would be safe to use the disk – this was a lie. On February 16, 2005, Rader sent a floppy disk to KSAS-TV in Wichita along with a letter, a gold necklace with a large medallion & a photocopy of the cover of a 1989 novel about a serial killer (Rule of Prey by John Sandford). Police investigated the disk & discovered metadata embedded in a deleted Microsoft Word document that was unwittingly left on the floppy disk. This information led to Christ Lutheran Church, last modified by a user named “Dennis.” An internet search showed that a Dennis Rader was president of the church council, and from the Home Depot incident they knew BTK owned a black Jeep Cherokee – when investigators drove past Rader’s home, they noticed the same model car parked outside. Police had strong circumstantial evidence against Rader but needed more in order to arrest him. They got a warrant to get DNA, which they obtained from a pap smear that Rader’s daughter had taken at the Kansas State University medical clinic when she was a student there. The DNA was processed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at their Topeka lab – it demonstrated a familial match to the DNA of the same taken from underneath Vicki Wegerle’s fingernails. This suggested that the killer was closely related to Rader’s daughter & was the evidence that police needed to make an arrest.

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Following the DNA results from his daughter, Dennis Rader was arrested near his Park City home shortly on February 25, 2005. An officer asked him, “Mr. Rader, do you know why you’re going downtown?” Rader replied, “Oh, I have suspicions why.” A search of Rader’s home & car was carried out by the Wichita Police, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the FBI & agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. Evidence seized included computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose & a cylindrical container. His church, his office at City Hall & the main branch of the Park City library were also searched. At a press conference the following day, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announced, “the bottom line: BTK is arrested.” On February 28, 2005, Rader was charged with 10 counts of 1st-degree murder. Not long after his arrest, the Associated Press claimed that an anonymous source confirmed that Rader had confessed to other murders than those with which he had been connected. However, the Sedgwick County district attorney denied this, refusing to say whether or not Rader made any confessions or if investigators were looking into Rader’s involvement in other unsolved murders. On March 5, news sources claimed that multiple sources had verified that Rader confessed to the 10 murders he was charged with, but no others. On March 1, 2005, Rader’s bail was set at $10 million & he was given a public defender. On May 3, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Rader’s behalf, as Rader refused to speak at his arraignment. On June 27, the scheduled trial date, Rader suddenly changed his plea to guilty, describing the murders in detail & showing no remorse. At his August 18 sentencing, victims’ families made statements, prompting Rader to apologise in a 30 minute speech that the prosecutor likened to an Academy Awards acceptance speech. He was then sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences with a minimum of 175 years. Kansas had no death penalty at the time & on August 19, he was moved to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

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