DENNIS RADER: BTK MURDERER – Department of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation

INTRODUCTION

Dennis Lynn Rader is an American serial killer also known as BTK (bind, torture, kill) or BTK Strangler and BTK killer. He murdered 10 people over a span of three decades before his arrest and confession in 2005. The abbreviation BTK was given by himself. A recent web series called “The Mindhunter” was inspired by Dennis Rader’s case. He continued to face his killings until 2005, where his penchant for leaving clues behind exposed him to the police department.

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

Dennis Lynn Rader was born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, United States of America. He was the oldest among his siblings and grew up in Wichita. He dropped out of college and joined the armed force of the US in the mid 1960s. In 1971, he returned from the army and got married to Paula. He continued working as an employee in ADT security services.

His first murder was on January 15, 1974 when he strangled 4 members of the Otero family in their home. Parents, Joseph and Julie along with their kids Josephine and Joseph Junior were murdered and Dennis left a radio and a watch with them. He also left over semen traces. In the later part of the day, the other 15 year old child, Charlie found the bodies and reported to the police.

Second murder was on April 4, 1974 of a young woman named Kathryn Bright. He strangled her and stabbed multiple times before leaving her home. He also shot her brother Kevin, twice, but he luckily survived. He later gave his statement to the TIME magazine and described Dennis as “an average-sized guy with bushy moustache and psychotic eyes”.

Dennis was not known to the world, he was annoyed as he wasn’t attracting media attention. He left a poorly written note in a public library saying, “It’s hard to control myself. You probably call me psychotic with sexual perversion hang-up. The code words for me will be bind them, torture them, kill them, BTK”. He warned them that he would strike again. Henceforth he was popularised as the BTK killer.

In March 1977, he killed Shirley Vian by strangulating and locked her children in the bathroom. Dennis sent a poem to the local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, describing Shirley Vian killing. In December, the same year he murdered Nancy Fox and reported to the police by stating it to be a homicide. After a few weeks he sent a letter to a television channel admitting that he was responsible for killing Nancy Fox.

The following years of 1985, 1986 and 1991 Dennis murdered 3 people namely, Marine Hedge, Vicki Wegerle and Dolores Davis respectively. He continued to taunt the media and the police alongside and kept informing them about his murders.

MODUS OPERANDI – Strangulation and souvenir – taking (BTK)

That was the last heard murder from Dennis. Later his case went all cold and there was no sign of communication from him. Amidst his cat and mouse game from the authorities, he managed to have a secret personal life and has a son and a daughter.

In 2004, Dennis sent a letter to The Wichita Eagle, in which he claimed to have murdered Vicki Wegerle and sent photos of the crime scene and her driving license as evidence of proof. In conversation with the police through a letter in 2005, he asked them if the police could trace him through a floppy disk and the police replied that the floppy disk was untraceable. And, Dennis believed them.

Dennis sent a purple floppy disk on 16^th February 2005, where he described how to communicate further. The authorities decoded the metadata and found the location of Dennis physically.

He was arrested on the afternoon of 25^th February 2005. He was charged with 10 first degree murders and he pleaded guilty for all the murders on 27^th June 2005.

FORENSIC INVESTIGATION

After every murder committed, Dennis used to send photos of the crime scene and other objects of proof. The forensic team would go to the crime scene and bring a comparison among the photos and live crime scene.

The forensic officer associated with Dennis’ case obtained a DNA sample from his daughter to avoid burden of proof and confirmed the BTK killer was Dennis.

The police recovered several documents from trash boxes and places nearby to the crime scenes with the clues left behind by Dennis.

After his arrest he was subjected to many psychological tests, interviews, investigations and court sessions.

He reported that as a child he had violent sexual fantasies that involved bondage. It began with tiny stray animals. He also admitted that he masturbated with ropes and wires tied around his neck and derived sexual pleasure from killing.

The forensic psychologists after examining Dennis completely, they could draw out similarities between Ted Bundy and Dennis. Both of them pursued law and criminal justice in their graduation and both lived a double faced life of being a complete family man and a gruesome serial killer.

Throughout the interrogation, Dennis explained every detail of the murder clearly, along with the timeline of his serial killing. The thing that caught the forensic psychologist’s attention was throughout his statement he neither showed any emotion nor offered any apology. It was just like he was narrating a crime thriller story with which he shared no association.

Professional experts from the computer forensics department were involved in decoding metadata from the floppy disk.

Dr. Ressler was responsible for Dennis’ criminal profiling. He ascertained that Dennis possessed similar serial killer qualities and background. It all began in the early 1970s, where he heard Dennis’s early communications with the police and could frame a typical serial killer profile. He was observed to be suffering from a like phenomenon that appeared in most serial killers. Though Dennis admitted that all 10 murders were committed by him, a lie detector test was conducted and there was no positive response. This made the forensic psychologist’s job easy.

JUDGEMENT

Dennis was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, termed ‘hard 40’ which means without the possibility of parole. He was sentenced to a minimum of 175 years in El Dorado Correctional Facility.

REFERENCES

Author

Vaishnavi Narreddy

Intern, Dept. of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation

Legal Desire Media & Insights

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