BTK’s former Kansas home is searched by cops over missing persons investigation
Police have searched the former home of notorious serial killer Dennis Rader for evidence linking him to unsolved missing persons and murders.
Rader, 78, nicknamed himself “BTK” as an acronym that binds, tortures and kills his victims, and he confessed to murdering 10 people after his 2005 arrest.
He is currently serving 10 consecutive life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
The former Air Force sergeant’s former home in Park City, Kansas, was raided by police on Tuesday over the disappearance of Cynthia “Cyndi” Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who was last seen in 1976.
Detectives said they hope the investigation will help connect him to even more gruesome unsolved cases. Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton said his department “continues to pursue leads in unsolved missing persons and homicide cases that may be related to BTK.”
Dennis Rader, aka BTK, has seen his former home in Park City, Kansas being ransacked by investigators in hopes of connecting him to more unsolved murders. He is pictured in August 2005, after his arrest
The killer’s daughter said the investigators’ theory is that Rader may have hidden evidence under his shed in the yard of his home.
The killer’s daughter, Kerri Rawson, told DailyMail.com that she helped with the renewed investigation and was flown to Oklahoma to try to break him down and “give the decades-grieving families long-sought answers.”
The first known murders of Rader took place in January 1974, when he went into disgrace after the gruesome murders of the Otero family.
Months later in April, Rader, then 28, killed Kathryn Bright, 21, in her home and shot her brother Kevin in the head.
He began sending taunting letters to reporters and police and sent investigators on wild chases through Wichita, Kansas.
Kerri Rawson, Dennis Rader’s daughter, told DailyMail.com that she has helped investigate her father
His last known victim was murdered in 1991, and he evaded capture for more than 30 years after stopping his letters in 1991. When he started again in 2004, and some speculated that he was bored with his double life, the police were finally able to arrest him.
Rader’s disgrace led to him becoming the prime suspect in numerous cold cases, and Rawson told DailyMail.com she was flown to Oklahoma in June to aid investigators.
The 78-year-old has reportedly refused to cooperate with police, and during a recent meeting with cold case investigators, his belongings were seized by prison guards.
BTK’s ten victims: (LR) January 15, 1974: #1 Julie Otero (age 33) Strangled with a rope; #2 Joseph Otero (age 38) Suffocated by a plastic bag; #3 Josephine Otero (age 11) Hanged with a rope; #4Joseph Otero, Jr. (9 years) Suffocated by a plastic bag; April 4, 1974: #5 Kathryn Bright (aged 21) stabbed 3 times in the abdomen with a knife
(L-R) March 17, 1977: #6 Shirley Vian (age 24) Strangled with a rope; December 8, 1977: #7 Nancy Fox (aged 25) Strangled with a belt; April 27, 1985: #8 Marine Hedge (aged 53) Strangled with hands; September 16, 1986: #9 Vicki Wegerle (age 28) Strangled with nylon stocking; January 19, 1991: #10 Dolores E. Davis (aged 62) Strangled with pantyhose
Rader is pictured with his daughter Kerri Rawson, describing her struggles to come to terms with her father’s heinous crimes.
Rawson said she visited her father for a total of three hours in June and July to try and get information out of him.
She added Fox news that police raided her old house this week because “the theory is that he could have placed evidence of affairs under stone pavers under the metal shed he built in the early to mid-1990s. Like driving licenses in jars.’
Investigators at the home dug a large hole in the yard where the metal shed used to be, she said.
She added that police are also investigating the unsolved murder of 22-year-old Shawna Garber, whose remains were found near Pineville, Missouri, in December 1990, but declined to comment further on other matters related to BTK. .
Rader has been questioned about the disappearances before and he told Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden that he was “done” talking about Kinney’s cold case.
When questioned about the disappearance of Shawna Garber, who went missing on Halloween night in 1990, the serial killer said he “enjoyed” meeting investigators.
Shirley Vian’s body is pictured being carried from her home in Wichita in 1977 after she was killed by Dennis Rader
After Dennis Rader’s arrest, police found photos of him dressing up as his victims
Following Rex Heurmann’s dramatic arrest last month as a suspected serial killer, BTK drew comparisons between himself and the alleged killer due to their similar double lives.
In a letter he wrote behind bars, he said their parallel lives — and their alleged crimes — practically make them “clones.”
“I was arrested at the age of 59. Married, two kids,” Rader wrote in the letter to Fox News. “Husband, father has long been a serial killer, stalker, used electronic devices, and lives unnoticed in a neighborhood.”