This past February was the 20th anniversary of the arrest of iconic serial killer BTK. BTK is the acronym nickname given to Dennis Rader, referencing his style of murder: bind, torture, and kill. Over the span of 17 years, Rader had 10+ victims, with more crimes attributed to him as time went on.
Rader murdered four members of the Otero family on Jan. 15, 1974. When the three older Otero children came home from school, they found the bodies of Joseph Otero, Sr. (38), Julia Maria “Julie” Otero (33), Joseph “Joey” Otero II (9), and Josephine “Josie” Otero (11) in the house. Rader confessed to these murders and stated that he had intended to act on this family for two months before the murders after he saw Julie take her children to school. One tactic Rader often used before he attacked his victims was stalking. He did this to the Otero family and multiple other victims. This was the first of many times Rader committed sickening acts toward innocent people.
The police investigated these murders for years, and by 2004, it was considered a cold case. Rader initiated 11 communications to various publications from January to February 2005 that led to his arrest. During this time, Rader sent letters to KAKE News and placed letters and objects around Wichita. An example of one of these droppings was in January 2005. Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in a pickup truck bed in Wichita. The driver discarded it, and it was discovered in a trash bin after Rader asked what had happened to it in a later message. This box was attributed to Rader after Home Depot security footage showed a man driving a black Jeep Cherokee placing the box in the truck bed.
In one of his clues, Rader made a mistake that led to his arrest. Feb. 16, 2005, Rader sent a 1.44 megabyte floppy disk to Wichita station KSAS-TV. On this floppy disk was a Word document containing metadata that included the words “Christ Lutheran Church” and that the document was last altered by “Dennis.” Police conducted a quick Google search to find a man named Denis Rader, who was president of the council at this church. When investigators drove by Rader’s house, they found a black Jeep Cherokee parked outside. This was substantial evidence that Rader was the culprit; this was strong circumstantial evidence but not enough to convict him. Police later ran a DNA test on Rader’s daughter and found a “familial match” between her and him. This was enough evidence to convict Rader.
Denis Rader was arrested on Feb. 25, 2005, while driving around his Park City home. Officers from the Witchita Police Department, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and ATF searched Rader’s home and car and found many pieces of evidence. This evidence included computer equipment and a pair of black pantyhose. Rader often used pantyhose to crossdress or strangle his victims.
Rader was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences with a minimum of 175 years. Rader was spared the death sentence because it was not available in Kansas during the time of the murders.
