Hackler 1
Ginny Hackler
Deborah Ashcraft
English Comp
17 March 2016
Dennis L. Rader:
The BTK Killer and His Apprehension Dennis Lynn Rader for some is an unknown name. The name most people recognize is ?The BTK Killer?, which stands for Bind, Torture, and Kill, a name Rader gave himself through his communications with the police. BTK committed his first murders in Wichita Kansas in 1974 and carried out his final murder in 1991. (Editors) The abrupt end of murders Rader committed combined with the stop in communication led most in the Wichita area, including the police, to believe that the BTK Killer died or was imprisoned. As it turns out neither of these hypothesis turned out to be true. It is still unknown why he stopped killing. What police now know is with many news stories marking the thirtieth anniversary of Rader?s first murders the BTK Killer resumed communication in 2004. (Wilson) This continued communication combined with his ego, need to feel powerful and worry that others would receive credit for the BTK murders ultimately led to Rader?s arrest in February 2005. His first victims were four members of the Otero family in January 1974, mother Julie thirty-four years old, father Joseph thirty-eight years old, and
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Concerns about the possibility of alerting the subject led the police to conduct a quiet but intensive background investigation on Rader. The task force conceived a unique approach to identify Dennis Rader as the primary suspect using DNA from one of his two adult children. The task force obtained a subpoena for his daughter?s medical records and as a result, a biological sample was located for DNA comparison. On February 22, 2005, the sample taken to the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) lab for DNA analysis confirmed that BTK was indeed the biological father of Rader?s daughter.