Dennis Lynn Rader: Victims Of The BTK Killer

Dennis Lynn Rader was born March 9, 1945, and between 1974, and 1991 killed ten people before he went dormant (Sylvester, R., 2005). He is known as the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer, and terrorized Wichita, Kansas for over three decades (Murphy, H., 2016). The BTK killer as many other serial killers had a past of torturing small animals, but one aspect of him that eludes many to this day is why did he go dormant for so many years (biography.com & Communications). The first victims of the BTK killer was the Oteros Family that was comprised of four, a son, daughter, mother, and father (Sylvester, R., 2005). His fifth victim was Kathryn Bright, sixth victim was Shirley Vian Relford, seventh victim was Nancy Fox, eighth victim was Marine Hedge,

On October 1974 a letter was found in the Wichita Public library inside an engineering book that described the killing in detail of the Oteros family (McClellan, J., 2010). In 1978 he would again send another message claiming responsibility for the killings of the Oteros, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox, and Kathryn Bright to a television station in Wichita, Kansas (McClellan, J., 2010). In the letter to the television station The BTK killer demanded media attention, and also included a poem that was titled “Oh! Death to Nancy”(McClellan, J., 2010 & Sylvester, R., 2005). His taunting of the police, and sending message to television stations, and hiding messages all tie back to the desire of fame, and recognition that Dennis Lynn Rader possessed. Marine Hedge was murdered in April of 1985, Vicki Wegerle was murdered in 1986, and his last victim Dolores 'Dee' Davis was murdered in 1991 (Sylvester, R., 2005). The way in which every single one of his victims was murder was similar, just as every other serial killer the BTK killer had a method in which he operated, a signature of