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Dennis Rader: Serial Killer

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Case Study 1: BTK In 2005, serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as BTK (bind, torture, and kill), was arrested and convicted of murdering 10 people in Kansas between the years of 1974 and 1991. Rader sent numerous notes to the police, but they couldn’t prove for sure that he was the one committing the murders. In 2004, he began sending things to the police once again. However, this time Rader sent a document created in Microsoft Word on a floppy disk. Digital forensics was used to identify Rader as a suspect through the use of EnCase software. EnCase is a computer forensics software that’s usually used by law enforcement. It is widely used and is fundamental in forensics. It collects data from a computer and can also detect if the data …show more content…

He was an unusual serial killer. Rader’s killings weren’t as frequent as most serial killers. “Unlike most serial killers, however, Rader went on a spree that lasted an unusually long time. He started kill­ing in 1974, when he was 29, and was planning another murder at the time of his arrest, when he was 59 (Hansen, 2006).” “Also unusual for a serial killer, according to Hazelwood, was the amount of time that passed between his crimes (Hansen, 2006).” Dennis Rader used psychology and criminology to his advantage. He would give clues, send letters through the media, as well as other things but would never do it in a way in which he could be caught. “Rader sent 19 messages in all, 10 of them in the 11 months before his arrest. Most serial killers do not communicate with the authorities, and when they do it is hardly ever to the extent that Rader did (Hansen, 2006).” If he had never said anything, I don’t think he would’ve been caught. Without the evidence contained on the floppy disk, Rader wouldn’t have been considered as a person of interest yet again. Rader tried to delete any information that would identify him from the disk. “But he made the fatal mistake of taking the disk to his church to print out the file because the printer for his home computer wasn’t working (Hansen, 2006).” Rader wanted fame and attention for the crimes he

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Dennis Rader was famously known as the BTK killer. He took the lives of ten people in the Wichita, Kansas area between the year of 1974 and 1991. During the murders he often left clues to insult the law enforcement officers. The first murder of Dennis Rader was on the 15th of January 1974whereby he strangled to death four members of the Otero family in their Wichita home. After killing the family he left with a radio and a watch.

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If he did there would of been plenty of physical evidence to convict him notably the semen and DNA taken from underneath the fingernails of Vicki Wegerle matching Dennis Rader. The prosecutors would have also been able to link Dennis Rader's grammar and writing style comparison to match the various letters starting from the secret “witness program letter” found in the library linking him to the Otero family murder because others were trying to take credit for it.3 The next letter he wrote because he was angered by the lack of attention he had received titled “ How many do i have to kill, before i get my name in the paper or national attention” naming 7 victims at the time.3 A more recent letter from 2004 was the “Oh Death To Nancy poem” he wrote.3 All of his letters were typed. These letter these letters contain details from the from the crime scenes that only the killer would know and the fact he wrote about the trophies he kept. They were later recovered by the police at his home when they ran the warrant for him.

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In the BTK case, Rader killed many people throughout the years without being caught because of the scientific capabilities in the U.S. as the years went by, the technical field became more and more progressive when it came DNA and profiling victims and even criminals. The fact the Rader was so sure he wasn’t going to get caught any time soon, led to him sending out a digital disk and even a letter written with his own hand writing was incredible. It’s as if he wanted to get caught and gave investigators and law enforcement every opportunity but the capabilities just didn’t allow it at that time. Rader’s daughter’s DNA somehow got obtain by the hands of law enforcement years later and led to investigators being able to link her to her

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Rader believed the police and used a floppy disk to communicate which led the police back to his church and, eventually, his capture. Another factor that contributed to the arrest of Rader was a sample of his semen found in the basement of the Otero’s house, close to where Josephine’s body was found. This DNA evidence helped narrow down the search for Rader (Hansen). On June 27, 2005, Dennis Rader appeared in court and confessed to every murder he committed and stated every detail. In total, Rader had committed 10 murders all using his bind, torture, kill method.

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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,

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Dennis Rader the serial killer that shocked the world with killing lots of people and making America scared of a killer. Dennis Rader was Birth by his mother dorethea Rader in Kansas on March 9, 1945 and his father’s name was William Rader. As a young boy Dennis moved to Wichita Kansas to move to a better place from what he was living in. Dennis joined a youth boy scouts when he was a boy and then soon joined a church. Dennis attended Riverview elementary school where he was said to be an average student by his elementary school teachers.

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