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Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945), better known as the BTK killer, is an American serial killer who murdered at least ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although he occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, Rader typically targeted women. His victims were often attacked in their homes, then bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either suffocation with a plastic bag or manually strangled with a ligature.
In a series of crimes that terrorized Wichita in the mid-to-late 1970s, Rader also initiated a series of taunting letters he sent to police and media outlets, describing his crimes in detail and referring to himself as BTK (for "bind, torture, kill"). In addition, he stole keepsakes from his female victims, including underwear, driver's licenses and personal items. In 1979, BTK suddenly went quiet, and despite an exhaustive investigation, the case grew into one of the most infamous in American history. Rader would later confess to killing three further victims between 1985 and 1991 that were not initially linked to BTK but were confirmed to be his doing through DNA and items found in his possession.Cohen, Sharon (March 4, 2005). Police followed trail as details piled up. Lexington Herald-Leader. Associated Press. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
In 2004, after a thirteen-year hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters, where he hinted at committing further crimes. Based on items he turned over to law enforcement, he was identified and arrested in February 2005, pleading guilty to his crimes months later and given ten consecutive life sentences. He is currently incarcerated at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
Growing up in Wichita, Rader had an interest in novels, comic books, fishing and cub scouting.Davey, Monica (March 6, 2005). For BTK serial suspect, a life of strictest mores. The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2025. From a young age, however, he also harbored sexual sadism about torturing "trapped and helpless" women. Rader exhibited zoosadism by torturing, killing and hanging small animals. He acted out for voyeurism, autoerotic asphyxiation and cross-dressing, often spying on female neighbors while dressed in women's clothing, including women's underwear that he had stolen. He also masturbation with ropes or other bindings around his arms and neck. (2016). 9781611688412, ForeEdge. ISBN 9781611688412
As a student at Wichita Heights High School, Rader, who did not play any sports nor partake in any clubs, was described by fellow students as utterly lacking humor and always "hung back in the background." He spent most of his out-of-school time working as a bag boy and shelf stocker for a local grocery store to earn money for a motor vehicle.Wenzl, Roy; Laviana, Hurst (March 6, 2005). Who is this man?. The Wichita Eagle. p.6. Retrieved July 18, 2025. After graduating in 1963, Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan University, where he received only mediocre grades and dropped out after one year.
Rader received an honorable discharge on August 12, 1970, at the rank of staff sergeant.Hegeman, Roxana (March 19, 2005). Serial Killer Suspect 'Clean-Cut' In Military. The Tampa Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved July 15, 2025. He subsequently served in the Air Force Reserve Command until June 20, 1972, around the time he was hired for the Coleman Company. A year after his discharge, Rader purchased a home in Park City, Kansas, a suburb of Wichita. He enrolled at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate degree in electronics engineering in 1973. He then attended Wichita State University and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in administration of justice.Funk, Josh (February 27, 2005). College connection had been suspected. The Kansas City Star. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
Rader initially worked in the meat department of an IGA supermarket where his mother was employed as a bookkeeper. From mid-1972 to mid-1973, he worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, an outdoor supply company where two of his victims (Julie Otero and Kathryn Bright) also worked.Simon, Stephanie, Simon; Huffstutter, P.J. (March 7, 2005). Friend, neighbor ... suspected serial killer. Portland Press Herald. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 15, 2025. From 1974 to 1988, Rader worked at the local Wichita office of ADT Security Services, where he installed security alarms. Ironically, many of his clients were concerned homeowners seeking security from his own killings as BTK. At ADT, Rader was nicknamed "blue book man" by his coworkers because he always followed rules and scolded others for doing as much as making small talk during work hours.Simon, Stephanie; Huffstutter, P.J. (March 7, 2005). Family man and serial killer?. The Ann Arbor News. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
On the morning of the murders, Rader parked his car and walked to the Otero home, scaled a fence, and cut the phone lines when in the backyard. It was after this that Joey let the dog out the back door to the backyard, where Rader confronted him and forced his way into the home at gunpoint. Initially, the family thought he was pulling a prank; Rader asserted that it was not a joke and clarified that he had a .22 pistol loaded with hollow-point bullets. Rader told the Otero family that he was wanted in California before ordering them at gunpoint to lie on the living room floor. Then, he led the family into a bedroom and bound them with rope he had prepared ahead of time. Joseph and Joey were on the floor, while Julie and Josie were on the bed.
The family began complaining of circulation issues. Joseph complained of a cracked rib, so Rader put a pillow under him. Rader later stated that it was around this time that he decided to kill them. Rader covered Joseph's head with a plastic bag, which he then secured with ropes. After Joseph chewed a hole in the bag, Rader replaced it, causing him to slowly suffocate. Rader strangled Julie with a rope. At one point she regained consciousness and pleaded for mercy for her children, prompting Rader to kill her. Rader then placed another plastic bag, followed by two T-shirts and an additional bag, over Joey's head. Rader watched him struggle from a chair set up in the bedroom.
After the rest of the family was murdered, Rader took Josephine down to the basement. Rader undressed Josephine and tied a noose around a sewer pipe in the basement. Rader asked Josephine if her father had a camera so he could take pictures, to which she responded no. He then said that she would "go to heaven with the rest of your family", and Rader then hanged the girl in the basement and masturbated as he watched her struggle on the rope. On the way out of the house, he got in the Otero family car and drove it to the parking lot of a Dillons grocery store. He realized that he had dropped a knife in the backyard of the Otero home, so he drove his car back to the house to retrieve it.
On April 4, 1974, Rader broke into the home through a sliding glass door in the back, to find no one was home yet. He began sweeping up the glass to try to minimize suspicion when Kathryn did arrive. The delicate trigger of his pistol caused an accidental discharge. He feared that the smell of gunpowder would alert Kathryn. She came home shortly with Kevin. He told them that he was a wanted man from California, and needed money and food. He was described as a stocky man wearing a silver wrist watch, "sweating profusely". Rader forced the Brights into the southeast bedroom, where he made Kevin tie Kathryn up, before Rader bound Kevin himself. Rader used household supplies, including bandanas, as restraints to distinguish the crime from the Otero murders. Kevin and Kathryn were separated into different rooms with Kevin tied to a bedpost, and Kathryn to a chair. Rader turned on the stereo system in the living room to drown out any sounds of struggle, which he later claimed was a trick he learned from "detective magazines".
Rader returned to the bedroom where Kevin was restrained to strangle him, but Bright had freed himself. Rader then pulled his firearm and a struggle ensued, during which Rader shot Kevin in the forehead. Rader then attempted to strangle Kevin again, resulting in a similar struggle in which he fired two more shots: one landing just above Kevin's mouth and the other grazing him. Kevin played dead until Rader left the room, then ran from the house. He flagged down neighbors, who took him to the hospital and called police.
When Rader reentered her room, Kathryn asked about the gunshots. Rader told Kathryn that he had shot her brother, at which point she fought back. Kathryn's resistance proved too strong for Rader to strangle her as planned, so Rader resorted to stabbing her repeatedly in the area under her ribcage. Rader heard Kevin call for help during the struggle. Once he thought Kathryn was dead, Rader grabbed her keys, ran outside, and tried unsuccessfully to start Bright's truck. When it did not start, Rader ran to his car, which was parked at Wichita State University. Kathryn was alive when police arrived at her house, holding a telephone in her hands but partially verbally unresponsive. She died in emergency surgery from multiple stab wounds and strangulation.
At the Relford residence, Rader asked Shirley if she could identify the same photo. During this interaction, Rader pulled a gun and forced his way into the home. He claimed that he was a wanted man, and that they were being robbed. Rader attempted to tie up the three Relford children but struggled to do so, leading him to force the children into a bathroom, which he barricaded with Shirley's assistance. Rader reported giving the kids toys and supplies to keep them "comfortable" while he murdered their mother. He threatened to shoot the children if they broke free. After this, Rader took Shirley to the rear bedroom. Shirley vomited before being tied to her bedpost by her legs and handcuffed. Rader strangled her with rope after placing a plastic bag over her head. During the murder, Shirley was sick and asked for water, which Rader provided prior to strangling her.
Rader later confessed that he intended to eventually kill the children in the bathroom. However, the family phone rang and one of the children shouted that it was someone who would be visiting shortly, so Rader fled the home.
On December 8, 1977, Rader broke into Fox's home through a back window, after discovering she was out. After some time, Fox returned and began screaming at Rader to leave her house and that she was going to call the police. Rader informed her that her phone lines were cut and she would not be able to make any calls. Rader informed her that he intended to restrain her, take photographs of her, and rape her. He let Fox smoke a cigarette before this.
Rader allowed Fox to go to the bathroom after she assured him that she could not escape. Rader ordered Fox to come out of the bathroom partially undressed. Rader began to undress and he ordered her to lay down when she emerged from the bathroom. Fox resisted when Rader tried to remove her remaining clothing. Rader then began putting handcuffs on Fox, to which she protested and questioned the need for. Rader told her, "that's part of my deal. I got to have them or it won't work." Rader then began to crawl on top of Fox, and wrapped his belt around her neck. He would repeatedly loosen and tighten the belt, allowing her to come close to unconsciousness and then bring her back, before eventually killing her.
In the mid-1980s, with the BTK killer still having not been identified, a new task force of detectives colloquially known as the "Ghostbusters" revamped the investigation based on advancements with physical evidence, and over the span of three years compared blood and saliva samples with as many as 225 suspects, many of whom no longer lived in Wichita, and all but seven were cleared. Search goes on for Wichita killer. Salina Journal. Associated Press. October 30, 1987. Retrieved July 10, 2025.Laviana, Hurst (August 15, 2004). Longshot odds dog police sifting through DNA data. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 20, 2025.Davey, Monica (April 4, 2004). Fear grips Wichita after word from phantom serial killer. The Oregonian. The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
The case was still considered active in the 1990s, but investigators described their frustration with draining leads and worthless tips. Many former detectives on the case believed the killer was either imprisoned for another crime, was in a mental institution, was deceased, or possibly found a submissive partner who allowed him to act out his sexual fantasies on them.Hirschmann, Bill (January 15, 1994). 20 years after first inspiring fear, BTK strangler inspires frustration. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 10, 2025. At a lecture at Wichita State University, former FBI agent Robert Ressler correctly assumed the killer was a graduate student in the criminal justice field.Lessner, Lori (March 12, 1997). Speaker: Serial killers easily blend in. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 10, 2025. In 1998, investigators opted to use geographic profiling in an attempt to locate BTK's possible area of residence.Finger, Stan (May 7, 1998). A new look at the BTK murders. The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
In 1989, Rader was a field operations supervisor for the Wichita area for the 1990 federal census. In May 1991, Rader became a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City. In this role, neighbors described Rader as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict. One neighbor recalled observing Rader in their front lawn with a tape measure to determine if their grass was too long; Neighbors describe suspect as 'bureaucratic bully'. The Daily Dispatch. Associated Press. February 27, 2005. Retrieved July 10, 2025. another claimed they spotted Rader in their adjoining backyards filming their house;Twiddy, David (February 28, 2005). Neighbors' descriptions reveal two sides of suspect. The Ithaca Journal. Retrieved July 10, 2025. and a female neighbor complained that Rader killed her dog for no reason.*Interview with Misty King; A&E Documentary Special—The BTK Killer Speaks Rader's neighbors recalled him taking special pleasure in bullying and harassing single women. Two women he stalked in the 1980s, and one whom he stalked in the mid-1990s, filed restraining orders against him; one of these women also changed her address to avoid him.A&E Documentary Special – The BTK Killer Speaks He served on the Sedgwick County Animal Control Advisory Board from 1996 to 1998.Wenzl, Roy; Laviana, Hurst (March 6, 2005). Who is this man?. The Wichita Eagle. p.7. Retrieved July 18, 2025. His Park City home was demolished in March 2007. Former BTK home demolished. WIS. March 7, 2007. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
Rader cut the phone line to Hedge's home and managed to break into the home without damaging it too much. He then hid in a closet. After some waiting, Hedge came home with her boyfriend, leading Rader to wait even longer in the bedroom closet until he left, and for Hedge to get into bed. After he was confident Hedge was in bed, he crept out of the closet and quickly flipped on the bathroom light switch. Hedge woke up and began screaming. Rader subdued and handcuffed Hedge before strangling her to death. Rader then wanted to remove her from the house to "tie her up and take pictures of her". After finding her car keys and collecting mementos, Rader stripped Hedge and dragged her out to her car. He drove her to the Christ Lutheran Church, where he was a long-time member and keyholder. He dragged Hedge's body into the building and covered the windows before turning on the lights, ensuring no light would be visible from the outside. He then began positioning the body in the church and taking photographs of the corpse.
As daylight was approaching, Rader cleaned the scene, removed the garbage bags off the windows, turned off the lights, and returned the body to the trunk. Rader drove a little distance away, and dumped Hedge's nude body in a remote ditch and covered her with brush.
Wegerle told Rader that her husband would be home soon, but he persisted. Rader forced her in to the bedroom, where Wegerle broke free of her bonds and fought back. She scratched Rader's face hard enough that, at the time of his confession 20 years later, Rader testified that he "probably still had the scratch somewhere ... if you looked". The struggle upset the Wegerles' dogs, who began barking. Rader grew nervous, because the windows were open and he did not know when Wegerle's husband would be home. Rader did not have much time but he took pictures after he killed her for "sexual purposes".
Rader fled with the Wegerle car, and passed Vicki's husband on the way out. Rader parked the car in a grocery store parking lot, and drove back home in his car. As he passed the Wegerle home, he saw EMS responding.
Rader used a Trappers Scout outing as cover for the murder. On January 18, 1991, the Trappers were having their annual "dead of winter" outing at Harvey County Park West. Rader went to the park and set up camp before fabricating a story and leaving. Rader then drove to his parents' house and got changed out of his trapping scout clothes. Rader then drove to Park City Baptist Church, to which he had a key because of his Boy Scouts duties. Rader left the church, walking through wheat fields and cutting through a cemetery to get to Davis's home. The severe cold drove Rader to break in by smashing the window rather than trying to break in more quietly.
It was between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. when Rader arrived at the Davis home, where he could see Davis reading through the window blinds. Rader waited until the lights had been out for a few minutes, then threw a cinder block through the sliding glass door. Davis ran out of her bedroom yelling. Rader used his wanted man ruse on her. He said he would tie her up and leave her, but take her car and some food after taking some time to warm up. Davis refused and told him to leave, at which point Rader informed her that he had a gun, a club, and a knife on his person. Davis then became cooperative. Rader obtained the keys to her car and rattled around in the kitchen, pretending to look for food. Rader believed that while he was tying her up with a pair of her pantyhose that Davis realized that he was going to kill her. She begged for her life, prompting Rader to strangle her with the pantyhose. Rader initially was going to stay and take photos with the body, but Davis had lied to him and said that somebody was coming soon, forcing him to leave sooner than he had planned.
Rader used a bedspread to drag Davis's body to her car and put her in the trunk. Rader drove her car to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) lake, where he dumped her body in the bushes. Rader drove back to Davis's home and threw her keys on the roof, having read that the police had looked for the Otero's keys on the roof of their home. Rader walked back to the Baptist Church to pick up his car. Rader drove back to the KDOT, collected the body, and drove out to a rural area, where he dumped the body underneath a bridge. Rader did not take any pictures the night of the murder because he needed to get back to camp before his absence was noticed.
Davis was discovered on February 1, 1991, by a 15-year-old boy, Nelson Schock. Schock's dog went under the bridge and the boy followed when he was unable to call it back up to the street.
In May 2004, KAKE received a letter with chapter headings for the "BTK Story", fake IDs and a word puzzle. On June 9, a package was found taped to a stop sign at the corner of First and Kansas roads in Wichita, which contained graphic descriptions of the Otero murders and a sketch labeled "The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill". Also enclosed was a chapter list for a proposed book titled The BTK Story, which mimicked a story written in 1999 by truTV crime writer David Lohr. Chapter One was titled "A Serial Killer Is Born". In July, a package dropped into the return slot at a public library contained more bizarre material, including the claim that BTK was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas, earlier that month. This claim was false, and that death was ruled a suicide.
In his letters, Rader revealed considerable information about himself to detectives, including that he was former military and had a fascination with trains. Conversely, he also gave investigators misleading or false information like claiming he was born in 1939 and moved around frequently as a child. Police release clues on elusive Kansas serial killer. Albany Democrat-Herald. Associated Press. November 30, 2004. Retrieved July 10, 2025. After his capture, Rader admitted in his interrogation that he had been planning to kill again, that he had set a date (October 2004) and was stalking his intended victim. That month, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita. It contained many cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them, a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lieutenant Ken Landwehr and a false autobiography with many details about Rader's life. These details were later released to the public. In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the killer. This time, the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It contained the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen from the crime scene, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet with a plastic bag tied over its head.
In January 2005, Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck at a Home Depot in Wichita, but the box was discarded by the truck's owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader asked what had become of it in a later message. Surveillance tape of the parking lot from that date revealed a distant figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the box in the pickup. In February 2005, more postcards were sent to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location was found to contain another bound doll.
In his letters to police, Rader asked if his writings, if put on a floppy disk, could be traced or not. The police answered his question in a newspaper ad posted in The Wichita Eagle, saying "Rex, it will be ok". The Wichita Eagle Thu, February 3, 2005. On February 16, 2005, Rader sent a purple 1.44-megabyte Memorex floppy disk to Wichita station KSAS-TV. Also enclosed were a letter, a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion and a photocopy of the cover of Rules of Prey, a 1989 novel by John Sandford about a serial killer.
Police obtained a warrant to test a pap smear taken from Rader's daughter at the Kansas State University medical clinic. DNA tests showed a "familial match" between the pap smear and the sample from Wegerle's fingernails; this indicated that the killer was closely related to Rader's daughter and, combined with the other evidence, was enough for police to arrest Rader.
Officers from the Wichita Police, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and FBI and ATF searched Rader's home and vehicle, seizing evidence including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed and a cylindrical container. Christ Lutheran Church, Rader's office and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched.
At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announced, "The bottom line: BTK is arrested."
Rader asked about the death penalty, and inquired several times about what his potential sentence would end up being. Rader further asked whether he would be assigned to a "special section" of prison or among the "loonies" in the general population.
At Rader's August 18 sentencing, victims' families made statements, after which Rader apologized in a rambling 30-minute monologue that the prosecutor likened to an Oscar speech. His statement has been described as an example of an often-observed phenomenon among : their inability to understand the emotional content of language. Rader was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, with a minimum of 175 years. Kansas did not enforce the death penalty at the time of the murders. On August 19, Rader was moved to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
The videotape of Mendoza's interview ended up being used on NBC's Dateline NBC. NBC claimed Rader knew the interview might be televised, but this was false according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement. On October 25, 2005, the Kansas attorney general filed a petition to sue Mendoza and Tali Waters, co-owners of Cambridge Forensic Consultants LLC, for breach of contract, claiming that they intended to benefit financially from the use of information obtained through involvement in Rader's defense. On May 10, 2007, Mendoza settled the case for US$30,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.
| Joseph Otero | M | 38 | January 15, 1974 | 803 N. Edgemoor Street, Wichita | Suffocated | Plastic bag |
| Julia Maria Otero | F | 33 | Strangled | Rope | ||
| Joseph Otero Jr. | M | 9 | Suffocated | Plastic bag | ||
| Josephine Otero | F | 11 | Rope | |||
| Kathryn Doreen Bright | F | 21 | April 4, 1974 | 3217 E. 13th Street N., Wichita (died at Wesley Medical Center) | Stabbed three times in abdomen | Knife |
| Kevin Bright | M | 19 | N/A (escaped on April 4, 1974) | Gun | ||
| Shirley Ruth Vian Relford | F | 24 | March 17, 1977 | 1311 S. Hydraulic Street, Wichita | Strangled | Rope |
| Nancy Jo Fox | F | 25 | December 8, 1977 | 843 S. Pershing Street, Wichita | Strangled | Belt |
| Anna Williams | F | 63 | N/A. (did not come home on the night of April 28, 1979, when Rader was waiting for her) | |||
| Marine Wallace Hedge | F | 53 | April 27, 1985 | 6254 N. Independence Street, Park City | Strangled | Hand(s) |
| Vicki Lynn Wegerle | F | 28 | September 16, 1986 | 2404 W. 13th Street N., Wichita | Strangled | Nylon stocking |
| Dolores Earline Johnson Davis | F | 62 | January 19, 1991 | 6226 N. Hillside Street, Wichita (east of Park City) | Strangled | Pantyhose |
In April 2006, the Kansas Department of Corrections cited Rader's good behavior for him being granted privileges such as allowing him to possess a television set, listen to the radio, read books, and possess art supplies. Prosecutors had argued in favor of not giving such privileges, saying images of women and children along with news accounts of his murders would allow him to relive his sex-fueled fantasies. Prison restrictions eased for BTK killer. NBC News. Associated Press. April 23, 2006. Retrieved June 7, 2025.
In 2019, Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson, published her book A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming where she goes over her childhood and Rader's role. In an interview with ABC News, Kerri stated she writes to her father and has now forgiven him, but still struggles to reconcile her "normal" childhood with the knowledge that she was raised by the BTK killer. Rawson visited him in 2023 and reported him as "rotting" and "unhappy", reporting that "he's lost like 7 inches and he's in a wheelchair." At the 2024 Crime Con in Nashville, Tennessee, Kerri presented excerpts from her father's journal that revealed he had sexually abused her when she was a child.
In August 2023, the Associated Press reported that authorities discovered "possible trophies" from victims after launching a search for evidence at Rader's former Park City home, resulting in the investigation of his potential involvement in additional unsolved disappearances and murders. Among the cases was the disappearance of Cynthia Dawn Kinney, 16, in Osage, Oklahoma, on June 23, 1976. Witnesses said she left the Osage Laundromat at 9:30 a.m. and got into a faded beige 1965 Plymouth Belvedere. Osage Sheriff Eddie Virden claimed that Rader had been identified as a prime suspect after it was determined that he was involved in Boy Scout events in the area and when it was learned that Rader had included the phrase "bad wash day" in his writings. A bank was also having new ADT alarms installed across the street from the laundromat when Kinney went missing; Rader was a regional installer for ADT at the time. Furthermore, Rader has allegedly claimed to have "fantasized about kidnapping a girl from a laundromat". Rader has denied involvement in the murder, which Virden believes is due to possibly being tried in Oklahoma and potentially being given the death penalty.
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