Cold Case Files - Finding BTK

Episode Date: December 5, 2017

Bind. Torture. Kill. That was the mantra of one of America's most notorious serial killers. After killing at least seven people in the Wichita, Kansas area during the 1970s, BTK disappeared for nearly three decades. Then in 2004 he re-surfaced, and used the local new to make sure everybody knew it.

The following program is brought to you by your friends at Podcast One. On March 17th, 1977, in Wichita, Kansas, Shirley Vian was feeling a little sick. She laid in her bed hoping that her three children could entertain themselves just long enough for her to get a little rest. It was working for the moment, until the knock. Shirley's son, Steve, answered the door, because that's what you do when someone knocks on a door. Six-year-old Steve saw a man he didn't recognize. This is Steve.

He asked me, are your parents home? Started pulling down the blinds, turned off the TV, retching his holster and pulled out a pistol. One third of all murder cases in America remain open. Each one is called a cold case. And only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare cases. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast.

Steve said that his mother was sick and not available, but that didn't stop the man from entering his home. The man pulled down the blinds and he turned off the TV. Then he pulled a pistol he was carrying out of its holster. It was that regrettable moment Shirley entered the room and encountered the man who had knocked on the door. She asked what was going on. What was the man doing in her house? In this situation,

it may have been better not to know. The man put Steve and his brother and sister into a bathroom. He tied the door shut so they couldn't get out. Shirley encouraged her children to stay put for fear of their lives. Not being able to leave the room didn't stop little Steve from seeing what happened next. Here's Steve again. I stood on the tub, I think, and looked over the door. As I did that, I seen my mother being stripped, her hands bound behind her back, plastic bag over her head, rope tied around her neck. It was estimated by the children that about 15 minutes after Steve saw the gruesome scene, the house became quiet.

To three children, hearing the sound of their mother being assaulted, it's hard to tell if the quiet was comforting or a realization. Steve was able to escape the bathroom, encouraged by the quiet, but still afraid the man could be lurking in the home. He wasn't, though. The man was gone. He had already left.

I run around to the other bedroom. I seen my mother laying there. I think I tried to untie it. I couldn't. Called the cops. Called 911. Somebody. My mom's dead. Law enforcement found Shirley with her legs bound to the bedpost and her arms bound to each other. She had a plastic bag on her head covering her face and a rope around her neck like a noose. It was determined that she had died of strangulation from the rope. When the detectives in Wichita County became familiar with Shirley's case, they made an unexpected discovery.

Here's Chief Richard Lemunyan from the Wichita Police Department. The detectives went out, and when they came back and reported, they said that there's a real possibility that the Shirley Vian case is connected to the Otero case. The Otero case wasn't familiar to me, but when I did some research, I could understand the connection. The facts that are coming next are gruesome. Just letting you know so you can make an informed decision before listening. In Wichita in 1974, the police discovered a quadruple homicide. Four members of the Otero family had been killed. Joseph Sr., Julie, Joseph Jr., and Josephine. The three other Otero children had been at school at the time. He took the four Oteros to a bedroom,

coursing them with a gun. The parents were strangled and bound to the bed. The man put a plastic bag over Joseph Sr.'s head and tightened the cord around his neck. Joseph Sr. got quiet, but he wasn't dead. He ripped a hole in the plastic bag to let in some air. The man put another bag over his head and added a T-shirt.

He then strangled Julie on the bed with her arms and legs bound together as her children watched. Nine-year-old Joseph Jr. was on the floor, and the man put a bag over his head, and he too was strangled. Lastly was 11-year-old Josephine. She was found hanging from a pipe. This is Chief Lemunyan again.

He bound her feet, and he bound her hands hands behind her and he pulled her little panties down and he cut her little bra off in the back. And while he was pulling her up, he hung her like he would in a hangman's noose. And as she was dying, he was masturbating close to her and got some semen on her leg. Police would later find out that these were the killer's first stranglings and that several of the family members had simply just passed out. When they woke up, he strangled them again until they finally were dead. Wichita police questioned a few subjects in this case, but none of them were charged.

The police did get a lead, though, from what seems like an unlikely place, the public library. Apparently, someone had left a letter and a book for the police to find. This is Chief Lemanyan again. This letter is very clear to tell us you have the wrong people. You need to stop looking at them. You need to come back and focus your attention on me. I am the important one. I'm the one that's responsible and you need to get a handle on this one because this could happen again. The letter gave details on the Otero murders, details only the killer would know. The writer of the letter also included this phrase, the code words for me will be bind them, torture them, kill them. They will be on

the next victim. The man from then forward was referred to simply as BTK, bind, torture, kill. Bind. Torture. Kill. Nine months after Shirley Vane's murder, the Wichita 911 services got a call from none other than BTK himself. Yes, you will find a homicide in 843 South 13, Nancy Fox. What is the address? 843 South 13. Correct. Law enforcement was dispatched to the home of Nancy Fox, and they found her. She was bound and strangled with her own pantyhose.

Semen was found on her nightgown. Why would a killer call 911 to report his own crime? He wanted to brag about it. He wanted to make sure that we, the police, found it undisturbed, and he wanted us to see his work and wanted us to realize the type of quote-unquote monster we were dealing with. Investigators believe they not only had a serial killer on their hands, but also an attention seeker. Someone who wanted their crimes to be publicized, to get recognition he felt he deserved.

The police didn't give it to him, though. They had a different plan. The thought process was, we won't give him credit for it with the idea that this will prompt a communications from him. And it did. BTK, not wanting his efforts to go unnoticed, started contacting media outlets, like this one from February 10, 1978. Good afternoon.

This morning, Cake TV was contacted by the person who police say they believe murdered four members of the Joseph Otero family in January of 1974. Or this one. BTK began today's letter with a question. How many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention? The letter to the news station was not only for attention, but a name in the paper or some national attention. The letter to the news station was not only for attention, but a challenge to the police. The letter listed seven of his victims, but only six victims on the list included their names.

The fifth victim's name was missing from the list. We were confident that number five was Kathy. Kathy, or Catherine Bright, was 21 years old when she was stabbed 11 times in her home. Her brother was shot in the face. But what made the police think that this murder was related to BTK? It comes back to the method of operation, the way he broke into the house. He broke the back window. He cleaned the glass up. He cut the phone wire. If it was attention he was seeking, he got it by sending the letter with the victim's names to the news. Maybe he had even gotten enough attention to be satisfied,

because for the next year, there was no contact and no bodies generated from BTK. The hysteria that spread over the community a year ago at this time has died down. The chief does want people to be aware that BTK is probably still around. I have no reason to doubt that the individual will strike again, assuming that he's still free and walking around. It wasn't immediate. It wasn't right after Chief Lemmonian made the statement. But BTK did come back. The news reported another letter 27 years later. Wichita police confirm BTK is back. A letter sent to the Wichita Eagle last week is believed to be from the serial killer.

It is a story we first broke on Cake yesterday. Here's Hurst Lavinia, a reporter with the Wichita Eagle and the recipient of the new BTK letters. It's a single sheet of paper, three photographs, a driver's license. And there were some markings on the letter. The three pictures were of women who had been murdered. The driver's license belonged to a woman named Vicki Wagerly, who had been murdered in 1986. She was also suspected as BTK's eighth victim. Now that he's reappeared, there are two important questions that need answers. Where is BTK? And how are they going to stop him?

They start with the BTK Task Force. It's headed by Lieutenant Ken Landwehr, who worked on the BTK case as a young investigator in the 80s. He's joined by Detective Tim Ralph, Detective Clint Snyder, and Agent Larry Thomas. Here's one of their roundtable discussions. It was just grab a pack of leads and move on. The strategy was to try to keep up with the tips. Yeah.

One of the first things I remember was the fact that, of course, when the call started coming in, a lot of them were our same suspects that you guys had kicked around for years. The task force discovered that the DNA from Vicki Weigroley, the woman from the driver's license, had been matched to several of the other genetic profiles

found at suspected BTK murder locations. The task force questioned and took DNA samples of over 1,500 men in Wichita. None of them were a match. The actual BTK can't bother to be tested. He's too busy rekindling his relationship writing to the media. The letter he sends appears to be the skeleton of a novel.

The first page said the BTK story. It was typed, followed by titles of chapters. Susan Peters is an anchor for the news station KAKE, and investigators have deduced that she's also become an object of fascination for BDK. He sends letters through Susan and the station meant for the police. However, he started expressing concern about Susan and her co-anchor Jeff's well-being. This is Susan. It was eerie. It was very eerie when he wrote to us and said, I hope Susan's and Jeff's cold get better because naturally everyone's more afraid for the female than the male of the news game. I mean, that freaked me out. To be honest with you, it freaked

my husband out. It was a little bit frightening. And at that particular time, I started taking extra precautions and extra security precautions. Investigators decided that their best course of action is to continue to accept letters from BTK. They believe he will eventually make a mistake that leads to his arrest. More letters come, and even chapters of what he alleges to be his autobiography. Here's Lt. Ken Landwehr. He claims the following. He was born in 1939, which would make his current age 64 or 65. His father died in World War II, and his mother raised him.

His mother started dating a railroad detective when BTK was around 11 years old. The police make the letters public, hoping that giving BTK the attention he wants will keep the line of communication open. The letters frequently come with pictures, but those aren't shared with the public. The pictures are actually taken by BTK, of himself. He will send us pictures of himself in four different locations, where he's tied up to trees in practice auto-erotic, where he's actually buried himself in a grave. In one of his particularly wicked phases, he sends dolls. Dolls that represent his victims, like 11-year-old Josephine that he hung from a pipe,

and another doll that was supposed to represent Nancy Fox. He would use those dolls to fantasize about what he did to victims. We have Polaroids of him dressing up with his dolls and tying them up, taking pictures of himself and the dolls in a mirror. I mean, that was part of his fantasy life. BTK keeps sending out more mail. He sends packages, letters, and chapters of his book detailing murder. The detectives still have no lead,

but they hold on to the hope that if they're patient enough, that it will all come someday soon. He's playing with us, he's taunting us, and that's what he's always done. But we knew that in the long run, if we continue to let him do that, that we're going to catch him. And that's the ultimate, the ultimate goal was, of course, put him in behind bars. How that happened, After the break. When you're looking to buy a car, you want to make sure that you're getting real pricing on actual inventory.

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When you're ready to buy, visit TrueCar to enjoy a more confident car buying experience. Some features not available in all states. Hey, my name is James Petrigallo. I'm Jimmy Wisman. Please join us every single Tuesday for Crime in Sports. So fun. You like sports?

You don't have to. Let's just set up a context and find out what an idiot did wrong. What do you say? I'm in. We're going to do that each and every week. We take an athlete, we break him down, we make fun of everything he's ever done. But in order to do that, we have to build up and tell you all about their career and get you to what, James? To grace.

That's right. And watch them fall from grace as they inevitably do. Join us. Big criminals, small criminals, sports you've never heard of. Doesn't matter. It's the crime. It's the comedy. It's such a good time.

Join us every Tuesday for Crime in Sports. You can join us every Tuesday at PodcastOne.com, the Podcast One app, or subscribe on all Apple products. Find us every Tuesday and laugh at people. Dana Gouge is a Wichita homicide detective, and on January 25, 2005, he received a report of a suspicious package in a truck at a parking lot at a Home Depot store. This is Detective Dana Gouch. The package was actually in the back end of his truck, and that's where he found it. On the outside of the package was the phrase, BTK bomb. The employee thought it was a joke, and he opened it. Luckily, joke or not, there were no explosives inside. To discover the origin of the package, detectives requested access to the store surveillance videotapes. There were hours

of tapes for them to review, but they finally found something. At 2.37 p.m., a black SUV slows down as it drives by the truck in question. Someone gets out of the SUV, messes around with a truck that had the package, and then gets back in and leaves. They might have just caught their first glimpse of BTK. You're just staring. I stared at that. I must have watched that I don't know how many times, just staring at him,

saying, there he is. The members of the task force split into two teams with different investigative angles. One team will try to discover the origins of the vehicle. The other team will investigate the contents of the BTK bomb package. Inside of it, it had a doll and some jewelry, and it also had a note inquiring whether or not he could communicate with the police by floppy disk without us being able to trace it. In fact, he wrote, be honest, and asked us to reply through the newspaper to his question. The investigators responded to the newspaper as requested, telling him that they couldn't trace a floppy disk.

Spoiler alert, that's not true. But Lieutenant Landwehr was willing to live with that lie if it meant catching a serial killer. On February 16, 2005, a local news station gets another package from BTK. And inside, as the police had hoped, was a computer disk. Detective Randy Stone, the computer expert, puts the disk into his drive. This is Detective Stone. Says this is a TASC 3x5 card for details on communication with me in the newspaper. Knowing that Office has what's called metadata

embedded in it, and that was what we were just looking at in the formatting. As a non-computer genius, I had to do some research to understand what all that really meant. Basically, software is registered to a specific user, like my version of Word is registered to me. So if you're typing a file that has metadata embedded into it,

someone with the appropriate software can read that information and tell who the software is registered to. In some cases, it can also tell you specific users of the program, which is especially useful if the computer is in a public place where multiple users have access to the same software. The version of Word could be registered to the library, which isn't so helpful, but

identifying the last user of that specific program can be extremely helpful. This is Randi Stone again. Randy Stone, The next thing we looked at was statistics, and it shows here that it was last saved by Dennis. So somehow a Dennis who was affiliated with the church or the library was somehow involved with this document. So we know that Dennis, whoever that might be, accessed a program that was licensed to a church or library. Detective Stone does a search for the church on the internet.

And when we do that, we come up with their webpage that has a link to their people affiliated with the church. You click on that link and you go to here. And the only dentist we found on there was the president of the Congregation Council was Dennis Rader. After almost 30 years, one tech guy gets a name and possible locations for BTK. He turns to his fellow officers for at least some kind of congratulations. You know, I'm sitting there looking at the computer. I know there's people standing behind me. But then I come up with a name and look up Dennis and I look behind me and there's nobody there anymore because everybody just disappeared.

You know, once we had this information, we were gone. Investigators get Dennis Rader's last known address, located in Park City. Detectives notice something promising when they pull close to Rader's home. A black Jeep Cherokee parked in his driveway. You know, a lot of us, I can speak for myself, still weren't sure originally. Because we thought this guy can't be, he's setting somebody up. He has to be. But I think the follow-up that was done fairly quickly when we found the Jeep Cherokee sitting in the driveway, that pretty much took away that doubt.

Understandably, after all this time, detectives wanted to move in and arrest their man. The lieutenant, however, tells them to stand down. That was a difficult order for the men to follow, but I commend them for doing so. He said, come on back. And as Tim and I have discussed many times, that was the hardest drive probably that we've ever had. And the hardest thing we've ever had to do is to put that car back in gear and drive back to Wichita when we think we're 100 yards away from BTK. Before they make the arrest, they want to be sure they're positive they have the right guy. So they start to look into Dennis Rader's life. Chief Norman Williams of the Wichita Police Department made this statement.

When you look at his lifestyle, I mean, he really didn't fit the profile of a serial killer. I mean, he blended in. You know, the president of his church congregation, Boy Scout leader, you know, lived in the suburbs outside of Wichita. I mean, he blended in. I have to respectfully disagree. Blending in with society is essential for a serial killer. A serial killer, on their face, likely has similar social behaviors to you or me. Not blending would make them more vulnerable to apprehension. They perform loose surveillance on Dennis Rader to make sure that he really is BTK. Landwehr wants to collect a covert sample

of Rader's DNA, but he doesn't want to accidentally tip the subject off. They decide to go another route and look into his family. We'll find out that he has two children and we know that we will be able to get a reverse parent match if we get the DNA from one of those children. The investigators subpoenaed Dennis Rader's 27-year-old daughter's records. They then sent a tissue sample to the state crime lab to see if the DNA matched the DNA collected from the BTK crime scenes. Basically, I get the phone call that the daughter is related to BTK. At that point, we start writing the search warrants, planning his arrest for the next morning. The day comes, February 25th, 2005. The day that investigators, victims, and family members alike had been waiting for.

The day they arrest BTK. Everyone was in place, just waiting for him to drive by. And as he came down off of 61st Street and started down this street, the unmarked car with the lights and the grill came up behind him and put on their lights and stopped him right in this area here. And that's when Ray Lundeen from the KBI and Dana Gouge came up and made the arrest. His arrest appeared non-dramatic compared to those you see on TV or how you might picture the arrest of a vicious serial killer.

Basically, he got into the backseat of a police car where Lieutenant Landwehr was also sitting and just said hello. Never denying that he's BTK, never denying anything, never asking why we're holding him. It was just, hello, Mr. Landwehr. And pretty much resigned right at the fact that, right then, that, well, this is going to be a long day for him. Lieutenant Lander and FBI agent Bob Morton began to interrogate Dennis Rader.

They asked him about his writings, but he dodges the questions. Though he does seem somewhat concerned about DNA. He asked several times that DNA doesn't lie, does it? though he does seem somewhat concerned about DNA. He asked several times that DNA doesn't lie, does it? I said no. Rader wants to talk about something different, a newspaper article. You remember the one where the police told him that it wasn't possible to track a computer disk?

He thought that this chase should go on forever and that it should be enjoyable for both of us. I need to ask you a question. Why did you lie to me? Because I was trying to catch you. I lied to you because I was trying to catch you. And he was incredulous at the fact that I wanted this to end. Dennis Rader liked to play games, cat and mouse, make himself feel so clever. The interrogators were not game enthusiasts, and they were tired of being given the runaround. So they just simply asked him. Why don't you just say it?

Yes, sir. Say who you are. You're BTK. I'm BTK. Basically, that was it. Who are you? Say it. I'm BTK. Basically, that was it. Who are you? Say it. I'm BTK. And after that, the floodgates just opened. Dennis Rader, also known as BTK, spends the next 30 hours telling police the details about the victims that had been accredited to him.

Then, he tells them about two additional victims. He didn't flaunt their murders as with his other victims because they were too close to home. Maureen Hedge was killed in 1985 and Dolores Davis in 1991, who was able to provide specific details and evidence. And of course he had evidence in his home of both of them that he had taken photographs at the death scenes and at the church from Marine Hedge and under the bridge on Dolores Davis. There were 10 victims, 10 human lives, and countless families, friends,

and law enforcement personnel looking for justice. On June 27, 2005, Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, was tried for 10 separate counts of murder. Dennis Rader stood in front of a court of law and described all 10 gruesome murders, and then he pled guilty to each one. I wonder what he was thinking. Or maybe I don't have to. The evidence was there earlier. The DNA, the floppy.

There was no way that I was going to get out of this. At a sentencing trial, Rader gets the opportunity to speak. And as I listen to his words, I can't help but picture him accepting some kind of glamorous award for best serial killer. Thanks. I can't believe the people that have helped me on this. I think you have to appreciate the police department. They've done a lot of work.

Even though it took a long time, they gathered evidence. they had that evidence, when they got the key suspect they zeroed in on it very rapidly. Defense, we've had our ups and downs but mostly they've been good. Sarah has probably been my, probably my workhorse. Pastor Clark, he has been my main man. For him to stay with me and remain strong, that's good enough. Yeah, he's a good man. I appreciate that. Judge Gregory Waller sentenced Dennis Rader to 10 consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.

He'll spend the rest of his life in prison. But I'm sure he'll blend in. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings. Produced by McKamey Lynn and Scott Brody. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. We're edited by Steve Delamater

and distributed by Podcast One. Cold Case Files Classic was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by the one and only Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com and by downloading the A&E app.