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Serial killings
Wichita, KS (US)

Incident Date: Tuesday, Jan 15, 1974
County: Sedgwick

Disposition: Not Charged

Person of Interest: Dennis Rader

On January 15, 1974, a chilly winter day, 15-year-old Charlie Otero began his afternoon walk home from school. Charlie, his parents, and four siblings had recently moved into a quiet peaceful suburban neighborhood in a small frame house located at 803 North Edgemoor Street.

Charlie, happy that another school day had come to an end, walked gingerly up the side walk towards his home. As he opened the front door and walked into the living room, nothing immediately seemed out of the ordinary. "Hello, is anyone home?" he called out into the quiet house. There was no response. Not even a bark from his dog. Such quiet was unusual. With some trepidation, Charlie walked toward his parents' bedroom. A strange feeling of dread welled up inside him.

Charlie's father, Joseph, 38, was lying face down on the floor at the foot of his bed; his wrists and ankles had been bound. His mother, Julie, 34, lay on the bed bound in similar fashion, only she had been gagged. For a few seconds, Charlie could not move, he didn't know what to do. Moments later his senses came back to him and he rushed out in desperation to get help for his parents, not realizing that he had experienced only a portion of the horror that the house had in store.

A neighbor who came over to the house to help realized that when he tried to call the police, the phone lines had been severed.

As the police searched the house, they were shocked to find nine-year-old Joseph II in his bedroom face down on the floor at the foot of his bed. His wrists and ankles were also bound, the only difference being that over his head was a hood -- and according to one reporter, he had three hoods covering his head.

The worst was yet to come. Downstairs in the basement, Charlie's eleven-year-old sister, Josephine, was discovered hanging by her neck from a pipe; she was partially nude, dressed only in a sweatshirt and socks, and she had been gagged.

Investigators were stunned at this daytime execution-style multiple murder in such a quiet neighborhood.

From the very beginning of this case, police have been very cautious about revealing the details of the murders. What they did say was that all four of the victims had been strangled with lengths of cord cut from a Venetian blind. There were no cords like that in he house, so the killer had brought the cords, hoods, tape, wire cutters and possibly a gun with him.

According to Capt. Paul Dotson of the Wichita Police Department, semen was found throughout the house, and it appeared as though the killer had masturbated on some of the victims, although none had been sexually assaulted. Joseph Otero's watch was missing from the scene and has never been recovered. Aside from Julie Otero's purse being dumped and the missing watch, there was no real evidence of forced entry, robbery, or a struggle.

The coroner determined that all four murders occurred well before noon and very likely around 8 or nine in the morning. Police theorized that while Joseph Otero was driving the older three children to school that the murderer gained entry into the house where Julie and her two younger children were by themselves. Once the killer subdued and bound the three of them, he waited for Joseph to come home to take the younger two children to school and caught him by surprise. Someone had put the Oteros' notoriously unfriendly large dog out in back of the house.

The killer hung around for about an hour an a half, then took the Otero family car and left it parked near Dillons grocery not far away. Otero's neighbors noticed a man, possibly with a dark complexion, leaving Otero's home in their car. The Otero's car was discovered in Oliver Square's parking lot

Police initially wondered just who these Oteros were and what they had done to warrant this brutal execution. Several things they learned suggested motives, but nothing conclusive.

Joseph Otero had been born in Puerto Rico and, after moving to the States, began a career in the military. Just before his death, he had retired from the Air Force where he was a flight instructor and mechanic. He was physically very fit and was an excellent boxer. His colleagues liked him and no one could voice a motive for his slaying.

The same type of report came back on Julie. She had recently been caught in a downsizing at Coleman Company, but she would have been rehired when business picked up again. She, too, was a friendly person and a very good mother. Like her husband, she was very accomplished in the art of self-defense. She had extensive training in judo. The Otero children were very good in school and were liked by the people who knew them. They, too, took up the family sport of judo and were well beyond the average when it came to self defense.

So, what to make of this case? This brilliantly planned and orchestrated crime which required surveillance, perfect timing, and the ability to subdue a group of people who were normally more than capable to defending themselves. It had the hallmarks of a military operation, but then there were these nagging details that the police didn't want to discuss. Police Chief Floyd Hannon told the Wichita Eagle in January of 1974 that "the way in which family members were slain indicates a fetish on the part of the assailant."

In October of 1974, just nine months after the Otero family murders, the Wichita Eagle's Don Granger received an anonymous call, presumably from the Otero killer himself. The caller directed him to a mechanical engineering textbook in the Wichita Public Library. Inside the book, Granger found a letter claiming credit for the killings of the Joseph Otero family, and promising more victims. The authenticity of the letter was not in doubt since it contained details that only the police and killer knew.

The letter was addressed to the "Secret Witness Program" under which people with information about a crime could pass on that information to police through the newspaper and remain anonymous. Investigators immediately requested that the letter be withheld from the public in an attempt to prevent a string of false confessions. The Wichita Eagle complied with the police request.

However, Cathy Henkel, a reporter for a 2-month-old rival newspaper called the Wichita Sun, received a copy of the letter and printed part of it in an article she wrote on Dec 11, 1974, some 11 months after the crime had been committed.

The killer wrote that the three individuals being questioned for the Otero murders were not involved. The following excerpts with their many misspellings and grammatical errors were printed in the Sun :

"I write this letter to you for the sake of the tax payer as well as your time. Those three dude you have in custody are just talking to get publicity for the Otero murders. They know nothing at all. I did it by myself and with no ones help. There has been no talk either. Let's put this straight...." The killer provides details of the crimes and crime scene that were not published in the paper.

"I'm sorry this happen to society. They are the ones who suffer the most. It hard to control myself. You probably call me 'psychotic with sexual perversion hang-up.' When this monster enter my brain I will never know. But, it here to stay. How does one cure himself? If you ask for help, that you have killed four people they will laugh or hit the panic button and call the cops.

"I can't stop it so the monster goes on, and hurt me as well as society. Society can be thankful that there are ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by day dreams of some victims being torture and being mine. It a big complicated game my friend of the monster play putting victims number down, follow them, checking up on them, waiting in the dark, waiting, waiting.... the pressure is great and sometimes he run the game to his liking. Maybe you can stop him. I can't. He has already chosen his next victim or victims. I don't know who they are yet. The next day after I read the paper, I will know, but it to late. Good luck hunting.

"YOURS, TRULY GUILTILY"

Although the letter was unsigned, it contained this postscript:

"P.S. Since sex criminals do not change their M.O. or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine. The code word for me will be....Bind them, toture them, kill them, B.T.K., you see he at it again. They will be on the next victim."

B.T.K., despite a few feeble attempts to appear to have a weak grip on the English language, is quite well educated and is a reasonably good speller when he is not trying to deceive his audience. He has no trouble with words like "psychotic," "complicated," and "perversion." He has also done quite a bit of reading about the criminal psychology of that era. The famous letters from California's Zodiac Killer and the Jack the Ripper letters were well known from newspapers and books. Interestingly, the Zodiac began his murder series on October 30, 1966 and wrote his first letter to the police almost one month later on November 29, 1966. Even more interesting is the fact that the Zodiac, after three years of silence, sent the first of a series of four letters to the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29, 1974. Chances are that B.T.K. had read about this in the newspaper and decided to open the lines of communication with the media and police.

The Wichita Eagle reported that on April 4, 1974, just three months after the Otero murders, Kathryn Bright, 20, and her brother Kevin, 19, went to her home at 3217 E. 13th Street at approximately 1 p.m. There was an intruder hiding in the house, waiting for her to return.

The intruder told them he needed money and a car to escape from the California police. At gun point, Kevin was forced to tie his sister to a chair and was then taken to another room where he to was tied up and gagged. A few minutes later, the man tried to stangle Kevin with a rope, but Kevin resisted and was shot twice in the head. He heard sounds of distress from his sister in the next room. Kevin managed to escape and get help for his sister, but she died five hours after being taken to the hospital with three stab wounds in her abdomen.

Police also noted that the Kathryn was partially undressed and that there was obvious ligature activity around her neck. Kevin assisted the police in sketching a likeness of the intruder, but he was not identified. Police did not associate B.T.K. with this crime at that point in time.

Three years later on March 17, 1977, Wichita police were dispatched to 1311 South Hydraulic Street. Upon arrival, police entered the home and discovered 26-year-old Shirley Vian dead. She lay on her bed partially undressed, hands and feet bound, a plastic bag draped over her head. Upon removing the bag investigators noted the BTK's signature cord wrapped tightly around her neck. The armed intruder had locked Shirley's three children in the closet. The children eventually managed to free themselves and call police.

Again, investigators believed that the crime was premeditated. The incident occurred during the daytime and there was no sign of forced entry. The killer had stopped one of the victim's sons on the street that morning, and showed him photographs of a woman and child, purportedly seeking directions to their home.

The town of Wichita was by now in a blind panic. Hundreds of people coming home for the evening would regularly check to see if their telephone lines had been cut (a BTK trademark). Working women hurried home and locked their doors. BTK was quickly becoming a ghost story told to newcomers at parties and bars.

On Dec. 8, 1977, BTK placed a call to the emergency hotline "Go to this address," he told an emergency dispatcher, "You will find a homicide - Nancy Fox." Investigators were able to quickly trace the call to a downtown phone booth, where witnesses indistinctly recalled a blond man, approximately six feet tall, using the phone booth moments earlier. Unfortunately, the quality of the recording was too poor for investigators to perform any type of voice analysis.

Following the caller's instructions, officers rushed to 843 S. Pershing. Upon arrival, investigators immediately noticed that a window had been broken, allowing entry to the home. Upon entering the apartment house, officers discovered 25-year-old Nancy Jo Fox dead in her bedroom, a nylon stocking twisted around her neck. Unlike previous victims, she was fully clothed. Fox's driver's license (like Joseph Otero's watch) was missing from the scene. Again, investigators theorized that the killer took the license as a memento of the crime. The murder had occurred at night, semen was found at the scene, but an autopsy later revealed that Fox had not been sexually assaulted.

As abruptly as they started, the killings appeared to have ended in 1977. It seemed as though BTK had vanished. Or had he?

Eula West, a receptionist at the Sedgwick County Courthouse, recalls, "I was taking all precautions, and everybody I heard talking about it did too." Many people refused to go outside at night for weeks. Some people bought firearms.

On January 31, 1978, BTK mailed a letter to the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. Within the letter was a short poem about Shirley Vian, who was murdered in March 1977. However, it was accidentally routed to the advertising department by mistake and it went overlooked for days.

"It seemed as though every day we were waiting to see what would happen next," said Rose Stanley, who began work at a Wichita TV station just before the killings began. "He would choke the person almost to the point of death. Then he would let them come back. Then he would strangle them to death."

Distraught at the lack of publicity, BTK wrote another letter on February 10, 1978 to a local television station. "How many do I have to kill," he wrote, "before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?" In this latest letter, the strangler claimed to have murdered seven victims, naming Nancy Jo Fox as the latest. Number seven remained nameless, adding, "You guess the motive and the victims." According to The Wichita Eagle newspaper, even though investigators were unable to document the killer's claim, they took his word - announced acceptance of the body count - and assumed that the seventh unnamed victim was Kathryn Bright. In addition to these claims, the killer blamed his crimes on "a demon" and a mysterious "factor X", he compared his work with that of Jack the Ripper, the Hillside Stranglers, and Son of Sam.

He claimed that he was sorry for the murders and that a monster had entered his brain. He also warned that he had chosen his next victim.

Until March of 2004, the last confirmed BTK incident took place on April 28, 1979, when he waited inside a house in the 600 block of South Pinecrest for the 63-year-old owner to come home. When she did not show up, BTK became angry and sent the woman a note along with one of her scarves. "Be glad you weren't here," he wrote, "because I was."

''I think people were really scared, especially if you were a woman living alone, which I was at the time," said Kathy Page-Hauptman, director of performing arts at the Wichita Center for the Arts.

The BTK investigation was dormant through most of the early 1980s with no new leads or tips.

In 1983 two teams of detectives were assigned to reinvestigate the murders. They set out on a cross-country trip, collecting saliva and blood samples from over 200 people that had been flagged by their computer as prime suspects in the case. The samples collected were all voluntary, only five of the men refused. The blood tests ultimately eliminated all but 12 of the names on the list (including the five who refused the tests).

In July of 1984, investigators, set up a task force, nicknamed "The Ghostbusters" and hired a computer consultant to work with them in an attempt to try and discover the identity of BTK. After assembling their massive collection of DNA evidence, seven years after the last murder, investigators finished entering their data into an IBM computer, and a list of suspects began to spew out.

"The Ghostbusters" task force discovered some of the most promising evidence during their investigation. One of the most startling clues was the revelation of one similarity, all of the murders occurred within 3 1/2 miles of one another. This led investigators to believe that the BTK strangler only felt comfortable killing in areas that were familiar to him.

During the fall of 1984, one of the task force investigators took the February 10, 1978 BTK letter to Xerox headquarters in Syracuse, New York. There a lab technician concluded that the letter was a fifth-generation copy of the original, which would make it virtually impossible to trace. In addition, the technician went on to state that the machine used to generate the copy was located at the Wichita State University library.

During the investigation into the letters, the contents of the poems were also regarded as clues. It was soon discovered that the Vian poem was patterned after a "Curly Locks" nursery rhyme that had only just appeared in Games, a puzzle magazine. After making this startling discovery, investigators obtained a list of all the subscribers to the magazine in question.

The Fox poem, titled "Oh Death to Nancy," had been patterned after a poem entitled Oh Death which had been published in a Wichita State University textbook. The book had previously been used in an American folklore class; hence, investigators obtained a copy of the class roster.

Law enforcement officials have not yet released BTK's letters to the public. When asked to typify them, Capt. Paul Dotson stated, "Here I am. Pay attention."

Using all of the available evidence obtained, investigators soon began to assemble lists of every white male that lived within a quarter-mile of the Oteros' house in or around January 1974. Investigators also made similar lists for the Vian, Fox and Bright homes. In addition, task force investigators compiled lists of men living within 1 1/4 miles of each of the victim's homes; they also assembled lists of white male students who attended Wichita state University between 1974 and 1979. The smallest list contained the names of eight people who had checked out the mechanical engineering textbook from the library where the Otero letter was found.

Detectives decided that the most significant of all were the address lists. ''The main crux of our search always was geographical," said Lt. Kenneth Landwehr of the Wichita Police Department. "According to the behavioral scientists, the individual lived close to where he was striking."

Once the lists were completed, investigators used their computer to try to come up with a more precise list of suspects. The computer gave them 225 possible suspects, most of whom no longer resided in Wichita. One by one, the detectives set out to eliminate each of the 225 possible suspects.

One of the key pieces of evidence that the killer left behind was his semen. Lab technicians were able to determine that it was a type of semen found in fewer than 6 percent of all males. Police will not comment as to the type, citing their rules of evidence.

Although the two-year investigation ended without an arrest, the knowledge gained and some of the samples collected formed the of the basis for the work of the squad.

''We tried a hundred thousand theories," now retired Lt. Al Stewart said. "We checked house numbers, the victims' length of residency, the phases of the moon, we read books, looking for arcane connections to mythology, witchcraft and demonology."

On Oct. 31, 1987, the body of 15-year-old Shannon Olson was found dumped in a pond in an industrial area, partially disrobed and stabbed numerous times. Her hands and feet were bound. The murder sparked off an outbreak of letters to the police and media suggesting the BTK Strangler committed the crime.

On Dec. 31, 1987, Mary Fager, the married mother of two daughters, returned to her Wichita home after spending 2 1/2 days out of town. Upon entering her house, she discovered her husband, Phillip Fager, dead; he had been shot twice in the back. Her two daughters, 16-year-old Kelli and 10-year-old Sherri, were both found strangled in the hot tub situated in the basement of the home. Sherri's hands and feet were bound with black electrical tape, which later washed loose. Kelli Fager was nude.

Soon after the Fager murders, someone wrote a letter to Mary Fager, claiming to be the BTK Strangler. The letter declared that while he had not committed the murders he was a fan of whoever had. FBI experts said they cannot irrefutably say that the letter came from BTK, but one source involved in the investigation who saw the letter himself, states that there is no doubt in his mind that it was authentic. "It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck," the source stated.

According to Lt. Landwehr, a local contractor stated to police that he went to the Fager house, where he was doing construction work, and discovered the father's body. He went on to claim that he had heard some noise in the house and fled in the family's car. The contractor was arrested in Florida four days later. According to Landwehr, the man claimed he had a total blank of the events that had occurred.

The contractor was arrested and subsequently charged with the Fager murders. However, a jury acquitted him of all charges.

Lt. Landwehr said they have closed the Fager case because they are confident that the contractor was the killer.

In 1991, the Wichita Police Department assembled a cold case squad when police received a new lead in the BTK murders. Although the lead fizzled, Capt. Paul Dotson will not disclose the nature of the tip.

"I believe he is still probably in this community," Mike McKenna, a former Wichita police detective, said.

In 1997, Robert Ressler, a former FBI veteran who first applied the term "serial killer", helped outline a profile of BTK. Ressler said the man was probably a graduate student or a professor in the criminal justice field at WSU in Kansas, was most likely in his mid-to-late-20s at the time of the killings and was an avid reader of books and newspaper stories concerning serial murders. Additionally, because his pattern of killings has not been seen in Wichita since the '70s, he has "left the area, died or is in a mental institution or prison," Ressler said.

"I've learned that if man gets the opportunity, he will do devious things," Ressler said. "He has a dark side, whether it's poisoning his neighbor's roses or killing his neighbor."

In February of 1998, Police Chief Richard LaMunyon said in an interview that a "typewritten, rambling communiqu�, which purports to be from BTK" received by police about a week after the Fager murders has no connection to the Dec. 30 murders of Phillip Fager, and his daughters. LaMunyon said a continuing investigation has not yet confirmed whether the serial killer sent the letter. LaMunyon went on to say that the department does sporadically receive bogus letters from people claiming to be the BTK strangler.

As 1988 came to a close, a former BTK task force detective, Al Thimmesch, retired. Al says he regrets never solving the murders. ''One of the things that bugged me was BTK," he said. "It was one that I worked on for a long time."

Investigators call BTK fastidious, calculating and meticulous; with a strong possibility that he may be heard from again. "This type of personality doesn't stop voluntarily," said Wichita Police Capt. Paul Dotson. "This type of person continues to kill."

Sedgwick County Sheriff Mike Hill, who worked on the 1978 probe, said, "It's sad to say the only way that we'll ever find out who this individual is will be we'll have to have a victim." Nevertheless, Stewart hopes that some day a beat cop will stumble onto the BTK still savoring his press clippings or souvenirs.

FBI Profiler John Douglas in the book Obsession has a chapter on the BTK strangler. It is the chapter called "Motivation X". Within the book, Douglas states that there were no defensive wounds found on any of the victims, assuming that the killer used a gun to control them. He further stated that the killer's letters to the police had so much detail that he is convinced that the perpetrator had taken his own crime scene photos in order to have a keepsake of the crime to fantasize about later.

Douglas states that the killer used police lingo in his letters - Douglas thinks he may actually be a cop, or may impersonate a cop - he probably reads detective magazines and may have even bought a police badge. He would attempt to insert himself in the investigation. He would be tempted to brag or leave hints about what he had done.

Douglas states that the killer was in all probability a loner, inadequate, in his 20s or 30s, might possibly have an arrest record for break-ins or voyeurism, but probably no actual rapes.

Douglas further states that the perpetrator may have stopped killing because he is in jail for something else, or a mental hospital, may have died, or maybe he injected himself so closely into the investigation, he got scared. It is even a possibility that the memories and photographs are enough for him to contain his obsession.

Authorities recovered 27 disks from BTK serial killer Dennis Rader's workplace in Park City, Landwehr said.

He said Rader planned to destroy physical evidence but to document his collections, including dolls he photographed in bondage.

Rader's collection included plans for torture, such as drowning someone in their own urine, Landwehr said.

Rader enjoyed participating in autoerotic asphyxiation, the practice of a person cutting off his own oxygen supply to enhance his sexual pleasures, according to testimony.

Rader once performed autoerotic asphyxiation during a Boy Scout event, Landwehr said.

Rader was in the back of his truck and could not get out of his bindings, Landwehr said. He thought he would have to ask for help, but ultimately was able to pull free.

To strengthen his grip for strangulation, Rader squeezed a stress ball that said "Life is good," Landwehr said.

On Rader's nightstand by his bed, authorities found a drop-shaped squeeze ball from a blood drive that he used for the same purposes.

Rader told authorities that strangling humans was more difficult than when he had practiced on dogs and cats.

That surprised him during his first murders, four members of the Otero family, Landwehr said.

It seems he pumped the balls to make his fingers, wrists and arms stronger so that strangling would become easier to do, Landwehr said.

Rader would carry homemade flash cards with him for sexual fantasies, Landwehr said.

On the front of index cards, Rader had affixed photos of child swimsuit models and women bra models from advertisements to use for sexual fantasies, Landwehr said.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, including some with young boys, Landwehr said.

On the back, Rader wrote more about his specific fantasy associated with each photo.

Landwehr said Rader would carry the flash cards with him during errands. Rader would stop and have sexual fantasies about what he would do to the models while he was en route.

They were among items Rader hit in his home.

Others -- stored in a hidden compartment underneath a drawer -- were books about serial killers and criminal minds, Landwehr said. Rader had highlighted passages, including a mention of BTK in one of the books.

District Attorney Nola Foulston asked how nobody in Rader's family found the items in the home.

Rader's ex-wife Paula told authorities earlier that she did not go through his items and that she assumed they were things from work or that they were things that weren't important, Landwehr said.

Much of it was in a closet where Dennis Rader stored his clothes, for example, Landwehr said.

Before taking a midmorning break, prosecutors talked about other criminal activities they believe Dennis Rader committed that are outside the statute of limitations.

Landwehr said those include: stalking, aggravating kidnapping, aggravated battery, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, burglary, theft, criminal threat, animal cruelty and community terrorism.


Rader stole money from his church, for example, Landwehr said.

Landwehr said that items Rader kept in his "stash" -- items stored in his home and his office in Park City, where he worked as a compliance officer, included: a hit kit, trophies from victims such as jewelry and clothing, photos of victims, newspaper clippings and obituaries, feminine apparel from victims and other places, and a collection of Barbie-like dolls.

Among them were notebook or binders in which Rader kept photo cutouts. One was of actress Meg Ryan.

Another notebook contains Rader's acronyms for his actions or terms related to his killings, Landwehr said.

During interrogation, Rader told authorities that he has compartmentalized personalities, including one for her his social contacts (family and people at church) and one of a serial killer, Landwehr said.

Rader recognized Landwehr after his arrest earlier this year, Landwehr said.

"Hello, Mr. Landwehr," Rader told him.

Rader had said that he felt a camaraderie with Landwehr, Foulston said.

Earlier Aug 18 morning, while talking to reporters as he walked toward the courthouse, Rader's lead attorney Steve Osburn called the proceeding "unnecessary," then added: "There's nothing I can do about it."

Also on Aug 18 morning, the court heard more about Rader's final victim, Dolores "Dee" Davis.

He had planned to bury her in Cheney, according to testimony.

But when plans fell through, Rader -- wearing a mask he had earlier placed on Davis' body -- buried himself and used a camera remote to take pictures, Sedgwick County sheriff's Capt. Sam Houston said.

Shortly after Rader killed Davis, he dressed in her clothing and posed in bondage for photos he took in the basement of his parents' home, according to testimony.

On the day after Rader killed Davis, he visited her body in a field to take sexually explicit photos, according to testimony.

Rader found that animals had attacked Davis' body, which Rader put under a rural bridge, and that her body -- specifically her breasts -- looked strange, Sedgwick County sheriff's Capt. Sam Houston said.

"He stated that it kind of creeped him out," Houston said.

Before photographing Davis' body, Houston said, Rader placed a mask on her face.

"I did that because it kind of prettied her up," Rader told authorities.

Rader had drawn in eyebrows, eyelashes, red lips and nostrils to a mask to make it look more lifelike.

It's among masks Rader wore himself.

"I pose myself in bondage pictures with my mask," Rader told authorities.

Authorities found masks, some with red cheeks and long, dark eyelashes, at Rader's home.

They also found photos of Rader tied in bondage while dressed as a woman in a wig and wearing a mask.

"I painted it flesh color, yes, nice lips and a little bit of a smile, like a pretty girl... and I would wear that when I would do my sexual fantasy things, my self bondage things I would wear that," Rader said, according to testimony. "And I would try to take pictures so I looked like maybe I was a female or a person in distress."

Foulston paused her questioning during this morning's BTK sentencing to demonstrate a portion of the time it took BTK serial killer Dennis Rader to kill his final victim, Dolores "Dee" Davis.

The courtroom fell silent.

Time dragged on slowly.

Houston read from a journal in which Rader had written that it took him two to three minutes to kill Davis.

Rader was in a hurry because Davis had told her a man would be coming home, Houston said.

Rader also needed to hurry back to a Boy Scout event at Harvey County Park West, Houston said.
Rader was a Scout volunteer.

Houston testified that Rader stashed Davis' jewelry box and other items from her home in a shed at Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, where he was an active member.

Rader wrote that Davis begged him to spare her life and that after he killed her, blood trickled out of her nose, ear and mouth, Houston said.

Foulston showed the court a sketch Rader drew of Davis portraying a moment before her death.

In the sketch, she is tied on her bed, eyes open, hands behind her back.

Authorities found it in Rader's "mother lode" -- his collection of mementos and notes from his murders.

In 1991, Rader handcuffed Davis and told her he needed food and her car as a ruse to put her at ease, Houston said.

Rader wore pantyhose over his face and used Davis' pantyhose to tie her arms behind her back.

"She stated, 'Don't kill me. Don't kill me,' " Houston said.

Davis was 63-years-old when Rader killed her.

Today is the second day of Rader's sentencing in Sedgwick County District Court. He pleaded guilty in June to 10 counts of first-degree murder.

Also expected to speak today:

� Wichita police Lt. Ken Landwehr, commander of the BTK Task Force.
� Victims' family members.
� Rader, if he wishes.

If time allows, the judge will announce Rader's sentence today; if not, the hearing will continue Friday.

Rader faces life sentences in 9 cases. In the 10th case, he faces the "Hard 40" -- life sentence with no possibility for parole for 40 years.

Rader will be 100 years old in 40 years.

Shortly after his sentencing, Rader will be transferred from the Sedgwick County Jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

Also expected to speak on Aug 18:

� Wichita police Lt. Ken Landwehr, commander of the BTK Task Force.
� Victims' family members.
� Rader, if he wishes.

If time allows, the judge will announce Rader's sentence today; if not, the hearing will continue Friday.

Rader faces life sentences in 9 cases. In the 10th case, he faces the "Hard 40" -- life sentence with no possibility for parole for 40 years.

Rader will be 100 years old in 40 years.

Shortly after his sentencing, Rader will be transferred from the Sedgwick County Jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

References


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