Dennis Rader - Evidence Pertaining To The Murders

Evidence Pertaining To The Murders

Because Rader did not contest his guilt, most evidence was not tested in court. However, physical and circumstantial facts that would have corroborated Rader as the BTK killer include

• Rader's grammar and writing style match letters and poems received from BTK, though none of his communications were handwritten, but typed, stenciled, stamped with a stamp set, or computer generated.
• A pay phone that the killer used to report a murder in 1977 was located a few blocks from ADT Security (Rader's workplace at the time).
• Rader had attended Wichita State University in the 1970s. Wichita Police Detective Arlyn G. Smith II and his partner George Scantlin traced BTK's photocopied communications to two photocopy machines, one at Wichita State University and a second at the Wichita Public Library. BTK murder victim Kathryn Bright's brother Kevin, who was shot twice by BTK, reported that the killer had asked him if he had seen him at the university. A poem in one of the killer's letters was similar to a folk song taught by a professor on that campus in that time period, though Rader himself dismissed any connection.
• Rader lived on the same street as Marine Hedge, just houses away. The BTK killer's other victims were in and around central Wichita, except for his final victim, Dolores (Dee) Davis, who lived a half mile east of Park City.
• Two of the victims (Julie Otero and Kathryn Bright) worked at the Coleman Company, though not during the same period that Rader worked there. Rader worked at Coleman only a short time and not at the same location as the victims.
• Semen found on Josephine Otero or near the bodies of his victims Josephine Otero, Shirley Vian, and Nancy Fox was critical evidence linking Rader to the crimes, and DNA obtained from fingernail scrapings of Vicki Wegerle's left hand matched Rader's DNA, eliminating any doubt that he was her murderer. Rader also sent trophies to police in his letters, and others were discovered in his office. Other cold cases in Kansas were reopened to see if Rader's DNA matched crime scenes, but Rader's confession was limited to the 10 known victims, and police and prosecutors do not believe there were any more victims because of the extensive records and memorabilia he kept on each of his victims.