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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