Dennis Rader's Murders In Sedgwick County

During the years 1974-1991 there were several murders that took place in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita, Kansas). The 1st of these murders was a family of four which happened on January 15, 1974. The members of the family were Joseph Otero, Julie Otero, Joseph’s wife, Joseph Otero II, son and Josephine Otero, daughter. (criminal motives.com ) The 2nd murder took place on April 4, 1974 and the victim was Kathryn Bright and her brother Kevin who was shot twice but survived (criminal motives.com ). The 3rd murder took place on March 17, 1977 and the victim was Shirley Vian (criminal motives.com ). The 4th of the murders took place on December 8, 1977 and the victim was Nancy Fox (criminal motives.com ). The 5th murder was on April 27,

According to several reports and Mr. Rader’s own confessions as a youncg child he tortured animals and also had a fetish for women’s underwear. Dennis Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan University from 1965 to 1966 (Blanco) and also spent 4 years in in the U.S Airforce (Blanco). Upon returing to the US, Dennis Rader was hired as a supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City (Blanco). Mr. Rader also served on Sedgwick County 's Board of Zoning Appeals and the Animal Control Advisory Board (appointed in 1996 and resigned in 1998) (Blanco). He was alsoa member of Christ Lutheran Church (Blanco). Now that there is some background information on Dennis Rader we can now start to look at and examine the way he was caught and what technology was used to catch him. During the time of the killings, from 1974-1979 several letters were sent by BTK who unbeknown to the police was Dennis Rader. The 1st of these letters was found in Wichita Public Library in October 1974 stuffed. This letter descrided the killing of the Otero family that happened in January of 1974 (criminal motives.com ). In 1978 another letter was sent to television station KAKE in Wichita, in which this letter Rader claimed responabilities for the Otero, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox and another victim who was thought to be Kathryn Bright. Also in this letter Rader also suggested possible names for himself and the one that he became known for which was BTK (criminal motives.com ). In this 2nd letter Rader demanded media attention and it was finally announced that Witchita did have a serial killer and a poem was also included in the letter titled "Oh! Death to Nancy" (Blanco) (criminal motives.com ). In the year 1979 Dennis Rader sent two identical packages one to his intended victim who wasn’t at home and one to KAKE (Blanco) which also included another poem titled “Oh Anna Why Didn’t You Appear”, a drawing of what he intended to