The BTK Killer, aka Dennis Lynn Rader, gruesomely murdered at least ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Sometimes, Rader went after men and kids, but mostly, he targeted women, whom he killed or tried to kill.
Reports suggest that he often bound his victims, using items from their homes and then suffocated them with a plastic bag or manually strangled them with a ligature. During his 17-year killing spree, Radar killed 10 people. Children aged 9 and 11 were the youngest, while the oldest victim was 62. Meanwhile, four victims belonged to the same family.
For more than three decades, the police couldn’t manage to arrest the BTK killer. However, authorities finally caught Dennis Rader in 2005 while he was driving near his home in Park City. After the killer’s arrest, the nation learned about the heinous crimes he had committed over the years.
The BTK Killer Capture: Serial killer dropped clues on the way
Dennis Radar was a clever man as he managed to evade the authorities for 30 years. The BTK killer continuously dropped clues related to his murders and began to manipulate the authorities. Rader believed he wouldn’t be caught, but 30 years later, one of the clues he left led to his capture. Authorities caught him on February 25, 2005.
In 1978, Rader left a poem implying that supernatural powers motivated him. After this, the BTK Killer stopped dropping clues, but reports widely suggest that he continued his killing spree. His last murder took place in 1991, and almost 13 years later, the BTK Killer started dropping clues again.
Dennis Radar, aka The BTK Killer, sent several clues to a new channel in Wichita. The news station received a postcard that guided them to another note that read, “Can I communicate with Floppy [disk] and not be traced to a computer. Be honest.” Eventually, Radar sent the Floppy disk to the media outlet, and officials used metadata from the documents to uncover him as the BTK Killer.
Authorities found the BTK Killer guilty of all the murders he committed and sentenced him to 10 life sentences, one for each victim.
A documentary based on The BTK Killer, titled BTK: Confessions of a Serial Killer, is available to stream on Hulu.
