EXCLUSIVE: BTK killer's daughter shares secrets of jailhouse reunion
BTK killer Dennis Rader’s daughter Kerri Rawson shares secrets of prison visit where she tried to get him to admit to two other killings
- Kerri Rawson visited her ailing father Dennis Rader, 78, in jail
- She tried to link him to two unsolved killings he has been linked to
- A search is underway at Rader’s former Kansas home for possible clues
An infamous serial killer’s daughter has shared how she stunned him with a surprise prison visit while trying to yield information about possible undiscovered victims.
Dennis Rader – better known as the BTK killer – was visited by Kerri Rawson, 45, who said her dad was ‘shocked’ to see her – and that she fears he’s close to dying.
Rawson told DailyMail.com she ‘doesn’t know how much longer he has left’ after setting out to help cops, who discovered ‘possible trophies’ from victims after launching a search for evidence at his former Kansas home on Tuesday.
Oklahoma officials on Wednesday dug up ‘items of interests’ including ‘personal items and other binding type items’ during searches of his former property – following the discovery of pantyhose with knots that ‘would go probably around the wrist or ankle’ in April.
Rader, 78, gave himself the nickname ‘BTK’ as an acronym for binding, torturing and killing his victims. He confessed to killing 10 people from 1978 until his arrest in 2005, although investigators have linked him to two other potential victims.
His daughter said investigators have now zeroed in on the site of a metal shed in the backyard of her childhood home in Park City, Kansas, where it is believed he may have hidden tokens stolen from his victims such as drivers licenses.
‘He was known to hide things in our house,’ she revealed. ‘He built a false bottom in our hallway where he hid evidence like drivers licenses before… We also had two dogs die, and he buried one of them in the backyard in the 90s. I’ve always theorized that he might have buried stuff in there too.’
Dennis Rader, also known as BTK, has seen his former home in Park City, Kansas searched by investigators in hopes to tie him to more unsolved murders. He is pictured in August 2005 after his arrest
Rader is pictured with his daughter, Kerri Rawson, who has volunteered to help crack a series of cold cases linked to her notorious father
Rader is currently serving ten consecutive life sentences at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
Rawson said she first became aware of new cold cases linked to her father in January, through the investigation into the disappearance of Cynthia ‘Cyndi’ Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who was last seen in 1976.
In June, she said she then became aware of the unsolved murder case of Shawna Garber, whose remains were found near Pineville, MO, in December 1990, which motivated her to volunteer to help investigators.
Osage County, Oklahoma, Undersheriff Gary Upton said the investigation into whether he was responsible for additional crimes started with the re-examination last year of the 1976 disappearance of Kinney in Pawhuska.
The case, which was investigated on and off over the years, was reopened in December.
Sheriff Eddie Virden told KAKE-TV that a bank was having new alarms installed across the street from the laundromat where Kinney was last seen.
Rader was a regional installer for ADT at the time, although the sheriff wasn’t able to confirm Rader installed the systems. He also was involved in Boy Scouts in the area.
Kerri Rawson, the daughter of Dennis Rader, told DailyMail.com she has assisted in the investigations into her father
Virden said he decided to investigate when he learned that Rader had included the phrase ‘bad laundry day’ in his writings.
Upton, the undersheriff, said the investigation ‘spiraled out from there’ into other unsolved murders and missing persons cases.’
‘We sit just on the other side of the state line from Kansas and Wichita, which is his stomping grounds.
‘And so yeah, we were following leads based off of our investigations and just unpacked other missing persons and murders, unsolved homicides that possibly point towards BTK,’ he said.
Rader has been questioned over the two disappearances before, and denied killing either woman but did previously say he ‘enjoyed’ his meeting with investigators over the Garber’s disappearance.
Rawson’s fly out to see her father in Kansas for a total of three hours in June and July was the first time the two met face-to-face since his arrest in 2005.
While he is known to relish in his infamy, Rader has a reputation for frustrating police, and it was hoped his daughter could help break him down and reveal further details of his gruesome crimes.
‘I hadn’t had contact with him for 18 years, besides letters,’ she said. ‘To sit across from him was quite staggering.’
Rawson has detailed her struggle to come to terms with her father’s heinous crimes in several books, and she often advocates for victims in high profile cases. Her father’s murders began four years before she was born, and continued in nightmarish secrecy through her childhood until she was 12.
It wasn’t until 2005, when Rawson was in her mid 20’s, that Rawson learned of her father’s gruesome crimes.
Recalling her childhood, she has repeatedly said her father would normally resemble an average middle-America dad, but would occasionally show flashes of a violent temper.
‘The key to surviving life with dad? Watch the pot closely,’ she wrote in her book, A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming. ‘Turn down the heat, and know when to get out of its way before it blows.’
BTK’s ten victims: (L-R) January 15, 1974: #1 Julie Otero (aged 33) Strangled with a rope; #2 Joseph Otero (aged 38) Suffocated with a plastic bag; #3 Josephine Otero (aged 11) Hanged with a rope; #4 Joseph Otero, Jr. (aged 9) Suffocated with a plastic bag; April 4, 1974: #5 Kathryn Bright (aged 21) Stabbed 3 times in abdomen with a knife
(L-R) March 17, 1977: #6 Shirley Vian (aged 24) Strangled with a rope; December 8, 1977: #7 Nancy Fox (aged 25) Strangled with a belt; April 27, 1985: #8 Marine Hedge (aged 53) Strangled with hands; September 16, 1986: #9 Vicki Wegerle (aged 28) Strangled with Nylon stocking; January 19, 1991: #10 Dolores E. Davis (aged 62) Strangled with pantyhose
While the two had communicated before their first prison visit in June, Rawson said she was taken aback when he ‘let the mask slip’ and acknowledged the BTK murders for the first time to her, claiming he would previously brush off any suggestion of a conversation about them.
Rawson said Rader was ‘shocked’ by her visit as she hadn’t told him she was coming, and she found that her father’s health has deteriorated significantly to the point where she ‘doesn’t know how much time he has left.’
She described him as ‘fragile’, and was wheeled into their visitation in shackles and a wheelchair. Due to his poor eyesight, Rawson said he didn’t even recognize her at first.
‘His eyesight is really bad and he couldn’t tell who I was right away, but he was shocked,’ she said. ‘He’s in a wheelchair, but he could still give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was like a reunion.’
However, when she started pressing for details about the cold cases, Rader brushed her off, dashing hopes he would give grieving families some relief after previously refusing to cooperate with police.
‘He’s still sharp as a tack,’ she said, despite his ailing health. ‘He was coming up with alibis, I mean he could tell I was there for answers. It was surreal.’
While police continue their investigations to try and link him to the cold cases, Rawson insisted she is not yet convinced cops have evidence of a connection. She added that she was not told by police about Tuesday’s search on her childhood home beforehand, and found out through national media.
‘I am not accusing him of these crimes, and I’m still waiting for evidence,’ she insisted, adding that she is planning on returning to the prison in the coming months for another visit with her father.
After arresting Dennis Rader, police found photos where he dressed up like his victims
The body of Shirley Vian is pictured being carried from her house in Wichita in 1977 she was murdered by Dennis Rader
Rader’s first known murders were in January 1974, when he shot to infamy after the gruesome killings of the Otero family-of-four.
Months later in April, Rader, then 28, murdered Kathryn Bright, 21, in her home and shot her brother Kevin in the head. He began sending taunting letters to journalists and the police, sending investigators on wild goose chases across Wichita, Kansas.
After a suspect allegedly confessed to the Otero murders alongside two friends in October, Rader called an editor at The Wichita Eagle directing him to the Wichita Public Library.
He instructed him to open a book on mechanical engineering, and after enlisting police they found a letter which read: ‘Those three dude you have in custody are just talking to get publicity… The code words for me will be… Bind them, torture them, kill them, B.T.K., you see he at it again. They will be on the next victim.’
Rader’s letters were marked with his bizarre BTK logo and spelling mistakes, and he would taunt police with crude jokes about what he did to his victims.
His terrifying letters also extended to a near-victim, Anna Williams, 63, in April 1979. After waiting in her home for hours waiting for her to return home, he gave up, and she only discovered how close she came to the serial killer when he mailed some of her belongings back to her alongside a poem titled: ‘Oh Anna, Why Didn’t You Appear?’
Rader terrified residents of Wichita, Kansas for decades, continuing the BTK murders and ridiculing letters for years until he stopped in 1991.
Like many serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy, Rader was able to remain above suspicion for the notorious killings by holding down a façade as a family man with an everyday job.
From 1974 to 1988, Rader worked a humdrum job for ADT Security installing home security alarms. The role gave him eerie access to people’s homes and an intricate understanding of personal security, which he would use in his crimes such as cutting the phone lines before creeping inside.
He worked at the company from 1974 to 1988 as panic swept the Wichita, Kansas area, and he often installed alarms for homeowners terrified of the infamous BTK killer.
After remaining on the run until he seemingly got bored of his mundane life, with some positing he grew frustrated that he never received ‘credit’ for the infamous slayings, BTK began sending letters again in 2005.
He was snared within months of his reemergence, and Rawson said he now seemingly ‘enjoys’ his infamy behind bars.
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