Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer

At the end of 1970 until 1997, Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the BTK killer terrorized the Wichita Kansas area. Rader was convicted of killing 10 people over a 27 year period. The Otero family was the first victim of Rader’s reign of terror (Chu, Sieger, & Thigpen, 2005). In 1974, Rader strangled Joseph, Joseph Jr, Josephine, and Julie Otero. Left at the crime scene was Semen from the suspect masturbating over the lifeless body of 11 year old Josephine Otero (Chu et al., 2005). At the time, DNA technology was not yet available therefore the sample remained untested. (Chu et al., 2005). By 1979, the murder toll rose to three more victims (Chu et al., 2005). Approximately, 3 months after the Otero family murders Kathryn bright
The disk BTK used to communicate with police was analyzed and the results eventually lead back to Rader. Rader believed that the police would not trace the evidence, however that was not the case. The Detective in charge of computer analysis quickly learned that the computer belonged to a Lutheran church. Once police arrived at the Church they realized that Dennis Rader was the last person to use the computer. Although Digital Forensics was strategic in the BTK case, many other police agencies were not knowledgeable in computer forensics. Digital evidence normally seized at crime scenes includes computers, cellphones, cameras, flash drives, etc. (Garrett, 2009). "Technology is becoming an increasingly important part of criminal activity, and agencies need resources and training to deal with it (Garrett, 2009)" Approximately, $200,000 would have to be allocated in order to effectively train officers on digital evidence (Garrett, 2009). Departments tend to “invest around $3,000 in training and equipment and expect $20,000 worth of performance” (Garrett, 2009). Furthermore, the digital evidence was a profitable resource that aided police in identifying a
However, investigators could have put more effort into tracking the killer through his earlier letters. Rader sent 19 messages to police before he was finally arrested. The investigators could have released a profile of the killer based on the contents of the letters. Likewise, a geographic profile would have been beneficial in the BTK case. Geographic profiling is an investigative techniques that predicts an offender’s location based on where the crime is committed (Emeno, Bennell, Snook & Taylor, 2016). Geographic profiles have been proven useful in a wide range of crimes.A number of the murders, occurred in close proximity of each other. However, Rader lived miles from each location (Lynes & Wilson, 2015). Due to the close proximity one can conclude that he frequent this area. With a geographic profile police put pressure on the surrounding neighborhood causing a change in location. When an offender commits a crime in unfamiliar territory they are more likely to make a