BTK Killer Case Study

Since there are many cases linked to the BTK killer, I must state that most of them started with Dennis Rader stalking his victims, or as he liked to call them “projects”, entering their homes without force and his preferred method of killing was strangulation. He would then masturbate over the death of one of his victims if there were multiple within the single case file. He did these killings between 1974 and 1991, and had a known 10 victims. “He tortured 10 known victims between 1974 and 1991 and he wasn’t suspected until fifteen years after his last victim was murdered” (Dorsey, 2015).
The investigations lead to plenty of cold cases in the start, until Rader decided to take it upon himself to get the media involved by writing letters to
The box was described as a “Special K” cereal box containing several pieces of “computer” paper, a blue beaded necklace. Mr. Bishop thought it was a joke being played on him and he threw the box away. Mr. Bishop told law enforcement that the trash had been hauled off to the dump. On January 27, 2005, Mr. Bishop contacted law enforcement to tell them that the cereal box was still in the trash because he had not put the trash out before going on vacation. Detective Cheryl James and Detective Kelly Otis recovered the box.” (O’Connor, K. pg. 40,
Evidence collected from each criminal case contained hand written documents, typed documents, DNA evidence from under fingernails, and semen. In the BTK’s first crime scene, semen was left in Mrs. Otero that was swabbed and sent to the lab for analysis. The result of the swabbing of returned as “unknown male”. “A biological sample from a medical procedure on Kerri Rader, Rader’s daughter, was obtained by court order. … “The testing confirmed that the unknown male individual responsible for the semen left on the basement floor of the Otero home could not be excluded from being the parent of Kerri Rader” (O’Connor,