BTK /// Part 3 /// 206 | Forensic Files

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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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Captain everybody gather around grab a chair grab some beers let's talk some true
crime [Music] February 10th 1978 Friday evening in the Witchita Kansas city hall building the police
chief made the following announcement the purpose of this news conference is to advise the public of an
extremely serious matter involving a series of murders which occurred in our city as you know in January of
1974 four members of the Otoro family were murdered in March of 1977 Shirley VN was killed
and in December of 1977 Nancy Fox was also murdered earlier today k a KV immediately brought me a letter where
the author took credit for the uro The Fox and the vien murders in addition whoever wrote this letter has taken
credit for a seventh victim we are in no doubt and are convinced that the person that killed
the uros Miss Fox and Miss ven is the same person I want to restate there is no question
in our minds that the person who wrote The Letter killed these people this person has consistently identified
himself with the initials BTK and wishes to be known as the BTK Strangler because we are sure this man
is responsible for seven murders we wish to enlist the assistance of each citizen
of this community our police department has already begun special efforts which is
as follows one additional uniformed officers are already on the street two a special detective task force involving
the major case squad has been established three a special phone number for Citizens to call has been
established this phone will be staffed 24 hours a day four we have solicited the assistance of the district attorney
the sheriff and and Professionals in the field of human behavior and would welcome the assistance from any person
regardless of their expertise I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm but we are asking
exactly this when a person of this type is at large in our community it requires
special precautions and special awareness by everyone when we left off last week we finished
the week by announcing that the BTK killer had named himself had sent a letter to k a
KV and immediately that letter was sent to the police department that same evening they held the press conference
where we just discussed that announcement that they made now as you can imagine the police announcing to the
public and to the local media that a predatory sexual killer is on the loose sent a wave of Widespread Panic shock
and fear across the community the announcement quickly became national news with the public aware that BTK was
hunting people in Witchita many rumors were swirling about who the killer was and how and why he chose certain victims
one thing that was also mentioned during the Public Announcement was that the killer had cut the phone line to the
houses before he entered the home to attack and kill the occupants this information inspired a
safety precaution that became a ritualistic habit of nearly all the citizens of the greater Witchita area
especially something practice by single women that lived alone because the phone
line was cut people would upon arriving back at their homes they would run to the phone in the house and pick up the
receiver and listen for a dial tone mhm a lot of people would call their home from another location before returning
home to make sure that the phone would ring other precautions were taken by citizens as well this included the
increased sales of pee holes dead bolts other additional door locks and of course guns and dogs were in high demand
but a pattern that we would see time and time again after this communication BTK
went dark and it was 14 months later when we have another incident yeah this is going to be around 10 p.m. on April
29th 1979 this is when Dennis Raider shattered the basement window of a 61-year-old woman who lived alone now
she lived just one mile from one of his previous victims Nancy Fox MH he climbed
into the home and his victim she was not home at this time he he would wait for her to return there was a guest bed down
in the basement beside it he decided to lay out some ropes and a broom handle then the woman returned to her house she
had spent the night out with several friends the friends had drove her home she got out of the car and she
approached the front door reaching into her purse she pulled out the keys to her
house she turned and smiled and waved at her friends she looked down to make sure
that she had the right key and then she heard her friend shout from the car Anna
wait why don't you come over to our house for a cup of coffee Anna turned from the door put her keys back back in
her person walked back to the car got in and they drove away mhm inside the house
BTK grew angry as he waited and waited for her to return eventually he ends up leaving the house when Anna did return
home she found the broken window the ropes and the broom handle she picked up the phone to call the police and report
a Breakin but the phone line was dead and there was no dial tone right she ran to her neighbor's home and called the
police from there when police arrived they had found that the phone line had been cut and they also discovered that
some jewelry and several articles of clothing along with $35 in cash were missing from the home initially this
incident was not linked to BTK but that changed when on June 15th an envelope addressed with block letters arrived at
Anna's Home inside was an article of clothing and jewelry that had been stolen from Anna's home these items were
accompanied by a letter and a drawing now the drawing was of a bound and nude woman the letter was a poem and it was
titled oh Anna why didn't you appear and it read TW perfect plan of deviant pleasure so bold on that spring night my
inner felling hot with propension of new awakening season worn wet with Inner Fear and Rapture my pleasure of
entanglement like new Vines at night oh Anna why didn't you appear drop of fear fresh spring rain roll down from your
nakedness to scent to lofty fever that burns within in that small world of longing fear Rapture and Desperation the
game we play fall on devil ears Fantasy Spring forth mounts to storm Fury then winter clam at end oh Anna why didn't
you appear alone now and another time span I lay with sweet and Rapture garments across most private thought bed
of spring moist grass clean before the sun enslaved with control warm wind senting the air sunlight Sparkle tears
in eyes so deep and clear alone again I Trot in past memory of MIRS and Ponder why for number eight was not oh Anna why
didn't you appear 2 Days Later the newspapers are going to report that be TK Strangler tried to get his eighth
victim but he failed when she didn't return home so the would be victim was Anna Williams now she actually moved out
of town shortly after the incident because even though the police didn't connect the Breakin with the actions of
BTK uh until the letter was received Anna's instincts told her that it was the serial killer and she feared that he
would return to claim her at another time right and actually in fact when the letter was sent to her home she had
already moved out by that time she had sent someone to collect the mail until the home could be sold or whatever they
intended to do with it so the letter was actually received by somebody else but one thing that I think that this shows
here and I think there's there's a lot of evidence of this in the actions of the BTK Strangler here right is that
after so after the announcement of the BTK Strangler just like the Son of Sam who commit you know communed with law
enforcement and with the public and I also suspect this to be the case with the Zodiac as well though we may never
know Dennis Raider became well he became like addicted to the news coverage about
him and about the case right and he loved being the city's so-called Boogeyman let's say
right yeah or what everybody's fearing right right he right he loved the fear of the city's people uh he loved that he
knew the answer to the biggest question around town who was BTK yeah or who was POS well and I tell you what though he
he loved the secrets that he was keeping and I would suspect and well later we would we would learn that this was fact
actually that he collected the newspaper articles about him and like we learned from Gary Ridgeway the Green River
Killer we learned from his wife after he was finally caught that Gary seemed to be obsessive about not missing the
evening or nighttime newscast this probably would have been the case with Raider as well right now regarding
the newspaper articles and collecting them well we also know that BTK has a wife and two kids so he would have to
hide his collection he wouldn't want for his family or others to know that he had
an unhealthy fascination with the case yeah they're probably watching for two reasons one if they sent a letter what
is the reaction and also just is there any updates from the police so they can monitor you know is law enforcement
closer to catching me yeah yeah it's kind of double duty I guess right two birds yeah you get to monitor the
investigation or what what the public can see of the investigation as well as see the reaction and and it's filling
your ego at the same time yeah scary while we while we were talking about his family um you know we talked about
people checking the phone lines one thing that I found very interesting about this case was his wife Dennis
Raider's wife was afraid of the BTK um to the point she was one of the people that would check the phone line in her
house and she was vocal to friends and family about being afraid of the BTK Strangler well and denn probably got off
on that well he he may have but I know there was one time that he did not like it at all because remember last week we
spoke about the phone call when Dennis Raider made that very short phone call announcing a homicide to the dispatcher
and of course they show up to the address that he gives and sure enough there's a victim there well remember
they played that on the newscast they played that as bad as that audio was they played that on the newscast hoping
somebody would recognize the voice the strange thing here though is the two of them Mr and Mrs Raider were watching the
news together that night and after they played it multiple times she looked looked over at him and almost kind of
like jokingly very casually says to him that sounds like you or BTK talks like you do and let's let's reenact that okay
so I'll be Dennis Raider okay and then you be his wife okay play they just played my voice go ahead that sounds
like you honey a lot of people sound like me it couldn't be me yeah I think I I don't
know what was actually said but uh according to Dennis Raider he got he got very agitated and and pretty defensive
when that had happened oh so I played it completely wrong I I figured he'd just you know laugh it off oh yeah that
sounds like me honey I'm the BTK I'm going to stab you uh the wife told Dennis that the the phone call sounded
like him but but we also have to keep in mind that they've been together for quite some time by this point she she
never actually thought that her husband was the killer right but so he pulled the old you know she's just trying to
make a joke hey honey that kind of sounds like you and he pulled old what the hell are you talking about I I don't
know what went down he just said he his only comment on it would be that he was annoyed no he wasn't annoyed he was
scared when she had said that to him that he was he was scared so now but I want to I just point out here that this
this letter this letter that we just discussed or this communication I believe is proof of his addiction to his
notoriety of his BTK Persona because when the cops in the local media failed to connect this break into BTK it's
about 15 months later and he wants to let the public know that he is still around so you know be afraid because I'm
still out here I haven't left I'm still hunting people we've spoke quite a bit about Dennis Raider's personal life so
he is this man living in Park City City who had terrorized witch killing seven people announcing to the public his name
and presence sending taunting letters and threatening everyone to kill more people but he's he's a guy living this
quiet and pretty reserved life in Park City living in a a modest home with his wife son and daughter and working for
the ADT company Rising through the ranks over the years yeah he is not killing during this time but he has trophies he
has trophies from his kills and unbeknownst to those close to him and to those living with him he is constantly
fantasizing and reliving his sick murderous fantasies behind closed doors in his home Raider also did what he
called self bondage um and he did this in wooded areas he did this at his home and he
also did this this is uncomfortable really this whole conversation is uncomfortable but he also did this in
his parents' basement was like one of his favorite places to to go about this self bondage thing that he liked to do
and what he would do is I guess his parents um you know they they lived not terribly far from where he was living
and they traveled a decent amount you know several times a year and I think he would go check on their house maybe
collect the mail things like that his parents basement was a place that was one of his favorite spots for what he
called self- bondage and this is where he would take these long drawn out um sessions of of himself where he would be
you know he would he would wear mask women's clothing uh he was hanging himself tying himself up using handcuffs
on himself and he would also take pictures of himself when he was doing this self- bondage uh let's say hobby of
his yeah and and I believe that um a fetish well yeah and and I don't know how many you can find online but there
are some of these these pictures have gone uh public uh of of his his crazy hobby but you know he's also doing
normal things though at this time he's raising his family being a husband he's he's listed as a regarded as a hard
worker at the ADT company he is involved in his church uh by the early 80s Dennis's son Brian is in grade school
and he joins the Cub Scouts now Raider was in the Cub Scouts and boy scouts when he was a kid and teenager so this
is something that he he enjoyed himself but he also passed it on to his son and Dennis was involved uh he was a
volunteer there he helped out quite a bit with the Boy Scouts and with his son's Cub Scouts and I have seen several
websites that state that Dennis was a very officially appointed Boy Scout leader I think this is just more
folklore I think he just helped out there but he was involved but for Dennis Raider uh for BT K the Boy Scouts would
later become an important thing to his crimes and to his murders now we had recently mentioned pictures um you know
taking the Polaroids of himself one Theory early on in the BT case was that the killer was not only taking some
trophies from the houses but he was probably taking photos of the victims and of the crime scenes as well this is
a very strong Theory and a part one with a lot of thought to back it up now remember he killed four members of the
Otoro family and then many years later in a communication to the police he recalls very specific details about each
one of the victims and about what he did using which items and specifics about the crime scene yeah to prove it was him
right and there was FBI that stated you know what either this guy's taking photographs of the crime
and that's how he's able to give us such a great detailed account of what had happened a few years later or he has a
photographic memory now the FBI didn't think that photogra photographic memory was likely with this character now the
early 80s in wiah was there was the birth of something that would later be called the Ghostbuster
Squad by this time though there had not been a murder or communication from BTK in years now what was the Ghostbuster
Squad well this was comprised of eight officers and it was you had all kinds of different ranking officers in this
Ghostbuster Squad did they have a cool car uh I I don't think that they actually had a vehicle at all I think
these were these were men that spent a lot of time in closed door meetings trying to come up with new Clues they
were reviewing the old cases uh trying to find something within those Case Files that might lead them to BTK and
coming up with the strategy for tracking this guy down now some of these officers
like I said different ranking officers some of them would be experienced homicide detectives some that had
originally worked the uro murders and the other two murder cases as well and then you have you have officers that
were just G you know I believe one of them was even on like desk Duty because he was injured in the line of duty and
couldn't go out of the office but one office that was involved in this a young officer named Ken landware he was a
police officer at the time and he he's somebody that we would see he's going to end up working this BT
case for like 20 years you know so he's one of the early guys in on this and one
of the guys that worked this case and saw it through to the end now the name the Ghostbuster Squad that was not an
official name you know they weren't called that by the police department it's really annoying when people don't
use official names well I don't know that they had a name they were probably just referred to as some type of task
force would be my guess what it was kind of a nickname that the department gave the task force because one day there was
an officer talking to another officer and said hey all those officers and detectives I see them in there every day
working on something having meetings what are they doing in there and the other officer said to the guy don't
worry about that they're just chasing ghost yeah and so that became the kind of nickname that they slapped on to this
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[Music] Freedom all right cheers mates and a big shout out to all the beautiful people
that we met at crime con this weekend Marine Wallace hedge was 53 years old was a quiet Dependable second shift
supervisor at a medical center Coffee shop now she was originally from Arkansas but she had moved to Kansas
with her late husband she was widowed she was described as a kind petite well-dressed woman with a Charming
Southern Voice she was a devoted mother to her three daughters one son and a devoted she was devoted to her
grandchildren as well now she enjoyed playing bingo doing yard work and attending the Baptist Church she lived
on the same block as Dennis Raider actually she had lived there on the same block as Dennis Raider for over 30
years at some point Dennis started to fantasize about Marine Hedges mhm he got a strong sexual charge thinking about
what she would look like tied up gagged and with a rope tight around her neck now this could be a big big problem for
Dennis because factor x is telling him to kill her but killing a neighbor would be extremely risky but once factor x
focused in on a victim Dennis had to get to work trolling the subject checking up
on them as he would call it now during this process Dennis learned that the woman had worked at a coffee shop and he
would call this project cookie sometimes at night Dennis would take a bike ride and he would sneak around her home
watching her through the Windows sometimes he would stare at her as she lie in bed at night with the light on
reading Dennis didn't care about the risk it it the The Urge that he got to kill her was so strong he was willing to
take the risk he was going to create some kind of plan so that he could kill her but also give himself an alibi as
well okay so on the weekend of April 27th 1985 Dennis Raider was attending a Boy
Scout camp camp this is just outside of witch he left the camp in the evening with the pretext of having a headache
and needing to get to town to buy something for his headache in his vehicle Dennis Raider had what he
referred to as his hit kit this would be his kit of prepared items he thought he
needed or intended to use during the course of one of his murders you know we saw this type of thing with Bundy you
know that you keep this thing in your vehicle or you keep it close at hand you have these materials or items that you
think you're going to need to use right but this time Captain he had actually stored these items in a pre-selected bag
he he put them in a different bag this time he was using a bowling bag mhm so after he left the camp he parked his car
by a bowling alley inside the city and he bought himself a beer at the bowling alley he drank half the beer and
deliberately spilled beer on his clothing and on his hands so he would have smelled like he had been there all
night drinking a lot mhm so he calls a cab and when the cab gets there he pretends to be drunk and he tells the
driver that he's far too drunk to drive home and he needed a ride but Dennis instructed the driver to take him to
take him home but he didn't give the driver an actual address he told the driver to take him to a park in Park
City so that he could walk it off before going home saying he wanted to get some
fresh air was too drunk to see his wife whatever right so this park it was near the backyard of hedge's property Raider
shows up he makes the walk to her property and he's actually disappointed to see Marine's car in the carport so he
assumed when he saw the vehicle that she was at home he didn't want her to be home when he arrived at the house he
cuts the phone line and he quietly Pride open a rear door using a SC screwdriver
and it turned out that that no one was home to his surprise even though that car was there right nobody was in the
house but soon A car pulled up and Raider decided to hide in a bedroom closet now Marine hedge and a friend
this was Gerald Porter entered the home they stayed there talking for approximately 2 hours the whole time
Dennis Raider is hiding in this closet listening to the two of them talk waiting for the man to leave well Gerald
left the house that night around 1:00 a.m. now Raider waited until Marine went to bed and you know till till he he
thought that she had fallen asleep at that time he crept out of the closet he turns on the the bathroom light so he
can see what he's he's doing and then he pounces on Marine who's still in the bed
he manually is choking the this woman now now I I said she's a petite woman this woman weighed less than 100 lb MH
so Dennis Raider would seem like a giant on top of her he ends up killing her when he's he's choking her he was really
just trying to get control of her and get control of the situation but because he was so much larger than her his hands
strong he ended up strangling her to death now this this fantasy-driven outing was far from over though there
was other stuff that he wanted to do looks like he's going to have to make up for it now that he accidentally killed
her too fast for his liking so he decided to rumage through the house looking for trophies that he could keep
and he decided to take her purse and everything in it he was going to do something he had not done before he was
going to remove the victim's body from the house and dump her somewhere else he didn't want this to look like a BT BTK
killing remember this is way too close to to his home right so he dragged the body with the bedding to her car and put
her in the trunk of her own car then Dennis Raider drove directly to his church where okay so he was so trusted
at his church that he had keys to the building he could get into the building anytime he wanted to so he dragged the
body underneath some Tre well I mean let's be real he could get into it whether he had keys or not yeah I that's
true you know he could break into the place he dragged the body underneath some trees and he entered the building
um down and went down to the basement and then he taped black plastic over the basement window so no one could see
inside he had actually stashed the plastic there a few days maybe a week before knowing that this was his
intention knowing that he was going to need it and then dragged the body down to the basement and he photographed it
in various poses when BTK is done living out these fantasies he's going to return
his victim to her trunk and he's going to then take off yeah he's going to be looking for a place to ditch this body
so he's looking for a dumping ground and he finds a place that he likes uh this is in a ditch along a dirt road several
miles outside of Park City M when he gets there he takes her out of the trunk he places her on the ground and then he
covers her with leaves and branches now he also left a knotted pair of panty hose near the body then Dennis Raider
dropped her car off about 6 miles away at a shopping Center parking lot he left the car there after wiping it down for
fingerprints by now it was getting it was almost light out by this time Raider had made his way back to where he had
left his vehicle and then he drove and returned to the Scout camp that he had deserted earlier right then he went into
his tent and pretended like he had been in there sleeping all night long and he emerged a short time later giving the
impression that he had just woke up for the day he spent that morning scrambling
eggs for the scouts for whatever reason and I think it was because she had died so quickly
so early on in the attack he would later say that this kill that this was not a very satisfying kill for him next BTK
and factor x are going to focus in on Vicky werly Vicki's a 28-year-old wife and mother she was uh calm quiet kind
person she loved children and when she became pregnant with her child she began providing Child Care from her home Vicki
attended two churches she attended the Lutheran Church because it was her faith but she also attended the Methodist
Church because it was the neighborhood church she volunteered to watch children in the church nurseries now Raider
started stalking her in 1986 he he would walk by her house and Vicky would be inside playing the piano many times so
he started calling Vicky project piano okay in preparation for this project Dennis made up a fake repair man hard
hat he had glued a Southwestern Bell logo onto the hard hat on his shirt he placed a fake name tag that he had
fashioned out of someone's Southwestern Bell business card that he had found he brought a along with him a briefcase to
look you know official inside the briefcase was the BTK hit kit right he's always finding ways to disguise this hit
kit that he's going to bring along with him on September 16th this is sometime after 10: a.m. he parked his car a few
blocks away from her home and then he first went to Vicky's neighbor's house and he's dressed as this telephone
repair man he knocks on the door and then he goes through his Spiel with the elderly woman who answered the door you
know saying I need to check your phone we're checking phones in the neighborhood blah blah blah you know
this was kind of a smart move on his part and he said that the reason why he knocked on the neighbor's door first was
if Vicky happened to be looking out the window he didn't want to just walk from far away and she see him knock on her
her door first he was determined to he was determined to attack and kill somebody that day almost to the point
that when the L woman had answered the door it crossed his mind maybe I just attack her instead of going next door
after he talks to the neighbor lady he's going to end up at Vicky's front door and somehow Dennis Raider managed to
talk himself inside the home claiming that he needed to check the phone line from inside once inside he he goes over
and he kind of like fiddles with the phone for a little bit he even brought with him some kind of fake testing
Gadget that he threw in his briefcase and then he turns on her and he informs her that he is going to need
to tie her up I wonder if he you know she was married so I wonder if the intent of let me get into the house
under the the guys of checking this phone just to make sure that she's alone being there for enough time to make sure
she's alone right I imagine using a gun he forced her into a bedroom and then he
attempted to tie her up but she she fought him pretty bad and and uh she gave a fierce battle she scratched him
several times in the process Raider ended up winning the physical fight though and he would
secure her with ropes and then he proceeded to strangle her to death using panty hose as a leature he photographed
the body in several poses and then he left in wager Le's vehicle yeah and during this attack she is you know
claiming that her husband's going to come home too cuz she's trying to scare him off yeah she wants to to scare BTK
out of the house but the weird thing is and I don't know if this was routine or not Captain but her husband Bill werly
and did come home he did come home soon after the attack he came home so much soon after the attack that he actually
saw Vicky's car driving in the opposite direction from their home now when the car was kind of far away he thought that
it was Vicki you know he spots the vehicle he's like oh there's there's our car she's probably going somewhere yeah
well as the car got closer he couldn't identify the driver but he knew that it wasn't Vicki and actually assume that it
was not his vehicle that he was seeing at that time when he gets home something very strange it happened remember we
talked about how much Vicky loved children and she even took care of other people's kids but when he arrives home
the home appears to be empty and his 2-year-old son Brandon is just sitting there in the living room un ended mhm B
Bill walked the home and he couldn't find Vicki well he's there for quite some time I think he even like made his lunch
you know he had returned home for lunch that day and he comes home and he starts
to prepare his lunch he's getting angry at his wife because why in the hell is his son there this little 2-year-old boy
unattended in the home and and furthermore where does she go right he's home for about 45 minutes maybe an hour
and he's kind of you know at first probably just walking around kind of nonchalant but as the time goes on he's
getting angrier and he's starting to look and look and look around this house eventually he discovers her lifeless
body was placed between the bed in the wall there's you know how sometimes people put their bed near the wall and
there's only a small space there her body was either pushed down in there or had fallen down in there and he hadn't
he didn't see her so he calls the police and and he tells them what had happened
he calls and he says you know I I'm pretty sure my wife is dead I came home and my 2-year-old son is by himself well
he's also going to tell him that he thinks he saw well now he thinks he saw his vehicle driving away from the house
yeah and when the paramedics arrive they are desperately trying to revive her keep in mind she would have only been
dead if in fact she was dead when BTK left the home for a short period of time but unfortunately it she was pronounced
dead a short time later before they could get to the hospital now BTK meanwhile had been driving around the
city and he is disposing of evidence as he's driving eventually he returned to the area near Vicky's house and he
parked werley's car just a couple blocks from their home in fact he exited the vehicle in the area on foot um and he
returned to his own car that he had left nearby changing his clothes uh he escaped all detection for this
crime and was actually for the longest time never suspected of this murder at all you think somebody would have
reported his car being you know a suspicious car within within a few blocks of a crime taking place and
nobody knows whose car that is correct yes and but one thing that might help him with this is that this is an attack
during the middle of the day in the neighborhood there's a good chance you know a lot of people off at work
people are less likely to see some things right this story right here you know all of these stories are extremely
tragic this one is a little has a little more added tragedy to it because not only is a young mother
killed here and a young wife killed here but this is a real tough one because a lot of the police and detectives thought
for sure that the husband actually had killed his wife you know he's the one that finds her dead um they couldn't
believe that the sun was there right they could not believe that he was home for 45 minutes to maybe an hour before
discovering her body and so yeah that that sounds a little fishy exactly so you can see you
can see that side of the fence now on the other side of the fence we have other detectives that had issue with
this thought and and one reason was the knots that were found at the scene some of them thought they resembled some
knots that they had seen at BTK crime scenes M and now number two they thought that you know this this
would take some time in their investigation but once they found the vehicle and I know that it wasn't
terribly far from her home but but the the problem they had with that was while logistically it was possible for this
man to move her vehicle a few blocks from the home and return nobody had seen him just like you said about btk's
suspicious car nobody saw that either I guess but the thought was they thought somebody would have seen him walking
back to his home they couldn't find anybody that had said that and then three and this is probably the most
important was the little boy like you said their son is still at home well when police talk to the little boy mind
you he's only two so he's limited on Words and stuff like that yeah but but the nightmares that kid is going to have
well the the only thing that he was able to tell the investigators was was a single sentence that was man hurt mommy
man hurt mommy well a lot of the detectives found it strange that the boy would say man hurt mommy they if if if
he had seen his father kill his mother yeah he would say daddy or whatever he called him now January 31st
1987 Upon returning home to witch Kansas after visiting family for a few days Mary fager was understandably shocked to
discover her husband Melvin dead on the floor this is directly in front of the door to their home her husband had been
shot twice in the back now there two daughters this is Sher she's 9 years old and Kelly who's 16 years old they were
found in the basement they had been left in a covered hot tub with the hot with the water running I think it was at like
90° in this hot tub Sherry had been bound with electrical tape and placed in the water after having been
strangled Kelly had been drowned now there were no signs of forced entry to the home implying that maybe the
killer was known to the family or at least good enough to talk his way or their way into the house the husband and
father like I said was found by the front door still wearing his coat so there was one police theory about this
crime is that the man may have been shot upon entering into the home that he had
un you know unknowingly returned home during some portion of a crime being committed and startled the killer or
Killers MH one big clue in this case was the family car was missing now along with a local handyman um there was a guy
by the name of William Butterworth who had been employed by the family for some work around the house I like their syrup
it was initially feared by the investigators that Butterworth was either another victim or he had you know
possibly been taken by force or that P perhaps he was party to whatever had happened in the house now his own van
was found several days later this was just blocks away from the house a search of the van came up empty they found no
evidence in this van whatsoever on January 3rd 1988 so almost a year later Butterworth is arrested in
Florida he had called his wife and a family member reported this to the police and in fact he was still on the
phone when he was arrested they had been looking for this guy ever since this murder went down they find him in
Florida because he decides to call his wife now when he's arrested the car keys the keys to the fager family vehicle MH
they were found in his pocket and the stolen car was found nearby he was unarmed and he did not
resist when he was arrested now while being questioned by the police he told the officers that he had entered
the home discovered the body of Melvin that's the father heard some noises in the house got scared and ran away he had
no obvious reason to flee to Florida the police couldn't figure out look if you're not guilty why did you flee the
area he didn't have a police record he was not a match for the there was seamen found in the hot tub he was not a match
for that that Sean he was also not a match for strange fingerprints that were found inside the home he was described
as a guy who would always go out of his way to do a favor for someone nice guy he had three children a three-year-old a
six-month old six-month old twins I'm sorry and he had been having some Financial issues at the time just weeks
before these murders MH under questioning you know he's questioned multiple times Captain he did not change
his story his story did not change he stuck to it he said that he entered the house saw the body heard something ran
away he also said that that being terrified in this situation he thought he was going to die yeah and being
terrified in the situation he didn't recall what he was doing or his whereabouts for several days after that
went down he said when he came to he it was like four or five days later and he was in Florida and he was afraid to
return right so Butterworth's defense attorney he's going to be he's going to be charged with this however his defense
attorney has him undergo 20 hypnosis sessions over the course of four months they're trying to get a full story or to
see if possibly he's lying right under hypnosis Butterworth gave a similar but much more detailed story of what had
happened that day he said that he had been building the family sun room which was true he took a break for lunch when
he returned he said that Kelly this is the oldest daughter and someone that he assumed was possibly her boyfriend were
in the hot tub he he did not see um anyone in the sunro but he said that he heard movement or saw some type
of movement so he decided that he was going to leave the home and he would come back later you know keep in mind he
assumes that he saw the oldest daughter with probably her boyfriend maybe he felt awkward at walking in on this
situation decides to leave happens so during this time he goes out and he goes shopping cuz he's just trying to kill
some time while he's out he bumps into a retired police captain this is William dots now later William dots would verify
having seen and spoke with Butterworth that day at that approximate time dots went on to say that Butterworth did
not seem to be shaken or to be nervous or acting strange when he met with him that day then Butterworth returned to
the house at approximately 4:30 at this time he said that the lights were off he
entered the salarium and he found Sherry face down in the hot tub then he saw Melvin dead in the hallway he heard a
noise and he realized that the murderer was still in in the house so frightened he bolted now for some reason captain
and I apologize because I do not know why but apparently this man in the confusion ended up with the wrong set of
keys somehow I'm not sure how this happened but when he was trying to get the heck out of there right he had
accidentally tried to use Fager's keys to start his van when he realized that he had the wrong set of keys he wasn't
he was afraid he didn't want to enter the home again he grabbed his stuff out of his van and then took off in Fager's
car yeah but can you imagine you have a psycho killer that you believe is still in the house you're running for your
life and then you get into a vehicle you go to start it and you have the wrong damn keys and you have a victim's set of
keys in your hand and you're going to end up taking their vehicle because you don't want to go back into the house at
that point right now remember he says that he kind of he's uncertain of his whereabouts or what he was doing for
approximately the next four days he says when he came to the next thing he remembers he's in Florida that he he
magically wakes up in Florida once he comes to he said that he felt shame and cowardice for running he was also afraid
that he would be picked out to be the suspect or to have murdered these people and that made him not want to return and
that's why he waited so long before he contacted anybody after he had already been out he was charged with these three
murders mhm but it was on June 7th well that's because his story never changed what we've learned from shows like
serial is if you change your story over and over that they normally put you on the prosecutor's team yeah and that's a
good way to get your conviction overturned years later possibly at least on June 7th 1988 Butterworth was
acquitted of all of the charges now most people to this day believe that this is
not an open case they they don't believe that the you know that the they believe
that the police have closed this case because the police firmly believe in the Public's eye that Butterworth was the
killer of these three individuals but then you have to wonder we have this guy BTK who's active at the
time killing people inside their homes and we have two female victims there and remember Dennis Raider was not opposed
to attacking and killing children and what we do know is this captain on January in January of 1988 Dennis Raider
sent a letter to the mother who had discovered the bodies of her husband and children and this letter simply said I
did not kill your family but I admire the work so an interesting still unsolved to this very day triple
homicide so maybe maybe Butterworth did it maybe Butterworth has a partner you know maybe that would explain some of it
because some of the evidence doesn't match up with him 100% right or maybe BTK did it but isn't claiming
responsibility for it for some reason then you have the other possibility which is the Killer is an unknown
suspect at the time that this letter was sent from Dennis ra Raider to Mary fager
it was actually believed to be a hoax simply someone pretending to be the BTK but after his arrest it was confirmed
that the letter was in fact from Dennis Raider because like most of his Communications Raider would make a
photoc copy of his letters and to further elude detection Dennis Raider would mail the photocopy not the
original to either the police or to the media right after his arrest police found the original amongst Raiders BTK
memorabilia right but I'm just going to assume that BTK didn't do this cuz one he wanted credit for these crimes and he
wanted to be in the spotlight and he he wanted people talking about him that he wanted people fearing him you know so he
wrote a letter so he could get into the spotlight but he also said hey I admire your work but I didn't do this and I
think you're exactly right I think him sending that letter is simply just a reminder to the general public I'm still
out there now there's another crazy person out there too right I'm still out here and I'm watching and I'm
[Music] waiting thanks for listening and stick around for the finale of BTK tomorrow
until then be good be kind and don't [Music] litter [Applause] [Music] you can start your day off right when
you find a professional on Angie to get your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals
to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you
Angie that

BTK /// Part 3 /// 206

Part 3 of 4

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January 1974 - Wichita, Kansas - After years of fantasizing a killer emerges from the shadows and announces himself to the world. A dark haired man slipped into the home of the Otero's one morning as the children prepared for school. He murdered all four people inside the home. Later that same year he would attack and kill again before vanishing into hibernation. After many requests we have decided to take an in depth look into the dark, disturbing life and mind of Dennis Rader. Driven by what he called Factor X, Dennis was better known as the BTK.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the BTK Strangler's crimes, including chilling murders and psychological insights into Dennis Raider's life.

Key points

Quality Sleep at Ashley. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices, helping children in need.
Rosetta Stone Holiday Deal. Get 50% off a lifetime membership to learn any of 25 languages.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Join Nick and the Captain as they dive into true crime stories over a drink.
The BTK Strangler Announcement. Police announce a series of murders linked to the BTK Strangler, urging public vigilance.
Anna Williams' Close Call. Anna Williams narrowly escapes the BTK Strangler, leading to a chilling letter.
The Ghostbuster Squad. A nickname for the task force that wasn't officially recognized, but became popular among officers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The BTK Strangler is on the loose!

7:00WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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