Author Topic: BTK Suspect is Arrested (Read 645 times)

Patriot_1776 · « **on:** February 26, 2005, 06:58:19 AM »

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6988048/

Wichita police:
'BTK is arrested'
Suspected serial killer detained after
decades-long hunt

Breaking news

MSNBC staff and news service reports

Updated: 12:20 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2005WICHITA, Kan.

-Police said Saturday they have arrested a suspect they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer, who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 16 years of silence.

"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims' family members.

BTK investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr identified the suspect as Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday at his suburban home.

The BTK killer -- a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" -- has been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986.

Prosecutor Nola Foulston said that while there is no statute of limitations for homicide, the death penalty would not apply to any crime committed before 1994, when the death penalty was introduced in Kansas.

BTK resurfaces after 16 years
The BTK killer sent letters to media about the crimes in the 1970s, but stopped for more than two decades before re-establishing contact last March with a letter about an unsolved 1986 killing.

Since then, authorities said the killer has sent at least eight letters to the media or police, including three packages containing jewelry that police believed may have been taken from BTK's victims. One letter contained the driver's license of victim Nancy Fox.

The new letters sent chills through Wichita, but also rekindled hope that modern forensic science could find some clue that would finally lead police to a killer most thought was dead or safely locked in prison for some other crime.

Thousands of tips poured in, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation conducted hundreds of DNA swabs in connection with the BTK investigation.

Investigators searched a house in a Wichita suburb Friday and seized computer equipment, but police, prosecutors and the FBI all declined to comment Friday about the activity or any possible connection to the BTK case.

A source with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity said surveillance gave police their "first big piece" of recent evidence, leading authorities to a vehicle and the suspect.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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-Patriot

quigleysharps4570 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 26, 2005, 08:23:50 AM »

Glad to see they finally got him. If he hadn't resurfaced they might not ever of.

Leftoverdj · « **Reply #2 on:** February 26, 2005, 09:48:43 AM »

"City worker" is a euphemism. He's an animal control officer. 'Round here that means a sworn officer with with full weapons privileges and arrest rights. Perhaps one of our Kansas members can tell us if that is the case in Kansas as well?

quigleysharps4570 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 26, 2005, 11:17:06 AM »

Here they are sworn and can issue tickets. Never have saw one with a weapon other than a dart gun. I figure if they can issue tickets, they can arrest.