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This captain
comes into our Homicide Unit
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holding an envelope in his hand.
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And he gave it to my partner, Dana.
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Inside was a photocopy
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of three Polaroid photos
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of a dead woman
that I recognized as Vicki Wegerle.
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Vicki Wegerle
was a homicide victim from 1986,
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but the police department
doesn't take pictures of crime victims
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with a Polaroid.
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Somebody obviously
took her picture as she was dying.
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At the very bottom,
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was the symbol used by a serial killer
who started killing in 1974.
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The victims had been bound,
gagged and strangled with a cord.
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It'd been decades
since his last communication.
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A plastic bag over her head,
and a cord looped around her neck.
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Most people thought
that he was either in prison, or dead,
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or moved away.
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My boss looked over that letter.
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I'll never forget what he said.
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"Gentlemen...
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hug and kiss your families,
because we're gonna work for a long time."
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"BTK is back."
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Okay, we're recording.
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Okay.
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My name is Kelly Otis, and in 2004,
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I was a homicide detective
with the Wichita Police Department.
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When I was young, my father died,
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and I was raised
by a very strong single mother.
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At the age of 21,
I entered the police academy.
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I did 11 years in patrol,
and then I got promoted to detective.
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And that's when I started working
with my partner, Dana.
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I've always wanted to be a detective,
ever since I was a little kid.
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I just didn't take
people committing heinous crimes
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and getting away with it very well.
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When we got the letter from BTK,
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we put together a task force
including Kelly Otis...
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How's that sound? Is that okay?
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...myself and Tim Relph.
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I remember BTK well
from my childhood.
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The daughter was found
hanging from a pipe in the basement.
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You didn't have to worry
about the bogeyman or anything like that.
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Your fear was this brutal murderer.
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What leads do you have?
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Well, very honestly,
we have... no solid leads at all.
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Once he reemerged,
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you know exactly what your task is.
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It's time for us... to catch that guy.
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I started looking
through the old files,
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photographs,
and the diagrams of the crime scene.
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The first murders attributed to BTK,
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um, were the Oteros.
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The BTK story
goes back to January of 1974.
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BTK cut the phone lines
at the back of the house.
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And he entered through the back door,
ended up taking control of the family.
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Strangling Mr. Otero.
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Mrs. Otero.
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And the young boy.
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He then took
Josephine Otero to the basement.
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She was bound up
and then hung from a sewer pipe.
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Josephine Otero was just 11 years old.
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I had kids at the time,
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and I found it extremely disturbing
looking at those pictures.
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It... It was horrendous.
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And you... you can't
unsee something, right?
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BTK's second murder was Kathryn Bright.
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His next victim was a single mother,
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Shirley Vian.
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And then there was Nancy Fox,
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who was bound and tortured.
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He sent multiple communications
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to media outlets describing what he did.
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"The code words for me will be bind them,
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torture them,
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kill them.
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BTK."
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We talked about it a lot,
and we agreed
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that if he would start sending letters
like he did back in the '70s,
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we'd have a shot at catching him.
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Now we have much better
fingerprinting and DNA testing.
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If he made one mistake,
our unit would be able to pick up on that.
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BTK was serious
about wanting to spread panic,
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wanting to spread fear.
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National attention
is exactly what he wanted.
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And so we used the media
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to appeal to his narcissistic side.
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Wichita Police Department, on Friday,
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received a letter
that most likely came from BTK.
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There was hope he would send
additional packages or letters
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without actually killing someone new.
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This is one of the most challenging cases
I've ever been involved with,
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and I find
the individual that is doing this
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would be very interesting to talk to.
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A serial killer
apparently has resurfaced.
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The killer
breaking his silence after 25 years.
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People immediately
fell back into their fears.
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Maybe he's a little closer.
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It's stressful.
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Could be
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the guy next door.
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I... You know, I have no clue.
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It had been
a little bit over six weeks.
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We hadn't heard anything from BTK.
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And finally...
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...we get this phone call.
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Good evening. We have exclusive details
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on new communication
that could be from the serial killer BTK.
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When we opened it up,
we weren't sure what we'd find.
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The contents looked very suspicious.
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The news station
had received communication
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allegedly from BTK.
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The police were called,
and in no time,
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a detective arrived
to retrieve the letter,
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to see if it contains
the clues needed to track down BTK.
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When we got it back up to the crime lab,
oh, I was extremely excited.
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Maybe we'd get some DNA off the envelope.
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Maybe we'd get a hair sample.
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But when we opened it up...
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it was extremely bizarre.
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Inside of that package,
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had a word-search puzzle.
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We found words like "victim."
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"Follow."
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And then "insurance man."
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"Lost pet."
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"Serviceman."
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He was playing a game with us.
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And I think
that he was having fun with it.
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When the crime lab
processed the evidence,
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there was no DNA, no hairs,
no fibers, no fingerprints.
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And it was so frustrating.
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If you have any information
that can help police,
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you can call the BTK tip line.
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The number,
two-six-eight-four-one-seven-four,
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open from 8:00 to 5:00,
Monday through Friday.
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The phones began to ring,
and they didn't stop.
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Four hundred or more tips
in the first 24 hours.
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By 48 hours, it was over a thousand tips.
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People were calling in
from all over the country.
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They suspected so-and-so is BTK.
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It was almost overwhelming.
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But we had a huge advantage in 2004
than any detective that touched this case.
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DNA technology
is a huge asset to investigators.
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Cops back in the day took really good care
of the evidence from the crime scenes.
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And so,
we were able to get DNA profiles of BTK
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that were left in the Otero home in 1974.
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Every time we got a potential suspect,
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all I had to do was go get their DNA,
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and the DNA would tell us
if it was him or not.
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We worked all hours.
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Dana and I became fans
of Diet Mountain Dew
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because of its high caffeine content.
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And we were eating out three times a day.
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Cheeseburgers
and chicken fried steak for dinner.
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Food that was not good for you.
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Your family suffered
because BTK was all you'd think about.
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Catching him was all you're driven to do.
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Living like that, you know, was difficult.
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There was some frustration
that we were going into
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six, seven months now,
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and we had no good suspects.
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It's a grind on you,
and it's a grind for your family.
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If I knew it was gonna be a long night,
I'd just go home,
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kiss my wife
and, uh, just looked in on the kids.
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You can get a little stream of light
pretty quickly from those kids.
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But then, afterwards,
I went right back to work.
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I was in the office working late
when I got a call.
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An unusual package was discovered
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taped to a stop sign at First and Kansas.
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Inside, there were multiple index cards.
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And the title was
"Death on a Cold January Morning."
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It was an absolute blow-for-blow
about what happened in the Otero house.
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How he came to the decision
to pick the Oteros,
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how he approached the house,
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what he did with each victim.
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It contained so much detail,
there was little doubt that it was BTK.
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I have five children, and, at that time,
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my oldest child was
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about ten years old.
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The thought
that he could strangle a child,
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the thought that he could hang a child...
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You certainly realized
the depravity of it.
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We had to stop him from doing it again.
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Police say
they are still receiving tips
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and want the public
to continue to call the BTK tip line.
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The number, two-six-eight-four-one-seven...
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Saturday night, I'm going through tips,
and I find one I found very interesting.
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This gentleman matched
what we knew about BTK.
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The consensus
was BTK would be extremely smart,
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probably lived alone.
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An eyewitness
at the Kathryn Bright murder,
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back in the '70s,
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believed BTK had to be in his twenties,
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and that would now put him in his fifties.
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The person named in the tip
was a professor, kind of a shut-in.
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He'd lived with his mother
up until her death.
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So, I got a hold
of my brother Dana and said,
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"Come with me,
this one's kind of different."
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We didn't have
a really good suspect very often.
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There's a possibility
this person could be BTK.
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00:13:48,828 --> 00:13:50,746
And I can hear footsteps in the house.
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And the door slowly starts to open.
202
00:13:58,254 --> 00:13:59,839
I see the tip of a butcher knife.
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00:14:02,508 --> 00:14:04,260
I said, "This is the Wichita Police.
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00:14:04,343 --> 00:14:05,761
I need to ask a few questions,
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00:14:05,845 --> 00:14:08,097
but I'd really like you
to put that knife away."
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00:14:11,809 --> 00:14:15,187
Dana and I are looking at each other
like, "This is kind of weird."
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00:14:16,647 --> 00:14:18,440
He comes back, and he opens the door,
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00:14:18,941 --> 00:14:20,568
then turns around and walks inside.
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00:14:27,199 --> 00:14:29,910
It was dusty, and dingy, and dark.
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00:14:30,703 --> 00:14:32,538
Your eyes take some time to adjust.
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00:14:34,582 --> 00:14:37,793
Kelly's talking to him about,
you know, getting a DNA swab from him.
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00:14:39,670 --> 00:14:44,884
And I'm looking around,
and I see all these ropes tied in knots.
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00:14:47,845 --> 00:14:50,389
Bind, torture, and kill.
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00:14:52,308 --> 00:14:55,728
That, of course, makes the hair
on the back of your neck stand up.
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00:14:57,897 --> 00:15:00,399
I'm trying
to draw Kelly's attention to this.
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00:15:01,775 --> 00:15:04,778
And then my flashlight lands
on an engineering book.
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00:15:07,114 --> 00:15:10,409
When BTK sent
his very first letter in the '70s,
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00:15:11,076 --> 00:15:13,370
he put it in this book at the library,
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00:15:13,454 --> 00:15:16,248
and the book
was Applied Engineering Mechanics.
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00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:20,794
So, now I'm in this house
with this gentleman
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who fits the age profile
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and obviously likes knots.
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00:15:26,133 --> 00:15:28,052
And now he has an engineering book,
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00:15:28,636 --> 00:15:31,263
and I thought,
"Holy cow, this could be the guy."
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00:15:33,349 --> 00:15:35,309
Finally, he allowed me to take his DNA.
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00:15:37,061 --> 00:15:39,229
And as we were walking out of the house,
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I got goosebumps.
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00:15:43,025 --> 00:15:46,278
Evidence was taken to
the Forensic Science Center to be tested.
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00:15:47,446 --> 00:15:50,407
I had them move it to the front
of the line, because I thought,
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"If anybody is gonna be him
that I dealt with, it'll be this guy."
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00:16:00,250 --> 00:16:01,251
Two days later...
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00:16:02,544 --> 00:16:03,462
I got a call.
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00:16:06,674 --> 00:16:07,841
Said, "Nope, no match."
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00:16:11,053 --> 00:16:12,846
I was disappointed, for sure.
235
00:16:14,598 --> 00:16:17,184
I thought we were talking to BTK,
and we weren't.
236
00:16:22,481 --> 00:16:25,359
Another possible
communication from BTK,
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00:16:25,442 --> 00:16:28,195
a suspicious letter
left at the downtown library.
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00:16:29,947 --> 00:16:31,115
- Okay.
- All right.
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00:16:32,366 --> 00:16:36,412
What he said was,
"I have spotted a female, a latchkey kid.
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00:16:37,955 --> 00:16:39,748
Just got to work out the details.
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00:16:40,666 --> 00:16:44,003
I'm much older
and have to condition myself carefully.
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00:16:44,503 --> 00:16:47,881
I think fall or winter
will be just right for the hit."
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00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:52,720
He was telling us
he had a victim picked out
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00:16:52,803 --> 00:16:54,179
who was probably a child.
245
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:57,182
And that was petrifying for all of us.
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00:17:00,227 --> 00:17:04,064
We believed that he had
just become more emboldened
247
00:17:04,148 --> 00:17:05,607
because we hadn't caught him.
248
00:17:13,574 --> 00:17:16,910
The stress was...
was climbing really, really high.
249
00:17:21,874 --> 00:17:24,126
Now,
would this latest letter be a warning?
250
00:17:24,209 --> 00:17:28,505
Wichita Police seem concerned
BTK might strike again.
251
00:17:31,508 --> 00:17:35,012
When I got home late,
I'd turn on some mindless TV show.
252
00:17:37,181 --> 00:17:40,184
And I might drink
a little bit of a good whiskey.
253
00:17:41,226 --> 00:17:42,603
And then I'd go crawl in bed.
254
00:17:48,233 --> 00:17:50,652
But my brain would begin to spin.
255
00:17:52,488 --> 00:17:56,158
So, I'd get out of bed,
shower, shave, put on a clean suit,
256
00:17:57,367 --> 00:17:58,410
and go back to work.
257
00:18:03,082 --> 00:18:05,000
There were times I'd roll in at 4:00 a.m.,
258
00:18:05,084 --> 00:18:07,669
and there'd be another detective
who couldn't sleep.
259
00:18:09,129 --> 00:18:11,673
And so we would sit
in the task force office
260
00:18:11,757 --> 00:18:14,259
talking about theories and strategy.
261
00:18:16,595 --> 00:18:19,640
And what in the heck
can we do to stop him?
262
00:18:26,230 --> 00:18:28,065
This is KAKE News.
263
00:18:28,148 --> 00:18:31,235
It appears
BTK is communicating again.
264
00:18:31,318 --> 00:18:34,655
KAKE TV receiving
another mysterious message today.
265
00:18:34,738 --> 00:18:36,615
Investigators
arrived minutes later
266
00:18:36,698 --> 00:18:39,284
to pick up the postcard and evaluate it.
267
00:18:40,786 --> 00:18:42,121
BTK had written,
268
00:18:42,621 --> 00:18:48,752
"Where between 69th Street North
and 77th Street North on Seneca Street?"
269
00:18:48,836 --> 00:18:52,005
Which is north of Wichita
out into a rural area.
270
00:18:52,089 --> 00:18:55,300
And then it said,
"Have you or PD received number seven
271
00:18:55,384 --> 00:18:56,802
at Home Depot drop site
272
00:18:56,885 --> 00:18:58,387
January 8 of '05?"
273
00:18:59,638 --> 00:19:03,225
So, he was telling us about two packages
that hadn't been recovered.
274
00:19:04,685 --> 00:19:05,685
That was huge.
275
00:19:06,228 --> 00:19:07,938
It was game on at that point.
276
00:19:12,484 --> 00:19:16,488
I drove up to North Seneca
to collect the first package.
277
00:19:21,660 --> 00:19:23,495
This was a secluded area.
278
00:19:24,913 --> 00:19:27,875
The road was sand and dirt,
279
00:19:29,084 --> 00:19:31,044
and leaning up against a street sign,
280
00:19:31,879 --> 00:19:32,879
there's a
281
00:19:33,964 --> 00:19:36,175
Post Toasties cereal box.
282
00:19:38,260 --> 00:19:41,513
Cereal box for a serial killer, I guess.
283
00:19:45,267 --> 00:19:47,436
Inside it was a cheap doll...
284
00:19:49,271 --> 00:19:51,148
tied to a sewer pipe.
285
00:19:55,319 --> 00:19:56,320
It was sickening.
286
00:19:58,197 --> 00:20:01,074
He was trying to make this look
like Josephine Otero.
287
00:20:06,580 --> 00:20:08,665
The idea that he might kill someone else,
288
00:20:09,374 --> 00:20:11,043
that it may be a kid,
289
00:20:11,126 --> 00:20:14,755
you know, was taken to heart
by everybody on the task force.
290
00:20:18,258 --> 00:20:20,653
If you wanna kick
a police department into high gear,
291
00:20:20,677 --> 00:20:21,887
just threaten children.
292
00:20:23,222 --> 00:20:26,850
You're just pressing all the buttons
to get a police department fired up.
293
00:20:31,855 --> 00:20:35,359
I drove to the Home Depot to see
if we could recover the other package.
294
00:20:36,860 --> 00:20:38,820
We didn't know what we were looking for.
295
00:20:40,447 --> 00:20:42,532
We went all over that store...
296
00:20:44,952 --> 00:20:47,162
and just did not find anything.
297
00:20:49,164 --> 00:20:52,542
So, we put a sign there to ask anybody
if they saw anything unusual.
298
00:20:53,961 --> 00:20:56,421
Our concern is that
it'd been found and disposed of.
299
00:20:56,505 --> 00:20:59,925
That people didn't recognize it
for what it was and thrown it away.
300
00:21:11,770 --> 00:21:13,230
It was after midnight.
301
00:21:14,481 --> 00:21:16,441
I got a call from the 911 dispatcher,
302
00:21:17,401 --> 00:21:20,279
and she said they had had
a phone call from a gentleman,
303
00:21:20,362 --> 00:21:23,031
and that he was an employee of Home Depot.
304
00:21:25,242 --> 00:21:28,662
He recalled finding something suspicious
in the bed of his pickup truck,
305
00:21:28,745 --> 00:21:30,414
which was parked in the parking lot.
306
00:21:30,914 --> 00:21:33,625
I called him and I asked him
what he thought was suspicious,
307
00:21:33,709 --> 00:21:35,585
and he said, "It was a cereal box."
308
00:21:37,796 --> 00:21:39,506
I said, "Well, where is that now?"
309
00:21:39,589 --> 00:21:42,592
And he said,
"I have it on my kitchen table."
310
00:21:47,556 --> 00:21:50,142
Inside, there was another note.
311
00:21:51,643 --> 00:21:53,312
Okay. All right.
312
00:21:54,062 --> 00:21:55,062
You ready?
313
00:21:55,731 --> 00:21:57,399
We're ready.
314
00:21:57,482 --> 00:21:59,443
"Can I communicate with floppy
315
00:22:00,527 --> 00:22:02,321
and not be traced to a computer?
316
00:22:03,613 --> 00:22:04,656
Be honest.
317
00:22:06,033 --> 00:22:10,120
I will try a floppy for a test run
sometime in the near future.
318
00:22:10,203 --> 00:22:11,747
February or March."
319
00:22:14,374 --> 00:22:16,585
This was
a bad strategy on his part.
320
00:22:17,294 --> 00:22:20,088
Some things are deposited
upon floppies or thumb drives
321
00:22:20,172 --> 00:22:21,631
when you put them in a computer.
322
00:22:21,715 --> 00:22:23,258
Most people don't realize that,
323
00:22:23,342 --> 00:22:26,261
and we were way willing
to bet that he didn't realize it.
324
00:22:27,971 --> 00:22:31,767
He wanted us to respond by taking out
a personal ad in the newspaper,
325
00:22:32,559 --> 00:22:35,354
and he wanted us to refer to him as Rex.
326
00:22:36,355 --> 00:22:40,233
The decision was made
that we weren't gonna be honest with him.
327
00:22:42,444 --> 00:22:45,280
And so,
we put an ad in the paper that said,
328
00:22:45,364 --> 00:22:47,074
"Rex, it'll be okay."
329
00:22:51,036 --> 00:22:53,121
You just felt the pendulum moving.
330
00:22:53,622 --> 00:22:55,123
We were gaining ground on him.
331
00:23:00,587 --> 00:23:05,509
The employee that found the package
was able to pinpoint the date
332
00:23:05,592 --> 00:23:07,677
when the package ended up in his vehicle.
333
00:23:09,262 --> 00:23:12,391
Home Depot had
an extensive video surveillance system.
334
00:23:13,141 --> 00:23:16,144
Maybe we'd capture video
of BTK coming in and leaving.
335
00:23:18,105 --> 00:23:20,023
The video was pretty grainy,
336
00:23:20,107 --> 00:23:22,567
so fuzzy, you're...
you're not gonna make any ID.
337
00:23:23,902 --> 00:23:25,362
But as it pulled away,
338
00:23:25,445 --> 00:23:28,824
we were able to get some
good shots of the side of the vehicle.
339
00:23:32,327 --> 00:23:33,327
We watched it
340
00:23:34,413 --> 00:23:35,455
repeatedly.
341
00:23:37,124 --> 00:23:38,750
Sizing it up against other cars.
342
00:23:40,043 --> 00:23:42,254
Ground clearance, the wheelbase,
343
00:23:43,004 --> 00:23:44,381
the rake of the windshield.
344
00:23:48,301 --> 00:23:51,304
We sent a bunch of those pictures
to video forensics.
345
00:23:52,556 --> 00:23:55,434
And pretty quickly,
they came back with a confirmation.
346
00:23:58,562 --> 00:24:00,522
The vehicle's a Jeep Cherokee.
347
00:24:01,565 --> 00:24:03,358
That's investigative gold.
348
00:24:04,651 --> 00:24:07,446
You know, we knew he had a Cherokee.
He was caught on video.
349
00:24:07,529 --> 00:24:09,656
Now he wants to send us a floppy?
350
00:24:09,739 --> 00:24:12,617
That's more mistakes
in the last couple of weeks
351
00:24:12,701 --> 00:24:14,494
than he's made in 31 years.
352
00:24:15,620 --> 00:24:18,623
And you can only
make mistakes so long and not be caught.
353
00:24:23,044 --> 00:24:25,130
Two weeks
after putting the ad in the paper,
354
00:24:25,213 --> 00:24:28,508
Fox TV station, here in Wichita,
got a package in the mail.
355
00:24:29,801 --> 00:24:31,553
I was really excited to go get it.
356
00:24:32,596 --> 00:24:33,680
I would probably
357
00:24:34,764 --> 00:24:37,976
own up to driving a little bit
above the posted speed limit, yes.
358
00:24:41,605 --> 00:24:42,939
We gloved up.
359
00:24:44,149 --> 00:24:46,151
Pulled out this little postcard.
360
00:24:48,361 --> 00:24:49,237
And then...
361
00:24:52,115 --> 00:24:53,366
...there was a floppy disk.
362
00:25:00,916 --> 00:25:02,751
We were all gathered around.
363
00:25:07,172 --> 00:25:08,172
It was dead quiet.
364
00:25:11,009 --> 00:25:14,429
There was one document
on there called "Test," a Word file.
365
00:25:14,513 --> 00:25:17,390
The software is licensed
366
00:25:17,474 --> 00:25:19,768
to Christ Lutheran Church.
367
00:25:21,269 --> 00:25:25,815
And this document was printed
by a user named Dennis.
368
00:25:29,319 --> 00:25:32,322
A computer forensics examiner
gets on the Internet
369
00:25:32,405 --> 00:25:35,116
and searches for Christ Lutheran Church...
370
00:25:36,743 --> 00:25:37,786
and the name Dennis...
371
00:25:40,914 --> 00:25:46,378
and comes up
with the president of that congregation.
372
00:25:54,928 --> 00:25:55,929
Dennis Rader.
373
00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:04,813
When we ran him through local
state and national databases,
374
00:26:05,313 --> 00:26:07,607
there was no criminal history whatsoever.
375
00:26:08,942 --> 00:26:10,443
Just looked like a normal guy.
376
00:26:12,153 --> 00:26:15,448
He was working for the city
as a, uh, compliance officer.
377
00:26:16,157 --> 00:26:18,994
He was married, uh,
had a daughter and a son.
378
00:26:20,954 --> 00:26:22,205
We got his address,
379
00:26:22,872 --> 00:26:25,166
and then we were headed out the door.
380
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,214
It was like a race to drive by there.
381
00:26:32,841 --> 00:26:34,884
But I didn't drive fast enough.
382
00:26:35,260 --> 00:26:37,971
And Tim Relph beat us there
383
00:26:38,054 --> 00:26:39,973
because he drives that way.
384
00:26:43,310 --> 00:26:45,812
We knew the house'd be
on the east side of the road.
385
00:26:47,147 --> 00:26:48,815
That driveway isn't visible
386
00:26:48,898 --> 00:26:50,900
until you get
almost in front of the house.
387
00:26:52,902 --> 00:26:53,945
And...
388
00:26:55,488 --> 00:26:56,906
we saw the Cherokee.
389
00:27:01,911 --> 00:27:03,872
It was excitement.
It was crazy excitement.
390
00:27:03,955 --> 00:27:06,625
And I stomped on the accelerator,
you know, spun the tires.
391
00:27:08,585 --> 00:27:10,253
I called the lieutenant, said,
392
00:27:10,337 --> 00:27:13,006
"Grab everybody you can get your hands on
and come down.
393
00:27:13,089 --> 00:27:15,258
We're going through the door, he's there."
394
00:27:16,509 --> 00:27:17,509
And he said...
395
00:27:18,303 --> 00:27:19,512
"Stop.
396
00:27:21,014 --> 00:27:22,432
You guys need to come back."
397
00:27:28,813 --> 00:27:31,608
I knew we didn't have
enough evidence to arrest him,
398
00:27:32,651 --> 00:27:34,361
but you can see
399
00:27:35,195 --> 00:27:38,823
this is everything you've been working for
not only in the last 11 months,
400
00:27:38,907 --> 00:27:41,993
but... but as... as a policeman,
as a homicide detective,
401
00:27:42,077 --> 00:27:44,245
this... this is it.
402
00:27:44,329 --> 00:27:46,247
And he wants me to turn and leave,
403
00:27:46,331 --> 00:27:47,331
and I'm like...
404
00:27:47,749 --> 00:27:48,792
You know, that...
405
00:27:49,709 --> 00:27:52,087
That's a tough, tough phone call.
406
00:27:53,922 --> 00:27:57,050
You got to turn your car
and you got to head back to Wichita.
407
00:28:06,810 --> 00:28:09,521
The research into Dennis Rader
was in full overdrive.
408
00:28:10,522 --> 00:28:13,358
It was like,
learn everything we can about this guy.
409
00:28:14,818 --> 00:28:17,696
Is there someplace we can find his DNA?
410
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:22,158
And that's when we discovered
411
00:28:22,242 --> 00:28:25,412
one of his children
had attended Kansas State University.
412
00:28:30,250 --> 00:28:32,794
Most female students
can have free checkups,
413
00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:37,382
so we wondered if maybe she had an exam
that would have saved any of her DNA.
414
00:28:38,717 --> 00:28:40,844
Because a familial DNA match
415
00:28:40,927 --> 00:28:43,179
would be enough
for us to arrest Dennis Rader.
416
00:28:45,974 --> 00:28:48,226
We were able to seize that DNA.
417
00:28:50,395 --> 00:28:52,480
And then we were just on hold
418
00:28:53,523 --> 00:28:54,774
waiting for the results.
419
00:28:57,736 --> 00:28:59,612
And then my cell phone rang.
420
00:29:07,078 --> 00:29:08,078
That was a, um...
421
00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:14,919
That's probably the happiest phone call
I ever got in my life, truly.
422
00:29:18,381 --> 00:29:19,758
Dennis Rader's BTK.
423
00:29:22,761 --> 00:29:23,761
It's him.
424
00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:30,059
I drove to our task force office.
425
00:29:30,894 --> 00:29:32,061
Dana was already there.
426
00:29:33,354 --> 00:29:34,397
Tim's already there.
427
00:29:35,732 --> 00:29:37,984
We were ready
to take this guy off the street,
428
00:29:38,485 --> 00:29:40,695
put him in prison
for the rest of his life.
429
00:29:44,616 --> 00:29:45,867
But then the next morning,
430
00:29:46,367 --> 00:29:50,914
the chief wanted
the SWAT team to arrest Dennis Rader.
431
00:29:52,373 --> 00:29:55,376
I said, "Chief, um, we want to arrest him.
432
00:29:55,919 --> 00:29:58,505
We're the ones
that have been chasing him for 11 months.
433
00:29:58,588 --> 00:30:01,341
We can arrest him
just as easy as a SWAT team."
434
00:30:02,008 --> 00:30:04,385
And he kind of gave me
the look like, you know,
435
00:30:04,469 --> 00:30:06,221
maybe I was a little bit out of line.
436
00:30:06,304 --> 00:30:08,223
Kelly Otis would have
burned his house down
437
00:30:08,306 --> 00:30:10,183
if we didn't get a chance to arrest him.
438
00:30:11,226 --> 00:30:13,102
And the chief said, "Okay."
439
00:30:20,401 --> 00:30:23,530
He worked in this office up here,
just south of 61st.
440
00:30:24,739 --> 00:30:28,159
But we knew that we had to
keep this a very low-key takedown.
441
00:30:28,243 --> 00:30:31,079
So, our plan was
to line up on a side street,
442
00:30:31,162 --> 00:30:34,791
and as soon as we knew he was coming home,
we would set up the arrest.
443
00:30:38,419 --> 00:30:40,463
The helicopter above,
444
00:30:40,547 --> 00:30:43,007
it's telling us, uh, where he's located,
445
00:30:43,091 --> 00:30:44,509
so we know he's on his way.
446
00:30:49,180 --> 00:30:50,932
He's been stopped on that curb line.
447
00:30:52,433 --> 00:30:54,894
I'm in between these two cars
with a 12-gauge shotgun,
448
00:30:54,978 --> 00:30:56,563
just in case he came out armed.
449
00:30:58,439 --> 00:31:01,526
The detectives grabbed him,
pulled him out of the truck,
450
00:31:01,609 --> 00:31:03,778
and put him face down
in the middle of the street.
451
00:31:05,196 --> 00:31:08,032
I Immediately
pulled my handcuffs out and cuffed him.
452
00:31:10,785 --> 00:31:12,829
I was glad to be the person to do that.
453
00:31:14,581 --> 00:31:15,581
He's a big guy.
454
00:31:16,124 --> 00:31:17,542
Um, stocky, tall.
455
00:31:17,625 --> 00:31:19,544
He's wearing his uniform
from his work day.
456
00:31:20,169 --> 00:31:23,047
As we were getting ready to move him,
he looked at us and said...
457
00:31:24,507 --> 00:31:27,677
"Would somebody please go
tell my wife I won't be home for lunch?
458
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:29,387
I assume you know where I live."
459
00:31:34,267 --> 00:31:36,477
We wanted to get Dennis Rader out of here.
460
00:31:38,730 --> 00:31:42,108
Now, we have to put 30 years
of violent crimes together
461
00:31:42,191 --> 00:31:43,943
to present to a judge and a jury.
462
00:31:44,027 --> 00:31:45,612
So, the work was not done.
463
00:31:49,073 --> 00:31:51,868
Dennis Rader
was brought in to our headquarters.
464
00:31:54,245 --> 00:31:57,999
He was escorted to the fifth floor,
where we had a room already prepared.
465
00:32:03,671 --> 00:32:06,966
There was an FBI agent
and a lieutenant in the Homicide section.
466
00:32:07,759 --> 00:32:09,719
Impressive people, impressive credentials
467
00:32:09,802 --> 00:32:12,305
appealing to his narcissistic side.
468
00:32:15,058 --> 00:32:18,561
The rest of us were watching
over closed-circuit TV.
469
00:32:19,646 --> 00:32:22,148
Is he gonna talk? Is he gonna deny?
470
00:32:23,399 --> 00:32:25,068
Lots of anticipation.
471
00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:32,158
As a suspect,
I assume you have something on me,
472
00:32:32,241 --> 00:32:34,160
otherwise you wouldn't have brought me in.
473
00:32:34,827 --> 00:32:36,412
He seemed cocky.
474
00:32:37,622 --> 00:32:39,874
He wasn't worried
about what was gonna happen.
475
00:32:42,418 --> 00:32:44,420
And then the lieutenant tells him,
476
00:32:44,504 --> 00:32:46,464
"This is how we caught you."
477
00:32:47,173 --> 00:32:49,926
Things have occurred
medically with your children,
478
00:32:50,009 --> 00:32:51,511
and those samples are saved.
479
00:32:53,930 --> 00:32:55,264
That's what brings me to you.
480
00:32:55,348 --> 00:32:58,142
That's why I know
your... your DNA is gonna match BTK's.
481
00:32:59,811 --> 00:33:01,354
So, why don't you just say it?
482
00:33:03,856 --> 00:33:05,233
Say... say who you are.
483
00:33:12,573 --> 00:33:13,408
BTK.
484
00:33:17,036 --> 00:33:20,206
Then he talked... for hours.
485
00:33:26,170 --> 00:33:27,171
Hours.
486
00:33:28,756 --> 00:33:30,049
Gloating on what he did.
487
00:33:33,636 --> 00:33:37,432
This is his greatest accomplishment,
and he's never been able to talk about it.
488
00:33:37,515 --> 00:33:39,684
And make no mistake about it,
he's proud of it.
489
00:33:40,268 --> 00:33:42,188
Then I whispered
in her ear a little bit.
490
00:33:43,730 --> 00:33:45,898
You know, I told her BTK was a bad guy.
491
00:33:46,899 --> 00:33:49,027
That's when you get upset,
when you get angry.
492
00:33:52,238 --> 00:33:53,656
He had no remorse.
493
00:33:55,908 --> 00:33:56,908
None.
494
00:33:59,454 --> 00:34:00,830
I was really sick of him.
495
00:34:19,891 --> 00:34:24,062
The next morning,
I... I went to church, you know, and just...
496
00:34:27,899 --> 00:34:28,983
Just praised God.
497
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:33,404
Okay.
498
00:34:43,998 --> 00:34:47,418
This is such a bad idea.
Us three on microphones right now.
499
00:34:48,419 --> 00:34:49,419
Exactly.
500
00:34:50,129 --> 00:34:53,841
- That is Dennis' most worst punishment.
- Yeah.
501
00:34:53,925 --> 00:34:56,844
Not that he's locked up,
but that nobody gives a shit about him.
502
00:34:56,928 --> 00:34:57,928
Yeah.
503
00:34:58,262 --> 00:35:01,099
This man
that had infected my childhood,
504
00:35:01,182 --> 00:35:02,308
you know, he was done.
505
00:35:03,142 --> 00:35:07,105
Few people get the chance
to vanquish their tormentors like that.
506
00:35:07,188 --> 00:35:10,024
Very few people get
to slay their childhood dragons.