Kansas police say they have caught a US serial killer known as the BTK - "Bind, Torture, Kill" - strangler.
Dennis Rader was arrested without incident in Park City on Friday and is now suspected of committing 10 murders, police in nearby Wichita said.

Charges are yet to be brought in the case, which had been thought to consist of eight murders from 1974 to 1986.

"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Police Chief Norman Williams told a news conference where he was applauded.

The suspect's DNA has been linked to at least one murder, officials said.

Tips from public

BTK resurfaced last year when a claim was made for an eighth victim.

SUSPECTED BTK VICTIMS

Marine Hedge, 53
Delores "Dee" Davis, 62
Joseph Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and their two children
Kathryn Bright, 21
Shirley Vian, 24
Nancy Fox, 25
Vicki Wegerle, 28 (pictured)


Killer's reign of terror

The Wichita Eagle newspaper received a letter in March enclosing photos and a copy of a driver's licence of Vicki Wegerle, whose 1986 murder was never solved.

Other letters to media and police followed, some including jewellery that police believed may have been taken from BTK victims.

Tips from the public began to pour in and Kansas police took hundreds of DNA samples.

Families of BTK victims and Kansas government officials also attended Saturday's news conference where the arrest was announced.

Additional victims

Chief Williams said that work on the case had brought the victim toll to 10.

The two additional victims were named as Marine Hedge, 53, and Delores "Dee" Davis, 62.

Mayor Carlos Mayans said police had phoned him late on Friday evening to say the DNA of the suspect matched evidence gathered from the scene of at least one BTK murder.

It had, he said, been a "long journey" and he put the arrest down to "diligence, tenacity, determination and just plain good police work".

The BTK killer coined his own nickname in letters claiming the murders.

Most of the victims were women killed in their homes but the first murder attributed to the BTK killer was that of an entire family in January 1974: Joseph Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and their two children.

Mr Rader is listed by Park City's website as a compliance supervisor, dealing with such things as animal control and broken-down cars.

I've never heard of him. Is that strange?

WICHITA, Kan. -- They worshipped next to Dennis L. Rader for years, sharing the same pews and singing from the same hymnals. They knew him as a Cub Scout leader, a respected church official, a kind friend. Now, members of Christ Lutheran Church must confront the possibility that 59-year-old Rader is something else: The BTK serial killer, blamed for 10 deaths in the Wichita area from 1974 to 1991.

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"We feel dismay, anger, devastation, utter shock and disbelief. The very foundation of our faith is shaken," Gerald Mansholt, bishop of the Central States Synod of the Episcopal National Church, said during Sunday's service.

Rader, a church member for 30 years, an usher and president of the church council, was arrested Friday in suburban Park City, where he worked as a city codes enforcement supervisor.

He remained jailed Sunday pending his first court appearance.

Just days before his arrest, Rader brought spaghetti sauce and salad to a church supper, even though he was unable to attend himself, church member Paul Carlstedt recalled. Carole Nelson called Rader "a very kind man," recounting his concern over her recent kidney operation.

Bob Smyser, a fellow usher at Christ Lutheran, said his 5-year-old son recognized Rader's photo when it was flashed on the television screen at home. The boy looked up at his father and asked, "Daddy, he tricked us -- didn't he?"

"I am not sure what to tell him," Smyser said. "I am not sure what to tell myself."

Investigators searched the church property Friday, but the church's pastor, Michael Clark, declined to say what they were looking for. A crisis intervention team was called to talk on Sunday afternoon with church members.

The congregation had prayed for the capture of the BTK killer and the end of the nightmare that has gripped this city for decades.

"We prayed that it would come to a conclusion -- (this is) not the conclusion we thought," Carlstedt said.

WICHITA, Kan.- Police said Saturday they have arrested a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 25 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'' - had been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986. Police said Saturday they have attributed two more slayings to BTK, from 1985 and 1991.

No charges had been filed Saturday. 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.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, attending a conference in Washington, said state highway patrol officials familiar with the case told her DNA evidence linked the suspect to the slayings.

\'\'The way they made the link was some DNA evidence, that they had some DNA connection to the guy who they arrested,'' Sebelius said in an interview with The Associated Press.

BTK 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.

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.

One of the victims newly identified by police, 53-year-old Marine Hedge, lived on Rader's street in Park City. She was abducted from her home in 1985, and her body was found eight days later along a dirt road.

Investigators searched Rader's house Friday and seized computer equipment.

\'\'This has not been an easy task,'' Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans said Saturday. \'\'Our fine police department has been, at times, questioned. Their competence was questioned, and their actions were often second-guessed.

\'\'But all the while, these officers were steadfast in their commitment to solve the biggest police case in Wichita's history,'' Mayans said.

The BTK slayings began in 1974 with the strangulations of Joseph Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and their two children.

The letters began that same year, with poems and graphic descriptions of the crimes. The killer even called police with details of Nancy Fox's 1977 slaying.

When one of his messages, a poem sent to The Wichita Eagle-Beacon in 1978, was mistakenly routed to the classified ads department, BTK sent a letter to KAKE-TV days later complaining: \'\'How many do I have to kill before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?''

Another letter to the newspaper also underscored BTK's need for recognition.

\'\'How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go,'' it read in part. \'\'I like the following. How about you? 'THE B.T.K STRANGLER, 'WICHITA STRANGLER', 'POETIC STRANGLER', 'THE BONDAGE STRANGER' OR 'PSYCHO', 'THE WICHITA HANGMAN', 'THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER,' 'THE GAROTE PHATHOM', 'THE ASPHYXIATER'.''

The letters stopped in the late 1970s, but picked up last March, when a letter arrived at The Wichita Eagle with information on an unsolved 1986 killing, a copy of the victim's driver's license and photos of her slain body.

The return address on the letter said it was from Bill Thomas Killman - initials BTK. The address appeared to refer to a now-vacant building.

Police have been extremely tight-lipped about the case in the past year.

In December, the arrest of a Wichita resident on minor charges sparked widespread speculation of a possible link to BTK. That man, who had no connection to the case, later filed a defamation lawsuit against media outlets.




( © Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

Jan. 15, 1974: Joseph Otero, 38, and his wife, Julie, 34, are strangled in their home along with two of their children, Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9.

- April 4, 1974: Kathryn Bright, 21, is stabbed to death in her home. Police later conclude she was a BTK victim.

- October 1974: The Wichita Eagle-Beacon gets a letter from someone taking responsibility for the Otero family killing and including crime scene details.

- March 17, 1977: Shirley Vian, 24, is found tied up and strangled at her home.

- Dec. 8, 1977: Nancy Fox, 25, is found tied up and strangled in her home. The killer's voice is captured on tape when he calls a dispatcher to report the crime.

- Jan. 31, 1978: A poem referring to the Vian killing is sent to The Wichita Eagle-Beacon.

- Feb. 10, 1978: A letter from BTK is sent to KAKE-TV claiming responsibility for the deaths of Vian and Fox, as well as another unnamed victim. Police Chief Richard LaMunyon announces a serial killer is at large and has threatened to strike again.

- Aug. 15, 1979: Police get more than 100 tips in the first day of radio and TV broadcasts that repeat the voice of the BTK strangler from the 1977 recording.

- April 28, 1979: BTK waits inside a home, but leaves before the 63-year-old woman who lives there returns. He later sends her a letter letting her know he was there.

- Sept. 16, 1986: Vicki Wegerle, 28, is strangled in her home.

- March 19, 2004: A letter arrives at The Wichita Eagle containing a photocopy of Wegerle's driver's license and photos of her body. Police link it to BTK.

- Feb. 26, 2005: After receiving several more letters, authorities announce the arrest of BTK.

WICHITA, Kan. - The letters and poems began arriving in 1974. Shot through with spelling and grammatical errors, they alternated between tortured rambling and cold-blooded, gleeful detail.

Then, the BTK killer - since linked to eight unsolved killings between 1974 and 1986 - vanished. But he resurfaced last March with new letters to police and media and, although still enigmatic, they have taken a new tone.

The frequency of the new communications and the accompanying attention concern at least one researcher.



"For some of these killers, there is kind of a cycle that once the spiral begins to accelerate the next step is to kill and get a whole new generation of people scared," said Dirk Gibson, author of "Clues from Killers: Serial Murder and Crime Scene Messages."

The killer once raved about his inability to control a "monster" living inside him and gave graphic descriptions of his crimes. The few details released about the new messages indicate a businesslike, almost cordial approach.

Officials said last week the killer had recently sent at least three packages containing jewelry, and investigators were trying to determine whether any of it was taken from BTK's victims.

Along with a padded manila envelope sent to KSAS-TV in Wichita, the communications included a cereal box found in a rural area northwest of Wichita in late January and a package found a few days later that police identified only as Communication No. 7.

Gibson, who has studied more than 500 serial killers, said BTK loves the attention. That was already apparent in the 1970s, when the self-named BTK - the initials stand for "Bind, Torture, Kill - terrorized Wichita.

When one of his messages, a poem sent to the Wichita Eagle-Beacon on Jan. 31, 1978, was mistakenly routed to the classified ads department, BTK sent a letter to KAKE-TV days later complaining: "How many do I have to kill before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?"

Another letter to the newspaper also underscored BTK's need for recognition.

"P.S. How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go," it read in part. "I like the following. How about you? 'THE B.T.K STRANGLER, 'WICHITA STRANGLER', 'POETIC STRANGLER', 'THE BONDAGE STRANGER' OR 'PSYCHO', 'THE WICHITA HANGMAN', 'THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER,' 'THE GAROTE PHATHOM', 'THE ASPHYXIATER'."

KAKE-TV has also received communiques from BTK since his re-emergence, some of which contain messages for police.

But the tenor has changed: In a postcard sent earlier this month, BTK thanked the station for its quick response to two other messages and expressed concern for two news anchors after a passing comment one made on the air about having the flu.

Randy Brown, a senior fellow at Wichita State University's Elliott School of Journalism, was a reporter at the now-defunct Wichita Sun when the weekly paper first broke the story about BTK in the 1970s.

"This is a very different BTK than the original," Brown said. "The first letters were full of horrifying details of these crimes, ravings and very graphic information about the victims and the monster in his brain - ugly, nasty, scary, terrible kinds of things that people who saw them still have bad dreams about."

Although no recent deaths have been officially linked to BTK since he resurfaced last year, the case has received worldwide attention.

"It is hard to believe this is really the same twisted killer that was scaring the heck out of everybody - had a town completely on edge - in the late 1970s and 1980s," Brown said.

He is a good man.