BTK killer listed as ‘prime suspect’ in at least 2 unsolved cases

Dennis Rader, the serial killer known at BTK, has been named as the prime suspect in at least two unsolved cases in Oklahoma and Missouri.

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In a news release, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a search was conducted at Rader’s former house in Park City, Kansas. The search was done to collect based on leads that the department received.

The search was done on Tuesday. Sheriff Eddie Virden led the team of investigators from the sheriff’s office along with the Park City Police Department. The goal of the search was to find any close ties to Cynthia Dawn Kinney who went missing in 1976.

Kinney was last seen at a laundromat in Pawhuska, Oklahoma on June 23, 1976, according to KAKE.

Kinney’s case was reopened in December after investigators were looking into other crimes that Rader may have been responsible for, Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton told The Associated Press.

Virden spoke with Rader who went into detail about around a dozen murders he committed in Kansas. According to The New York Times, Rader reportedly told Virden about a “fantasy” he had but didn’t go through with which was kidnapping a girl from a laundromat.

Rader has been named the primary suspect in the murders of Kinney and Shawna Beth Garber, 22, according to the Times. Garber’s body was found in 1990 in Lanagan, Missouri. Garber’s remains were not identified until 2021, according to the AP.

Kinney’s body has never been discovered, the Times reported.

“This ongoing investigation has uncovered potential connections to other missing persons cases and unsolved murders in the Kansas and Missouri areas, which are possibly linked to Rader. The Osage County Sheriff’s Office has been working alongside the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), sharing crucial information and collaborating on this case,” the sheriff’s office said.

Rader had committed murders from 1974 to 1991, the AP reported. He gave himself the nickname BTK which stands for “bind, torture, kill.”

Rader who is now 78, confessed to 10 murders in the Wichita area, the AP reported. He was sentenced in August 2005 to 10 consecutive life sentences since Kansas did not have the death penalty at the time the murders happened.

According to sentencing guidelines, the earliest he could be released from prison would be 2180.