On February 16, 2005, investigators examined a floppy disk sent to a Wichita television station. Its document properties contained the words “Dennis” and “Christ Lutheran Church,” along with references connected to Park City government. The clues gave investigators a direction in the long-running BTK investigation, but further corroboration was still required.

Dennis Rader later pleaded guilty to murdering ten people in Wichita and nearby Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991: Joseph Otero, Julie Otero, Joseph Otero Jr., Josephine Otero, Kathryn Bright, Shirley Vian Relford, Nancy Fox, Marine Hedge, Vicki Wegerle, and Dolores “Dee” Davis.

This episode follows the documented case from the first murders and early communications through the years without public contact, renewed messages in 2004, the forensic examination of the disk, the familial DNA comparison related to Vicki Wegerle’s case, Rader’s arrest, guilty pleas, and sentencing. It also distinguishes the ten murders legally established in court from unresolved allegations in separate cold cases.

The central question is how digital clues, forensic work, and decades of investigation converged on a suspect—and what that identification meant for families who had lived with loss and uncertainty for years.

This podcast uses artificial intelligence in its research, writing, production, and narration. Episodes are editorially reviewed before publication.

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