At BTK Killer's Former Home, a Find 'Worthy of Disclosure'

Oklahoma authorities are said to be looking into the 1976 disappearance of Cynthia Kinney
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2023 1:15 PM CDT
Investigators Dig at BTK Killer's Former Home
Dirt and rebar sit at the site where Dennis Rader's former property once stood after investigators dug in Park City, Kan., on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.   (Eduardo Castillo/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

"BTK killer" Dennis Rader has been serving 10 life sentences since 2005, but investigators haven't closed the book on him—and a new search of one of his former properties has returned "something worthy of disclosure," they say. NBC News reports deputies from Osage County, Oklahoma, spent Tuesday searching the former site of a Park City, Kansas, home where he lived for years; the location is now a vacant field. "Our investigation has led to additional unsolved murders and missing persons that are possibly connected to BTK," said Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upston.

He flagged a "possible connection" to the 1976 disappearance of Oklahoma woman Cynthia Kinney, who was last seen leaving her aunt and uncle's laundromat in Pawhuska, some two hours from Rader's location. Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden provided Fox News with more specifics on what they were searching for: "We weren't looking for bodies, we were looking for items," Virden said. "We did find some items. We can't release what they are. ... The short version is, through the investigation, we developed information of some possible trophies of Dennis Rader's, and we followed up on those leads ... and we did recover some items of interest."

Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson, got more specific, telling Fox, "The theory is he could have placed evidence of cases under stone pavers under the metal shed he built early to mid '90s, like drivers licenses in jars." When asked about Rawson's statement, Upston said "she's not too far off," per the Wichita Eagle. More info is expected to be released later Wednesday. Rader has denied having a hand in any cases beyond the 10 he was tried and sentenced for. In letters to the media after the killings began, he gave himself the name "BTK killer," for "bind, torture, kill." (More Dennis Rader stories.)

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