The Dennis Rader Computer Forensics Case

In January 1974, the police showed up at a family’s home and found a horrifying scene in which all four members of the same family had been brutally murdered. This included Joseph and Julie Otero and the two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. This was the start of the now infamous campaign of terror by serial killers with their self-styled “BTK” badge. His murderous rampage continued for 17 years when he committed his last confirmed murder. The Otero family was a bit outside of the normal BTK victims who generally fell within the female gender with a wide age range, he was also known for labeling his victims as projects.

Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, would contact and communicate with local police and media on a regular basis, using newspaper columns, and leaving clues and messages of a cryptic nature. This is how it became known as the BTK “Bind Torture Kill”. This was his own badge that he used to sign with correspondents. He even went so far as to send an alleged self-portrait to the police, however, the police were very skeptical that the image was a real reflection, when he was finally arrested, the police claimed the skepticism of him.

Communications from BTK ceased in 1979 and the police and press speculated that the killer had died or been sent to jail, based on frequent communications up to that time. Then again in 2004, he reached out to the Wichita Eagle in a new local newspaper after going silent for 25 years. He broke his silence to claim responsibility for a murder not previously linked to him in 1986. This new communication launched a cold case review involving the taking of DNA samples from many suspects, including all those released from prison remand, this angle of inquiry. fruitless boron

Before BTK’s arrest, he was leaving messages and symbols in the Wichita area, in one of his communications he asked police if he sent a floppy disk if they could use it to track him. The police response to this question was that it would be safe for him to communicate with them this way. Following this response, Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, sent a padded envelope to a television station in Wichita containing a purple 1.44 MB Memorex diskette.

When the floppy disk arrived at the police station, the computer data recovery or forensic department checked the computer’s disk drive for deleted documents and found a Microsoft Word document that BTK thought had been permanently deleted. The Microsoft Word document was examined for metadata and found to point to computers at Christ Lutheran Church that had Dennis’s name as the last editor of the computer document. Police checked the church’s website and in a search found Dennis Rader as chairman of the congregation’s council.

With this discovery, Dennis Rader was placed under surveillance and the police managed to get hold of Dennis Rader’s daughter’s DNA, which was tested and found to be a good familial match.

BTK Dennis Rader was stopped driving near his home on February 25, 2005 ending his reign of terror and committing him to a life in the prison system.