Suspect in BTK Serial Slayings Is Charged With 10 Murders

Appearing via videoconference from his jail cell, Dennis L. Rader -- the church leader and family man accused in the BTK serial slayings -- was charged Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder.

Rader, 59, wore an orange prison jumpsuit and stood behind a podium at the Sedgwick County detention center as District Judge Gregory Waller read the charges against him.

The hearing lasted just a few minutes. As Waller read each charge -- covering the deaths of seven women, one man and two children from 1974 to 1991 -- Rader followed along on his own copy of the complaint. His face pale, Rader trailed his fingers slowly down the pages as each line was read.

When Waller asked whether Rader understood the charges, the accused replied: “Yes, sir.”

A preliminary hearing was set for March 15 at the Sedgwick County District Court. Rader, who is being held on $10 million bail, could face life in prison.

Steve Osburn, chief public defender for Sedgwick County, was named Rader’s attorney Tuesday. Osburn did not return phone calls seeking comment about the case.

About a dozen family members and friends of BTK victims who were in the courtroom Tuesday sat rigidly in a row of white vinyl seats. Some held hands as they stared at Rader’s face on the television screen, which was perched in front of Waller’s bench.

Outside the courtroom, some Wichita residents -- including Sheryl Smith -- waited in hopes of getting inside to catch a glimpse of the man police say terrorized this city for decades. Smith said she was a childhood friend of Josephine Otero.

The Otero family -- Josephine; her father, Joseph; her mother, Julie; and her brother Joseph Jr.-- were the first known BTK victims. In 1974, according to authorities, BTK cut the Oteros’ phone line, then entered their house -- where he bound, gagged and strangled his victims.

“This was a family that had a vicious dog, where everyone knew marital arts,” Smith said. “I remember ... being devastated by [Josephine’s] death. It never made sense to me what happened. I needed to see him, to see the man they say did these things and to get some closure for myself.”

Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston declined to discuss details of the case, including what had led investigators to arrest Rader on Friday. But Foulston did say that she would fight any push to relocate a trial from the Wichita area.

For years, BTK taunted detectives here with poems, word puzzles and boastful letters about the killings -- including one in which he declared that there was “no help, no cure” for his sadism “except death or being caught and put away.” The abbreviation BTK was coined by the person who wrote the letters to describe his methods: bind, torture, kill.

Rader, a Cub Scout leader and animal control officer from suburban Park City, is president of the 400-member congregation of Christ Lutheran Church. He graduated with a degree in criminal justice in 1979 from Wichita State University. Investigators say BTK was familiar with the work of a professor at the university.

Police sources in Michigan said Tuesday that federal investigators had approached Rader’s 26-year-old daughter, Kerri, to ask her questions and obtain a DNA sample. It is unclear whether the DNA sample was taken before or after Rader was arrested.

Rader’s brother, Jeff, told the Wichita Eagle on Monday that neither he nor his family believed the charges.