New evidence from an old word puzzle has once again linked BTK killer Dennis Rader to the disappearance of an Oklahoma teenager.
Rader, who called himself BTK – which stands for bind, torture, kill – is currently serving 10 life sentences for each of his victims he confessed to killing between 1974 and 1991.
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The disappearance of Cynthia Dawn Kinney, 16, from the Osage Laundromat in Oklahoma in June 1976 left police scratching their heads for answers for nearly 50 years.
In 2023, Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden said that weren’t ruling out Rader as a suspect in your case.
“He’s one hundred percent a suspect because he knows and wrote things,” Virden told the Fox affiliate. KOKI-TV.
Virden began revisiting Kinney’s case in 2022 and linked BTK to his disappearance when he observed the time period in which the convicted killer would typically kidnap or kill his victims.
BTK would attack mid-morning – the same time Kinney disappeared from the laundromat.
On April 15, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office received a package that contained a BTK word puzzle sent to a Kansas news station in 2004.
Attached to the package was a letter from the sender, who wished to remain anonymous, that said: “Don’t look at this as a puzzle. See the puzzle as a map that Rader created to plot his victims,” according to KRON4.
CALCULATED TRACKS
The puzzle wasn’t initially shocking, but when it was analyzed with Rader’s crimes in mind, what it revealed was shocking.
“There are tips that cannot be ignored,” Virden said.
In 2004, words found included Wichita, lurk, fantasies, ruse, located victim, and military.
When examined closer, the calculated puzzle revealed states, his home address, the names of the 10 victims and a clue about Kinney.
The police found the words; Cindy, Kinney, Osage, Laundry Mat, Kihekah, Elgin, Pawhuska, Oklahoma and Cleveland.
Along with the inclusion of Cindy’s name, the Osage laundromat from which Kinney disappeared was on a street called Kihekah.
“It’s up to us to figure out everything he gave us and put it all together, connect the dots and then get the answers we’re looking for,” Virden said.
Who were the victims of BTK?
The BTK killer was proven to have killed ten people during his 17-year murder spree.
- The Otero Family: Rader’s first documented murder was of Joseph Otero, 38, Julie Otero, 33, and their children Joseph Jr., nine, and Josephine, 11. The serial killer originally targeted Julie and Josephine, but ended up killing the entire family excluding the eldest son, who was at school at the time. He allegedly suffocated and strangled the animals with plastic bags for the males and rope for the females.
- Kathryn Doreen Bright, 21: Rader broke into Bright’s home and waited until she arrived to attack. She was with her brother at the time, so the killer separated the two. While her brother managed to escape, Bright died after being stabbed multiple times in the abdomen.
- Shirley Ruth Vian Relford, 24: Rader pretended to be an investigator to get into Relford’s home. Once inside, he forced her children into a locked bathroom and began strangling her to death.
- Nancy Jo Fox, 25: Rader had been stalking her for about two weeks when he finally broke into her duplex apartment and waited for her. As soon as she got home from work at a jewelry store, Rader told her that he had a “sexual problem” and that he was going to tie her up. He then began to strangle her.
- Marine Wallace Hedge, 53: Hedge was Rader’s neighbor and lived six doors away from him. He cut the phone lines and sneaked into her home, where he spent hours waiting in her closet. At around 1am he appeared and choked her to death.
- Vicki Lynn Wegerle, 28: Rader pretended to be a telephone technician to get into Wegerle’s home. After being admitted, he began trying to attack his mother in a long and intense fight. Rader would strangle Wegerle with a nylon stocking. After she lay still, he posed for three photos before taking his car keys and using the vehicle as a getaway car. Her husband found her and took her to the hospital, where she died a few hours after arriving.
- Dolores Earline Johnson Davis, 62: Rader lived a half-mile away from Davis at the time of her murder. He broke into her house and said he was an escaped criminal who needed food and water. He then tied the woman up and looked at her things to take with him. He then strangled her with her own pantyhose and put her body in the car. He reportedly went to a previous appointment and then left her body under a bridge.
“We’re still trying to evaluate that and submit them, trying to get some expert input to see what we can get. But it’s very hard to get around the fact that Cindy Kinney’s name is on there. “
Along with the puzzle, police also found a list of states with markings indicating whether Rader traveled to the state and why.
Oklahoma alone had eight bookings for travel, including vacation, Boy Scout trip, business and more.
The US Sun reached out to the Osage County Sheriff’s Department for an update.
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
In August 2023, investigators took steps to look into Kinney’s disappearance.
Rader’s daughter, Kerri Rawson, revealed that authorities showed up at her former home in Park City, Kansas, looking for clues in the teen’s possible murder.
“The theory is that he could have placed case evidence under the stone pavement, under the metal shed he built in the early to mid-90s,” Rawson said. Fox News.
“Like driver’s licenses in jars.”
Rawson said when detectives arrived, they began digging holes in the ground where the family used to keep a shed.
The search was launched after police received a tip about Kinney’s possible connection to BTK.
Diary entries made by the serial killer appeared to reveal murder and kidnapping plans for his fetishes.
One entry specifically mentioned a laundromat, which investigators said could link BTK to Kinney’s case.
“I would keep an eye near the laundry room rug for possible victims,” BTK wrote in the entry.
“Laundry Mats were a good place to watch victims and dream.”
Elsewhere in the entry, Rader said, “The brunette was the target.”
“He marked that in 1976 he had murdered someone on a laundry mat,” Virden told CNN at the time.
Virden interviewed the serial killer in early 2023, hoping to gain more information about Kinney.
However, after also being asked about another murder victim, Shawna Garber, he told the investigator he was “done.”
He denied any involvement in either case, but said he “enjoyed” meeting the investigators.
Things later turned sour, however, when the serial killer was placed back in his cell and he realized his items had been seized.
“Everything I had written or saved disappeared. Later that day, a box came back for no reason,” he said.
Rader managed to dodge charges in the Cynthia Kinney case in September after District Attorney Mike Fisher said the information against him was insufficient to file criminal charges.
“To this date, the information shared is insufficient to bring criminal charges against Dennis Rader,” Fisher said in September.
“There may be other possibilities as to what happened, but we don’t know because the focus of the investigation from day one, from the day they went to Kansas, was that it was Dennis Rader.
“I want to be sure. We’re dealing with people’s lives.”
The Osage County Sheriff’s Office formed a National BTK Task Force to try to solve Kinney’s cold case.
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