Serial killer BTK a suspect in more killings as ‘items of interest’ found at Kansas property
Oklahoma officials who dug up serial killer Dennis Rader’s former property in Park City, Kansas, found “items of interest” but are not saying what specifically.
Rader is a “prime suspect” in the cold case disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from Pawhuska, Oklahoma, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Wednesday. While investigating that case, the sheriff’s office said it also pegged Rader as a prime suspect in other unsolved murders, including a one in Missouri and at least one in Kansas.
‘Binding type items’ found at BTK site; officials call Rader prime suspect in killings
Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton said Wednesday morning they found “something worthy of disclosure” when they dug at the Park City site on Tuesday. He said he would need to speak with the sheriff before releasing more details.
Sheriff Eddie Virden did not immediately return a call from The Eagle. However, Virden did speak with Fox News Digital.
“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 worked with Park City,” Virden told Fox News Digital. “Did a dig in the area. And we did recover some items of interest.”
He added: “We can’t release what they are.”
“I don’t know yet if they’re related to new crimes,” Virden told the media outlet. “With the information we developed where these items were, items that were never located, I absolutely believe they’re related to Dennis’ crimes.”
The sheriff’s office said in a news release that the “items of interest” will “undergo thorough examination to determine their potential relevance to the ongoing investigations. At this stage, Dennis Rader is considered a prime suspect in these unsolved cases, including the Cynthia Dawn Kinney case from Pawhuska.”
Cynthia ‘Cyndi’ Dawn Kinney went missing in 1976 after leaving an Osage County laundromat and getting into a 1965 faded beige Plymouth with two women, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
She was 16 at the time. The area she went missing from is about a two-hour drive from Park City.
Kerri Rawson, Rader’s daughter, previously told Fox that 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.”
Asked if that was what they were looking for in the yard, Upton said: “She’s not too far off.”
A picture from the sheriff’s office shows officers digging and using a metal detector to go through an area where it looks like a sidewalk was ripped up.
Rader, who gave himself the nickname BTK (bind, torture and kill), was a husband, father, church leader and a Boy Scout volunteer. He also worked as a Park City code compliance officer.
The search connected to Rader originally sought to see if he had been involved in the disappearance of Kinney. However, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office investigation has also linked Rader to other cases, Upton said, including Shawna Beth Garber.
Garber, 22, had been raped and tied up for two months before she was found in December 1990, according to KSNT. Garber’s case is out of McDonald County in Missouri, which is about a four-hour drive from Park City.
Upton would not say how many total missing persons or murders the investigation has involved with Rader as the suspect, but said it was more than the two.
“This ongoing investigation has uncovered potential connections to other missing persons cases and unsolved murders in the Kansas and Missouri areas, which are possibly linked to Dennis Rader,” the news release says.
Upton said Rader has admitted to the 10 killings he is in prison for, but has not confessed in any other cases.
TMZ reported earlier this year that Rader “categorically denied any involvement in the Kinney case.”
Upton said: “Well, I wouldn’t believe a serial killer.”
Rawson, in a phone interview Wednesday, said she started working with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office this summer to help them with the investigation. Her help included breaking her several-years silence with her father and seeing him in person.
She said he denied his involvement in the killings, but also changed his alibis in the cases multiple times. Though, she said, that could be just because of his memory. He is 78.
“I’m still not 100% sure my dad did commit any more at this point,” she said, adding: “If my dad has harmed somebody else, we need answers.”
She said, if it is true, it also opens up the door for other cold cases to be reopened since BTK had claimed other murders.
In addition to looking under where the shed was, Rawson said she also told officers to look where Rader had buried the family dog. Rawson said she wasn’t told they would be digging Tuesday, but found out about it from the news.
The home and shed have been leveled, she said, and the city now owns the property.
