Uncover a grim chapter in crime history with me as I trace the steps of the BTK Killer and the investigators who, against all odds, sought to end his reign of terror. The Ghostbusters task force may have shelved the case files, but not their resolve, as we step into the shoes of Detective LaMunyon and his team grappling with the haunting silence from a notorious killer. Feel the weight of cold case files and the echo of footsteps down precinct halls in a narrative woven with dedication, strategic gambits, and the chilling shadow of unsolved murders.
Venture beyond the headlines into the human stories that ripple out from the courtroom, where verdicts shape legal history and the destinies of those touched by justice's reach. We track the post-trial tribulations of Kenny Landwoehr, whose bitterness bleeds into his daily life, forming an unlikely bridge to Cindy and her compassionate world. Their interconnected lives offer a poignant reminder of how deeply personal loss and public duty can entwine, shaping a complex tapestry of resilience and personal discovery.
Prepare for a palpable sense of fear and duty as we follow Officer Otis through the intense reality of a confrontation that could end in a split-second decision, and Rader, whose zeal in enforcing the letter of the law as a Compliance Officer, stirs unease in Park City. These narratives, steeped in the high stakes of law enforcement and the scrutiny of authority, will rivet you to your seat as we explore the fine line between protection and intrusion and the actual cost of safety in a community's heart. Join us for an episode that honors the courage within chaos and the quiet strength that defines everyday heroes.
Uncover a grim chapter in crime history with me as I trace the steps of the BTK Killer and the investigators who, against all odds, sought to end his reign of terror. The Ghostbusters task force may have shelved the case files, but not their resolve, as we step into the shoes of Detective LaMunyon and his team grappling with the haunting silence from a notorious killer. Feel the weight of cold case files and the echo of footsteps down precinct halls in a narrative woven with dedication, strategic gambits, and the chilling shadow of unsolved murders.
Venture beyond the headlines into the human stories that ripple out from the courtroom, where verdicts shape legal history and the destinies of those touched by justice's reach. We track the post-trial tribulations of Kenny Landwoehr, whose bitterness bleeds into his daily life, forming an unlikely bridge to Cindy and her compassionate world. Their interconnected lives offer a poignant reminder of how deeply personal loss and public duty can entwine, shaping a complex tapestry of resilience and personal discovery.
Prepare for a palpable sense of fear and duty as we follow Officer Otis through the intense reality of a confrontation that could end in a split-second decision, and Rader, whose zeal in enforcing the letter of the law as a Compliance Officer, stirs unease in Park City. These narratives, steeped in the high stakes of law enforcement and the scrutiny of authority, will rivet you to your seat as we explore the fine line between protection and intrusion and the actual cost of safety in a community's heart. Join us for an episode that honors the courage within chaos and the quiet strength that defines everyday heroes.
Welcome to the Motorbook. I'm your host, cara. And this is part 8 of the BTK Killer. Let's begin. If the city would have known that the BTK had killed again, the Ghostbusters would have stayed together. But by the time Vicky Rorally was killed, detective Lamonian had become to scale back. By the next year, 1987, most of the Ghostbusters had been reassigned and only land where remained. He packed the files in a cabinet and in 37 boxes. The boxes ended up in the basement of City Hall.
Speaker 1:Detective Lamonian let the Wichita Eagle interview the Ghostbusters. Bill Hirschman spent hours tape recording interviews with land where captains Al Stewart and others, and his transcripts revealed frustration. Stewart broke down and cried when he talked about Josie Otero because he thought he had failed her, and Langworth told Hirschman that. He said you feel the frustration of the investigators before you just by reading the reports. It's always going to be there. Why can't we find him? They have tried everything they could think of. Langworth had been assigned, for example, to test a theory that BTK was dead and to do this he had taken a list of every white male who had died in Wichita since 1980 and had done background checks on them. It was boring work but somebody has to do it. The Ghostbusters Task Force spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and they imposed terrific strains on themselves and their families. Paul Dodson never shook his disappointment. He said when I think of the Ghostbusters, all I can think of is what a failure it was and what I didn't do and how I could have done more. If only I have been smarter. Hirschman have asked himself was it worth it? But Langworth said probably yes. If BTK ever resurfaced, langworth would know a lot about him. He knew an important BTK flaw arrogance. That might prove useful.
Speaker 1:The Ghostbusters had eliminated hundreds of potential suspects, so if BTK show up again, the cops would not be starting from scratch. What keeps you going on this case? That was a question that was asked to Langworth, and he said well, I still believe that he can be caught and I still believe that he's out there. He also speculated that BTK might be in prison for a minor crime and if so, he will probably get out sooner or later, and he believed that if he does get out, that he will not stop. Langworth was just as resolved, and private Dodson, sharing disappointment over the failure with Langworth, was surprised by what his friend said in reply, langworth said don't worry about it, and Dodson asking about why. I said because we still might get him. So Langworth pointed out that they now had a plan that they have polished in the days when they got nowhere If BTK ever resurfaced, they would deliberately use the news media to play to his ego, keep him sending messages until he tripped himself up. Langworth also reminded Dodson that the study of human DNA was still developing. Btk had left them DNA at three of his murders. But with all Langworth's up-beat talk about finding BTK, dodson could see that the investigation had taken a toll Self-doubt knack. And Langworth Dodson could see strain and fatigue also in his face and they tried to joke each other out of their moods. But at bedtime Langworth often found himself unable to sleep and he was drinking more.
Speaker 1:Just before the end of 1987, the Wichita Police Department, which had promoted him to detective the year before, assigned Langworth to the homicide unit, a job he had sought for nine years. The ghostbusters never truly disbanded. Lamonyan said they would never disband unless they proved that they had run down every lead. So even as Langworth began to investigate other cases, he thought about BTK every day.
Speaker 1:On the last day of 1987, a woman named Mary Fager, who had been out of town visiting relatives, arrived home at 70, 15 East 14th Street and discovered her husband and daughters were dead. Shevery, 16, had been drowned in the hot tub. Kelly, 9, was strangled hours later and dumped in the tub with her sister. Their father, phillip, had been shot in the back. Langworth was assigned to assist the lead detective, jean Bishop. The girls' bodies had sucked for more than a day. When Langworth got home and undressed after working the scene, the odor of boiled flesh was clinging to his clothes For the rest of his life. The warm water and chlorine smell of a hot tub will remind him of the Fager house In Stuart, florida.
Speaker 1:A few days later, police tracked down William T Butterworth, a 33-year-old contractor who had just finished building the sound room that housed the hot tub. The cops were sure Bill Butterworth was the killer. He had driven away from the Fager home and the family's car stopped at the town's East Sharping Center to buy new clothes. Then headed to Florida, butterworth told police he was so traumatized when he found the bodies that he fled with a case of amnesia. They did not believe him. The evidence he helped gather against Butterworth seemed to have long been like a slam dunk.
Speaker 1:A few days after her husband and daughters were murdered, the widow, mary Fager, opened her mail and read the first line of a rambling tontin poem from an anonymous sender. It said Another one prowls the deep abyss of lewd thoughts and deeds. The message came with a drawing of a young girl, he and his bound behind her, lying beside a tub, a look of fear in her face. In the lower right corner of the drawing was a symbol. The police noted that it looked similar to the symbol BTK signed to his fantasized drawing of Anna Williams. A letter B turned on its side. This time, however, the legs of the K formed a frown.
Speaker 1:The writer did not claim he had killed the Fagers. Instead he wrote an admiration of the murderer. He also wrote in the letter oh God. He put Kelly and Sherry in the tub, son and body drooling with sweat water. Feminine navette. The builder will christen the tub with Virgin maids, but the word virgin was misspelled. Like you said, viran instead of virgin.
Speaker 1:Langward saw that the sketch, unlike BTK's drawing of Nancy Fox, was inaccurate, drawn by someone who had not been at the murder scene. No one had heard from BTK since the letter to the burglary victim, anna Williams in 1979, more than 8 years before BTK had killed no one as far as they knew since Nancy Fox 1977. In fact the cops were not sure BTK had sent this letter. But Butterworth's attorney, richard Naye, found motions arguing that the Fager killings looked similar to the 7 BTK murders from the 1970s. Perhaps BTK had killed the Fagers, according to Naye. A judge ruled that Naye could not bring up the letter during the trial because he could not prove a link to the older killings. Langward was relieved but the newspaper and TV stations heavily covered the case and the BTK connection before the trial. So even though BTK wasn't mentioned during the trial, he was on everybody's mind, including jurors. The jury found Butterworth not guilty but the police considered the case closed.
Speaker 1:In the same year, 1988, nita Sauer wrote her ambulance to a home where someone had been bitten by a dog. There was a cop working the case who made her laugh. Nita had been a new paramedic on the day. She had tried to save Vicki wargely two years before. She was more experienced now and has seen several more murder cases At the duck bite house.
Speaker 1:The young cop began to tease her in a friendly, engaging way and she teased back His name, kelly Otis. They met several times more, both of them working accidents or crime scenes. Over time this led to a breakfast meeting, then dates, then talk of marriage. Nita thought guys with a king wit were highly intelligent and Otis was unusually witty. She saw character under the teasing. He had grown up the son of a hard-working single mother. Like Nita, he was an adrenaline junkie. It was why he would become a cop. She did not tell him about that day at Vicki wargely's house.
Speaker 1:The wargely murder was a cold case interesting only to detectives, and Otis had no interest in becoming a detective because he loved street patrol. Nita met Otis's closest friend, a patrol officer with an impassive face, big shoulders and a brusque manner. Dana Gouch's father had been the military. His mother was Japanese and owned a fabric store in the little town of Tonga, cuxi, kansas. George, or Gouch I should say, had a reserved manner, but Nita saw it was a mask. Gouch was warm-hearted, shy and one of the few people funny enough to put Otis on the floor shaking with laughter.
Speaker 1:The Butterworth verdict had political consequences. La Monion blame District Attorney Clark Owens for assigning the case to two prosecutors. The La Monion claim that these prosecutors were inexperienced. He wasn't the only person who was unhappy. Weeks later, nola Tedesco-Folston, the tough young lawyer who long ago had checked her phone and accepted escorts to her car out of fear of BTK, announced that she would run against Owens in the November elections. She declared the Butterworth verdict a travesty Val to assign herself some homicide cases, promised that her assistants would go into trials well trained and prepared. Owens was well known in Wichita. Folston was known hardly at all, but Folston beat him 82,969 votes to 55,822. Folston wanted a new start for the district attorney's office and asked everybody in it to reapply for their jobs if they wanted to stay on. When she made her selections, several people involved with the Butterworth case were not rehired.
Speaker 1:Langworth vented his bitterness over the Butterworth verdict and bars. Sometimes he got drunk at home as well and tried to humor himself out of bad moods by knocking golf balls out the balcony door of his third-story apartment. Sometimes he would shift his stance a bit and splash a few balls into the apartment complex when pulled, and then he would laugh. Lamonian heard rumors that Langworth wanted to resign over the verdict. The chief warned commanders no paperwork involving the job of Kenny Langworth had bet across my desk. If such paperwork comes, I will dispose of it. Langworth later denied that he tried to quit If the chief heard that it was an urban myth. The Butterworth verdict didn't know him that much he said. But that was a myth too. We'll be right back by now. People like Cindy Hughes have forgotten BTK, all no longer worried.
Speaker 1:Cindy had other problems. She was a divorcee with a daughter and an extended family with a penchant for trouble. Her brother had just made Segway County's most wanted criminal list. She had a female friend who one night told her about a Wichita cop who supposedly had quite a wild streak. Cindy's friend said that he hangs out at players and they wanted to go and find him. Cindy asked are you dating this guy? The friend said no, but I really want to.
Speaker 1:Cindy had a wild streak of her own. She thought watching her friend chase after a reputed love with a cop in a bar would be a fun way to spend an evening At players. Her friend pointed out the cop who was sitting unsteadily on a bar stool. Cindy saw thick, dark hair, a tanned face, a lit cigarette in his hand and he was drunk. And he was yelling at a woman beside him who said unperturbed sipping a drink. The cop was hollering about injustice and some guy named Butterworth. He went on yelling until he finally fell off the bar stool with a thud. The woman beside him acted cool as though that wasn't the first time, and Cindy found this entertaining. She did not talk to him much that night, but on subsequent nights, when her infatuated friend took her along, cindy began to study Kenny Langworth. He appeared to be the party guy from hell.
Speaker 1:Langworth drank at West Side bars players at 21st and West or Barneys and 9th and West. He walked in every night wearing a $300 black leather bomber jacket given to him by a former girlfriend. He would order a drink and tell a funny story, order another drink, tell another story. He bought drinks for Cindy, for his friends, for her friends. He would listen intently to the stories of others. Once in a while somebody would push his buttons and mention Butterworth and he would yell about injustice. After Cindy heard the full story, she understood why.
Speaker 1:At first she thought Langworth was merely one of those quitted people who like to tell tales and bars but had little else going for them. He seemed like such a bad boy, change smoking, getting hammered, telling off color stories. But she saw deeper shades to his character. He wasn't like other guys. Langworth was curious, likable and pathetic. He had a habit of leaning forward and listening more carefully than other men. He said outrageous things as a defensive move he would be hurt by. A few girlfriends wanted to keep people at arm's length, but this strategy didn't work with Cindy, who talked as outrageously as Langworth.
Speaker 1:Langworth asked her one night why do you have a vanity plate on your car that says Skippy? And she said because I'm proud of what I do for my softball team. It means I skip around the bases. And Langworth said LBS, it means that you like Skippy peanut butter. You spread easy and you know. She said well, you're really little and she sort of cussed him out. And he asked where did you go to high school? And she said South High. He said really, we used to call South High girls the South High Sluts. And she then answered back with another four letter word, for we used to call you a bunch the Bishop Carol. You know the F word and she liked this.
Speaker 1:She had little use for people with tiptoed and conversation and though Langworth could be unusually cagey around strangers, he never tiptoed around friends and after she became friends with him she decided that for all his wearing and TC. He was nevertheless the most gentlemanly gentleman that she have ever met. He was curious about her work with special kids for the school district. She helped teach the most damage of children the most basic of skills. She changed diapers on this children, her dedication to them and touch him. She learned that he went to dinner at his parents house every Sunday and had done so all his life. He had friends from boyhood who were intensely loyal to him. Other cops openly admire him. Paul Dodson said he was brilliant and men it. There were former girlfriends still around. She noticed they seemed like herself, nice but wounded, recovering like her from a busted marriage or abuse or a bad family. Langworth seemed drawn to such women A rescue compulsion, according to Cindy.
Speaker 1:Eventually Cindy met his mother, irene, and from her and Langworth heard some of the family's favorite Kenny stories. Irene told how Kenny used to be an auto boy and at Christ the king like to drop books on the floor to startle the class. He pulled girls pigtails, then batted his eyes at nuns to avoid getting wagged with a yardstick. Langworth himself took pride in telling a story about an elderly nun, sister with Freda Stump, who suffered from not-collepsy. She dropped off to sleep, sometimes in mid-sentence. One day in seventh grade sister with Freda was talking to Langworth's best friend, bobby Higgins. She was talking and pointing at Higgins when she suddenly fall asleep with her fingers still pointing and Langworth said to Higgins quick, switch seats with me. So moments later sister with Freda woke up to find herself pointed at Langworth. She leaped up, grabbed a yardstick and chased Langworth who ran away cackling.
Speaker 1:Years later, after high school, langworth was not senseless when he collided with a teen maid during a softball game. He seemed fine when he got up, but after the game ended he began to repeatedly ask what is it? Langworth regained consciousness the next day in the hospital, surrounded by family and friends. When he saw where he was, his first thought was that he had wrecked his car. And the nurse asked what day is it? And he said Monday. He said no, it's Friday. He said it's Friday and I'm not out drinking. Langworth's friends did not want to see Irene Langworth's reaction to that, so they quickly slunk out the door.
Speaker 1:When La Monro retired in 1988, he regarded the BTK case as his at his. It was his worst disappointment in his 12 years as chief. Btk had unlasted entire cup careers. People who had been. When the Oteros died were now veteran officers. Langworth had gone from being a kid to a clothing salesman, a rookie patrolman, a ghostbuster chasing BTK for three years and now one of the detectives working in the city's 25 to 30 homicides a year. Now he took another job. The department promoted him to lieutenant, an assistant commander of the crime lab In the ghostbusters. He had already become well-versed in elements of forensic science such as blood chemistry, fiber evidence and fingernail scrapings. As the lab lieutenant he worked hard to increase his knowledge. People who saw him in the new job realized he seemed gifted at applying science to criminal cases. In time Langworth felt like a weight had lifted off him. He had not realized how much it hurt him emotionally to work homicides until he took up the more detached work of the lab. Becoming a homicide detective was what he had worked for his entire career and he was unsettling to realize how harmful it was, how much the suffering of victims' families had set him, depressed him, tempted him into drink as much as it hurt, though he missed it.
Speaker 1:About a year after Lamonian, retired patrol officer Kelly Otis answered one of those calls that cops read a domestic violence call in the wee hours At 3.11 am on December 9, 1989, otis and two other officers walked up at 1828 North Porter. Inside was a drunken gov Coris Greenskeeper named Thomas Hathaway, age 28. His girlfriend said he had beaten her. When Otis asked her whether her boyfriend had a gun, she said no. But something about her tone made Otis' spidey sense tingle. When Otis approached the front door he stepped off to the side before he called out. What answered him was a shotgun blast through the open doorway. The man inside ran out bare-chested in the freezing cold. Otis, dropped to one knee, drew his pistol and yelled Drop the gun.
Speaker 1:Fear warped Otis' senses. Both he and the gunman seemed to move in slow motion. The man raised the shotgun to his shoulder and aimed at Otis' face. The muscle looked big enough to crawl into Otis' fire and felt a new fear. His gun barely made a sound. Otis, terrified, thought his gun had misfired. But the gunman dropped to the ground like a heavy sack of potatoes.
Speaker 1:Otis was puzzled for a moment. On the shooting range, his 9mm was boom, boom like a cannon. But this time the only sound was a faint pop pop. But Hathaway was bleeding from bullet wounds in his torso. Otis was so scared that he had barely heard the sound of his own gun In a fire station a few blocks away. The paramedic, who had fallen in love with Otis the year before now, heard his voice on the police scanner. He said we have an officer involved shooting. Neda Sauer jumped in her ambulance. She knew that the address Otis gave was not in an area covered by her crew, but she raised there anyway, terrified that he had been shot. Moments later someone on the radio said that Otis had not been wounded, so she drove back to the fire station.
Speaker 1:Otis tried to unload the remaining bullets in his pistol, but his hand shook so badly that he could not do it. Another officer bent over Hathaway and counted the bullet holes. The 5 wounds turned out to be from 2 shots. There were 3 entry wounds and 2 exit wounds, one bullet having passed through Hathaway's torso and arm. Otis had fired twice, just as he had been taught in the practice range Shoot a target twice, then aim to fire again if necessary. It's called a double tap. Otis felt grateful for his training. When you are scared, training takes over. Hathaway survived.
Speaker 1:Otis went back to work a few weeks later. Not long after that, otis and other officers nearly emptied their gun magazines while shooting at a drug dealer who opened fire on them. Otis got the shakes over that one too. At a South High School class reunion 5 years later, neta Sauer Otis ran into Cindy Hughes, a former classmate. Cindy was with Kenny Langworth who looked bored Langworth, brighton. When he realized that Neta's husband was a cop, he stuck out a hand to Kelly Otis. He said good, somebody I can talk to instead of all those South High losers. We'll be right.
Speaker 1:Back January 18, 1991, dolores Davis, also known as D, liked to carry wet wipes to scrub the faces of grandchildren and other surfaces that harbored germs. She hid matches on top of her refrigerator so that way war children visiting her home would not find them and he attempted to burn down the house. On hot days with kids in the car, she rolled the windows down only a fraction of an inch. An open window might cause children to be sucked out by passing wind and the kids would yell Grandma, can you roll it down some more? And she would say no. She lived alone at the edge of Park City. Her vistas included open countryside. She was raised a farm girl near Stella, nebraska, so she did not dread the night of solitude. She worked more than 25 years as a secretary for a laryal oil and gas company. She also sold Mary Kate cosmetics. She liked that the company didn't test its products on animals At home. She had dozens of magazines and newsletters from animal rights groups such as Doris Day, animal League, people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Speaker 1:Her family last got together with her at Christmas in 1990. Dee hosted and she wanted everything perfect. Today everyone arrived for son Jeff and his family from Florida, daughter Laurel and her family from Colorado. And Dee made four trips to Leakers close away before she got everything she needed. She fussed so much about getting dinner right, dad, they did not eat until 9 pm. Afterward they watched all dogs go to heaven. Some of the family cried. It was a good time.
Speaker 1:Jeff and his mother had a teenious relationship early on. His parents divorced in 1961 after 12 years of marriage. Jeff lived with his father. His sister lived with Dee. Jeff spent most weekends with Dee, but things were strained. Later they grew closer, phoned every weekend and talked for hours.
Speaker 1:Dee had been retired from the gas company for just a few months. On the winter night she heard a rustling outside her window and saw one of her cats batting at the glass. Her other cats appeared to be spooked too. Dee called Jeff. Someone might have been out there, she said Rader had looked through her window blinds for several nights. Her house at 6226 North Hillside lay about a mile from his house, so close that he scouted her by riding his bike from home. He was getting lazier. Killing another neighbor was a risk, but why not? Nine dead so far and the cops still clueless?
Speaker 1:He had used a scout outing as cover for the murder of Marine Hedge. He would do it this time too. He had lifelong friends and the scouts. George Martin, a scout leader, thought the war of him. George could work up tears talking about what scouting did for boys. He was a good cover to have such a friend and Rader and Joy helping him. He knew that Martin and other scout leaders would have thought list of him if they had seen him masturbating naked and handcuffed In the truck. On that one cubby outings, though, when he could not get the cops off he became frightening. Having to call for help would have been embarrassing. Much to his relief, he became so sweaty from fear that he was able to slip out of the cops. Why would Martin have thought about that by the time Dee's cat got spooked by that prowler.
Speaker 1:In early January, nearly, otis had become one of Wichita's most decorated patrol officers. He had survived two shootouts, taken part in drug busts and car chases. One night on patrol Otis saw a man moving around strangely in a parked car. Otis pulled over and stopped a rape. The department later named him Officer of the Year for 1991. Only 10 years earlier his chief's interests were beer and billards. He had dropped out of college. Now friends suggested he take the test that would qualify him to be a detective. Otis just snorted. He loves street patrol.
Speaker 1:Rader had been Dee. While he had seen Dee while he drove around, he locked in, as he called it. He liked to use cup jargon. Locked in meant to concentrate on something. Shut down meant stop and put her down meant to kill. He had noticed the dog Colonel north of Dee's house on hillside so he called her Project Dogside. He would kill her. During the Boy Scout trappers run the room.
Speaker 1:Every year dads and boys camped out by a lake north of Wichita in January, sometimes freezing half to death, as they threw tomahawks and cooked over fires. They camped in Harvey County West Park. This put them in the middle of nowhere with access only by country roads. But Rader had noticed that the roads east led to a small city of Newton and Newton was on Interstate 135, which led south to Park City where both he and Dee lived. The drive would only take half an hour. That Friday Rader made sure that he was the first dad at the lake and got to work setting up the camp. He left before the other dads show up with the boys. The camp was halfway ready. His cover story would be that if he left to get supplies he headed south to his parents home. It was empty. They had gone south for the winter.
Speaker 1:He slipped in dressed in dark clothing and packed his head kit. He drove a few blocks to the Baptist Church in Park City when he killed Marine Hedge he had done the Taxicab Roo thing but that had taken too long so he was simplifying tonight. He had a key to the church because it was where the scout troop man. He went in, checked his gear, then went back out. He walked to this car or sorry, to this home through wheat fields, through a cemetery. It was close to freezing and his feet hurt. By the time he reached the house he saw through the lines that she was alone reading in bed. He waited, shivering the low. The night would reach 32 degrees now the lights off. So he tried to figure out how to get in. And simplify some more. A letter.
Speaker 1:After 10.30pm he picked up a cinder block from outside Dee's shed, through and through her sliding glass door, as he remembered it. The glass shattered and he came running wearing nightclothes and a rope. What happened to my house? He asked Did your car hit my house? Then she saw him and backed away. He had pulled pantyhose over his face. He said I am wanted by the police. I need your car and money.
Speaker 1:She argued, like all the others. So he tried to disarm her with the usual eyes. I'm going to tie you up, leave you and tow her. Then he said I need to get in and warm up. That was not a lie. Then I'm going to take your car and some food. She told him you can't be in my house. He said, ma'am, you are going to cooperate. I got a club, I got a gun and I got a knife. She said someone was coming to see her later, a man. He thought. God, there's always somebody coming. Now he had to hurry, which irritated him.
Speaker 1:He took her to her bedroom, handcuffed her, tied her feet with her own pantyhose the usual routine. Then he found her car keys rattled around in the kitchen, opened several boxes, made noise to pretend he intended only to rob. He came back, took the handcuffs off and began to tie her hands with pantyhose. You say you got somebody coming. He asked and she said yes, somebody's coming. And she said well, then they will find you. They would find you and then you will call the police. I'm out of here. But it was another lie to calm her. But then she saw his face and recoiled in fear. He had pulled off the pantyhose mask, exposing his face. She said don't kill me. He picked up another pair of pantyhose. She said I got kids, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me.
Speaker 1:This afternoon, on Saturday, a friend of Dee's Dee Davis named Thomas Ray came to work on her car, as he had promised when he had taken her to dinner the night before. He noticed the porch light on and the curtains drawn In 1985, chevi Cavalier was outside. She always put it in the garage. Ray got no answer. When he knocked he pulled up the garage door and saw that the door into the house was open. In the house the phone line to the wall jack had been cut and a cinder block lay on the living room floor surrounded by glass. Her bedding was missing. Ray drove off, found a working phone and called 911. By that evening Detective Sam Houston and other Sedwick County chevice officer had mustered search parties to walk along roads over northern Sedwick County. Deputies knocked on doors asking if anyone had seen Dee In her home. Houston noted that someone had gone through her laundry drawer and the neighbor had seen Dee's keys on the roof of her garage. Deputy Matt Schroeder found some of these beddings stuffed into a covert mouth from her home but no one found Dee. Her family pray embraced for bad news. Chevi's investigators determined that someone had wiped down the doors and trunk of her car.
Speaker 1:On February 1, 13 days after Dee disappeared, a teenager named Nelson Shock took a morning walk Accompanied by a stray dog. He headed west along 117th Street North, several miles north of Dee's home. The dog trodded under a bridge and would not come out. When called, nelson climbed down and saw a bedspread and a body. Beside the body lay a painted plastic mask. Nelson was so upset that when he ran home he headed the wrong way for a few steps.
Speaker 1:This investigator's photograph Dee's frozen body, diagrammed her location and studied what they saw Pani holes tied to Dee's throat, wrists and ankles. Those had knocked her. Houston noticed similarities between this and the hedge killing which had occurred six years earlier. Both women had been tied up and strangled, their phones and lines cut. These facts were similar to those in the BTK case, the oldest of which had occurred 17 years earlier. There were also significant differences. The Park City victims were older women. They had been taken from their homes. Btk had not done that.
Speaker 1:On Wichita, most of the detectives concluded that the hedge and Davis case might be related, but they doubted they were related to BTK. Houston wasn't sure he agreed. Raider had dragged these 5'5", 130 pound body out of the house in her own bedding and dumped her in the trunk of her car. He took her first to a Kansas Department of Transportation Lake at 45th and Hillside, near I-135, the highway that devised the eastern part of Wichita from the west. He hid her in some bushes. He wanted to tie up the in all sorts of poses and shoot pictures in the privacy of an abandoned barn, but it was snowing. The night was worrying on. He would need to sneak back into the campsite suit. He decided to take these car back to her home. But first he drove through Park City to Christ Lutheran, his own church, and stuffed her jewelry box and other belongings underneath a shed out back. Then he drove her to the house, wiped her car clean, threw the keys on her roof, walked the several hundred yards back to the Baptist church where he had left his own car. He drove back out to the lake, picked up these bodies, started driving north toward an abandoned barn that he had a mine to use. He felt the press of time. The scout would miss him. He found a bridge along 117th Street north and dumped her body under it. Then he took a long drive back to the scout rendezvous. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:Rader was like a bone with a bone, oh, I would say a dog with a bone. He would not leave D alone. By the evening of January 19, the day after he broke into D's house, officers over Sedwick and Harvey counties were searching for D. Rader had spent the day with the scouts, but he was curious about the search and wanted to see D again. So in the evening he made up another lie. He said I have a headache. So he drove to the little town of Sedwick supposedly to buy aspirin in a convenience store but actually to see if he could learn about the investigation. He drove on I-135 to a rest stop north of the Sedwick County line, went into the restroom, began to change into dark clothes. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper walked in, glared him, asked what he was doing. Troopers got called to the rest stop when people saw men undressing and doing strange things. Btk have dressed, told him a version of truth. He said I'm with the Boy Scouts. I'm changing into my scout clothes to go to the trappers' Runder Room. If the trooper asked to search his car he might be in a lot of trouble. Some of these belongings were in there. To his relief, the trooper walked away.
Speaker 1:Greater Finnish Dressing drove out in the fog, found these body, took photos of her. Her breast had deflated. Not very sexy, he thought, but he took photos anyway. He had brought something to pretty her up his mask made of heavy plastic, on which he had painted red lips, black eyelashes and eyebrows. He left the mask with her to impress the police. After he got home from the Runder Room with his son he wrote in his journal how much he enjoyed killing Dee, how she pleaded he kept trophies these driver's license and social security card clippings of stories published by the ego after the murder. In some of these stories noted similarities between Dee's killing and the death of Marine Hedge Delteros and other BTK victims. He missed his mask. He had worn it a number of times when he put on women's clothing and photographed himself in bondage in poses of distress. He went to his parents' house when they were not at home, put on Dee's clothing, took pictures of himself in the basement.
Speaker 1:On February 18, 1991, only one month after Dee Davis was murdered, jogger trotting through Wood South of the small town of Belle Plain, kansas, found a skull sticking out from under some leaves. Belle Plain is 30 minutes south of Wichita. Wichita police sent their crime-law team including Land War and the news media was notified. At the Eagle Bill Hirschman turned to Hearst Lava Viana. His team made covering cops and Hirschman said I hope this isn't what I think it is. He said what do you think it is? And he said Nancy Shoemaker. Lava Viana hoped he was wrong too, because Nancy was only nine years old. After he got home from the rendezvous with his son he wrote in his journal how much he enjoyed killing Dee, how she pleaded he kept trophies these driver's license and social security card clippings of stories published by the Eagle after the murder. Some of those stories noted similarities between these killings and the death of Marvin Hedge Deuteron and the other victims, and he missed his mask, of course. Now, on February 18, 1991, only one month after Dee Davis was murdered, a jogger trotting through Wood South of the small town of Belle Plain, kansas, found a skull sticking out from under some leaves, and Belle Plain is 30 minutes south of Wichita. Wichita police sent a crime lab team including Langworth. The news media were notified and at the Eagle Bear Hirschman turned to Hirsch Lava Lava, lava Viana, his teammate covering cops. He said I hope this isn't what I think. Think it might be Nancy Shoemaker, and Nancy was only nine years old.
Speaker 1:Now, detectives soon determined that the skull belonged to Nancy. Nancy had disappeared the previous July while going to a Wichita gas station to buy seven up to settle her little brother's upset stomach. Her disappearance touched up prayer meetings, searches and some of the worst community white feared in years. Wichita police formed an investigative squad and among the detectives they loaned to the city and county exploited and missing child unit investigation was Clint Snyder, who was a very intense burglary investigator in his late twenties who had grown up on a cattle farm near Burton, southeast of Wichita. Snyder went to the spot with a jogger from the bones and among the people he talked to there was the crime lab Lieutenant Landford Langwer, and Snyder wanted to get to know him better. Paul Dodson, now a lieutenant in charge of the police department homicide section, was still obsessed with BTK. In two months after Davis's murder in March 1991, he called a meeting with Sam Houston and other Sedwig County service investigators, fbi behavior scientists and Langwer and Dodson's goal was to join the review, not only the Davis homicide by all open homicide cases in the city and county. The investigators compared files and opinions. The FBI specialist noted that in the park city murders the bodies have been moved around and they said civil killers usually don't do that and it wasn't BTK style. To Dodson's disappointment the meeting ended inconclusively. Once again the BTK detectives tried to see links in the key links and concluded that maybe and maybe not Langwer and Dodson had investigated BTK for seven years and no matter how confidently Langwer talked about catching him someday, dodson felt only disappointment and doubt.
Speaker 1:One day Snyder and the crime lab people process a car belonging to a man police were investigating as a possible shoemaker suspect. Snyder got to know Langwer a little better and he learned a lot. And they talk about what could be done to move the case forward. Langwer changed small to crack little jokes, made useful suggestions, supplementing the street wisdom of detectives with forensic science. And for all his skill, langwer was unpretentious, even humble, and not all police commanders were. Langwer seemed warm, sympathetic, curious about people. He also seemed to love what he did. That got Snyder's attention. Because Snyder wanted to continue developing as a detective and the shoemaker case have shaken him deeply. He wondered how full time homicide investigators managed their emotions as they pursue their work.
Speaker 1:After work Snyder would go home, spend time with his daughter, heidi, only 18 months old, as they play. He wondered how the shoemakers learned to cope with the way Nancy had died, and Snyder also wondered how cops could learn to cope, especially considering the limitations of their own department. Nancy's murder had horrified him. He could not imagine any job more valuable than finding her killers. But his bosses in burglary pressed him to return to work in property crime cases, though Nancy's case was unsolved. He wondered what kind of beast could torture and killed a child. Like a lot of other detectives, snyder had to teach himself anger management. Snyder spent a lot of time talking it through his wife, tammy, with his friends and even with God.
Speaker 1:A few months after Nancy's body was found, detectives got a tip from a Wichita man who, by coincidence, had once been landlord to BTK victim Catherine Bright. The tip led investigators to a man named Doyle Lane who was already under investigation for another murder in Texas. Further investigation led to an acquaintance of Lane's, a mentally challenged man named Donald Wacker. Snyder and another detective got him to confess. Wacker said he watched Lane rape, beat, whip and strangle Nancy. Wacker told him that she kicked her attackers, demanded to be let go and fought until the last One of the saddest murders in Wichita history was solved.
Speaker 1:Snyder went back to work in burglaries, grateful for what he had learned. Snyder didn't know it yet, but Landward had been impressed with him. Landward thought Snyder would be a good guy to work with someday. And they said he seemed like some sort of authority nut and he would step onto their lawns, stick a ruler into their grass, tell them that it stood a fraction of an inch too tall and when pets got loose he would take them away. And sorry, I think I skipped a little bit. I went a little bit ahead. Um, let me step back for a minute. Let's go to May 1991.
Speaker 1:Four months after D Davis was killed, park City hire a new compliance officer to catch stray dogs and enforce zoning rules, and his name was Dennis Raider. Dennis Raider's resume appeal to city officials for several reasons. He was a former ADT employee with a good work record. In his four years in the Air Force he had been a wire and antenna installer, serving primarily in Mobile, alabama and Tokyo, japan, with temporary duty in Okinawa, turkey and Greece. He had been discharged in 1970 as a sergeant. He was a lifelong Park City resident. He attended a nearby church volunteer with his son's scout troop. He had many friends in town.
Speaker 1:People who encountered him after he was hired noticed that he kept his uniform immaculate, that his boots were always polished, that he seemed to relish the power to tell people what to do. Jack Whitson, who supervised Raider for years, said he tended to tell rather than ask. He said you need to fill this out rather than would you please fill this out. Raider wasn't a loner. He would talk if somebody, someone engaged him, but he didn't have a kid around. Work was work On breaks. He never went a minute over the allotted fifteen. Rather than socialize on downtime, he would sit at his desk and read the ego. When he chatted about something other than work, it was either about Kansas State University football or his children. Mostly he talked about his kids. When his daughter became a K-State student, raider attended the school's football games religiously. He eventually got his own office. When he was there he always kept the door open, but he locked it when he left for the day. His office had a second door, one that led to the outside and allow him to come and go without being noticed.
Speaker 1:One day, while looking for a piece of paper in Raider's office with his office, wilson opened a two-door filing cabinet. Inside were neatly filed black binders, some with labels. He didn't stop to read them. Raider had abbreviations and acronyms for everything. Once Wilson told him Dennis, you got to talk English to me. I don't understand your acronyms. Raider had hundreds of them. Ir was investigators report, for example, with a new.
Speaker 1:Raider took great care in preparing cases against Park City residents. But he also seen Raider help people get back their pets when they had to be taken in. When animals were hurt, raider insisted they'd be taken to a vet. One day a woman brought in a duck with an injured wing. Wilson told Raider that the duck couldn't survive and should be euthanized. Raider said he couldn't bring himself to kill the bird. He took it to a park with a creek to let nature take its course. Still, his job guaranteed criticism. Duck lovers seldom love duck catchers and no one likes to hear men in uniform through and to issue a citation.
Speaker 1:Many of the Park City residents whom the compliance officer would check up on his daily rounds were lower-income men who worked two jobs and who took their time about fixing cars in their yards. They would leave oil pans in junk parts and cars with only three wheels lying around, or they would single moms juggling kids in school who had a little time for mowing grass. Not long after Raider got the job, people began to complain because they said that he seemed like some sort of authority nut. He would step onto their lawn, stick a ruler into their grass, tell them that it stood a fraction of an inch too tall. When pets got loose, he would take them away, sometimes to have them put down. On occasion he walked an announce into the homes of single women and asked detailed questions about the work they scheduled their children, their boyfriends. There seemed to be something creepy about this guy and on Sundays he took his wife and kids to church. Thank you for listening to the murder book. Have a great week.