A Serial Killers Daughter.
By Kerri Rawson
5.0/5.0 Stars
Pages:319
I wanted to read this book because it has been mentioned in several other books I have read. Kerri Rawson is known through out the true crime community. She attends Crim Con every year and has been a true friend and mentor to Kelsi German who is the sister of Libby German on of the victims in Delphi.
This book is from the point of view of Kerri the second child of Dennis Rader the BTK Killer. To her he was just dad. She details life before she knew the truth her dad had been hiding from everyone. She is open about her struggles with depression and anxiety that started after her cousin Michelle died in a car accident. How she found God in a dark cold forest while hiking with her dad when she thought she would not make it and that her brother who was lost would not be found. There were times she and her brother saw the dark side of her father but never thought he was a killer.
When she found out the truth on afternoon of February 25th, 2005 when the FBI showed up at her door to tell her they had just arrested her dad and that he was indeed BTK the serial killer that had been operating on and off since the 70’s. Her life came tumbling down. The dad she loved that drover her back and forth to college. The dad that was a cub scout leader and a member of her family church. That same dad was the same man that killed 10 people one including her next-door neighbor and 3 children.
Her faith in God, the love and devotion of her husband and her mother, brother, and extended family would help build them back up but not before it all crumbled down. She explains how she didn’t want to go out, didn’t want to go to work, couldn’t eat. Her connection with people was strained because she didn’t want to tell people who she was. Even after his arrest Kerri still communicated with her father via mail. She had questions she wanted answers too. She also needed to make sure he did not do anything to make mother’s, brothers, and her life more difficult. She pleaded with him to plead guilty to avoid a long-drawn-out trial. Originally, he chooses to stand silent which ended up entering a non-guilty plea but shortly after he did eventually plead guilty. While in court he was asked by the judge in order to give closer to the victims familied that he tells them what he did and how he did it. Kerri did not attend his trial but read about it in detail online and could not believe what she was hearing. How could the man she loved unconditionally as her dad be this evil monster.
To this day Kerri has never been to see her dad in prison on death row but she does still occasionally write to him. Kerri’s mother has never written to him and refuses to visit him or communicate with him. Through all this Kerri kept God close to her heart and those beliefs is what helped guide her through and to survive what she felt was un survivable.
BTK Time Line:
November 1973 – Dennis Rader was laid off from the Cessna Aircraft Company. Losing his job started a downward spiral that had been building in him since an early age.
Jan 1974 – Dennis Rader murdered Joseph and Julie Otero and their 2 youngest children Josie (11) and Joey (9). He left their bodies so when the three older children arrived home, they found their familied deceased.
April 1974 – Rader murdered 21yr old Kathryn Bright. While in the process of the murder Brights 19yr old brother Kevin arrived to her apartment. Rader fought with and shot him almost killing him. Kevin survived.
Fall of 1974- Rader begins working at ATD security as an installer. This would give him access to homes and women.
March 1977 – Rader murdered Shirely Vian Relford. He posed as a detective and she allowed him inside. At gunpoint he forced the three young children into the bathroom. Rader tied her up and strangled her while her children screamed from the bathroom. He left semen on her panties next to her body.
December 1977 – While his wife was pregnant with Kerri, he murdered 25 yr. old Nancy Fox. He cut her phone line and broke into her home and laid in wait until she came home from work. He tied her up and strangled her. Again, he left semen at the scene on her night gown. The next day he called in his own crime to the police and let them know there was homicide and where to find her.
April 1985- BTK killed their neighbor Marine Hedge a grandmother. She was killed and found a week later in the country. He choked Marine to death and then placed her in the trunk of his car and drove her to the church. Carried her to the basement and posed her body in different positions before loading her back in the trunk and dumped her body in a ditch. The FBI originally did not link this to BTK until after he was arrested and Kerri inadvertently told them that she thought her dad was responsible for Mrs. Hedges murder. Dennis later confessed to her murder also.
September 1986 – Rader murdered Vicki Wegerle a 28 yr old mother of two. He knocked on her door claiming to come to fix the phone line. At gunpoint he forced her to the bedroom where he tied her up. She fought causing scratches to Rader’s arm. He eventually chocked her with a rope. They he took photos of her in different positions. After he was done, he stole her car. Vicki’s husband arrived home just as Raeder left found his wife and rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced deceased.
January 1991 – Raders last victim would be Delores Davis. She lived a mile and half from the Raider home. This was a well thought out murder. He had to slip away from a Scout meeting he was at, change clothing and waited until she was asleep. He broke a window to get into the home waking Delores up. He forced her to the bedroom tied her up and strangled her. He then loaded her up and dumped her off a bridge. He changed back into his clothing and went back to the meeting. A day later he returned to where he dumped the body and took pictures of it.
March 2004 – Rader mailed a letter to the Wichita Eagle from a undercover name Bill Thomas Killman … BTK. The envelope has 3 photos of Vicki Wegerle and her driver’s license
May 2004 – Rader sent another letter to KAKE TV that was a word puzzle. Rader loved word puzzles and cryptology.
June 9th 2004 – he left a package taped to a sign in the middle of the city which had a description of the Otero murders and a drawing of a body hanging from a rope.
June 17th 2004 – A package was left at the public library labeled BTK. He stated time was running out for him and he wanted to wait for the right time for his next “hit”
October 2004 – found by a UPS driver, a collage of children in bindings drawn across their bodies and faces inside an envelope. It also listed false details about BTK
Around November 2004 – A special k box was located in the bed of a pickup truck. With the words BTK and bomb. Inside was a letter asking if floppy disk could be traced back to the computer it was made from. The police later replied no. He had also asked his son in law the same question. Not thinking anything of it and being busy with something else his son in law also said no.
January 2005 – Another cereal box was a doll with a rope around its neck and tied to a pipe, made to look like the murder of Josephine Otero.
February 3, 2005 – a post card was sent to KAKE-Tv saying he was going to send a floppy disk. 13 days later they received the floppy disk and police analyzed it linking it back to the Lutheran Church under the name Dennis. They found out a Dennis Rader was the president of the church.
During this time the FBI obtained search warrants for Kerri Raders medical records and found while she was in college, she had a pap smear done on the clinic where they took some tissue samples. The FBI got a warrant for the tissue samples with out Kerri’s knowledge or permission and ran a test again the semen that had been left at the scene. They got a match and enough proof to go an arrest, Dennis Rader. Kerri claims to never have given permission her medical records and only gave a DNA buccal swab sample after her father was already arrested and in custody. She is firm she did not turn her father in or know anything about his pending arrest until he was already in custody and then it came as a shock to her and the family.
February 25th, 2005 – At around lunch time the police and FBI surrounded Dennis Raders’s vehicle and took him into custody. He did not resist and was very calm. All he asked was someone to please notify his wife he would not be home for lunch. Little did he know that at the same time he was being arrested FBI agents where at his home and his daughters home alerting them to Dennis’s arrest.
Evidence or “trophy’s” from the murders where located under false bottom space in the family home. In the hallway under a drawer. Not far from his daughter’s room. He told agents where to look.
July 27th 2005 – Rader pled guilty to all his crimes in open court. He was ordered by the judge to in detail discuss each crime he was admitting to. The room was packed with victims’ families but no one from his family was present. Afterwards he was allowed to give a statement which he mostly talked about himself and never actually issued an apology to the victims familied.
August 18th, 2005 – the Judge Waller sentenced Dennis Rader to life in prison. He is not eligible for parole until 2180. He was sent to El Dorado Correctional Facility where he remains today.
Over the years several doctors have been able to communicate and evaluate Dennis Rader. They have determined that he suffers from the following:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Impulsive behavior
Bi-Polar disorder
Psychopathic personality disorder
He claims he has never been abused physically or sexually by any family member or friend.
For Kerri Rawson time will be forever marked before dad was arrested and after dad was arrested.