Admitted BTK Killer Planned to Kill Again
July 11, 2005 -- -- In two exclusive interviews with an ABC affiliate, BTK killer Dennis Rader said he was not done killing when he was arrested in February.
On June 27, Rader pleaded guilty to torturing, strangling, stabbing and shooting 10 victims from 1974 to 1991.
Rader nicknamed himself BTK for "bind, torture, kill," and taunted investigators and journalists.
Larry Hatteberg, a Wichita, Kan., anchor who has covered the BTK killings since 1974, asked Rader in a phone interview if he had plans to kill again.
"There was probably one more," Rader said. "I was really thinking about it, but I was beginning to slow down age-wise my 'thinking' process, so it probably would have never went. It was probably more of an ego thing."
Hatterberg also spoke to Rader face to face, and asked the killer if there were more victims than the 10 police knew about.
Rader said there were only 10, but added "there were other things that happened." He indicated they had to do with the people he stalked, but would not elaborate.
A computer disk that the BTK killer left behind to taunt police contained the name of his church as well as the name "Dennis." It was the clue that ultimately led to his capture.
"We did a Google search," said Detective Randy Stone of the Wichita Police Department. "We came up with the Web site for Christ Lutheran Church and on their Web site was a list of important people in the church and Dennis Rader was the president of the congregation."
Police then got a subpoena for a DNA sample from Rader's daughter, which they obtained from a sample at her doctor's office.
The daughter's DNA was a clear family match with DNA gathered from semen at BTK crime scenes. Police then arrested Rader without incident.
Rader has remained matter-of-fact about the killings in the final days of his judicial process.
"You know, how could a guy like me, a church member with a family go out and do those sorts of things?" Rader said. "The only thing I can figure out is that I've compartmentalized somewhere in my body where I can do those sorts of things and go back and live a normal life, which is unbelievable sometimes that it has happened."
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