Police: No Arrest in 'BTK' Serial Killer Case
Dec. 2, 2004 — -- Police said Thursday there has been no arrest in the BTK serial killings, despite reports that a man arrested by authorities could have a connection to the long-unsolved case.
"We have not, I repeat, we have not, made an arrest in relationship to BTK," Wichita, Kan., police Chief Norman Williams told reporters.
BTK -- the self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" -- has been linked to eight unsolved homicides in Wichita between 1974 and 1986. He had remained silent for 25 years until last March, when he sent The Wichita Eagle a letter that detailed an unsolved 1986 slaying and contained the victim's driver's license and photos of her body.
Speculation that police may have had a break in the case mounted after the arrest Wednesday night of a south Wichita man on unrelated charges. The man, whose name is not being released, was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on criminal trespass charges, ABC News affiliate KAKE-TV reported. Later, a second warrant was issued for housing violations.
The arrest was related to the BTK investigation, sources told KAKE, and The Wichita Eagle reported the police chief had said the man was brought to his department's attention through a BTK-related tip. The Eagle also said police were seen removing evidence from the man's home.
State police told The Associated Press they were testing the man's DNA to see if he could be connected to the serial killings. However, state police cautioned that they have tested hundreds of samples of blood and DNA since the 1980s to try to solve the murder mystery.
Williams stressed that the man who had been arrested was held on minor housing code violation and trespassing charges and called the speculation about his link to the BTK case a "travesty."
"It has taken away from our ability to focus on following up on different tips and leads," Williams said. "We spent so much time trying to deal with things that are, to us, not relevant to this investigation. … It is a travesty when you look at the impact on a neighborhood because of the fact that people assume the Wichita Police Department was making an arrest in regards to BTK."
The man Wichita police arrested Wednesday night seemed to bear certain similarities to the description of the person investigators detailed in a news conference on Tuesday. In an appeal for help, police released some of the information provided in recent letters sent to local media by the person they believe was the BTK serial killer.
Some experts believe the information BTK provided was a challenge to police to catch him. Investigators think BTK may still live in Wichita.
Police Lt. Ken Landwehr said the BTK killer claimed he was born in 1939, making him either 64 or 65 years old. BTK said he had served in the military in the 1960s and has had a lifelong fascination with trains. Though his family moved frequently when he was a child, BTK said he always lived near railroad tracks.
The man held in the Sedgwick County Jail lives just yards from railroad tracks. KAKE reported he was born in November 1940, which would make him 64 years old. The Eagle gave his age as 65.
The man arrested Wednesday night was originally held on a $25,000 cash bond, plus $1,500 bond, which meant he needed $26,500 to get out of jail. But a municipal judge later reduced his bond.
