Dennis Rader's house

This is the former residence of serial killer Dennis Rader (BTK).

His house was located at 6220 Independence Street in Park City, Kansas.

Rader and his wife, Paula, purchased the property in the early 1980s.

Demolition

The residence was a modest three-bedroom home measuring 960 square feet.

Following Rader's guilty plea, his wife filed for an emergency divorce and sold the house to Park City for approximately $60,000.

In January 2007, an eBay seller attempted to auction off lath boards from the house. Mayor Dee Stuart responded to the listing, stating that the city would "gleefully" prosecute anyone caught stealing or trespassing on the premises.

Three months later, the City Council demolished the white bungalow. Stuart declined to announce the exact date of the demolition to avoid a public spectacle. Afterward, debris from the house was buried at an undisclosed landfill.

Today, the site is an empty lot that provides access to Jardine Memorial Park.

Background

Rader grew up in Wichita and moved to Park City, a suburb on the northern side of the city, in 1973.

Rader holds an associate degree in electronics and a Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice.

Until 1989, he worked as an alarm technician for a home security company in Wichita. The position allowed him to scope out potential victims, disable alarms, and cut phone lines. His colleagues described him as a nitpicker who "lived by the book."

In 1991, he became a code-compliance officer and a dogcatcher. His reputation among neighbors was mixed. Although he often assisted elderly residents with yard work, he was also characterized as a bully who targeted single mothers and cited people for city code violations.

A neighbor reported that Rader would measure the height of the grass on people's lawns and threaten to fine them if they did not mow it quickly enough. He also allegedly enjoyed chasing stray pets with a tranquilizer gun.

BTK murders

Rader is one of America's most notorious serial killers. Between 1974 and 1991, he murdered at least 10 people, including two children. Throughout this period, he taunted the police and local news outlets with frequent letters.

Rader dubbed himself "BTK," an acronym for Bind, Torture, and Kill, in letters to the Wichita Eagle newspaper. This moniker described his modus operandi, which involved binding his victims, torturing them for sexual gratification, and then murdering them.

His killings began in January 1974, when he murdered four members of the Otero family.

Most of the murders took place in central Wichita, a 15-minute drive from Independence Street. By targeting victims roughly 10 miles away, he was able to maintain a safe distance between his crimes and his home.

However, Rader deviated from this pattern in 1985 when he murdered his 53-year-old neighbor, Marine Hedge. He later explained that he targeted Hedge to see if he could "get away with it."

In February 1991, he murdered his final victim, Dolores Davis. Afterward, he ceased communication with the media and the police, and the BTK killings eventually became a cold case.

Rader resumed contact in 2004

In 2004, after more than a decade of silence, Rader resumed sending letters.

He emerged from "hibernation" after an article in the Wichita Eagle suggested he was either dead or in prison.

In one of his [letters](home-depot-btk), he asked the Wichita Police Department if they could trace floppy disks. In response, the police published a coded advertisement in the classified section of a local newspaper, assuring him that it would be safe.

Not long after, he sent a floppy disk "as a test."

After examining the disk, investigators found a deleted file that had been edited by a user named Dennis. The metadata indicated the disk had been used at Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita.

Following an Internet search, police identified a suspect: 59-year-old Park City resident Dennis Rader.

Detectives discovered that the prime suspect behind some of Wichita's most infamous murders was the president of a church congregation and a Boy Scout leader.

They confirmed the match by cross-referencing a DNA sample from one of the BTK crime scenes with a pap smear from his daughter.

Arrest

On February 25, 2005, police arrested Rader while he was driving home from work. Officers followed him from his workplace and pulled him over approximately 300 feet east of the entrance to his neighborhood.

At the time, he was only 270 yards away from his house.

When officers asked if he knew the reason for his arrest, Rader responded, "Oh, I have suspicions why." He then looked at a detective and said, "Will you let my wife know I won't be home for lunch? I assume you know where I live."

Shortly afterward, police arrived at Rader's house and ordered his wife to leave.

Initially, Rader denied the crimes. However, a month later, he changed his plea to guilty. During his confession, Rader calmly recalled each of his murders in precise detail.

In August 2005, he was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences in prison.

Aftermath

Following his arrest, Rader's family was shocked and overcome with grief. They had no idea that the man they had lived with for decades was capable of such crimes.

His daughter, Kerri Rawson, said that while he displayed flashes of anger, he was generally a loving father. Two years before his arrest, he had walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.

Although Rawson broke off contact with her father for several years, she eventually forgave him and resumed communication. However, in 2021, she filed a no-contact order against him. In one interview, she revealed that Rader's "followers" were helping him cyberstalk her by mailing him screenshots of her social media profiles.

Rader is a suspect in the murder of Cynthia "Cyndi" Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old who disappeared from a laundromat in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in June 1976.

In August 2023, officials from the Osage County Sheriff's Office in Oklahoma excavated a small section of the lot on Independence Street.

Items of interest, including personal belongings and "other binding-type items," were recovered during the search. Reports indicated a pair of ripped pantyhose was discovered during an earlier, unreported dig in April 2023.

Authorities believe these items may be trophies that Rader took from his victims.