Kathryn Bright's house

This is the location where the BTK killer, Dennis Rader, murdered Kathryn Bright.

It is situated at 3217 East 13th Street North in Wichita, Kansas.

These days, Bright's house no longer exists. However, a mailbox and an outline of the driveway are still present.

Rader reportedly saw the 21-year-old college student while he was driving across East 13th Street North. After selecting Bright as a potential target, he began stalking her and figuring out her routine.

During this stalking phrase, he referred to her as Project Lights Out.

On April 4th, 1974, Rader broke into Bright's house and waited for her to arrive home. However, he was taken by surprise when she returned with her younger brother, Kevin.

When the pair entered the property, BTK held the two of them at gunpoint and told them that he needed to steal their car and some money.

This was a tactic that he had previously used on the Otero family. By claiming that he was only there to steal something, he was able to trick them into submission. This ruse convinced his victims that everything would be fine as long as they simply complied with his demands.

After settling their nerves and making them believe that it was just a robbery, Rader ordered Kevin to tie his sister up in one of the bedrooms. He then brought Kevin into a separate bedroom and tied him up as well.

Once the two siblings had been separated and restrained, Rader rummaged through the house for a bit.

A few minutes later, he walked into the room where Kevin was being held and attempted to strangle him to death with a nylon stocking. However, Kevin managed to break free and put up a fight.

During the struggle, BTK shot Kevin in the face. Amazingly, Kevin survived the gunshot wound and proceeded to play dead. Due to the amount of blood involved, Rader believed that he was "down and out."

Thinking that he had taken Kevin out of the equation, Rader walked into the other bedroom and attempted to strangle Kathryn. However, she also fought back.

As he was trying to get her under control, Rader heard a noise coming from the room where he had just shot Kevin. Spooked, he immediately let go of Kathryn and stormed back into the other bedroom.

Once again, BTK attempted to strangle Kevin, and once again, Kevin climbed to his feet and fought back.

During the second struggle, Kevin grabbed Rader's .357 Magnum, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger. However, the gun inexplicably jammed and failed to go off. At that point, Rader pulled out a second pistol and shot him again:

"And I think he thought that was the only gun I had because once I either bit his finger or hit him or something and got away, then I used the .22 and shot him one more time. And I thought he was down for good at that time."

After shooting Kevin for the second time, Rader returned to the other room to resume his attack on Kathryn Bright.

By that stage, he was panicking and feeling like he had lost control of the situation. Furthermore, Kathryn was still resisting him and fighting back.

Consequently, he took out a knife and stabbed her multiple times.

Following the stabbing, Rader heard someone opening the front door of the house. Initially, he believed that the police had arrived and that his luck had finally run out. However, once he walked out into the living room, he saw that no one was there.

Puzzled, he walked over to the front door and looked around. To his surprise, he could see that Kevin had survived the second shooting and was now sprinting down the street.

Realizing that he had little time before the alarm was raised, BTK cleaned up what he could and then ran back to his car, which was parked three blocks north of Bright's house.

Following this murder, Rader went on a hiatus for nearly three years. It wasn't until March 1977 that he murdered his next victim, Shirley Relford.

Photos

Photos of the house and other related images.

Fairmount Park

During his court confession, Dennis Rader claimed that he had parked his car about one block south of the Wichita State University campus.

"I parked at... What was it, 13th? Let's see. They were on 13th. What is it, 17th? Yea. I was just about one block south of 17th, where the car was. There's a park there. I parked at the park and then I walked to 13th, to the Bright residence. So I basically ran back."

In this case, it is likely that he parked his car at Fairmount Park before walking to Bright's house on 13th Street. The route in question is about half a mile long. It would have taken him roughly 8–10 minutes to walk it by foot.