I’ve been alone with a serial killer in my house . . . seriously

In response to the 12 things about me post, here is the story.

Growing up, there was a boogey man in Wichita whose first victims were down the street from my grandmother’s house.  A monster had been born that would strangle his victim’s near the point of death, revive them, then start over again.  This went on for 12 years while a game of cat and mouse progressed between the police and the murderer they dubbed the BTK.  The BTK (short for Bind, Torture, and Kill) went silent in 1977 after his 7^th victim was found.    Rumors were that he moved away, had been imprisoned for another crime, or simply died.

Three more victims were killed in 1985, 1986, and 1991 but were later linked.

I lived in Park City, Kansas in a small two bedroom rental house.  A friend and I rented the place, but recently had some issues with a hot water heater threatening to explode and a couple of landlords not willing to fix it.  The hot water heater leaked and sounded like a shotgun going off inside a giant beer can any time it was used.

So we called the Park City Compliance officer.  I met him home alone about mid day.  He didn’t speak much and looked at the issues of the house.  He said we had a good case against the home owners and would write up his inspection.  I’m normally a chatty person and remember him being rather distant.

The owners were furious that we called the Compliance Officer and kept saying how he wouldn’t leave them alone now that we had reported the problems they refused to fix.  We ended up taking the landlords to court, only to find out the paperwork was never filed by the compliance officer.

Several years later, BTK started “talking” to the media and police.  Certain trophies from crime scenes showed up with cryptic puzzles, newspaper clippings, and clues.   A 3 ¼” floppy disk was sent that broke the case.  Police were able to find a deleted word document that came from a local church and had a name on it.

Then on February 25, 2005 they arrested Dennis Rader who was the Compliance Officer for Park City, Kansas and charged him with the BTK murders. 

I never felt at risk from having him in the house.  His main targets were women and at the time he came to the house, older women.  The strange thing is, he was my boogey man.  I stayed at my grandmother’s house a lot as a child and frequently had nightmares of the BTK coming to get me, any scratch at a window, door or creak in the house was him.  I met the boogey Man, shook hands with him, and there we were in Park City looking at a ruined hot water heater together.

For more info on the BTK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader