btk: busted
An arrest has been made in the BTK case.
Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams simply said, “The bottom line: BTK is arrested.” There was a great cheer from the group that had assembled for the news conference in the City Council chambers.
The officials that followed were careful to qualify their statements: “if any charges are filed”, “if any cases are brought”, etc.; but all of them are quite confident that their man is behind bars.
The suspect is 59-year-old Park City animal control officer Dennis Rader, a Wichita State Univ. graduate with a wife and kids, and also the congregation president at a Lutheran church in Park City. He’ll presumably be charged with at least ten counts of first-degree murder. Since his alleged crimes occured before the reinstatement of the death penalty, Rader cannot be put to death if he is found guilty.
No details other than that are being provided thus far. The Sedgewick County DA is up now explaining that evidence details will not be released.
In any case, this is good news. Hopefully now some of the despair BTK wrought can be undone.
UPDATE [11:53]: Reports and sound bites from Rader’s neighbors and fellow church members via KAKE-TV in Wichita. They described him as the church’s “worker bee”, and it turns out that he was the Scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop.
UPDATE [12:08]: KAKE is now reporting that the break in the case may have come when the killer left packages a few weeks back throughout the city — he left one at a Home Depot store in Wichita where a surveillance camera recorded his visit.
UPDATE [15:03]: I’m having trouble sending Trackbacks. I sent one to the blogs listed below and they never appeared, although a dozen others from elsewhere have appeared there. Not sure what the problem is, but if you came looking because I accidentally sent 5 Trackbacks to your post, I apologize for the inconveinence.
News stories:
- The Wichita Eagle
- AP via Yahoo News
- Reuters
- CNN
- The New York Times, with an error – the Times reports that the name of the suspect had not been released.
- FOX News
- The BBC
Other blogs:
- Wizbang
- Joe Gandelman at Dean’s World. Gandelman was a Wichita Eagle reporter in the early 1980s.
- Protein Wisdom
- Overtaken By Events
If you are a blogger or journalist writing about this story, go ahead and send me your link or leave a Trackback.
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