For once in his life it seems, Dennis Rader was surprised and shocked at the sight of someone. According to The Daily Mail, his daughter, Kerri Rawson, made her first visit to see her father, the infamous BTK Killer, while in prison.
As the outlet writes, Rawson was hoping to catch Rader off-guard and possibly pull out information related to two Oklahoma cold cases he’s been named a suspect in recent weeks. She was also able to see that Rader’s health had deteriorated to the point that she didn’t feel he had much time left.
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“We went from being best friends to him walking me down the aisle, camping, hiking, moving me all over and taking care of me, teaching everything you’d want to know about the outdoors. We went from that to my 26-year-old self losing my father,” Rawson told Dateline during an interview earlier this year.
Rawson said she had first become aware of the new cold cases related to her father’s crimes back in January. She read up on the disappearance of Cynthia ‘Cyndi’ Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who disappeared in 1976. By June, she had learned about the death of Shawna Garber, who had been found dead near Pineville, MO back in Dec. 1990. This pushed her to help investigators and once again face her father.
Rader has reportedly been asked about the two missing women in the past, denying having a hand in the crimes but seemed to enjoy his time with investigators. Rawson ended up seeing him for three hours total in June and July. It was the first time they had met face-to-face since 2005 when he was finally arrested, according to The Daily Mail.
“I hadn’t had contact with him for 18 years, besides letters,” she said. “To sit across from him was quite staggering.”
“His eyesight is really bad and he couldn’t tell who I was right away, but he was shocked,” she continued. “He’s in a wheelchair, but he could still give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was like a reunion…He’s still sharp as a tack, He was coming up with alibis, I mean he could tell I was there for answers. It was surreal.”
Rawson insists she’s not accusing him of the crimes herself, claiming she’s still waiting for firm evidence. But she is planning a return to the prison in the future to visit her father before he dies.
The BTK Killer terrorized his neck of the woods for decades, mocking police with letters in a style similar to the Zodiac Killer, the other famous unsolved case at the time. He stopped in 1991 and was never suspected for years, maintaining his life and family far from suspicions.
In typical fashion, Rader couldn’t resist the call of infamy and started writing letters to police again in 2005. He was captured a few months later, partly due to his ignorance of technology and his use of a floppy disk at his family church’s offices. If anything, one can assume he’s currently dealing with exactly what he wanted to in life.
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