KANSAS CITY - It was 20 years ago this week - on August 18, 2005 - that the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader received 10 consecutive life sentences from Judge Greg Waller in Sedgwick County district court. The legal proceeding took place at the County courthouse in downtown Wichita.
Rader received 10 consecutive life sentences for a series of murders, the maximum sentencing the law would allow.
Rader terrorized the Wichita area for decades, and his revealed identity stunned the community; the seemingly-normal Rader was married with children, a Boy Scout troop leader, and an active church-member. But he harbored an evil side.
His killing began on January 15, 1974, when Rader murdered four members of the Otero family, catapulting what would be years of torment for the people of Wichita, Kansas.
Rader, who nicknamed himself the BTK killer, would continue his murder spree until 1991, killing at least 10 people and eluding police capture. Several KBI agents were assigned to a BTK Task Force formed by the Wichita Police Department to help solve the identity of the serial murderer.
When BTK re-emerged in 2004 to communicate with law enforcement through the local news media, it didn’t take long for the task force to identify the killer. On February 25, 2005, Rader was finally arrested near his home in Park City. He was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences. He remains imprisoned at El Dorado Correctional Facility
Rader remains in custody at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Butler County.