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Kerri Rawson, the daughter of Dennis Rader, infamously known as the “BTK Killer,” states there is “mounting evidence” linking her father to the disappearance of missing 16-year-old Oklahoma girl Cynthia “Cindy” Dawn Kinney.
However, she told Truth Voices’s Brian Entin in an interview that the case remains “under investigation” and the evidence is “circumstantial.” Rawson emphasized that “we need to find Cindy.”
The Osage County Sheriff’s Office theorizes that Rader was involved in Kinney’s kidnapping and has been investigating him as a suspect. Last June, Rawson joined the efforts by examining her father’s evidence and visiting him in prison.
“There’s been a lot of effort in trying to locate where she may be, no matter what happened to her,” Rawson remarked about the teenager, who vanished from the Osage Laundry in June 1976, according to Truth Voices local affiliate KFOR.
Cops say they found items linked to BTK
In August, police recovered pantyhose and other “items of interest” while searching BTK’s former Kansas property, as stated by Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden.
Virden, who led the search team, described the items found as “significant.”
“We believe he’s tied in with our case and our prime suspect and possibly on several other cases in Kansas and one in Missouri,” Virden mentioned at the time.
In April of this year, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office received a package from an anonymous woman containing a word puzzle BTK had sent to a Kansas news station in 2004, according to KFOR.
“There’s hints all the way through that can’t be overlooked,” Virden said.
In 2004, the puzzle contained words like “Wichita,” “prowl,” “fantasies,” “ruse,” “spot victim” and “serviceman.” Upon re-examining it, authorities discovered additional words:
- Cindy
- Kinney
- Osage
- Laundry Mat
- Kihekah (the name of the street where Osage Laundry is located)
- Elgin
- Pawhuska
- Oklahoma
- Cleveland
The puzzle also spells out the names of Rader’s ten known victims and Rader’s home address in Kansas.
KFOR reported that entries in Rader’s journals also indicate his travels and their purposes. Some entries suggest trips to Oklahoma for vacations, Boy Scout activities, business, or other reasons.
While collaborating with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office, Rawson discovered evidence of her father sexually abusing her, which she discussed with Truth Voices’s Brian Entin at CrimeCon in Nashville, Tennessee.
Who was the BTK Killer?
Rader self-assigned the “BTK” nickname, standing for “Bind, Torture, Kill.”
Authorities say his first killing occurred in 1974, igniting fear across the Wichita, Kansas area throughout the 1970s. Rader, a former Air Force sergeant, was married with two children and lived in the Wichita area for most of his life.
Prior to his 2005 conviction for the murders of 10 people between 1974 and 1991, Rader engaged authorities and the media in a cat-and-mouse game. Authorities believe that several other missing persons cases are linked to him.
His daughter, Rawson, has been aiding law enforcement in their investigations and working as a victim advocate. She has authored two books: “A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming” and “Breaking Free: Overcoming the Trauma of My Serial Killer Father.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
