The dangers lurking next door

Law enforcement agencies believe that a package, one of the 12 or so communications left by BTK, resurfaced 11 months ago after a lengthy hiatus. The package was found in a local park and contained identification linked to one of BTK’s victims, as well as a doll with a bag over its head, its hands bound by woman’s hose, these representing the trademark, the MO, and perhaps the signature aspect of BTK’s crimes. 

A local media outlet reported receiving a word game in May 2004 that was believed to have come from BTK.  Dozens of words were hidden in the game, and are reported to include the spelling of suspect BTK Dennis Rader’s name and the number of his street address.  Another local media outlet receive a suspected BTK package with an item of jewelry linked to another one of BTK’s victims, as well as a computer disk that was successfully traced to a computer in Rader’s church (which he had access to). 

BTK was a neighbor
As authorities continue to pull the facts and evidence in this case together, Wichita and Park City residents must now consider that their most notorious citizen— the serial killer known by his own code name as BTK, believed by the authorities to be 59-year old town code enforcement officer Dennis Rader— was a neighbor and someone they may have worshiped next to.  These same citizens must also consider and rethink their past contact with him and his suspected alter ego, the killer BTK, over the last 10, 20, or even 31 years. 

We note that Rader’s prior known occupations include that of a home alarm installer, a census taker— and, until the time of his arrest, a dog catcher and local civil code enforcement officer. All of these occupations provided him a position of authority to be in one’s neighborhood, yard, and the ability to enter one’s home. 

With such free access to his community and the homes of his potential victims, we will probably find numerous connections between BTK and those he so brutally murdered.  These contacts could be through Rader’s employment with a local camping gear factory, this where two of BTK’s victims allegedly worked; and even in his neighborhood, noting that one and possibly two victims of BTK resided on the same street at Rader.

The emotional chill felt by local residents will undoubtedly far exceed the penetrating cold of a Kansas winter. Local residents must now consider the possibility that the man behind the psychological mask of BTK may have been in their homes, may studied their yards, neighborhoods, and their families— all the while perhaps considering who would be his next random, or not-so-random victim.

No home is truly safe
The man suspected to be BTK is in custody, but as the recent brutal, execution-style slaying of the husband and elderly mother of a Chicago federal judge has shown, no city, no neighborhood, and no person is truly safe, not even in their own homes. 

In the case of crimes against persons, profilers look at victimology and neighborhood.  By this, what was going on in the victim’s life, i.e., what factors may have made her or him a higher risk victim, and what was going on in the neighborhood of the crime?

As citizens, parents, spouses, roommates and caretakers, what can we do to protect ourselves from the BTKs, the home invasions, the burglars, and kidnappers, and other criminal elements that would do us and our loved ones harm?

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