The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 3

Nation 2nd TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2005 A3 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR WWW.INDYSTAR.COM 3 decades of fear and horror Serial killer pleads guilty known as BTK A i i i The victims kJ Joseph Julie Otero Otero VCI Ki? Josephine Joseph Otero Otero II Bright Vian vH Fox Hedge 1 I 1 "I Knight UddenWbune Pool photo Chilling accounts: Dennis Rader, 60, appeared detached and scholarly as he described how he committed 10 murders as the BTK killer. The former code inspector, Boy Scout leader and church president with a wife of 34 years and two children almost certainly will be sentenced to life in prison. Kansas man By Roxana Hegeman Associated Press WICHITA, Kan. For nearly an hour, the balding figure in a tie and jacket matter-of-factly told a tale of horror that shocked the community he had terrorized for three decades. He chillingly recounted trolling Wichita neighborhoods stalking his prey.

He told how he hanged an 11-year-old girl from a sewer pipe after killing her parents and brother. He described strangling a 62-year-old woman with pantyhose and dumping her body under a bridge. Dennis Rader provided the grisly account Monday as he confessed to being the BTK serial killer and pleaded guilty to 10 murders, saying he shot, stabbed or strangled his victims to satisfy his sexual fantasies. Rader, a 60-year-old former code inspector and church president with a wife and two children, almost certainly will go to prison for the rest of his life when he is sentenced in August. In pleading guilty, an unfailingly courteous and emotionless Rader helpfully corrected the judge on some matters, clarified others and at one point launched into an almost scholarly discourse on serial killing.

"If you've read much about serial killers, they go through what they call different phases. In the trolling stage, basically, you're looking for a victim at that time," he said. "You can be trolling for months or years, but once you lock in on a certain person, you become a stalker." Rader also described how he used a "hit kit" consisting of guns, rope, handcuffs and tape in a briefcase or a bowling bag. He talked of his first four victims almost as animals, saying he decided to "put them down." The man who called himself BTK for his preferred method, "Bind, Torture, Kill" cannot get the death penalty because the killings occurred before Kansas adopted capital punishment. But each count carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

The guilty pleas came on the day his trial was supposed to start. Sentencing is Aug. 17. For the families of Rader's victims, the confession answered questions that had haunted them for decades. The BTK killer taunted media and police with cryptic messages during a cat-and-mouse game that began after the first killing, in 1974.

BTK resurfaced in 2004 after years of silence with a letter to The Wichita Eagle that included photos of a 1986 strangling victim and a photocopy of her missing driver's license. That letter was followed by several other cryptic messages and packages. The break in the Jaa 15, 1974: Joseph Otero, 38, and his wife, Julie, 34, are strangled in their home along with two of their children, Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9. April 4, 1974: Kathryn Bright, 21, is stabbed to death in her home. Police later conclude she was a BTK victim.

October 1974: The Wichita Eagle-Beacon gets a letter from someone taking responsibility for the Otero family killings; it includes crime scene details. March 17, 1977: Shirley Vian, 24, is found tied up and strangled at her home. Dec 8, 1977: Nancy Fox, 25, is found tied up and strangled in her home. The killer's voice is captured on tape when he calls a dispatcher to report the crime. Jan.

51, 1978: A poem referring to the Vian killing is sent to The Wichita Eagle-Beacon. Feb. 10, 1978: A letter from BTK is sent to KAKE-TV claiming responsibility for the deaths of Vian and Fox, as well as another unnamed victim. Police Chief Richard LaMunyon announces a serial killer is at large and has threatened to strike again. April 28, 1979: BTK waits inside a home but leaves before the 63-year-old woman who lives there returns.

He later sends her a letter telling her he was there. Aug. 15, 1979: Police get more than 100 tips in the first day after radio and TV broadcasts that play the voice of the BTK strangler from the 1977 recording. Sept 16, 1986: Vicki Wegerle, 28, is strangled in her home. March 19, 2004: A letter arrives at The Wichita Eagle containing a photocopy of Weger-le's driver's license and photos of her body.

Police link it to BTK." Feb. 25, 2005: After receiving several other letters, authorities arrest Dennis Rader. Besides the eight slayings already attributed to BTK, he is charged with the killings of Marine Hedge, 53, in April 1985 and Dolores Davis, 62, in January 1991. June 27, 2005: Rader pleads guilty to 10 counts of murder. Associated Press 1 1 V.

.1 of 10 slayings make them comfortable. He said he was careful to make one man as comfortable as possible while tying him up, putting a pillow under his head and a coat under his body, because the man had cracked a rib in a car accident. Steve Relford, the oldest son of victim Shirley Vian, was 5 when he and his siblings were locked in a bathroom as Rader killed their mother in 1977. Relford leaned forward and listened intently as Rader described the attack. "I proceeded to tie the kids up, and they started crying and got real upset, so I said, 'Oh, this is not going to So we moved them to the bathroom.

She helped me," he said. "And then I proceeded to tie her up. She got sick and threw up. I got her a glass of water, comforted her a little bit and then I went ahead and tied her up and put a bag over her head and strangled her." 5 "She got sick and threw up. I got her a glass of water, comforted her a little bit and then I went ahead and tied her up and put a bag over her head and strangled her." BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, describing the murder of Shirley Vian in 1977 Shark attacks teenage boy gives details case came earlier this year after a computer diskette the killer had sent was traced to Rader's Lutheran church, where he once served as president.

He did not reach a plea bargain with prosecutors. Rader said he pleaded guilty because a trial would be "just a long process. So it's just a mathematical problem. It's guilty." Rader spent almost his entire life in the Wichita area, where he earned a criminal justice degree. He has been married for 34 years and worked in suburban Park City as a code inspector, handling stray dogs and looking for violations such as overgrown grass.

He showed a similar attention to detail as a serial killer. He said he let some women smoke to put them at ease before he killed them. He told of locking one victim's children in a bath room with toys and blankets to pened to be nearby began treatment before the teen was taken to the hospital, Plair said. Hutto lost a large amount of blood, he said. Gulf County has no lifeguards on any of its beaches, Plair said.

On Saturday, Daigle had been swimming on a boogie board with a friend about 100 yards from shore when a shark tore away the flesh on one leg from her hip to her knee. At a news conference discussing the girl's autopsy Monday, shark experts said the size of the bite indicates she was attacked by a bull shark up to 8 feet long. and other damage caused by launch debris, the group said. It was not immediately clear whether NASA would delay its planned July shuttle launch in light of the task force's assessment. In a statement after Monday's meeting, agency Aclrninis-trator Michael Griffin said he expected a healthy debate in this week's flight review by NASA.

0, Carpenter Realtors' 1 1 Nancy Smith Office: 800-345-5138 Cell: 317-445-4704 nancysmithcallcarpenter.com Pi v1 Associated Press PENSACOLA, Fla. A teenage boy fishing in waist-deep water Monday was bitten and critically injured in the second shark attack on a teenager along the Florida Panhandle in three days. Craig A. Hutto, 16, Lebanon, was taken to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, where his leg was amputated. He was listed in critical condition but was expected to recover, said hospital spokeswoman Christa Hild.

The boy was attacked off Cape San Bias, a popular vacation destination about 80 miles southeast of Wegerle Davis j.i- -i 4 1 Panel: NASA safety issues linger the Destin area, where 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle, Gonzales, was killed by a shark Saturday. Hutto was fishing with two friends when the shark bit him in the right thigh, nearly severing his leg, said Gulf County Sheriffs Capt. Bobby Plair. Witnesses said the boy's brother saved his life. The shark "would have dragged him away," said Karen Eaker, 42, who was vacationing from Horn Lake, Miss.

"His brother literally was beating the shark on the snout." Hutto was pulled ashore by his friends, and a doctor who hap past 22 years, NASA has been unable to eliminate the possibility of dangerous pieces of foam and ice from breaking off the external fuel tank and striking the shuttle at liftoff, the return-to-flight task force said. In addition, NASA still does not have a clear idea of all the potential threats from ice and still lacks a practical way to fix holes Lovely two story brick with large wooded lot. Beautiful landscaping, wood deck Is 21x22. Sunroom is 14x20. Finished lovely decor.

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