WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Deputies from Osage County in Oklahoma were in Park City, Kansas, on Tuesday, searching a property formerly owned by serial killer Dennis Rader.
Investigators worked in the area until about midday Tuesday. Park City Police Chief Phil Bostian said Osage County called them as a courtesy and said they asked public works to move some cement and do a little digging.
On Wednesday, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office put out new information on the search of Rader’s former home.
Here is the following:
The Osage County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) recently conducted a search at the former residence of Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer, in Park City, Kansas, under the guidance of Sheriff Eddie Virden. The operation aimed to collect items of evidentiary value based on specific leads that the OCSO had received.
On Tuesday, August 23, 2023, Sheriff Eddie Virden led a team of investigators from the OCSO to Park City, a suburb of Wichita, in collaboration with the Park City Police Department. The primary focus of the search is closely tied to the Cynthia Dawn Kinney missing persons case from Pawhuska, Oklahoma, dating back to 1976.
This ongoing investigation has uncovered potential connections to other missing persons cases and unsolved murders in the Kansas and Missouri areas, which are possibly linked to Dennis Rader. The Osage County Sheriff’s Office has been working alongside the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), sharing crucial information and collaborating on this case.
During the search, items of interest were recovered at the former residence of Dennis Rader. These items will undergo thorough examination to determine their potential relevance to the ongoing investigations. At this stage, Dennis Rader is considered a prime suspect in these unsolved cases, including the Cynthia Dawn Kinney case from Pawhuska.
The investigation remains ongoing, with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office committed to pursuing every lead uncovered. Sheriff Eddie Virden and his dedicated team will continue their determined efforts to bring closure to these cases and provide answers to the families seeking justice.
Osage County Sheriff’s Office
Also, Kerri Rawson, Dennis Rader’s daughter, tweeted about the search and her involvement with authorities. She wrote the following:
August 22, 2023, I became aware that Osage County Sheriff’s Office investigators from Oklahoma & Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents, assisted by the Park City Police Department, were at the Park City, KS site where my childhood home originally stood working active investigations into possible missing persons and unsolved murder cases allegedly tied to my father, Dennis Rader, the BTK Serial Killer. These cases predate his arrest on February 25, 2005.
Kerri Rawson, daughter of BTK, in an interview with NewsNation
In January 2023, I became aware of the missing person case of Cynthia ‘Cyndi’ Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who disappeared from a laundromat on June 23, 1976, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
In June 2023, I became aware of the unsolved murder case of Shawna Garber, whose remains were found near Pineville, MO, in December 1990.
In June 2023, I contacted the McDonald County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri to offer my volunteer assistance on the Garber case.
I was quickly connected with the Osage County SO, to which I offered the same aid, and was promptly flown to Osage County, OK, to assist on both cases.
I’ve returned since to the Osage County SO to work in a volunteer capacity as an active agent of LE, assisting on these two cases uncluding visiting my father twice at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
My March 2021 “Do Not Contact Order” was legally lifted via assistance from EDCF, the Kansas Department of Corrections, & the KS Governor’s office.
Beyond these two cases that have been released publicly…I’m not at liberty to discuss other possible missing persons and unsolved murder cases that are being actively investigated as possibly committed by my father, nor can I comment on my direct assistance in the investigations.
Multiple LE agencies are seeking long-sought answers in decades-old missing persons & unsolved murder cases in the tri-state area of KS, MO, & OK. And possibly locations that extend beyond the tri-state area.
This past spring, federal transaction immunity was offered to my father in the tri-state area by a federal district attorney’s office to give my father a chance to confess to any other violent crimes he may have committed from roughly 1963-2005…giving decades-long grieving families long-sought answers, and in return, my father would not be charged in these cases.
At this time, all avenues of justice remain open, and investigations are ongoing.
I want to thank the following LE partners: Osage County SO, who have embraced me like family; McDonald County SO, Wichita PD, Park City PD, KBI, FBI, EDCF, KDOC, the office of the Kansas Governor, and all other local, state and federal partners that are seeking answers and Justice.
I hope that inner agency cooperation continues at a steady pace and that a tri-state or beyond, cold case BTK task force be formed by these agencies to fund and power these vital ongoing tasks.
I will continue to partner closely and heartily support all LE agencies and offer my volunteer assistance.
Together, daily, we can make a difference. Let’s keep working together to solve these cases for these families. They deserve all that we can give them.
We can join together to put our mark on modern inter-agency cooperation and modern forensics.
Kerri Rawson, daughter of Dennis Rader, the BTK Serial Killer
THE BTK CASE
In February 2005, police captured Rader at his Park City home. He murdered 10 people in Wichita from 1974 to 1991. His victims were four members of the Otero family: Joseph, Julie and their children Josephine and Joseph. Shirley Vian, Kathryn Bright, Nancy Fox, Vicki Wegerle, Dolores Davis and Marine Hedge. In June of that year, Rader pleaded guilty to murder. Then in August, a judge sentenced Rader to 10 consecutive life terms for the crime, the maximum the law would allow.
Park City purchased the home where Rader and his family lived. The home was torn down in 2007.
