Updated 3/1/2005 3:45 PM
BTK suspect charged in 10 murders
WICHITA (AP) — Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder. Rader made his first court appearance since his Friday arrest by videoconference from his cell at the Sedgwick County detention center. During the brief hearing, Rader sat with his hands folded behind a small desk.
The BTK killer, whose nickname stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill," was suspected of eight deaths beginning in 1974, but authorities said Saturday they had linked two additional victims to the serial killer.
Rader's arrest has also prompted nearby law enforcement agencies to reinvestigate cold cases that bear similarities to the string of slayings.
Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller read the charges during Tuesday's hearing, which lasted about five minutes. A preliminary hearing was set for March 15, when Rader is likely to be arraigned.
Rader's only comments during the hearing were short "yes" and "no" answers to questions. He was accompanied by a temporary attorney. Waller appointed the state's public defender office to represent Rader.
About a dozen family members of victims were in the courtroom. They did not speak to reporters.
Rader, 59, was arrested Friday. Authorities have declined to say what led them to concentrate on the married father of two, a scout leader and an active member of a Lutheran church.
New details of the investigation emerged from Michigan. The Wichita Eagle and The Daily Oakland Press of Pontiac, Mich., reported Tuesday that FBI agents had visited the Farmington, Mich., home of Rader's 26-year-old daughter, Kerri, on Friday to get a DNA sample.
The timing indicated she was not visited until after her father had been arrested that same day in Kansas, the Eagle said, suggesting her DNA helped confirm his identity but was not the original break in the case as some initial reports had suggested.
Charles Nebus, public safety director and police chief in Farmington, Mich., said Tuesday that the FBI told him Friday they were conducting an interview in the city in connection with the BTK case.
He said the family that was interviewed had since contacted police repeatedly complaining of being bothered by reporters. He would not confirm that the person interviewed was Rader's daughter, though public records indicated she had lived in Farmington.
One of the two deaths newly attributed to Rader was that of Delores Davis, who was abducted from her home near Park City and whose body was found 13 days later near a river in northern Sedgwick County.
Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said that was similar to the 1977 death of Gail Sorensen, who was also kidnapped and whose body was found two days later near the Arkansas River near Hutchinson. "We're looking at one," Henderson told The Associated Press. "We've got five cold cases. But the other four didn't have the same details, the same modus operandi."
Harvey County Sheriff Byron Motter said Tuesday he is reopening a cold case from 2001 in which a 46-year-old Wichita woman was strangled and dumped in a creek. "With this information that BTK has been caught, we are opening up cases to see if we have anything," Motter said.
In addition to the 10 deaths attributed to BTK, a source close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity that authorities were looking into whether the serial killer was responsible for the deaths of two Wichita State University students as well as a woman who lived down the street from a BTK victim.
Rader's younger brother, Jeff Rader, told The Wichita Eagle that no one in the family believes his brother is the BTK serial killer. "I don't think my brother is BTK," he said. "But if he is — if that's the truth — then let the truth be the truth. And may God have mercy on his soul."
Jeff Rader, 50, said the family never saw any sign that his brother could be a killer. "My mother still can't believe it," he said. "She's still very much in denial. And so am I. But maybe, with me, acceptance is starting to creep in."
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