Nickdfresh
02-26-2005, 11:17 AM
CNN has on press conference regarding the reported capture of "Bind, Torture, & Kill" suspect.
Sources: 'Person of interest' questioned in BTK case
Authorities waiting on DNA test results
Saturday, February 26, 2005 Posted: 8:12 AM EST (1312 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/02/26/btk.investigation/story.btk.ap.jpg
The body of suspected BTK victim Shirley Vian is carried from her house in Wichita, Kansas, in 1977.
(CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/26/btk.investigation/index.html)) -- Authorities questioned a "person of interest" in the BTK killer investigation Friday, and converged on a home in Park City, Kansas, just outside Wichita, sources told CNN.
CNN affiliate KAKE, a Wichita station that the killer has sent letters to in the past, said authorities were awaiting results of DNA tests to see whether they could be linked to the case.
The killer calls himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," a pattern he has followed with most of his victims.
Sources said the person of interest was questioned for several hours Friday, and that they were growing increasingly confident that the 30-year investigation may be nearing an end.
No arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed.
A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) Saturday, to be attended by police officials, the district attorney, Wichita's mayor and City Council members, the mayor's office said.
The BTK case -- at least eight killings, dating back to 1974 -- has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months, with the killer taunting law enforcement through a series of letters.
Outside the home in Park City, authorities cordoned off the street and investigators combed the area. A Wichita police bomb squad truck, SWAT trucks and dozens of police cars and other emergency vehicles lined the street.
One neighbor in Park City expressed shock about the developments.
"I don't even want to think that it could possibly be real," the neighbor, who gave his name as Greg, told KAKE. "This is a real normal block. I mean it's just normal families. It's quiet, it's peaceful. ... People walk their dogs, kids play on their bikes -- it's really normal. It's a pure piece of America."
Richard Lamunyon, the former Wichita police chief who pledged in the 1970s that the killer would be caught, told KAKE that authorities were focusing "in on a single individual," and that they were being extremely cautious with what they could release to the public.
"You want to make sure -- 100 percent -- that if you are, in fact, focusing on an individual, he is the individual that you want," he said.
The former chief added: "I'm confident that necessary warrants were drawn in advance, before the individual was taken into custody for interview, and subsequent items have been taken as a result of the search warrant."
Wichita police, the FBI, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the district attorney's office and the Park City mayor refused to comment about the developments.
Unsolved killings in town
The victims of two unsolved killings -- Dolores Davis and Marine Hedge -- were Park City residents. KAKE reported that Hedge once lived on the same block as the person of interest.
Hedge's body was found along a dirt road in Sedgwick County in May 1985, eight days after she was abducted from her home. The autopsy showed she had been strangled.
Davis was taken from her home January 19, 1991, after a brick was thrown through a sliding glass door. Her body was found beneath a bridge in Sedgwick County, her hands, feet and knees bound with pantyhose.
Those deaths have never been linked to the BTK case, though authorities said there were many similarities.
In January, KAKE received a postcard believed to be from BTK that led to a cereal box near where the two bodies were found. The cereal box contained jewelry and a brick.
Lamunyon told KAKE on Friday that the similarities in those killings "gave us pause to believe there was some connection" to BTK, though authorities could never definitely pinpoint a link.
Communicating with police
The man who calls himself the BTK killer has sent many notes to Wichita police and local media in the past 31 years -- and once even reported one of his own killings to police dispatchers.
The last death blamed on him was in 1986 when a 28-year-old mother, Vicki Wegerle, was killed in her home in Wichita.
From 1977 to 1979, police and news media received letters from a writer claiming to be the killer. That was followed by 25 years of silence, leading some to believe BTK had died.
In March 2004, his communications resumed when he linked himself to the eighth killing and divulged what he said was more information about himself.
Last week, the FBI confirmed that two letters found in Wichita were authentic communication from the killer. The driver's license of one of the slain women was found, as well.
In an interview with KAKE on Friday, Charlie Otero -- whose parents, brother and sister were the first victims of BTK in 1974 -- said he was anxious about the latest developments.
"My heart is leaping out of my chest," he said. "I just hope I can come out of my shell when all of this is over."
He said he longs to ask the BTK killer: "Why my family? What ties did my father have with this man? And I want to know the truth."
Sources: 'Person of interest' questioned in BTK case
Authorities waiting on DNA test results
Saturday, February 26, 2005 Posted: 8:12 AM EST (1312 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/02/26/btk.investigation/story.btk.ap.jpg
The body of suspected BTK victim Shirley Vian is carried from her house in Wichita, Kansas, in 1977.
(CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/26/btk.investigation/index.html)) -- Authorities questioned a "person of interest" in the BTK killer investigation Friday, and converged on a home in Park City, Kansas, just outside Wichita, sources told CNN.
CNN affiliate KAKE, a Wichita station that the killer has sent letters to in the past, said authorities were awaiting results of DNA tests to see whether they could be linked to the case.
The killer calls himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," a pattern he has followed with most of his victims.
Sources said the person of interest was questioned for several hours Friday, and that they were growing increasingly confident that the 30-year investigation may be nearing an end.
No arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed.
A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) Saturday, to be attended by police officials, the district attorney, Wichita's mayor and City Council members, the mayor's office said.
The BTK case -- at least eight killings, dating back to 1974 -- has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months, with the killer taunting law enforcement through a series of letters.
Outside the home in Park City, authorities cordoned off the street and investigators combed the area. A Wichita police bomb squad truck, SWAT trucks and dozens of police cars and other emergency vehicles lined the street.
One neighbor in Park City expressed shock about the developments.
"I don't even want to think that it could possibly be real," the neighbor, who gave his name as Greg, told KAKE. "This is a real normal block. I mean it's just normal families. It's quiet, it's peaceful. ... People walk their dogs, kids play on their bikes -- it's really normal. It's a pure piece of America."
Richard Lamunyon, the former Wichita police chief who pledged in the 1970s that the killer would be caught, told KAKE that authorities were focusing "in on a single individual," and that they were being extremely cautious with what they could release to the public.
"You want to make sure -- 100 percent -- that if you are, in fact, focusing on an individual, he is the individual that you want," he said.
The former chief added: "I'm confident that necessary warrants were drawn in advance, before the individual was taken into custody for interview, and subsequent items have been taken as a result of the search warrant."
Wichita police, the FBI, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the district attorney's office and the Park City mayor refused to comment about the developments.
Unsolved killings in town
The victims of two unsolved killings -- Dolores Davis and Marine Hedge -- were Park City residents. KAKE reported that Hedge once lived on the same block as the person of interest.
Hedge's body was found along a dirt road in Sedgwick County in May 1985, eight days after she was abducted from her home. The autopsy showed she had been strangled.
Davis was taken from her home January 19, 1991, after a brick was thrown through a sliding glass door. Her body was found beneath a bridge in Sedgwick County, her hands, feet and knees bound with pantyhose.
Those deaths have never been linked to the BTK case, though authorities said there were many similarities.
In January, KAKE received a postcard believed to be from BTK that led to a cereal box near where the two bodies were found. The cereal box contained jewelry and a brick.
Lamunyon told KAKE on Friday that the similarities in those killings "gave us pause to believe there was some connection" to BTK, though authorities could never definitely pinpoint a link.
Communicating with police
The man who calls himself the BTK killer has sent many notes to Wichita police and local media in the past 31 years -- and once even reported one of his own killings to police dispatchers.
The last death blamed on him was in 1986 when a 28-year-old mother, Vicki Wegerle, was killed in her home in Wichita.
From 1977 to 1979, police and news media received letters from a writer claiming to be the killer. That was followed by 25 years of silence, leading some to believe BTK had died.
In March 2004, his communications resumed when he linked himself to the eighth killing and divulged what he said was more information about himself.
Last week, the FBI confirmed that two letters found in Wichita were authentic communication from the killer. The driver's license of one of the slain women was found, as well.
In an interview with KAKE on Friday, Charlie Otero -- whose parents, brother and sister were the first victims of BTK in 1974 -- said he was anxious about the latest developments.
"My heart is leaping out of my chest," he said. "I just hope I can come out of my shell when all of this is over."
He said he longs to ask the BTK killer: "Why my family? What ties did my father have with this man? And I want to know the truth."