Warning: The following article covers violent crime and sexual assault. Please read with caution.
Even by serial killer standards Dennis Rader (aka the BTK Killer) was a cringeworthy loser. Rader brutally murdered at least ten people between 1974 and 1991, all the while maintaining an image as a loving father and church leader.
Rader was known for taunting the detectives and communicating directly with the media, going so far as to provide the name BTK (bind, torture, kill) for himself. He also posted awful poems that threatened the lead investigator on his case and left packages containing dolls bound in creepy positions. All of which means Rader was apparently doing his best to be a cliche serial killer from a 1990s police procedural.
Rader was finally captured in February 2005, but if you’re here you’re wondering about his wife’s involvement. So, did she play a part in his arrest?
Did BTK’s wife help assist in his capture?
Rader’s eventual capture is one of the all-time dumbest moments in the history of true crime. Wanting to further taunt police, he sent them a letter asking them if they would be able to trace a floppy disk and requested that their answer “be honest”. The police responded via a newspaper ad, assuring him that there was absolutely no way they would ever be able to trace a floppy disk. Completely impossible. Definitely.
Rader promptly sent them a floppy disk containing more weird ramblings, and about five minutes later investigators found metadata on it naming the church he attended and a document last edited by “Dennis”.
Rader is now aged 78 and behind bars in solitary confinement, where he will remain for the rest of his (hopefully miserable) life.
You will have noticed that Rader’s wife, Paula Dietz, was not mentioned in that story. She had no idea her husband was one of the most evil serial killers in American history until the day he was arrested and played no part in his capture. In fact, unable to believe that her apparently kind and caring husband could do what he was being accused of, she described him soon after his arrest as “a good man, a great father. He would never hurt anyone.”
Paula immediately severed contact after he confessed to his murders. She was then granted an emergency divorce, which was approved by the court the very same day she applied for it. Since then she has never visited him in prison or written him a letter. Nothing is known about her current life, though her daughter Kerri Rawson has said:
“[My mother]’s sort of dealt with my dad like he died on the day he was arrested… As far as I understand, she has PTSD from the events around his arrest.”
Tim Relph, one of the detectives on the case simply said:
“Paula is a good and decent person… She’s been downplayed by some people as some sort of ignorant Christian person. But her only mistake in life was to care for Dennis Rader.”
Rader’s daughter Kerri Rawson has maintained a correspondence with her father and says she’s forgiven him, though admits “It’s a very lonely, the worst club you could ever imagine belonging to, being the daughter of a serial killer.” We can only imagine.
If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.