A floppy disk helped catch BTK serial killer

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Jon
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A floppy disk helped catch BTK serial killer

From what the local news has reported, one of the clues that helped break the 31-year long search for the BTK serial killer was a floppy disk sent in the last communication BTK sent to a Witchita tv station. Our local news here in Kansas City has reported that the floppy conatined a serial number linking it to a Witchita/Park City church. The church gave authorities a list of people who had access to the computer, and further investigation lead to getting a DNA sample from the suspects' daughter. The sample proved a family DNA link to several of the crimes and the arrest was made. The news doesn't seem to be giving much of an explanation of how the floppy and church connection worked out, but being the geek I am I came up with a quick theory: The suspect used the church computer to create a file on the floppy, ie. in Word, which embedded the owner/company name in the Word file, giving police a direct lead to where that file came from. From there they get the list of persons who could have access to the machine, and investigate further, apply their profile to the list, etc. Most people wouldn't even know that the info was a part of the file.

This is one of the very few times I am glad for MS doing things like putting owner/creator info into files, but anyone with half a techie brain would have written a file in untraceable ASCII...

I'm just glad that this current suspect has a strong DNA link, and has recently reportedly confessed to several of the crimes.

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Bad Pun

No wonder it took 31 years if they tried to trace it through a computer.

After all, we all know how slow serial connections are.

-BDub

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Interesting theory about the

Interesting theory about the floppy and Word. Wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. Good sleuthing!

The case amazed me in that this guy's been married three times during his killing spree. Moral of this story would seem to be that if you don't want to be murdered by a serial killer: marry him.

Also goes to show you just how amazingly careful and manipulative a true psychopath can be, if he was able to convincingly maintain a normal family life and jobs, while butchering at least 30 people. It'll be interesting to hear what made the daughter suspicious.

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Illegal Instruction?

perhaps this can go towards a new chapter in the lond overdue next installation of William's book.

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illegal instruction

Haahahahaha. You read my mind. As for being ovedue, I just sent Tom Owad chapter 14. I had been sick for a while and then had a fulltime gig and that cut into my creative time. New chapters will appear soon. I have tried very hard not to plug the book on these pages but I couldn't let the above go unanswered. I think the total for BTK is 10 and not 30 and all sorts of stories will fly between now and the trial. But I *do* like that floppy theory.

Jon
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Well, being "local" to the sc

Well, being "local" to the scenes of investigation, we get much more and more current info than the national news. It seems that there are 10 current murders associated with the current suspect, as William pointed out. Media speculation links 3 more as possibly connected. What little has been published about the BTK profile shows that it was fairly close: White male, late 50s to early 60s, collge grad with a link to a Witchita State U. professor. Many people wonder how he chose his victims, and that is not fuilly clear yet, but all the victims lived on the west side of a north-south street, and the numeral '3' was in the address.

If you are watching video from the capture/raid of the house, you might notice a man standing in front of a large white truck, talking on a cell phone and to another person. The man is wearing a blue jacket, glasses and has a mustache. I'm very certain he's my uncle, a technician for a Witchita TV station. That run of video is shown several times per day on the KC news, so it might be on the national news, but I don't have cable so I'm not sure.

Also, locally: last night the Virgin Atlantic Flyer took off about 6:30pm for it's record breaking non-stop, no refueling flight around the world. The takeoff/landing site is the airport in Salina, Kansas.

Jon
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Local news just had a live fe

Local news just had a live feed from the courtroom, and Dennis Rader, the BTK suspect changed his plea to "Guilty" on all 10 murder counts. Wow. I think I'm ahead of the AP/Reuters.

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Kinda creepy i only live abou

Kinda creepy i only live about 15 min away from his house. I hate him so much.

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Re: Kinda creepy i only live abou

Kinda creepy i only live about 15 min away from his house. I hate him so much.

Really? Ever make it up to KC? Jon and I hang out quite a bit, we'll be at the 2600 meeting on friday in Overland Park.

Jon
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Yep. Where is it that Bill c

Yep. Where is it that Bill comes from? Hutchinson or something? I know he's from the Witchita-esque area...

Jon
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Also, I listened to the live

Also, I listened to the live feeds of him describing the details of the murders for the judge to decide of the guilty plea had merit. The man spoke about the search (trolling), the stalking (the person is labeled a "project"), the confrontation (he had "hit clothes" that were to be easily disposed of, he tried to talk his victims to calm them down so they would be easier to tie up) and the kill. The whole time he sounded as if he could have been describing how to make a sandwich. Very very cold and barely emotional. As put by someone commenting on it (paraphrased somewhat): "When you get someone who is utterly non-epathetic to others and has a desire to kill, we have a very dangerous person." I'm glas he was caught, and I'm glad he confesssed/plead guilty. I'm not so glad that he isn't eligable for the death penalty because his crimes were committed before that was put into effect.

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