BTK killer’s daughter confronts him in prison, leaves shaking

Nearly 20 years after Dennis Rader was sent to prison, his daughter Kerri Rawson found the strength to confront him head-on.

In 2023, a mother of two is recruited by investigators to determine if a man who terrorized Wichita, Kansas and taunted police during a 17-year killing spree might be connected to other unsolved murders. Confronting the father who called himself BTK — short for Bind, Torture and Kill — would be the final break in a relationship already shattered by his crimes.

Rawson, 46, who has spoken publicly about the serial killer over the years, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary called “My Father, the BTK Killer.” Explores how one Michigan resident struggles to reconcile the loving father she once knew with the monster the police uncovered.

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Kerri Rawson speaks in new documentary My Father, the BTK Killer. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“It was really hard for Keri to confront her father,” director Skye Borgman told Fox News Digital. “She’s talking about getting out of that prison. She was shaking after talking to him about things she had kept for a long time. She was also surprised by her own feelings when she talked to him.”

“There were moments when she talked about seeing him going between these two men, between her father and BTK. One moment she felt like he was her father, and then the next moment he shifted when she asked him a question he didn’t like. It will convert to BTK“.

Convicted serial killer Dennis Rader is escorted by deputies to the correctional facility in El Dorado, Kansas, on August 19, 2005. He confessed to ten murders and was sentenced to life in prison in each case. (Jeff Tuttle/Wichita Eagle/Bull)

“With the knowledge you now know about his crimes, I was able to see that more,” Borgman said. “It’s been very difficult for her. But at the same time, I think this has given her closure. She’s okay with not seeing him again. She’s okay with not talking to him again. Whereas before, there was a question mark – do I want to see him? Now the question has been answered.”

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Rawson and two other investigators were hoping to find out if Ryder, now 80, was a victim. Can provide information about cold cases to the Osage County Sheriff’s Office.

“If my father commits more murders, we have to get to the truth, and we have to get to it before my father dies,” Rawson said during filming.

Kerri Rawson wrote her memoir titled “The Serial Killer’s Daughter” in 2019. (Courtesy of Netflix)

In the documentaryRawson wondered if she had been sexually abused by Ryder as a child. I read one of his notebooks from the 1980s, where he wrote about a bathtub bondage game. Her name included.

Dennis Rader – known as the BTK Killer – was arrested on February 25, 2005, in Park City, Kansas. (Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images)

The investigators warned her not to ask Rader about her suspicions, fearing that he would remain silent and refuse to answer questions.

“He’s frail, he’s in a wheelchair, and he was literally crying, and he was so happy to see me — like the moon to see his baby,” Rawson recalls in the film.

Wichita Police Department. Sam Houston displays a mask used in one of the crimes, during Dennis Rader’s sentencing hearing on August 18, 2005, in Wichita, Kansas. (Bo Rader Paul/Getty Images)

When Rawson asked him about cold cases during their three-hour conversation, he said to her: “What are you talking about? Can’t we just remember? Can’t we just have father and daughter – can’t we just have memories?”

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According to the documentary, Keri Rawson went to visit her father in prison for the first time in nearly 20 years. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“Then he turned on a dime,” Rawson said. When she asked him about his diary entry, Rawson said he told her: “That was just a fantasy. I never touched on the family. You’re just making things up about me so I can be famous.”

Rawson described unleashing “an explosion of 45 years of rage” on Ryder because she “went completely off script.”

Kerry Rawson said in the documentary that she and her family were shocked when Dennis Rader was finally arrested. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“He was literally deceiving me, manipulating me, lying to me, five feet away from me,” she said. “It was like I wasn’t talking to my father. It was like I was talking to a subhuman. What everyone talks about — him being a psychopath and a narcissist and not wanting to be around him — I was still able to find the humanity in him. And after that, I couldn’t.”

None of the loved ones of Dennis Rader’s victims, seen here in court on May 3, 2005, in Wichita, Kansas, participated in the film. (Larry W. Smith/Getty Images)

Borgman told Fox News Digital that the experience left Rawson so shaken that she never wanted to see or speak to Rader again.

“I think Keri thinks of her father as two different men,” Borgman explained.

Dennis Rader is shown in this compilation video pleading guilty on June 27, 2005 to 10 murders over a 30-year period in the Wichita, Kansas area. (KRT Photo Collection)

“She talked about him being two different men. In her own words, she said she had a good childhood. They explored, they went places, they camped together, they had great family vacations. So, I think she was able to hold on to those memories of her father, because she was able to separate that man from BTK. But as far as I know, they don’t talk anymore. She got to the point where she realized she needed to separate herself to continue her healing journey.”

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Keri Rawson is working with investigators to find out if Dennis Rader could be connected to other cold cases. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“They don’t talk anymore,” Borgman shared. “I think a lot of that communication was because she was trying to get information out of him. She realized that probably wasn’t going to happen.”

Ryder played a cat-and-mouse game with investigators and reporters for decades before he was arrested in 2005. Associated Press I mentioned. The former church leader and animal control officer admitted to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991 in and around Wichita. He is now serving life imprisonment for each of the ten people he was convicted of killing.

Keri Rawson is seen here with her old friend Andrea Rogers. Today, Rawson works as an advocate and mentor for people whose loved ones are violent offenders. (Courtesy of Netflix)

The victims’ loved ones refused to participate in the documentary. Borgman said she was keen to highlight their voices in her film.

This photo taken in March 2005 shows Dennis Ryder’s home in Park City, Kansas. (Karl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images)

“We found that the reasons they didn’t want to participate were very different,” Borgman said. “They have been approached many times, especially over the past 20 years. But the film shows the ripple effects of a crime like this. I hope the families of the victims feel represented. It has always been our intention to make them equal participants in this story.”

Looking back, Borgman said, Rawson wondered if her father’s sudden outbursts of anger were glimpses into his double life. Rawson realizes she may never know the truth. Throughout the film, Rawson maintains that she and her family had no idea about her father’s crimes and were shocked when they came to light.

Charlie Otero (second from left) and other members of the Otero family listen to testimony describing the 1974 murders of four of their relatives on the first day of sentencing for confessed BTK serial killer Dennis Rader in Sedgwick County Circuit Court, circa 2005. (Bo Rader AFP via Getty Images)

“When she was a little girl, Denise had these seizures,” Borgman said. “I just thought, ‘Well, that’s my dad. He can get angry from time to time. “He had a bad day at work, or the dishes weren’t done when he came home. ‘I think looking back, she has more perspective on the surrounding circumstances that might have made him act that way.’

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Keri Rawson is still grappling with the fact that her father, Dennis Rader, once a doting parent, is a convicted serial killer. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“It might be similar to how Kerry views her father as two different men,” Borgman said. “I think he was able to separate himself and come up with these lies where he was able to sneak away. I think it provided something inside him that he was able to hide when he came home. Look, I’m not a psychiatrist. I can’t diagnose him, but I think he got something out of this — that it provided something that he wanted and needed. And once he was able to get that, he was able to get back into his role as a family man, a character “Father.”

Today, Rawson is an advocate and mentor for those who have discovered it Their relative is a violent criminal. Borgman said the experience was a “double-edged sword” for Rawson, who wants to be appreciated for more than just being Ryder’s daughter.

Kerri Rawson, seen here during filming, still has unanswered questions about her childhood. (Courtesy of Netflix)

“The investigation with Osage County didn’t really turn up any leads,” Borgman said. “[But] Kerry is required to delve into her father’s crimes. I think what would be most validating for her would be to work with other families and bring perspective on what it means to be the daughter of a serial killer. “She can talk about what a family might be going through and how difficult it is, and how the backlash and violence that the family experiences is real.”

Keri Rawson, married mother of two, lives in Michigan. (Courtesy of Netflix)

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In the film, Rawson shares that since speaking out, she has become estranged from her mother and brother. However, she remains optimistic about her future.

“I think that’s something she feels incredibly committed to — helping other families in similar circumstances,” Borgman said. “If she can ease someone else’s pain, she will do it, even if it causes her own pain. And I think it’s largely because she wants to do something good just to undo a little bit of the bad that her father did.”

“My Father, the BTK Killer” is now available for streaming.