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Children who learn that their parents have secrets – even faults –
is common. But discover that your father is secretly a serial killer? It's a whole
another level of wonder.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to Kerri Rawson when the police managed to catch the notorious BTK killer. Dennis Rader, a husband, a father and a respected community
Who was the killer of BTK?
The BTK killer terrorized the Wichita (Kansas) area from 1974. This nickname, which he attributed to himself in a series of provocative letters he sent to the police, means " Tie, Torture, kill.
Dennis Rader ended up getting caught when police found
letter that he sent back to his church. But his arrest and subsequent trial meant the
the nightmare was just beginning for his family. According to them, they did not have
Rader idea was secretly badbadinating
people.
Did Kerri Rawson know that her father was a killer?
Kerri Rawson describes Rader as a protective and loving father.
After her arrest, she had to accept the fact that the man she had
looked up to live a lie. "I had to learn how to mourn a man who was not
dead, someone whom I loved a lot and no one else liked anymore, "Rawson
says 20/20.
Rader began his murderous adventure when he murdered the Otero family in 1974. His daughter Kerri was born the following year, in 1975. She and her mother both claim that they do not belong to the family. had no idea that Rader was a killer and would never have helped to conceal anything. crimes. In total, the killer of the BTK murdered 10 victims.
How did Kerri Rawson help her father get convicted?
She may not have known it at the time, but Kerri Rawson was
helped put his father away for life at the same time as his
crimes. In order to defend their case, prosecutors have had to use genetic evidence to
badociate Rader with crime scenes. For this task, they used Rawson's DNA samples
without his permission.
"They discovered that I had annual smears and they got a warrant for
my medical records, "says Rawson during the 20/20 documentary. "It would have been nice if someone had asked
me for my DNA. I would have willingly given it. "
Did Rawson stop talking to her father, BTK's killer?
Rawson describes the moment she discovered true nature
from his father as "devastating." But even then, it was difficult to separate
the man she thought she knew with the man that he really was.
Rader was convicted of murder and sentenced to 175 years
in prison. After his incarceration, Rawson and he started exchanging letters. during
the 20/20
meeting she said, "I did not correspond with BTK. I am never
corresponding to BTK. I talk to my father. I talk to the man that I
lived with and loved for 26 years. She then explained, "I still love my
dad today. I love the man that I have known. I do not know a psychopath … It's not
the man that I have known and loved. "
Rader had similar feelings. in the
letters he sent to Rawson, he pleaded for forgiveness. In a letter of 2005, he writes:
"You will always be my
baby that I've raised right-proud-independent and is now an adult adult with a lot
years of love to give. Life before arrest was a good time and the dark side
I took him away. "
What does Kerri Rawson think of his father now?
Although she is horrified by what he did, Kerri Rawson
finally started on the path of forgiveness
for his own well-being. "I realized that I was
rot in the interior. I did not just forgive my father. I had to do it for
myself, "she explained.
"It was a very
long journey, "Rawson said. "There was a lot of hard work in me, with
Faith. I went back to the church. I was working on my relationship with God,
work on my own heart. "
However, this forgiveness does not extend to everything. She is always
can not overcome the lives he has ruined. "I do not forgive him for what he did to those other families," says Rawson.
"But I forgive him what he did to our family."
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