8/9/2019 The Most Famous Case Ever Solved by Computer Forensics

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It was not until 2004, after more than 10 years of complete silence from the killer, that policely

The Most Famous Case Ever Solved by omputer Forensics

or more than 30 years, the case of the BTK serial killerf the biggest unsolved mysteries in America. Police spent

of hours and millions of dollars trying to learn the identity of the man had10 people in and around Wichita, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991.

Then, in a few short hours on February 16, 2005, compolice had failed to do for more than 30 years by identifying the killer as a man named DennRader. The case remains the most famous ever solved by computer forensics.

The case started on January 15, 1975, whenDennis Rader strangled to death four

members of the Otero family. Over th15 years, he would admit to binding andkilling six more victims, all female.

police by sending them bizarre notes. His firstletter was stuck in an engineering book in theWichita Public Library. In that note, Raderclaimed responsibility for the Otero murdersproviding details only known by police. He als

nickname for himself – BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill).

Rader went on to write many other letters to police, including twisted poempictures. Sometimes he would send the letters straight to the police, other times he would mthem to the media or hide them somewhere. Police even suspected that he placed references tohimself in the newspaper’s classified section.

Local police, working with the FBI, spent thousands of hours studyiThey hired the best criminal psychologists, followed up on every possible lead and interviewedthousands of suspects. Even with this staggering collection of evidence, however, police wereunable to tie any of the murders to Rader.

finally caught a break. That year, Rader resumed his communications with police. He eventualsent them a Word document on a floppy disk that computer forensics experts immediatelyexamined.

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