Inside the Mind of BTK

92 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
police. But it had been five years since he’d felt the need—and taken
the risk—to type out another letter.
Sitting in my file-strewn office one afternoon a few days after my
second visit from the Wichita Police Department, I thought back to
a case near San Diego that I’d been called in to work on the previous
year.
The victim had apparently run out of gas on a fairly busy highway
during the early evening. Her nude body was later discovered in
some nearby foothills. A dog collar had been cinched tightly around
her neck. Shortly before her murder, she’d been raped.
To help the local police find the killer, I tried to imagine how the
events leading up to her death had unfolded, picturing the interaction
between the killer and his victim. It quickly became obvious that this
tragedy was another example of someone’s being in the wrong place
at the wrong time. She’d run out of gas, but felt safe because of the
abundance of traffic. Surely no one would be crazy enough to harm
someone in front of so many potential witnesses, she told herself.
The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that the very
thing the victim believed would protect her could be used to coax her
killer out of hiding and into the investigation—not because he wanted
to, but because he felt he had to. By walking in the shoes of the
UNSUB, I could “see” him driving past the stranded motorist on that
busy highway and suddenly realizing that he’d just stumbled on the
perfect victim of opportunity. The only glitch was how he could pull
it off, especially in the presence of so many possible eyewitnesses.
His answer? He’d approach the victim, exuding every bit of friendliness
he could muster, offering her a ride to a nearby service station.
But as soon as she sat in his vehicle, he no doubt pulled out a gun and
ordered her to lie down on the floorboard. Next, he drove her to an
isolated area he was familiar with because he either worked or resided
in the immediate vicinity.
With all that in mind, my advice to police was to create three
press releases. The first would provide readers and listeners with the
basic facts of the case and end with police reaching out for potential
witnesses. A day or two later, they’d advise the community about the
positive responses they’d received, which were generating some solid
investigative leads. The last release would inform the community
that they’d developed information about a vehicle observed by several
witnesses as well as a description of an individual standing next
to the victim.