Inside the Mind of BTK

My Lifelong Hunt for BTK 103
first kill, he selects an area where he feels a great deal of comfort. He
knows deep down that he can get away with his crime there. To do
what he has to do, he needs a great amount of time and to do that he
must feel safe. I think there’s a strong possibility he knew his first victims
at least casually or had observed them. Although now, ten years
later, I believe he’s no doubt changing his MO.”
“All it might take for him to feel comfortable about a certain area,”
said Hazelwood, “is to drive through it a sufficient number of times.”
“With the breaking-and-entering type of mentality, they select an
area where they always feel in control,” I added. “I still think it’s significant
that he ventured into the Otero’s basement on his first kill.”
“The reason he was so successful with the Oteros is that he’d
played out these bondage fantasies before, most likely with prostitutes,”
Walker said. “He’s got a very rigid, methodical personality. It’s
possible that the Oteros were his first nonconsenting victims. But he’d
already played those acts out in his mind over and over again. So when
he walked into that house, he knew exactly what he was going to do.
He’d planned on his victims being passive. The mere threat of a
weapon, he believed, may have been enough to overcome victim resistance.
If the Oteros were his first kill, look at Bright and determine if
that was out of character from his other cases. He may have felt so successful
on his first murder that he was surprised when confronted with
resistance on his second one.”
Hazelwood nodded his head in agreement. “This guy has been
fantasizing about sadistic acts since he was a young child,” he said.
“He had fun at the Oteros and the reason he didn’t shoot anyone is
that he likes to have hands-on kills where he can choke, suffocate, and
strangle. He used a weapon just to control the Otero family, not to
kill them.”
“If we want to see what happened to the Otero household, just
look at the victims at the Bright residence,” Walker said. “That’s what
happened at the Oteros. He would have said the same things, using
his gun, but also reassuring his victims. That’s his method of control—
reassurance and a gun. Mr. Otero wasn’t going to resist because he
probably was afraid of what would happen to his children if he had.”
“Or maybe he used a different ruse,” I said. “He went in and
grabbed a young child and held a gun on them. That would cause Mr.
Otero to comply, to not resist. The daughter was the main attraction
and her brother was the main distraction. Everyone else at the scene,
except for the girl, were secondary victims.”