Inside the Mind of BTK

42 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
The killer’s decision to take Josie down into the basement indicated
just how badly he wanted her and to what lengths he’d travel to
act out the fantasies writhing inside his head. He no doubt knew that
such a move would have been incredibly risky. He could have easily
gotten trapped down there if someone had entered the house. Nevertheless,
he was clearly eager to take the risk.
The presence of the gag in her mouth provided another window
into the mind of her killer. There was really no need to gag her because
the others were all dead and, due to her location in the far corner of
the basement, neighbors wouldn’t be able to hear her scream. Nor was
there any reason to hang her to a pipe or to tie her up at all if all the
suspect wanted to do was rape her. What he did was all about his need
to script, direct, and produce a crime to fulfill his fantasies of dominance
and control. She was no longer human, merely a prop.
After binding her wrists, thighs, and ankles, he pushed her head
through the loop in the rope hanging from a water pipe and pulled
it tight, careful to make sure it lifted her body just high enough so
that the tips of her toes barely touched the cold cement floor. In
order to prevent the rope from biting into her neck, she would have
had to strain to push against the floor with all her strength. I wouldn’t
have been surprised if he had demanded that Josie talk dirty to him,
but my guess was that she was too petrified to play along with his
sick game. The one common theme I’d learned from the interviews
I’d conducted with sexual offenders was that they would script their
victims—even if they were juveniles—and coerce them to talk in
such a way that it sounded as though they wanted to be sexually
assaulted. Perhaps Josephine was so terrified and confused about the
horrible events that had just unfolded in front of her that all she could
do was whimper and plead for her life. And that was the last thing the
killer wanted to hear. It ruined everything. He’d come to her house to
live out a fantasy.
There was no telling how long she fought to stay conscious. Her
underwear had nearly been pulled down to her feet, just below the white
rope he’d tied around her ankles. At some point during the ordeal, the
killer tugged her blue T-shirt shirt down over her left shoulder, then
cut her bra strap with a knife. Before walking back upstairs and
switching off the lights to leave Josephine hanging in darkness, the
UNSUB masturbated, ejaculating onto his victim’s right leg. By the
time police arrived at the scene, the semen had dripped onto the floor,
forming a sickening, milky puddle.