Inside the Mind of BTK

My Lifelong Hunt for BTK 67
Steve used all his strength to kick through the bottom panel of the
door that the killer had tied to the sink. The boy was so angry at the
man who he’d seen hurting his mother that he ran into the bedroom
with his fists balled up, ready to fight. But the man had vanished.
Steve glanced at his mother, still lying on her stomach on the bed.
She didn’t move. He sprinted outside and was standing on his neighbor’s
porch a few seconds later, pounding on their door.
“MY MOM IS DEAD,” he screamed. “CALL THE COPS.”
The neighbor rushed over to Steve’s house and found Bud and
Stephanie sitting beside their mother’s body, sobbing.
Paramedics were moving Vian into the front room of the house
as police arrived, forcing detectives to rely on the children’s memories
to piece together a clearer, more detailed picture of the crime scene.
Although much of it had been removed by emergency medical personnel,
white nylon cord appeared to have been used to bind Vian’s
wrists and ankles, along with electrical tape that ascended up her legs
in a pattern reminiscent of Roman army sandals. Investigators were
never able to trace where the rope came from.
An autopsy revealed that she had not been sexually assaulted, nor
did her hands bear the traces of any defensive wounds that she might
have received trying to defend herself.
So how was the killer able to subdue Shirley?
Police reasoned that he convinced her to allow him to tie her up,
promising her that if she did, he wouldn’t hurt her children. After
making her remove all her clothes, the killer placed her nightgown
over her head, then slipped a bag over that. If the UNSUB did ejaculate
while at the house, police speculated he might have done so in a pair
of Shirley’s panties, then taken them with him when he fled.
In between telling the detective who interviewed them about the
songs their mother would sing to them when they couldn’t sleep, the
children did their best to describe the killer. They insisted he was a
dark-haired man in his late thirties or forties with a heavy build and
a “paunch.” Police, however, placed little faith in the information Vian’s
kids provided—especially their description of the suspect.
Because the $40 in money orders that Steve picked up at the grocery
had been taken from the house, investigators believed robbery
may have been the initial motive for the crime. Nevertheless, the murder
was classified as a sex crime. Police didn’t believe at first that there