Case file #6
FLOPPY
Filed under serial homicide, 2000s.
- Era
- 2000s (2005)
- Date
- February 25
- Status
- Closed
Spoilers ahead
This page tells the whole case, including how it ended. It concerns real deaths and real people, and it is written under our editorial standards. Play the case first, or read on when you are ready.
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After murdering ten people in the Wichita area between 1974 and 1991, beginning with four members of the Otero family, including two children, Rader fell silent, then resurfaced in 2004 after a Wichita Eagle anniversary story. In early 2005 he asked police in a written note whether a floppy disk could be traced; they assured him through a newspaper classified ad that it couldn't. The purple disk he mailed to a TV station carried deleted-file metadata naming Christ Lutheran Church and "Dennis." Rader, the congregation president, was arrested February 25, 2005, and pleaded guilty that June. The Otero, Bright, Vian, Fox, Hedge, Wegerle, and Davis families lived for decades alongside an open wound this case finally closed.
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