Baldwin Police Chief Mike McKenna said Thursday morning he is “hopeful” that Wichita Police have caught the BTK serial killer. Police say they’re testing a detainee’s DNA.

“There’s going to be a lot of happy law enforcement officers across the state of Kansas” if a man in custody turns out to be the killer, said McKenna, who spent 22 years as a Wichita Police investigator, much of that time tracking down tips in the BTK murder cases.

AP story: Police testing man’s DNA in BTK case

Wichita Police said Thursday morning they are testing the DNA of a Wichita man – either 64 or 65 years old – who was arrested Wednesday on minor trespassing and housing code violations to see if he has any connection with the BTK serial killings that terrorized the city in the 1970s.

Wichita police spokeswoman Janet Johnson told reporters Thursday that no arrest has been made in the BTK case and that investigators have received thousands of tips. If people named in the tips have outstanding warrants, they are picked up, she said. That’s what happened Wednesday night, when the man was arrested, she said.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation spokesman Kyle Smith also cautioned that the man may not have anything to do with the case.

The DNA report could be available before Friday, Smith said.

The man was picked up on outstanding warrants related to the maintenance of his home, including failure to paint the exterior, keeping broken cars in the yard and failing to keep the property clean, police said. Details about the criminal trespassing charge were not immediately available.

The Wichita Eagle reported the man was arrested without any sign of a struggle, then booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of trespassing and housing code violations with bond set at $17,500.

KWCH in Wichita reported that police officers were seen wearing gloves and carrying out plastic bags from a home in the 1400 block of Mt. Vernon in Wichita.

McKenna said he had been in contact with his old Wichita Police colleagues Thursday morning.

“If the clues prove correct, if this proves to be the individual – he provided us everything but his address,” McKenna said Thursday morning.

The arrest comes days after police released a summary of personal details provided in recent letters they believe were sent by the killer, including scattered facts about his life since childhood.

The killer – known by the self-coined nickname BTK, which stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill” – is linked to eight unsolved homicides that terrorized Wichita between 1974 and 1986.

After years of silence, the killer surfaced again by sending messages earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Friday’s Journal-World.