In Wichita, edginess sets in

News of infamous BTK strangler's resurgence causing worries

? For some, the memories had only recently faded, the gnawing dread that made them check behind their doors when they came home at night, or look for broken windows before they entered.

Now, 30 years after the first of eight grisly murders that terrorized this Midwestern city, fear has again gripped many in Wichita after police said last week that the serial killer known as the BTK strangler has resurfaced.

A March 19 letter to a local newspaper suggests the killer, last heard from in 1979, was responsible for the slaying of 28-year-old housewife Vicki Wegerle in 1986. The letter included a copy of her stolen driver’s license and crime scene photos as evidence.

The letter, which authorities believe is authentic, has spurred a run on pepper spray, prompted a flood of calls to local home security businesses, and dredged up old nightmares of an unknown killer who some say changed this city forever.

“He was our bogeyman,” said Robert Beattie, a Wichita native who is writing a book about the killings. “If this guy is out there, he’s still dangerous because he was always dangerous.”

Case dates to 1974

Authorities say the strangler first struck in 1974, killing a family of four in their home on the city’s east side. In the next several years, police believe he killed three more times, brutally attacking young women in their homes.

Richard LaMunyon, who was Wichita’s police chief from 1976 until 1989, said investigators interviewed several suspects but could never crack the case. LaMunyon said the strangler communicated with police through letters to local media.

He got his moniker after a 1978 letter in which he asked for a nickname, suggesting nine possibilities. Among his suggestions were the Wichita Executioner, Poetic Strangler, Asphyxiater and BTK strangler — a reference to his method of killing: bind, torture and kill.

LaMunyon said his office consulted a group of psychologists who told him to agree to a name to establish a line of communication. They chose the BTK strangler.

Until the week before last, the strangler’s last letter was in 1979, and many figured he had died. LaMunyon said that from what he knew about the most recent letter, it was real — and it was the strangler.

Ready to strike again?

“We don’t know if he was in jail, we don’t know if he was here all along,” said LaMunyon, who estimates the man is now in his late 50s or early 60s. While LaMunyon doubts the strangler would strike again, not everyone is convinced.

“It’s not that I’m afraid of him, but it’s always in the back of your mind. It’s imbedded,” said Susan Ferguson, 48, a waitress who remembers being convinced as a young woman that the strangler would get her if she stayed out after dark.

Ferguson said she still opened her door at home with extra force, in case somebody was hiding behind it.

Others, like 26-year-old Misty Dillon, are too young to remember how Wichita reacted in the 1970s. For her generation, the BTK strangler was a ghost story that now has become real.

“I was going to buy some Mace for myself, but I heard they were sold out,” Dillon said. “It has me concerned.”

Charles Bright, whose 21-year-old daughter, Kathryn Bright, was the strangler’s fifth victim when she was killed April 4, 1974, said he never thought the strangler would be heard from again.

“After it went on so long, I thought he was in prison or dead,” Bright said Friday. “It’s up to the police to find him now. They’ve got hopes. I hope so too.”

Investigators said that throughout his killings, the BTK strangler maintained a routine. In all but one instance, he cut the phone line to the home, then broke in and waited. The killings were particularly brutal.

‘You just don’t know’

Mayor Carlos Mayans, who was in his late 20s when the killings began, said police believed the latest letter was authentic because it included a photocopy of the victim’s driver’s license, which was the only item missing on the night the woman was murdered. The letter also contained three photographs of the body from the crime scene. At the time, Mayans said, police did not take photos at the scene, meaning the only one who could have taken the photos was the killer.

“This person is back or never left or something happened for that gap in between,” Mayans said. “He can be your next-door neighbor. You just don’t know.”

Bernie Dorwatzky, a former Wichita detective who helped investigate the first slayings, said he always felt the BTK strangler would resurface. This time, he said, police will get him.

“I think we overlooked something, there was something we missed,” said Dorwatzky, who now lives in Kaw City, Okla. “With the new forensics and DNA we have now, I think police have a lot more going for them.”