Wichita — Investigators looking for Wichita's most notorious serial killer are asking former Wichita police officers to provide samples of their DNA.
In a newsletter to retired police officers, lead detective Lt. Ken Landwehr said officials would use the samples to exonerate officers working during the time of the BTK murders. Specifically, Landwehr said investigators wanted to head off potential legal maneuvers once a suspect has been arrested.
BTK, which stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill," is the nickname self-coined by a serial killer connected with eight unsolved homicides between 1974 and 1986. BTK resurfaced in March after sending letters to area news media, Wichita police and other officials.
One former police officer has balked at providing a DNA sample because he says it's an invasion of privacy -- not just his, but that of his family and generations of descendants.
Retired Detective Frank Cummins, 71, said he was afraid the department could use the samples to develop a permanent database of DNA for all of his family, without giving family members a choice.
"I've got a 3-year-old great-granddaughter," he said. "I can't ask her permission for this. Why should I give anyone a clue as to her DNA?"
Cummins, who served 23 years with the department, said he was never personally involved in the BTK investigation, other than possibly watching the house where BTK strangled four members of the Otero family in 1974.
"They could have saved themselves some work by just calling me up and asking me what it was that I did regarding BTK," he said. "I didn't do much."
Landwehr declined to comment. But in the newsletter, he promised "the samples we are requesting will not be put in any other database or compared to other crimes."
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