Wichita ? Technology that helped crack the BTK case could be put into wider use after impressing authorities involved in the intense manhunt for the serial killer.

U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt has asked the House Appropriations Committee for $3 million to fund a pilot project to work on cold cases using a computer system like the one that helped detectives here whittle the list of possible BTK suspects down from millions to hundreds – and eventually to Dennis Rader, who is now serving a life sentence for 10 murders.

“It processes a whole lot of data,” said Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican who met with a creator of the technology. “It was a tool that they were able to use to supplement the detective work.”

A McLean, Va.-based company, EagleForce Associates, developed the database for the Wichita Police Department, though it was an unlikely partnership.

EagleForce has a history of work on Defense Department antiterrorism ventures, but had never assisted with a criminal case. And homicide detectives in Wichita had turned to the FBI and other government agencies for help on cases, but never to a private firm.

Stanley Campbell, chief executive officer of EagleForce, wasn’t particularly interested when producers from “America’s Most Wanted” suggested he offer his help. That changed when he saw evidence from the BTK killings, particularly the details of 11-year-old Josephine Otero’s murder.

EagleForce put a half-dozen of its experts on the case, setting up a “virtual case file” that pools all the evidence from the 31-year history of the BTK murders in a single database. That system cross-correlates data to find links that might not easily appear to detectives. It rates information by the probability it is true – a known fact like an address is given a high value, while something from one of BTK’s communiques is given a low one. And it can analyze a suspect’s language through communications, patterns exhibited at crimes and in letters and facts about known movements and affiliations.

Evidence in the case showed the killer was a white male, around the age of 60, with a connection to Wichita State University and a likelihood of military experience. That profile combined with facts in the case brought the suspect pool down to thousands.

But soon, there was a break.

BTK drove to a local Home Depot to drop off one of his messages and his vehicle was caught on video surveillance. Lt. Ken Landwehr, the lead investigator on the case, said that footage was turned over to EagleForce, which was able to take the choppy image and determine the suspect was driving what was likely a black Jeep Cherokee.

A search of the EagleForce database – of motor vehicle records, DNA evidence, university affiliations and so many other variables – still yielded hundreds of possible matches. Detectives were only eight days into their search through those suspects when another big break came in the case – a disk from BTK with electronic imprints pointing directly to a computer Rader used at his church.

Campbell said he searched the database and found a black Jeep was registered at Rader’s suburban address under his son’s name. That led to Rader’s arrest.