When Wichita Police last month announced they had arrested a Park City man for the BTK serial killings, Lawrence resident Bob Basow immediately thought of his mother.

Basow, a Kansas University journalism professor, wondered whether it was BTK suspect Dennis Rader who tied up, robbed and beat his mother in her Wichita home 25 years earlier.

“There were some things I wanted to check out,” Basow said recently. “There were similarities.”

He’s not the only one with such thoughts.

Since Rader’s arrest, Wichita Police have been deluged with calls about unsolved murders or incidents that relatives think might be linked to BTK.

“There have been a fair number of calls like that, and they are being referred to the (BTK) task force, which is still functioning,” said Georgia Cole, spokeswoman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

Police have said they will investigate the attack on his mother to see whether there is any link to Rader, Basow said.

“If the chance ever comes, I would like to see Rader’s souvenirs and see if my mother’s rings are there,” he said.

Basow was living in St. Louis on Dec. 16, 1980, when he got a call from his father, Mat Basow, about the attack.

Using a map of Wichita for reference, Bob Basow describes how his mother was attacked more than 25 years ago in the area. Basow, a Kansas University journalism professor, pictured on Wednesday at his residence, says there were similarities in the BTK killings and the assault on his mother in 1980.

Earlier that morning, Becky Basow, 57, was taking out the trash when she was grabbed and forced into a bedroom and beaten.

According to Bob Basow and Wichita Eagle-Beacon news stories about the incident, Becky Basow was tied up with her husband’s neckties, which were wrapped around her neck and hands. One of her fingers was broken when rings were pulled off. Then she was struck by something that left a large circular cut on her head.

Somehow Becky Basow, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, managed to free herself and crawl out of the house seeking help. A neighbor came to her aid and called police and Mat Basow, who was at work.

Becky Basow told police that she thought she had been attacked by two men and that they had intentionally fixed her bonds so she could free herself.

“Whether she actually remembered two guys is open to debate because she was already two years into her Alzheimer’s and she was legally blind,” Basow said. “What she was able to give to police as a result of this I would consider unreliable.”

6News video: BTK may have attacked mother of KU professor First book on BTK investigation released in Wichita BTK’s distinctive signature revealed after 31 years (03-08-05) Prosecutors to lay out evidence in BTK case (03-05-05) Rader’s minister ‘dumbfounded’ by arrest (03-05-05) Wichita officer credited for help investigating Johnson County slayings (03-05-05)

No one was ever arrested, and the case remains unsolved. “BTK never came up,” Bob Basow said.

Basow’s mother died in 1987. His father died in 1999.

BTK suspicions

Slayings attributed to BTK, which stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill,” began in 1974. The victims were mostly younger women attacked in their homes alone, although the first victims were a mother and father and two of their children. BTK sent taunting messages to police and the news media, then disappeared after what was thought to be his eighth and final victim was killed in 1986.

A year ago messages from BTK again were received by media and police. Basow had fleeting thoughts about the possibility BTK might have attacked his mother.

On Feb. 25, Basow drove to Wichita to be with his wife, Lynn, director of the Free State High School orchestra. The orchestra was in Wichita for an event. When he arrived, Lynn told him of early news reports that a Park City man had been arrested as the BTK suspect.

Basow knew that Park City was only a few miles from where his parents lived in 1980, near the Arkansas River.

“This was too weird,” Basow recalled thinking.

The next morning Basow went to the cemetery where his parents are buried and prayed.

“I just had this strange feeling that justice would be done,” he said.

Basow then found out that it was exactly five miles from his parent’s former home to Dennis Rader’s street in Park City. When police had a press conference in Wichita City Hall to announce Rader’s arrest, Basow was there to watch.

Police also added two more victims to BTK’s list, and both were women in their 50s and 60s living in the Park City area.

Basow now waits to see whether Wichita Police can link Rader to the attack on his mother. He knows, however, the mystery might never be solved.

“You always want closure on something like this,” he said. “But you’re fully prepared for the fact you might not get any.”