Who would have thought that something so simple, so primitive (in comparison to current technologies), could end the streak of a person who has had local detectives, KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation), and FBI special agents on their toes for 30 years? A simple floppy disk brought to justice one of the most sinister criminals Kansas has ever known.

As I was watching his sentencing hearing, I had a mixture of feelings – ranging from disgusted, to anger, to hate — stirring me into quite a bad mood. This case has attracted lots of national attention lately, but a detail that hasn’t attracted much attention is how this man was captured. Mainly, this hasn’t attracted much attention because most people don’t understand what happened. Most people aren’t computer technicians, and although it may not attract much national media attention, it does merit attention on a site such as this – to people in the industry, like myself, this detail is as big as the rest of the case.

I’ll start with a little back story, and make it as non-graphic imagery as possible.

The man calls himself BTK. He coined this name himself from the words Bind, Torture, Kill – the way he murdered his victims. Personally, I can think of many other words that would describe him better.

BTK killed 10 people in the Wichita, Kansas area between the years of 1974 and 1991. People ranging from toddlers to almost-senior citizens were all victims of his terrible murders. Some of the things he did to these people were atrocious, at the very least. He was atop Wichita’s most wanted list for almost 30 years, and had actually faded off into the darkness for the last decade. Some thought he moved, some thought he had died. Both were wrong.

Early last year, he resurfaced, doing what he loved — and that was attracting media attention to himself. Sending messages to a local news station and a local newspaper, with graphic descriptions of the murders, poems, dolls, evidence, etc, BTK had rose to the top of Wichita’s Most Wanted, yet again. Clues in those “communications” were often obscure. They published these clues, even showing the case on America’s Most Wanted twice. He sent a total of around 12 communications, until he ultimately made his fatal mistake, the point of this week’s column.

Earlier this year, he left a package at a local Home Depot containing more hints, clues, poems and such. This time, he left a clue on a floppy disk. Little did he know, that was a much larger clue than he could imagine.

You see, with floppy disks, when you write files to the disk, it is stored magnetically, and the “location” of that file is stored in the floppy’s table of contents. When you delete a file, it is not fully erased, but only the TOC entry is deleted. Physically, the data is still on the disk until it is written over. The computer just reads the TOC, so it does not see files there. The problem is, unless the data is physically erased, the data is still quite intact.

It didn’t take long for the FBI to ship this floppy disk to the Kansas City Regional Field Office: Computer Forensics Department. Once at the CF department in Kansas City, the physical portion of the disk was analyzed and the past files were recovered, allowing FBI agents to see a little more than what files were supposed to be on the disk.

One of the old files mentioned the Christ Lutheran Church in Park City — a city that is about a 30 minute drive from my house – and a guy named Dennis.

Once the guys at the FBI had this information, the used the principle that “everything can be found on Google” and entered the name of the church and Dennis into its search engine. First hit, they solved the mystery that had eluded them for 30 years.

Dennis Rader, a Scout Leader, a Church President, a husband, a father, and a Park City Officer, was BTK. A DNA test from his daughter revealed it to be 100% true.

On his way home from work one day, he was met with around 200 of his fellow officers — consisting from Wichita Police, SWAT, KBI, and FBI units — for quite a party. He was arrested. After taunting the citizens of our city for 30 years, Dennis Rader was finally taken out.

On June 27, he pleaded guilty to, and gave graphic descriptions of, the murders of 10 people. On August 17, I watched as officers from the WPD, KBI, and FBI nailed him again and again at his sentencing hearing. To think, that after 30 years of evading justice, a simple floppy disk and Google were all that it took to lead Police to his door step. Kudos to the computer guys at the Forensics lab for doing their jobs and bringing a horrible killer to justice.

On another more global note, this week marks the 60th anniversary of VJ Day. Kudos to all veterans and service men out there. You guys do your job to the utmost of your abilities, and you have my deepest respect. No matter what anyone says, I thank you for your service.

I thought I would quote General Douglas Macarthur, from a speech given 60 years ago this week onboard the USS Missouri, signaling the end of World War II:

“It is my earnest hope – indeed the hope of all mankind – that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.”