Julie Otero was a 34-year-old mother of five who was strangled in her Wichita, Kansas, home on January 15, 1974, along with her husband Joseph and two of their children, Joey and Josie. Her murder, part of what came to be known as the Julie Otero BTK murder case, was the first known killing committed by Dennis Rader, the serial murderer who would call himself BTK for his method of binding, torturing, and killing his victims. Her son Charlie later described her as a “very caring, loving Catholic woman” and “a mother first.”1ABC News. Families of Victims Murdered by Serial Killer Speak Out
Who Julie Otero Was
Julie and her husband Joseph, a retired Air Force sergeant who had finished his active duty in Puerto Rico, moved their family to Wichita in November 1973. They had been in the city less than six months when they were killed.2The New York Times. 4 Found Strangled in a Wichita House The couple had five children: Charlie, Danny, Carmen, nine-year-old Joseph II (Joey), and eleven-year-old Josephine (Josie). Charlie remembered his father as “a really outgoing, jovial kind of guy” and his mother as a “very tidy person” devoted to her Catholic faith and her family.1ABC News. Families of Victims Murdered by Serial Killer Speak Out
What Happened on January 15, 1974
Dennis Rader broke into the Otero home on North Edgemoor that morning while Charlie, Danny, and Carmen were at school. Joseph, Julie, Joey, and Josie were home.3The Wichita Eagle. Charlie Otero Recalls Discovering Crime Scene All four were strangled.4CBS News. Witnesses Detail BTK Brutality
At his 2005 guilty plea, Rader described the attack. He said he tied the family up and told them he needed a car and food, but because he had entered without a mask, he decided they could identify him and had to be killed. He admitted he had never strangled anyone before and did not know how much pressure or time it required. He strangled Julie, believed she was dead, attacked the children, and then returned to strangle her a second time.5NBC News. BTK Killer Pleads Guilty to 10 Murders Julie was found with a rope around her neck. Joseph had been suffocated with a plastic bag held in place by a belt.6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out Joey was suffocated with a plastic bag as well. Josie was hanged from a basement rafter. Rader later admitted he had specifically targeted Josie because of her appearance and had masturbated over her body.4CBS News. Witnesses Detail BTK Brutality
Some of Julie’s last words, as Rader himself recounted at sentencing, were: “May God forgive you for that.”7Good Morning America. Families of Victims Murdered by Serial Killer Speak Out
How the Family Was Found
Fifteen-year-old Charlie got home from Southeast High School that afternoon and immediately sensed something was wrong. The family dog, Lucky, was outside, which was unusual. Inside, his mother’s purse had been dumped on the stove with its contents scattered. Danny and Carmen, already home, called him to their parents’ bedroom.6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out
Charlie found his mother tied up on the bed and his father on the floor with a belt around his neck. He tried to untie the ropes but couldn’t. The three surviving children ran to a neighbor’s house to call the police, who arrived minutes later and discovered Joey and Josie in separate rooms. Charlie did not learn his younger siblings had also been killed until an officer and a chaplain told him at the station.1ABC News. Families of Victims Murdered by Serial Killer Speak Out He later described the moment: “It felt like somebody had grabbed my chest, ripped it open, and pulled my heart out — and it stayed empty forever.”6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out
Why It Took Thirty-One Years to Catch the Killer
The Otero murders were the first of ten Rader would commit between 1974 and 1991. For decades he taunted police and journalists with letters, poems, and packages that included a victim’s driver’s license, photographs, and dolls posed to mimic his killings.8Britannica. Dennis Rader
In January 2005, Rader sent a cereal box with a note asking whether a floppy disk could be traced back to him. Police placed a classified ad assuring him it could not. He sent the disk. Investigators traced it to his church, where he served as congregation president, and his DNA was then matched to semen recovered from the Otero crime scene more than thirty years earlier.8Britannica. Dennis Rader He was arrested on February 25, 2005.9Biography.com. Dennis Rader
The Guilty Plea and Sentencing
Rader waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty on June 27, 2005, to ten counts of first-degree murder before Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller. District Attorney Nola Foulston prosecuted the case. Because the crimes predated Kansas’s reinstatement of the death penalty, execution was not available.10CNN. BTK Killer Pleads Guilty
At the August 18, 2005, sentencing, each victim’s family had five minutes to address Rader and the court. Carmen Otero Montoya, Julie and Joseph’s daughter, spoke directly to Rader, called him a “coward,” and refused to address him as “Mr. Rader.” Earlier in the proceedings she had clutched an afghan and tapped her foot on the floor. Charlie and Danny sat with arms crossed, wiping away tears at points. Charlie broke down when a close-up photograph of Josie was projected in the courtroom.11CBS News. Families Confront BTK in Court
Judge Waller imposed ten consecutive life sentences, the maximum the law allowed. Rader called his crimes “atrocious” and described himself as a “sexual predator.” As he left the courtroom, he gave a thumbs-up to his pastor.12CNN Transcripts. BTK Sentencing Hearing Transcript He remains at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas with no possibility of parole.
The Three Surviving Otero Children
Charlie, Danny, and Carmen were sent after the murders to live with a military friend of their father’s in New Mexico. Decades on, Charlie has said the three still cannot talk about what happened with one another: “We still can’t. It’s just too much.”6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out
Charlie has described his years after the murders as a stretch of drifting. He had no permanent address for long periods, raced motorcycles, and served a four-year prison sentence in New Mexico for aggravated battery, finishing in 2004. He has said he planned to attack Rader at the 2005 sentencing but abandoned the plan after his twelve-year-old son Joseph was struck by a car and placed in an induced coma, an event he credits with turning him toward religion.6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out
Since 2008, Charlie has lived in Park City, Kansas, about a mile from where Rader’s home once stood and a few miles from the prison where Rader is held. He has spoken about his family on Good Morning America and America’s Most Wanted, visits jails and prisons across Kansas to share what he calls a message of “hope and redemption,” and has worked on a podcast called Zero Degrees of Separation with Brian Wegerle, the nephew of BTK victim Vicki Wegerle. Charlie rejects the idea of closure. “The pain remains terribly real,” he has said. Of a Netflix documentary that depicted Rader’s home life, he added: “It was all a lie. He just used his family to cover up who he really was.”6People. Family of BTK’s First Victims Speaks Out
Later Investigations Into Other Possible Victims
In 2023 and 2024, investigators from the Osage County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma and Park City police searched Rader’s former property in connection with the 1976 disappearance of sixteen-year-old Cynthia Dawn Kinney. During the searches they recovered a pantyhose ligature knotted in a manner consistent with binding human limbs, a concealed “hiding hole” reinforced with concrete pavers, bondage materials including chains, and personal effects believed to have belonged to a female victim.13CNN. BTK Serial Killer Property Search In April 2024, investigators re-examined a word puzzle Rader sent to a television station in 2004 and found the names “Cindy” and “Kinney” hidden within it, along with “Kihekah,” the street where Kinney had disappeared.14The Guardian. BTK Cold Case Investigation
No charges have been filed against Rader in the Kinney case, with Oklahoma District Attorney Mike Fisher stating there is still insufficient evidence.15The Guardian. BTK Serial Killer Investigation New Clue In a prison interview, Rader denied killing anyone beyond his ten confirmed victims.16NBC News. Investigators Search Former Property of BTK Killer Julie Otero, her husband, and two of her children remain among the ten murders to which he has been convicted.