Kerri Rawson confronts her father Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, after nearly 20 years in prison, leading to her final decision to cut all contact with him.
Nearly 20 years after Dennis Rader was sent to prison, his daughter Kerri Rawson found the strength to confront him face-to-face.
In 2023, the mother of two was enlisted by investigators to determine whether the man who once terrorized Wichita, Kansas, and taunted police during a 17-year murder spree might be linked to other unsolved killings. Facing the father who called himself BTK — short for ‘bind, torture, kill’ — would mark the final break in a relationship already shattered by his crimes.
Rawson, 46, who has spoken out about the serial killer over the years, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, ‘My Father, the BTK Killer.’ It explores how the Michigan resident is struggling to reconcile the loving father she once knew with the monster exposed by police.
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‘It was really hard for Kerri to confront her father,’ director Skye Borgman told Fox News Digital. ‘She talks about coming out of that prison. She was shaking after she talked to him about things that she had kept bottled up for a long time. And she was also surprised at her own feelings when talking to him.
‘There were moments where she talks about seeing him switch between these two men, between her dad and BTK. One moment she felt like he was her dad, and then the next moment he shifted when she would ask him a question he didn’t like. He would switch to BTK.’
‘Having the knowledge that she knows now about his crimes, she was able to see that more,’ Borgman shared. ‘It was incredibly hard for her. But at the same time, I think it gave her an ending to a chapter. She’s OK with not seeing him again. She’s OK with not talking to him again. Whereas before, there was a question mark there — do I want to see him? And now, the question is answered.’
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Rawson and two other investigators were hoping to see if Rader, now 80, could offer information about cold cases for the Osage County Sheriff’s Office.
‘If my father has committed more murders, then we really need to get to the bottom of the truth, and we need to get to it before my father passes away,’ Rawson said during filming.
In the documentary, Rawson questioned whether she may have been sexually abused by Rader as a child. She had read one of his notebooks from the 1980s, where he wrote about a bondage game in a bathtub. It included her name.
Investigators warned her not to ask Rader about her suspicions, fearing he would shut down and refuse to answer questions.
‘He’s frail, he’s in a wheelchair, and he was literally crying, so happy to see me — like, over the moon to see his kid,’ Rawson recalled in the film.
When Rawson asked him about the cold cases during their three-hour conversation, he told her, ‘What are you talking about? Can’t we just reminisce? Can’t we just have a father-daughter — can’t we just have memories?’
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Then, he ‘turned on a dime,’ said Rawson. When she asked him about his journal entry, Rawson said he told her, ‘That was just a fantasy. I never touched the family. You’re just making stuff up about me to be famous.’
Rawson described unleashing ‘a blast of 45 years of anger’ at Rader as she went ‘completely off script.’
‘He was literally gaslighting me, manipulating me, lying to me, five feet from me,’ she said. ‘It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad. It was like I wasn’t talking to my dad.’