Kerri Rawson has many pleasant memories of her childhood and of her father, but there were incidents of anger, and in one case in particular, extreme violence. According to Rawson, while enraged for seemingly little reason, Rader nearly strangled her brother Brian with his bare hands in front of the family. It was, thankfully for his family, an isolated incident. Rader — who was involved in the local church and a Boy Scout leader — was otherwise kind, Rawson said. With tears in his eyes, he even walked his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.
Rawson was aware of the BTK killer through local press coverage, and in 2004, she learned that the BTK killer had once again contacted the police. In that message, BTK mentioned a number of personal attributes that also fit Rawson’s family. According to BTK’s message to the authorities, his father served in World War II, his family lived near train tracks, and someone in his family played the violin — all things which were true of the Rader family.
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In her Esquire interview, Rawson described reading that list like déjà vu. “Something in the list was nagging at me,” she said. Speaking with Slate, Rawson mentioned how she later found out her father nearly had an 11th victim, in 2004, one year before his arrest. The woman was not alone in her house, and Rader left. If he had committed the murder, he would have gone camping with his family afterward, Rawson said.
