The BTK Story

Vicki Wegerle

Vicki Wegerle was another of Dennis Rader's "projects." He planned to tell her he was a telephone repair man as a ruse to get into the house, so he changed into what he called his "hit clothes":

"Basically things I would need to get rid of later. Not the same kind of clothes I had on. I don't know what better word to use, crime clothes, I just call them hit clothes. I walked from my car as a telephone repairman. As I walked there, I donned a telephone helmet, I had a briefcase — I went to one other address just to kind of size up the house. I had walked by it a couple of times, but I wanted to size it up more. As I approached it, I could hear a piano sound and I went to this other door and knocked on it and told them that we were recently working on telephone repairs in the area. Went to hers, knocked on the door, asked her if I could come check her telephone lines inside.

"I went over and found out where the telephone was and simulated that I was checking the telephone. I had a make-believe instrument. And after she was looking away, I drew a pistol on her."

Rader told her to go back to the bedroom where he was going to tie her up. He used some fabric in her bedroom to tie her hands, but they came loose and she tried to fight him off. He grabbed one of her stockings and strangled her with it until she stopped moving. When he thought she was dead, he rearranged her clothes and took several photos of her.

Again, Rader had to make a hasty retreat:

"There was a lot of commotion. She had mentioned something about her husband coming home, so I got out of there pretty quick. The dogs were raising a lot of Cain in the back, the doors and windows were all open in the house, and a lot of noise when we were fighting. So I left pretty quick after that, put everything in the briefcase, and I had already gone through her purse and got the keys to the car and used it."

Vicki Wegerle was fatally injured from the strangling but was not yet dead when Rader left her home.