Source: BTK suspect confesses to 6 murders

WICHITA, Kan. -- Police say they are confident that the arrest of a man suspected of being the BTK serial killer will end 30 years of terror, and a source said he confessed to some killings.\nDennis L. Rader, the churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader, was arrested Friday and confessed to six killings, the source close to the investigation told The Associated Press Sunday.\n"The guy is telling us about the murders," the source said on condition of anonymity.\nRader was being held in connection with a total of 10 deaths, and the source said investigators were looking at three other killings.\nPolice Chief Norman Williams angrily criticized news media reports Monday and repeated the figure of 10 killings.\n"These types of assumptions and speculations have and will continue to complicate an already complex investigation," Williams said.\nWilliams said he would ask prosecutors if they can take legal action against members of the media who report "speculation, inaccurate and irresponsible information." But he did not go into specifics and refused to take any questions.\nRader, 59, was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday via video so prosecutors could recite yet-to-be-filed criminal charges against him and the judge could review bail. It was unclear whether Rader had a lawyer.\nRader was being held in lieu of $10 million bail in the deaths of 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Police had long linked the BTK killer to eight murders but added two more Saturday after Rader's arrest and said their investigation was continuing.\nProsecutors had said initially they could not pursue the death penalty against Rader because the 10 murders linked to BTK happened when Kansas did not have the death penalty.\nThe source said police also were looking into whether Rader was responsible for the deaths of two Wichita State University students, as well as a woman who lived down the street from another known victim of BTK, the killer's self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill."\nIt was unclear when the three slayings occurred, but the source said one of them took place while Kansas' death penalty was in effect. Kansas restored the death penalty in 1994.\nWhen asked for comment, District Attorney Nola Foulston said, "Your information is patently false," but she refused to say whether Rader had made any confessions or whether investigators are looking into Rader's possible involvement in more unsolved killings. Police spokeswoman Janet Johnson also declined to comment specifically on the accuracy of the source's statements.\nThe BTK killer re-emerged over the last year, taunting police with letters and packages sent to media outlets.\nRader, a married father of two, a Cub Scout leader and an active member of a Lutheran church, was anything but a recluse.\nHis job as a city code enforcement supervisor required daily contact with the public, and he even appeared on television in 2001 in his tan city uniform for a story on vicious dogs running loose in Park City.\nBefore becoming a municipal employee, Rader worked for a home security company, where he held several positions that allowed him access to customers' homes, including a role as installation manager. He worked for ADT Security Systems from 1974 to 1989.\nMike Tavares, who worked with Rader at ADT, described him as a "by-the-books" employee who would often draw diagrams of houses and personally make sure technicians installed systems correctly.\nWhile Rader was known as a blunt person and rubbed some people the wrong way, he never struck co-workers as anything other than businesslike.\n"I've spoken to some co-workers who were around then, and everybody is very numb," said Tavares, who left the company in 2001.\nAt Christ Lutheran Church, where Rader was president of the church council, pastor Michael Clark said Rader's wife, Paula, was in a state of shock.\n"Her demeanor and voice indicated she was suffering," Clark said.