Nine-year-old Joseph Otero Jr., known to family as Joey, was one of five children whose parents had recently moved into a house at 803 North Edgemoor Street in Wichita, Kansas. On the icy morning of January 15, 1974, a stocky stranger entered the home, forced the family into the master bedroom, bound the adults and the two youngest children, then placed a plastic bag over Joey’s head, tightened it with cord, and pressed a pillow to his face, suffocating him.

The family’s 15-year-old son, Charlie, discovered the crime scene that afternoon and called police. Early leads, including three false confessions, stalled the case until October 1974 when the killer phoned the Wichita Eagle and directed detectives to a library book containing his first BTK letter, in which he described Joey’s suffocation and adopted the name Bind Them, Torture Them, Kill Them. Decades later investigators linked DNA evidence and arrested Dennis Lynn Rader; Rader later confessed and was sentenced to consecutive life terms.