BTK May Be Responsible for Missing Oklahoma Teen: Kerri Rawson

This article mentions sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.

(NewsNation) — Kerri Rawson, the daughter of Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the “BTK Killer,” says there is “mounting evidence” that her father is behind the disappearance of Cynthia “Cindy” Dawn Kinney, a missing 16-year-old girl from Oklahoma. .

However, she told NewsNation's Brian Entin in an interview that the matter was still “under investigation” and that the evidence was “circumstantial.” Rawson said the most important thing is that “we have to find Cindy.”

The Osage County Sheriff's Office has a working theory that Rader was involved in Kinney's kidnapping, and he was investigated as a suspect. Last June, Rawson also began helping them, reviewing his father's evidence and even seeing him in prison.

“There was a lot of effort trying to locate where she might be, whatever happened to her,” Rawson said of the teenager, who disappeared from the Osage Laundry in June 1976, according to the local NewsNation affiliate, KFOR.

Cops say they found items linked to BTK

Last August, police recovered pantyhose and other “items of interest” during a search of the former BTK property in Kansas, according to Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden.

Virden, who led the search team, said the items found were “significant.”

“We believe he is connected to our case and our main suspect and possibly several other cases in Kansas and one in Missouri,” Virden said at the time.

In April of this year, the Osage County Sheriff's Office received a package from an anonymous woman containing a BTK puzzle word sent to a Kansas news station in 2004, according to KFOR.

“There are clues throughout the process that cannot be overlooked,” Virden said.

By 2004, a handful of words were identified in the puzzle: “Wichita,” “prowl,” “fantasies,” “ruse,” “spotted victim” and “military.” Looking at it again, authorities discovered the words:

• Cindy
• Kinney
• Osage
• Laundry mat
• Kihekah (the name of the street where Osage Laundry is located)
• Elgin
• Pawhuska
• Oklahoma
• Cleveland

Additionally, the puzzle lists the names of Rader's ten known victims and Rader's home address in Kansas.

KFOR reported that Rader's journal entries also indicate where he traveled and why. Some markings appear to show that Rader went to Oklahoma for vacation, a scout trip, business or other reasons.

It was while working with the Osage County Sheriff's Office that Rawson says she found evidence of her father's sexual abuse of her, which she spoke to NewsNation's Brian Entin at CrimeCon in Nashville, Tennessee .

Who was the BTK killer?

It was Rader who gave himself the nickname “BTK,” which stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill.”

Authorities say he first killed in 1974, stoking fears throughout the 1970s in the Wichita, Kansas, area. Rader, a former Air Force sergeant and married father of two, has lived most of his life in the Wichita area.

Before his 2005 conviction for killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991, Rader led investigators and the media in a game of cat and mouse. Authorities still believe there are several cases of disappearances linked to him.

Her daughter, Rawson, assisted law enforcement with investigations and worked as a victim advocate. She has written two books: “The Daughter of a Serial Killer: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming” and “Freeing Yourself: Overcoming the Trauma of My Serial Killer Father”.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.