Why Did Wichita Suspect The Wrong Husband While BTK Was Still Free?
Bill Wegerle was a suspect in his own wife’s murder for eighteen years. From the day Vicki Wegerle was killed in their Wichita home in September of 1986 until the day in March of 2004 when the actual killer mailed her stolen driver’s license to a local newspaper, Bill Wegerle lived under suspicion of a crime he did not commit. His two children grew up under that shadow.
The man who killed Vicki Wegerle was Dennis Rader. The same Dennis Rader who, twelve years earlier, had written letters to the same Wichita newspaper claiming responsibility for the Otero family killings under the name BTK. The same Dennis Rader whose voice was on a 911 tape that had been played on every Wichita TV and radio station. The same Dennis Rader whose 1974 police sketch had run on the front page of the Wichita Eagle.
In the second chapter of host Tony Brueski’s five-part Hidden Killers investigation, the file Wichita Police had been quietly building since 1974 gets laid out in order. The Bright family attack. The Otero letter. The Nancy Fox 911 recording. The Anna Williams sealed package. The Marine Hedge case, where Rader killed his own next-door neighbor and went home to bed. The Vicki Wegerle case that did not break open because the BTK task force had been folded into a smaller operation by the time it happened.
This is the second uncomfortable truth of the series. Dennis Rader was not too clever for Wichita Police. The Wichita Police had pieces of him for three decades. The pieces did not get put together. The cost was carried by families who did not deserve to carry it.
END LINKS
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod
DISCLAIMER
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
HASHTAGS
#BTK #DennisRader #BillWegerle #VickiWegerle #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #WichitaPD #ColdCase #SerialKillers #UncomfortableTruths
