Police Probe Reporters as Suspects in 'BTK' Killings

By: (AP) Hurst Laviana had just finished covering a routine police briefing for The Wichita Eagle when a detective pulled him aside and said five people had fingered him as a suspect in the BTK serial killings. Like some other reporters in the Wichita area, Laviana allowed a DNA swab.

"Most of us thought it wasn't a big deal," Laviana said. "It's almost like joining a fraternity. You want to get a T-shirt that says, 'I'm not BTK.'"

Since the serial killer resurfaced in March with letters to media and police, investigators have been looking at reporters and within their own ranks for suspects.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation confirmed it has done hundreds of DNA swabs in connection with the BTK investigation, but did not offer specifics. No arrests have been made.

BTK, a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill," claimed responsibility for eight unsolved killings from 1974 through 1986 in letters to the Eagle and local television station KAKE.

The missives cast some suspicion on those receiving the letters.

"Because BTK has always communicated with the media, it doesn't surprise me we continue to be part of the story, whether we like it or not," said Eagle editor Sherry Chisenhall.

Media lawyer Mike Merriam, who frequently represents Kansas newspapers and broadcasters, said police could not take DNA from a reporter without a search warrant or the individual's consent, and he doubted police could show enough probable cause to get a warrant.

Still, several reporters contacted by The Associated Press said they consented.

"It sounds like civic thing to do, but it seems the potential for abuse is so great I wouldn't cooperate with them if they asked me," Merriam said. He noted that once the DNA is in investigators' databanks, it is there forever and can be used for other investigations.

The reporters say they were told that police were following up on tips made to a hot line, something Merriam said is different than "if they decided to throw out a big media net and try to catch everyone in it."

Still, with investigators getting thousands of calls, former reporter Randy Brown said the tips don't carry much weight.

"We have these hot lines where people come in and fink on a name," said Brown, now a senior fellow at Wichita State University's Elliott School of Journalism.

"When your name shows up three times, they start swabbing you. Any fool can call up and mention your name three times," he said.

Brown, 64, was a reporter at the now-defunct Wichita Sun when that weekly paper first broke the story about BTK in the 1970s. He later worked at the Eagle and KAKE-TV. When he was asked to submit to a DNA swab this summer, he thought it was the right thing to do.

Ronald Loewen was news director at KAKE when the Wichita station got a letter in the 1970s from BTK. Loewen did the story himself.

Police, thinking the killer would be more likely to contact Loewen than to use an anonymous mailbox, provided protection for him for some time. Loewen has kept that information to himself all these years.

"I was used to try to draw him out for a period of six to eight weeks," Loewen said. "There was a feeling of hope, of expectation that there would be more communication."

Loewen, 56, is now vice president of strategic development for Greenville, S.C.-based Liberty Corp., which owns a group of 15 television stations. This summer, he was contacted by Wichita police Lt. Ken Landwehr and asked to submit a DNA sample.

"I was more than happy to do it," Loewen said. He said reporters who covered the murders in the 1970s and 1980s lived the story and experienced the terror of the community.

"This guy happened to commit his crimes in very small television market before [the coming of] 24-hour news, so he never got the notoriety he wanted," Loewen said.
Laviana joined the Eagle in 1982 and was a reporter there at the time of BTK's last known murder in 1986. When BTK resurfaced in March with a letter to the Eagle about an unsolved 1986 killing, it was Laviana who recognized the victim's name on an enclosed copy of a driver's license.
When he was asked for a DNA swab, Laviana was only slightly taken aback.

"You are a little offended they would think that, but at the same time relieved to be done with it," Laviana said.
His editor, Chisenhall, said she was unconcerned that her reporters are becoming suspects: "Knowing everybody closely associated with this case, including police, has been swabbed, it doesn't alarm me reporters have been swabbed."