WEBVTT - The Otero Family [1] 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:06.720 New episodes of Monster BTK are released every Monday and 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.440 brought to you absolutely free. But if you want to 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.840 hear the whole season right now, it's available ad free 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.120 on iHeart True Crime Plus. For more information, check out 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:22.440 the show notes. Enjoy the episode. 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:29.680 You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart Podcasts 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.640 and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.360 I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:47.160 walking home. The snow is knee deep and the wind 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.400 was blowing pretty hard, and I walked into the backyard. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.720 We had a wood fence with a gate, so I 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:55.600 went through the yard and. 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.320 My dog, Lucky, he was outside in the snow and 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.960 he was never outside. 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:01.319 I'm like, what are you doing out here? 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:01.560 Boy? 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.560 He looked at me and wagged his tail, and I 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.600 opened up a kitchen door and went into the back. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.160 When I walked to the house, I looked at the stove. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.839 It had my mom's purse on it. All the stuff 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:13.440 was stowed out. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:15.200 That's not how my mom kept the house. She was 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.640 very adamant about keeping our house super clean. I yelled out, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.800 anybody home, and I heard a voice yelled, Charlie, come quick, 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.319 Mom and Dad are playing a bad trick on us. 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.480 I ran down the hall and I could just sense 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:30.800 something was wrong already. 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:31.959 I could just feel it. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:34.959 And I opened up the door and saw my mom 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.959 and my dad, and I saw my mom on the bed, 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:43.080 and my heart broke. It felt like somebody had actually 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.200 ripped my chest open and pulled my heart out. It 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.800 was a physical pain. I tried to undo the ropes 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.680 that were on him. My dad's tongue was half bit 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.960 off hanging. The ropes were so tight there was no 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:58.440 way to untie them. 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.840 To this day, I can smell fear and death. 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.800 I can smell fear on a person because when you 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:06.880 walked in the house, you could smell it. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.120 You could smell the death in the house. 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.200 My name is Susan Peters. I'm a journalist and former 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:24.200 news anchor for Kake TV also known as Cake TV, 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.440 in Wichita, Kansas. I started out as a reporter in 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.440 Illinois and then anchored the news in San Diego. When 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.760 I moved to Kansas in nineteen eighty three, people would 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.480 ask me if I knew about the serial killer BTK. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.399 At the time, I didn't know much, but my coworkers 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.880 told me about the seven people he killed in the 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:51.360 nineteen seventies. His first victims were the Otero family. 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.120 We moved to Puerto Rico to stay with my grandparents 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.799 while my dad looked for his future. He just spent 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.480 twenty years of his life in the Air Force since 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:06.240 he was seventeen, and he was searching for the best opportunity. 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.400 My name is Charlie O'tero. I am a surviving son 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:15.040 of Joseph and Julia O'tero. One day he got ahold 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.520 of us and said, you're coming to Wichita. You'd found 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.320 the job here at a small airfield, Cook Airfield, And 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.840 we hopped on a plane and flew to Wichita. And 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.160 I left the beautiful tropical island of Puerto Rico and 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.480 landed in the wheatfields of Kansas and mill of snowstorm. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.800 And we were just getting used to the neighborhood. It 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.640 was totally different from what I was used to. 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.760 It was January of nineteen seventy four. The Otero family 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.440 had recently moved into a small home at eight oh 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.560 three North Edgemore on the east side of Wichita. In 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.840 some ways, it was the picture perfect American dream, with 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.000 a fenced in backyard, for the children and the dog 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.840 to play in. The parent were Julie and Joseph and 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:09.400 they had five children from oldest to youngest. There was Charlie, Danny, Carmen, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:15.240 Josephine nicknamed Josie, and Joseph Junior, who they also called Joey. 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.080 They were a close knit family, supported by two hard 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.200 working parents from Spanish Harlem in New York. 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.080 You really hadn't got a chance to meet other people 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.120 in the neighborhood yet, and it was winter, so we 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.680 were pretty home bound and we just spent a lot 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.360 of time together. Don't get me wrong. We had our moments, 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.279 but there was always love in the house. 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:40.760 Always. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.160 My mom didn't cause he was in the church. I mean, 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.960 she was a kind of woman that would bring orphans 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.839 home for Christmas to our house. 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:54.200 Over the years, I've developed a deep relationship with Charlie. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.279 He's told me all about his mother and how she 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.920 kept the family together. When they were new to Wichita. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.680 Wichita was a quiet and calm town for the family 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.599 to settle into. It was a stable community, or so 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.880 it seemed. As the Otos made their home, evil was 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:20.960 brewing and it was about to boil over. A monster 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:27.239 was watching them, stalking them and learning their daily routine. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.120 He knew when the mother, Julie, took the kids to 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.240 school each day, and he knew the exact time that 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:38.360 the father, Joseph Sr. Usually left for work. But on 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:43.120 the morning of January fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, the family 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.279 routine was different. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.480 I remember asking my father to take me to school 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.600 early that day. My mom used to usually give me 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:54.760 a ride because it was like two miles away Southeast 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.839 High from where we lived. That day, my dad stayed 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.240 home because he had an appointment with somebody or some thing, 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.080 and so he gave me a ride. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.560 He also took me to school early because I. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.080 Asked him to because it was finals day for the 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.520 nine week period and I wanted an extra study hall 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:15.880 to bone up a little bit more on some of 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:16.640 the classes I. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:17.839 Was taking tests in. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.920 And that's probably what saved me Ang, Danny, and Carmen's lives, 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.159 because they had to go with me. 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.720 Joseph Otero Senior dropped his three eldest children off and 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.680 returned home in his wife's car. No matter how many 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.359 times I walk through this story, it's very hard to 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.960 talk about what happened next as Julie and joe Otaro 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:51.479 got their youngest Josie and Joey ready for school that day. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.320 It was twenty degrees in Wichita and snow coated the 0:06:55.360 --> 0:07:01.120 frozen ground. Around eight twenty am, as planned, the stalker 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.480 unlatched the door on the family's wooden gate and let 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.960 himself into the back yard of the Otero's home on 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:14.040 Edgemore Street. In the pockets of his jacket, he carried 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:20.840 rope Venetian blind cord, gags, white adhesive tape, plastic bags, 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:26.000 and a knife. The man inched slowly toward the back door. 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.120 He jiggled the door knob, but it was locked, so 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.160 instead he found a telephone line tacked to the outside 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:39.600 wall and cut it with a hunting knife. Just then, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.840 the man heard the back door open, and he was 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.600 surprised to find a small boy looking directly at him. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.200 This was nine year old Joey O'teraro. By the boy's 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:58.400 side was a large dog. As the man stood there, 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.560 he felt his plan start to unravel. Not only did 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.400 the family have a dog he hadn't planned for, but 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.440 the young boy was home, and as he soon learned, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.480 the father was home as well. He panicked and pulled 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.760 out his gun. Inside, he found the mother and daughter. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.960 The young girl began to cry. The man dealt with 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:26.000 the dog, first telling Joey to put him in the yard. Then, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.880 still holding the family at gunpoint, he backed them into 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.160 the main bedroom and began to tie each of them up. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.640 One by one, he killed each of them. He strangled 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.400 Joseph with a rolled up T shirt, followed by Julie 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.200 with a rope. The man struggled, he had never done 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.599 this before. The man then took Joseph Junior into a 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:59.360 different bedroom and strangled him as well. Finally, he took 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:04.000 eleven year old Josephine downstairs to the basement and hung 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.520 her from a sewage pipe. The man tried to cover 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.440 his tracks. He drove the Otaro's Vista cruiser to Dylan's 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.480 grocery store. Before he got out, he adjusted the seat 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.120 forward to disguise his height. Then he walked to his 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.520 own car down the street. He took inventory and realized 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.480 he had forgotten his knife. He drove back to the 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:33.120 house in his own car and picked up the knife. Quickly, 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:50.760 he sped off, and just like that, he was gone. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.000 That afternoon, Charlie Otero was finishing up his finals two 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.880 miles away at Southeast High School. The school bell rang 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.920 and he walked home with a two younger siblings, Danny 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.480 and Carmen. They were expecting to reunite with the rest 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:09.560 of their family, as they had always done. They had 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.920 no idea what was waiting for them at home. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.040 I took all my tests, aced all of them, and 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.840 then I was walking home. I remember walking through the snow, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.880 thinking this really sucks. Kansas sucks. I get across the 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:30.200 street from my house. The garage door was up and 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.360 the car was gone. So I'm like, here's my chance 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.520 to rag my mom. Because I never get to rag 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.600 my mom. You didn't get to say anything bad to her, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:40.079 and this is my chance to say, why do you 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:41.720 the garage door open? Now I got to clean the 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.040 snow out, so I'm already practicing my spiel. 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.439 This is when Charlie and his siblings entered the home 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.520 to the gruesome scene you heard about at the top 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:56.200 of the episode. I can imagine the horror as they 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.800 pieced together that their parents were not in fact playing 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.720 a cruel trick on them, the fear as they figured 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.720 out what to do next. 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:10.600 You try to use a phone. It was dead. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.880 Me and Danny and Carmen went outside and I told 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.840 Danny to go next door to the neighbor's house and 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.920 use their phone to call the police. And we waited 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:25.480 outside together in the snow, huddled up, and a police 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.480 officer came and he goes, what's going on here? 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.840 I said, go inside, you'll see. 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.480 Officers Robert Bulla and Jim Lindeberg of the Wichita Police 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.480 Department arrived at the Otero household at three forty two pm. 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.880 The police report describes what the officers initially found. Read 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:46.600 here by a voice actor. 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.480 Officers checked the bedrooms. The door to the southwest bedroom 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.920 stood halfway open. The officers pushed the door open and 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.760 saw a man on the floor. A cut white rope 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.880 and a butcher's knife were on the floor next to them, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.600 and the woman was on the bed. The woman's legs 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.679 were bent and hanging over the edge of the bed. 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.880 The officers noticed blood on her nose and mouth. Officer 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.720 Bulla found no pulse. The woman's hands appeared to be 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.240 tied behind her back. A white cloth gag covered with 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:18.959 blood was found next to her head. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.959 Officers Bulla and Lindabergh found Joseph and Julie in the 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:30.960 main bedroom. They radio dispatch two possible homicide victims. Then 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.120 Officer Lindenburgh left the house to check back in with 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:34.920 the children. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.600 He came back out and looked at me and said, 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.480 could your father have done this? I knew what he 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.880 was insinuating right away. He was insinuating that. 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:46.520 My dad had come home and found my mom with 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:47.120 another man. 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.240 Because my dad was dark, dark, dark, almost Negro, and 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.560 my mom was white, white, white, as white as you 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:54.880 can be without. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.679 Being seen through. My Dad's in there, his hands tied 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.280 and he's dead. How could he have killed himself and 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.720 tied himself up? I knew it was insinuating. I had 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:04.800 that knife in my hand when he said that, and 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:05.800 I almost stuck. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:06.400 It in him. 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:11.079 And at that instant I lost all respect for authority. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.760 I hated the police. I hated the world. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.440 At that moment when I first saw my mother, I 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.240 lost my religion instantly. 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:18.959 I hated God. 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.880 We were in a state of shock, and I kept 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.079 telling the police officer I said, I got to stop 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:26.199 Joey and Josie. 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:26.600 From coming home. 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.880 He called the station and had a bunch of cops coming, 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:32.040 and I told himself, I do not want Joey and 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.160 Josie to get here and see all these cops. 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:35.280 And I want him here with me. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.760 Now, I knew it was my job to take over 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.280 and take care of my siblings, and I didn't know 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:41.960 Joey and Josie in the house, so I. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:43.800 Kept telling him I need Joey and Josie with me, 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:45.000 over and over. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:50.520 Again, seemingly, all of Whichitas police force made their way 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.440 to the Otero household on North Edgemore in what was 0:13:54.559 --> 0:14:00.439 generally a quiet neighborhood, to begin solving a quadruple homage side. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.560 The children told the officers that when they arrived home 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.840 to find their parents, they attempted to cut the ropes 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:13.080 and desperately tried to perform CPR. As Officer Bulla interviewed 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:17.320 the Otero children, Lieutenant Jack Watkins arrived at the house. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:22.080 It was he and Officer Bulla who discovered little Joey 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:27.880 in the upstairs bedroom and Josie in the basement. Here 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.600 again is an excerpt from the police report. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.000 While Officer Bulla was outside of the home, Lieutenant Jack 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.960 Watkins discovered the body of Joseph Otero Junior in another 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:43.480 upstairs bedroom. Lieutenant Watkins and Officer Bulla searched the rest 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.240 of the home. Josephino Taro was found in the northwest 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.480 storage area of the basement. Josephino Taro was hanging by 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.840 a rope that had been tied to a sewer pipe. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.880 A white cloth was tied around her mouth. Josephino Taro 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.360 was wearing a blue, short sleeved knit sweater and was 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:02.680 naked from the waist down. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.680 As the eldest, Charlie pleaded for answers about his little 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:14.400 sister and brother, Josie and Joey. It's Charlie's nature to 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.560 protect his family, and he wanted to protect the two 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.040 youngest from what the three of them had already seen. 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.320 I kept telling him when we got to the police station, 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.000 I kept saying, where's Joey and Josie. I need him 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:28.920 here now, I need him here now. I can't even 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:30.240 tell you how long we were there. It could have 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:31.760 been an hour, it could have been ten hours, it 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.840 could have been ten seconds. At that point, the world 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.440 is upside down inside out for me. Finally, police chaplain 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:41.720 pulled me over and says, Charlie. 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.000 We got to tell you Joey and Josie were in 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:47.360 the house. They're dead too. After that, I pretty much 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:48.000 went blank. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.920 Back in East which a tall local police officers, detectives, 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.440 and other officials were gathered in mass at the Oteo household. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.280 They immediately set up a headquarters in the school across 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.160 the street from the Otero home. The police report states 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.600 that Chief of Police Floyd Hannon assigned ten teams of 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:17.240 detectives to investigate the murders and search for the family's 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:22.040 missing car. Again. Here is an excerpt from the police report. 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.920 At five forty six pm, Detective Lewis Brown located the 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.720 Otero car in the parking lot of the Dylan's Grocery 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.360 store at Central and Oliver. The keys to the Beiges 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:38.600 nineteen sixty six Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser were missing. Steve Christian, 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.360 the brother of the former owner of the Otto home, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.680 reported seeing the car backing out of the driveway at 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.480 approximately ten thirty am. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:52.080 At the Otero home. Officer Bulla assisted lab director Ron 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:57.920 Eggleston in processing the scene. Notably, Eggleston found stains on 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:03.040 the concrete floor directly in front of young Josephine in 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:10.840 the basement. He collected samples of those stains. The local 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.560 newspapers and television stations caught wind of the killings and 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.080 also set up shop by the O'to home. They had 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:19.880 very little to go on. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.400 Back in that day and to this day, we monitor 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.840 the police frequencies, the fire frequencies and that type of thing. 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.199 We didn't know what had happened, but we knew that 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.920 they had sent a lot of detectives to this one 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:39.720 particular address in East Wichita. Nobody was talking about it 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.440 on the frequencies that we were monitoring, so we didn't 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.199 know what was going on, but we thought, you know, 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.000 there's something going on there, and I was sent out 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:49.720 to see what was happening. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.240 This is my longtime colleague and friend Larry Hatdiberg, who 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.480 was on the scene reporting for KKE TV on the 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:00.000 day the Otaros were murdered. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.600 None of the detectives, no one would talk to me. 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.720 They just say, you know, we'll have information later, But 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.560 no one would talk to me. And it was until 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.520 hours and hours and hours after I arrived that we 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.000 found out that there were four dead bodies inside the house. 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:20.840 And it wasn't. 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.240 Until later that we found out that two of those 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.639 bodies were children, and it was shocking. All we knew 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.640 is that some crazy person had gone in and killed 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.000 an entire family. That was the shocking part that just 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.480 didn't happen in Wichita, Kansas. Even the police department, I think, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.879 were shocked by the murder. They never had really a 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.520 murder of that size happened before. 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:52.080 Detectives went to work studying the crime scene. For ten days, 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.480 seventy five officers and detectives worked eighteen hours a day. 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.720 At the end of the first week, sleep deprived, out 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.840 of energy and out of ideas, the police and all 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.080 of Wichita were left with the same questions. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.240 We wondered, what kind of crazy person do we have? 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.080 Is it somebody on drugs that did it, as somebody 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.119 who had a vendetta against this people. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:27.080 During the investigation, police Chief Floyd Hannen held press conferences 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.960 at least twice a day where he would disclose specifics, 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:36.600 speculate about motives and possible suspects. Newspapers like the Wichita 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:42.080 Eagle and The Beacon covered every development. The police began 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.679 with a handful of different possibilities. The first was that 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.160 the killer could be someone within the family, as Officer 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:55.280 Bullet suggested to Charlie upon initially securing the scene. Investigators 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.439 quickly ruled that theory out. The second was that there 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:04.000 was a possible drug connection. Chief Hannon himself flew to 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:08.080 Panama and to Puerto Rico to follow this idea. The 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.760 third was that someone was out to get Julie. 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.200 Usually there's a connection of something, and in this particular case, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.679 there was no connection. We didn't know anything. What caused this, 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.560 what's the background of the Oteo's, who would do this? 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:28.600 What was it? The investigators their immediate reaction was this 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.119 was a revenge killing of some kind, whether it be 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.800 drug related, whether it be a business thing. We didn't 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.800 know what it was. My name is Richard Lamunion. I'm 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.360 currently the city manager for the City of Maze. At 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.840 the time of the Otero murders, I was a member 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.960 of the Witchdaw Police Department. I joined the department in 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:54.520 nineteen sixty three. I was a police chief from nineteen 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.560 seventy six through nineteen eighty nine. 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.280 Leamunion says they did have very much to go on 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.159 at the start of the investigation, but that from the 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.399 get go police could tell this had not been a 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:08.439 random killing. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.360 It was a planned scenario. There was a script at 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.399 least if not written in this individual's mind. Are individuals. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.200 We didn't know if it was one two or twenty two, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:26.160 but there was definitely a plan premeditated and that's why 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.160 it threw us back to this has to be a revenge. 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:34.360 The Chief authorized some of the detectives to make some trips. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.439 One of them was even made to Mexico, so there 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.840 were some special efforts made. It's not unusual to send 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.320 out detectives and things to other places, but when you 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.480 send them out of the country or something, that's unusual. 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.040 A week had passed since the Otero murders, and the 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.600 investigators assigned to the case weren't getting any answers. Chief 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.320 Hannah pulled out all the stops, signing off on any 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:07.400 and all ideas detectives came up with for solving the murders. 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:12.560 One night, detectives Gary Caldwell and Bernie Drowotsky hired a 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.440 psychic to stay in the house with police. The detectives 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:20.000 were desperate, and the psychic had claimed she helped solve 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.280 a crime by leading police to a body and a trunk. 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.639 One overnight, stay with the psychic later, and Caldwell and 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.679 Drowatsky still had nothing to bring back to Chief Hannan. 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.520 With each lead running into a dead end, pressure was 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.879 mounting on the department as the community feared what would 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:44.760 come next. The officers themselves struggled to come to terms 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:49.400 with the tragedy. Lemonnion describes the department's turmoil as they 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:50.320 worked the case. 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:54.440 You know, police officers, even though you deal with tragedy 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.920 every day and everything, you're still a human being. When 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:01.280 you see a situation like this, you see the victims 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:05.680 laying there with plastic bags over their head, strangled, and 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.920 then you see children. In your mind you think back, well, 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.480 I have children, I have sisters, I have brothers, I 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:17.000 have other things. So it does impact you, but you 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:19.040 can't let that influence you at the time. 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:24.919 The first week of the investigation was difficult. In hindsight, 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.840 we can say that the Witchital Police Department was not 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.840 equipped to deal with this kind of murder in nineteen 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:35.480 seventy four. In fact, they made multiple mistakes. Someone in 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:40.000 the department lost several crime scene photos and most of 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:44.840 the autopsy photos. Through crime scene photographs, they discovered that 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:49.040 a responding officer opened to the Otero freezer and left 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.679 the ice tray on the counter. This mistake set the 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:56.320 department back as they worked to piece together the timeline 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:03.560 of the crime. Yet, there was one big thing that 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.560 the investigators did correctly on the first day. 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:10.879 When it came to preserving evidence. You know, we had 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:15.280 preserved evidence before. In this particular case, there was semen 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.439 found on the little girl in the basement where he 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:20.879 had literally brushed up against her, and there was a 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:23.800 little bit of her leg. Now, how do you preserve that? 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.520 And this is nineteen seventy four. We didn't have computers, 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:29.919 we didn't have DNA, we didn't have any. 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:30.440 Of that stuff. 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:35.000 However, our crime investigation unit, what they ended up doing 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:39.200 was they did three things. Number One, they dried part 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:43.200 of it, they kept part of it and fluid, and 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:47.080 then they froze part of it, all three of them. 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:52.479