OK OK - Cynthia Kinney, 16, Osage, 23 June 1976

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves
Authorities have successfully decoded a 20 year old word puzzle by the "BTK killer". The letter contained the name of a missing teen from Oklahoma and several other clues.

The BTK killer, Dennis Rader, gave himself the name (based on "bind, torture, and kill") in a letter to Wichita television station KAKE. This was only one of several letters he hid around crime scenes and sent to news stations when he was active, including another sent to KAKE in 2004, which included an unsolved word puzzle.

That letter was sent to the Osage County Sheriff's Office on April 15 by sender who wished to remain anonymous. At first glance, the contained word puzzle seemed like an ordinary word search. When KAKE first received the letter, they managed to find the words Wichita, prowl, fantasies, ruse, spot victim, and serviceman. Further investigation has yielded new words like Cindy, Kinney, Osage, Laundry Mat, Kihekah, Elgin, Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and Cleveland. Additionally, the word puzzle contains BTK's 10 known victims and his Kansas home address.

Cynthia "Cindy" Dawn Kinney was 16 when she vanished from Osage Laundry on Kihekah Ave. in June of 1976. Her case was never solved.

"This has been available for 20 years," said News 4 Reporter, Kaylee Olivas. "It's just been hidden in plain sight."
 

updated May 18, 2024; details of disappearance updated

Cynthia Dawn Kinney​

  • kinney_cynthia.jpg

Details of Disappearance​

Cynthia was last seen in Osage, Oklahoma on June 23, 1976. She was last seen at Osage Laundromat on Kihekah Street.

After her disappearance, Cynthia's purse and drink were found at the laundromat, as well as a half-finished donut. Witnesses said she left the laundromat at 9:30 a.m. and got into a faded beige 1965 Plymouth Belvedere with two people. One witness said the two people were a man and a woman, and another witness said they were two women in their twenties.

After her disappearance, there were several reported sightings of Cynthia. She was supposedly traveling around southern Kansas with a religious group. Authorities were never able to confirm the sightings, however.

A witness reported she had seen Hobart Green with Cynthia just minutes before Cynthia disappeared. The alleged sighting was not reported until 1991.

In 2023, Dennis Rader, the BTK ("Bind Torture Kill") serial killer, stated authorities had interviewed him twice about Cynthia's disappearance. Rader's daughter noted Cynthia's apparent abduction does not resemble her father's crimes, which involved stalking and home invasion attacks on victims.

Cynthia was a high school junior at the time of her disappearance, was popular, made good grades and had just made the varsity cheerleading team. She is missing under suspicious circumstances and may have been taken against her will.
 
MAY 31, 2024
Kerri Rawson, the daughter of Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the “BTK Killer,” says there is “mounting evidence” her father is behind the disappearance of missing 16-year-old Oklahoma girl Cynthia “Cindy” Dawn Kinney.

[...]

Last August, police recovered pantyhose and other “items of interest” while searching BTK’s former Kansas property, according to Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden.

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

“We believe he’s tied in with our case and our prime suspect and possibly on several other cases in Kansas and one in Missouri,” Virden said at the time.

[...]

It was through working with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office that Rawson says she found evidence of her father sexually abusing her, which she talked to NewsNation’s Brian Entin about at CrimeCon in Nashville, Tennessee.
 

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