BTK inquiry: Childhood friend of potential victim seeks justice

(NewsNation) — After searching the former property of serial killer Dennis Rader, authorities from Osage County, Oklahoma, believe there might be connections to other missing person cases.

That includes Cynthia Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who was last seen at a laundromat in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

“The more evidence I hear, the more I’m almost convinced he is” the killer, Kinney’s friend Tjuana Boulanger said Wednesday on “Banfield.”

Boulanger said she was excited to learn that Rader was named the number 1 suspect in the unsolved killing. She said she can’t pinpoint the exact time she last saw Kinney, but the two spent a “significant amount of time during cheerleading camp.”

Ultimately, Boulanger wants justice for her friend.

“If we could just find out the truth, (it would provide) some closure for her family. I really highly doubt if we’ll ever find her body. It’s been too many years,” Boulanger said.

Sheriff Eddie Virden said he decided to investigate Kinney’s case when he learned that Rader had included the phrase “bad laundry day” in his writings.

“We’ve continued to investigate looking for answers in our case and have come across documentations produced by him, notes, photographs, many other items, maps that he created, that led us to potentially other victims and (killings) we feel he was possibly involved in,” Virden said Wednesday on “CUOMO.”

As part of the investigation, Osage County authorities earlier this month searched a property near Wichita, Kansas, that formerly belonged to Rader. They discovered, among other items, pantyhose buried in the backyard.

“You can still see where they’re knotted, where they appear to have been around, probably, somebody’s wrist,” Virden previously told NewsNation after the dig. Police also found jewelry.

Rader, also known as BTK, which stands for “bind, torture and kill,” was convicted of killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991 in 2005. However, authorities believe there are at least five missing persons cases connected to him.

Kerri Rawson, Rader’s daughter, believes there could be more victims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.