Ep 141: Profiling Dennis Rader and Rex Heuermann with Kerri Rawson

Laura interviews Kerri Rawson, survivor, advocate, New York Times bestselling author and daughter of serial killer Dennis Rader, who gave himself a horrific moniker due to how he bound, tortured, and killed his victims.   On Friday 14th July, 59-year-old husband and father of two, Rex Heuermann, was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman. Their remains were discovered within a quarter of a mile of one another covered in burlap along Ocean Parkway on Long Island’s South Shore in 2010. Heuermann is also suspected of other murders including Maureen Brainard-Barnes.   Kerri’s father Dennis Rader was 59, the president of the church, and married with two children when he was arrested in 2005. He was later charged with the murders of 10 people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas between 1974 and 1991. He is suspected of others. Rader centered himself in the Gilgo Beach Murders on Friday 21 July, writing a letter to Fox News Digital laying out similarities between himself and Rex Heuermann.   Laura believes men like Rader and Heuermann hide in plain sight and are overlooked for similar reasons. Just like what’s happening with the Heuermann case right now, when Rader was arrested, his family, friends, and co-workers were shocked to discover that the serial killer police were hunting had been among them, going to work, raising his children, and acting ‘normal.’ But Laura doesn’t buy into that. She believes we are asking the wrong questions and that we must use the framework of coercive control and make the invisible visible.   Whilst working at the FBI in Quantico, Laura continued her research and analysis into serial perpetrators, which included an in-depth case conference with the FBI profiler who played a pivotal role in Dennis Rader’s capture, interviewing Rader for more than 30 hours. One question Laura asked related to domestic abuse and control related behaviours. Laura was informed there was no abuse at home. Now, in this raw and honest interview, Laura finally gets to the bo