Man whose arrest sparked speculation on possible link to BTK freed after judge reduced bond

Friday, December 3rd 2004, 10:40 am

By: News On 6

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ A man whose arrest sparked speculation of a link to the decades-old BTK serial killings case was released on bond after a court appearance on two unrelated misdemeanor counts.

The man was arrested at his home Wednesday night on minor trespassing and housing code violations, and state police said his DNA was being tested to see if there was any link to the man sought for eight unsolved homicides between 1974 and 1986.

He appeared before Wichita Municipal Judge Jennifer Jones, who reduced his bond Thursday from $17,500 to $6,125 and ordered him to return to court next month. He then was released from jail.

Results of the DNA testing had not been released, but Wichita police chief Norman Williams was adamant Thursday that no arrest had been made in the BTK case, which involves a mysterious serial killer who resurfaced in March in a series of letters to police and news media.

``We have not, I repeat, have not, made an arrest in connection to BTK,'' the chief said at a news conference in which he complained that intense national news coverage was hurting the investigation.

A call to Wichita police seeking any update on the results of the DNA test was not immediately returned Friday.

Authorities noted that thousands of tips have been received in the BTK killings. If people named in the tips have outstanding warrants, they are picked up, as the man arrested Wednesday was, said Wichita police spokeswoman Janet Johnson.

The killer is known by the self-coined nickname BTK, which stands for ``Bind, Torture, Kill.'' After years of silence, he surfaced again in letters to local media starting in March.

In an appeal to the public for clues, investigators on Tuesday released a series of details that the killer mentioned in the letters. They suggest the killer was born in 1939, lost his father in World War II and is a railroad buff. The man arrested Wednesday is 64 or 65. Public records gave conflicting birth years _ 1939 and 1940.