The daughter of notorious serial killer Dennis Rader – better known as BTK – says she ‘sensed’ him in reports of the University of Idaho slayings which have shocked America.

Kerri Rawson said the case bothered her immediately ‘not just because four college students were murdered, but some of the means, methods and possible MO’.

Her concern grew when it emerged prime suspect Bryan Kohberger, 28, gained a Master’s degree in criminology from Pennsylvania’s DeSales University, where he studied under Dr Katherine Ramsland, the leading expert on the BTK killings

Ms Rawson fears Kohberger could have been in contact with her father and – even worse – discussed Rader’s own horrific crimes.

Kohberger, a criminology graduate student, is said to have killed housemates Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ms Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.

The crime stunned the small college town of Moscow in northwestern Idaho, where the four victims were found dead in the early hours of November 13 in the women’s residence.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Ms Rawson said: ‘The case has bothered me from the get-go, not just because four college students were murdered but just some of the means and methods and possible MO.

‘I don’t know if I was maybe sensing my father in it a little bit. We know Kohberger has studied my father academically.

‘The question now is did he take an extra interest in my father outside of academics?

‘Has he gone as far as contacting my father and has my father contacted him? Have they had discussions about criminology? Is there any influence directly on my father’s end?’

She said Dr Ramsland ‘has spent years talking to my father on the phone and going to visit’ and would have been considered ‘one of his best friends’ since his arrest in 2005.

Ms Rawson added: ‘[Kohberger] could also have contacted my father on his own regardless of Ramsland, or other notorious criminals.

‘There’s a lot of them who do this sort of prolific letter writing.’

Dr Ramsland, who wrote the 2016 book ‘Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer’, has declined to comment on the case.

Ms Rawson said she has been worried by mounting ‘coincidences’ between the Idaho murders and those carried out by her father.

Rader similarly had a criminology degree, which Ms Rawson says he embarked on ‘because it amused him and also gave him access to the sources and methods the police had’.

‘You would basically be studying the ways they catch somebody like you,’ she added.

Internet sleuths have also highlighted the fact he too was 28 when he committed his first homicide, killing four members of the Otero family in January 1974.

Ms Rawson said: ‘Kohberger is the same age as my father when he committed his first. They were both 28.

‘And he can’t help the initials he was born with – he was born BCK – but at some point, when he became fascinated with criminology, did he sort of latch on to my father because of the initials?

‘Initially it would have been a very weird coincidence, but when you have all of these coincidences adding up you have to look at it more.

‘This stuff will come out in court eventually, but right now it’s just speculation what he could have done.’

The possibility the killer could have been inside the sorority house waiting for the four students to come home is also not lost on her – it is the same method deployed by her father.

She described how Rader – whose self-assigned moniker stands for his method of ‘bind, torture, kill’ – will be relishing the renewed attention on him in light of the connection with Dr Ramsland.

‘My father’s 77, but I would expect that as long as he’s got the mental capability to process what’s going on in the news – he has a TV and a radio – I’m sure he’s enjoying people talking about him,’ Ms Rawson said.

‘He may even try to assert himself now saying he had contact with Kohbeger when he didn’t.

‘I’m not going to be surprised if my father ends up trying to contact the media here or makes a statement about it. He just can’t help it. My father totally gets off on this stuff still.’

Kohberger agreed Tuesday to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week, to face charges in Idaho.

Investigators have said they are still looking for a murder weapon and a motive for the killings.

More details about the case are expected to be released after Kohberger arrives in Idaho and an affidavit is unsealed.

Wearing a red jumpsuit with his hands shackled in front of him, he showed little emotion during the brief hearing in which he acknowledged facing four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge.

Kohberger, who was arrested by state police at his family’s home in eastern Pennsylvania last Friday, will be held at a jail in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, until his extradition.

His parents and sisters sat in the front row of the courtroom gallery, behind the defence table.

Some broke down as he walked into the courtroom, sobbing quietly and holding one another.

Kohberger glanced at his family briefly as he was led out of the courtroom.

Ms Rawson said they will be going through ‘utter hell’ after having their ‘whole life completely upended in a flash’ following his arrest.

She added: ‘It’s a long road. It’s not anything I would wish on my worst enemy.’

Ms Rawson published her own book ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter’ in November. 

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