Where Is the BTK Killer's Ex-Wife Now? What We Know About Paula Dietz By Yasmeen Hamadeh

Paula Dietz was married to Dennis Rader for three years before he committed his first crime as the BTK Killer.

The notorious serial murderer, whose self-appointed acronym stood for “Bind, Torture, Kill,” murdered at least 10 people in Park City and Wichita, Kan., between 1974 and 1991 before finally being arrested in 2005.

Though Rader’s arrest shed light on the heinous nature of his crimes, to his family, he was seemingly nothing more than a doting father, avid churchgoer and former Cub Scout leader who for years showed no signs of his murderous predilection behind closed doors.

“You don’t want to believe it’s true,” Rader’s daughter, Kerri Rawson, told ABC’s 20/20 in 2019 when reflecting on her father’s crimes. “And you know … the father you know is not capable of any of this.”

At the time of Rader’s arrest, Dietz was granted an emergency divorce and has lived a quiet life out of the public eye since. The serial killer, whose crimes have been rehashed in several documentaries, including Netflix’s 2025 release My Father, the BTK Killer, remains behind bars in Kansas, where he’s serving 10 life sentences.

So, where is the BTK Killer’s ex-wife now? Here is everything to know about Paula Dietz and her relationship with Dennis Rader.

She worked as a bookkeeper

Dietz was born in Kansas around 1948. The mother of two worked as a bookkeeper before meeting Rader, an Air Force veteran-turned-technician, in the early 1970s, per The New York Times. After a short while of dating, the couple married on May 22, 1971.

They went on to welcome two children during their 34 years of marriage, a daughter named Kerri and a son named Brian.

Rader’s crimes began early in their marriage

Rader committed his first string of murders in January 1974, around three years into his marriage with Dietz. At the time, the serial killer broke into the home of the Otero family and killed four of its members, including two children.

Rader’s murderous streak would only continue from there, with his victims tallying up to a total of seven by the time his daughter was born in the late 1970s.  “I was born in ‘78,” Kerri told 20/20 in 2019. “My dad murdered a young woman when my mom was three months pregnant with me.”

The family was blindsided by Rader’s crimes

While Dietz has never given a public interview since the fallout of her ex-husband’s 2005 arrest, Kerri has regularly expressed that the family was completely blindsided by Rader’s crimes and genuinely believed him to be a good father and husband.

“If we had had an inkling that my father had harmed anyone, let anyone murdered anyone, let alone 10, we would’ve gone screaming out that door to the police station,” Kerri told 20/20 in 2019. “We were living our normal life. We looked like a normal American family because we were a normal family. And then everything upended on us.”

Though everything seemed normal at home, Kerri did disclose in her 2019 memoir, A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming, that looking back, her father had shown some signs of violence.

“As early as I can remember, being around Dad was complicated,” she wrote. “When his eyes turned dark—stormy like the unsettled sea—it was wise to stay clear. I learned at an early age that if you could get Dad outside, the haunted look in his eyes would fade, and he would just be Dad again.”

Kerri went on to add that the family would usually dismiss Rader’s outbursts as stress and didn’t think anything more of it.

She divorced Rader in 2005

Rader was arrested in February 2005 after being linked to the murders through DNA evidence. He soon confessed to the killings and was ultimately sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms in prison.

After Rader’s arrest, Dietz filed a divorce petition saying that her mental and physical health had been affected by her marriage and that Rader was an incompatible partner who failed to perform his material marital duties and obligations. A judge then granted her an immediate, emergency divorce, waiving the usual 60-day waiting period.

The serial killer did not contest the divorce filing and signed over the family’s property and all his retirement benefits to his ex-wife.

She lives a quiet life

Shortly after Rader’s arrest, the family auctioned their Park City home for $90,000, per The Wichita Eagle. Dietz reportedly moved out of Kansas in the immediate aftermath of Rader’s arrest and their divorce and has been living a quiet life away from the media since.

At the time of the house auction, Dietz’s lawyer Jim Walker said, “My client is a very private person.”

Meanwhile, Rader remains incarcerated at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Butler County, Kan.