Washington family shocked that BTK killer is suspected in relative's death

WITCHITA, Kan. - (KRT) - Tom Hedge and his wife Phyllis didn't know that the BTK serial killer existed until last week.

Watching the evening news from their home in Washington state, they learned that the 1985 slaying of Tom's mother, Marine Hedge, had been connected to the serial killer. Marine Hedge's former neighbor on Independence Street in Park City, Dennis Rader, had been arrested as a suspect in the case.

"You would not believe the screaming and tears," Phyllis Hedge said. "It was like, `Oh, my God' - we never thought in this lifetime we would know her murderer."

News of Rader's arrest came as a surprise, since the couple had suspected others over the years.

Following the newscast, Phyllis Hedge called Wichita police to confirm the news; she said they didn't provide any details.

Even so, "It's a closure that we never thought we would get to have," she said. "It's relieving in some aspects, but not in others. It's like peeling a scab off an almost healed wound. But it's helpful."

Hedge, 53, had lived alone since the death of her husband, Thomas, a Beechcraft employee, in 1984. The night she was last seen alive, she played bingo until 1 a.m. with a male friend. Sometime before 7 a.m., the phone line to her home was cut and she was abducted. A door she normally kept locked was open.

Within the next few days, her car was found at the Brittany Center shopping center at 21st and Woodlawn, and her purse was found near 143rd East and 37th North. Her identification was missing.

Eight days after her disappearance, her nude body was found in a drainage ditch, next to a pair of knotted pantyhose. She had been strangled.

Phyllis Hedge said her mother-in-law, who was from Arkansas, had a sweet voice like Dolly Parton's.

Marine worked as a second-shift supervisor in the Wesley Medical Center coffee shop for 13 years and attended Park City Baptist Church.

Phyllis Hedge recalled talking with her mother-in-law's neighbors following her death. She does not know if Rader, who lived just down the block, was among them.

"We possibly encountered him," she said. "I was talking to some neighbors asking questions about anything they had seen."

Tom and Phyllis Hedge moved out of Park City long before the first known BTK killings, and are not planning to return to Wichita for Rader's trial. Hedge's death put a strain on relations in the family, she said. In addition to Tom, Hedge had three daughters.

One of her daughter's, Linda Poon, said one of her sisters was notified about the press conference announcing Rader's arrest in advance by police.

Poon, who lives in Wichita, said she watched the news that day but did not attend the press conference.

"That night, I went to sleep and I could see her face," she said of her mother. "I can just see her picture in my mind when I go to sleep at night."