Cold Case Closed: BTK Killer NOT Shawna Garber’s Murderer

A decades-old case in Missouri, long believed to be connected to the notorious bind-torture-kill (BTK) serial killer Dennis Rader, has been solved, with investigators saying he was not the suspect.

According to The Independent, Rader - who has been convicted of the deaths of at least 10 women - had been a potential suspect in the 1990 murder of 22-year-old Shawna Garber. The McDonald County Sheriff's Office also said that Larry Hall, another serial killer serving time, was also a suspect.

However, it was recently revealed that neither of the serial killers was believed to have killed Garber, but instead named Talfey Reeves - who already died in November 2021 - as the suspect, which essentially closed the case.

Timeline of Garber's Murder

On Halloween night in 1990, Reeves picked up Garber along Highway 59 in Missouri, "hogtied her by bounding her wrists and feet, and drove her to an abandoned farmhouse where it is believed that he sexually assaulted her and overdosed her with drugs," investigators said.

"He raped her. He bound her, and he overdosed her...to shut her up because she was screaming so loudly that it began to scare him in that valley because it echoed," McDonald County lead investigator Lori Howard added.

Garber's body was found in a farmhouse two months after her death, but from 1990 to 2021, she was only known as "Grace Doe."

She was only identified when technology advancements helped investigators determine a familial match from DNA extracted from her body in March 2021.

Garber's Sad Circumstances

The manner of her death and the fact that she was hogtied led them to question Rader in the murder, but he has ultimately denied involvement in any murders other than the 10 women he killed.

While he was considered a suspect, Howard also pointed out that Reeves had always been a suspect.

"He raped her and we know that because we had a witness who was terrified in 2010, 2015, 2017, to talk, but eventually, all six sources came forward, without knowing what happened in regards to each individual person," Howard explained. "No one knew what the other was saying. And we're able to verify that it did happen."

Garber, on the other hand, has been in foster care during her childhood, and her family lost contact with her, according to her half-sister Danielle Pixler.

"Shauna had a hard life," Howard told Fox News Digital. "She was born in a car, set on fire by her mother, had a failed adoption, in and out of foster care. Then met the devil and was killed in such a horrific manner."

There are pictures of her as a child but none of her as an adult. A facial reconstruction by artist Victoria Lywood showed what she was believed to have looked like when she died.

Meanwhile, Pixler insisted that she would continue to look for answers on how her half-sister died.

"I refuse to let her be invisible," she said.