WICHITA, Kansas (KSN) -- "I opened up the door and saw stuff thrown on the floor. I looked at my mother. She didn't look like my mother. She looked like a pile of rags," said Charlie Otero, in a new documentary called “Feast of the Assumption: The Otero Family Murders.”

"My mom told me the only thing she ever prayed for was to die a peaceful death," Otero said.

These early scenes from the film are tales Wichitans would rather forget. But rather than dwell on the crimes, this new documentary is less about the BTK killer himself and more about the lives he still impacts to this day.

"I don't think I would have started this story if I wouldn't have grown up in Kansas, I'm sure of that," said Marc Levitz, the film’s producer.

From his apartment in Los Angeles, Levitz saw a national news report on the resurface of the BTK killer, Dennis Rader, who later confessed to 10 murders in the Wichita area.

Letitz, a native of Overland Park, was drawn back to Kansas to start a documentary. It began when Levitz met Otero for the first time while Charlie served four years in prison for assault.
 
"The ironic thing is we meet Charlie and he's in prison, and he gets out. And then BTK who was out goes to prison,” Levitz said. “So just that alone was just, who could have anticipated that?"

From his agonizing wait for answers to the court hearings themselves, Otero had a camera on him at every moment. Including the Oteros’ first trip back to their old neighborhood.

“BTK killer left our vehicle in this lot,” said Charlie’s brother in the film, shot as the family drove past the Dillons store where Rader ditched the Otero family vehicle in 1974. “Is this where he did it? He left it the next day. No that night, I think.”

This was a journey to relive four deaths, but remarkably the BTK saga would be a path to life for Charlie Otero. After all of the national media attention, Otero’s son contacted Charlie for the first time since he was born 15 years ago.
 
"Meeting my son opened a new door for me in life," Charlie said.

In the film, Otero explains their separation: “At that point I was running pretty wild through the streets and the fact that my family had been murdered so brutally, I felt like I might still be hunted. So I decided I really didn't want to have any kids."

Marc Levitz’s camera was set to capture this amazing side note to the BTK story:  the reunion of a father and son. Then came the unthinkable.  Young Joseph Otero Shafer was hit by a car while riding his bike. Instead of meeting his father he was in the hospital in critical condition.

"You know, in some stories you have an ending, and then there's a false ending. What we have in this particular case is a false ending,” Levitz said. “Just when we thought things would be over, they weren't."

After the accident, the context of the reunion was more emotional than Levitz could imagine. And for Otero it brought a new responsibility-- to be there for a hurting son he barely knew.

"It's beyond words, having somebody of my own blood to relate to. To look forward to go hunting and fishing and camping with. All those things we missed out that day that he was hurt," Charlie Otero said.

“Feast of the Assumption: The Otero Family Murders” is a personal journey brought to the people of Kansas by a man who left Kansas, only to be drawn back by the power of a lens and an amazing story.
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"Not to say that I was disenchanted, but Kansas wasn't a place I wanted to stay,” Levitz said. “But now there's definitely a for-sure spot in my heart and my mind."

The documentary debuts at Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre on February 25th at 7 p.m. It’s not recommended for younger viewers. Order advance tickets at www.selectaseat.com