Kerri Rawson, the daughter of BTK killer Dennis Rader, is now under a domestic-violence injunction in Seminole County and has temporarily lost custody of her two teenage children to her ex-husband, Darian Rawson. The emergency court action stems from a January 5, 2025 incident in which Rawson allegedly called 911 and reported that the children had been shot and were in immediate danger. Officers later located her at Orlando International Airport and took her in for a mental-health evaluation.
Court filings show that after the incident, Darian Rawson turned to family court and sought emergency protection. He was granted temporary full custody of the couple’s two teens as part of a protective order that also requested other restraining measures. The domestic-violence petition and a judge’s temporary injunction are listed on the Seminole County family-law docket, according to Trellis.
According to the New York Post, police records say that when officers responded to the Jan. 5 call, they found the children safe, even as Rawson allegedly made a series of frantic reports. The petition claims she summoned Darian to a police station and told him she had “psychic powers” and sensed that the teens were in grave danger. Officers later tracked her to Orlando International Airport and, under Florida’s Baker Act, transported her to a hospital for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.
Under Florida law, the Baker Act allows authorities to detain someone for an involuntary psychiatric exam if the person appears likely to harm themselves or others, or cannot meet basic needs. The Seminole County Clerk’s mental-health guidelines lay out how ex parte holds work and how emergency evaluations can ripple into family court, including temporary custody changes; see the Seminole County Clerk for details. That process helps explain how a short-term hospital hold can quickly turn into protective measures for children while a judge sorts out the longer-term picture.
Rawson has spent recent years in the public eye grappling with her family history. She published a memoir, A Serial Killer’s Daughter, in 2019 and appears prominently in the Netflix documentary My Father, the BTK Killer, which debuted in October 2025. Her work has positioned her as a voice for victims of abuse and trauma, even as her own personal crises have now drawn legal scrutiny and court intervention. For more on the documentary and the memoir, see Netflix and the listing on Google Books.
What the injunction says
The temporary injunction bars Rawson from approaching the children’s home or school and prohibits contact with the family’s pets, among other restrictions. The goal is to create immediate physical and legal distance while the court weighs longer-term questions about custody, therapy and any additional interventions. Docket entries indicate that the judge awarded temporary custody to Darian as the case proceeds, according to Trellis.
Reporting also indicates that Rawson took to Facebook to plead her case and shared a GoFundMe link that had raised nearly $9,500, according to the New York Post. The collision of a notorious family name, public advocacy work, and a Baker Act detention has made the situation especially delicate for local officials and relatives. Officials with Seminole County and representatives for Rawson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
