Kevin Bright, then 19, was with his sister, Katherine, 21, when she returned to her home on an April afternoon. Police say BTK was hiding in a bedroom closet. Not expecting Kevin to be with his sister, BTK must have had to alter his careful plan. Nevertheless, the story of planning and control of that day is chilling.

For thirty years, it’s been a story Kevin Bright has never agreed to tell, except to police. Last week, he tells KAKE News his story from a location he doesn’t want disclosed.

“He just told us to stop and hold it right there,” says Bright. “He had me tie up my sister and then he tied me up, in separate bedrooms.”

The man told them he was wanted in California and just needed money and a car. Kevin quickly figured out that was a lie.

“He just kept going back and forth from where she was, to where I was,” Bright says.

“He was gentle and he took control. It was like he’d done it before. He wasn’t worried about anything that I could tell. He was methodical, is what I’d say.

“He didn’t push me down, didn’t slap me around. He laid me down on the bedroom floor, and I remember he put a pillow under my head,” says Bright.

The killer left Kevin, and then came back.

“He came in, leaned down on the floor and had a stocking. He started strangling me again. He wasn’t going to shoot me, he was going to strangle me,” says Bright.

But it was BTK’s own gun that may have saved Bright from being strangled. Bright managed to grab the killer’s 22-caliber pistol.

“That’s when I jumped up and broke loose and got a hold of him, got a hold of the gun.

“He should have been laying there dead, because I got a hold of the gun and the trigger and pulled it twice and it didn’t go off. He pulled it away from me and that’s when he shot me the first time. I just went on the floor. So, he thought I was dead, I guess and left me alone for a while.

“I just laid there and he went into the other room,” says Bright.

Bright was shot twice in the head and face, but still frantically looked around the room for a weapon to hit the killer with. He found only a coat hanger.

“So, I thought the best thing to do was maybe get out and look for help. So, I got up and went to the door and opened it and went outside,” says Bright.

Bright quickly found help from two men on the street. But by that time, BTK was gone and his sister, Katherine, was dying.

“I figured he probably heard me going and probably left out the back door at the same time,” explains Bright.

Bright says, “I thought he was sure of himself and he had been in that situation before and he new how to control people.

“At one time he just asked me, ‘Haven’t I seen you at the university?’ I had nothing to do with the university, so I said, ‘No,’” says Bright.

“He used a knotted up stocking, is what he used” to tie me up, Bright says.

Bright describes BTK as around 25- or 30-years-old, stalk, about 5’ 10” and 180 pounds. He says he had a slightly darker complexion and a black moustache. He possibly had dark eyes, although they were hard to see, because he had a black stocking cap almost covering his eyes. Contrary to recently published reports, he was not wearing an orange shirt and orange jacket.

“And, a camouflage jacket, that’s what I remember,” explains Bright.

Over the years, he also remembers a piece of jewelry BTK was wearing. Bright says, “The only thing I can think of is a watch. He was wearing a silver watch.”

Bright says it was like a plan he was executing and “he knew what he was doing.”

“Even though I surprised him I was with my sister, he was in control from the time it started until I got out of there,” says Bright.

Thirty-years later, Bright is a Christian who prays that his sister’s killer will be saved. “The Lord, I know he saved me that day for some purpose,” says Bright

“I always remember her smile, always had a great smile. She was kind to people. She liked to be with people and she was just a good person. I miss her,” says Bright, of her sister.

Bright has offered to talk to police about his memories of that day. For now, he’s studying to be a minister and enjoying a simple life with his wife.