This is a killer that was caught due to a victim’s father’s relentless search for his daughter and pushing the public to help and actually turning it to a nationwide search.

It’s safe to say that Israel Keyes is a rare breed of predators that even the BAU analysts have never stumbled upon or even had a profile similar to him. The reason for that is the fact that Israel Keyes didn’t have a victim preference like most killers. He killed men and women, young and old – but never kids (according to him during one of his investigations). The agents were doubting this claim. He had also kidnapped an old married couple (The Curries) for sexual purposes which was also extremely unusual.

This story will start at the end and make its way to the beginning. It begins with the fact that a young girl had to lose her life in order for a monster who remained invisible to finally be caught. It is heartbreaking, but she was the reason many others were spared, and as we move forward in the story you will understand how meticulous and smart this serial killer was. 

Catching him happened by pure luck on the side of the FBI and police, and lack thereof on his side.

The Disappearance That Started It All

This whole story starts when eighteen year old Samantha Koenig went missing from her work at a coffee kiosk, in Anchorage, Alaska, the Anchorage Police Department gathered information on Samantha and as it turned out she was a sweet girl who got along with everyone. She had two important people in her life, her single father James and her boyfriend of one year Duane.

The circumstances of Samantha’s disappearance suggested that she might have just walked out, the kiosk was a mess but there was no sign of struggle, a panic button in the kiosk hasn’t been pressed and the money from the register was missing. She had also asked her father to pick her up this evening which doesn’t seem like something you would do if you were planning on running away. Detective Monica Doll was assigned to the Koenig case, and around that time FBI Special Agent Steve Payne was informed of the case from a friend in the police department, to Payne it all seemed unlikely that Samantha ran away, she had so little money and Anchorage was not a walkable city, but he didn’t want to overstep on an open investigation without being asked to help. Payne was asked by detective doll to look at the surveillance cameras retrieved from a shop near the kiosk where Samantha worked. Now the video showed that during samantha’s shift a shadowy figure shows up in front of the kiosk and it seems like he is holding a gun because samantha’s hands go up. Afterwards she closes the lights, she hands over the money to the man and then he ties her hands and takes her with him. The first theory for Samantha’s case was that she was likely not a victim but that was kept within the APD who didn’t plan to go public with the disappearance. Along with the fact that there was zero physical evidence.

James Koenig was rumored to be in the drug trade. Some people considered him a bad man, some went as far as to say that he had arguments with his daughter over money that went missing from him. But James was set on finding his daughter and bringing her back home, he posted flyers everywhere available with Samantha’s face, he also called everyone who would listen to help him look for his daughter, the media was alerted and Samantha’s disappearance became a mystery and a public concern, the APD had no choice but to take it more seriously. Her father and boyfriend were interrogated but nothing much came out of that interrogation, other than that a strange man was rummaging through Samantha’s truck late at night and he ran away when Duane saw him and they both froze for a couple of seconds. After three weeks of being missing Duane, Samantha’s boyfriend got a text message from her phone asking him to go to Conner park where a sign is set under pic of albert. At the park they found a ransom note and polaroids of Samantha, as a proof of life a recent newspaper was held next to her dated February 13, 2012, her head was held by a man’s hand, she hair braided, and she was wearing eyeliner. The ransom demand was Thirty thousand dollars. This whole ordeal caused the case to be classified as a kidnapping, a federal crime. This case was now Steve Payne’s to investigate and not the APD’s. James Koenig was not keen on paying the ransom and thought it was fake, even though he opened a fund and was benefiniting from it, he actually made more money than the amount in the ransom. The question among agents that had different answers: In the polaroids was she alive or dead? and they would only know the answer later on.

Agent Payne thought about tracking the the ATM card to find whoever has Samantha. On February 29, five days after discovering the ransom note James Koenig informed the police that he was going to deposit five thousand dollars into Samantha’s account. Back to back withdrawals were made from Samantha’s card and whoever used the card knew Anchorage pretty well and was pretty smart about ATM locations, but fortunately one of the ATMs had working surveillance cameras. Samantha had been missing for 29 days. The footage from the surveillance showed that the suspect was or had been a marine, another video from home depot opposite the kiosk showed a white chevy pick up truck with no license plates, the suspect left the truck and when he came back Samantha was with him hands tied she tried to run away but he tackled her. The sad truth is that there were people around, the victim could have yield for help but she was too scared to react. The FBI made a figure out of the last ATM withdrawal footage. He had a tall figure, six feet tall and strong built.

Hunting Down A Monster

Some of the towns where the suspect withdrew money stretched across the I-10 which had low volume police officers some even had as much as 20 officers in total. Special Agent Payne posted a BOLO referencing a kidnapping suspect to summarize it, it mentioned to look out for an unknown male last seen wearing a light colored hooded sweatshirt. His vehicle is newer light colored passenger car. And based on ATM transactions it’s believed that the suspect is traveling east toward EL PASO. Steve Rayburn had been a texas ranger for three years, he was assigned as the main ranger assisting the FBI in finding the suspect who used the ATM card twice: once in Humble, Texas, and a second time in Shepherd, Texas. Rayburn wasted no time in writing his own more detailed bulletin for other rangers with a photo of the white ford attached with it then distributed it. Rayburn received a phone call late at night informing him that a white Ford Focus was spotted in front of the Quality Inn on South First Street. The car belonged to a white adult male who took the car and was driving down US 59 but the rangers still needed a reason to stop the driver and then it happened to ford focus driver was driving two miles over the speed limit which was a good enough reason to stop the suspect and question him. back then the texas ranger who stopped the suspect didn’t know that he was looking at a real monster in human skin, the suspect’s license revealed his name as Israel Keyes, born january 7, 1978, living in anchorage. Israel keyes had a knife tucked in his front jeans pocket and another in his back pocket. Special Agent Payne was notified that upon searching Keyes’s wallet they found a driver’s license belonging to Samantha Koenig. Israel Keyes had no criminal records which was unusual, he also lived in the Turnagain section of Anchorage where lots of lawyers, prosectures, and judges lived. Israel keyes’ house belonged to his girlfriend Kimberly Anderson, she also owned a Nissan Xterra which was spotted at some of the Anchorage ATM withdrawal videos. A Google search of the suspect’s name showed an old address which proved that he spent time in military service, from which he was honorably discharged in 2001. The house where keyes lived with his girlfriend had two sheds and a trailer, and a white Chevrolet truck, this particular truck was checked right after Samantha’s disappearance and was ruled out.

Lies And Deceit

Upon being asked about why he was arrested keyes denied any knowledge of the reasons behind his arrest and interrogation. And when he was confronted with the finding of the license and ATM card of Samantha Koenig in his possession, keyes said that he didn’t want to talk but didn’t request a lawyer which still gave hope to detectives. Detective Doll who stayed on the investigation along with the FBI was flown from Alaska in order to attend the interrogation in which keyes gave the most random story when confronted with the ransom note and polaroid. According to him a ziplock bag was left for him by someone on the front seat of his pickup truck a few weeks ago, inside the bag was a cell phone and that ATM card with a PIN number scratched on it, which sounds so unbelievably ridiculous. Now i should mention the wrong steps that were taken during the interrogation of keyes, the US Attorney Kevin Feldis decided that Israel was going to be interrogated at the US Attorney’s office and not the FBI building which was a big mistake because the office was not properly prepared for such an important interrogation, even worse was the fact that Feldis decided that he would lead the interrogation which he wasn’t trained for like FBI agents. The aforementioned acts were prosecutorial misconducts.

A Confession From Hell

Now i must warn you that this part of the story is were all hell breaks loose, the following will include gruesome details of a horrific crime. According to Israel Keyes’ confession, on February 1st, 2012, the suspect parked in front of the Home Depot that was not his first time being there, like all predators keyes was stalking the area for sometime waiting for the perfect moment to catch a vulnerable prey, keyes changed his scenario many times claiming that he had the intention to rob the kiosk which doesn’t make sense when you see the whole picture of this bloody crime, keyes continues by saying that he had zip ties and his 22 taurus revolver. He was also in possession of a tiny police scanner which enabled him to be many steps ahead of the authorities. It must be mentioned that random killings and kidnapping cases are very rare, and a perpetrator who has no specific victim preference is hard to come by according to FBI analysts.

Israel Keyes claimed that he never met Samantha Koenig before the day of the accident, Keyes wanted to know what evidence the agents had which was so little to be franc and well if it wasn’t for keyes’ own wrong belief that they must have concrete evidence, they wouldn’t have been able to convict him of much more than kidnap and fraud. They had no physical evidence of murder but Keyes didn’t need to know that. Israel Keyes told them that Samantha’s body was laying under the winter thick ice layers of Matanuska Lake, Keyes was used to go ice fishing there and that explains the shack they found in his shed, keeping in mind that Keyes told the investigators about evidence in the shed outside his house not knowing that they searched the wrong shed and had no clue about was Keyes was talking about but the point was to keep him talking. Keyes constructed the ice shack then cut an 8×8 foot hole in the ice then covered it with plywood. He had to make three trips to get rid of the body, he needed five different bags, the first day was the head, legs, and arms of Samantha Koenig. Keyes kept going with his story from holding the gun and pointing it at Samantha to telling her to turn off the lights in the kiosk then taking the money and tying her hands with a zip lock, tackling her when she tried to escape and threatening her, and finally pushing her into his truck. A video of the incident is available online if you’re interested in seeing how it went down.

Keyes had stuffed her mouth with napkins to prevent her from screaming and attracting unwanted attention, now please keep in mind that Israel Keyes is manipulative individual who tricked his victim with the illusion of hope, which is a tactic used by most predators, the trick is to make the victim believe that they were taken for a purpose other than murder in this case it would be a ransom, Israel minimized all of his actions linguistically even when he told this brutal story. Keyes had a habit of taking the battery out of his cellphone so he wouldn’t be tracked at certain times which showed that this might not be his first time committing a calculated and planned crime. Six times during the interrogation Keyes mentioned potential witnesses, six times were Samantha could have been rescued or escaped. Keyes went to Samantha’s house and stole the ATM card from her truck and that was an explanation of what Duane saw.

The final moments of the poor girl’s life were spent in Keyes’ shed and he wouldn’t tell that part about what happened to anyone except detective doll. Keyes claimed that he had been two different people for Fourteen years which would prove false he had actually been that way since birth which will be discussed later on as we discuss his life. when Keyes was interrogated by detective Doll he said he would only tell the abridged version. Back at the shed which Keyes had prepared a couple of days earlier with no specific victim in mind or plan. While Kimberly was in the house still awake, Israel Keyes had raped Samantha twice, Keyes always wore leather gloves and not rubber gloves because the rubber gloves are harder to use when strangling a person according to him, he strangled Samantha after he had stabbed her once right below her right shoulder blade in her back which caused her to lose a lot of blood, he never gave any reason for stabbing her. He wrapped her body in tarp and called a cab because he was supposed to go on a cruise with his daughter in a couple of hours. It was cold at that time so he didn’t have to worry about decomposition yet. Keyes came back from his trip waited for his daughter to leave for school then went back into the shed pulling it apart from the inside and burning everything that Samantha touched, Keyes was also a necrophiliac who abused his victim’s lifeless body, afterwards he started on the whole ransom idea he shaved Samantha, cleaned her up and braided her hair, applied a ton of make-up to her face, he even stitched her eyes open to make her more alive in the polaroid. For some unknown reason someone as smart as keyes thought that he couldn’t be tracked by using the card. When the body started to smell he decided on dismembering the body and getting rid of it in Matanuska Lake. After sinking the last of Samantha’s body, Keyes sat at the edge of the hole and started fishing. The FBI Dive Team was dispatched to retrieve the body from the lake which they found and pulled out piece by piece from the cold fresh water. Samantha’s father was informed of finding his daughter’s body but he was advised on not seeing the body in such state. Israel Keyes’ arrest caused a lot of people to call the FBI tip line and many of them vouched for him being a loving father and a hard worker, honest and pleasant. Many other calls that were redacted later on said that his family was part of the Amish community and going even further to state that the family has ties with the Koreshian cult, followers of David Koresh which was involved in the devastating Waco massacre, one of the most devastating incidents in cult history. A laptop was retrieved from Keyes’ girlfriend’s house and upon checking it they found hundreds of photos of missing people of different ages, race, gender and body shapes. Some of those pictures belonged to missing people, among those there were pictures of Samantha Koenig it basically looked like he stalked her. This opened the hellish idea that Keyes was in fact a serial killer and those might be his victims but there were no evidences to support that idea.

The Tell Tale Of A Serial Killer

Keyes was confronted with the findings but he decided on not giving any details without having some of his demands met and under his own terms. Some of which were to keep his crimes and identity out of the media, to spare his daughter and give her a chance to grow up and his family the outcome if such things were revealed. Keyes also wanted to represent himself in court. First Keyes asked for no death penalty then he asked explicitly for the death penalty to be set at a specific date within the next year.

Keyes traveled like no other person, most of the time he was on the road, renting cars and booking flights, he buried killing kits and cash all over his traveling routes for future use, he kidnapped his victims from one area and left their cars in another afterwards he dumped the bodies in a completely different place while being conscious about not leaving any evidence which was a point of pride for him. During June 2011, Keyes was in Indiana, he had planned to stalk and kill at random but he failed on his first attempt then he went back to his hotel and went out again after midnight, that’s when his set his mind on finding a house with a couple, he found one with no dogs, and no sign of kids. Israel decided that this was the house for him to break into and in fact that’s what he did he broke into the house and kidnapped Bill and Lorraine Currier who were in fact missing since 2011, kidnapping a couple of both genders for sexual purposes was unheard of, Israel Keyes was a rare breed of serial killers, one that the BAU analysts haven’t seen or profiled before, he was a horrific monster out of a horror story. Keyes robbed the Currier’s house and kidnapped them to an abandoned farmhouse he rapped the curriers in separate rooms then shot Bill dead with a 10 rounds magazine -22 gun equipped with a silencer, and choked Lorraine until she lost consciousness, in her final moments lorraine was brought to were her husband was then she was strangled with a rope. Keyes poured Drano on the bodies and bagged them in trash bags then piled garbage on top of them. Keyes’ mother Heidi confirmed that he had been missing from her home in Texas. Israel Keyes also confessed to arson in Aledo, Texas and a robbery of the National Bank in Azle, Texas. In 2012, Jimmy Tidwell went missing from Texas around the time Keyes was there and was missing according to his family but he was never linked as a victim to Keyes. Tidwell’s case matched Keyes’ MO in the way he disappeared another clue was that during the bank robbery Keyes was wearing a white hard hat similar to the one Tidwell was known to always wear, and to make things even worse the video tape of the robbery showed a ponytail under the hat which Keyes didn’t have and according to him a wig was not the only way a person can acquire human hair and i will leave the rest to your imagination. The FBI gathered as much information about Keyes’ travels in order to link them to missing people cases, 44 people were identified from the pictures on Keyes’ laptop, eleven of them were teenagers which contradicts what Keyes said about messing with kids.

Born To Kill Or Shaped Into One?

Israel Keyes was a ghost with no footprints and no social records, due to his upbringing he was never registered as a newborn baby or had any papers to prove his existence, he continued his life off social media and anything that would link to him. In the beginning of digital age and how fast it progressed over the years, Keyes being a walking mystery was weird but it played well into his life plan of spreading bloody prints wherever he went. That worked perfectly with the fact that he was meticulous about leaving no DNA or physical evidence of any kind, he even went back to some crime scenes to clean up and make sure that no traces are left.

Israel Keyes was born in Utah in 1978. His parents, Jeff and Heidi Keyes were religious fanatics who prefered isolation and living off the land, they didn’t want anything to do with civilization and technology, they were both Mormons. They had 10 children all of them were delivered at home by Jeff who hated doctors and only believed in natural home remedies for all illnesses. None of the children had birth certificates or social security numbers or even attended school. They purchased 160 acres on top of a mountain in Colville to be certain about having no neighbors and having total isolation. They lived a very poor lifestyle with no heat, plumbing or electricity. The kids were forced to memorize scripture and do hand labor, they had nothing but isolation and pets to keep them company. Keyes took care of his siblings, he cooked, sewed, and learned how to braid hair for his sisters.

Jeff and Heidi quit Mormonism after leaving Utah, and they began to attending a militia-based white supremacist anti-semitic church called the Ark. Israel took interest in this violent environment and especially in guns and how to build them. He also made friends with two brother Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe who were arrested in 1998 for the Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 triple homicide of a young family. The Ark was planning for a race war. Keyes’ psychopathic tendencies started materialising when he was a child, he would start fire and torture animals which evolved into killing the animals, animals are the last step before progressing to humans. Around fifteen years old Keyes had built his own cottage which he moved into whether he killed during that time is unknown but he did say that he started learning how to stalk people and look for a right time to attack in the surrounding woods. In 1994, Keyes was arrested for shoplifting, he only got community service for that. Israel stopped believing in religion not long afterwards which had upset his family a great deal. His family had already left the Ark after the 1993 siege at Waco, and they cast out Israel for being a non believer but not for long, and they moved to Oregon. Keyes joined them a month later, in 1997 the family moved once more to a property Jeff bought in Malone, New York and he wrote the deed to Israel. One year later they moved again to Maine where they settled among the Amish. But this time Keyes didn’t join them, he managed to get a diploma and join the military, where he never saw combat. During his time in the military he met Tammie, who was a single mother and who gave birth to his daughter but managed to be addicted to drugs later on in life and that’s when Keyes left her and got custody of their daughter.

In 2005, he met Kimberly Anderson on a dating website, after they started dating Keyes moved to alaska. There were two kidnappings and killing in 1996 and 1997. Julie Harris and Cassie Emerson both cases were never solved and Keyes never testified to doing them, both cases remain unsolved but in 1997 when Keyes left Colville the kidnapping and murders ceased.

The Final Days Of The Investigation

The curriers bodies were never found by the FBI after an extensive search. Without the confession this crime was never going to link to Keyes. Keyes also confessed to a bank robbery in Tupper Lake, and the existence of a victim’s body in New York which would round up the total victim count to four. During his federal courtroom appearance Keyes tried to escape even though he was surrounded by at least six US Marshals.

Israel Keyes also confessed to another high profile murder, on July 11, 2006, a mother and daughter were found murdered on the remote Pinnacle Lake Trail by a couple who were hiking.

it’s worth mentioning that a serial killer shared MO with Keyes, he was known as the Boca Killer. the Boca Killer used to kidnap women in broad daylight by accessing their cars and forcing them to comply to his demands while under the threat of a gun, his first victim and her toddler were spared, but others were not that lucky. The Jane Doe who was spared gave a detailed description of the assailant which resembled Keyes. The FBI suspected that other victims were at the bottom of Lake Ozette where Keyes had purchased a boat.

On December 1, 2012, Israel Keyes committed suicide in his prison cell with a razor blade and a noose. He left twelve skulls on the wall, drawn with his own blood, the words WE ARE ONE was written underneath.