July 20, 2024 • 30 mins
What if the person living next door harbored the darkest of secrets? Join us on Eastern Crime Zone as we uncover the harrowing tale of Israel Keyes, a seemingly ordinary man who led an extraordinarily sinister life. This episode brings you the chilling case of Samantha Tesla Koenig, an 18-year-old barista who vanished from her workplace in Anchorage, Alaska, sparking an emotional and relentless search by her father. We'll take you through the initial suspicions that fell upon her boyfriend and father, and the eerie surveillance footage capturing her last moments at the coffee kiosk.
Prepare yourself for an unsettling journey into the mind of Israel Keyes, a calculated and cold-blooded serial killer. We delve into his meticulous planning, his disturbing post-murder behavior, and the details of Samantha's abduction, torture, and murder. From his upbringing in a fundamentalist Christian household to his early criminal activities and military service, we paint a comprehensive picture of his descent into violence. Keyes' manipulative nature during interrogations and his interactions with law enforcement add another layer to this chilling narrative.
In a haunting conclusion, we examine Keyes' chilling confessions, his demands for an execution date in exchange for revealing his victims' locations, and his obsession with avoiding prison. We touch on the unresolved mystery of his potential eleven victims and the missed opportunities for closure due to the mishandling of his interrogation by prosecutor Kevin Feldes. This episode leaves you with a broader fear of the unknown, pondering the possibility of others like Keyes still at large. Stay safe, stay vigilant, and question everything.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Israel Keyes, once a proud Army infantryman who
served with honor at Fort Hoodand in Egypt, appeared to embody
the essence of a normalall-American life.
Transitioning from militaryservice, he ventured into
entrepreneurship, founding aconstruction company in the
remote expanse of Alaska andembracing fatherhood with his
own daughter.
Yet concealed beneath thisveneer of suburban
(00:22):
respectability lay a chillingenigma of darkness.
Confirmed to have claimed thelives of three victims and
suspected by the FBI of manymore, keyes operated with
meticulous cunning Across theexpanse of the United States.
He concealed macabre kill kits,ominous caches prepared with
calculated foresight into futurehorrors.
His secrets and atrocitiesunraveled only after his demise,
(00:46):
a self-inflicted end thatdenied justice the opportunity
to unveil the full extent of hismonstrous deeds.
Thus unfolds the harrowing taleof Israel Keyes, a figure whose
presence in the annals of crimecasts a shadow as one of the
most prolific and unsettlingserial killers and rapists of
the early 21st century.
Hello and welcome to theEastern Crime Zone, a show about
(01:30):
investigations of real, truecrime cases.
I'm your host, Cassie Millay,and every week I'll take you
through new details about casesyou're familiar with and
completely new cases you'venever heard of before.
If there's a case you'reinterested in learning more
about.
Please head over to my website,easterncrimezonecom and leave
me a voicemail or send me a DMon Instagram at easterncrimezone
.
So sit back, grab yourdetective hat and get settled in
(01:52):
for another true crime case.
This is Eastern Crime ZoneClink.
Samantha Tesla Koenig was bornAugust 30th 1993 in Anchorage,
alaska.
When she was a baby, her fatherwas enamored with his baby girl
and her giggle-snort laugh.
She attended West High Schooland Avail High School and
(02:13):
dreamed of one day working withanimals or maybe joining the
Navy to become a nurse.
But Samantha was more than that.
She was charming and sarcasticand funny.
She loved animals, her friends,fishing, writing music and
poetry and playing video gameswith her boyfriend, dwayne.
When she was 18, samantha wasworking at a coffee kiosk called
(02:34):
Common Grounds at 845 EastTudor Road in Anchorage, alaska.
On February 1, 2012, the kioskwas obscured by five-foot-high
snow drifts and motorists couldonly see the top of the small
coffee stand.
Samantha was working alone, aswas typical, and it was pretty
(02:54):
slow.
She had texted her dad askinghim to swing by with something
for her to eat, but he wasn'table to make it.
The next day, the morning shiftbarista clocked in only to
discover the kiosk wasn't closedproperly.
The money from the previous daywas missing and Samantha had
only been working there a month.
But this wasn't normal behaviorfor her.
So this barista was the firstto report Samantha missing.
(03:16):
Investigators immediatelythought Samantha had taken the
money for herself and run off.
But Samantha didn't have hervehicle that night and run off.
But Samantha didn't have hervehicle that night.
She shared a truck with herboyfriend, dwayne, and he was
driving it that night and wassupposed to pick her up after
her shift.
So if she had no car, how didshe disappear in 30-degree
weather?
Dwayne did go to the kiosk thatnight to pick Samantha up, but
(03:38):
she had already left and thelights were off.
He went back to the home helived in with Samantha and her
father, james.
But both Dwayne and James feltsomething was off, even when
Samantha sent Dwayne a textsaying she was leaving for a few
days with friends and to lether dad know.
The text read F you asshole, Iknow what you did.
I'm going to spend a coupledays with friends.
(03:58):
I need time to think.
Plan acting weird.
Let my dad know Now the couplehad been having issues.
But Samantha wouldn't just runoff without at least calling her
father, who she was extremelyclose with.
Dwayne went to sleep that nighthoping his girlfriend would just
cool off and talk to him soon.
But around 3 am he woke up andwent outside to see a man with a
(04:21):
mask going through his andSamantha's shared truck.
This man walked off as soon ashe saw Dwayne.
What's interesting to me isthat Dwayne didn't do anything
when he saw this man goingthrough his truck.
He didn't call police, hedidn't confront him, he just
went inside and told Samantha'sfather, james.
An hour later he went back outto the truck and realized that
(04:42):
Samantha's driver's license wasmissing.
He didn't call the police orfollow this man at all.
On February 2nd investigatorslooked at the surveillance
footage from inside of CommonGrounds from the previous day At
8 pm, only 30 minutes beforeDwayne would arrive to pick
Samantha up.
Samantha is seen in a limegreen t-shirt and her long brown
(05:02):
hair worn down.
She's relaxed, talking to acustomer through the kiosk
window and two minutes later herhands go up and Samantha turns
out the light.
A customer was only a shadowwho may have been holding a gun.
Samantha moves to the counterand gets on her knees for a
minute, then moves to theregister and takes out all the
cash and returns to her kneelingposition.
(05:22):
At the 5 minute 19 second mark,a male figure leans in the
window and seems to be tying herarms behind her back before
coming through the kiosk window.
After looking throughSamantha's purse, he helps her
up and walks her out of thekiosk into the snow.
At this point anyone was asuspect, including Dwayne and
James Koenig.
James was doing everything hecould to help find Samantha,
(05:45):
making posters, pleading onFacebook for her return and
holding candlelight vigils.
One of the things he did wasset up a reward for information
about Samantha's disappearance.
Some of this money, james usedfor himself personally, which a
lot of people found suspicious.
It's just an opinion, but Idon't think it's really fair to
(06:05):
blame James for using this moneyfor himself personally.
He had to have money to keephis home running when he was
probably unable to work,considering that his daughter
was missing.
Some people found it suspiciousthat James would fixate on the
reward money and be checking itconstantly, but in his defense,
checking the reward moneyconstantly is the only thing he
(06:27):
has control over.
Of course, he would be checkingit often.
This reward money wouldeventually reach $75,000.
On February 20th, apd pulledsurveillance footage from the
Home Depot across from thecoffee kiosk from the night of
Samantha's abduction.
In the footage you can see awhite Chevy truck pull up on
February 1st at 745, and thetruck had no license plates.
(06:48):
The driver sat for 10 minutes,then walked across Tudor Road
and out of view.
After 20 minutes.
The man reappeared withSamantha under his arm to a
crosswalk.
When the traffic light changed,samantha made a run for it.
She was clearly in a panic andhad her wrist still bound, and
Samantha only made it a few feetbefore her abductor tackled her
(07:09):
and said something into her ear.
He walked her to his truck andput her in the passenger seat.
There were people near thetruck at this point, but
whatever this man had said toSamantha squashed any ideas of
her trying to escape again.
At 7.56 on February 24th, dwaynegot a text from Samantha's
phone that read Connor Park signunder pic of Albert.
(07:31):
Ain't she purdy?
Dwayne, james and lawenforcement all rushed to
Connor's Bog Park On a bulletinboard under a sign for a missing
dog named Albert.
They found a Ziploc bag.
Inside was a ransom note and aphoto of Samantha.
The photo was actually aPolaroid that had been cut
around the edges and thenscanned and printed onto printer
paper.
(07:51):
The photo that I'm going to putup is a recreation of the photo,
not the real one, and the realone has supposedly never been
released.
But people on Reddit kind ofargue about that, saying this is
the real photo.
It's not the real photo thereal photo.
Officially this is not the realphoto and supposedly her hair
was braided in the real photoand this girl her hair is down.
In case you're listening andnot on youtube, in the photo
(08:13):
samantha is wearing makeup andhad her hair braided instead of
down, like it had been at thetime of her abduction.
Her head was held by a man andyou can see his arm.
Also in the photo was a copy ofthe Anchorage Daily News dated
February 13, 2012.
The actual ransom note thataccompanied the photo was typed
by typewriter onto plain whitepaper.
(08:38):
It implied that Samantha was inone of the lower 48 states and
that she almost escaped hercaptor twice more, once in
Anchorage on Tudor Road and oncein a desert after she was
transported south.
The letter demanded $30,000 inexchange for Samantha's safe
return in six months.
This money was to be depositedinto Samantha and Dwayne's
shared bank account.
(08:58):
After the ransom note was found, there was no more debate that
Samantha had left on her own andthe case was handed to the FBI,
since kidnapping is a federalcrime.
On February 29th, five daysafter discovering the ransom
note, it was decided that $5,000would be put into the account
instead of the whole $30,000that the kidnapper demanded.
(09:20):
The FBI believed this mightfrustrate them and push them
into making further contact.
Less than four hours after thedeposit, samantha's debit card
was used to withdraw $500 froman ATM in Anchorage.
Two hours after that, the cardwas used to withdraw another
$500 from an ATM across town.
In the ATM surveillance footageyou can see a man wearing
(09:42):
glasses, a gray face mask, graygloves and white shoes.
Unfortunately, this would notlead them to their suspect or to
Samantha just yet.
The next ATM withdrawals werecompletely unexpected.
On March 7th the card was usedto make withdrawals in Arizona,
then New Mexico, then Texas.
In the footage from thesecameras they discovered the
(10:03):
suspect was driving a white FordFocus, probably a rental.
An officer was looking throughhotel parking lots off of US-59
and found a white Ford Focusrental car parked in front of
the Quality Inn.
When the driver left, the hotelofficers found a reason to pull
the driver over.
The driver was a white man inhis mid-30s wearing wraparound
(10:24):
sunglasses.
When they asked for hisdriver's license, they found it
was from Alaska, and thisobviously was super exciting.
On his Alaska driver's licensewas the name Israel Keys, born
January 7th 1978.
In Texas there is a probablecause exemption, which means if
the police have reason tobelieve the vehicle was used in
(10:44):
the commission of a crime, theycan search it legally.
Whenever a search is conducted,it has to be done legally, by
the book, or any evidence foundin that search would be thrown
out.
This is called the fruit of apoisonous tree doctrine.
Since he had the right kind ofcar and his driver's license was
from Alaska, they found this tobe enough probable cause to
search his vehicle.
(11:04):
And after searching the vehicle, inside Israel's wallet was
Samantha Koenig's driver'slicense.
Obviously, israel was arrestedand within two weeks, extradited
back to Alaska.
During interviews, israel madetwo demands One, that
information about himself andhis crime be kept away from the
(11:25):
media as much as possible.
He had a young daughter anddidn't want her to be harmed by
the media frenzy.
And two, he wanted to receivean execution date as fast as
possible.
Besides that, investigators hadanother wrench in their plan.
The top federal prosecutor wasgoing to be running the
interrogation with his deputy,frank Russo.
(11:46):
Kevin Feldes was with the USAttorney's Office since 1999 and
had a lot of power in theAlaska legal system.
Everyone wanted to stay on hisgood side, but having Feldes
lead the interrogation was aterrible idea.
He wanted to move theinterrogation to the US
Attorney's Office, whichwouldn't have the same
intimidating effect as the FBIoffices.
(12:06):
Also, police and FBI agents areallowed to lie to a suspect to
elicit a confession.
Prosecutors cannot.
This would be consideredprosecutorial misconduct and
could potentially ruin an entirecase.
Not to mention you lose allbargaining power when the person
that police would usually usein a deal is sitting right
(12:27):
across the table from thesuspect.
The biggest issue, however,with Feldes was that he had
never interrogated anyone before, and it's actually insane that
this was allowed to happen,especially because of how this
case ends up going.
Interrogations started on March30th at 5.48 pm in the US
Attorney's Office.
(12:47):
Israel sat expressionless witha monotone voice.
When he did speak, israel isrecorded telling the story of
Samantha's kidnapping.
For several evenings that weekhe had driven the same route at
the same time of day to checkout the Common Grounds kiosk
before he decided to rob it.
He parked at the Home Depotdown the street and walked west
toward the kiosk.
He put a tiny police scanner inhis ear and with him he brought
(13:11):
a coffee mug, a pair of plasticzip ties, a headlamp and a .22
Taurus revolver.
He'd never met Samantha orplanned to target her in
particular.
He only picked this kioskbecause it was partially hidden
from the road and only had oneperson working at a time,
usually a young girl.
Israel arrived at the kiosk at7.55 and ordered an Americano
(13:34):
from Samantha.
When she handed him the cup, hepulled out his gun and said
this is arobbery.
After they left the CommonGrounds kiosk, israel found a
camera on the ground, a brandnew Canon camera, and he said he
thought it was a good omen.
When he bent over to pick upthe camera, samantha made a run
for it.
Unfortunately, like I said,israel was able to tackle her
(13:55):
and scare her back intosubmission.
They walked back to Israel'struck together with him, telling
Samantha to lean on him likeshe was drunk.
To Israel's truck together withhim telling Samantha to lean on
him like she was drunk.
A few people were lingeringaround a Chevy Suburban in the
Home Depot parking lot, but atthis point Samantha was too
afraid to make a second escapeattempt.
He told Samantha this was onlyfor ransom and that he wouldn't
(14:16):
hurt her.
Obviously, this is alie.
They made a few more stops thatnight, including to a park and
to get gas, all of these beingcompletely by mistake and good
opportunities for someone to seeSamantha or for someone to say
something.
There was even a period of timewhere a police cruiser pulled
up next to his truck and helooked at Samantha and knew she
(14:39):
wouldn't say anything.
As soon as Israel tookSamantha's debit card and cell
phone, he didn't need her aliveanymore.
Around 2 am he finally took herfrom his truck and moved her to
his tool shed where he tied herup by the neck.
Then Israel went inside tocheck on his daughter and his
girlfriend and make sure theywere still asleep.
He poured himself a glass ofwine and returned to his shed.
(15:02):
There Israel sat drinking itwhile he told Samantha how he
would rape her before stranglingher to death with the rope he'd
already tied around her neck.
And that's exactly what he did.
He left Samantha's body in theshed, went back into his house
and packed his bags for himselfand his daughter.
At 5 am sharp he called a cabto the airport to fly to New
(15:24):
Orleans for two weeks ofCaribbean cruising that he'd
planned with his family.
After he returned from thistrip, he took the ransom photos
of Samantha's body for proof oflife.
He did her hair, he put makeupon her and used fishing line to
sew her eyes open.
And then he also raped her bodyone last time.
And then he also raped her bodyone last time.
(15:44):
When he no longer neededSamantha's body, he dismembered
her and disposed of her remainsin the Matanuska Lake just
outside of Palmer,alaska.
Israel was not forthcoming withdetails going forward.
He wanted to use his knowledgeas leverage to get what he
wanted.
He had made several allusionsto other murders he committed
without outright confessing toanything.
(16:05):
If Kevin Feldes wasn't in theway, who knows what an
experienced interrogator wouldhave gotten out of
Israel.
Here is what we do know aboutIsrael Keyes.
He said he was born in Cove,utah, to a large Mormon family.
He was the second oldest of 10children.
When he was three or four, thefamily settled in the woods
(16:26):
outside of Colville, washington,a remote hamlet in the
northeastern part of the state.
His parents had then becomefundamentalist Christians,
moving from churches Keyesdescribed as Amish to a more
militant militia sort of church.
When he was a teenager, thefamily at times would go without
electricity and and homeschoolthe children For years.
(16:46):
Some of the kids would sleep ina tent.
The kids earned money throughunder-the-table jobs, cutting
firewood or working on farms.
He said he spent time in thewoods and hunted anything with a
heartbeat.
Israel was obsessed with gunsfrom a very young age.
As an adolescent, israel saidhe shot at houses with BB guns,
broke into homes and startedfires in the woods.
(17:08):
Later he slipped into the cabinof a neighbor to steal guns
which he secreted in a cacheoutside the family home.
When his parents found out,they made him apologize and
return the guns.
In an already isolated family,israel said he kept to himself.
He talked about a need forcontrol, a theme in his
interactions with investigators,as well as his killings.
(17:30):
In his teenage years herenounced the Christian faith
which displeased hisfather.
In 1987 or 1998, the familymoved to Maupin, a high desert
town in the Deschutes River incentral Oregon.
He and his brothers helpedtheir dad build a house there.
In an interview with FBIinvestigators, israel said that
by his late teenage years hedecided he could rape and kill
(17:53):
and get away with it.
He was also interested inSatanism at this time and began
to plan a satanic ritual killinginvolving a young woman.
The area where Israel wasworking was a popular place for
inner tubers to float theDeschutes
River.
Israel told investigators thatone day he stood on the beach
along the river, waited out andgrabbed a woman who was the last
in her group, a teenage girlwith sandy blonde hair.
(18:15):
He dragged her to a remotecampground bathroom, tied her up
with ropes and raped her Keyes,planned to strangle the girl
and dump her body in the toiletpit where he thought it wouldn't
be discovered for a long time.
He brought knives with him touse for a satanic ritual.
The girl was only a teenager,between the ages of 14 and 18,
he told investigators and shewas really scared.
(18:37):
He said she kept saying shewasn't going to tell anybody.
He told her to shut up but shekept talking.
She was pretty smart.
It worked.
He said things never really gotviolent like they could have if
she had been fighting me andthank god he let her go.
I was too timid, he toldinvestigators I wasn't violent
(18:59):
enough.
I made up my mind I was nevergoing to let that happen again.
He said he was never chargedwith this crime and it's unclear
if investigators even locatedthe
victim.
After Oregon, at age 20, israeltook a high school equivalency
test and joined the army.
He liked the survival skillsaspect of military training.
(19:20):
Israel made friends among thesoldiers and drank a lot, he
said he was stationed for sixmonths in Egypt where he and his
friends took trips to Tel Avivto patronize prostitutes.
During this time, israelresolved to act on the fantasies
of killing strangers.
He decided he was also anatheist.
He said.
I guess you could say I came toterms with myself and the
(19:54):
reasons I wanted to do it.
After his deployment he wasstationed at Fort, he said, most
of the next six years living onthe reservation with her and
their child, working in theparks and recreation department
for the tribal authority.
He spent a lot of time inforests and mountains of the
Olympic Peninsula and made longtrips to eastern Washington
where he'd spent most of hischildhood.
He suggested to investigatorsthat this was when he began
(20:17):
killing people.
I just accepted it was a matterof time, time and opportunity
before I did something.
Again.
Investigators pressed for cluesabout other victims.
Had the crimes possibly takenplace on national parkland State
parkland?
Israel wouldn't say.
They searched his boat.
He said he had made a homemadeanchor that might be of interest
(20:38):
.
He and his daughter's motherbroke up and he began dating a
new woman.
When this woman moved toAnchorage around 2007, he and
his daughterfollowed.
Israel told investigators hetraveled widely Until the Koenig
abduction.
He said he followed a ruleabout never killing too close to
home.
Keyes also told investigatorsthat he would often stash murder
(21:00):
kits near future crime scenes.
These kits contained weaponsand supplies to dispose of his
victims' bodies, including ducttape, shovels, guns, rope, drano
and lye.
It seems like he put these killkits inside of Home Depot
buckets.
Unlike most serial killers,israel traveled thousands of
miles to stalk his victims andlearn their habits before
(21:21):
killing them.
He told authorities that hewould leave his home in
Anchorage, alaska, under theguise of visiting distant
friends and family members andthat no one suspected he was
going on a multi-state killingspree.
In the interviews, israelconfessed in detail to killing a
middle-aged couple, bill andLorraine Currier, in Vermont in
June 2011.
He chose the Essex-Vermontcouple to kill for no reason
(21:44):
beyond the design of their home.
They lived in a house with anattached garage that would be
easy to enter.
He cut phone lines beforebursting into the bedroom where
the animal hospital technicianand medical practice worker
slept.
He let them put on slippersrather than walk across broken
glass as he led them to theirown vehicle, which he would use
to take them to an abandonedfarmhouse.
Calmly he told investigatorsthat he bound the woman and then
(22:08):
he bludgeoned her husband inthe basement.
The man called out where is mywife?
And then Keyes shot him.
He said the woman was feistyand that she tried to fight him.
He described pouring Drano onthe bodies before packing them
into garbage bags.
He stopped in the middle ofthis crime to smoke a cigar in
the backyard, wet from arainstorm.
(22:29):
He noted that he was in Vermonton the trip to kill the
couriers.
He had also gone fishing andhe'd made sure to buy a legal
fishinglicense.
Beyond this confession, israeldidn't describe any other
killings in detail.
He had refused to give up anymore bodies without an execution
date.
He didn't describe any otherkillings in detail.
He'd refused to give up anymore bodies without an execution
date.
He didn't want to sit in prisonfor the remainder of his
natural life, but it wasimpossible to get him what he
(22:52):
wanted fast enough.
There was a lot of red tape tocut through for a legal
execution.
As hours piled up in theinterrogation room, keyes grew
more at ease discussing how hefantasized and planned killings
in the midst of an otherwiseordinary-seeming life.
When he talked about thingsthat got him excited, he began
to tap his legs and almostvibrate with the excitement.
(23:14):
He talked about Israel Keyes,who lived with a nurse
practitioner girlfriend and hisschool-aged daughter on a street
in the Turnagain neighborhoodwhere neighbors, included a
superior court judge.
When FBI agents searched thishome, they found the couple's
well-behaved pugs and a littleramp that Israel had built for
them to get into the backyard.
He talked about his hobbiesfishing boats, hiking, camping
(23:38):
and kayaking at Eteluga LakeRegular things Alaskans do, but
Keyes' motivation wasn't regular.
He said you go fishing or outhunting, stalking through the
woods.
You see someone through thewoods, they don't see.
You Sit there and watch themfor a
while.
He wasn't picky about hisvictims.
(23:59):
He said he preferred them to belightweight because they were
easier to dispose of.
And after he became a father hetried to avoid situations that
might end with him hurting achild.
Israel said his retirement planwas to build a dungeon in the
basement of his home.
He told investigators about acache of potential body disposal
(24:19):
tools he had secreted along thebank of Eagle River.
I only left that stuff therebecause I was planning on using
it eventually.
I don't like to litter, whichis just actually insane.
That the serial killer's bigqualm is with littering, not,
like you know, murder or rape orrobbing or arson.
He actually was suspected ofarson a couple times
(24:41):
too.
As interviews went on, keyeswas spending 23 hours a day in a
cell.
The guards were watching himlike a hawk.
He complained he wanted thedeath penalty and told
investigators he had nolong-term interest in survival
in prison.
How long am I going to sit injail, he asked.
By October, agents told Keyesthey were losing patience with
(25:01):
him.
Their bosses believed that theagents were being played by him.
They were under pressure toproduce names and locations of
the people Keyes claimed to havekilled.
The ground is freezing, israelsaid.
Steve Payne, an FBI agent, ifyou want to be involved in
helping us, it was 18 degreesoutside yesterday.
We don't have a lot of time toplay with and it's a long, cold
(25:23):
winter.
Maybe it's because I juststarted watching Game of Thrones
, but that definitely gives Gameof Thrones vibes with the.
It's a long cold winter.
Winter is coming, I don't know.
They repeated the propositionyou give us information, we go
out and look forbodies.
But Israel was not interested.
His biggest concern was thedetails of his crimes would be
(25:47):
made public in the media.
He wanted to shield hisdaughter from that, he said.
Israel talked again tointerviewers on November 29,
2012,.
For the last time, a few dayslater, he was found dead in his
cell.
He was found dead in his cellOn December 2nd 2012,.
Keyes asserted his final act ofcontrol, strangling and
slashing himself to death in hiscell at the Cook Inlet
(26:09):
pre-trial facility.
He left 12 skulls on the walldrawn with his own blood, with
we Are One written underneath.
Because of this and a few otherallusions he made during
interrogations, investigatorsbelieve that Israel Keyes has a
total number of 11victims.
There are a lot of onlinetheories about who these
additional victims were, but hemade a lot of allusions to
(26:32):
different states.
He had traveled all across theUnited States, visiting way more
states than me.
He'd been to Vermont, texas,new Mexico, oregon, arizona.
He'd been to Vermont, texas,new Mexico, oregon, arizona,
california, and the list goes on.
He had been to so manydifferent places that all these
missing persons cases from thattime period that he would have
been in these states it reallyis too many to go through and
(26:56):
figure out which ones he'sinvolved in and which he
happened to be nearby and wasn'tinvolved, which he happened to
be nearby and wasn't involved.
Not to mention there were acouple times during
interrogations that he mentionedthat several of his murders had
been attributed to accidentaldeaths or suicides.
So that opens another can ofworms.
So I would not be surprised ifthey never find out who these
(27:17):
additional victims are.
Not that I wish that at all.
I obviously want these thingsto be found out and reported
upon, but I don't think there'smuch chance of that if we're
being very realistic.
Obviously there are lots andlots of theories and I highly
recommend going down that rabbithole, but it will invade your
(27:38):
brain.
For this case is incrediblyfrustrating, especially because
the book I read, americanPredator, which I will try to
remember to link in thedescription.
It went on and on about KevinFeldes, the prosecutor, who
insisted on being the headinterrogator.
He just pissed me off.
You had no reason to be there.
That's not your job.
(27:58):
He just wanted more power andnotoriety and to have his name
in the paper, which to me meansnothing, because one day history
will forget us all, but thosefamilies who could have
potentially had a little bitmore information if the right
interrogator had gotten a holdof his real keys, if another
family could have had answers towhat happened to their loved
(28:20):
one, that would have beenremembered, and I hope he thinks
about that.
I really do, because it'sfucked
up.
It's honestly also one of thescariest true crime cases ever
to me, because the only reasonhe was caught is he got sloppy
and committed a crime near homeand wanted ransom and all of
these things.
If he had just continued withhis pattern of attacking people
(28:44):
in the lower 48 states, or evenif he had abducted Samantha and
not used her debit card forransom, we still wouldn't know
who he was and he would havekilled countless other people,
and that's terrifying,especially considering how many
other people could potentiallybe doing the same thing and we
have no idea.
The world is just such a scary,scary place.
(29:07):
Anyway, if you made it to theend of the episode, it means the
absolute world to me.
You could be anywhere on theinternet.
So thank you for spending yourtime with
me.
I'll be back soon with anothercase.
I haven't decided which one yet.
So if you want to put in yourcase suggestions down below, I'm
always looking for anotherrabbit hole to go down.
I hate promising that anepisode is going to be out soon,
(29:28):
because it makes me out to be adirty dirty liar when I don't.
So no promises, but hopefullyit's out soon and I pick a good
one.
So you should join me for thatSubscribe.
It's free, no charging anything.
In fact, I don't make money offthis at all.
So I'll see you again very soonwith another case.
Until then, stay safe, staykind and remember question
(29:51):
everything.
Bye you.
Israel Keyes, once a proud Army infantryman who
served with honor at Fort Hoodand in Egypt, appeared to embody
the essence of a normalall-American life.
Transitioning from militaryservice, he ventured into
entrepreneurship, founding aconstruction company in the
remote expanse of Alaska andembracing fatherhood with his
own daughter.
Yet concealed beneath thisveneer of suburban
(00:22):
respectability lay a chillingenigma of darkness.
Confirmed to have claimed thelives of three victims and
suspected by the FBI of manymore, keyes operated with
meticulous cunning Across theexpanse of the United States.
He concealed macabre kill kits,ominous caches prepared with
calculated foresight into futurehorrors.
His secrets and atrocitiesunraveled only after his demise,
(00:46):
a self-inflicted end thatdenied justice the opportunity
to unveil the full extent of hismonstrous deeds.
Thus unfolds the harrowing taleof Israel Keyes, a figure whose
presence in the annals of crimecasts a shadow as one of the
most prolific and unsettlingserial killers and rapists of
the early 21st century.
Hello and welcome to theEastern Crime Zone, a show about
(01:30):
investigations of real, truecrime cases.
I'm your host, Cassie Millay,and every week I'll take you
through new details about casesyou're familiar with and
completely new cases you'venever heard of before.
If there's a case you'reinterested in learning more
about.
Please head over to my website,easterncrimezonecom and leave
me a voicemail or send me a DMon Instagram at easterncrimezone
.
So sit back, grab yourdetective hat and get settled in
(01:52):
for another true crime case.
This is Eastern Crime ZoneClink.
Samantha Tesla Koenig was bornAugust 30th 1993 in Anchorage,
alaska.
When she was a baby, her fatherwas enamored with his baby girl
and her giggle-snort laugh.
She attended West High Schooland Avail High School and
(02:13):
dreamed of one day working withanimals or maybe joining the
Navy to become a nurse.
But Samantha was more than that.
She was charming and sarcasticand funny.
She loved animals, her friends,fishing, writing music and
poetry and playing video gameswith her boyfriend, dwayne.
When she was 18, samantha wasworking at a coffee kiosk called
(02:34):
Common Grounds at 845 EastTudor Road in Anchorage, alaska.
On February 1, 2012, the kioskwas obscured by five-foot-high
snow drifts and motorists couldonly see the top of the small
coffee stand.
Samantha was working alone, aswas typical, and it was pretty
(02:54):
slow.
She had texted her dad askinghim to swing by with something
for her to eat, but he wasn'table to make it.
The next day, the morning shiftbarista clocked in only to
discover the kiosk wasn't closedproperly.
The money from the previous daywas missing and Samantha had
only been working there a month.
But this wasn't normal behaviorfor her.
So this barista was the firstto report Samantha missing.
(03:16):
Investigators immediatelythought Samantha had taken the
money for herself and run off.
But Samantha didn't have hervehicle that night and run off.
But Samantha didn't have hervehicle that night.
She shared a truck with herboyfriend, dwayne, and he was
driving it that night and wassupposed to pick her up after
her shift.
So if she had no car, how didshe disappear in 30-degree
weather?
Dwayne did go to the kiosk thatnight to pick Samantha up, but
(03:38):
she had already left and thelights were off.
He went back to the home helived in with Samantha and her
father, james.
But both Dwayne and James feltsomething was off, even when
Samantha sent Dwayne a textsaying she was leaving for a few
days with friends and to lether dad know.
The text read F you asshole, Iknow what you did.
I'm going to spend a coupledays with friends.
(03:58):
I need time to think.
Plan acting weird.
Let my dad know Now the couplehad been having issues.
But Samantha wouldn't just runoff without at least calling her
father, who she was extremelyclose with.
Dwayne went to sleep that nighthoping his girlfriend would just
cool off and talk to him soon.
But around 3 am he woke up andwent outside to see a man with a
(04:21):
mask going through his andSamantha's shared truck.
This man walked off as soon ashe saw Dwayne.
What's interesting to me isthat Dwayne didn't do anything
when he saw this man goingthrough his truck.
He didn't call police, hedidn't confront him, he just
went inside and told Samantha'sfather, james.
An hour later he went back outto the truck and realized that
(04:42):
Samantha's driver's license wasmissing.
He didn't call the police orfollow this man at all.
On February 2nd investigatorslooked at the surveillance
footage from inside of CommonGrounds from the previous day At
8 pm, only 30 minutes beforeDwayne would arrive to pick
Samantha up.
Samantha is seen in a limegreen t-shirt and her long brown
(05:02):
hair worn down.
She's relaxed, talking to acustomer through the kiosk
window and two minutes later herhands go up and Samantha turns
out the light.
A customer was only a shadowwho may have been holding a gun.
Samantha moves to the counterand gets on her knees for a
minute, then moves to theregister and takes out all the
cash and returns to her kneelingposition.
(05:22):
At the 5 minute 19 second mark,a male figure leans in the
window and seems to be tying herarms behind her back before
coming through the kiosk window.
After looking throughSamantha's purse, he helps her
up and walks her out of thekiosk into the snow.
At this point anyone was asuspect, including Dwayne and
James Koenig.
James was doing everything hecould to help find Samantha,
(05:45):
making posters, pleading onFacebook for her return and
holding candlelight vigils.
One of the things he did wasset up a reward for information
about Samantha's disappearance.
Some of this money, james usedfor himself personally, which a
lot of people found suspicious.
It's just an opinion, but Idon't think it's really fair to
(06:05):
blame James for using this moneyfor himself personally.
He had to have money to keephis home running when he was
probably unable to work,considering that his daughter
was missing.
Some people found it suspiciousthat James would fixate on the
reward money and be checking itconstantly, but in his defense,
checking the reward moneyconstantly is the only thing he
(06:27):
has control over.
Of course, he would be checkingit often.
This reward money wouldeventually reach $75,000.
On February 20th, apd pulledsurveillance footage from the
Home Depot across from thecoffee kiosk from the night of
Samantha's abduction.
In the footage you can see awhite Chevy truck pull up on
February 1st at 745, and thetruck had no license plates.
(06:48):
The driver sat for 10 minutes,then walked across Tudor Road
and out of view.
After 20 minutes.
The man reappeared withSamantha under his arm to a
crosswalk.
When the traffic light changed,samantha made a run for it.
She was clearly in a panic andhad her wrist still bound, and
Samantha only made it a few feetbefore her abductor tackled her
(07:09):
and said something into her ear.
He walked her to his truck andput her in the passenger seat.
There were people near thetruck at this point, but
whatever this man had said toSamantha squashed any ideas of
her trying to escape again.
At 7.56 on February 24th, dwaynegot a text from Samantha's
phone that read Connor Park signunder pic of Albert.
(07:31):
Ain't she purdy?
Dwayne, james and lawenforcement all rushed to
Connor's Bog Park On a bulletinboard under a sign for a missing
dog named Albert.
They found a Ziploc bag.
Inside was a ransom note and aphoto of Samantha.
The photo was actually aPolaroid that had been cut
around the edges and thenscanned and printed onto printer
paper.
(07:51):
The photo that I'm going to putup is a recreation of the photo,
not the real one, and the realone has supposedly never been
released.
But people on Reddit kind ofargue about that, saying this is
the real photo.
It's not the real photo thereal photo.
Officially this is not the realphoto and supposedly her hair
was braided in the real photoand this girl her hair is down.
In case you're listening andnot on youtube, in the photo
(08:13):
samantha is wearing makeup andhad her hair braided instead of
down, like it had been at thetime of her abduction.
Her head was held by a man andyou can see his arm.
Also in the photo was a copy ofthe Anchorage Daily News dated
February 13, 2012.
The actual ransom note thataccompanied the photo was typed
by typewriter onto plain whitepaper.
(08:38):
It implied that Samantha was inone of the lower 48 states and
that she almost escaped hercaptor twice more, once in
Anchorage on Tudor Road and oncein a desert after she was
transported south.
The letter demanded $30,000 inexchange for Samantha's safe
return in six months.
This money was to be depositedinto Samantha and Dwayne's
shared bank account.
(08:58):
After the ransom note was found, there was no more debate that
Samantha had left on her own andthe case was handed to the FBI,
since kidnapping is a federalcrime.
On February 29th, five daysafter discovering the ransom
note, it was decided that $5,000would be put into the account
instead of the whole $30,000that the kidnapper demanded.
(09:20):
The FBI believed this mightfrustrate them and push them
into making further contact.
Less than four hours after thedeposit, samantha's debit card
was used to withdraw $500 froman ATM in Anchorage.
Two hours after that, the cardwas used to withdraw another
$500 from an ATM across town.
In the ATM surveillance footageyou can see a man wearing
(09:42):
glasses, a gray face mask, graygloves and white shoes.
Unfortunately, this would notlead them to their suspect or to
Samantha just yet.
The next ATM withdrawals werecompletely unexpected.
On March 7th the card was usedto make withdrawals in Arizona,
then New Mexico, then Texas.
In the footage from thesecameras they discovered the
(10:03):
suspect was driving a white FordFocus, probably a rental.
An officer was looking throughhotel parking lots off of US-59
and found a white Ford Focusrental car parked in front of
the Quality Inn.
When the driver left, the hotelofficers found a reason to pull
the driver over.
The driver was a white man inhis mid-30s wearing wraparound
(10:24):
sunglasses.
When they asked for hisdriver's license, they found it
was from Alaska, and thisobviously was super exciting.
On his Alaska driver's licensewas the name Israel Keys, born
January 7th 1978.
In Texas there is a probablecause exemption, which means if
the police have reason tobelieve the vehicle was used in
(10:44):
the commission of a crime, theycan search it legally.
Whenever a search is conducted,it has to be done legally, by
the book, or any evidence foundin that search would be thrown
out.
This is called the fruit of apoisonous tree doctrine.
Since he had the right kind ofcar and his driver's license was
from Alaska, they found this tobe enough probable cause to
search his vehicle.
(11:04):
And after searching the vehicle, inside Israel's wallet was
Samantha Koenig's driver'slicense.
Obviously, israel was arrestedand within two weeks, extradited
back to Alaska.
During interviews, israel madetwo demands One, that
information about himself andhis crime be kept away from the
(11:25):
media as much as possible.
He had a young daughter anddidn't want her to be harmed by
the media frenzy.
And two, he wanted to receivean execution date as fast as
possible.
Besides that, investigators hadanother wrench in their plan.
The top federal prosecutor wasgoing to be running the
interrogation with his deputy,frank Russo.
(11:46):
Kevin Feldes was with the USAttorney's Office since 1999 and
had a lot of power in theAlaska legal system.
Everyone wanted to stay on hisgood side, but having Feldes
lead the interrogation was aterrible idea.
He wanted to move theinterrogation to the US
Attorney's Office, whichwouldn't have the same
intimidating effect as the FBIoffices.
(12:06):
Also, police and FBI agents areallowed to lie to a suspect to
elicit a confession.
Prosecutors cannot.
This would be consideredprosecutorial misconduct and
could potentially ruin an entirecase.
Not to mention you lose allbargaining power when the person
that police would usually usein a deal is sitting right
(12:27):
across the table from thesuspect.
The biggest issue, however,with Feldes was that he had
never interrogated anyone before, and it's actually insane that
this was allowed to happen,especially because of how this
case ends up going.
Interrogations started on March30th at 5.48 pm in the US
Attorney's Office.
(12:47):
Israel sat expressionless witha monotone voice.
When he did speak, israel isrecorded telling the story of
Samantha's kidnapping.
For several evenings that weekhe had driven the same route at
the same time of day to checkout the Common Grounds kiosk
before he decided to rob it.
He parked at the Home Depotdown the street and walked west
toward the kiosk.
He put a tiny police scanner inhis ear and with him he brought
(13:11):
a coffee mug, a pair of plasticzip ties, a headlamp and a .22
Taurus revolver.
He'd never met Samantha orplanned to target her in
particular.
He only picked this kioskbecause it was partially hidden
from the road and only had oneperson working at a time,
usually a young girl.
Israel arrived at the kiosk at7.55 and ordered an Americano
(13:34):
from Samantha.
When she handed him the cup, hepulled out his gun and said
this is arobbery.
After they left the CommonGrounds kiosk, israel found a
camera on the ground, a brandnew Canon camera, and he said he
thought it was a good omen.
When he bent over to pick upthe camera, samantha made a run
for it.
Unfortunately, like I said,israel was able to tackle her
(13:55):
and scare her back intosubmission.
They walked back to Israel'struck together with him, telling
Samantha to lean on him likeshe was drunk.
To Israel's truck together withhim telling Samantha to lean on
him like she was drunk.
A few people were lingeringaround a Chevy Suburban in the
Home Depot parking lot, but atthis point Samantha was too
afraid to make a second escapeattempt.
He told Samantha this was onlyfor ransom and that he wouldn't
(14:16):
hurt her.
Obviously, this is alie.
They made a few more stops thatnight, including to a park and
to get gas, all of these beingcompletely by mistake and good
opportunities for someone to seeSamantha or for someone to say
something.
There was even a period of timewhere a police cruiser pulled
up next to his truck and helooked at Samantha and knew she
(14:39):
wouldn't say anything.
As soon as Israel tookSamantha's debit card and cell
phone, he didn't need her aliveanymore.
Around 2 am he finally took herfrom his truck and moved her to
his tool shed where he tied herup by the neck.
Then Israel went inside tocheck on his daughter and his
girlfriend and make sure theywere still asleep.
He poured himself a glass ofwine and returned to his shed.
(15:02):
There Israel sat drinking itwhile he told Samantha how he
would rape her before stranglingher to death with the rope he'd
already tied around her neck.
And that's exactly what he did.
He left Samantha's body in theshed, went back into his house
and packed his bags for himselfand his daughter.
At 5 am sharp he called a cabto the airport to fly to New
(15:24):
Orleans for two weeks ofCaribbean cruising that he'd
planned with his family.
After he returned from thistrip, he took the ransom photos
of Samantha's body for proof oflife.
He did her hair, he put makeupon her and used fishing line to
sew her eyes open.
And then he also raped her bodyone last time.
And then he also raped her bodyone last time.
(15:44):
When he no longer neededSamantha's body, he dismembered
her and disposed of her remainsin the Matanuska Lake just
outside of Palmer,alaska.
Israel was not forthcoming withdetails going forward.
He wanted to use his knowledgeas leverage to get what he
wanted.
He had made several allusionsto other murders he committed
without outright confessing toanything.
(16:05):
If Kevin Feldes wasn't in theway, who knows what an
experienced interrogator wouldhave gotten out of
Israel.
Here is what we do know aboutIsrael Keyes.
He said he was born in Cove,utah, to a large Mormon family.
He was the second oldest of 10children.
When he was three or four, thefamily settled in the woods
(16:26):
outside of Colville, washington,a remote hamlet in the
northeastern part of the state.
His parents had then becomefundamentalist Christians,
moving from churches Keyesdescribed as Amish to a more
militant militia sort of church.
When he was a teenager, thefamily at times would go without
electricity and and homeschoolthe children For years.
(16:46):
Some of the kids would sleep ina tent.
The kids earned money throughunder-the-table jobs, cutting
firewood or working on farms.
He said he spent time in thewoods and hunted anything with a
heartbeat.
Israel was obsessed with gunsfrom a very young age.
As an adolescent, israel saidhe shot at houses with BB guns,
broke into homes and startedfires in the woods.
(17:08):
Later he slipped into the cabinof a neighbor to steal guns
which he secreted in a cacheoutside the family home.
When his parents found out,they made him apologize and
return the guns.
In an already isolated family,israel said he kept to himself.
He talked about a need forcontrol, a theme in his
interactions with investigators,as well as his killings.
(17:30):
In his teenage years herenounced the Christian faith
which displeased hisfather.
In 1987 or 1998, the familymoved to Maupin, a high desert
town in the Deschutes River incentral Oregon.
He and his brothers helpedtheir dad build a house there.
In an interview with FBIinvestigators, israel said that
by his late teenage years hedecided he could rape and kill
(17:53):
and get away with it.
He was also interested inSatanism at this time and began
to plan a satanic ritual killinginvolving a young woman.
The area where Israel wasworking was a popular place for
inner tubers to float theDeschutes
River.
Israel told investigators thatone day he stood on the beach
along the river, waited out andgrabbed a woman who was the last
in her group, a teenage girlwith sandy blonde hair.
(18:15):
He dragged her to a remotecampground bathroom, tied her up
with ropes and raped her Keyes,planned to strangle the girl
and dump her body in the toiletpit where he thought it wouldn't
be discovered for a long time.
He brought knives with him touse for a satanic ritual.
The girl was only a teenager,between the ages of 14 and 18,
he told investigators and shewas really scared.
(18:37):
He said she kept saying shewasn't going to tell anybody.
He told her to shut up but shekept talking.
She was pretty smart.
It worked.
He said things never really gotviolent like they could have if
she had been fighting me andthank god he let her go.
I was too timid, he toldinvestigators I wasn't violent
(18:59):
enough.
I made up my mind I was nevergoing to let that happen again.
He said he was never chargedwith this crime and it's unclear
if investigators even locatedthe
victim.
After Oregon, at age 20, israeltook a high school equivalency
test and joined the army.
He liked the survival skillsaspect of military training.
(19:20):
Israel made friends among thesoldiers and drank a lot, he
said he was stationed for sixmonths in Egypt where he and his
friends took trips to Tel Avivto patronize prostitutes.
During this time, israelresolved to act on the fantasies
of killing strangers.
He decided he was also anatheist.
He said.
I guess you could say I came toterms with myself and the
(19:54):
reasons I wanted to do it.
After his deployment he wasstationed at Fort, he said, most
of the next six years living onthe reservation with her and
their child, working in theparks and recreation department
for the tribal authority.
He spent a lot of time inforests and mountains of the
Olympic Peninsula and made longtrips to eastern Washington
where he'd spent most of hischildhood.
He suggested to investigatorsthat this was when he began
(20:17):
killing people.
I just accepted it was a matterof time, time and opportunity
before I did something.
Again.
Investigators pressed for cluesabout other victims.
Had the crimes possibly takenplace on national parkland State
parkland?
Israel wouldn't say.
They searched his boat.
He said he had made a homemadeanchor that might be of interest
(20:38):
.
He and his daughter's motherbroke up and he began dating a
new woman.
When this woman moved toAnchorage around 2007, he and
his daughterfollowed.
Israel told investigators hetraveled widely Until the Koenig
abduction.
He said he followed a ruleabout never killing too close to
home.
Keyes also told investigatorsthat he would often stash murder
(21:00):
kits near future crime scenes.
These kits contained weaponsand supplies to dispose of his
victims' bodies, including ducttape, shovels, guns, rope, drano
and lye.
It seems like he put these killkits inside of Home Depot
buckets.
Unlike most serial killers,israel traveled thousands of
miles to stalk his victims andlearn their habits before
(21:21):
killing them.
He told authorities that hewould leave his home in
Anchorage, alaska, under theguise of visiting distant
friends and family members andthat no one suspected he was
going on a multi-state killingspree.
In the interviews, israelconfessed in detail to killing a
middle-aged couple, bill andLorraine Currier, in Vermont in
June 2011.
He chose the Essex-Vermontcouple to kill for no reason
(21:44):
beyond the design of their home.
They lived in a house with anattached garage that would be
easy to enter.
He cut phone lines beforebursting into the bedroom where
the animal hospital technicianand medical practice worker
slept.
He let them put on slippersrather than walk across broken
glass as he led them to theirown vehicle, which he would use
to take them to an abandonedfarmhouse.
Calmly he told investigatorsthat he bound the woman and then
(22:08):
he bludgeoned her husband inthe basement.
The man called out where is mywife?
And then Keyes shot him.
He said the woman was feistyand that she tried to fight him.
He described pouring Drano onthe bodies before packing them
into garbage bags.
He stopped in the middle ofthis crime to smoke a cigar in
the backyard, wet from arainstorm.
(22:29):
He noted that he was in Vermonton the trip to kill the
couriers.
He had also gone fishing andhe'd made sure to buy a legal
fishinglicense.
Beyond this confession, israeldidn't describe any other
killings in detail.
He had refused to give up anymore bodies without an execution
date.
He didn't describe any otherkillings in detail.
He'd refused to give up anymore bodies without an execution
date.
He didn't want to sit in prisonfor the remainder of his
natural life, but it wasimpossible to get him what he
(22:52):
wanted fast enough.
There was a lot of red tape tocut through for a legal
execution.
As hours piled up in theinterrogation room, keyes grew
more at ease discussing how hefantasized and planned killings
in the midst of an otherwiseordinary-seeming life.
When he talked about thingsthat got him excited, he began
to tap his legs and almostvibrate with the excitement.
(23:14):
He talked about Israel Keyes,who lived with a nurse
practitioner girlfriend and hisschool-aged daughter on a street
in the Turnagain neighborhoodwhere neighbors, included a
superior court judge.
When FBI agents searched thishome, they found the couple's
well-behaved pugs and a littleramp that Israel had built for
them to get into the backyard.
He talked about his hobbiesfishing boats, hiking, camping
(23:38):
and kayaking at Eteluga LakeRegular things Alaskans do, but
Keyes' motivation wasn't regular.
He said you go fishing or outhunting, stalking through the
woods.
You see someone through thewoods, they don't see.
You Sit there and watch themfor a
while.
He wasn't picky about hisvictims.
(23:59):
He said he preferred them to belightweight because they were
easier to dispose of.
And after he became a father hetried to avoid situations that
might end with him hurting achild.
Israel said his retirement planwas to build a dungeon in the
basement of his home.
He told investigators about acache of potential body disposal
(24:19):
tools he had secreted along thebank of Eagle River.
I only left that stuff therebecause I was planning on using
it eventually.
I don't like to litter, whichis just actually insane.
That the serial killer's bigqualm is with littering, not,
like you know, murder or rape orrobbing or arson.
He actually was suspected ofarson a couple times
(24:41):
too.
As interviews went on, keyeswas spending 23 hours a day in a
cell.
The guards were watching himlike a hawk.
He complained he wanted thedeath penalty and told
investigators he had nolong-term interest in survival
in prison.
How long am I going to sit injail, he asked.
By October, agents told Keyesthey were losing patience with
(25:01):
him.
Their bosses believed that theagents were being played by him.
They were under pressure toproduce names and locations of
the people Keyes claimed to havekilled.
The ground is freezing, israelsaid.
Steve Payne, an FBI agent, ifyou want to be involved in
helping us, it was 18 degreesoutside yesterday.
We don't have a lot of time toplay with and it's a long, cold
(25:23):
winter.
Maybe it's because I juststarted watching Game of Thrones
, but that definitely gives Gameof Thrones vibes with the.
It's a long cold winter.
Winter is coming, I don't know.
They repeated the propositionyou give us information, we go
out and look forbodies.
But Israel was not interested.
His biggest concern was thedetails of his crimes would be
(25:47):
made public in the media.
He wanted to shield hisdaughter from that, he said.
Israel talked again tointerviewers on November 29,
2012,.
For the last time, a few dayslater, he was found dead in his
cell.
He was found dead in his cellOn December 2nd 2012,.
Keyes asserted his final act ofcontrol, strangling and
slashing himself to death in hiscell at the Cook Inlet
(26:09):
pre-trial facility.
He left 12 skulls on the walldrawn with his own blood, with
we Are One written underneath.
Because of this and a few otherallusions he made during
interrogations, investigatorsbelieve that Israel Keyes has a
total number of 11victims.
There are a lot of onlinetheories about who these
additional victims were, but hemade a lot of allusions to
(26:32):
different states.
He had traveled all across theUnited States, visiting way more
states than me.
He'd been to Vermont, texas,new Mexico, oregon, arizona.
He'd been to Vermont, texas,new Mexico, oregon, arizona,
california, and the list goes on.
He had been to so manydifferent places that all these
missing persons cases from thattime period that he would have
been in these states it reallyis too many to go through and
(26:56):
figure out which ones he'sinvolved in and which he
happened to be nearby and wasn'tinvolved, which he happened to
be nearby and wasn't involved.
Not to mention there were acouple times during
interrogations that he mentionedthat several of his murders had
been attributed to accidentaldeaths or suicides.
So that opens another can ofworms.
So I would not be surprised ifthey never find out who these
(27:17):
additional victims are.
Not that I wish that at all.
I obviously want these thingsto be found out and reported
upon, but I don't think there'smuch chance of that if we're
being very realistic.
Obviously there are lots andlots of theories and I highly
recommend going down that rabbithole, but it will invade your
(27:38):
brain.
For this case is incrediblyfrustrating, especially because
the book I read, americanPredator, which I will try to
remember to link in thedescription.
It went on and on about KevinFeldes, the prosecutor, who
insisted on being the headinterrogator.
He just pissed me off.
You had no reason to be there.
That's not your job.
(27:58):
He just wanted more power andnotoriety and to have his name
in the paper, which to me meansnothing, because one day history
will forget us all, but thosefamilies who could have
potentially had a little bitmore information if the right
interrogator had gotten a holdof his real keys, if another
family could have had answers towhat happened to their loved
(28:20):
one, that would have beenremembered, and I hope he thinks
about that.
I really do, because it'sfucked
up.
It's honestly also one of thescariest true crime cases ever
to me, because the only reasonhe was caught is he got sloppy
and committed a crime near homeand wanted ransom and all of
these things.
If he had just continued withhis pattern of attacking people
(28:44):
in the lower 48 states, or evenif he had abducted Samantha and
not used her debit card forransom, we still wouldn't know
who he was and he would havekilled countless other people,
and that's terrifying,especially considering how many
other people could potentiallybe doing the same thing and we
have no idea.
The world is just such a scary,scary place.
(29:07):
Anyway, if you made it to theend of the episode, it means the
absolute world to me.
You could be anywhere on theinternet.
So thank you for spending yourtime with
me.
I'll be back soon with anothercase.
I haven't decided which one yet.
So if you want to put in yourcase suggestions down below, I'm
always looking for anotherrabbit hole to go down.
I hate promising that anepisode is going to be out soon,
(29:28):
because it makes me out to be adirty dirty liar when I don't.
So no promises, but hopefullyit's out soon and I pick a good
one.
So you should join me for thatSubscribe.
It's free, no charging anything.
In fact, I don't make money offthis at all.
So I'll see you again very soonwith another case.
Until then, stay safe, staykind and remember question
(29:51):
everything.
Bye you.
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