How Israel Keyes, ‘The Most Meticulous Serial Killer,’ Was Caught | Oxygen Official Site (2024)

Israel Keyes stands alone in the nefarious realm of American serial killers. No, he’s not a household name like Ted Bundy, who he researched and admired, or Jeffrey Dahmer. Keyes has nonetheless been called “one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history.”

Before killing himself nearly a decade ago while in custody for the abduction and murder of 18-year-old Alaskan barista Samantha Koenig, 34-year-old Keyes confessed to slaying 11 people around the United States.

But authorities believe that Keyes low-balled his grisly exploits and that he snuffed out even more lives as he crisscrossed the country on treks he took regularly from his home base in Alaska. That’s where Keyes, who worked doing construction, lived a double life.

On one hand there was his mainstream, unremarkable world with his girlfriend and daughter. Like others, they were unaware that Keyes was, as Anchorage homicide detective Monique Doll in 2012 described it, “leading this kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lifestyle.”

Who was Keyes? How was he caught? What drove him to murder?

A killer comes of age

How Israel Keyes, ‘The Most Meticulous Serial Killer,’ Was Caught | Oxygen Official Site (1)

Photo: FBI

Israel Keyes was born in Richmond, Utah in 1978, the second of 10 children. His upbringing was not a conventional one. His parents, nonconformists from California who eventually left the Mormon church, raised their brood in Colville, Washington in a cabin in the woods without electricity or running water.

A 12-year-old Keyes “took great interest” in a “militia-based white supremacist anti-Semitic church called the Ark,” Maureen Callahan wrote in “American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century.” He was obsessed with guns and would steal them from neighbors. Setting fires and Satanism were other unsettling fascinations.

Keyes’ twisted preoccupations escalated into torturing and shooting animals, including a family cat. He tied the doomed creature to a tree before wounding it with a .22 revolver, according to Callahan. More sadistic acts followed: Keyes admitted to gutting a deer while it was alive, cbsnews.com reported.

In a shudder-inducing admission about what made him tick, Keyes revealed: “I would hunt anything with a heartbeat,” according to Callahan. By the time he was 18, Keyes had set his predatory sights on people.

A murderer’s "unwritten rule"

Keyes told federal agents in Alaska that he raped — but did not kill — his first victim in Oregon between 1996 and 1998, according to FBI archives. The girl was between 14 and 18 years old.

“Keyes was able to discreetly separate her” from her group of friends that were tubing before sexually assaulting her on the Deschutes River near Maupin, Oregon. He was living there at the time, reported the Alaska Native News. Keyes ultimately released the girl after the attack.

It is unknown if this victim reported the crime, but the crime established an “unwritten rule” for Keyes, who made his kills away from his home. He told investigators that he regularly traveled great distances and “liked to find his victims along hiking trails, at campgrounds, and in other remote areas,” according to the FBI report. Similarly, he would dispose of victims’ bodies far from murder scenes to add distance between him and the crimes.

Keyes chose victims in no particular pattern in order to avoid connection and detection. Victims encountered a “force of pure evil acting at random,” said Tristram Coffin, the U.S. attorney for Vermont.

Kill kits buried for future crimes

In addition to intentional randomness, Keyes relied on detailed planning that led to him being called “the most meticulous serial killer.”

After his arrest, Keyes told investigators that during his trips he would bury “murder kits”containing weapons and supplies to dispose of his victims' bodies in future crimes in the vicinity of where he planned to later attack. Stashes included duct tape, shovels, guns, rope, Drano, and lye.

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Photo: FBI

The caches provided further cover because Keyes didn’t have to risk boarding an airplane with a weapon or using credit cards that could later connect him to a crime in a particular area,” according to the FBI.

Keyes said he had up to 12 kill kits buried across the country. Officials believe more of his stashes are buried around the country and that they could contain evidence in other unsolved murders.

Military service followed by multiple murders

Keyes joined the U.S. Army in 1998. He was discharged in 2001 and settled in Washington State — it was then the killing began. Keyes confessed to murdering 11 people across the United States between 2001 and 2012, although only three of his victims have been identified.

An FBI timeline showed that Keyes took about three dozen trips between 2004 and 2012. His travels spanned the entire country, including Hawaii. There were also trips to Canada and Mexico listed.

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Photo: FBI

Keyes, who is suspected of killing two teenage girls between 1996 and 1998, told authorities he committed his first murder in 2001. The identity and whereabouts of that victim are unknown. He also admitted to committing a double homicide between July of 2001 and 2005 in Washington State. Keyes also spoke of two additional murders in that time frame.

A killer’s home – and capture – in Alaska

Keyes moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007. He started a construction business, using handy skills he’d developed in his youth. Keyes would often leave Anchorage and his family behind, using work or visits to relatives as an excuse. Instead,he went on to murder people in Washington, Vermont, and several other states.

He said that in April 2009 he abducted a female victim from an East Coast and killed and disposed of her body at a location in upstate New York.

In June 2011, Keyes flew from Alaska to Chicago. He rented a car and drove to Essex, Vermont where he spent three days looking for his next victims. Keyes had stashed a kill kit in the area years earlier.

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Photo: FBI

Keyes admitted to breaking into the home of Bill and Lorraine Currier in June 2011. He abducted them and drove them to an abandoned farmhouse, where he shot Bill, 49, and sexually assaulted Lorraine, 55, before strangling her.

Keyes told the FBI that he disposed of the weapon at the Blakes River Reservoir. The FBI recovered the murder weapon and a cache left by Keyes at a nearby location.

A killer’s rule is broken

Keyes admitted to killing Samantha Koenig, an 18-year-old barista, in 2012 in Alaska. He broke his own rule about never choosing a victim who lived in close proximity to him. The line between his mainstream and shadow lives blurred.

He had abducted her at gunpoint from the coffee booth where she worked before sexually assaulting and strangling her.

How Israel Keyes, ‘The Most Meticulous Serial Killer,’ Was Caught | Oxygen Official Site (6)

Photo: FBI

Keyes left Koenig’s body in his shed while he went on a preplanned vacation with his girlfriend and daughter. When he returned he plotted to get a ransom: He applied makeup to Koenig’s body and sewed her eyes open before snapping a picture of her. Then, Keyes dismembered her body and disposed of it in a lake.

He made an error though: He used Koenig’s credit card at an ATM, which tipped off authorities to the car he was driving and his whereabouts. On March 13, a state trooper noticed a vehicle matching a description of the one Keyes was driving in a Texas hotel parking lot.

Keyes was pulled over. A search of the car uncovered Koenig’s ID, her debit card, her cellphone, and a gun — along with a disguise worn by the individual in the ATM security photo.

Cat and mouse with authorities

Keyes agreed to be interviewed by investigators in the seven months after his arrest. He was selective and evasive about the information he revealed and kept hidden, though.

Investigators believe there may be seven more victims based on comments made by Keyes in interviews and drawings of skulls found in Keyes’ cell that he made using his own blood.

However, they weren't able to get any more answers from Keyes.Officials determined that Keyes cut his left wrist using a blade from a disposable shaving razor that had been embedded into a pencil and used some of the bedding material in his cell to strangle himself.

The question that looms is why Keyes killed. One widely floated theory is that the motive was sheer pleasure. In “American Predator,” Callahan considers that Keyes even endured elective surgeries to become a more effective killer.

“He provided some motivation, but I don’t think it's really [possible] to pigeonhole why he did this,” Tristram Coffin, U.S. Attorney in Vermont, said in December 2012."He described to investigators that this was a volitional act of his … It was something that he could control and he liked to do it. Why someone likes to act like that, nobody knows.”

For more on Keyes’ story, watch Oxygen’s “Method of a Serial Killer.”

How Israel Keyes, ‘The Most Meticulous Serial Killer,’ Was Caught | Oxygen Official Site (2024)

FAQs

How did Keyes get caught? ›

How did Keyes get caught? Keyes was arrested in 2012 when authorities were investigating the disappearance of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig from Anchorage, Alaska. Keyes posted a ransom note and used Koenig's ATM card, which led police to Lufkin, Texas, where he was arrested.

Is there a movie about Israel Keyes? ›

What country has the most serial killers in history? ›

All Countries Ranked by the Number Of Serial Killers
RankCountryTotal Serial Killers
1United States3,615
2Russia196
3United Kingdom190
4Japan137
91 more rows
Jan 4, 2024

How did Israel Keyes kidnap Samantha? ›

Israel Keyes abducted Samantha Koenig from the Common Grounds coffee stand on Tudor Road in Anchorage, Alaska on February 1, 2012 and took her against her will to his white pickup truck that was parked across the street.

How many serial killers are active in the US? ›

In the US alone, the FBI estimates there are between 25 to 50 active serial killers at any given time, despite the authorities not being aware of them or connecting the killings together. On a worldwide scale, this estimate is certainly larger, but only a handful of serial killer cases are confirmed to be unsolved.

Did Israel Keyes have a daughter? ›

Keyes was then honorably discharged, and he relocated to Neah Bay, Washington, where he lived in the Makah Reservation community of Neah Bay, on the Olympic Peninsula with his Native American girlfriend, who he'd met online and subsequently had a daughter with.

Did Israel Keyes have a kid? ›

Daughter. In 2000, Keyes became involved with a woman living on the Washington Makah Reservation. The next year, their daughter, whose name hasn't been made public, was born. In July 2001, Keyes went to live with the mother of his child after being honorably discharged from the Army.

Who was the serial killer in Alaska 2012? ›

Who is Israel Keyes? Keyes was a serial killer from Alaska. He confessed to murdering eight people, though authorities believe he is responsible for 11 killings between 2001 and 2012.

Which US state has the most serial killers? ›

Serial Killers, State by State

It's worth noting that while these crimes evoke shock and horror, they constitute less than 1% of total homicides. Key findings from the data include: New York tops the list with 18 recorded serial killers, followed by California, which recorded 15 known serial killers.

What place in America has the most serial killers? ›

New York is the state with the most serial killers, with a total of 18 serial killers born in the state. California comes in as the second state with the most serial killers, with 15, followed by Texas with 8, and Illinois and Ohio with 7 each.

What serial killer killed the most people? ›

Serial killers with the highest known victim count
NameCountryPossible victims
Luis GaravitoColombia Ecuador Venezuela194–300+
Pedro LópezColombia Peru Ecuador300+
Javed IqbalPakistan100
Mikhail PopkovRussia83+
29 more rows

Who caught Israel Keyes? ›

Keyes was arrested by Texas Highway Patrol Corporal Bryan Henry and Texas Ranger Steven Rayburn in the parking lot of the Cotton Patch Café in Lufkin, Texas, on the morning of March 13, 2012.

What happened to Commander Keyes Handmaid's Tale? ›

Esther starts gradually poisoning him with nightshade, and he goes senile, allowing her to control the household.

What happened to Commander Keyes? ›

Keyes hands Cortana's storage chip to John-117. Captain Jacob Keyes in combat on the Truth and Reconciliation, wielding a needler. John-117 punches Keyes who was assimilated into a Proto-Gravemind. Jacob Keyes' remains before and after John-117 punched a hole through his face to retrieve his neural implants.

Why was Miranda Keyes killed? ›

Johnson demanded that she kill them both in order to halt Truth's plans. Keyes, unwilling to harm Johnson, hesitated. As she paused, the Prophet of Truth shot her in the back with a Paegaas Workshop Spiker, killing her.

References

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