Israel Keyes

Active: 2011–2012
Region: Anchorage, Alaska, and Essex, Vermont, USA
States: AK, TX, VT
Kind: Serial
Status: Died before trial
Victims: 3

Israel Keyes, an Anchorage construction contractor and Army veteran, abducted 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig from a coffee stand in Anchorage on February 1, 2012, killed her, and then demanded ransom. Withdrawals with her bank card led to his arrest in Lufkin, Texas, that March. In custody he confessed to killing Koenig and to the 2011 murders of Bill and Lorraine Currier in Essex, Vermont, which investigators confirmed. He claimed other killings in Washington and New York but never named the victims; the FBI believes he may have killed about 11 people. He died by suicide in jail in December 2012, before his trial.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

William "Bill" Currier · June 8, 2011
Of Essex, Vermont; married to Lorraine.
Lorraine Currier, 55 · June 8, 2011
Of Essex, Vermont; married to Bill.
Samantha Koenig, 18 · February 1, 2012
A barista at a coffee stand in Anchorage.

Timeline of locations

2007
Keyes's home, West Anchorage (Killer's residence, approximate area)
Keyes lived and ran his construction business in Anchorage. He killed Samantha Koenig in a shed in front of his house.
June 8, 2011
Currier home and farmhouse, Essex, Vermont (Abduction, approximate area)
Bill and Lorraine Currier were last seen at their Essex home on the evening of June 8, 2011. Keyes said he took them from the house to an abandoned farmhouse nearby and killed them there. The farmhouse had since been torn down, and their bodies have never been found.
February 2012
Connors Bog Park, Anchorage (Other, approximate area)
Keyes left a ransom demand at the park, typed on the back of a photo, to make it seem Koenig was still alive. Her family deposited reward money into her bank account, and investigators tracked the withdrawals.
February 1, 2012
Common Grounds coffee stand, Tudor Road, Anchorage (Abduction, approximate area)
Keyes abducted Samantha Koenig at gunpoint from the coffee stand where she worked.
March 2012
Anchorage Correctional Complex (Prison, approximate area)
Keyes was held here awaiting a federal trial set for March 2013. He was found dead in his cell on December 2, 2012, an apparent suicide.
March 13, 2012
Lufkin, Texas (Arrest, approximate area)
A Texas highway patrol officer stopped Keyes's car in Lufkin and found Koenig's phone and bank card. He was returned to Anchorage to face charges.
April 2, 2012
Matanuska Lake, north of Anchorage (Recovery site, approximate area)
Keyes told investigators he had put Koenig's body through a hole in the ice of Matanuska Lake. FBI divers recovered her remains on April 2, 2012.

Watch, listen, read

Read

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century (2019, Maureen Callahan)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.