By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec 2 (Reuters) – A confessed serial
killer awaiting trial for the kidnapping death of an Anchorage
teenager was found dead in his jail cell Sunday in an apparent
suicide, law enforcement officials said.
Israel Keyes had admitted to abducting and killing
18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who disappeared in February from an
espresso stand in Anchorage, officials said at a news conference
Sunday.
Keyes also admitted to killing a Vermont couple, Bill and
Lorraine Currier, in June 2011, and up to five more people whom
he did not name, prosecutors said. Keyes revealed his past
crimes in dozens of hours of interviews conducted after he was
arrested for Koenig’s death, officials said.
“He did tell us that he had killed other people and that
there were bodies of up to four other people in Washington
state, as well as a body disposed of in New York state,”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Feldis said after the press
conference.
There may be even more murder victims, Feldis said.
Keyes also admitted to two bank robberies, one of them
committed in Texas after Koenig’s murder, Feldis said.
Details about the cause of Keyes’ death were not released,
but a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers said he was
alone in his cell and that foul play was not suspected.
Sunday’s news conference was the first public release of
many details about a case that has transfixed Anchorage
residents.
Koenig’s disappearance from the coffee stand in February
triggered a city-wide search and a reward fund. Keyes was
arrested in Texas after using a debit card linked to Koenig.
Investigators found Koenig’s body in early April in an
iced-over lake north of Anchorage. Officials said Sunday that
Keyes’ initial confession led them to that location, and that he
had admitted using a chainsaw to cut a hole in the ice to dump
her body in the lake.
Koenig’s body is the only one of Keyes’ victims that has
been found, officials said Sunday.
Although Keyes told investigators that he placed the
Curriers’ bodies in an abandoned Vermont house, that house was
demolished and searchers were unable to find the victims’
remains at the site, officials said.
Law enforcement officials described Keyes as methodical and
a frequent traveler, able to conceal his actions and dispose of
his victims’ bodies without easy discovery.
Keyes, 34, was a self-employed carpenter and Army veteran
who had been stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. He
moved to Anchorage in 2007. He also had a house and property in
Constable, New York.
He had been scheduled for trial in March on federal charges,
and faced a possible death penalty.
The investigation into Keyes’ crimes – some of which date
back 14 years – will continue, a process that could take years,
officials said.
(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Eric Walsh)
