Israel Keyes
Israel Keyes left behind a drawing of eleven skulls and a pentagram, sketched in blood and hidden beneath his bed. Underneath the skulls were three words: "WE ARE ONE". Investigators found the drawings in his Anchorage jail cell after he died in 2012, and the FBI did not release them to the public until 2020. The agency read the skulls as a tally of the people he had killed.
Keyes was an American serial killer who was also a bank robber, burglar, arsonist and kidnapper. He is known to have murdered three people. Investigators believe his violence stretched across the country, from the late 1990s to early 2012, and that many of his crimes were never tied to his name.
How did a man who grew up in an isolated cabin end up moving unseen from coast to coast? What did he leave buried in the ground for future use? And who are the people the skulls may stand for, whose cases remain open today?
In 1983, the Keyes family moved to a remote plot of land north of Colville, Washington. Israel was five years old, the second of ten children born to Heidi and Jeff Keyes. Their home was a one-room cabin on Rocky Creek Road with no electricity and no running water. Some of the children slept in a tent because the cabin was so small. The children hunted for food, chopped firewood and worked on local farms to help support the household.
In Colville, the family attended a church called The Ark, which followed white supremacist and Christian Identity beliefs. Keyes later compared its way of life to that of the Amish. Through the church, the family became friendly with neighbors, the family of Chevie Kehoe, who was later convicted of a 1996 triple murder.
The Keyes family later moved on to the Christian Israel Covenant Church, which held similar views. Keyes would describe it as militia-like. Among the other children, he gained a reputation for hunting "anything with a heartbeat". He told peers he had skinned a live deer, and they shunned him for it. One former classmate said his presence "made my skin crawl".
By fourteen, Keyes stood 1.88 meters tall. He admitted to firing a BB gun at his neighbors' houses and setting fires in the woods. He also broke into houses with another youth, who pulled away after watching Keyes shoot an animal. Keyes told investigators that he came to believe his thoughts were "normal and okay" even though others disagreed. After others learned of his behavior, he began to isolate himself.
His parents once found a cache of guns he had stolen from a neighbor. They made him return the guns and apologize. In 1994, he was arrested for shoplifting and given community service. Children staying with the family at the time, along with Keyes's sister, later said they saw him tie a cat to a tree and shoot it. Keyes said he found it amusing. His mother told investigators that she noticed troubling behavior in him during these years.
There was another side to the teenager. Keyes built his first wooden cabin at sixteen and worked for a Colville contractor from 1995 to 1997. He kept a journal filled with biblical quotations, where he recorded daily sins that filled him with shame. One example was lusting after his girlfriend.
The family later moved to Smyrna, Maine, where they collected sap for maple syrup in a mostly Amish community. Their mother forbade watching movies with friends and learning musical instruments, which she considered "against God". Somewhere in this period, Keyes gave up his faith. After an argument, he told the parents he had long tried to please that he was an atheist. They evicted him for blasphemy and told his younger siblings, who looked up to him, never to contact him again. Keyes then grew interested in Satanism and planned a ritual murder.
In the summer of 1997 or 1998, a teenage girl was tubing down the Deschutes River with friends in Maupin, Oregon. Investigators believe she was between fourteen and eighteen years old. Keyes watched her from a tree line, then threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her violently. By his own account, he had meant to kill her as part of a Satanic ritual. She pleaded with him and promised to tell no one, and he let her go.
Keyes later told investigators, "I was too timid. I wasn't violent enough." He said he decided he would not "let that happen again".
On the 22nd of April 1998, Keyes enlisted in the U.S. Army in Albany, New York, under the Delayed Enlistment Program. He reported for basic training on the 9th of July 1998. He served as a Specialist in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. He finished a month-long preliminary course for Army Ranger training but never attended Ranger School. His postings included Fort Lewis and Fort Hood, along with time abroad.
On the Sinai Peninsula, Keyes befriended several soldiers. He once told one of them that he would "like to kill him". At Fort Lewis he served on a mortar team. Army friends remembered a quiet man who kept to himself and, on weekends, drank whole bottles of Wild Turkey bourbon. In February 2001, he was arrested for driving under the influence in Thurston County and fined under a plea agreement.
On the 8th of July 2001, Keyes finished his service as an honorably discharged soldier. The Army had awarded him an Army Achievement Medal for his work as a gunner and assistant gunner between December 1998 and that July. He moved to Neah Bay, Washington, in the Makah Reservation community on the Olympic Peninsula.
There he had a girlfriend, Tammie Hawkins, whom he had met online in late 2000. They had a daughter together and separated in 2004. At the time of his arrest, he was dating a nurse. In 2007, he started a construction business in Alaska called Keyes Construction and worked there as a handyman, contractor and construction worker.
Keyes planned his crimes ahead of time and often traveled long distances to carry them out. Investigators say he would fly into a city, rent a car and drive far from the airport before committing a crime. Then he returned to Alaska. On these trips, he kept his mobile phone turned off and paid for everything in cash. The pattern made it very hard to link one crime to another.
He also showed no consistent type of victim, and he told authorities he chose people at random. He claimed to use guns only when necessary. He said he preferred strangulation, because he took pleasure in watching victims lose consciousness. Police and FBI investigators doubted this claim and suspected him of killing several teenagers and children.
One trip shows the scale of the planning. For the murders in Vermont, he flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove 1,000 miles to the scene. He then used a "murder kit" that he had hidden two years earlier.
According to an FBI press release, Keyes buried supplies in several places for use in later crimes. Agents recovered two caches holding weapons and other items. One was found in Eagle River, Alaska, and the other near Blake Falls Reservoir in New York. Keyes hinted that more caches might exist near Green River, Wyoming, and Port Angeles, Washington.
The FBI also reported that Keyes traveled abroad and said it was unknown whether he killed anyone outside the United States. Its timeline listed British Columbia in April 2005 and Mexico in 2007 and 2008. He also spent time in Belize from October 2001 to October 2005, and drove through Canada to Alaska in March 2007. The same timeline places him in Washington from 2001 until March 2007, when investigators believe he may have disposed of multiple bodies.
William "Bill" Scott Currier was 49, and his wife, Lorraine Simonne Currier, was 55. They lived in Essex, Vermont. On the night of the 8th of June 2011, Keyes broke into their home and tied them up. He drove them to an abandoned farmhouse and shot Bill, then killed Lorraine. Their bodies have never been found.
Keyes had buried the kit near the Curriers' home two years earlier, and he dug it up for the crime. Afterward, he moved most of its contents to a new hiding place in Parishville, New York. It stayed there until after his arrest.
Samantha Tessla Koenig was 18 and worked at a coffee booth in Anchorage, Alaska. On the 1st of February 2012, Keyes abducted her from her workplace, took her debit card and other belongings, and killed her. He left her body in a shed in his backyard. Then he traveled to New Orleans for a pre-booked two-week cruise in the Gulf of Mexico with his family.
When he returned to Anchorage on the 18th of February, he took her body out of the shed and altered it to make her look alive. He photographed her beside a four-day-old issue of the Anchorage Daily News. Using that image, he demanded a ransom, and some of the money was paid into her bank account. He then disposed of her remains in Matanuska Lake, north of Anchorage. The FBI's Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team later recovered them.
A third confession involved a woman abducted on the 9th of April 2009 and buried near Tupper Lake, New York. Keyes did not name her. Investigators later identified the likely victim as Debra J. Feldman, 48, who vanished from her Hackensack, New Jersey, apartment the day before.
A small clue helped them. Keyes's computer had been used to read an article about an unrelated woman named "Deborah Feldman", and investigators think he misspelled the first name. Shown a photograph of Debra Feldman, Keyes paused. Then he said, "I don't want to talk about her yet." The FBI later said it believed she may have been one of his victims. That same month, he also robbed the Community Bank branch in Tupper Lake.
On the 2nd of March 1996, Julie Marie Harris, a 12-year-old Special Olympics medalist in skiing, disappeared in Colville while waiting for a ride to church. Her remains were found in a wooded area nearby in April 1997. Keyes, then 18, lived in the area. After his 2012 arrest, he was questioned about the case and neither confirmed nor denied involvement. He said only that he had "heard about that".
In 1997, another 12-year-old, Cassandra "Cassie" Emerson, was reported missing in Colville. Her mother, Marlene Kay Emerson, had been found dead in their burned-out trailer. Cassie's remains turned up about 13 miles away. Keyes said his first act of arson involved a trailer in Colville, and he was once considered a suspect. In December 2024, however, Charles Tatom was arrested in connection with the murders.
Giovanna Tyler, a 29-year-old woman from Tacoma, Washington, was reported missing in 2004. Media coverage later discussed her case among those examined for a possible link to Keyes.
Keyes told investigators that he had killed several people in Washington State between 2001 and 2006. He claimed he buried or submerged some of them in lakes near Neah Bay and Lake Crescent. Authorities reviewed unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in the state. No additional murders have been publicly confirmed as his work. A body recovered near Neah Bay was ruled an accidental death.
In 2007, a series of crimes struck near the Town Center at Boca Raton, Florida. Randi Ann Malitz Gorenberg was abducted and killed. A woman and her toddler son were abducted and released after a ransom was paid. Nancy Bochicchio and her daughter, Joey Bochicchio-Hauser, were also abducted and killed. All were taken by force from shopping center parking lots. The surviving woman described a slender young white man who generally resembled Keyes. Authorities have never publicly confirmed a connection.
On the 15th of February 2012, electrician James "Jimmy" Lamar Tidwell Jr. disappeared in Mount Enterprise, Texas. The next day, a bank robbery took place in Azle, Texas, and authorities noted similarities between the suspect and Tidwell's appearance. No definitive link to Keyes has been established.
A search of Keyes's residence turned up dozens of books about murder, both fiction and nonfiction. One was Dean Koontz's 1995 thriller Intensity, which he re-read several times. He closely identified with its serial killer antagonist. In his youth he had also studied Mindhunter, written by FBI profiler John E. Douglas.
The subject he followed most closely was Ted Bundy. Keyes idolized him and felt they had much in common. Both men were methodical, and both felt they owned their victims, even though their choice of victims and methods differed. Keyes went as far as copying Bundy's court escape, and guards seized him immediately.
He studied other killers as well, yet he avoided publicity for his own crimes. He feared for his family and did not want to be labeled a "copycat" of Bundy and others. According to one account, he called Dennis Rader a "wimp" for apologizing in court. He admired killers "that haven't been caught".
Asked about Robert Hansen, an Alaska-based murderer, Keyes replied, "Yeah, I know all about him." He went on, "I probably know every single serial killer that's ever been written about. It's kind of a hobby of mine." When FBI agents mentioned the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, he asked about the status of the suspect, James Holmes, and showed interest in him.
On the morning of the 13th of March 2012, in the parking lot of the Cotton Patch Café in Lufkin, Texas, Texas Highway Patrol Corporal Bryan Henry and Texas Ranger Steven Rayburn arrested Keyes. FBI Special Agent Deb Rose assisted. After Koenig's murder, Keyes had demanded ransom money be deposited in her account, and police tracked withdrawals as he moved through the southwestern United States. During that time, the police controversially refused to release surveillance video of her abduction.
Investigators had circulated a bulletin for the car used at the ATMs. Officers were checking hotel parking lots for out-of-state rental cars that matched it. They stopped Keyes for driving slightly over the speed limit. They noticed cash stained with bright ink, a sign of a bank robbery dye pack. Koenig's ATM card and phone were in the car.
Back in Alaska, Keyes first claimed that someone had tossed the card and phone into his open car window. He was charged with fraud tied to her accounts but eventually confessed to her murder. His lawyer was Rich Curtner, the Federal Public Defender for Alaska, and a trial was scheduled for March 2013.
Over several months, Keyes spoke to state and federal investigators. He confessed to some crimes and said he wished to be executed within a year. FBI Special Agent Jolene Goeden said agents spent more than forty hours interviewing him. He often chatted with them, but he would not give full details about many alleged killings without assurances about his sentence. He said he wanted to avoid publicity because of the harm it could bring his young daughter and family.
Law enforcement corroborated much of what he said and believed he was mostly accurate. They also suspected he might be misleading them at times. He largely stopped cooperating once his identity was discussed in the media. On Wednesday, the 23rd of May 2012, during a routine court hearing, he tried to pick his handcuffs with wood shavings from a pencil. US Marshals used a taser to subdue him.
In August 2013, the FBI released a public timeline of his known travel and transactions and asked for information from the public. Author Maureen Callahan wrote that some investigative records were withheld and that Freedom of Information Act requests were met with national security claims. She speculated that Keyes might have had links to terrorists. The FBI has since put selected records into its FBI Vault program, including interview summaries and memoranda.
Keyes died by suicide on the night of the 1st of December 2012, in the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He had hidden a razor blade in his cell. How he got it is uncertain, since he was restricted to using an electric razor under supervision. A four-page note was found beneath his body. One reporter called it "a creepy ode to murder", and it gave no clear clues about other victims.
His case has since spread through true crime media. A website called Last Known Contact explores it in detail. Before his capture, Keyes posted comments on at least three news articles about his own crimes, and two survive in archived form. One podcast, True Crime Bullsh**, focuses only on Keyes and his victims. Its name comes from an FBI interview in which he mocked how obsessed people are with true crime. The first season of the podcast Deviant also covered him, using interviews with Keyes and with case agents.
Documentaries include Dark Minds in 2014 and Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer in 2015. Oxygen's Method of a Serial Killer followed in 2018. 48 Hours aired Tracking the Murders of Israel Keyes on the 9th of May 2020, and Wild Crime released Eleven Skulls on the 5th of December 2024.
The Anchorage Daily News posted most of the FBI interrogations to SoundCloud. They were removed in 2019 and are now on YouTube. Their release, beginning in 2018, still lets the public hear how agents tried to count his victims.
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Common questions
Who was Israel Keyes?
Israel Keyes was an American serial killer who was born in 1978 and died in 2012. He was also a bank robber, burglar, arsonist and kidnapper.
How many people did Israel Keyes kill?
He is known to have murdered three people, and he confessed to those killings. The FBI believes he may have killed eleven, based on skull drawings found in his jail cell.
How was Israel Keyes caught?
He was arrested in Lufkin, Texas, on the 13th of March 2012. Investigators had tracked ATM withdrawals from Samantha Koenig's account. Officers stopped him for a minor speeding violation and found dye-stained cash plus her ATM card and phone in his car.
Why was he hard to link to other crimes?
Keyes planned ahead and traveled long distances by plane and rental car. He kept his phone off, paid in cash and did not follow a consistent victim profile.
What are the caches the FBI found?
The FBI recovered two caches of weapons and other supplies he had buried for future crimes. One was in Eagle River, Alaska, and the other was near Blake Falls Reservoir in New York.
How did Israel Keyes die?
He died by suicide in the Anchorage Correctional Complex on the 1st of December 2012, while awaiting trial. He had hidden a razor blade in his cell.
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69 references cited across the entry
- 1NewsFBI reveals new evidence in hopes of identifying unknown victims of serial killerPeter Sant — CBS News — March 13, 2021
- 2NewsFew Details Known About Person of Interest in Koenig AbductionBill McAllister — January 28, 2013
- 3Unsealed interviews detail two lives of Alaska serial killer Israel KeyesMichelle Boots — May 18, 2018
- 4Alaska Serial Killer Attended Racist Church, Knew TerroristsSouthern Poverty Law Center — February 27, 2013
- 5Watch Special Method of a Serial KillerOxygen — October 28, 2018
- 6NewsAlaska investigators say Keyes felt a high from serial killingsAlex DeMarban — December 7, 2012
- 8Maureen Callahan (2019). American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century. Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0143129707
- 9Alaskan Serial Killer Israel Keyes: Murder Kits, Mind Games and Mysterious CrimesBenjamin Smith — Oxygen — October 24, 2018
- 10NewsAlleged serial killer's claim of 4 Washington state victims is being investigatedMike Carter — December 3, 2012
- 12NewsAttacks by suspected serial killer Israel Keyes followed a patternMatt Pearce — December 5, 2012
- 13NewsIsrael Keyes, Admitted Alaska Serial Killer Found Dead, Linked To SlayingsRachel D'oro et al. — December 3, 2012
- 14NewsFBI: Alaska murder suspect robbed northern NY bankDecember 4, 2012
- 15NewsIsrael Keyes told investigator he let his first victim goLisa Demer — Anchorage Daily News — December 5, 2012
- 16NewsFBI releases new details on Alaska serial killer Israel KeyesAugust 12, 2013
- 18William and Lorraine CurrierVermont State Police
- 20NewsWas Israel Keyes the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of Modern Times?Justin Peters — December 10, 2012
- 23NewsAfter Israel Keyes' suicide, authorities open up about Vermont double murderBen Anderson — December 3, 2012
- 24NewsIsrael Keyes stashed 'murder kit' in Essex before murdersCharlie Gorra — WPTZ — December 7, 2012
- 25NewsPolice release detailed account of Koenig murderJosh Edge — December 5, 2012
- 26NewsFBI working to identify unknown victims of serial killerPeter Van Sant — CBS News — March 13, 2021
- 29A son's torment: Believing a serial killer strangled his mother, South Hackensack man tries to adjustJason Grant — December 11, 2013
- 32NewsSolving the murders of Israel KeyesMarch 11, 2021
- 33Man Arrested in Connection with 27-Year-Old Double Homicide Cold CaseRoya Rateshtari — December 20, 2024
- 37Pass-through serial killer?Weatherford Democrat — January 27, 2013
- 38NewsIsrael Keyes studied serial killers, didn't want to be called oneMatt Pearce — December 11, 2012
- 39Police Explain Why They Won't Release Video of Koenig AbductionCorey Allen — KTVA — February 8, 2012
- 40NewsMan arrested in Koenig case awaits transport to AlaskaCasey Grove — March 16, 2012
- 41Trying to unlock secrets of dead serial killerSharon Cohen — January 26, 2013
- 44NewsIsrael Keyes dead in apparent suicide; suspected in Lower 48 deathsLisa Demer — December 2, 2012
- 46FBI Seeking Information About Israel Keyes' Houston‐Area Travels and ActivitiesFederal Bureau of Investigation
- 47NewsCourtroom erupts as defendant tries to flee Alaska barista trialBen Anderson — May 24, 2012
- 49FBI Press Release: FBI Requests the Public's Assistance (Israel Keyes investigation timeline)Federal Bureau of Investigation — August 12, 2013
- 50Israel Keyes FBI VaultFederal Bureau of Investigation
- 53NewsTroopers Release Details about Israel Keyes' SuicideJessica Ridgway — KTUU-TV — December 5, 2012
- 54NewsMan Charged in Barista Death Linked to 7 KillingsRachel D'oro — ABC News — December 3, 2012
- 55NewsVt. murder investigator: Keyes 'a force of pure evil acting at random'Michelle Theriault Boots — December 3, 2012
- 56NewsSerial Killer Israel Keyes' Suicide Letter Is Creepy Ode to MurderChristina Ng — February 6, 2013
- 58NewsWhat do skulls drawn in Israel Keyes' blood mean?Peter Van Sant — CBS News
- 61NewsTrue Crime Bullsh** podcast host Josh Hallmark delves into clues left behind by a mysterious serial killerGreta Jochem — New England Newspapers, Inc. — January 14, 2022
- 62NewsNew 'DEVIANT' podcast tells stories about people who do 'very bad things' including Utah-born serial killer Israel KeyesNate Eaton — June 28, 2024
- 63Method of a Serial KillerMatthew Watts — Glass Entertainment Group — October 28, 2018
- 67Wild Crime: Eleven Skulls to Debut on Hulu in DecemberMirko Parlevliet — November 26, 2024
- 68Israel Keyes Life in Full DetailCrimeCultureMedia — 2025-12-04
- 69Israel KeyesCrimeCultureMedia
- 70BookAmerican Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st CenturyMaureen Callahan — Viking — 2019
- 71BookDevil in the Darkness: The True Story of Serial Killer Israel KeyesJ. T. Hunter — Pedialaw Press — 2016