Israel Keyes

Israel Keyes (January 7, 1978 – December 1, 2012) was an American serial killer, rapist, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, kidnapper and shoplifter. He also sold guns illegally and was cruel to animals.

Keyes is known to have murdered three people. Law enforcement investigators believe he committed a number of other violent crimes across the United States between the late 1990s and early 2012. Keyes was arrested in March 2012 in connection with the killing of a woman in Alaska, and died by suicide while awaiting trial. Evidence in his jail cell led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to believe he may have killed eleven people.

Early life Childhood Israel Keyes was born in Richmond, Utah, on January 7, 1978, the second of ten children of Heidi Keyes (née Hakansson) and John Jeffrey "Jeff" Keyes. His parents lived in Torrance, California, and were members of various different Protestant religions, and at one point were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). His father had also served a church mission in Germany.

Keyes and his siblings were homeschooled before the family moved in 1983 to a remote plot of land north of Colville, Washington. During this period of attending The Ark, the Keyes family befriended the neighboring family of Chevie Kehoe, who was later convicted for a 1996 triple murder.

Adolescence The Keyes family eventually left The Ark for the Christian Israel Covenant Church, which also subscribed to white supremacist ideology. Keyes later described the church as militia-like.

Keyes, who was by the age of 14, admitted to shooting at his neighbors' houses with his BB gun, as well as starting fires in the woods. His mother later said she began to notice troubling behavior in him during this period.

By his teenage years, Keyes had become a skilled carpenter, building his first wooden cabin at age 16. He also worked for a Colville contractor from 1995 to 1997. Around this time, Keyes started keeping a journal, which included biblical quotations, and where he documented daily sins he had committed for which he felt shame, such as lusting after his girlfriend. Later, the family relocated to Smyrna, Maine, where they collected sap for maple syrup production in a mostly Amish community. Their mother prohibited the children from watching movies with friends or learning musical instruments, believing such activities were "against God". Some time during this period, Keyes renounced his Christian faith.

Keyes declared his atheism to his parents—whom he had previously tried to please—after an argument. This led them to evict Keyes for blasphemy, instructing his younger siblings, who looked up to Keyes, to never have contact with him again. Keyes then became interested in Satanism, and planned to commit a ritualistic murder. He served as a Specialist in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. He completed a month-long preliminary course for Army Ranger training but did not attend Ranger School. He was stationed at Fort Lewis and Fort Hood, also spending some time abroad. While stationed in the Sinai Peninsula, Keyes befriended several soldiers and at one point told one of them that he would "like to kill him".

While at Fort Lewis, Keyes served on a mortar team. Former Army friends of Keyes have noted his quiet demeanor and habit of keeping to himself. On weekends, he was reported to drink heavily, consuming entire bottles of his favorite drink, Wild Turkey bourbon. In February 2001, Keyes was arrested in Thurston County for driving under the influence and was fined after reaching a plea agreement.

Keyes was awarded an Army Achievement Medal for his service as a gunner and assistant gunner from December 1998 until July 8, 2001. He was then honorably discharged and relocated to Neah Bay, Washington.

Personal life For a period, Keyes lived in the Makah Reservation community of Neah Bay, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington; he had a Native American girlfriend, Tammie Hawkins, whom he met online in late 2000. The couple later had a daughter. Keyes and Hawkins broke up in 2004, and at the time of his arrest he was dating a nurse named Kimberly Anderson. while working as a handyman, contractor, and construction worker.

Criminal history

Investigators stated that Keyes often traveled long distances and planned crimes in advance, which complicated efforts to link him to unsolved cases. The FBI later confirmed that Keyes robbed the Community Bank branch in Tupper Lake, New York, in April 2009. He also told authorities he burglarized a Texas home and set it on fire. FBI records indicate that Keyes committed numerous burglaries and bank robberies between 2001 and 2012. Investigators stated Keyes did not appear to follow a consistent victim profile, and he told authorities he chose victims at random. On his murder trips, he kept his mobile phone turned off and paid for items with cash. For the Currier murders, Keyes flew to Chicago, where he rented a car and drove to Vermont. He then used a "murder kit" he had hidden two years earlier to execute the murders.

Confessed victims During interviews with FBI agents and officials in Alaska, Keyes admitted to three murders in which identities of the victims were confirmed. He confessed to murdering 49-year-old William "Bill" Scott Currier and 55-year-old Lorraine Simonne Currier of Essex, Vermont. On the night of June 8, 2011, Keyes broke into the Currier home and tied them up before driving them to an abandoned farmhouse, where he shot Bill before sexually assaulting and strangling Lorraine. Their bodies have never been found. Two years earlier, Keyes had buried a "murder kit" near the Currier home, which he later recovered and used during the crime. After the murders, he moved most of the kit's contents to a new hiding place in Parishville, New York, where they remained until after his arrest.

His final confirmed victim was 18-year-old Samantha Tessla Koenig, a coffee booth employee in Anchorage, Alaska. On February 1, 2012, Keyes abducted Koenig from her workplace, took her debit card and other property, then raped and sodomized her before strangling her with a cable tie. He left her body in a shed in his backyard and traveled to New Orleans for a pre-booked cruise with his family in the Gulf of Mexico. When he returned to Anchorage on February 18, he sexually assaulted Koenig's body. Keyes then applied makeup to the corpse's face, and sewed her eyes open with fishing line in an attempt to make it appear that she was still alive and squeezing her eyes closed. He photographed her body alongside a four-day-old issue of the Anchorage Daily News. After demanding in ransom, some of which was paid into Koenig's bank account, Keyes dismembered her body and disposed of it in Matanuska Lake, north of Anchorage. Her remains were later recovered by the FBI's Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team.

Keyes confessed to abducting a woman on April 9, 2009, from a state on the East Coast, transporting her across multiple state lines, and burying her in New York near Tupper Lake. Investigators later identified the likely victim as Debra J. Feldman, age 48, who disappeared from her apartment in Hackensack, New Jersey, on April 8, 2009. Keyes's computer had been used to access an article written by an unrelated woman named "Deborah Feldman", and investigators theorized that he may have misspelled her first name. When shown a photograph of Debra Feldman, Keyes paused before saying, "I don't want to talk about her yet." The FBI later stated that they believed Feldman may have been one of Keyes's victims.

Cassandra "Cassie" Emerson, 12, was reported missing in 1997 after the remains of her mother, Marlene Kay Emerson, were discovered in their burned-out trailer home in Colville, Washington. Cassie's remains were later found approximately away. Keyes admitted his first act of arson involved a trailer in Colville,

Giovanna Tyler, a 29-year-old woman from Tacoma, Washington, was reported missing in 2004. Media coverage later discussed her case among those examined in possible connection with Keyes.

He has also been suggested as a suspect in the disappearance of James "Jimmy" Lamar Tidwell Jr., an electrician who disappeared in Mount Enterprise, Texas, on February 15, 2012. Authorities examined similarities between Tidwell's appearance and a bank robbery suspect in Azle, Texas, the following day, but no definitive link has been established.

Study of serial killers A search of Keyes's residence found dozens of books about murders, both fiction and non-fiction. Keyes re-read Dean Koontz's 1995 thriller Intensity on several occasions and closely identified with the serial killer antagonist. According to Hunter, Keyes described Dennis Rader as a "wimp" for apologizing in court,

Keyes was arrested by Texas Highway Patrol Corporal Bryan Henry and Texas Ranger Steven Rayburn, assisted by FBI Special Agent Deb Rose (née Gannaway at the time), in the parking lot of the Cotton Patch Café in Lufkin, Texas, on the morning of March 13, 2012. Investigators had circulated a lookout bulletin for the suspect's car, which had been used at ATMs to withdraw money from Koenig's account.

Keyes came to their attention when law enforcement officers were monitoring hotel parking lots for out-of-state rental cars matching the police bulletin. Officers stopped Keyes after he drove slightly over the speed limit

While incarcerated, Keyes spoke to state and federal investigators several times over a period of months. Keyes said he wanted to avoid publicity due to the negative attention his young daughter and family might face. Law enforcement were able to corroborate much of Keyes's claims and they believe he was mostly accurate, but they also maintained suspicion he might be misleading or lying in some statements.

On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Keyes attempted to escape during a routine court hearing, using wood shavings from a pencil to pick his handcuffs.

Beginning in 2018, portions of Keyes's recorded FBI interviews were released to the public through court filings and media outlets, providing additional insight into his methods and the investigators' strategy.

Maureen Callahan wrote that some investigative records on Keyes were not publicly released and Freedom of Information Act requests were met with claims of national security. Given his known connections to political extremists and the national security claims, Callahan speculates Keyes may have possible links to terrorists or may have been planning terrorist acts.

The most detailed timeline available, published by independent researchers in 2025, contains more than 1,000 entries.

Caches

According to an FBI press release, Keyes buried caches of supplies in multiple locations for use in future crimes.

Death

While being held in jail at the Anchorage Correctional Complex, Keyes managed to conceal a razor blade in his cell. It is uncertain how Keyes obtained the blade, as he was under security restrictions of using an electric razor under supervision.

A four-page suicide note was found underneath his body. Its contents, described by one reporter as "a creepy ode to murder," offered no clear clues about other possible victims. In 2020, the FBI released pictures of twelve drawings which were found in his cell on July 24, 2012. Made using his own blood, they depicted Baphomet in an inverted pentagram and 11 skulls, each bearing an inverted cross on its forehead. The phrase "WE ARE ONE" was written beneath a drawing of one of the skulls. The FBI stated that the 11 skulls were thought to represent the total number of homicides committed by Keyes, several of whom have yet to be identified.

In media Keyes has been the subject of several books, articles, and other content. Before his arrest, he followed media coverage of his own crimes and posted public comments to the KTVA website on 3/1/2012, 3/2/2012, and 3/4/2012. The Israel Keyes News Archive at Last Known Contact lists more than 300 additional sources. Multiple true crime podcasts have discussed him, including True Crime Bullsh**, which focuses primarily on Keyes and his potential victims. Keyes was also the subject of the first season of the podcast Deviant which used interviews with Keyes, as well as original reporting and interviews with case agents, to tell the story of his crimes. Documentaries published about Israel Keyes include:

Method of a Serial Killer released in 2018 by the Oxygen channel. Dark Minds season 3 episode 2: The Secrets of Israel Keyes released on April 2, 2014. Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer season 1 episode 8: Israel Keys [sic] released in 2015. 48 Hours season 33 episode 29: Tracking the Murders of Israel Keyes released on May 9, 2020. Wild Crime: Eleven Skulls released on December 5, 2024. Israel Keyes: Life in Full Detail released on February 23, 2025 by Crime Culture Media.

Most of the FBI interviews were released publicly by Anchorage Daily News to SoundCloud that same year. They were removed in 2019 but have since become available on YouTube. Video of his arrest, Texas Rangers and Anchorage Police Department interviews, and evidence from Vermont, Texas, and Alaska were released by Crime Culture Media in 2025.