Alaska officials said the man found dead in an Alaska jail of an apparent suicide was not just suspected of killing a barista from Anchorage, but could be linked to at least seven other slayings in the U.S.
Israel Keyes, who had confessed prior to his death to killing a couple from Vermont, was found in his cell on Sunday, said authorities. Keyes was awaiting a trial in March in a federal court in Anchorage for the murder of Samantha Koenig, an 18-year old who had been abducted from the coffee kiosk last February were she worked. He was arrested some time later in Texas when he used the debit card of the victim.
Mark Mew, the police chief of the Anchorage Police Department said that Keyes had confessed to murdering Koenig, along with Bill and Lorraine Currier of Vermont. To date, the Curriers’ bodies have not been located. The last time the couple was seen, was when they left their jobs June 8 of 2011. The following day they were reported missing by co-workers.
Keyes, who was 34, indicated he had killed four more people in the state of Washington and one person in the state of New York. However, he did not give the names of any of the victims, said authorities.
Keyes could have been facing the death penalty for the killing of Koenig. The FBI says that Keyes killed the 18-year old Koenig only a day after kidnapping her. On April 2, authorities recovered her body from an Anchorage ice covered lake.
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