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The Dallas, Texas office of the FBI says confessed serial killer Israel Keyes, who committed suicide Dec. 2 at the Anchorage Jail, may have been stuck in mud during a trip from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16 while driving a rented blue 2011 Kia Soul like this one in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Anyone who had contact with Keyes or the vehicle in Texas during that time period is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. (Courtesy FBI / January 17, 2013) |
FBI authorities in Texas are asking for more information on the travels of confessed serial killer Israel Keyes before his Dec. 2 suicide at the Anchorage Jail, saying his rental car may have been stuck in mud during a February visit to the state where he was later arrested.
Diego Rodriguez, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, issued a press release Wednesday (PDF) offering more details on Keyes’ activities. Investigators believe Keyes’ rented blue 2011 Kia Soul, with Texas license plate NCN8 M857, may have become stuck in mud near the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“Keyes is suspected to have specifically traveled through various cities in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and the Glenrose, (Texas) areas during February 2012,” officials wrote. “Prior to his suicide, while in custody, Keyes admitted traveling through the cities of Azle, Aledo and Cleburne, (Texas) during February of 2012. Investigators suspect Keyes’ rental vehicle became stuck in a muddy, rural area, possibly near Cleburne, Texas between February 12 and 16, 2012.”
Those dates match up with a Feb. 16 robbery at the National Bank of Texas in Azle, Texas. Images taken from surveillance video show a man resembling Keyes, wearing a hard hat and face mask, demanding money at gunpoint and leaving within two minutes. Keyes was never charged in the robbery, but admitted to unspecified bank robberies in New York and Texas. He also confessed to killing at least eight people, including 18-year-old Anchorage woman Samantha Koenig and Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vt.,
In a gruesome account released by Anchorage police and the FBI, Keyes admitted to abducting, sexually assaulting and killing Koenig, a barista at a Midtown Common Grounds Espresso stand, in February. He told investigators he subsequently posed Koenig’s body to appear alive in photos and sent ransom demands to authorities, then dismembered her corpse and disposed of it at Matanuska Lake near Wasilla.
Authorities tracked Keyes through payments made to Koenig’s debit card -- which he had taken after obtaining its PIN from her during the abduction -- and withdrawn from banks in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. He was arrested March 13 in Lufkin, Texas on a charge of access device fraud, before being taken to Alaska by U.S. marshals and charged with kidnapping resulting in death in the Koenig case.
Investigators say Keyes may have also visited the Post Oak Cemetery in Glen Rose, Texas during his February trip.
Anyone who had contact with Keyes or his vehicle in Texas between Feb. 12 and Feb. 16 is asked to contact investigators at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Contact Chris Klint
