Killer Evidence | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Once I started, you know, and there was nothing else like it. [Music] What are you holding in your hands now?
These are items that were seized out of Israel Keys jail cell. Has the public ever been shown this
before? No. These skulls are drawn in blood. The blood? Where do you believe the blood
came from? I think it was Israel's blood. Israel Keys is a serial killer who hid his crimes for many years. He
was meticulous. Uh he was incredibly bright. Uh and he was incredibly lethal. And the significance of the 11 skulls.
What is that? We believe that 11 is the total number of victims. I don't think anybody in his family, his
friends, his relationships, his spouses had any idea what he was doing. It gives
me the chills to think I had talked to him, had known him. That's where I got um my kicks, I guess, was being able to
live two different lives and have no one have a clue. Unless you heard him talk about the murders, you would not know
that he was a serial killer. With Keys, it wasn't about a particular victim. It was about a location. Why did you pick
these folks? I didn't. It was just random. Samantha Koig is an 18-year-old girl who
was uh raised and lived in Alaska. She went to high school here. She worked at the coffee stand. She was a young girl
working her job. I I'm terrified of what she went through. So, at this point, Samantha is just she's making coffee.
She has no idea her entire life is about to change in a horrible way. No. People
never expected stuff to happen to him. He would wait until he had the victims under control. And then that's when I
think the the real monster came out. There's the specific way I wanted things done. Very specific way I wanted things
to happen. And and I have the whole thing planned out. I have everything I need to do it. He
loves to travel. Every time I'd drive, I'd be looking for places, good places to do stuff. You'll see locations in
Seattle, Gresham, Oregon, Port Angeles, Washington. He would rent cars. He would
drive thousands of miles. He would take people from one state and he would bury them in other states. San Diego, Tijana,
Salt Lake City, Utah, Cleveland, Ohio, Edmund, Washington, Fort Wayne, Indiana. There are potential victims wherever
Israel Keys traveled. Do you believe that this weapon somewhere in the United States may have been used to kill
someone? It's possible. I had big plans for that gun. We know that there are families out
there whose loved ones um died at the hands of Israel Keys. Right now, we're just trying to find them.
[Music] [Music] In February of 2012, the residents of Anchorage, Alaska, were shaken by a
frightening mystery. It basically looked like someone just literally walked out of their shift. It
was the evening of February 1st when 18-year-old Samantha Koig vanished after her night shift at this roadside
espresso stand. She went to work that day expecting to go home, go home to her boyfriend and her dad. Michelle Tasker
is a family friend. Her boyfriend was supposed to pick her up that night, but that didn't happen. Multiple calls went
unanswered. Several hours later, her boyfriend's cell phone lit up with a message from
Samantha's phone. The text messages said something to the effect of, "I'm going on vacation. I'm tired." You know that
she was just going away and she'd just left. But we knew she hadn't left. That wasn't her character. So, they knew
something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. And the next day, investigators watched it all unfold on
security camera video. FBI special agent Jolene Goden soon joined the team trying
to find Samantha. What are we looking at? This is Samantha. 8:00 p.m. is closing time. So,
she's doing all of her normal things that she would do to to get ready for closing. That's when a masked man walked
up to the window. He wanted much more than just coffee. So, Samantha's over at the window here. She handed something to
the customer. She backs up and this is where you see Samantha do this. You see her raise her arms.
When you raise your hands like that, it's usually cuz somebody's doing this something. Exactly. What started as an
apparent robbery suddenly took a darker turn. She turns the lights off. Do you think her asalent said turn off the
lights? Yes. At this point, you see an individual jump in through the window. Uh right through the window. Right
through the window. Have you ever seen something like that before? No. And then you see two individuals walk
away. It it looks like an abduction. As the news spread, please help find my daughter. Samantha's father, James Koig,
went public. I don't know if my daughter's being fed, taken care of, if she's still alive, if she's getting any
sleep. As time went on, there was a tremendous amount of fear uh about what happened
and and who was in our community that could do something like this. The FBI joined the Anchorage Police Department
in looking at family and friends. Did you have a sense you were getting to know this young woman? Yes. Yes. FBI
special agent Cat Nelson learned everything she could about Samantha and the people she knew. She seemed like she
had a very good spirit. like she was a very kind individual, caring about others. Um, you could tell that she had
a lot of friends that cared about her a lot. Samantha's boyfriend was quickly ruled out as a suspect. There was no
obvious lead in this case and it posed so many um barriers for us in the beginning as to where to start looking
for her. 10 days after Samantha disappeared, a vigil was held. Hundreds of people came. What else can
we do? Flyers. Hand out flyers. Ask around. If you know somebody who knows something, get them to talk. We just
need some sort. It's that one lead, that one tip that's going to bring her home.
As friends and family fan out across Anchorage to try to find Samantha, the question is, could she also be out here
somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness? Then finally, after three agonizing weeks, that's when the text came in that
said there was a ransom note and where to go. The text to Samantha's boyfriend was as mysterious as her disappearance.
It said to look in Connor Park under pick of Albert. It also said, "Ain't she pretty." We just got up and just ran and
everybody took off to the park. One of the girls kind of noticed something on the bulletin board. I walk up and
there's a picture of a missing dog named Albert and right underneath is a plastic
bag with a looked like a clipping and a photograph in it. Didn't touch it. We called the police. That note contained a
picture of Samantha and a long typed out message that talked about putting $30,000 into Samantha's bank account.
That account was connected to Samantha's debit card, which the kidnapper had. And
the photo, which has not been made public, was of Samantha holding a newspaper. I believe it was dated
February 13th, so well after Samantha's abduction. So, the hope, of course, is that Samantha is alive. Samantha's dad
deposited $5,000 into her account. Several hours later, a man makes an ATM withdrawal using Samantha's card. He has
a covering over his face, um, dark clothing, he has gloves on his hands. I So, it's there's very little you can
tell. Investigators rushed to the ATM, but were too late, missing the suspect by minutes.
One week later, another ATM withdrawal is made. This one is very different. This withdrawal occurs in Wilcox,
Arizona, nearly 4,000 miles away. And then a short time later, we have one in Lordsburg, New Mexico.
Then Um, Texas, and then Shepard, Texas. He's heading east. He's heading east. We
can see that he's moving across the I 10 corridor. But the suspect had made a crucial mistake during the ATM
withdrawal in Arizona. A white Ford focus can be seen in the background. That information was pushed out to to
law enforcement across that entire corridor. Then on March 13th, a state trooper notices a vehicle matching that
description in a Texas hotel parking lot. And a short time later, a man comes out. He gets in the vehicle um and he
starts to drive away. The trooper follows. And once that vehicle exceeds a speed limit, he has his probable cause
to pull that vehicle over. And when he asks the driver for identification, he ultimately presents him with an
identification card for Israel Keys. And who the heck is Israel Keys? Israel Keys
was not even on our radar. That trooper's instincts were spoton. A search of the car uncovers Samantha's
ID, her debit card, her cell phone, and a gun along with a disguise that matched
the man in the ATM photos. At this point, we believe we have our guy. But now, the FBI wanted to know what had
Israel Keys done with Samantha Koig. The race is on because we still don't have Samantha. We have him, but we don't have
Samantha. So if Samantha is alive, then we really need to find her quickly. [Music]
In March 2012, 2 weeks after Israel Keys was arrested in Texas, he was extradited
to Anchorage, Alaska. At the point, we didn't really know, you know, was he the one who took and kidnapped Samantha Koig
or was he someone who was just using a credit card that he found? FBI agent Jolene Goden says investigators
initially didn't know what to make of Keys. What was it like to look into the eyes
of Israel Keys? I spent a lot of time with Israel Keys. You could be in a room with him and it was like you were in the
room with your neighbor. I think I saw it at Walmart. And then there were other times where the hair on the back of your
neck stands up a little bit. Investigators scrambled to learn everything they could about Israel Keys.
The man, did he have a criminal record? I believe he had a a DUI, but that was it. No crimes of violence in his
history, no sex offenses in his history, nothing like that. He's a 34 year old man from Alaska who has a construction
business, small kind of quiet life. Even one of my colleagues at the US Attorney's Office used him as a
handyman. One of your colleagues hired him to do some work. Sure. This is someone you felt comfortable giving a
key to your house so he could go there when you weren't there to fix things. An anchorage resident since 2007, Keys
lived in this house with his girlfriend and his 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Neighbors say he
didn't stand out. Nothing suspicious at all except for that he worked hard. But investigators had suspicions and one
very pressing question. We started off with where is Samantha? No one knew if Samantha Con was still alive. Anchorage
assistant US attorney Frank Russo and his colleagues knew time was of the essence. He would have been sitting
right here. So they confronted Keys about Samantha. Once we heard what he had to say, it went from being a very
happy day as a prosecutor to one of the worst I've ever had. We ended up hearing
a confession. Keys admitted he had killed Samantha. We wanted to find out why he did what he did. But before he
would say more, the lawyers got you this. Keys began what would become a pattern for giving information. He
wanted an Americano coffee from Starbucks. He wanted a Snickers bar and he wanted a particular cigar.
Ultimately, Keys lays out the entire story of of how the abduction of Samantha occurred. The video of that
confession had never been made public before. In it, Keys says he pointed a 22 caliber pistol at Samantha. I remember
asking him, you know, why did you pick that coffee cart at that time? And he just simply said, well, it was open
late. Meaning he chose her completely at random. Keys said as they walked off into the night, Samantha broke free and
ran. He chased after her and tackled her. He indicates that his plan is to hold her for ransom, suggesting to
Samantha that that if she cooperates, he'll release her. She'll be able to to go home. It was all a lie. Instead, Keys
drove Samantha to his home, chained her up in his shed, and sexually assaulted her. Keys then strangled her to death.
Keyy's family, the FBI later determined, knew nothing about the horrors that had
just taken place. He was talking about the murder of this girl like someone else would discuss what they had for
lunch. Within hours of murdering Samantha, Israel Keys left Anchorage for a Caribbean vacation with his family.
And where did he leave Samantha? Where was she? Where was her body? Samantha was in the shed uh at his house. Keys
didn't return until two weeks later. It was then that he posted the ransom note and texted Samantha's boyfriend, knowing
she was already dead. Keys told investigators he had driven some 35 mi north of Anchorage to Mantusa
Lake, where over the course of three trips, he disposed of Samantha's remains. He had drilled a hole and went
ice fishing in the lake and he had tied it up with bailing wire and weights and he had placed parts of her body down the
lake as he fished. I remember asking him, "Did you catch any fish?" And he said, "Yeah, I caught fish." And I said,
"What did you do with the fish?" And he said, "Well, I took them home and ate them." And for me, that that just
turned my stomach. It took the FBI's dive team 10 hours to recover Samantha's body. I remember I was the one who told
both Samantha's mom and dad and that was that was a bad day. Koig family friend Michelle Tasker. He has a daughter and
you did that to somebody else's daughter. I don't understand. You have the right to talk to a lawyer.
After talking to Keys, investigators realized they had a depraved killer on their hands and that Samantha was likely
not Keyy's only victim. I'm two different people basically. How long have you been two different people?
Long time. 14 years. And that tells you what? That he had been a serial killer for 14 years.
Special Agent Katherine Nelson knew every aspect of Keyy's life needed to be examined. Cleveland, Ohio. So, she
started a deep dive into his paper trail. Cell phone records, financial records, anything we could find out
about his background, his travels, anything that would just tell us a better story about him. It was starting
to look like Keys could have victims across the United States. We know that Israel Keys traveled to places such as
Washington, California, Wyoming, Texas, Vermont. We'll get the whole story eventually.
And he teased his interrogators with details of other murders. I'll tell you about everything or give you every
single gory detail you want. But before Keys would agree to do that, he wanted something extraordinary in return. I
want an execution date for you. Yes. And he said, "I want a promise that I'll get
the death penalty. If you do that, then I'll tell you about all the people I killed." What we said is, "The more
murders you give us, the more likely it is that they're going to want to impose the death penalty on you." But without a
guarantee of death, Keys was reluctant to say anything more. So, give me something to work with. Hold a bunch of
your cards back, but give me a card. Finally, keys folded. All right, I'll give you two bodies and a name.
[Music] Hey, how you doing? No, I'm fine. Candy bar. They are odd moments to see. Swear off
those candy bars. Yeah, it's in the fridge. I'm going to eat it. Investigators casually bonding with
their interview guest. Get him a cigar. So, we got you over here. Awesome. Wow. A cigar for nothing. In some ways, to
the outsider, it looked like you guys were in a way befriending a serial killer.
Yeah. Can you give me like an hour on the internet, maybe? But there was method to this madness,
says assistant US attorney Frank Russo. It was just the act that we had to put on when we went in that room. It was
just trying to kind of do anything we could to get information. Israel Keys voluntarily granted two
dozen interviews to various investigators in the seven months after his arrest. Is
it true he could have walked out at any time? Sure. FBI special agent Jolene Goden. I think
he wanted to tell the story. He wanted to talk about what he did. He my own family pretty much as soon as I did it.
He enjoyed the rush. He enjoyed the thrill of it. That strategy paid off when Keys gave up
the names of two victims, a married couple more than 4,000 miles from Anchorage in Vermont. He gave us the
names of the people. We wrote them down. And what was the couple's name? Bill and
Lorraine Courier. Do your intel guys immediately try to find out if there's a missing couple? Absolutely. What do you
learn right away that Bill and Lorraine are missing and have been missing for some time? Correct. Bill and Lorraine
Courier are a couple that lived in Essex, Vermont. Nothing stands out really about them. They were just kind
of living their life. The Couriers vanished on a night in June 2011, leaving their family bewildered. We love
them both with all our hearts. We're devastated by their disappearance and in fear for their lives. After interviewing
neighbors, police drew this sketch of a possible suspect. Police say this composite sketch of a
man who may have been seen driving the couple's dark green Saturn sedan is a big break. But the case went cold for
nearly a year until Keys laid out the road map of what had happened. He flew into Chicago and he drove east. He
intended on that trip to commit a homicide. He didn't know who it would be yet. On that trip, Keys stayed at this
hotel in Essex, Vermont. While there, he dug up a bucket similar to this one that
he had buried a few years prior. So, this is just the standard orange Home Depot bucket.
For the first time, the FBI is showing 48 hours. These are several boxes of 22 ammunition, the contents of what Keys
like to call a kill cache. So, he would pre-position these caches and then when the urge came upon him, if he happened
to be in that state, he had his tools of destruction ready to go. Correct. Or he'd plan a trip to a particular state
knowing he already had a cash there. He didn't know who he was going to kill, but he already knew that he had the
items there that he needed. We have the silencer for the 22. We have a wood stock for a 22, a plastic stock for a
22, uh, a portion of a 22 rifle, and then we have the drum magazine, the 22. Had a number of 22 caliber bullets.
That's correct. You ever seen anything like this in your career? No. The cash used in the Courier attack has
never been found, but Keys told the FBI where they could find this, a weapon he had used in Vermont. This is a silencer
that he's actually constructed himself. With his murderous tools in hand, Keys went hunting for victims and found
himself outside the Courier House. I decided I was going to look for a house with a couple in it. I was looking for a
fairly easy way to get into the garage and theirs was the first house I found that had all those things. He just
happens to take a walk from his hotel into a neighborhood and this unsuspecting couple just living their
lives is about to have a monster at their door. Yeah, the monster didn't knock. He's
very quickly in the house. He restrains Bill in the rain very quickly. He just makes sure they know right away who's in
charge and immediately tie them up and then he moves them to their car and he drives them to an abandoned farmhouse
that he had scoped out earlier. Keys attacks Lraine first. She's upstairs in the bedroom. He had restrained uh Bill
downstairs, but the couriers were not going down without a fight. Bill's yelling for his wife. Bill ultimately
starts to break free from the restraints and Keys has to go back downstairs in order to restrain him again. And what
happens down there? There's a struggle that ensues. So, I knew I was either going to have to knock him out or just
kill him. He saw the gun. He started to say something and it just pissed me off and I just started pulling the trigger.
Do you think this silencer might have been used in the murder of Bill Courier? I think it's very likely. Keys then
strangled Lorraine Courier and left the couple in the basement of the abandoned farmhouse.
Did anyone ever find these bodies? No. A short time after this happened, the house ended up being demolished and it
was taken to the landfill. We made numerous attempts at the landfill. It was a I believe a 10 or 12 week search
at the landfill. The FBI was searching in an attempt to find them, but we were not able to
recover their bodies. But as meticulous as Keys was in covering his tracks, he slipped up. This is the one item in all
the things that we found that belong to Keys that actually had his fingerprint on it. There's a perfect ripe thumb
print keys. Yeah, right. No, there is. I don't have the lab report. Wow. Yeah, I'm impressed. Well, I'm
disappointed in myself mostly, but I'm What other clues had Keys left behind? What other murders had he committed?
Investigators began focusing on his time in Washington State, where Keys was raised, a place where he would admit to
killing at least four more people. Rose was shot, strangled. We'll get the whole story eventually.
for as far back as I can remember. But, you know, that's where I get a lot of the ideas, either
fishing or out hunting and see somebody in the woods. To understand Israel Keys, you have to
go deep into the vast remote wilderness where he was raised. the place where he lived off and on for more than 20 years,
Washington State. How many people in the state of Washington do you believe Israel Keys
killed? We believe he killed four victims total in Washington state. FBI special agents Ted Hala and Colleen
Sanders first question Keys in 2012. They have spent eight years investigating his life and crimes in
Washington, searching for more victims. This is like a horror movie, isn't it? It's very much like a horror movie.
The opening scenes of Key's life took place in a secluded cabin outside the small town of Cville.
He grew up poor. Uh he grew up in a large family. There were 10 children in all and they kind of lived apart from
society. John, where are we heading now? So, we're heading north out of out of Callville. We're going to go see if we
can find uh where Israel Keys grew up. Just right up here on the right. John Smith and his wife Desiree knew Israel
Keys when he was a teenager. Desiree hasn't been in this area since she was 15. Yes, this could be it. Yeah, I remember
it being long and steep and kind of headed up the mountain side and yet it was completely impassible through most
of the winter. It was built to be completely off the grid, to be completely isolated from society. No
radio, no television, no electricity, nothing. Nothing. The Keys family attended a church that preached
Christian identity theology, a philosophy John and Desiree were also raised on but have since disavowed.
Christian identity theology is very white supremacist. Um they come from the perspective that the other races are
subhuman. So with Israel Keys specifically, he could dehumanize anybody if they rejected his worldview.
Schooled at home, cut off from the outside world, Keys was socially awkward. Very quiet, uh, very lonerish,
uh, standoffish. It's It's hard to explain how he made me feel, but I felt unsafe being near him. So, one specific
conversation about killing a deer, um, he said that the initial shot didn't kill it, and so when he arrived, he
started to gut the thing while it was alive. This is interrogation audio of Keys describing himself. I've known
since I was 14 that there were things that that I thought were normal and that were okay that nobody else seems to
think were normal and okay. Yeah. But just when Keys committed his first murder is still an open question. Whose
picture are you holding? My daughter Julie Marie Harris. She was 12 years old and disappeared on March 3rd, 1996.
Sherry Odigard says her daughter Julie, a Special Olympics athlete with prosthetic feet, vanished from Kovville
while waiting for a ride to church. Then I went up and down every street in this
town and screamed her name and there was no trace. There was no trace. Israel Keys, then 18 years old, lived in the
area at the time. Julie's prosthetic feet were discovered at the mouth of the Cville River. The
next year, her skeletal remains were found. We asked Israel Keys about Julie Harris and her death, and he said he was
aware of it, but that he was not involved in it. I remember the name. I don't remember the details of the story.
Keys told investigators the birth of his daughter convinced him to never target children.
something kind of changed in the way I thought and I didn't want to do anything that would
mess with kids or whatever. But Keyy's daughter was born after Julie Harris was murdered.
48 Hours tracked down friends of Julie who had never spoken with law enforcement. One of those friends told
us she remembers Keys talking to Julie at the pool where she often swam. And that Julie ended up giving him her
address and phone number. Have you heard this? No, I did not know that. Does that
sound tantalizing as a possible clue? Like any other lead that we have, we would want to investigate it fully. We
would certainly be be interested in talking with her. People have wondered if your daughter was the very first
victim of Israel Keys. And I'm wondering that too. Despite the intrigue surrounding Julie Harris, Keys claims
his first attempted murder came in 1997 or 1998 when he abducted and sexually assaulted a young woman near Bend,
Oregon. It was weird. I mean, she was scared but also just talking. So, it's like about random stuff. I don't know.
It was weird. I I was just convinced that I had screwed up that time in Oregon because, you know, I I I let her
go. He indicated he never let another go after that. Sometime after that assault,
Keys joined the US Army. Our investigation lent us to believe that he was a model soldier and excelled in the
army. Keys told investigators he waited until he completed a three-year stint in
the army before he stalked his next victim. And you told us it wasn't long when you got out of the military that
you killed somebody and it was that sort of feeling that you needed to do something.
It was hard to resist town. Nia Bay at the farthest northwestern tip of Washington is best known as home to
the Macau tribe. Legendary whale hunters. Keys moved here after marrying a tribe member he met online. They
started a family. He lived there. He rented the house out. Eric Johnson worked with Keys at the parks and
recreation department. This is a shop here. The blue part. The blue part. That was his shop. That's where he worked.
Yeah. There are reminders of Keyy's skilled carpentry all around town, including this structure. He was a great
family guy, a smart guy, gifted carpenter, you know, well spoken, an upstanding member of the community.
Standing member of the community. Yeah. I would do something and then I would go back like business
as usual and go out with friends, go out to bars, you know, for all the years they've known me, they actually don't
know me at all really. About 60 mi southeast of Nia Bay is another spectacular location. One of the
deepest lakes in the United States, which investigators suspect is also a watery grave. You guys know about Lake
Crescent in Washington. He revealed to us that one of the Washington State victims was actually uh their body was
sunk in this particular lake. I think that lake is 5 to 700 ft deep. Here's a picture of Israel Keys's boat. Sometime
in 2005 or 2006, Keys had a body in this boat. Any idea who this person may be? Any idea how
this person was killed? No. How long does the body last in a Freshwater Lake? In the last months of 2012, special
agents Hala and Sanders were hopeful that Keys would give them more information on who is at the bottom of
this lake. But the killer had another plan. I can't be satisfied sitting in prison for all my life. I'd rather go
out while I still have some sanity, good memories. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]
You really think I would feel like when you need more information? After seven months of interrogations,
seven months of teasing investigators with bits and pieces of his violent past, Israel Keys decided to take one
more life, his own. Serial killer Israel Keys was found dead at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
[Music] We received a call early in the morning that on December 1st, 2012, Israel Keys
had committed suicide in his jail cell. He used a disposable razor to split his wrist and Keys attempted to strangle
himself with bedding. And what was your reaction to that? My reaction was a lot of these secrets were going to die with
him. Now, for Samantha Koig's loved ones, the news hit like a gut punch. He should have
been executed. Now, he killed himself. That's great. It's not what we wanted. We wanted him to stand trial. We wanted
him to answer for what he did. But the world's better off. He's gone. [Music] Inside Key's cell, jailers discovered a
bizarre blood soaked suicide note with passages like, "Crush like a bug, you still die." We had hoped that that note
was going to be clues and tips for us on and that he was finally going to give us
all of the information on the homicides, and it really wasn't. It was kind of a rant.
But the end of Keys was by no means the end of this case. A few months before his suicide, investigators found those
Macob drawings. He drew a series of 11 skulls and these were found underneath his bed
in his jail cell. Drawn in Israel Keys own blood. You have 11 skulls. What does this mean?
I think this is the entirety of of his crimes. And it indicates that there are seven victims we don't have identified.
Prior to his death, Keys had pointed the FBI to another victim. There's one in New York. He refused to provide that
victim's name, but investigators believe it happened when Keys took a road trip through New York State in the spring of
2009. So they comb through missing person's reports and keys computer. Is this the
person buried in New York? No. Her name was on your computer. Which computer? Mine. When they confronted him with
photos, one in particular rattled him. It was a photo of a woman named Deborah Feldman. given the way he looked at it
and he started shaking a little bit. Um, I would say she is definitely one of his
victims. Deborah Feldman is a a woman who went missing from New Jersey. It was in 2009. Her body has never been
recovered. We're relatively confident about Deborah Feldman. However, we do not have any forensic evidence to to
make that connection. According to the FBI, that would make Deborah Feldman Keyy's fourth known victim along with
Samantha Koig and Bill and Lorraine Courier. Agents are now determined to identify the remaining seven and there
are clues that point to at least two other states. Tell me about Wyoming and what was there for him.
The Green River in Wyoming is where Keys had buried his cashmere. Is there a sense that there may be a
body somewhere near that river? We have a strong suspicion that Keys may have a victim located in that area.
In the late 2000s, Israel Keys also spent time in California's wine country, including visiting the posh Sonoma town
of Heelsburg in May of 2007. Keys has often talked to investigators about using boats and also kayaks in the
disposal of bodies. We know that he rented a single person kayak in Heldzburg near a campground during that
time in 2007. But Keyy's road trips weren't limited to the US. In 2007, he drove along the Alcan Highway by himself
for about a week of that year. The Alcan Highway goes through Canada up to Alaska. Yes, correct.
We know that Keys traveled to Canada quite extensively and specifically said that he would go to Montreal. When he
was asked about whether he'd killed anyone in Canada, what did he say? He said, "Canadians don't count."
It's been several years since Israel Keys killed himself. The FBI hopes investigators across the
country will take a second look at suspicious deaths in their area. They're also hoping the public can help. If
anyone has any information on Israel Keys and his travels or if they have a family member that they think may have
been potentially a victim of Israel Keys that they come forward to the FBI with that information. That includes the Lake
Crescent area of Washington State where Keys told investigators he had dumped a body. We absolutely want people to come
forward who think they may have seen something connected to Israel Keys, especially on this lake.
And what about those kill caches buried throughout the country if anyone out there comes across one of these? What
should they do first? for people not to not to touch too much and not to contaminate it too much and definitely
contact local law enforcement in their community who can then reach out to us. For the FBI, their focus is clear. For
me, the important thing is Samantha and Bill and Lorraine and Deborah and all the victims that we don't have
identified. That's what this case is about. And their commitment unwavering. Do you have an optimistic streak that
says we can find answers to the other seven cases? I do. I absolutely do. And it won't be easy by any means. And it
may take a long time, but I'll never give up trying. [Music] [Music] I loved you before this ceremony and I
love you more because of it. You may kiss your brow. They were inseparable. Tex absolutely
adored Diane and Diane adored Tex. I feel like the prosecution has tried to make this out to be about someone who is
successful and powerful trying to get away with something like murder. They don't know Tex and Diane personally like
I do. A woman died after she was shot inside a car on this block. Previously on Breakdown. Welcome back.
Before we plunge back into the story of Tex MacGyver, I want to tell and I'm a reporter with the Atlanta Journal
Constitution and we've been covering the Tex MacGyver case since day one. This was a enormously high-profile case. They
were big-time power couple. We're going to have plenty of beverages over here. So, just everybody start walking,
please. Tex owned a ranch out in Putnham County, which is a pretty nice place for a
vacation home. [Music] They woke up that morning, Tex made sausage biscuits and coffee and took
them upstairs to Diane and Danny Joe, her longtime friend. They spend the afternoon playing golf and they drive
back to Atlanta. They're on their way back to their condo in Buckhead. They stop on the way at
Longhorn to get something to eat. They have some wine at dinner. Danny Joe is driving because she didn't drink. My
name is Bruce Harvey and I represent Tex McCyver. Texas seated right behind his wife in
the back passenger seat. They're going to hit traffic that just stops them still.
So, they're thinking, "We got to get off of the interstate. We got to find a better way to get to Buckhead.
According to texts, he had been asleep, but when they go down this ramp, he wakes up
and says, "I think this is a bad idea, ladies. It's a dangerous area. Will you hand me my gun, honey?"
And she does. Text told police that the people quote rose the hair on the back of your neck, unquote.
I'd say they drove another 5 to 10 minutes and they are coming close to Pedmont Park. He fell back asleep. I
think he fell into what he said was sort of a between being fully asleep and being fully awake. According to text,
the car comes to a stop. He was jolted awake. I was handling the gun. Did not realize
it was in my lap ready and it went off. [Music] Can a 38 special just accidentally go
off? Never known it to happen. You have to pull the trigger. Jiminy. Ooh. The gun would be right here in his lap
according to what he said. So he was startled. He pulls the trigger and the bullet goes just to the left of the
middle here. If you're trying to kill someone, you know that's going to be devastating to whoever is sitting there.
Especially if you're trying to make it look like an accident. Yes, I would think so. Yes.
I think there are people who absolutely believe that he killed his wife for whatever reason, probably for money.
People get killed over money all the time. That's the dumbest plan on the history of the planet. And anybody that
thinks that that is the way that Tex Mccyver deliberately killed his wife is just living in a fantasy world.
[Music] [Music] 48 hours. The last ride home. [Music] [Music] They drove back to Atlanta on a Sunday
night. They were headed to Tex and Diane's luxury condominium in Buckhead. On the night of September 25th, 2016,
Tex McCyver shot and killed his wife Diane. They'd been together for 16 years, married for 11 years. I remember
the first time I ever met Diane. She just had such a commanding presence about her. According to close friend
Anne Schwall, Diane was the love of Texas life. She was beautiful and there was such an energy and electricity about
her. The year was 2000. 47-year-old Diane was recently divorced with no children and a thriving career as the
executive vice president of a real estate and advertising company. In search of a fresh start, she moved into
this luxurious condominium in Atlanta's swankying neighborhood, Buckhead. Everyone in the building was talking
about her. Linda and Rance Winkler say their new neighbor was hard to miss. She wore St. John and Chanel on the golf
course. She wore hats just about every day. And she had a presence and a way of carrying herself. But says Linda, no one
paid more attention to Diane than another popular divorce in the building, wealthy labor lawyer Tex McCyver. Before
he met Diane, did he have a a love life that you knew of or a dating life? No. He was so consumed with his work. He'd
been through a very um painful, difficult divorce. It wasn't until Diane came along that he was interested in
having a romantic life. Tex was a decade older than Diane, but they soon became inseparable, spending much of their free
time at Texas weekend home, fondly known as the ranch. where the couple was known for throwing
parties for Atlanta's rich and powerful says friend and Putnham County Sheriff Howard Sills. They were big
entertainers. They were always having somebody there for some kind of party or some kind of political thing like that.
We have had the best yet party. Diane was always the life of the party. She was always the boss of the party,
too. text was uh usually very reserved, a consumate gentleman. If a lady walked in a room, he was up like a jack in the
box. After five years together, Diane agreed to become Mrs. Tex McCyver. He cared about her, which was probably the
very first time she had that experience in a lot of years. He didn't need that. That somebody cared about her for her.
Just for her. Just for her. Not for her money. He had as much as she. In fact, in terms of liquid assets, he was
further along than she. So, having both suffered through painful and expensive divorces, the couple decided to keep
their finances separate. I don't know anyone actually who's combined their assets having married at the age that
that they married. And you have to remember that Tex had this terrible, painful, expensive divorce and he was
never going to put himself in a situation like that. Was there an issue of money between them? Not in the
conventional sense, but when they started building this place, you can see this place, you see what it's like. Show
place. Yes. Linda is talking about this guest house on Texas property. Before the wedding, they say Diane insisted on
building the massive party house that she named the saloon. Tex really didn't want all this. Diane wanted it. The
scale of it and he told her that if she wanted it, she would pay for it and she said fine. But money and who paid for
what in that relationship would come back to haunt texts becoming a possible motive for murder. Is there any scenario
where you can think that Tex would have shot Diane intentionally? Never. Never once. Anne Schwall says she
admired Diane and Tex so much that she asked them to be godparents to her youngest son, Austin. They just adored
him and they just poured so much love into him. Tex was all the family Diane had. And after his divorce, he was
estranged from two of his children. Too old for children of their own, Anne says
they focused all their attention on Austin. I just wanted so much to show him all the great things that he could
do and how he could grow up and be such a responsible young man. Teaching them how to ride horses and how to fish and
how to be a good steward of the land and of animals. And how did um Austin feel about them? Oh, he adored them. The
ranch was their special place. And every year it's where Tex and Diane insisted on hosting extravagant birthday parties
for Austin. Happy birthday, Austin. Happy birthday. I hope you have a great birthday. The birthday parties were
legendary. A sign of how much they loved him. tell me when you heard about what happened. So he called me. It was in the
middle of the night and as soon as I heard his voice and he said we lost Diane and my immediate reaction was
how am I going to tell Austin? Anne says Austin never once blamed texts for Diane's death. He actually was just
really worried about, you know, how Tex was doing. He's never said I didn't shoot her. He's never said I didn't kill
my wife. He is profoundly regretful. He talked to me a couple of weeks ago and he said I I it's like I smell her and I
break down. I cry. It was all a tragic accident according to Texas defenders. But here's the biggest problem. No one,
including texts, can explain how his gun went off and killed his wife. We just asked him that day before yesterday. He
still cannot give an answer to exactly what happened. Who do you remember after the gun?
[Music] 2 days after Dian's death, texts and his then lawyer met with Atlanta Police
Department homicide detectives. I immediately called out. I said, "Is everybody all right?" And Danny Joe
said, "Yes." And Diane head was kind of slapped. She said, "Uh, I've been shot."
As detectives set out to investigate the shooting of Diane McCyver, they focused
on their best witness. You ever taken any like safety glasses or anything like that?
No. Nothing. I don't worry about it very long. and they focused on their best piece of evidence.
[Music] Here we are in a almost new SUV with two women in the front seat. I said, "Yeah, I'd like to if you don't
mind, please hand me my gun." There is no doubt that Tex McCyver pulled the trigger on the gun that
killed his wife Diane. The question is why? Was he asleep as he said he was and he was jolted awake and pulled the
trigger or did he want to kill his wife? Previously on Breakdown, reporter Bill Rankin's Breakdown podcast takes a deep
dive into the Shakespearean drama surrounding Tex McCyver. He's a 48 hours consultant on the case. Holding a loaded
handgun, pointing it at your wife, falling asleep seems pretty reckless. Using a similar car, Ranken showed us
how the bullet that killed Diane McCyver traveled through the passenger seat of Texas SUV. It hits there and it goes
from right to left through the seat and exits out here, right? goes down slightly downward path through his
wife's body. The bullet went through Diane's left rib cage and diaphragm, severed a vein and
artery in her spleen, and then hit several organs, including her left kidney and stomach.
And she started breathing funny and and she, you know, kind of passed out. That night, detectives were
anxious to hear Danny Joe Carter, the car's driver, explain what Tex did after he shot his wife. All I could think of
was FEMA hospital, and I thought, I don't know how to I don't know how to get there. And he says, no, Emry is
closer. Tex decided to go to Emery University Hospital. There were four hospitals, all
approximately less than 5 miles from where the shooting is believed to have taken place. Emory was the farthest at
about 4.3 miles, but one of the best trauma centers in all of Georgia. Grady was only about 3.2 mi away. Anybody who
lives in Atlanta knows about Grady Hospital and it's a level one trauma center. There were people who have said
that he went to Emery Hospital because it was going to take her longer and maybe let her bleed out.
Family friend Sheriff Howard Sills, who is not involved in the case, says, "No way." And explains that Grady just was
not on Texas radar. If you're rich and you're affluent, then you don't want to go to Grady Hospital because Grady
Hospital is where indigent people go. The people in that car that night, they would have thought Emmery.
This dramatic surveillance footage shows the SUV arriving at Emory's emergency room and texts helping Diane into a
wheelchair. Then before surgery, Diane made a critical statement to her doctors. Her
husband did not mean to shoot her. She said it was an accident. But 2 hours later, Diane Macyver died on the
operating table at 12:49 a.m. You want to have the worst feeling in your life is to be sitting in one of the
waiting rooms, two surgeons and scrubs in a chaplain come around the corner and start walking toward him. Now, it was up
to detectives to determine, was it truly an accident or was it coldblooded murder?
This Smith and Wesson 38 caliber revolver that killed Diane was in the car's center console inside a plastic
bag when it was handed to text by Diane. We've had some breakins in our office and in response to that, I had wrapped
my gun in a public grocery. The gun was still in the bag when it went off. The gun was still in the bag. Yeah. I mean,
he might have had his finger on the trigger. The first rule of firing a gun is don't put your finger on the trigger
until you're ready to pull and you have your target in sight. Law enforcement analyst and former police officer
Vincent Hill says a guy like Tex should have known better. So to wake up out of this sleep, you're
startled. Your finger's automatically on the trigger. You pull this trigger and you do one shot, a kill shot. In my
mind, it's not likely. Lean into it. [ __ ] the weapon. And Hill is not alone in his opinion.
That's why I asked former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Bert Davis to take me out to a gun range not far from
Texas Ranch. I wanted to understand the gun. See how well you're doing? You know, the
revolver can be fired two ways. The handgun, which only shoots one bullet at a time, can be fired in two very
different ways. Single action or doubleaction. Either way, it does not look good for
texts. Because experts say this gun only goes off if the trigger is pulled. In single action, the shooter pulls back
the hammer like this. With the gun already cocked in this position, it hardly takes any effort at
all to pull the trigger. It only takes about two pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger,
which is why experienced gun owners say you only [ __ ] this gun if you know you
are about to use it. No one that I know of would just sit with your gun with a gun in single action. A double action is
a different story. This gun is not loaded, but I want to show you what happens in double action. You pull the
trigger, and the gun automatically pulls the hammer back, rotates the cylinder, and fires. But it's not easy because it
takes about 12 lbs of pressure to actually pull the trigger, making it much harder to fire it accidentally. It
would be difficult, but not impossible. But not impossible. But somehow that gun
was fired. And to this day, text cannot answer this question. Was the gun in single action or double action? Good
question. Do you have an answer? Do I have an answer? Why do I have to answer these? Why does Tex McCyver have to
answer anything? Texas lawyer Bruce Harvey is one of Atlanta's most successful and sought-after defense
attorneys. What is your challenge with this gun? Clearly, a trigger was pulled, right? The question is, was that a
voluntary knowing and intentional action or an involuntary action based upon an accident?
But Tex was clearly no stranger to guns. Out at the ranch, he had what many would
consider an arsenal of weapons. After Diane's death, Tex asked his buddy, Sheriff Sills, to go out to his ranch
and collect his guns for safekeeping. So, you cleared out how many guns? As I recall, it was about 35 guns, including
rifles, handguns, and AR-15s. Would you describe him as a as a gun guy? Yes and no. Here in the South.
Everybody's got a lot of guns. We're getting ready to put on a rodeo demonstration with real cows. But the
idea that Tex MacGyver should have known better was about to become a central and
recurring theme for the 75year-old lawyer. It gets really crazy. I think we've called it a textbook example of
what not to do after you kill your wife. [Music] Bruce Harvey is one of the most
distinctive members of the Atlanta Defense Bar. He has worn a braided ponytail down his back for decades.
Bruce Harvey was not Tex McCyver's first attorney. How did you first hear about it? It was all over the media. It all
started September 25th. Startling new information in the shooting death of Diane Macgyver. Harvey, who knew text
through mutual friends, says he watched the news coverage for almost a year, while Nick made a mess of the case and
his reputation. A complete ongoing disaster, mismanaged from day one, I think, resulting in the reason that
we're sitting here to start with. It started right after the shooting. Atlanta's media immediately began
clamoring for an answer to why on earth Tex had been sitting right behind his wife in his SUV with his finger on the
trigger of a loaded gun. 4 days after the shooting, Tex had an explanation in a statement made through
a spokesman. He said that text told him that he asked for the gun because there were either homeless people, carjackers,
or black lives matter protesters. What do we want? Justice that gave Tex an air of being rich, white, and oblivious,
igniting a real life bonfire of the vanities. Why would you equate Black Lives Matter protesters with carjackers?
Why would you inject race into this? That put the story into a whole another realm. and it went national because of
that. You have this very rich, very powerful white guy in a city that's predominantly
black. I think that's why this case is so appealing to the public. Texas attorney at the time publicly
denied that his client ever said he was afraid of black protesters, but the damage was done and things were about to
get even worse. CBS 46 has an exclusive look tonight at the diamonds, the furs, and the designer bags about to go on
auction. This was pretty stunning. Just two months after shooting his wife, Tex started selling off Dian's extensive
collection of valuable belongings, her most expensive jewelry, fur coats, and handbags would go to the highest biders
at an auction. I understand it was advertised as her stuff, right, to bring in more buyers.
And it wasn't just one auction. It looked like a Nordstrom department store, if not better.
The district attorney's office filed motions to block the sales, but a judge denied their requests. And as the
executive of Dian's estate, Tech said he had no choice. According to text, he said that in her
will, Diane had left a lot of money to some of her employees and some of her friends. So, he needed that money to pay
them. Now, all that money went into the estate and not to him. But timing in this case
was everything. Text has come under fire for holding the two sales while still at
the center of the homicide. Should it have gone forward at that time? Could it have waited? The answer clearly is yes.
And it's something we just have to deal with. At least Tech still had Danny Joe Carter.
And that's it. Danny Joe was his best witness, the only other person in the car when the gun went off. The night of
the shooting, Danny Joe told detectives in no uncertain terms she believed Diane's death was an accident. There is
not a doubt in my mind that it was completely a horrible accident. But on February
2nd, 2017, a little over 4 months after the shooting, Danny Joe changed her story.
He's not been nice to me and tried to manipulate me. In a third interview with investigators conducted inside of Texas
SUV, Danny Joe alleged that on the night of the shooting, Tex told her to lie. He tried to get me to lie supposedly to
protect me from getting all wrapped up in this. Danny Joe said walked up to her and said, "Why don't you just tell
police you weren't in the car? There's no question she was in the car. There's no question she was driving.
There's videotape at Emory Hospital. Bruce Harvey concedes that it is possible text was just trying to protect
his friend. Danny Joe at that particular time was beingounded by the media. And I
think a lot of this effort was to try to allow her to avoid the media crunch. not
designed for her not to talk to the police or not to give a particular statement, but there was no media yet at
the hospital. There there was going to be. Are you saying that text may have told her to tell the cops she wasn't in
the car so that people would stopounding her? Yes. So Tex may have told her that
if he did, but there is no denying this. Days after the shooting, text orchestrated a meeting with his lawyers
and two reporters where Danny Joe was to make a legal and public statement that the shooting was an accident. When she
was a no-show and stopped taking his calls, text left this frantic voicemail for her husband. Let me just be plain.
Danny is about to send me to prison. Please erase this this voicemail message, but call me right away. You all
have no idea the problem this is causing. It's innocent, but it's absolutely nuclear for me. It doesn't
sound good when he says, "Please erase this voicemail message, but call me right away." So, what does he mean? When
we examine what Well, we don't have to explain what he he means. They have to explain why it is a crime for him to do
that or how it relates. Bruce Harvey was still watching from the sidelines when on December 20th, 2016, Tex got some
good news. The Atlanta Police Department concluded the shooting was not an intentional act. Based on their
findings, the Fulton County District Attorney charged Tex with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. After
spending his birthday behind bars, Tex McGyver bonds out of jail just before Christmas weekend.
But with the case now in the hands of the district attorney's office, they decided to launch their own
investigation into the shooting. There was a bond hearing where the lead prosecutor, Clint Rucker, strongly
hinted that they didn't believe it was accidental. That made everyone think, "Wo, okay, this is getting even more
serious now." [Music] A little over a week after Tex Macyver was charged with involuntary
manslaughter, there was more breaking news in this case. Startling new information in the shooting death of
Diane Macgyver. Our Atlanta affiliate CBS46 uncovered evidence that at the time of
Dian's death, tax owed his wife $350,000. He was supposed to pay her back with interest by December of 2014. That never
happened. Tech said that the money was Dian's contribution to the construction of that saloon on his ranch and that for
tax purposes, Diane wanted it to look like a loan. There was $350,000, but it wasn't ever actually going to be
paid back by him. The $350,000 was a function of nothing more than taxes. But on paper, it does look like a loan
and one that Tex was expected to pay back. That could be argued that he didn't want to have to pay that off.
Meanwhile, the Fulton County DA's office was looking for a possible motive for murder. When they heard that Diane may
have had a second will, subpoenas were obtained to search the couple's financial records. And that's when this
happened. During a search of their condo, Tex was found to be violating the terms of his
bond with, of all things, possession of a gun. They found a gun in his sock drawer that he probably went to all the
time when he was getting dressed and then found ammunition in the drawer right above it. Tex insisted that the
condo had already been searched for and cleared of any weapons. So, the Glock pistol, which he claimed had once
belonged to Diane, must have been planted. The judge didn't buy it. Mr. Macgyver possessed
the gun. I am going to revoke Mr. Macgyver's bond. After 4 months out on bond, Tax was back
behind bars. When the very next day, there was yet another stunning announcement by the DA's office.
A grand jury that had been hearing testimony for weeks concluded there was enough evidence to charge Tex McGyver
with the murder of his wife. It was surprising that it leapt so far from an accident to
cold, cruel, intentional killing. Tex would spend the next 8 months in jail, seeing loved ones only through
video screen visitations. Here he is. Hello, Austin. Mommy, how are y'all? And desperately trying to get out on bond
again. Well, I love y'all and I hope to see everybody on Wednesday if things work out. I love you, Austin.
Then Bruce Harvey took over the case. I don't believe I don't believe in my heart of hearts. I don't believe as
we're sitting here that Tex Mccyver had any deliberate intent to do any harm to his wife. We're going home. Harvey got
text released and put on house arrest. Then he set about preparing for trial on a case where there had been one public
blunder after another. Are you concerned about being able to seat an impartial jury? Yes, I am. I think Texas has been
unfairly vilified in the court of public opinion. Jury selection in the trial of Tex
McCyver began on March 5th and took a whole week. Well, today jury selection got underway in a Fulton County
courtroom and a pool of more than 140 potential jurors. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. When the trial
began, Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Celita Griffin delivered the state's opening argument. The day that
the defendant shot his wife in the back, his life was spinning out of control. And what became fairly clear is that the
prosecution believes Tex McCyver's motive for murder was money. The easiest way for him to gain control
was to kill Diane. Is money a motive here? No. Very simple answer. He is much worse off
without her. I think that is a huge red herring. You know why? because they've got nothing else. Now, this is a case
about maintaining an image of wealth and power that the defendant created for himself and the links that he went
through to keep it. What if Tex didn't mean to do it? Or what if Tex did mean to do it, but the
prosecution fails to prove it? All rise for the jury. Testimony in the murder trial of Tex Macyver began on March 13th
and lasted 20 days. By closing arguments, the jury had heard two very different theories of why Tex
Macyver shot his wife. I'm going to talk to you about the facts. Prosecutor Clint Rucker and his team
painted an ugly picture of a man who they say was broke and so desperate for money that he murdered his wife. He was
taking her money and he was regaining control. Evidence showed that Macyver's salary at his law firm had been cut by
more than half while the state says he was living way beyond his means. And remember, the Macyver kept their
finances separate. Remember this email? This a couple of months before the murder. This is what the defendant says
to his wife. I am seriously trying to reduce my monthly expenses. Why? Cuz his monthly expenses at the
ranch alone were 20 to $25,000 a month. What does he say? I plan on hitting the lotto
sometime this week. Diane joked that Tex might want to think about becoming their
new ranch hand. Read his job description. because that is your next life chapter.
This what he said in response. Oh well, back to Jigalowing. The state believes that Tex was using
Diane for her money. But what drove him to murder is this. Before they were married, Tex borrowed $750,000
from Diane. As payment, the state says he deeded her half of his ranch. What that meant was that now the property was
no longer owned solely by the defendant. In 2011, Diane loaned Tex another $350,000,
but this time she made Tex sign a promisary note that gave her the right to foreclose on the ranch if Tex didn't
pay up. So, when the loan didn't get paid, she said, I'm going to put another clause in here that says, you know what,
it's not that I don't have to uh wait until you don't pay me. I can foreclose at any time. And as we sit here today,
the loan is in default. By killing Diane, the defendant will regain sole ownership of the ranch. The jury heard
Danny Joe's claim that Tex asked her to lie. They also heard about the Black Lives Matter statement and the auction.
But there was more. They heard what happened to Diane's ashes after she was cremated. Took him 42 days. Pick up his
wife's remains. That's what I found. Tucked back in a closet in a cardboard box. It's just not right.
But the defense team told a very different story. A love story. They were him. Nobody ever saw them arguing.
Nobody ever heard her say, "I'm going to foreclose if you don't pay me my money."
This is the big one. Bruce Harvey and the defense team tried to show that Tex did not need Dian's money. Texas was not
broke, nor was he in dire financial straits. The state's calculation put Texas net worth at 1.7 million before
Diane died. But what the defense tried hardest to hammer home was that the shooting was
nothing but an accident. And remember, that's what Diane said before she died. The three people that were in the
vehicle all said it was an accident. And as for the gun, remember the expert with the firearm?
Harvey used the state's own gun expert to show that anyone can fire the gun accidentally.
It was remember him demonstrating um the weapon in pulling the trigger when he testified right here. You notice
the trigger? [Music] Oops. He's demonstrating it for you on the witness stand. He accidentally pulls the trigger.
He says, "Oops." The shooting could not have been premeditated, says the defense, because
it was Diane who told Danny Joe to take that exit when they hit traffic. And after Tex was handed his gun, he fell
back asleep. The defense also presented an expert who said Tex suffered from a long documented
sleep disorder, which might explain why he unintentionally pulled the trigger and can't remember how. Often times when
people arouse from these, they don't arouse quickly. They frequently have amnesia for this.
As the case was about to go to the jury, the defense suggested that the state had
not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. We do not convict people in fogs of speculation,
but on the bedrock of fact. D tried to stand up for herself and on behalf of the state, Clint Rucker pleaded with the
jury to punish Diane Macyver's killer. Who will stand for Diane Macgyava? A great woman she tried to be. Will you
stand for Diane Macgya as she cries out who will stand for me? [Music] The jury deliberated for about 29 hours.
At one point, each sat in the back passenger seat of Macyver's SUV holding the gun that killed Diane. Some of the
jurors were actually clicking the trigger. So, I think it could have made a huge difference in the outcome of this
trial. On their fourth full day of deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge saying they were deadlocked.
We don't see it happen. to overcome our differences. But the judge told them to try again. Then just two hours later,
they reached a verdict. Was it malice murder? Meaning Tex intended to kill Diane. Felony murder. Tex shot Diane
with the intention of causing her bodily harm, but had not intended to kill her.
Felony involuntary manslaughter. He acted recklessly or not guilty. On count one, murder, we find the defendant not
guilty. Well, when the jury came back and the foreman read not guilty on malice murder, I was like, "Oh my
goodness." But then they said this, "We find the defendant guilty of felony murder.
Guilty of felony murder." Tex was clearly stunned. The jury felt that he shot Diane without malice of forethought
but intending to do bodily harm. Might have been a compromise for the jury is no compromise for Tex MacGyver because
uh malice murder and felony murder both carry a life sentence. A mandatory life sentence. It's a a complete tragedy. I
mean that closes the circle. Everybody loses. Tex handed over his belt and was handcuffed.
Fulton County DA Paul Howard brought it back to the victim, Diane. We would like
to say to Diane, we hope that you are watching and we hope that you felt that we stood for you and we stood for the
things that you represented. given these shackles. If you don't mind, I would like to sit at his sentencing
hearing. Tech spoke directly to Diane. I know she's here. I feel her presence. Darl brought me more joy and fulfillment
that few men on this earth could ever know. But it's what he didn't say that stood out. I didn't ever hear you say
you're sorry for what you did. To me, that silence speaks volumes. Prosecutors say this is justice for
Diane. Text Macyver supporters disagree. She didn't need justice when it's a terrible accident.
She's in heaven right now. I'm just heartbroken. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] A key witness takes a stand in the trial
of Patrick Frzy. Investigators believe Patrick Frzy killed Kelsey Barth in her town home on Thanksgiving last year.
Day two of the murder trial for the man who allegedly killed his fiance. Day seven of the trial. Investigators
revealed the moments they found. Surveillance video of Kelsey Barth and her one-year-old daughter at a Woodland
Park supermarket is the last anyone seen of the 29year-old mother. If convicted,
Frezy could face life in prison. We can certainly sense that we are in the final
days of this trial and it is certainly Criple Creek is a small town. Teller County is a small county. We're up in
like a minute. They have never seen anything to this magnitude in [ __ ] Creek. Ashley
Franco, KKTV 11 News. You've covered every second of this trial. What has the feeling meant inside that courtroom?
It's been cold. It's been very heavy and chilling. During the first week, we learned about some of the evidence in
the case. Crystal Lee, Patrick Frzy's ex-girlfriend is set to be the prosecution's star witness.
Okay, it's uh 11:15 again on the 21st December 2018. Um we're inside Kelsey's apartment with
Crystal. You are seeing what the jury saw. Remarkable evidence. The heart of the prosecution's case. When you came
in, what did you see? Um, when I first walked in, I saw um blood all over the floor. I saw blood up
the wall. Who is Crystal Lee? Crystal Lee is a rodeo queen from Idaho. She's very wellknown
and she's Patrick Frzy's ex-girlfriend. They'd known each other for over a decade.
She's the bread and butter to this case. That's Crystal Lee wearing a police jacket and hat. Can you point to the
area where you saw and clean blood up on the wall? She admits to cleaning up the
crime scene and tells the prosecution the whole entire story of what happened. The spray was
from here all the way. She's the only person in the world that they have to possibly convict Patrick
Crazy. We did a deal with the devil. There's just no if ends or buts about it in this case. But it's a deal that we
made in order to move this case forward and to solve this crime. Sometimes in order to solve a case or
move a case forward, we have to give a deal to the devil. Uh, that's exactly what we did here. Did you say that you
cleaned off some of the appliances? I did. I wiped the There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was blood
on the front of the stove. Crystal Lee was obviously the star witness for the prosecution and she testified to things
that the prosecution needed her to say in order to establish this case. I am a Gruber. I'm a professor of law at
University of Colorado Law School. I think there were doubts about Crystal Lee's testimony coming into it. Crystal
Lee has trafficked in lies. Crystal Lee is saying he has been planning on killing Kelsey and he had
called me multiple times about it. There's poison coffee. There's a baseball bat, scented candles,
a blindfold, phones that are pinging all over Colorado and and in Idaho. I got to
tell you, it's one of the most emotional trials I've ever been through, and I've
been through a lot of trials. Uh the roller coaster everybody was put on. There wasn't anybody on this team that
at some point uh didn't have tears running down their face. We just got word that a verdict has been
reached in the case against Patrick Frzy. Tell them try to take it. We're the we're the only ones out here.
There's always a little bit of nervousness and question in the back of your mind. Just hours ago, we were
hearing closing statements. And now, now we have a verdict. [Music] [Music] Patrick Frzy sits in this grim [ __ ]
Creek, Colorado jail, put here by his former girlfriend, Crystal Lee. There's blood on the wall here. There's
blood on the wall here. And there was blood right here. In disturbing evidence that you will see throughout the program
tonight. She tells her story about a crime scene cleanup. I moved the couch. I wiped the couch off. Um there was
blood behind the couch down the wall. A plan to transport a body. We brought the
tote here. Okay, we unloaded the tote and her help in making sure there would be no trace of it left behind. The
things that were thrown into the fire by me were the um the belongings from Kelsey's house, the curtains, the
pillows, the stuffed animals. The tale begins when these haunting images were captured. A mother in the
grocery store shopping with her baby. Thanksgiving Day 2018. The last time Kelsey Barth was seen in public. It's
not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character. It was Cheryl Barth who reported her
29-year-old daughter missing after trying to reach her for days. Kelsey, we just want you home.
Call us if you can and we won't quit looking. At that time in early December, Woodland
Park police had not publicly named a suspect. We are treating Kelsey's disappearance as a missing person's case
at this time. Can't eat and you can't sleep and the stress won't end until we find her.
Usually, it was us four altogether all the time. Ashley Cogburn, Amanda Smith, and Nicole Haywood had an unbreakable
bond with Kelsey. They grew up together in Moses Lake, Washington. From the pictures, she's gorgeous, obviously, and
very put together. And so, you might think that she's, you know, this prissy girl, but she was not. She She was
raised on a hay farm and very much a tomboy country girl. Yeah, she was out there driving tractors and and bucking
bales in flying planes. She was a flight instructor. She a good pilot. Oh, yeah.
She was really good. She wasn't afraid to challenge the the typical boundaries. So, it wasn't a surprise when a Colorado
cowboy named Patrick Frzy caught Kelsey's eye on a dating website in 2016. He was like a country boy and that's
what she was used to. That's what she liked. They started a long-distance relationship.
Patrick Frzy lived on a 35 acre ranch in rural Florison, Colorado. These are four
dogs that be our dogs to train this fall and winter. In this video, Patrick can be heard training cattle dogs. Pepper.
That'll do down. He also shoot horses and groom donkeys. The black and white one is uh
Flash. Clint Klene has known Patrick for seven years. Patrick is uh the frier for
the donkeys. People call them horseshoeers and all that, but our donkeys don't have shoes. So, he trims
their feet. He trims their feet. It's he he gives them, as we call it, donkey manicures. Klein says Patrick was quiet
and dedicated to his work. He's kind of a laidback, you know, kind of stays to himself. Uh he had his ranch to take
care of. Eventually, Kelsey moved to Colorado from Washington State to be closer to
Patrick. And they were expecting a child. Her mother, Cheryl, says they were engaged. Does she have a dress yet?
No. I don't think she cared about the big wedding kind of thing. It was between them and God.
Even after their daughter Kaye was born in October 2017, the couple still didn't
live together, but shared parenting duties. He never came to see her, but um she would like on her days off, she
would go back and be with him. Friends say Kelsey was struggling to balance the baby, her job, and a long commute. Her
relationship with Patrick seemed strained. She seemed to be kind of stressed out from the whole thing that
she couldn't make him happy. Was Patrick emotionally abusive? Um, it appeared that way from uh what I
saw and it seemed like it was just knocking her spirit down. Did Kelsey ever say he was physically abusive? No.
Ashley says Kelsey once mentioned there may have been another woman in Patrick's
life. I think Kelsey had mentioned one time about an ex-girlfriend who still kind of wanted to be with Patrick.
Kelsey wasn't worried about it. I don't know if it's cuz she knew she lived far away. Kelsey didn't seem all that
worried about it. After Kelsey was reported missing, police talked to Patrick. He told them
that the day before Thanksgiving, Kelsey said she wanted to end their relationship.
KKTV reporter Ashley Franco. He said that Kelsey wanted to go their separate ways and things weren't working out
between them. They wanted to split custody 50/50 and they were just not meshing anymore. Patrick told police he
and Kelsey met to exchange the baby on Thanksgiving Day. He also returned Kelsey's belongings. A purse, um, keys
to the car, keys to the town home, and then a gun that Kelsey owned. It was a gun Patrick says he had once taken from
Kelsey for her own protection. Police say Patrick told them Kelsey struggled with depression, hinting that she may be
suicidal. When you hear that Patrick said Kelsey was unstable, that she was maybe suicidal.
No, no, not at all. It doesn't match up with Kelsey. Police searched Kelsey's home, but turned up no signs of foul
play. Then Cheryl and her son went to the house to check it out. [Music] There was a mat a like a rug of some
sort in the bathroom and it's gone. And she had also noticed that the refrigerator looked like it had been
wiped down recently. You could see streaks. Later, her son is in the bathroom and
notices blood on the base of the toilet and the alarms go off in their minds. Alarms go off.
Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, alerted investigators who returned to the house. This time, they used chemicals to detect
the presence of blood. They found trace amounts of blood everywhere in the bathroom. Do we know whose blood? DNA
results showed it was Kelsey's. Investigators believed Kelsey had been murdered, but they needed more evidence.
A closer look at Kelsey and her fiance's cell phone activity Thanksgiving weekend
would lead them to her suspected killer. [Music] [Music] Patrick Frzy was taken into custody this
morning in Florison, Colorado, just after 7:00 this morning, Mountain Standard Time.
Nearly a month after Kelsey Barth vanished, Woodland Park Police Chief Miles D Young made this grim
announcement. Today we arrested Patrick Frzy on charges of first-degree murder of Kelsey
Barth. As a reminder, Patrick Frzy is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Patrick, what do you have to say?
Despite the murder charge, Kelsey's body had not been found. As you can tell from
the arrest, sadly, we do not believe Kelsey is still alive. Kelsey's daughter, Kaye, is in
protective custody and will be re reunited with Kelsey's family. Patrick Frzy entered a plea of not
guilty. But from the beginning, investigators had questions about Patrick's story. Starting with his
initial claim that the day before Thanksgiving, Kelsey told him she wanted to break up and quote, "Go their
separate ways." So this is Woodland Park. This is Woodland Park. Yet there she was shopping the next day
for the family dinner. You see her grab a cart and and put Kaye in the cart and then go off. And that's the last time
publicly anyone had seen Kelsey Barrett. What does she buy here at Safeway? She buys ingredients for a sweet potato
casserole. Investigators wondered if Kelsey had broken up with Patrick. Why would she send him this text? I bought
some sweet potatoes in case you wanted sweet potato casserole. Kelsey didn't tell her mother she and
Patrick were breaking up when she spoke with her Thanksgiving morning. Did she sound normal? Did she sound Definitely.
She She sounded happy and normal mom daughter talk. Yeah. Yeah. Another big question investigators had was when
Patrick said he last saw Kelsey. Patrick told officers that he hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving November
22nd when he exchanged their daughter, Kaye Barrett. In images from a neighbor security
camera on that Thanksgiving day, Patrick and Kelsey are seen at her door with a baby carrier after Kelsey returned from
the store. You can see her holding a poinsettia. Later, Patrick is seen at that same location alone. We don't know
whether he's coming or going. He doesn't have Kaye. Um, and he's not with Kelsey.
And then that's it. University of Colorado law professor Ya Gruber has followed the case. The critical question
is what happened in between around 1:30, 1:45 and 3:30 when they get that picture
of him. Police say this is likely when Patrick killed her. Investigators have recovered um a number
of items that make us suspicious that the crime did occur at Kelsey's residence.
Patrick told authorities he drove their daughter Kaye to his ranch for Thanksgiving dinner. He said Kelsey
wasn't with them. But investigators discovered that her cell phone was. They pulled cell phone records and found that
on Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, all of a sudden Kelsey's phone and Patrick's
phone started traveling together, but Patrick and Kelsey were not together. Investigators say Patrick took Kelsey's
cell phone after he killed her as part of a scheme to cover his tracks. They believe he faked 19 calls between the
two phones over Thanksgiving weekend and was sending texts between them, including this one from Kelsey's phone.
I'm going running. I'll call you guys when I get home. His response, okay, be safe.
The theory that the prosecution's going to put forward is that that was Patrick with her phone and he's texting
pretending to be Kelsey. 2 days after Thanksgiving, authorities believe Patrick concocted this conversation. Are
you awake? Sorry, I didn't hear my phone. Going to jump in the shower. I'll call you guys when I get out. Okay. Then
investigators believe to keep up his ruse that Kelsey wanted the breakup, Patrick sent this message. If this is
truly what you want, I'll respect your wishes and give you space. On Sunday, 3 days after Thanksgiving,
there was a bizarre development that would send this case in a very different direction. Phone records show while
Patrick Cell stayed near his ranch, Kelsey's phone was on the move, heading west out of Colorado.
There was a text from Kelsey's phone to her supervisor at Doss Aviation saying, "I won't be at work." So, people had
thought maybe they heard from Kelsey. The next text from Kelsey's phone said, "Do you even love me?" That text pinged
off a cell phone tower 800 miles away. Reports are correct that Kelsey's phone gave a location near Gooding, Idaho on
November 25th. When that came out, I think everyone was was just shocked. And where's Kelsey?
And where's Kelsey? No one knows where Kelsey is. So, how did her phone end up in Idaho?
This woman may have the answer. [Music] It was startling news when investigators
revealed that 3 days after Kelsey Barth was last seen, her cell phone had pinged
in Gooding, Idaho, 800 miles from her home. Tonight, we have new information about a 32year-old Twin Falls woman that
may have helped Patrick Frzy cover up the disappearance and alleged murder of his fiance, Kelsey Barrett.
At the time of Kelsey's disappearance, phone records show that Patrick was in touch with this woman, Crystal Kenny
Lee. Crystal was a nurse and avid horsewoman who grew up here. This is Crystal's world. KMVTt news director and
weekend cowboy, Cade Atwood. We work hard to be able to do this on the weekends.
Crystal and her family are a big part of the rodeo community, a very prominent family.
Talk horses and that's you're speaking her love language, you know. Michelle Stein is Crystal's best friend. Horses
are her life. She loves horses. Take a look at this. And in Idaho, where rodeo rules, Crystal was royalty. In
2008, she was crowned queen of the Magic Valley Rodeo. She was so loud. Laura Stzman has known Crystal since she was a
teenager. Crystal was so kind with everybody that it was just so difficult to turn her down in any way. Crystal had
a reputation of getting what she wanted. No, I wouldn't say it was a reputation of getting what she wanted. Crystal
worked so hard at everything she did to try to do everything completely correct.
Authorities believed that it was Crystal who traveled to Idaho with Kelsey's phone. But when the FBI made their
initial call to Crystal, she said she had no idea who Kelsey Barth was. She also denied knowing Patrick Frzy. Then
she changed her story. They asked her, "When was the last time you talked to him?" And she said, "I don't know. I'd
have to look at my phone." And then says, "Oh, in the last month." And investigators are thinking, "Okay, but
we already know that your phone has called his phone multiple times in the last few weeks." She says, "I don't have
a personal relationship with Patrick Frzy. I've gone to Colorado and looked at a few of his horses, and that's the
extent of our relationship." She lies. She lies. Turns out Crystal Lee and Patrick Frzy
had a long history. They met after high school. Then eight months before Kelsey disappeared, Crystal and Patrick's
relationship heated up. Crystal was recently divorced with two children. She had been out here multiple times to see
him and it was type a type of affair. What did Crystal say about Patrick? Was she in love with him? I think she was to
a point. During the investigation, the FBI got a tip that Michelle had explosive
information about the case. She says Crystal called and confided in her about a disturbing conversation she and
Patrick had a month before Kelsey disappeared. She was very, very upset, very distraught. She had told me that he
had asked her to take care of his baby mama. And you took that to me or she took that. So I was
like, well, I was in shock at first because people, who says that? Nobody says that. So I was like, wait, what?
And she said, yeah, he asked me if I would kill the mother of his baby. I mean, what are you thinking at that
point? I was just in shock and disbelief. What was Crystal's tone when she was telling you this? She was
balling. She was crying. She was extremely upset and scared. Michelle says she asked Crystal why Patrick
wanted to kill Kelsey. He had told her it was because she wanted to take him back to court to get custody of the baby
and he was in fear that she was going to harm the baby. Investigators found no proof Kelsey had harmed her daughter,
but did find evidence that Patrick had planned to challenge Kelsey for custody and believe that may have been his
motive for murder. Michelle says she pushed Crystal to call the police. I kept telling her, "I think you need to
call and tell somebody." See, you got to understand, I'm trusting her to do the right thing. But I think Michelle,
people watching will say, "Call the police. Say, you need to talk to my friend. Someone's asking her to kill
someone. You're right. Okay. Of course the viewers are going to think that. But do you have regret? Of course I regret
it. I regret it every day. Oh my god. I would do anything to have stopped that somehow.
Kelsey had been gone about a month before Michelle talked to the FBI. And when the FBI went back at Crystal a
second time, she too was ready to talk. I think at that point she kind of knows I have to come clean.
But first, Crystal wanted a deal. In exchange for her testimony against Patrick, she agreed to plead guilty to
evidence tampering. She admitted to getting rid of the gun to tossing Kelsey's keys in a canyon and destroying
her phone. It's a tampering with evidence charged, which is a minor charge compared to murder or um you know
accessory to murder or attempted murder. She only faces at max three years in prison. This is a pretty good deal that
she gets. What Crystal revealed to investigators would become the center of the prosecution's case against Patrick
Frzy. When I first walked in, I found blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall.
[Music] When Crystal Lee finally started talking, she didn't stop for 4 and 1/2 hours. Her story was stunning. She
claimed Patrick tried to get her to kill Kelsey three different times. The first
idea was to get a caramel macchiato from Starbucks, Kelsey's favorite drink, and
put poison in it. Two months before Kelsey went missing, Crystal says she drove 12 hours from
Idaho to this Starbucks near Kelsey's home in Colorado. Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get started for
you today? Crystal, a nurse, told investigators she suggested the perfect potion, a lethal dose of ambient and
Valium. This is the drink. That is the drink Crystal Lee had ordered to put poison in to give to Kelsey Barth.
So Crystal brings this Starbucks caramel macchiato right here. Waits in the alleyway, walks up to Kelsey's door,
knocks on the door, and Kelsey Kelsey opens it. Kelsey opens it. Tells Kelsey this elaborate story. She says, "I'm new
to the neighborhood. someone had told me that you had helped get my dogs out of trouble and Kelsey says, "No, I didn't
do that." Does Kelsey take the coffee? Allegedly, Kelsey takes the coffee inside and closes the door. And from
there, we don't we don't know what Kelsey does with the coffee. But Crystal says she couldn't do it. She didn't
poison the coffee. And when Patrick found out, he was angry. He was furious. He was not happy that
she didn't go through with it. He would play head games with her a lot. Crystal's best friend, Michelle Stein.
He just had a way of manipulating her into doing things. After Crystal said she couldn't go through with the poison
plan, she told investigators Patrick came up with a different idea. He says, "Um, I have a metal pipe
that I'll leave outside my property that you can come pick up and I want you to go wait for Kelsey at her town home and
when she comes, hit her on the back of the head." The way Crystal tells it, she drove to
Kelsey's house with that metal pipe, but didn't attack her and drove back to Idaho. A week later, she says Patrick
called with a new murder plan. Once again, Crystal drove from Idaho to Kelsey's Colorado townhouse. Crystal
claims she waited for Kelsey outside her home, this time with an aluminum baseball bat. But just like her earlier
attempts, she says she chickenened out. It's just hard to believe these stories.
They seem outlandish and wild. Phone records show Patrick called Crystal in Idaho around 4:30 on
Thanksgiving Day. Crystal said he told her, "You need to get out here now. You got a mess to clean up." Crystal says
that she can't come out that same day, um, but will come out a few days later. Um she's in Idaho, loads up the car with
cleaning supplies, bleach, um hairetss, you know, gloves, trash bags. She basically brought the equivalent of
a hazmat suit and every sort of cleaning product that one might see in one of those uh TV shows about how to clean up
a crime scene. Two days later, on Saturday morning, Crystal says she drove 800 miles to Patrick's ranch to pick up
a set of Kelsey's keys he left for her outside. Then she says she drove to Kelsey's
home. Crystal tells authorities she opens the door and the scene is horrific. There's blood everywhere.
According to Crystal, Kelsey's body was not inside. and then spends, you know, three to four
hours cleaning and scrubbing the the murder scene. She takes some of the things that she couldn't clean and puts
them into trash bags and loads them in the back of the car she was driving. Crystal claims Patrick was back at his
ranch during the cleanup. There was a point in time when Patrick Frzy had told Crystal Lee, "When you go to clean up
her town home, there is possibly a tooth somewhere." Crystal said she found that tooth and
put it in a trash bag. Crystal told investigators after the cleanup she met with Patrick. She
described to them how he said he lured Kelsey to her death. Crystal claims Patrick invited his fiance to play a
guessing game with candles. She says that he takes a sweater from Kelsey's room and blindfolds her with
the sweater and has candles sitting out in front of Kelsey and is telling Kelsey
to guess the scent of each candle. During her interview with investigators, Crystal said Patrick told her while baby
Kaye was in another room, he took a baseball bat and quote, "He went to swinging."
After killing Kelsey with that baseball bat on Thanksgiving Day, Crystal says Patrick told her he put her body in a
black tote. This surveillance image shows Patrick at an ATM earlier that day with a black tote in his truck.
Crystal went with investigators to Patrick's ranch. She told them that she and Patrick went there together and she
watched him burn that tote. He poured gasoline in the bucket and pitched it into the fire. I believe yesterday you
said that you also collected wood and put into the burn pit. Yes, I did. Police later examined the spot where
they believe Kelsey's body was burned. Crystal also went with investigators to Kelsey's home. She's wearing that police
jacket and hat. The floorboards had been removed for testing. And can you point if you remember where the tooth was
around the tooth? What was there? If anything, just blood, right? There was blood on the chairs. There was blood on
this chair. There's blood on the table. There's blood on the Hobby Lobby bag that was sitting there. She pointed out
where she claims she intentionally left blood for them to find. Right there. On December 21st, 2018, Patrick was
arrested at his ranch and charged with Kelsey's murder. This is a case without a body. Uh, this
is a case without a lot of physical evidence. So, what we mainly have connecting Patrick Frzy to an incredibly
brutal and violent crime is Crystal Lee's testimony. Crystal, who had cut that deal with
prosecutors, seemed shaken when she appeared in court after she turned herself into authorities.
The Crystal I knew could do no wrong. But the Crystal that has done the things that came out
of her mouth is somebody I don't know. And that leaves Laura Stzman with one question. Why?
[Music] [Music] Almost a year after Kelsey Barth's disappearance, there was a long line to
get a seat in the courtroom at Patrick Frzy's murder trial. Uh, I had a lot of people that knew Patrick. They don't
think that the candle story adds up. Frzy's friend Clint Klene was there almost every day. I don't know of any
guys that would have thought of going out and buying candles and having their girlfriend be blindfolded and then smell
the candles. You think that had to be a woman's idea? I think so. Freezy was driven from the jail in a
black SUV. He entered the courthouse through this white tent, out of sight from the media. Security was tight. No
cameras in the courtroom. District Attorney Dan May. I I got to tell you, it's one of the most emotional trials
I've ever been through, and I've been through a lot of trials in my career. Prosecutor Beth Reed painted a picture
of Patrick Freezy. Very charming, very manipulative, and controlling. All traits consistent
with being a sociopath. Ashley Franco summed up the defense case. No body, no murder weapon, and no
clear motive. They had said, you know, Patrick wasn't involved. There's no evidence to show he was involved. And
Crystal Lee had already lied to law enforcement, so she's the one to blame for this. On day four, the prosecution
star witness, Crystal Lee, took the stand. Her credibility was on the line. I don't think we would have known what
happened to Kelsey without Crystal Lee. I started picking up things that were blood splattered.
For 2 days, prosecutor Jennifer Vehman asked Lee to describe Frzy's plan to kill Kelsey Barth. They bolstered their
case with surveillance videos and photos. This one shows the black tote in the back of Frzy's truck that Lee says
he would use to dispose of her body. When you came in, what did you see? Blood all over the floor. I saw blood up
the wall. Saw blood on the roof wall. Most disturbing. Prosecutors played that video of Lee inside Kelsey's home,
showing investigators how she cleaned up the crime scene. Did you say, correct me
if I'm wrong, did you say that you cleaned off some of the appliances? I did. I wiped the There was blood on the
front of the dishwasher. There was blood on the front of the stove. Um there was
um that cinnamon roll pan had blood on the um tin foil. They had pulled up the floorboards where
they found Kelsey's blood. They showed video of a hay barn where Lee says Frezy hid Kelsey's body in that
tote overnight. A cadaavver dog alerted to the area. This is a surveillance image of Frezy at
a gas station. Lee says he was buying gas to start a fire. We brought the tote here. Okay. We unloaded the tote.
Okay. Kelsey's body was moved to Frzy's ranch. Were you present when he started the fire? Yes, I was. Okay. This is the
video that shows how Lee says she helped Frezy burn Kelsey's body in that black tote. What about the accelerant gas?
Okay. And burned evidence, including Kayle's toys and Kelsey's bloodstained Bible. Do you remember what the books
were by just one of them was her um I would imagine it was a Bible. Experts say a human female tooth
fragment was recovered from Frzy's ranch near the burn site, but there wasn't enough DNA to determine a profile.
[Music] At the end of her testimony, she told the jury Kelsey's chilling last words,
"Please stop." But he didn't. He keeps beating her and beating her and beating her. The jury needed to hear that. They
needed to hear how brutal this was, how uncaring he was, how senseless this was.
Why would Lee help Frzy? She claimed she feared for herself and her children. She
was in love with Patrick Frzy and had been for a long time. As the trial went on and and we saw that
dark side of Patrick Frzy that Crystal saw, that Kelsey saw, I think you can understand some of that fear.
I I don't know that we'll ever understand entirely why she did what she did. It's it's fairly inexplicable.
Perhaps the most shocking testimony came from a surprise prosecution witness. Your last witness, I think, jaws dropped
when he started testifying. Tell me about him. We didn't know about him. Prosecutor Beth Reed says the surprise
witness was an inmate at the same jail where Patrick Frzy was being held. He actually had started calling our office
while we were in the middle of trial. The former inmate had watched a 48 hours episode on Kelsey Barth's murder.
Turns out he says Frezy gave him a hit list. Some of the names handwritten on paper towels he was instructed to flush.
Describe to me what was in the 16 notes passed between Patrick and the former inmate.
Well, they were requests that a certain number of witnesses needed to disappear, but it was very
specific as to Crystal Lee. Graphic descriptions of what needed to happen to Crystal Lee.
He described putting a bullet in her head. Also on Frzy's hit list, Crystal Lee's
best friend, Michelle Stein, and Kelsey's mother, Cheryl Barth. What does that say about Patrick Frzy?
It says that Patrick will do whatever he wants to get whatever he wants. The defense called no witnesses. Frezy
chose not to testify. The case went to the jury. After 3 and 1/2 hours of deliberations a
verdict. A verdict is in in this 11 breaking news alert. The jury says they unanimously found Patrick Frzy guilty of
first-degree murder. Frezy was found guilty of firstdegree murder. sentenced to life in prison plus 156 years.
Do you think if Patrick hadn't involved Crystal, he would have gotten away with Kelsey's murder? Yes, I do. I think it's
very possible he would have gotten away with it. Involving Crystal was that was a stupid plan. The whole plan was
stupid, but he wanted Crystal Lee to pin it on. As for Crystal Lee, she's facing
a maximum of up to 3 years in prison. I think a lot of our viewers are probably thinking Crystal Lee, given
what she's admitted to, got a really good deal. She did. And um uh it's it's not right. And I'm not
going to try to justify in any way. Uh it's unfortunately a part of my profession that sometimes in order to
solve a case, we have to give a deal to the devil. Uh that's exactly what we did
here. If you could sentence Crystal Lee, what would it be? uh heck of a lot more time than three
years. She could have saved Kelsey so many times over so many months and it's totally inexcusable.
Is this justice for Kelsey and Kaye? Can there ever be justice? Justice in this case,
Kelsey be sitting here talking to you, not us. Excuse me. Um, so we can c certainly seek a certain
amount of justice, but not the justice that this case deserves. [Music] [Music]

“48 Hours" reports on cases with compelling evidence in crime investigations. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Tracking the Murders of Israel Keyes," "The Last Ride Home" and "Justice for Kelsey Berreth."

00:00 Tracking the Murders of Israel Keyes 43:13 The Last Ride Home 1:25:45 Justice for Kelsey Berreth

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Israel Keys' chilling confession reveals his abduction and murder of Samantha Koig, with implications of more victims across the U.S.

Key points

The Vanishing of Samantha Koig. 18-year-old Samantha Koig disappears after her shift at a coffee stand.
The Confession. Israel Keys admits to killing Samantha Koig, revealing chilling details.
The Search for Bodies. Despite extensive searches, the bodies of Bill and Lorraine Courier were never found.
The Macob Drawings. Investigators discover disturbing drawings made in Keys' blood, hinting at more victims.
Diane's Tragic Death. Diane McCyver's death was ruled an accident, but questions linger about the circumstances.
The Controversial Auctions. Tex began selling Diane's belongings shortly after her death, raising eyebrows.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He wanted much more than just coffee.

Describing the moment of Samantha's abduction.

5:17WatchJun 21, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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