Tracking the Murders of Israel Keyes | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] once I started you know and there was nothing else like it what are you holding in your hands
now these are items that were seized out of Israel Key's 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 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
kit it wasn't about a particular victim it was about a location why did he pick these
folks I didn't it was just random Samantha Koenig 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 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 expect stuff to happen 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 a specific way I wanted things done very specific way I wanted
things to happen and uh and I have the whole thing planned out I have everything I need to do it he loved to
travel every time i' 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 [Music] 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
[Music] 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 kig vanished after her night shift at this roadside espresso stand she went to
work that day expecting to go home going 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 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 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 as salent 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 say please help find my daughter Samantha's Father
James kig 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 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 ped 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 kidnapp Napper 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 we 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 Umble Texas and then
Shephard 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 withdraw 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 in a short time later a man comes out he
gets in the vehicle and and he starts to drive away the trooper follows and once
that vehicle exceeds the 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 uncovered 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 guide but now the FBI wanted to know
what had Israel Keys done with Samantha kig 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] [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 the one who took and kidnapped Samantha
kig 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
B 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 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 and 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 so we wanted to find out why he
did what he did but before he would say more one of 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 Kei 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 Keys 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 2 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
manusa 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 kig 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 after talking to Keys investigators realized
they had a depraved killer on their hands and that Samantha was likely not Key'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 Catherine knew every
aspect of Key'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 travel 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
I'll 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 can you imagine being inside the same room with Israel Keys watch more of the FBI interrogation at 48
[Music] hours.com hey Isel how you doing all right eat no cand bar they are odd moments to see swear
off those cand it's in the fridge I'm going to eat it investigators casually bonding with
their interview guest get him a cigar and let so we got you over here awesome wow cigar
for in some ways to The Outsider it looked like you guys were in a way befriending a serial
killer yeah you give me like an hour on the internet really 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 even my own family pretty much assum I did 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 mil 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 the rain are missing and have been missing for
some time correct Bill and L rain 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 key 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 cash so he would preposition these caches in 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 heys actually constructed himself with his murderous Tools in hand Keys went hunting for
victims and found himself Outside The Courier house I decided 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 there 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 you just make 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 line first she's upstairs in the bedroom he had restrained uh Bill
downstairs but the couriers were not going down without a fight Phill'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 career I think it's very likely Keys
then strangled Line 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 belonged to keys that actually had his fingerprint on it there's a perfect
right Thum print for is Keys yeah right no there is I don't have the lab wow yeah I'm impressed well I'm
disappointed in myself mostly but I'm sorry 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 go sh Str we'll get the whole story eventually how do you think Israel Keys
went undetected for so long see more of what keys called his kill cash on Facebook at 48
[Music] hours 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 holla and colen Sanders first
question keys in 2012 they have spent 8 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 live apart from society John where are we heading now so we're heading north out of out of
calville we're going to go see if we can find uh where Israel key 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 yeah it
was completely impossible 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 loner is 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 got 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 yes 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 Sheri odard says her daughter Julie
a Special Olympics athlete with prosthetic feet vanished from koville 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 C 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 with kids or whatever but Key'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 I 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 me she was scared but also just talking 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 when you told us it wasn't long when you got out of the military that
he killed somebody and it was that sort of feeling that you needed to do something it was hard to
resist Nia Bay at the farthest Northwestern tip of Washington is best known as home to the mcot 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 Key'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 communing 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 did the body last and 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] memories [Music] you really think I'm would to feel like when you need more
information after 7 months of interrogations 7 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 we received a call early in the
morning that December 1st 2012 Israel Keys had committed suicide in his jail cell he used a disposable razor to slit
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 are going to die with him now for Samantha koenig'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 inside key 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 maob drawings he drew a series of 11 skulls and these were found
underneath his bed in his jail cell drawn in Israel Key's 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 persons reports and Key's computer is
this the person there in New York no her name was on your computer which your 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 Key's fourth known victim along with Samantha kig 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
Casher 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 heels ber 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 hburg
near a campground during that time in 2007 but Key'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 alcen highway way
it 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 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
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 with 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 Cas 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] a husband found dead his wife a suspect and the
toxicology report the common ingredient in the eye drop the eye drop when it is given orally it is very toxic this
little bottle could be a murder weapon absolutely 48 Hours next on CBS [Music]

The FBI believes skulls drawn in blood are the number of victims murdered by a prolific serial killer. Inside the FBI's search to identify them. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "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.

Brief Summary

Israel Keyes, a serial killer, confessed to abducting and murdering Samantha Koenig, hinting at more victims across the U.S.

Key points

The Disappearance of Samantha Koenig. Samantha Koenig vanished after her shift at a coffee stand, sparking a frantic search.
Israel Keys Arrested. After a series of ATM withdrawals, Israel Keys is arrested, leading to a shocking confession.
Keys' Chilling Confession. Keys admits to murdering Samantha, revealing the horrific details of the abduction.
Israel Keys' Struggle. Keys struggles with a victim, leading to a violent decision.
The Search for Bodies. Despite extensive searches, the bodies of Keys' victims remain unfound.
Keys' Suicide. Israel Keys commits suicide in prison, leaving many questions unanswered.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It gives me the chills to think I had talked to him.

Reflecting on knowing Israel Keys personally.

0:59WatchDec 12, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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