Capture After murdering Samantha Koenig and leaving Alaska, Koenig concocted a plan to demand a $30,000 ransom for Koenig’s return (at the time, police were unaware that Koenig had been killed). Keyes texted his demands and instructions to Duane Tortolani, Koenig’s boyfriend. At the same time, Keyes dug up the body of Samantha Koenig, dismembered it, and disposed of the body in Matanuska Lake. After receiving the ransom money, Keyes began withdrawing cash from the associated account on February 29th. Furthermore, on March 6th, Keyes began to withdraw cash from Koenig’s account using her stolen debit card. This uncharacteristic sloppiness and the action on Koenig’s account alerted Alaskan police and the FBI to the fact that someone was …show more content…
He sliced his wrists vertically and hung himself while being held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He was pronounced dead immediately. Prior to committing suicide, Keyes composed a four-page, handwritten letter that was found underneath his body. The letter was covered in blood and was largely illegible, but FBI forensic investigators were able to reconstruct much of his letter. While the letter did not provide additional details about his crimes and victims, it did offer a glimpse into his psyche and reasons for committing murders. Keyes wrote “Family and friends will shed a few tears, pretend it’s off to heaven you go. But the reality is you were just bones and meat, and with your brain died also your soul.” Later in his letter he elaborated, “You may have been free, you loved living your lie, fate had its own scheme crushed like a bug, you still die.” He repeatedly referred to his victims as a “pretty captive butterfly.” Dr. Stephen Montgomery, a forensic psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center analyzed the letter and reached the following conclusion: “It has no remorse, no regard for human life or the victims and that fits with that type of psychopathic …show more content…
Unlike most serial killers, Keyes did not kill victims who lived near him. Most serial killers conduct most of their kidnapping and abductions within the vicinity of their home, which leads to an easier investigation and higher chance of being captured. Keyes, on the other hand, was known to take cross-country trips in order to kill. For example, Keyes killed the Curriers in Vermont while he was living in Washington state. Once he decided to kill, Keyes booked a flight from Washington to Indiana. He then rented a car, removed the battery from his cell phone, and paid for all of his expenses with cash as he drove 1,000 miles to the East Coast. He tested his homemade silencer in New York, retrieved a murder toolkit that he had hidden in Vermont two years earlier, and then identified the Curriers as his next victims. This type of careful planning, attention to detail, and restraint is very uncommon in serial killers. Victim