Wild Crime: You've Got Your Monster | S4 Ep. 2

Speaker 1 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 2 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene.

Speaker 4 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 6 The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 2 A new series from ABC Audio in 2020: The Hand in the Window.

Speaker 2 Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 8 This is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020. This week, we're bringing you episode two of Wild Crime, 11 Skulls.
It's called You've Got Your Monster.

Speaker 10 The white Ford focused as two vehicles in front of me.

Speaker 12 It accelerated rapidly,

Speaker 11 faster than everyone else.

Speaker 11 So I said, well, hang on a minute, he might be speeding. And so, sure enough, checked him with radar.

Speaker 14 He was running 58 and a 55.

Speaker 14 I activate the lights.

Speaker 11 He pulls into a local restaurant.

Speaker 10 You're excited that you found a vehicle that you were looking for.

Speaker 11 But still, in my mind, the odds of us getting the correct white Ford focus were astronomical to me.

Speaker 11 Secrets in the wilderness.

Speaker 15 Beautiful yet treacherous landscapes.

Speaker 15 These are the stories of investigators who solve murders in wild places.

Speaker 13 So he pulled into the parking lot.

Speaker 11 As I walked up, I did realize we might be dealing with a kidnapping suspect.

Speaker 17 So I kind of paused and looked through the window to see if I could see his hands.

Speaker 16 You know what? Yeah,

Speaker 9 my power girl.

Speaker 9 Reason we stopped is kind of down there looking around.

Speaker 19 Where are you from?

Speaker 18 I'm from the Alatina.

Speaker 11 When he said he was from Alaska,

Speaker 11 it makes the hair on the back of your head rise.

Speaker 11 At the time, I probably had 23, 24 years on, and I can't remember if I'd ever seen an Alaska driver's license.

Speaker 11 His name, Israel Keys.

Speaker 10 It's just crazy.

Speaker 11 You know, it's like hard to hold your composure.

Speaker 13 The Ranger and the FBI were both there pretty quickly, and then they took over.

Speaker 19 Hi there.

Speaker 6 I'm Steve Ridman with the Texas Ranger.

Speaker 9 Okay. How are you?

Speaker 21 I'm Steph Ganway with FBI.

Speaker 10 Hi.

Speaker 23 Can we visit with you for a few minutes?

Speaker 7 Yeah,

Speaker 17 I mean, I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 16 They didn't even tell me why it was pulled over.

Speaker 24 You don't want to lay all your cards on the table. And in fact, we didn't have many cards to put on the table.

Speaker 24 He told us he had flown from Alaska into Las Vegas and that he'd rented a car there and he had driven from Las Vegas to Texas to attend his sister's wedding.

Speaker 26 We're looking for a guy driving a whiteboard focus from Alaska. Okay.

Speaker 27 And so it's kind of a coincidence that your driver's watching the station from Alaska.

Speaker 21 I've told you I was from Alaska. Right.

Speaker 27 I mean, I know.

Speaker 26 Hey.

Speaker 27 We're looking for a guy that's committed a pretty serious crime. We don't know if you're the guy or not.

Speaker 28 Can I look at your wallet?

Speaker 22 I gave you my ID.

Speaker 19 You're not searching anything.

Speaker 26 Look,

Speaker 23 you have not given me any information.

Speaker 22 I've been very open with you. I've been telling you everything.
You're not searching anything of mine until I know what's going on and why I'm still standing here.

Speaker 29 I don't need a search warrant to search the vehicle under the vehicle exception rule on Texas state law.

Speaker 24 We decided to perform a warrantless search on the vehicle because if we hadn't, then Israel could have left in that car.

Speaker 9 How does that work? If it's not,

Speaker 29 I'm not going to debate with you. Okay, okay.
I'm taking whatever action I need to take.

Speaker 11 Get a picture of those white shoes there.

Speaker 24 The Ranger saw a pair of white tinny shoes in the the passenger side of the car.

Speaker 24 In the ATM videos, the person taking money out of the ATM wore what looked like the same shoes.

Speaker 24 When we opened the trunk and the Ranger started going through things in the trunk of the car,

Speaker 10 there you go.

Speaker 12 Hey.

Speaker 11 Gray hoodie

Speaker 31 with glasses in the pocket.

Speaker 29 And gone and a mask.

Speaker 24 We found a gray hoodie that appeared to be the same hoodie that the perpetrator had been wearing in the ATM videos.

Speaker 24 And in the pocket of that was this gray piece of cloth that looked like a mask. We also found the amber shooting glasses.

Speaker 16 We got our cash.

Speaker 16 Sir, you're under arrest.

Speaker 24 After he was put under arrest, he was transported to the Lufkin Police Department.

Speaker 24 The Ranger and I do a thorough search of Israel's wallet. We found Samantha's ATM card.

Speaker 25 Samantha's cell phone was in the car.

Speaker 24 At this point, we still don't know if if he is the person who has abducted Samantha,

Speaker 24 but we are convinced that he is the person who was withdrawing money from the ATM.

Speaker 24 As the pieces of the puzzle start coming together,

Speaker 24 it's a feeling like nothing you can ever experience.

Speaker 19 A girl's missing.

Speaker 24 And we might have the guy who took her.

Speaker 25 We might be able to find her

Speaker 25 and bring her home safe.

Speaker 33 We have a name. We have a name of Israel Keys.

Speaker 34 He's not on our radar screen at all.

Speaker 34 It's like, who is this guy?

Speaker 28 I sent our officers to Keys' residence immediately to see if Samantha was being held inside the house or being held captive there.

Speaker 25 And that's the first question.

Speaker 32 Is Samantha there? She could be tied up in the basement and they don't know.

Speaker 28 The special assignment unit officers made entry into into the home.

Speaker 28 We then searched the house.

Speaker 37 I'm still hoping that Samantha would be found alive.

Speaker 36 But we were then faced with the reality that Samantha's not in the house.

Speaker 32 So they've got the guy, but they don't have Samantha.

Speaker 32 She's not in the car in Texas.

Speaker 35 She's not in the house in Anchorage.

Speaker 34 So where is she?

Speaker 41 In front of the house, the first thing that I notice that I see

Speaker 37 is the white truck parked in the driveway.

Speaker 37 It was clear that the truck matched the description of the truck that we had in the video at Home Depot.

Speaker 38 It appeared to me obvious that that lumber rack and toolbox had been removed at some point in time recently and put back on.

Speaker 38 We also found a silver Nissan Xterra SUV

Speaker 36 which matched the description of the vehicle that was used during one of the ATM withdrawals.

Speaker 10 We have the truck in the Xterra.

Speaker 37 And then our crime scene team was called out and did a complete investigation in the house.

Speaker 42 The crime scene team seized anything that could hold digital information.

Speaker 43 We were able to seize some computers from his home.

Speaker 5 A lot of that evidence would have to be analyzed, like the computer evidence.

Speaker 25 We were hoping for fingerprints.

Speaker 25 We were hoping for maybe DNA.

Speaker 37 Looking for fibers and those type of things that could have attached to Samantha.

Speaker 5 There was a shed separated from the house.

Speaker 43 The whole shed was cut onto a flatbed and taken back to the FBI building here in Anchorage.

Speaker 39 Anything that would lead us to Samantha.

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Speaker 48 It was just chaotic in the office.

Speaker 43 We're trying to find out absolutely everything we can about this individual.

Speaker 35 How is he connected to Samantha? Is he connected to Samantha at all? There is just a lot of mystery behind him.

Speaker 49 What does he do for a living? What's his criminal history like? Does anyone else live in his house?

Speaker 25 We found found out that Israel Keyes was a single father who had a daughter, lived with a girlfriend,

Speaker 25 had a contracting business in Anchorage, no run-ins with the law.

Speaker 39 There wasn't any indication that he was capable of doing something like this.

Speaker 48 At this point, Keyes is charged federally extradited back to Alaska.

Speaker 40 The U.S.

Speaker 50 Marshals notified the court today that Israel Keyes is in custody in the District of Alaska.

Speaker 48 He's charged with theft of an access device, which is for the debit card, the use of that debit card.

Speaker 36 In the grand scheme of things, that's a pretty small offense.

Speaker 9 He's looking at 18 months in jail maybe for that federal access device charge.

Speaker 36 But we were going to find physical evidence at his house.

Speaker 28 We were going to find digital evidence on his computers.

Speaker 38 We were going to find cell phone information that would lead us in the direction that he was responsible for the kidnapping of Samantha Koenig.

Speaker 19 And I think he knew that.

Speaker 17 In fact, Israel's defense attorney had a discussion about him being willing to at least come to the table and talk with law enforcement about the disappearance of Samantha Koenig.

Speaker 51 It's

Speaker 37 1548 by my watch.

Speaker 41 It's March 30th.

Speaker 36 U.S. Attorney's Office.

Speaker 43 Myself, Jolene, and some other investigators were in a separate room where we were able to listen in to what was going on.

Speaker 40 You understand your rights? Yes. Are you well in the way of those rights and talk to us? Yes.

Speaker 48 We have no idea what to expect.

Speaker 43 So we're just sitting there on the edges of our seat, just wondering what he's going to say.

Speaker 43 I can tell you right now.

Speaker 14 Everything related to this that is going to be in the house, you already have the computer, the desktop computer.

Speaker 51 That's what everything is on.

Speaker 5 He knew that we had his computer and he figured that having his computer we'd be able to find big pieces of evidence.

Speaker 41 That's pretty much why I decided to start talking to you, because if you have that computer, you probably would have figured it out.

Speaker 50 I think everybody really wants to know where Samantha is.

Speaker 41 Was that an okay place to start, or would you like to start elsewhere?

Speaker 51 Yeah, we can

Speaker 41 just

Speaker 41 start with the end and then we'll work backwards.

Speaker 52 So you

Speaker 19 pull up a map there of Palmer area. Okay.

Speaker 36 He directed us north out of Anchorage towards the Mattanuska Valley.

Speaker 50 So again, Matt, like how many yards off the shoreline or feet off the shore?

Speaker 40 Right there.

Speaker 36 and he pointed to a spot on the lake

Speaker 50 and what should they look for specifically

Speaker 51 ice fishing spot

Speaker 50 was it a hole that you cut or was the hole there

Speaker 26 no it was a hole i cut

Speaker 19 you'll you'll see it you'll see where the hole was probably

Speaker 51 I don't imagine.

Speaker 31 There's not very much salt there.

Speaker 39 And Israel Keys said that is where we would find Samantha Koenig.

Speaker 19 She's not wrapped up or anything, but there'll still be some blood on the ice.

Speaker 50 They're gonna find anything else out there.

Speaker 9 Oh, you'll find her DNA.

Speaker 9 Okay.

Speaker 9 You'll probably find her, my DNA, on her.

Speaker 21 She hasn't been there very long, so.

Speaker 26 Okay.

Speaker 50 The one thing I do need to know is is how you killed her.

Speaker 21 Why?

Speaker 51 I mean, it doesn't really matter how it happened. I'm saying that, yes, I was responsible, and yes, I told you where she is.

Speaker 41 So you killed her?

Speaker 19 Yes.

Speaker 5 We knew that Samantha Koenig is dead.

Speaker 5 We knew that

Speaker 5 there is no more hope.

Speaker 5 It's like my heart was sinking.

Speaker 5 I felt very emotional and all kinds of emotions running through the head.

Speaker 35 I think it was obviously difficult for all of us.

Speaker 38 It was devastating

Speaker 37 that we have to still continue to concentrate and move towards the recovery of Samantha and coming up with some answers for her family and for law enforcement as to what happened to her.

Speaker 28 After our interview with Israel Keys, where he identified Matanuska Lake, I drove out here with the latitude-longitude coordinates that we took off the map that he had given us.

Speaker 30 Matanuska Lake is about 40 miles north of Anchorage.

Speaker 30 He picked this lake because of the depth and thought that he found a spot where it was 80 feet deep that he could put Samantha's remains.

Speaker 55 We're pretty close to the coordinates.

Speaker 12 I could see a clump of snow or something that was protruding from the snow.

Speaker 12 So I walked over to it and I knelt down and I removed the snow from the the clump of ice and I was able to see a rectangle that had been cut out of the ice about this size.

Speaker 55 And it looked like it had been cut with a chainsaw.

Speaker 30 So at that time I knew that this was the location that Israel Keyes had disposed of Samantha Koenig's remains.

Speaker 54 We brought some APD officers out here to secure the scene and watch it until we could get the FBI's dive team here.

Speaker 43 They recovered her rather quickly.

Speaker 25 Hayes was so accurate as to where her remains were.

Speaker 43 It was rather incredible how well he remembered that.

Speaker 38 She had been dismembered.

Speaker 17 And those remains were brought up to the surface.

Speaker 38 I was able to identify the remains as being Samantha Koenig.

Speaker 57 There was breaking news, and I just remember them at a lake,

Speaker 57 and my phone was blowing up.

Speaker 25 Is this happening?

Speaker 19 Is this her?

Speaker 18 I felt like

Speaker 57 everything stopped in that moment when

Speaker 19 it was her.

Speaker 56 A lot of people right now, I know, are just heartbroken. Everyone was rooting for her until the very end.

Speaker 2 We just, we couldn't believe it.

Speaker 20 We feel for the family.

Speaker 11 It's absolutely devastating.

Speaker 28 I'd like to welcome you today to Samantha Koenig's Celebration of Life.

Speaker 58 Her memorial was huge.

Speaker 58 I don't think there was an empty seat.

Speaker 59 When I hear Samantha's name, I am reminded of her contagious laugh.

Speaker 57 It could brighten any room.

Speaker 58 It was a very sad service knowing that she wasn't going to be back.

Speaker 58 Just like any parent loves their child, James was devastated.

Speaker 58 James will not have any grandchildren.

Speaker 14 James will not

Speaker 40 be able to give his daughter a hug ever again because of this creep.

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Speaker 33 We continued with the investigation and continued to try to have additional conversations with Keys to learn more.

Speaker 43 We still have a lot of unanswered questions at this point.

Speaker 50 When did you first meet Samantha Colony?

Speaker 16 Never met her.

Speaker 61 Never even seen her before.

Speaker 50 So why did you go to the common grounds coffee shop on that night at that time?

Speaker 61 Because they were open late.

Speaker 50 Did you know that they were open late?

Speaker 16 Yep.

Speaker 41 Staked it out

Speaker 19 maybe

Speaker 40 two or three days before.

Speaker 36 He didn't know who was going to be there before he got there.

Speaker 26 He assumed it would be a girl, a young girl that worked there, but he didn't know for sure.

Speaker 37 Do you have a gun?

Speaker 37 Yep.

Speaker 40 22 Taurus.

Speaker 25 He threatened Samantha with the gun.

Speaker 43 We see her put her hands up in the video.

Speaker 43 He instructs her to turn off lights.

Speaker 34 I had my police scanner on

Speaker 21 and I had it in my ear.

Speaker 44 He told her not to turn the alarm on.

Speaker 5 That if she tries to do something, he would hear in the police scanner that the police is coming and then he would kill her.

Speaker 40 I told her to put her jacket on,

Speaker 41 had her get on her knees and back up to the window and put cable ties on her hands.

Speaker 44 After she was

Speaker 21 had her arms tied up, I had her move forward a little bit and then waited till there weren't that many cars or people that I could see around.

Speaker 61 And then I jumped through the window.

Speaker 51 Took some napkins and put them in her mouth

Speaker 19 and told her that we were going for a little walk.

Speaker 61 We were only about 100 feet from the coffee stand, maybe 200 feet.

Speaker 19 And

Speaker 31 she tried to get away.

Speaker 48 He's definitely picked a fighter with Samantha.

Speaker 49 I think she was just fighting in every way that she possibly could.

Speaker 31 I tackled her after that. She was serious.

Speaker 19 After that, she didn't give me problems.

Speaker 50 So what did you do with Samantha?

Speaker 51 Put her in my truck.

Speaker 9 There was something about her, like the way she reacted to

Speaker 51 make sure you want to just keep going with it.

Speaker 51 I had never done anything

Speaker 41 that reason before.

Speaker 16 I was just on a real adrenaline rush

Speaker 16 who took her where

Speaker 25 oh we went all over the place

Speaker 41 she kept trying to talk to me and I had to tell her to shut up a few times

Speaker 25 because she was you know trying to make friends and stuff

Speaker 33 Samantha's talking with him and really trying to engage him in conversation and asking him questions and she's doing what she should be doing.

Speaker 35 She's really trying to personalize herself to him and she's trying to do what she needs to do to get out of that situation.

Speaker 19 I told her that there was going to be a quick

Speaker 31 exchange as far as a ransom of some kind and that was the impression she was under.

Speaker 43 While Keyes is driving around Anchorage, he asks for Samantha's cell phone and Samantha tells him that it's still at the coffee hut.

Speaker 48 So he drives back to the coffee hut in order to retrieve Samantha's cell phone.

Speaker 51 My plan was to go in and out really quick

Speaker 19 and get her phone.

Speaker 61 Yeah, so as soon as I got a phone, I started sending text messages.

Speaker 35 He needed the phone in order to send the text to Samantha's boyfriend, which would ultimately buy him some time before police are notified that she's missing.

Speaker 17 After picking up the cell phone, Israel takes her back to his house.

Speaker 33 It's after midnight, early morning hours, when Keyes gets back to his residence.

Speaker 49 He takes Samantha into his shed, which is adjacent to his home.

Speaker 43 At the time, his girlfriend was in the home, was still awake.

Speaker 43 His daughter was also at home, asleep.

Speaker 33 Keyes realizes that he does not have her ATM card.

Speaker 33 And Samantha tells him where it is.

Speaker 33 And that is when he leaves Samantha and goes back.

Speaker 35 to Samantha's residence and goes into Dwayne's truck and ultimately finds the debit card.

Speaker 61 I was gonna go to the ATM but then I realized I hadn't written down the PIN number so I had to go back to the house and get it from her.

Speaker 38 Comes back to the shed and he gets the pin number and he scratches it in the debit card.

Speaker 36 He then leaves again, leaves Samantha in the in the shed.

Speaker 17 He drives to the closest ATM to his house, and he confirms that the PIN number that Samantha gave him works on the debit card.

Speaker 35 He's doing all of these things

Speaker 35 and Samantha is restrained in the shed.

Speaker 36 He's seemingly out of control, taking very high risk.

Speaker 39 But I think that the higher the risk, the higher adrenaline and the more satisfaction he got in doing what it was that he was doing.

Speaker 54 It's now at least 3.30 in the morning.

Speaker 36 Israel gets back to the house after confirming that the PIN number works.

Speaker 38 And he's now going to fulfill his plan.

Speaker 28 She knew.

Speaker 40 She knew at that point.

Speaker 16 And I

Speaker 41 put my head right up to her ear and I said, you knew this was coming.

Speaker 25 Israel told us that he sexually assaulted Samiantha and then he strangled her to death.

Speaker 51 Joy Ray Sal.

Speaker 31 I knew from the minute she walked out of that coffee stand, she wasn't.

Speaker 10 She wasn't going live.

Speaker 33 I think this is every woman's nightmare of what could happen.

Speaker 33 This whole time, there wasn't any light. And hearing it firsthand from somebody who was doing this was chilling.

Speaker 35 It was horrifying.

Speaker 35 It was difficult to listen to.

Speaker 5 That very morning after killing Samantha, he was going on a cruise from New Orleans.

Speaker 36 He woke up his daughter, got her ready,

Speaker 36 made sure that their luggage was packed.

Speaker 5 Then they went to the airport and then they went to New Orleans, where his girlfriend joined him the next day.

Speaker 26 What was your plan? You were getting on a plane.

Speaker 41 Body was in your shed. What were you thinking?

Speaker 51 I was thinking it was 20 degrees outside and I didn't have anything to worry about.

Speaker 25 This is

Speaker 32 one of the worst details of all.

Speaker 63 That someone raped and murdered a teenage girl in his shed, at his home, and when he's done, goes back inside to his living girlfriend

Speaker 63 small daughter, and hours later takes them on a cruise.

Speaker 40 Pure Evil.

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Speaker 31 Uh, yeah, so I got back on the morning of the 18th.

Speaker 56 At that point, upon his return, Samantha is still in his shed.

Speaker 5 When he was on a cruise, he still followed the media attention and he also saw that there was a big reward fan.

Speaker 31 That's how the thirty thousand dollar idea came up.

Speaker 52 I always knew that I was gonna put something about money in the ransom note.

Speaker 41 That was just a

Speaker 31 bonus

Speaker 50 for us to work

Speaker 21 to the whole thing.

Speaker 51 If I could eventually get some money, then that was the plan.

Speaker 25 So he bought an old Polaroid camera in a thrift store.

Speaker 5 He wanted to make her very much alive

Speaker 5 and so he put some makeup on her body because by then there was some discoloration.

Speaker 41 The biggest problem I had was with her face.

Speaker 31 I could get the makeup to work, but like there was no expression.

Speaker 41 i think i took about five or six pictures before i finally had one that only showed what i wanted

Speaker 63 the proof of life photo to me is one of the most harrowing and indicative pieces of just how sadistic this guy was

Speaker 63 He made her up, he braided her hair to take that photo.

Speaker 35 This this tells you this is not

Speaker 63 just any killer

Speaker 19 why did you bring her

Speaker 31 make it more believable i guess

Speaker 4 the bottom line was to get money out of it but at the same time

Speaker 52 not like i didn't want to do it

Speaker 35 the way that keyes described what he did to samantha was there was no emotion.

Speaker 35 We're hearing this horrible thing that this girl had to go through,

Speaker 33 what this young woman had to endure, and he's just telling any old story.

Speaker 33 And it was during those times he had dismembered Samantha in the shed that he was gradually kind of taking her body out to Manuska Lake.

Speaker 14 I know I couldn't get it all out on the lake in one trip.

Speaker 51 I thought I was gonna have to go up there three times.

Speaker 42 So, yeah, it took me a long time.

Speaker 5 He set up a shack

Speaker 5 and that kind of secured that fishing hole because it looked like just another fishing hole.

Speaker 12 He used a sled to transport five big garbage bags from his vehicle to that hole in the lake.

Speaker 5 And he came back on February 21st and February 22nd.

Speaker 42 Had a parent-teacher conference that day.

Speaker 42 Didn't make it.

Speaker 51 That was no problem that I could really really schedule for the next day.

Speaker 40 And then you went to the parent-teacher conference after you attempted part of your body.

Speaker 19 Yeah,

Speaker 20 I would do

Speaker 10 stay calm enough to go do that.

Speaker 41 I didn't really think about it.

Speaker 32 He's fielding phone calls from his daughter's school.

Speaker 63 He's got parent-teacher conferences missing. I mean, think about the compartmentalization of a psychopath like this.

Speaker 54 Like I say,

Speaker 54 you got your monster.

Speaker 33 If Keyes had not used that ATM card,

Speaker 33 I don't know if he would ever have been found.

Speaker 33 There was just no connection between him and Samantha.

Speaker 33 But the way he talked about the planning that went into Samantha, it was evident that he had planned this out down to the detail, and it just didn't seem like this was the first time that he had done this.

Speaker 35 I started to wonder very, very early on who else this could have happened to.

Speaker 67 We believe there are other victims in other states. We are continuing our efforts to identify those victims.

Speaker 67 We have been analyzing financial records, travel records, any other records that are available to us over the last several years.

Speaker 50 Are there any other people that you're responsible for the death of?

Speaker 51 I have lots more stories to tell if you're interested.

Speaker 37 He takes us to a map near Burlington, Vermont,

Speaker 5 in Essex, Vermont.

Speaker 39 We didn't know what he was going to say.

Speaker 2 Police are searching for a couple from Essex and they're calling their disappearance suspicious.

Speaker 2 Bill and Lorraine Courier were last seen around 5 o'clock last night.

Speaker 28 My name is Lance Furnum.

Speaker 4 At the time of the Courier case, I was an investigator with the Vermont State Police

Speaker 4 and received a phone call about two missing adults out of Essex.

Speaker 68 A family member called police Thursday morning after discovering that neither Bill or Lorraine showed up for work, telling police this was out of character for the couple.

Speaker 17 We had two adults who had no involvement with police ever before.

Speaker 7 Bill and Lorraine Courier, a longtime couple in Essex.

Speaker 6 Quiet, devoted to one another, dedicated employees at their jobs.

Speaker 59 The Courier's green Saturn sedan sedan is also gone police say the essex couple disappeared from their homes sometime between five o'clock wednesday evening and 10 thursday morning

Speaker 25 bill and lorraine courier didn't fit the profile of people that would just go missing

Speaker 64 i'm jennifer courier

Speaker 64 I'm Bill Courier's baby sister.

Speaker 1 He didn't have kids, so it was always his nieces and nephews. He loved his nieces and nephews a lot.

Speaker 64 He was planning on a family reunion that summer.

Speaker 64 He loved his house.

Speaker 64 He picked that area because the neighborhood was beautiful.

Speaker 64 It was safe.

Speaker 64 He wanted his wife to be safe.

Speaker 4 They were not people who would would stray from what their normal routine was.

Speaker 4 They left the house at a certain time.

Speaker 4 They closed the garage door at a certain time.

Speaker 54 They went to bed at a certain time.

Speaker 17 And they weren't known to have a lot of people or a lot of friends in their lives other than their family.

Speaker 26 And of course, as a family member, you already know that there's foul play.

Speaker 7 After talking to the family, Essex Police Department obtained a search warrant to go in the house and have a look.

Speaker 17 Bill and Lorraine lived in a ranch-style one-level residence.

Speaker 4 You could see your neighbor to the rear.

Speaker 34 When I first got there, I was struck by the fact that the phone line junction box on the side of the garage had a cut wire.

Speaker 34 Within the garage, there was a doorway to the house, and the window was shattered.

Speaker 34 Some of the broken glass was in the garage.

Speaker 34 The majority of it was inside the house.

Speaker 34 We have at this point clear signs of forced entry.

Speaker 4 As you entered the house, you entered into a very small kitchen.

Speaker 34 There was no signs of blood. There was no signs of a struggle.

Speaker 4 One of Lorraine's sisters mentioned that Lorraine had recently purchased a firearm, that she had a pistol she had kept in her bedroom.

Speaker 12 But the firearm was missing.

Speaker 34 There was medications for Bill and Lorraine that were still present in the house.

Speaker 4 Bill, we knew we had some medical issues. If someone was just going to leave, they would take their medication.

Speaker 34 We found Bill Currier's wallet. and all the contents still inside.

Speaker 4 We could have gone down the road of a burglary within the house because the gun was missing, but the likelihood of someone kidnapping two grown adults to commit a burglary is extremely rare.

Speaker 62 We are heartbroken by their disappearance and at a loss to explain or understand it.

Speaker 54 We're here today to plead for anybody's help, anybody's help.

Speaker 34 We needed to gain information from their neighbors.

Speaker 17 When was the last time you saw them?

Speaker 4 Did you hear any screaming? Did you hear a gunshot? Did you hear the glass breaking?

Speaker 12 But there was nothing. It was a dead end.

Speaker 4 So at the beginning phases of the investigation, tips are flowing into the police department.

Speaker 69 We had many tips to run down about many different people.

Speaker 69 The quality of the information that they provided was generally not good.

Speaker 28 Nevertheless, it had to be run down.

Speaker 68 The couple's car turned up abandoned at an apartment complex a few miles from their home.

Speaker 34 We did DNA swabs within the car,

Speaker 34 common areas, gear shifters, things like that, that people would have to touch to operate the vehicle. We take samples from all those areas.

Speaker 34 The lab was able to discern a mix of DNA from the steering wheel.

Speaker 34 One of the sample DNA profiles was not either Bill or Lorraine Courier.

Speaker 34 We have a third party, somebody else that was in that car other than Bill or Lorraine.

Speaker 34 Unfortunately, the result from testing this unknown sample was we didn't come up with a match.

Speaker 2 been nearly two months since an Essex couple mysteriously vanished from their home.

Speaker 65 And while police say that the disappearance is suspicious and they do suspect foul play, investigators have not gotten the big break that they need.

Speaker 4 We were getting phone calls, leads.

Speaker 4 But eventually, as time went on, a lot of the tips that we were getting were dead ends.

Speaker 34 Certainly in a case where you don't have any clear avenues or suspects or persons of interest that you're pursuing, you're constantly thinking about what have we missed? What other avenues are there?

Speaker 34 What have I not thought about? Where should we go next?

Speaker 4 There were multiple searches, especially in the community of where Bill and Lorraine live.

Speaker 55 Adjacent to their development is a large wooded area.

Speaker 54 People were just walking around there, trying to locate some sign of them.

Speaker 34 Any abandoned buildings, any fishing access, any river banks,

Speaker 34 but within that area of Essex and its surrounding communities,

Speaker 34 it's a huge, huge area.

Speaker 54 So it can be very, very difficult to come up with a witness to something because it's not like the city where there's always going to be people on the street.

Speaker 12 It's not like that here.

Speaker 20 At this point, they're still missing.

Speaker 4 We have nothing to link them to any homicide or anything.

Speaker 4 The tips were not pouring in as they did previously.

Speaker 10 There was just this overwhelming mystery, just this pervasive question that lingered for a long time:

Speaker 10 what the hell happened to the couriers?

Speaker 28 Never gave up on the investigation.

Speaker 4 It was still always there, but it had been 10 months since Bill and Lorraine had been reported missing.

Speaker 4 You stop seeing the tips come in, and then all of a sudden other cases come in, but it's still on your mind every day.

Speaker 6 But all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, the police activity on this case really ramped up again in the spring of 2012.

Speaker 4 My lieutenant called me and said, you're not going to believe this.

Speaker 4 A male identified as Israel Keys who had been arrested. He had committed another crime in Alaska.
And he was then talking about the case that he had done in Vermont.

Speaker 26 It was like a bomb went off.

Speaker 69 I can't even begin to describe the emotion of that moment.

Speaker 16 We just got the thing that's been missing all along from this case.

Speaker 10 And that's the truth.

Speaker 4 They gave me his name as Israel Keys, but I didn't know anything about him at that time.

Speaker 4 So I'm pulled right back in because of Israel Keys

Speaker 9 because I want to know what Israel Keys knows.

Speaker 4 Any true detective wants to know.

Speaker 17 We want to know the answers.

Speaker 26 I want to talk more. I'm willing to talk more,

Speaker 26 but only if I get what I want.

Speaker 8 This is Deborah Roberts. Wild Crime was produced by Lone Wolf Media for ABC News Studios.
Next week, we'll bring you episode three.

Speaker 8 You can also stream it on Hulu.

Speaker 9 And of course, when you're there, you can also find more from 2020.

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