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Israel Keyes, Accused in Samantha Koenig's Killing, Dies in an Apparent Suicide in His Anchorage Jail Cell

Officials then revealed he had admitted killing a Vermont couple and five others. His trial in the Koenig case had been set for March 2013.

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Israel Keyes, smiling, in a dark knit cap and a plaid shirt

Israel Keyes was awaiting trial in the kidnapping and killing of Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig. On December 2, 2012, he was found dead in his jail cell in an apparent suicide.

Keyes, 34, was found in a cell at the Anchorage correctional complex that Sunday morning, and Alaska State Troopers were notified about 6:30 a.m., trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said. He was alone in his cell, and troopers did not suspect foul play. He had been jailed since his March arrest in Lufkin, Texas, on federal charges connected with Koenig's disappearance and death, and his trial had been scheduled to begin in March 2013. Prosecutors said his death meant they would never get the sense of justice and finality that a jury trial or guilty plea would bring.

At a news briefing that day, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said Keyes had told investigators he killed Koenig, a Vermont couple and five others. Officials publicly linked him for the first time to Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vermont, who disappeared in June 2011, and said he had also admitted killing four people in Washington state and one in New York state, whose names he did not give. He had talked to investigators as recently as that Thursday. "As of this week, we were still obtaining valuable information from Mr. Keyes," said Kevin Feldis, chief of criminal prosecutions for the U.S. attorney's office in Anchorage.

On the day he died, officials said Keyes had admitted to eight killings, while the FBI said in 2013 that it believed there were 11 victims in all.

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