FBI: serial killer says he hid murder victim in North Country

Israel Keyes. Photo: Anchorage Police Department flyer

In an interview today with NCPR, the FBI confirmed that that serial killer Israel Keyes claimed to have deposited one of his murder victims in the North Country.  “It is in northern New York,” said Alaska-based FBI special agent Jolene Goeden.

Keyes made the statement while incarcerated in Anchorage, Alaska, before taking his own life last Sunday.

It is believed that Keyes murdered at least five people nationwide, including two victims in Vermont.

However, Goeden said that it was unclear where exactly the body might be located in the North Country.

“We don’t have anything specific about where that victim is buried.  We have general information, but it isn’t specific enough that we’re able to recover that victim.”

FBI officials also say that Keyes was involved in a bank robbery in Tupper Lake.

Keyes owned property in Constable in northern Franklin County which was investigated by New York-based FBI officials “about a month or so ago,” Goeden said.

“A number of items were seized from that location but there’s no indication based on what Mr. Keyes told us as well as what was uncovered in the search that there is a victim buried on that property,” she added.

According to FBI officials, Keyes also threw away two of his murder weapons in a lake near Parishville, while passing through the North Country region.

A nation-wide investigation is now underway to piece together details of Keyes’ crime spree, a probe that includes his extensive activities in the North Country.

“I think we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Goeden said.  “This case is a little different from other serial killer cases, where typically you would find a number of victims and try to connect them back to a person.  In this case, we have the person and we’re trying to find the victims.”

NCPR will have more on this story tomorrow morning during Morning Edition and the 8 O’clock Hour.

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4 Comments on “FBI: serial killer says he hid murder victim in North Country”

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  1. Newt says:

    I’m sure the lack of comments here is no indication of a lack of intereset. Not much to say, exept how awful and frightening it is that this guy apparently got away with so many awful crimes, many of them so near to us.
    From yesterday’s ADE story, I got a couple of things that don’t make me feel any better.
    1. Keyes was very clever, perhaps brilliant.
    -moving around the country in an apparently random, but planned, fashion to kill or rob, then moving again before spending his gains.
    -he disguised his truck before kidnappping the girl in Alaska, then changing it back again to avoid it being traced.
    2. He may have only been caught because he broke his own rule and committed the murder kidnap-murder of the young barrista where he was living at the time, instead of elsewhere.

    Maybe the authorities can learn some things from this about catching sociopaths like Keyes (e.g., be on the lookout for vehicles possibly disguised from those on the watch list).

    I’ll be interested in hearing Brian’s report this morning.

  2. Pete Klein says:

    Criminal minds equal insane minds, leaving nothing to be learned except that they are insane.

  3. Paul says:

    I am always trying to tell my wife from Baltimore that we are safe in the NC. then I have to explain the serial killer issue. HELP!

  4. knuckleheadedliberal says:

    Here Paul, I hope this helps:

    http://data.baltimoresun.com/homicides/

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