Serial Killer Traveled All Over America to Hunt Victims, Crucial Error in Crime Got Him Nabbed in Texas

To this date, it is unknown how many people lost their lives at the hands of Israel Keyes, but his admission and authorities' speculations are enough to send shivers down anybody's spine. The reason why so many of his murders remain a mystery is because of the astuteness he applied in killing his victims, Oxygen reported.

Authorities weren't even able to connect the killings he had committed, till they captured him. His fatal mistake that led him to detectives, was breaking one of his rules—the principle that he would never hunt down a person living in his vicinity.

Keyes allegedly had violent tendencies since childhood, Oxygen reported. Maureen Callahan, author of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century revealed that the serial killer hunted "anything with a heartbeat" during his younger years.

Keyes' first victim was a teenage girl from Alaska, whom he separated from her friends and later sexually assaulted. The man didn't kill her, but the situation caused him to determine that he would never attack close to home.

Keyes traveled great distances from his Alaska home and found targets "along hiking trails, at campgrounds, and in other remote areas,” according to the FBI report. After the murder he buried bodies far away from the murder scene, to further throw off the authorities.

There was no common link among his victims, Oxygen reported. Victims encountered a "force of pure evil acting at random," said Tristram Coffin, the U.S. attorney for Vermont. Keyes put a lot of thought into his murders, going to the extent of burying 'murder kits' in various areas of the country, where he planned to kill in the future.

The kit contained weapons and supplies like duct tape, shovels, guns, rope, Drano, and lye. These tools aided him in controlling his victims and later disposing of their bodies. "The caches provided further cover because Keyes didn’t have to risk boarding an airplane with a weapon or using credit cards that could later connect him to a crime in a particular area," the FBI stated.

According to the FBI investigation, Keyes took three dozen trips between 2004 and 2012, Oxygen reported. Officials suspect that the serial killer committed multiple murders during these voyages. He visited places like Hawaii, Canada, and Mexico.

None of the murders could ever be tracked to him, till the killing of Samantha Koenig in 2012. The 18-year-old from Alaska was abducted at gunpoint by Keyes. He sexually assaulted her and then killed the girl by strangling her. This attack broke one of his earliest principles of never attacking close to home. At that time Keyes was working in construction and lived with his girlfriend in Alaska.

Keyes placed Koenig's body in his shed and went on a trip with his family, Oxygen reported. After returning he devised a plan to get ransom from the girl's family. Later, he chopped the girl's body and threw her in a lake.

What caught him was, that he went to one of the ATMs under disguise and used the victim's card. This tipped the authorities, who analyzed the surroundings of the ATM and flagged his car as suspicious. On March 13, he was stopped by a Texas state trooper, who found the car he was driving matched the description of the one located around the ATM.

On checking, authorities found Koenig’s ID, her debit card, her cellphone, and a gun in the car. Keyes was immediately taken into custody. 

Keyes confessed to Koenig's murder and later on admitted to killing three more people over the years, CBS News reported. Authorities based on Keyes's statements and skull drawings speculate that there could be seven more victims, which the serial killer did not disclose to them.

On being asked the reason behind his killings, he gave a terrifying answer. "Once I started, you know … there was nothing else like it," Keyes told the investigators. Within a year of his arrest, Keyes committed suicide in his jail cell. 

Despite Keyes' death, the authorities have not given up on searching for his victims, CBS News reported. They want to provide closure to the families of those victims targeted by Keyes. FBI has also asked for public help to fill in the gaps in the case. 

FBI Special Agent, Katherine Nelson, knows that the task of identifying Keyes' victim is not easy, but has no plans of giving up. "It won't be easy by any means. And it may take a long time," she said. "But I'll never give up trying."