Samantha Koenig : According to the chief detective in the case, before killing an 18-year-old barista in Alaska, serial killer Israel Keyes also targeted the young woman’s boyfriend before changing his mind.
The boyfriend of the victim was the target of a serial murderer in Alaska, according to one investigator
Samantha Koenig was abducted on Feb. 1 at the Anchorage coffee shop where she worked when Keyes climbed into the drive-thru window.
He recently committed suicide in his jail cell. According to murder police Detective Monique Doll, he restrained Koenig with zip ties and then waited with him on the shadowy structure’s floor.
Investigators looking into the abduction filmed on surveillance cameras felt Keyes had Koenig on the floor to keep a watch on anyone who could have seen him climb through the window or to wait for things to quiet down, according to Doll.
“What we discovered when we interviewed Mr. Keyes was that he knew the coffee shop closed at 8 p.m., and he knew that because Samantha didn’t have a car, someone would come and pick her up,” Doll told The Associated Press.
“He was waiting for her ride to arrive because he planned to pick up that individual as well.”
Shortly before the arrival of Koenig’s boyfriend, Duane Tortolani II, Keyes, 34, left with her.
Doll said she’s not sure why Keyes changed his mind about killing the boyfriend after killing a couple in Vermont last year.
“I’m not sure why he left,” she explained, “but he made it very obvious that it was all part of the plan.” “Mr. Tortolani was quite fortunate not to have run upon Mr. Keyes.”
Tortolani and Keyes would meet again in the future.
Tortolani noticed someone in a mask standing outside his truck early the next morning, about 3 a.m.
He challenged the individual, whom Doll identified as Keyes, who was allegedly attempting to steal a debit card from the truck.
Tortolani dashed inside his house, which he shared with Koenig and her father, to enlist their assistance.
By the time the men came out, Keyes, who had parked a distance away from the Koenig residence, was gone, according to Doll.
The debit card for a joint account Koenig and Tortolani held was also missing.
Tortolani’s phone number is not included in the local phone book, and he did not immediately return a phone message left with his company on Tuesday requesting comment.
Before he was arrested, Doll said the once-methodical Keyes was losing control. She compared it to a drug addict’s desire to keep taking more narcotics in order to achieve the same high as before.
In Keyes’ case, the desire to kill pairs grew from a desire to kill single victims.
Keyes came close to killing a couple parked in a car in an Anchorage park shortly before killing the Vermont couple, according to police.
He also pondered shooting the cop who arrived to shoo the two out of the closed park, but decided against it when a backup officer arrived.
Keyes told detectives that he raped and strangled Koenig and then left her dead in a shed for two weeks while he went on a cruise.
After using the boyfriend’s stolen debit card, Keyes was arrested in Lufkin, Texas, in March.
Keyes was found dead in his Anchorage jail cell earlier this month after cutting his wrist and hanging himself with a rolled up sheet. He was awaiting trial in Koenig’s death next year.
Koenig’s mutilated body was discovered in a frozen lake north of Anchorage three weeks after Keyes was arrested.
In the decade leading up to his death, Keyes admitted to four killings in Washington state, two in Vermont, and one on the East Coast with the body dumped in New York.
According to the FBI, there could be three more victims, for a total of 11 killings.
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