The FBI is appealing for information about the travels of a suspected serial killer believed to have murdered up to 15 people over more than a decade, after his suicide in jail last weekend.
Israel Keyes is thought to have murdered at least eight people between 2001 and March 2012 when he was arrested, said special agent Eric Gonzalez of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Anchorage.
Keyes, who died in jail in Anchorage from apparently self-inflicted wounds, lived in Washington state from 2001-2007 and then Alaska, but traveled around the country kidnapping, raping and murdering victims, and also robbing banks.
The 34-year-old allegedly killed “at least eight, but investigators suspect more,” Gonzalez told AFP on Wednesday, adding that from interviews conducted after his arrest “their sense was that he possibly (killed) 12-15 people.”
“Right now we’re looking for information concerning his travels, if anyone may have recognized him,” he added.
The FBI appeal, first made on Monday, was already providing some leads. “The media is actually referring cases with similarities to us,” he said, without going into details.
Keyes admitted to murdering four people in Washington state, two victims in 2005 and 2006, and a couple some time between 2001 and 2005. He may have abducted them from another state and brought them to Washington, the FBI said.
“Additionally, Keyes admitted to investigators that in 2009 he murdered a victim on the east coast and disposed of the body in New York State,” its statement added, saying the victim was probably abducted in a nearby state.
Alaska State Troopers meanwhile gave an update Wednesday on the circumstances of Keyes’ death while locked in his cell last Saturday night.
Investigators have “determined that Keyes used a blade from a disposable shaving razor that had been embedded into a pencil to cut himself on the left wrist,” it said in a statement Wednesday.
“Additionally, Keyes had used a length of bedding material from his cell to strangle himself,” it added, noting that medical examiners were still assessing the exact cause of death.
US fears more victims from dead serial killer
