He Sewed Her Eyes Open

 

On February 1st, 2012, 18 year old Samantha Koenig was finishing up her shift at the Common Grounds Coffee Shop in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Just before 8pm, which was closing time for the shop, Samantha had one last customer who ordered a coffee at the drive-thru window. 

On the surveillance camera inside the shop, Samantha is seen making the order and handing it back through the window. But then suddenly, things seem to take a turn for the worst, as Samantha is then seen backing up from the window with her hands up. 

Wearing a ski mask to keep his identity concealed from the cameras, the man who was now pointing a gun at Samantha, climbed through the drive-thru window.

He bound Samatha's wrists with zip ties and then abducted her, pulling her out of the shop and forcing her into his White Ford Focus. 

While driving away, he then told her this kidnapping was for ransom and that if she co-operated, she would be released back to her family unharmed. 

What Samantha didn't know, was that the man who had just kidnapped her, was a Serial Killer.

Isreal Keyes was born in Cove, Utah on January 7th, 1978. 

Not a whole lot is known of Keyes early years, other than he was the second of 10 children  born to Heidi and John Keyes. When Keyes was five years old, his family moved to a community near Colville, Washington where they lived in a one room cabin with no electricity or running water. According to Keyes, the community was Malisha-like, and was headed up by a Christian White Supremist Church. 

He served in the military for three years, from '97 to 2001. In 2007 he moved to Anchorage Alaska where he started his own contracting business. 

Keyes did not get to know his victims before killing them. The same applied to Samantha Koenig. Keyes did not know her nor had he ever met her before February 1st, 2012. Instead, he had chosen the coffee shop where Samantha worked, and it just happened to be that it was she who was scheduled to work that night. It was not Samantha who was targeted, it was her place of employment. 

When Keyes got Samantha into his truck and informed her he intended this to be for Ransom, Samantha told him that her family did not have a lot of money, to which Keyes then told her, her family could get the community to donate. 

Keyes drove Samantha to his home where he took her to a shed on his property. He left her there, turned the music on loud so no one could hear her calling out, and then returned to the Common Grounds Coffee Shop to get Samantha's cell phone and her wallet. 

When he returned, he got Samantha to give him the names of her parents and boyfriend, who he then texted using her phone. He then demanded the code to her ATM card. 

When he had established that, he left again to withdraw money from Samantha's account using her ATM card. 

When he returned home, after that night, he returned to the shed where Samantha was still bound, and then raped and killed her. 

The following day, Keyes left for vacation with his own family. 

Two weeks later, when Keyes returned, he headed back out to the shed on his property where Samantha's now frozen body lay, still wrapped in the tarp he had covered her in. 

What came next is truly unsettling. Keyes then sewed Samantha's eyes open, propped her up against the wall, held that day's newspaper beside her face, and snapped a photo of her using a Polaroid Camera. 

He then texted her boyfriend. The end goal was to lead Samantha's boyfriend and family to believe she was still alive in order to get the ransom. 

Keyes told Samantha's boyfriend to head to a local park and find the details regarding Samantha under 'Albert.' Albert being a memorial poster for a dog he made up. Using a typewriter he had purchased, he typed $30,000 on the back of the Polaroid Photo. 

Samantha's father deposited the ransom money into Samantha's account. From there Anchorage Police were able to track his purchases and withdrawals. 

Over the next few days after leaving the note in the local park, Keyes dismembered Samantha's body, drove out to a nearby lake where he cut a hole in the ice and dumped her body. 

However, it would be how Keyes received his ransom money that would lead to him being caught. Each time he used Samantha's card, authorities were able to track him. They were able to determine from security video at one of the banks he used that he drove a white Ford Focus. 

Purchases and withdrawals were tracked in Anchorage, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. While in Texas, Keyes was pulled over by State Troopers who had been given a description of his vehicle. When they searched his vehicle, they found Samantha's cellphone, along with her ATM card. 

Keyes was taken back to Anchorage where he was incarcerated while he waited to stand trial.

However, the trial would never come. Keyes would be found dead in his cell from apparent suicide on December 2nd, 2012. 

Before he committed suicide, he confessed to killing 6 people, however, authorities believe he may have been responsible for many more all over the states, and in other places in the world. 

While in prison, Keyes wrote poetry, but all of his writing was dark and chilling. Some of his poetry was found under his body after he committed suicide, covered in his own blood.