Israel Keyes (January 7, 1978 – December 1, 2012) was an American serial killer, rapist, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, kidnapper and shoplifter. He also sold guns illegally and was cruel to animals.
Keyes is known to have murdered three people. Law enforcement investigators believe he committed a number of other violent crimes across the United States between the late 1990s and early 2012. Keyes was arrested in March 2012 in connection with the killing of a woman in Alaska, and died by suicide while awaiting trial. Evidence in his jail cell led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to believe he may have killed eleven people.
Israel Keyes was born in Richmond, Utah, on January 7, 1978, the second of ten children of Heidi Keyes (née Hakansson) and John Jeffrey "Jeff" Keyes. His parents lived in Torrance, California, and were members of various different Protestant religions, and at one point were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). His father had also served a church mission in Germany.
Keyes and his siblings were homeschooled before the family moved in 1983 to a remote plot of land north of Colville, Washington. Isolated from society, the family lived in a one-room cabin on Rocky Creek Road that lacked electricity and running water. Because their cabin was small, some of the children slept in a tent. They were also made to hunt for their own food, chop firewood and work on local farms to help support the family. Following his arrest, investigators and Keyes's former commanding officer stated that they suspected he had been abused by his father.
In Colville, the family attended services at a church called The Ark, which subscribed to white supremacist and Christian Identity ideology. Keyes later described The Ark as practicing a lifestyle similar to that of the Amish, who subscribe to a life devoid of the conveniences of modern life. During this period of attending The Ark, the Keyes family befriended the neighboring family of Chevie Kehoe, who was later convicted for a 1996 triple murder.
The Keyes family eventually left The Ark for the Christian Israel Covenant Church, which also subscribed to white supremacist ideology. Keyes later described the church as militia-like. Keyes was known to hunt "anything with a heartbeat" and later told peers at the church that he had skinned a live deer. As a result, he was ostracized by other children. A former classmate later said that Keyes's presence "made my skin crawl".
Keyes, who was 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) by the age of 14, admitted to shooting at his neighbors' houses with his BB gun, as well as starting fires in the woods. He also broke into houses with another youth, who later distanced himself from Keyes after witnessing him shoot an animal during one of their outings. Keyes later told investigators that by age 14 he believed some of his thoughts were "normal and okay" even though others did not, and said that he began isolating himself after others learned of his behavior.
In his adolescence, Keyes's parents discovered a cache of guns he had stolen from a neighbor and forced him to return the guns and apologize. Around this time, in 1994, Keyes was arrested for shoplifting and was given community service. Keyes also sold stolen guns to local residents. During this time, Keyes's parents provided shelter to family friends. According to later accounts, their children, along with Keyes's sister, witnessed him tie a cat to a tree with a parachute cord and shoot it with a .22 revolver. Keyes later said he found the incident amusing. Keyes claimed that this incident led to his increasing isolation and his desire to conceal his antisocial behavior. Keyes also stated that he felt "different from his peers" and ultimately kept his antisocial behavior to himself. His mother later said she began to notice troubling behavior in him during this period.
By his teenage years, Keyes had become a skilled carpenter, building his first wooden cabin at age 16. He also worked for a Colville contractor from 1995 to 1997. Around this time, Keyes started keeping a journal, which included biblical quotations, and where he documented daily sins he had committed for which he felt shame, such as lusting after his girlfriend. Later, the family relocated to Smyrna, Maine, where they collected sap for maple syrup production in a mostly Amish community. Their mother prohibited the children from watching movies with friends or learning musical instruments, believing such activities were "against God". Some time during this period, Keyes renounced his Christian faith.
Keyes declared his atheism to his parents—whom he had previously tried to please—after an argument. This led them to evict Keyes for blasphemy, instructing his younger siblings, who looked up to Keyes, to never have contact with him again. Keyes then became interested in Satanism, and planned to commit a ritualistic murder.
In the summer of 1997 or 1998, Keyes sexually assaulted a teenage girl, believed to have been between 14 and 18 years old, who had been tubing with her friends down the Deschutes River in Maupin, Oregon. Keyes admitted that he stalked her from a tree line before threatening the girl with a knife and "very violently sexually assaulting" her. Originally planning to murder her as part of a Satanic ritual, Keyes was dissuaded by her entreaties and her promise not to tell anybody what had happened. He let her go in the river tube he had abducted her from. Keyes later told investigators, "I was too timid. I wasn't violent enough", adding that he had decided he would not "let that happen again".
On April 22, 1998, Keyes enlisted in the U.S. Army in Albany, New York, under the Delayed Enlistment Program, reporting for basic training on July 9, 1998. He served as a Specialist in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. He completed a month-long preliminary course for Army Ranger training but did not attend Ranger School. He was stationed at Fort Lewis and Fort Hood, also spending some time abroad. While stationed in the Sinai Peninsula, Keyes befriended several soldiers and at one point told one of them that he would "like to kill him".
While at Fort Lewis, Keyes served on a mortar team. Former Army friends of Keyes have noted his quiet demeanor and habit of keeping to himself. On weekends, he was reported to drink heavily, consuming entire bottles of his favorite drink, Wild Turkey bourbon. In February 2001, Keyes was arrested in Thurston County for driving under the influence and was fined US$350 after reaching a plea agreement.
Keyes was awarded an Army Achievement Medal for his service as a gunner and assistant gunner from December 1998 until July 8, 2001. He was then honorably discharged and relocated to Neah Bay, Washington.
For a period, Keyes lived in the Makah Reservation community of Neah Bay, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington; he had a Native American girlfriend, Tammie Hawkins, whom he met online in late 2000. The couple later had a daughter. Keyes and Hawkins broke up in 2004, and at the time of his arrest he was dating a nurse named Kimberly Anderson.
In 2007, Keyes started a construction business in Alaska called Keyes Construction, while working as a handyman, contractor, and construction worker.
Investigators stated that Keyes often traveled long distances and planned crimes in advance, which complicated efforts to link him to unsolved cases. He claimed to use guns only when he had to and said he preferred strangulation because he derived pleasure from witnessing victims lose consciousness.
Keyes did not admit to any murders during his three years in the United States Army. However, he did confess to attempted rape of a female sex worker while on leave in Egypt and to the attempted rape of a college student he met while on leave in Israel. He also confessed to committing bank robberies in New York and Texas. The FBI later confirmed that Keyes robbed the Community Bank branch in Tupper Lake, New York, in April 2009. He also told authorities he burglarized a Texas home and set it on fire. FBI records indicate that Keyes committed numerous burglaries and bank robberies between 2001 and 2012.