The prime suspect in the 2011 murder of missing Essex couple Bill and Lorraine Currier — who authorities now say was a serial killer — committed suicide in an Alaska prison cell on Sunday while awaiting trial for another murder.
Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old self-employed carpenter and Army veteran, was identified publicly for the first time yesterday as the suspect in the Currier murder. Citing anonymous sources, WCAX identified Keyes as the prime suspect months ago following a massive — and unsuccessful — search of the Coventry landfill looking for evidence of the couple’s remains. No other news outlet could confirm that information.
Federal officials made the startling revelation at a press conference in Anchorage on Sunday that Keyes (pictured in this undated photo) was a serial killer and confessed to committing at least seven murders over a period of 10 years. Authorities say that, in addition to the Curriers, Keyes confessed before his death to killing four people in Washington State and one in New York, where Keyes owned a cabin, though authorities reportedly have no names or details with which to confirm that information.
In Alaska, he was awaiting trial for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, a barista he abducted earlier this year.
From the Anchorage Daily News:
His victims all appeared to be strangers to him, prey from random encounters. And investigators suspect he killed more than the eight they’ve zeroed in on. He’d fly someplace, rent a car, then drive hundreds of miles away, the FBI said. While he stole from Koenig using her ATM card, and confessed to bank robberies in Texas and New York, his motive did not appear to be financial, authorities said.
Authorities haven’t said how Keyes killed himself, but U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tristram Coffin has scheduled a press conference for today at 1:30 at the federal courthouse in Burlington to give an update on the situation.
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