How serial killer Israel Keyes kidnapped a random couple and slaughtered them at an abandoned warehouse
The story of the horrific murders committed by serial killer Israel Keyes has been detailed in a new book by journalist Maureen Callahan titled 'American Predator: The Hunt for The Most Meticulous Serial Killer Of The 21st Century'. The book has been written with the help of classified FBI files, which include interviews Keyes had with agency profilers and case agents during which he confessed to 11 murders in the hope of reaching a deal with prosecutors, according to the New York Post.
But it was the murders of Vermont couple, 50-year-old Bill Currier and his 55-year-old wife Lorraine, that were arguably the most disturbing of the lot.
On June 2, 2009, Keyes traveled from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seattle, and then to Chicago, where he rented a car and started heading towards the east coast with the aim of reaching Maine, where his brothers lived.
He told the FBI that, on his way, he made a stop in the Burlington suburb of Essex, Vermont, where he had buried one of his "kill kits" two years ago that comprised zip ties, guns, silencers, ammunition, duct tape, and Drano, a chemical used to speed up the decomposition of human remains.
Dressed in all black, shortly after midnight on June 9, he came across the Curriers' home and felt it was a good target because of its layout and because he could tell there were no children or dogs at the residence. He said he did not know the couple earlier.
He said he then cut the phone line to see whether it would trigger an alarm before removing a fan from a window to get into the attached garage. In the garage, he found a crowbar that he used to smash a window in the house.
Keyes told investigators he caught the Curriers unaware and that he tied them up with zip ties before forcing them to hand over their ATM cards and pins and then marching them into their car and driving them to an abandoned farmhouse off Route 15 with a 'For Sale' sign outside that he had already scouted.
He tied Bill to a stool in the basement and returned to the car, only to find that Lorraine had escaped. He said he had to track her down and then drag her back to the house, where he tied her to a bed with duct tape. He then proceeded to kill Bill by repeatedly striking him with a shovel and then shooting him with his gun. After that, he said he raped Lorraine twice, took her to see her dead husband's body lying in a pool of blood, and then strangled her to death with a rope.
Keyes claimed that, after murdering them, he doused their hands and faces with Drano, stuffed them in large trash bags, and covered their bodies with debris in the basement. He said he wanted to burn the house to cover up the murders, but he ran out of time and left them to rot because he figured the house would eventually be demolished. He was right.
Authorities spent months searching the landfill in northern Vermont where the debris from the torn-down residence was taken after he confessed to the murders following his capture in April 2012 but failed to recover their bodies.
Keyes was being held in jail at the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska under suspicion for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, his last-known victim, when he committed suicide by self-inflicted wrist cuts and strangulation on December 2, 2012.