SERIAL MURDERER: Israel Keyes

In this episode of Unspeakable, KJ explores the tragic case of Samantha Koenig, an 18-year-old barista who disappeared from Anchorage, Alaska, on February 1, 2012. KJ details the events surrounding her abduction by Israel Keyes, offering a chilling narrative of her last moments at the coffee shop and the investigative journey that ensued. 


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell
stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are
so shocking that many are left wondering how is this
even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,
and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,

(00:28):
dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so
evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended

(00:52):
for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm
not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's
kJ You're back for another episode of Unspeakable. How's your
week going. I hope it's going great. I'm doing wonderful.
I didn't have to go back to school this week,
so I got to write and record and do all
the fun things that I love to do, including I
looked at my shout out list that I need to

(01:14):
catch up on and it was really kind of cool
because some of these names, y'all. I talk to y'all
on Facebook and everything all the time, and now you're
actually joined in and you're part of my crime family.
So all the way out in Tyler, Texas, Gina Smith, girl,
you know, we talk all the time. You're always sending
me suggestions of cases to do, and I really appreciate
you for that. But now you've joined, and so it

(01:35):
means a lot to me and I appreciate you. Then
I've got niche b Now, Nisha. I've been talking to
you some here lately, and you sent me a really
cool case actually yesterday as at the time I'm recording this,
but I wanted to tell you thank you for joining,
and also make sure you go update your address because
I don't have your city or state, and I want
to make sure I get to send you your quarterly
gift when the next gifts go out. Then we've got Belvedere, Illinois,

(01:59):
and this is Crystal Britain. Hey Crystal, how are you
doing all the way over there in Illinois. I hope
it's going fantastic for you. Thankful to have you. And
then someone right here, literally down the road right now,
working at our city police station I know she is,
is miss Stacy Finch. She joined, and Stacy, you've been
a friend now for a while. I really really love

(02:19):
when my friends think enough of me to join, and
so I wanted to thank you personally for that. In
North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Laura Gibvens, what is up? How
are you doing, Laura? I'm waving at you. I hope
that you can see me here. I've never been is
Chapel Hill? Is that why the singer is named Chapel Hill?
I'm not sure. Is she from North Carolina? Did I
make that up? I don't know if I did. Sorry,

(02:40):
that's a rumor. So thank you so much to all
of you. Hey, this is the first week. Couldn't go
back to school, like I just said, And it's because
I have supporters of the show that are helping me
to be able to make more content. So y'all hang
in there. We've got some great things in the works,
don't forget. You can go to Patreon dot com. That's
where I'm doing all my communication. There's a free level,
you can join a tier if you want to get
advanced things and stuff like that. But let's jump into

(03:03):
this episode, which I it was another request that I got,
and I think it is one that you're gonna be
very interested in if you don't know it. But let's
get started. So I was thinking back about man to
be eighteen years old again. You know, what would I
do differently because I didn't realize just how how free

(03:24):
I was. At eighteen. You know, the world is at
your fingertips, your life has yet to unfold. Your biggest
decision is basically what college do I pick? And do
I have enough money to buy beer and fill up
my gas tank. That's pretty much where I was whenever
I was that age, And that's exactly how old Samantha
Koenig was in February of twenty twelve. Now Samantha had

(03:48):
these big brown eyes, tan skin, long auburn hair, just
very fresh faced girl. Super optimistic too. You could see
it in her face that this is just a very
optimistic girl. And she had some edge to her as well.
She rocked up, piercing right below her bottom lip. She
would put smoky eyes on her makeup, but she could

(04:10):
also switch it up and she could be clean cut,
she could be sultry, she could do whatever the hell
she wanted. Y'all. She was alive, she was free, and
she was young. She had it going on. She was
born in Anchorage, Alaska, in the month of August. And
if you don't know, that makes her a Leo. And
you know about us Leo's, don't you well, look up
the horoscope if you don't, because it really plays into personality. Hell,

(04:34):
y'all know, don't go look up shit. Y'all know I
got it for you. Okay, quit playing. I looked it
up for you. So a leo, I want you to
know what type of personality that is that They are
described as warm, artistic, and protective of the ones that
they love. Leo's make great friends and are often thought
of as larger than life in the eyes of others.

(04:55):
They possess a charm that many are drawn to, but
they can get fierce when and they are disrespected. And
I want you to know I'm a Leo, Samsey's queen. Okay,
I am Aleo, and I've been known to be spicier
time or two, all right, But I think that the
Leo plays an important role in society and the power
that they possess whenever they want to go after the

(05:17):
things that they love or the things that they hate.
But Samantha was an embodiment of all of these attributes.
This girl had fun written all over her. She had
a strong work ethic. She actually held multiple jobs, including
she made sandwiches at Subway, but she also worked as
a barista, which was something that she had been dying

(05:38):
to do. It was a job she really wanted, and
she was really good in the service industry too. Customers
loved her bubbly personality. She was brilliantly sarcastic and super witty.
But she also, on the flip side, had a deep
love for animals, which makes her a girl after my
own heart. Her future goals were that she was kind

(05:59):
of all over the place.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Really.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
She wanted to work in the equestrian world with the
with the horses, but she said, ob or maybe I
want to work with wild animals in some way. But
for now, she enjoyed fishing with her papa. She loved photography,
and she loved playing Call of Duty. I love that game.
But speaking of Call of Duty, her immediate considerations were

(06:23):
leaning towards joining the navy. She wanted to become a
nurse in some way, and she just had this low,
this growing list of dreams of just all these random
things that she wanted to achieve. And I think there's
a sweetness to that. It's all over the place. I
want to work with wild animals and be a nurse
and put me on a boat, you know. She was everywhere,
And Samantha was also one hundred percent a daddy's girl.

(06:47):
And as you can imagine, this adventure of possibly joining
the military that had him a bit nervous, because daddies
don't care how old you are. Their baby girls are
always going to be their babies. And to the world
they have been looking at this eighteen year old young lady.
But to him, when he looked at her face, he
still saw that tiny girl grinning up from a car seat,

(07:09):
looking at him with the funniest giggle snort ever. But
his honey bunny, that's what he called her. His honey bunny,
was destined for nothing but an amazing life full of adventure,
no matter where it took her. But I guess well,
as long as she kept her head on straight, because
you know how those girls are whenever they fall in love.

(07:30):
And Samantha had found her keeper.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Now.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
His name was Dwayne, and he flat out made her
melt with every single hug. But make no mistake, when
they sat down together and they put on those headsets
to play call of duty, it meant war, and Dwayne
was going down all right. This girl was fierce in
her competition, but she also had great friends and they

(07:56):
they were tight. These were such good friends. She loved
him so much and she could confide in them. Every girl,
I don't care what age you are, I'll say one
and two. Everyone really hopes to get a girlfriend that
they can lean on and that they can grow with
through the times. And Samantha was blessed with not one,
but two very good girlfriends Ashley and Kelsey. They made

(08:18):
the remaining two of this terrific trio. And after all,
girls just want fun, right, but first they have to
have money. So it was February first, twenty twelve when
Samantha was working at a roadside coffee shop. Now shop
in this instance really means like a small portable building

(08:39):
and it was in a parking lot. It was super cute.
It was where drivers could pull up. There was a
window on the side of it, they could make their order,
wait for their drink, and then it would be handed
to them right there. So there's no inside seating or
anything like that. Kind of think of a snowball stand
set up, brightly colored teal building. It had I think
it had spots on it, and it just was super cute. Well,

(09:01):
she was working the evening shift, so it was from
one pm to about eight pm, and then she would
have to do her closing duties. So Dwayne was supposed
to pick her up whenever she was done. So he
was calling and she wouldn't answer the phone. But that's
okay because when she's busy making all of these drinks,
there's no other employees. It's just her. The customers come first.

(09:24):
So when he arrived to pick her up from the
coffee shop later that night, she wasn't there, and so
he was kind of confused and really a little hurt
that she wasn't even telling him like why she wasn't
going to be there, And so he ended up leaving
the shop, but he continued to text her, you know,
what are you doing? Where are you Why won't you

(09:44):
answer the phone? Well, these text messages and these calls
really remained unanswered. But after a while, when none of
his continued calls were answered, he kind of became alarmed
that this seems like it's gone too long. So after
pla seeing a series of calls to her that would
go ignored, she then texted him that she was mad

(10:06):
at him, and he knew what he did. She then said, look,
I'm going to stay with friends, leave me alone. You
know exactly what you did, basically, f off. And so
Dwayne reads this message and he's like, yeah, right. He
couldn't even make it make sense. What are you talking about?
They had literally just made plans for Valentine's Day. They

(10:28):
were just excited talking about the reservations that had just
been solidified. Dwayne was literally confused, and he knew he
hadn't done anything. He loved his Samantha and she loved him.
It was odd to say the least, So what was
going on? Well, Dwayne knew, all right, I gotta go
talk to her daddy, okay, So he goes home to

(10:51):
talk to the dad. Now he actually did live with
Samantha as well, so it was his home too, but
he also wanted to go talk to Samantha's daddy. The
thing was, when they started talking, Samantha wasn't even answering
her dad's messages or calls. So that scared them and
they knew that this was completely out of the norm.

(11:13):
So Samantha's daddy called the owners of the coffee shop
to say, she hasn't come home yet, it's getting late.
What is going on? Have you spoken to her? Well,
they in turn turned around and they pulled security footage
and cameras that were stationed around the coffee shop as
well as inside the coffee shop, and they were horrified

(11:33):
at what they saw. That's whenever they decided they had
to place a call to nine one one.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
It's just that fan healthy. Hello, I'd been calling from
out of state, or I would have called the emergency line.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
One of our coffee shops last night at a.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Period got From what we can tell, it looks like
it got robbed.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And we're just all now starting to figure this out.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Okay, when you say rob did somebody come there with
a gun and demand money or did somebody break into
it after it was closed? Well, while still was there,
it looks like it was right about eight o'clock. The
pammer's time is off. I'm gonna have to ask you
to confirm what I just deaff. Was there a person
that walked up to the coffee stand and held it

(12:13):
up at some point as far as I can tell
from my camera, yet when it came while we were
at the police department last night, it looks she left
with this person.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
So we're assuming she's in danger.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
So where is the person we're going to go talk
to locally to talk.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
To about this.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Well, it's also place at common Ground Espresso on Tuotor
the father there's the mission, Marissa's father and boyfriend is there, Okay,
so they're all there at the address on Tuoter Roads.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
So in just that snippet you can hear that they
they actually know that something is wrong, and they're out
of state. That's why they didn't just rush and go
straight to go check on her or go to the
coffee shop themselves. Because they're out of state. I guess
they own multiple little little shop around the US. So
police respond, as you can imagine, and they know immediately

(13:06):
this situation is bad. It's bad, bad because in reviewing
the surveillance video from the shop, at first, nothing really
looks a miss. So starting at about eight pm, that's
whenever the business was supposed to close, you can see
Samantha is just doing her little cleanup tasks. She's dressed
very comfortably. She's got on this green T shirt, black

(13:28):
yoga pants, tennis shoes. She's very calmly, just going about
her little routine and doing her closing duties. Well, this
coffee shop was open later than many of the surrounding
stores around it, So that was a perk for somebody
that may want a late caffeine pick me up. So
as she's cleaning, someone does in fact approach the drive
the window and orders a coffee. So she makes this coffee,

(13:52):
takes her us a little bit, and then she leans
out the window slightly to hand them the drink, when
suddenly her body language shifts. You don't have to hear
a thing, you can see it. Her body language immediately shifts,
and you can sense the terror in her stiff reaction
to what she does. She immediately pulls her hands up

(14:13):
kind of at her shoulders, and her hands are up
in this like don't shoot position, I surrender. That was
what she looked like. And all you can do is
just watch as you see a gun come through that
window and she desperately backs away, but there's nowhere for
her to go. This building is so small. It's just

(14:34):
a little, tiny portable building. It's lined with drink mixes
and machines. It was basically like being in a large
walk in closet. So obviously, while you're watching the video,
because there is no sound to it, you can tell
that she's being told what to do, and she's following
those commands, so she's got her hands up and you

(14:55):
can tell she's just standing there looking at this person,
wide eyed. And she is then told go turn off
the lights, so she reaches over she turns out the lights,
and this is obviously a clear thought out plan to
make it very difficult for any cameras to tell what
is going on inside. There's only literally one light bar
up there. You turn that off. There's no light in

(15:17):
this building. So when she did that, it became very
very dark in this small building. Only the glow of
the cash register screen gives a slight hint of some
lighting and you can kind of pick up the movement
in there. Nine minutes, that's all it takes. The next
nine minutes of surveillance video are is going to change

(15:40):
a ton of lives forever. So the attacker has all
dark clothing on, a hoodie up and a ski mask.
There is no chance of identifying him by this grainy,
poor video. But what happened is right there for everybody
to see, but it's through strained eyes and you have
to watch very closely. Samantha, it was obvious did not

(16:04):
know her attacker, nor did he know her, and I'm
sure her mind was racing and it went straight into
survival mode, her inner voice saying, just do what he says.
Everything's gonna be okay. I just have to do what
he says. So she stood there in front of the
window for nearly a minute, maybe a minute and a half.
Her hands are still up, and she's seemingly listening to

(16:24):
this gunman talking to her through this window. She then
rushes to the opposite corner of the building and grabs
what appears to be a step stool, and she places
it right underneath the window. And she's then directed to
open the cash register, which she does, and you see her.
She's calm, but she's nervous, and she presses the buttons.
It pops open. She flips up each plastic arm that

(16:48):
presses down on the bills to keep them in their slot,
and she stacks that cash in her hand, even grabbing
all of the change, and she gets it all together.
She then bends down underneath one of the cabinets and
she grabs what I think is a bag, puts it
in there, and then she hands it to the gunman
out the window. So now that he's gotten what he's
come for all he's got to do is turn around

(17:10):
and run. He can get out of there, hopefully. You know,
she won't be fired for giving all the cash away,
but hell, at least he didn't shoot her. She did
the right thing. She just followed commands. But after a
moment or two, he's still in the window and he
tells her to sit down, and she does immediately boom,
she just drops down to her butt. She's still in
that surrender position, and she drops straight down to her butt,

(17:33):
and her inner thoughts have to be somewhere along the
lines of, okay, maybe now he's gonna run off. Yeah,
I did what he said. I'm gonna sit down. I
can't see where he goes. That's what he wants, and
he's gonna run off and it's gonna be okay. But
he doesn't, and for what seems like forever, he continues
talking to her as she's nervously just shifting on the floor.

(17:55):
And I told you, nine minutes is all this all takes.
It is the longest nine minute I've watched in a
while on security camera. But what Samantha didn't know was
that he had additional plans and running away was not
part of it. So he grabs this wooden dowl like
a wooden stick and jams it in the window to

(18:15):
hold it open. So money and gun in hand. You
then see a ski mask covered man begin to climb
into this small open window, bending his slender body almost
unnaturally to fit through that small space with this helpless victim.
She's just a foot in front of him. She's shaking,

(18:37):
but she's not moving, and you can just feel the
fear that's radiating her body. Well, there's another camera angle,
even though it's a very small building, there's another camera
angle that shows right outside the coffee shop, and while
this young girl's life is literally in the balance, you
can also see people in the other camera and they're

(18:58):
just walking about in the distance, going about their evening.
I believe it was a home depot. It was just
yards away, but no one notices what's happening right there
in the parking lot. So when he finally makes it inside,
he closes the window behind him, Samantha never moving from
that position on the ground, and then it takes a

(19:20):
little while to figure out what's happening. There's a bunch
of this movement and he's bending down but you realize
that he is zip tying her hands together. Once he
does that, he gets her up to her feet, much
like when an arrested person is assisted their handcuffed and
they get assisted up to their feet, and he gets
her up and then he stuffs napkins in her mouth.

(19:40):
This is an impromptu silencer of sorts because what she
doesn't know is that she's leaving with him. So while
her daddy was at home awaiting her return and her
boyfriend is texting her with no response at this point
in time, they have no way of knowing. That was
when sami Antha was in dire need of help. It

(20:03):
was cold outside, and the attacker at least put her
jacket over her shoulders. But do not get this twisted.
The coat was not for her comfort, It was for
him because he didn't want the people outside to see
that she was bound. That would have drawn attention, so
he draped it over her shoulders. And then the side
door of that small little coffee shop opens and the

(20:25):
two walk out together, and as you watch them, they
disappear in the distance of the camera, walking into that
busy parking lot. No one even aware that she is
a captive and actively being kidnapped. So once outside and
off in the distance, the kidnapper asked her, where is
your car, and she said I don't have one, which
he scoffed at. He didn't believe her, but it was

(20:46):
actually true. In the back of her mind, I know
she was thinking, maybe Duaye's about to pull up and
he's gonna he's gonna stop this. He can come save me.
I know he can, but that wouldn't happen. It just
was not the right time for that. So so whenever
she had to explain to this kidnapper, look, I share
a car with my boyfriend. He's supposed to come pick
me up. The kidnapper realized, Okay, I've got to switch.

(21:09):
I've got to switch plans real quick, and I've got
to improvise. He says, fine, let's go get in my car,
because he may have attacked her on foot, but he
had driven to that scene and he had parked a
way further away in the distance. So amongst all of
these demands and these questions that were thrown Samantha's away,
what the attacker never asked her in all of this

(21:30):
time was what is your horoscope? Because remember, Samantha was
a Leo, and that meant she was a fighter. She
was a warrior. She was a fire sign. But he
was going to have to find that out right about now.
And Samantha decided in that moment that she was going
to get away. She jerked as hard as she could,

(21:52):
and she broke free from her captor and she ran
with everything that she had. She was off balance though,
because of the zip ties behind her back, but fuck it,
she was running for her life and she was not
going down without a fight. Her feet pounded that pavement,
and whether it was her heart beating that loud in
her chest or it was the sound of her shoes
on the ground, she didn't know. But she was running

(22:15):
for her life. But it felt like slow motion. It
was horrifying. It felt like slow motion. But she dug in,
and she dug in, but it was like she was
getting nowhere. Her hair was blowing, her jacket fell off
her shoulders, and she thought, oh my god, you know,
I may fall over, but I'm gonna fight. And she

(22:36):
dug in and she ran. As awkward as it was,
she wasn't going with this man. She was going away
from him. When boom, she wasn't sure if she had
been shot or what exactly had just happened, but she
felt the brutal force of something slamming her body to

(22:57):
the ground, but she quickly realized she was not shot.
She had just been tackled by the gunman who chased
her down, and he tackled her to the ground, and
she had no way of catching her fall. She slammed down,
her face slid a grint against the concrete, and the
weight of him on top of her was just too much,

(23:17):
combined with the awkward tying of her hands behind her back,
and he put one arm around her, and he slammed
the gun back at her, and he said, you better
comply if you do not cooperate with me. This gun
has very quiet, ammo, and I have no problem killing
you none. He then slowly lifted off of her and

(23:44):
resigned to the fact that this would not be a
way that she could ever get away from him. She
nodded in sweaty fear, but she silently nodded at him,
and she was gonna have to think of another way
to get out. So he got her back up to
her feet and they walked up across the parking lot
in between an ihop restaurant and a dairy queen, eventually

(24:05):
approaching a white truck inconspicuously parked hidden right there in
plain sight, in front of everybody, while taking his own
vehicle from the scene of the kidnapping had not been
his original plan. We'll have to give him a little
more credit than that, because evil may not be nice.

(24:25):
But unfortunately, evil does seem to be prepared. Because Samantha's
captor had prepared his own truck ahead of this abduction,
just in case, because he didn't know exactly at that
time who he would be abducting, but he knew that
someone someday would be with him in that truck against

(24:47):
their will. He had already removed the mounted toolboxes off
the back of the bed, and he took the time
to bend down before he even abducted her, and he
had taken off his front license plate and his back
license plate. This truck was ready to take someone against
their will. So he opened the door and he forced
Samantha inside of his truck. Now, he also had zip

(25:08):
ties with him. They were about thirty six inches long,
and so he took these zip ties and then zip
tied her to the seat belt that was inside of
his truck, so that even if she opened the door,
she could not bail out of the vehicle. She was
stuck in this car. So once he had her tied

(25:30):
up where he felt like she wasn't going to be
able to move or get away, he shut the door,
walked around, jumped in the truck himself, started it, and
they drove off together, right in front of everybody in
the parking lot. Her daddy's still at home waiting on
his honey Bunny to return from her shift, and Dwayne

(25:51):
now pulling up to get her, but she was long
gone by now and they had no clue. The abductor
now drives away and, feeling confident in what he had done,
had a captive audience, and he decided that he was
now going to unravel his grand plan to her. And
it was much like a villain in a movie who

(26:11):
details his evil plan before the good guy swoops in
and saves the day, except this time there was no
hero to save the day, because Samantha was alone with
her captor. What he explained to her was this, you
do what you're told and you will live. I'm just
taking you because I want you for ransom money. But

(26:33):
when I'm paid, you are released. Well this sounded good
to Samantha. Why because her daddy would pay. She knew it.
Her daddy would storm the gates of Hell with only
a glass of ice water for protection for her. Devil
be damned. So yes, please, yes, call my daddy, Please
call him. Okay, and he'll pay the money. But until then,

(26:58):
Samantha decided to start working on Plan B. It was
the age old I've got a p plan and I'm like, girl,
we're with you on that one, because hell, what do
we ladies always have to do when we get in
that car. We've got a pe. So she tells him
I've got to use the bathroom. I know in the
back of her mind she thought, yes, so he'll have
to untie me, he'll have to take me into a
burger king or something so I can go use the bathroom.

(27:21):
But unfortunately, he says, fine, you got a pee, let's go.
But he takes her to a park area at night
that people aren't at the park at night. She didn't
get taken to an actual store, so he takes her out.
She does use the bathroom, but this Plan B also
did not go as planned in her mind, so they

(27:42):
get back in the car, And meanwhile, Samantha is now
talking with her abductor, and she explained to him, Look,
my family doesn't have a lot of money, so maybe
you should let me go. Maybe you need to go
get someone who's worth more, because I don't think that
they can pay probably what you want. Now, I'm gonna
let you know something. Her daddy would have scoffed at that,

(28:02):
because she was priceless to him. There was no amount
of money that man would not have paid for her.
He just didn't know she was gone yet. So the
abductor replied, Yeah, that's okay if you don't have a
lot of money, because when the public finds out that
you're missing, he'll be able to raise money through the public,
and then I'll be able to get a good chunk
of change for you. And that's when he says, where

(28:25):
is your cell phone? I want your cell phone, I
want your keys, and I want them now. Well, sorry
to break it to you, man, but you scared the
everloving shit out of her. Whenever you put a gun
in her face. Back at the coffee shop, she never
grabbed anything. The keys and the cell phone were still
back on the counter. He didn't see them whenever they
were walking out, and she never grabbed them. So this

(28:46):
really messed up his next portion of his plan because
he was gonna be texting her family and her boss
from her phone to demand the money. Another phone. Now
he can't use his own. Obviously, even if you went
and got him a prepaid or something like that, he
can't text from that because that's not going to be
as believable. They may not believe that she's even alive.
He had to have her phone, so he drove back

(29:08):
to the area of the coffee shop, but he was
fearing that the police may have already been there. Turns out,
though he was wrong, no one actually knew that she
was missing yet. Dwayne hadn't yet received that text message,
and he had shown up to go pick her up.
She wasn't there, and then he left, and he had
gone back to the house to talk to her daddy.

(29:29):
No one knew yet exactly what had happened. So since
there was no police, he knew that they knew that
she wasn't missing yet, and so he brazenly just got
out of his truck, broke back into the coffee shop,
picked up Samantha's keys, and her phone. Samantha was still
bound in his truck, and then he got out, jump

(29:49):
back in, and he sped away. He was at his
own crime scene twice with nobody seeing a thing. So
after they left that second time, he drove around with
Samantha for a while. And the reality was that when
the kidnapper prepared for this event, he had also gotten
a police scanner, so it wasn't just that he had

(30:10):
to look for police. He actually knew that there probably
would be no police there. Why he had an ear
piece in while he was robbing her, and he was
monitoring the police radio to ensure that no one was
responding to the coffee shop while he was there, no
panic button or anything like that. He was ten steps ahead,
and he was listening. After he got her, he was

(30:32):
listening when he pulled back up. He knew that nobody
was responding because they had no idea yet. He literally
seemed to have everything mapped out and this is unfolding
in front of Samantha's eyes, and she's realizing, my god,
you know, this is bad, bad, this is really bad.
The radio was calm, and there was nothing pointed to

(30:53):
that she was even gone, so it was now that
he had gotten her cell phone, that he drove off
to another area and he sent those text messages that
her boyfriend Dwayne at the very beginning of this episode
I mentioned to you had received. He sent two messages
actually from Samantha's phone. The abductor sent the first message

(31:13):
to Dwayne about this her being mad at him and
she was going to go stay with friends. And then
the second message he sent from her phone was to
the owner of the coffee shop, basically saying, I've had
a really rough day. I'm just going to be going
out of town for a couple of days. So the
goal here was obviously to explain her absence in their lives,
but I guess he didn't quite account for the fact

(31:35):
that she had a parent who would be just beside
himself shortly when she didn't go back home. So roll
fast on the family dynamic. Samantha's dad was a single
dad that raised Samantha her entire life. The mom I believe,
I don't know exactly what date at this time of
this recording, but her mom wasn't much in the picture

(31:56):
as far as her steady parent. Well after the messages
were sent by the abductor, he removed the battery from
her phone, so now she was gone and her phone
could not be tracked either. But now he had to
do something with her until he was prepared to demand
his ransom money, but he also wanted some cash, so

(32:17):
what he told her was give me your debit card.
But she was smart. Remember Samantha is a fighter. She
was really smart. She had a debit card, but she
told him she didn't have one on her. He would
have to go get the one that was in Dwayne's truck.
Dwayne was coming to pick her up. It fit the

(32:38):
story perfectly. She said, you're gonna have to go get
it from the truck, and the truck is probably at
my house where I live. Clever girl, so she explained him, Oh,
we share a bank account and me and my boyfriend
and we keep the debit card in the truck, and
so you're gonna have to go get it from there.

(32:58):
Well he was and even deterred a bit by this.
He says, fine, what's your home address? So, unfortunately for her,
she gives it to him and then finds out she
will not be accompanying him to her home, so instead
of bringing her in the car while he goes to
go get the debit card. He actually continues driving and

(33:21):
he pulls up at another home, one that she is
very unfamiliar with. Why because it was her captor's home
and now there was a new issue. There was still
a whole lot of people moving about in this neighborhood
where her captor lived. He couldn't just get out with
this girl that's zip tied up and bound in the

(33:42):
back of his truck without somebody seeing. So that's whenever
he made an adjustment. He told her, you are going
to stay in this truck. You're going to stay in
this truck, zip tied, and I'm going to cover you
with some drop cloths. You better not move, You better
not make a sound. If I see your head pop up,
it's over for you. And so she complied. She laid

(34:05):
in the back of that truck, zip tied, bound and
covered until two o'clock in the morning, when all was quiet,
all was still. There was little to no movement outside
of any others minus the random barking dog off in
the distance from time to time. And that's when the

(34:26):
captor returned to his vehicle and removed her from it,
and together they walked up towards the house. It was
a modest, middle class home, looked to be in a
family friendly neighborhood. And as they walked up the driveway
towards the front, she wouldn't be so lucky as to
enter through that front door. No, they would actually turn

(34:47):
and make a hard right, and that's when Samantha lay
her eyes on her new home. In front of her
was a metal shed, a small one that you would
store lawn equipment in and such. So I'm sure you
know where this is about to go. So go ahead
real quick, I'll let you wherever you're listening to this,
go ahead, say it out loud. I'm not kidding. Come on,

(35:08):
right now, say it out loud. What is it? Did
you say it? Did you say he's about to chain
her up in that shed? Of course you did, and
of course you're sicknically correct. So the man opened the shed,
he shoved her inside, closing the door behind him. And
that's when reality really started to sink in, because Samantha

(35:31):
watched as he walked over and he grabbed a rope.
Her captor took that rope and he walked over and
he explained to her, you will not be leaving until
I get my money. He then tied that rope around
her neck and bound her wrists and her ankles, so

(35:52):
fearful that she may yell out or get somebody's attention,
He threatened her if you yell out, if you make
a sound, if you alert anybody that you are in here,
I will kill you. Do you understand me? She shook
her head in understanding, as she was shivering, probably the

(36:13):
combination of the fear and the cold because it was
snowing outside. This wasn't a insulated shed or anything like that.
So she's now tied up by her neck and her
wrists in her ankles, and he looks her in her
face and he demands the pin the pin number for
the ATM card. So she gave it to him, and
she verified her address again cool. The man then leaned

(36:36):
over where he had her radio stationed right there, and
he turned the volume up really high that would drown
out any noise that she may try to make, and
he reminded her of this too. I have a police scanner.
I will know if you alert somebody. And guess what
I now have your home address. Do not fuck this up.

(36:58):
The man then casually turned around, exited the shed and
locked her in it behind him, tied by her neck
and bound by her wrists and her ankles. So address
in hand. He was now en route to Samantha's house,
where her daddy was and where Dwayne was. They knew

(37:19):
at this point that she was missing, They just did
not know anything to this extent. So whenever he got there,
he did see that there were cars in the driveway,
including the truck that Samantha had described to him. She
said the ATM card would be above the visor. So
he sat there for a while and he watched to
see if there was anyone moving about in the home.

(37:41):
Everything was still, everything was calm, and that's when he
decided he would make his move. So he quietly got
out of his vehicle and then snuck up the driveway
of Samantha's home. Remember it was still really early morning hours,
so it was dark and it was quiet, and using
Samantha's keys, he quietly unlocked the truck and he gently

(38:04):
popped open the door. When he did so, that dome
light popped on and he slouched. He kind of crouched
slightly in reaction to that light, but nobody was around.
He then reached up and he pulled down the visor,
and sure enough, just as Samantha had said it would,
a debit card dropped right out of the top of
that visor. Bingo. He had what he had come for.

(38:29):
So he then kind of backed out and he quietly
shut the door, feeling accomplished. And right as he shut
that door, to his shock, a young man was standing
there and he started yelling at him. Who are you?
What are you doing? Who are you? Y'all? It was Dwayne.
It was Dwayne, her boyfriend. Because not only was he

(38:50):
at the house because he lived there, not only had
he been talking to Samantha's daddy because they didn't know
where she was. But he was so upset that he
had kept walking outside every thirty minutes. He kept going
outside and looking at her truck to see did she
come get the truck? What was she doing? Was she
gonna take something out of the truck because she's mad
at me for something? And he didn't even know what
he did. Well deer in the headlights, the abductor just

(39:13):
stood there staring at Dwayne. He never even said a word,
and that's when Dwayne realized, oh shit, I gotta do something.
So he tears off into the front door of the house,
yelling for Samantha's dad, come here, Come here, come here.
There's a guy breaking in the truck. But this gave
time for Samantha's captor to turn and run for it,
which he did. He got straight, he ran straight to

(39:34):
his truck, he jumped in, and he sped away. All
of this before any identifying information about him could be
really obtained from him. So after that close call, the
abductor made it away. He made his escape, and that's
whenever he drove to a nearby atm he wanted to
test that pin number and see if Samantha had given

(39:56):
him the real pin number, and he would find out
she did. He tested it and he was able to
get some money, slide the money in your pocket, and
then drive on back to his house as if it
was just another regular day. Well, by now the police
had been alerted to the situation, and they had now

(40:17):
also seen that abduction footage that was obtained from the
coffee shop owners, but they were no closer to knowing
who had her or what was going on. I mean, hell,
at this point you don't either. Nobody could even understand
what was going on here. She had no known enemies,
she did not live a high risk lifestyle either, who
would have taken her? So police went and they interviewed

(40:41):
Samantha's daddy. Now daddy's name is James Koenig, and they
recorded that interview, and I'm just gonna play a small
snippet of that with you here. Now. Remember, he doesn't
know everything that you do at this point. All he
knows at this point is that his daughter has been taken,
and he's being asked kind of a about what was
going on, and he's being asked about Dwayne and the

(41:03):
relationship between him and Samantha. I want to tell you
this too before I play it. The names are kind
of muted by the original audio that was released, so
you're not having sound problems. The names are just not
able to be heard.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
And so when did you start to become concerned she
obviously she didn't show up at eight o'clock one.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
Well, I was concerned when he showed up at eight
fifteen to pick her up and she wasn't here, and
she wouldn't return any of my phone calls or text messages.
And I think at eleven fifty five he got a
text message on his phone saying, you know, fu asshole,
I know what you did or whatever, and I'm going
to stay with some prims for a couple of days.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Let dad know.

Speaker 5 (41:45):
And that's not her, that's okay.

Speaker 6 (41:49):
So then.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
What happens at three o'clock something about there's a.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
He went out to look and see if her truck
was still in the parking lot.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Why would he do that?

Speaker 5 (42:00):
He's worried about her. Okay, maybe she's gonna come by
and get it or something. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
Where, I mean, I'm going out checking on it too,
But it just so happens. He goes out and checks
on it, and there's some guy in a ski mask inside.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Of her vehicle.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
And you guys called the police.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
No he had the key.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
I mean, you guys can't do anything if he ain't
breaking an entering. And the guy already ran down the road.
We didn't get into script. You know, a guy in
a black ski mask didn't say anything when came out
on the porch and asked him if you know what's
what he's doing or whatnot?

Speaker 6 (42:36):
Uh huh, and he took off running or I don't know,
was the key still in the vehicle or.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Did he take the key.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
He took the keys, and apparently her driver's license is
missing out of her now I don't know if anything else, okay,
And I don't know if she had her driver's lice
on her.

Speaker 6 (43:10):
And that's how I don't know if it's missing from
the truck at.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, I don't know. He's he thinks it was.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
In there and that's normally where she keeps it, but
I don't know if it was on her person.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
And that's how we found out where we lived.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
So how many keys to the vehicle?

Speaker 2 (43:24):
He has a set and she has a said, so
they both have a set.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Okay, Well some people these days losing they you know whatever.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
So I was just wondering how the key thing was,
and so we.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Took off running, and.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
He went up running towards McCrae.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
Okay, And I got my dog out there and started
going up the road.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
And he didn't think the police would help, not really.
I mean, you're strange person's in the car, they take
off fronting when you confront them.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
You don't think that the police had come help.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
Maybe you know, sure you probably would, But like I said,
I went up the road trying to find the guy
and couldn't find them. I had my dog out there,
she couldn't find them. My daughter has only been missing
for a few hours, and as far as I know,
forty four hours. You guys ain't gonna do anything.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Now listen to what you just heard. I'm just gonna say,
and I get to have my opinion. I was not
a fan of this detective's style of interview. That was
just a snippet of it, but it seemed very confrontational
rather than investigative. And the full interview, I've got it,
the full interview. I'll put it on Patreon if you
want to go listen to the full thing so you
can get a full taste of what I'm talking about.

(44:48):
But I just didn't like, really the way that that
was done. So were Daddy after this interview and now
the day the next day is breaking and this is
big breaking news. He did whatever he thought he could
to try to help get the information out about his
baby girl, and that included going to the media where
he would beg for her return. He begged whoever took her,

(45:11):
please do not hurt her. He asked that they please
take care of her. Whatever, you know, whatever, We'll handle this.
Just please don't hurt my child, please, But finding her
was not only going to be, you know, a mental
game of figuring of trying to solve this case, but
it was going to be a physically hard thing to
find her, considering they didn't have any leads at this point.

(45:35):
Because even though Anchorage, Alaska is the largest city, it's
got less than ten percent of the total square footage
of the municipality actually populated. That means there is a
vast area of just nature and a ton of room
for people to travel without being able to be detected.

(45:56):
She could be anywhere. So the FBI was now joining
in and they were going to aid in finding where
Samantha possibly could be. So while initially the police looked
at those that were close to Samantha, you know, because
that's common the perpetrators, people that want to hurt us,
they tend to be, unfortunately, people in our inner circles.

(46:17):
But when the FBI got involved and really started looking
at this, they immediately ruled out Dwayne the boyfriend, and
they ruled out Dad. They were not a part of this.
And even with the video of the actual kidnapping, there
were really no good leads to follow. They believed that
she was not the one who sent those text messages.

(46:38):
But now even though they think someone else, the abductor,
probably sent those text messages. And they were right. The
phone was not able to be traced. They couldn't do
any standard things that they did because again he took
the battery out. Well, ten days would pass. Ten days
with nothing, no communication, no sightings of Samantha. She had

(46:59):
just disappeared. So the community did what community does, and
they decided they were going to hold a vigil. Tons
of people showed up for this. Posters were put up,
the media coverage was massive, but it resulted in nothing.
There was no sign of her, and her parents and

(47:21):
her friends and people like me that don't even know her.
You really sit back and go, God, if she's out
in the wilderness by chance, that's scary enough too. I mean,
there's just nothing but remote land out there. The wildlife
and the weather alike were of grave concern in terms
of survival. What are the chances? Ten days and not

(47:44):
a word, and then this extends to three weeks later.
On three weeks without hearing another peep from her. Their
hope was there, but it's starting to fit My god.
Three weeks. Why did this person even take her? What
do they want with her? But on February twenty fourth,

(48:10):
at seven forty five pm, out of the blue, Dwayne
received a text message from Samantha. All it said was
Connor Park. Connor Park was a park nearby, and it
was showing a sign. It was like a picture of
a sign in Connor Park and on that sign there

(48:33):
was a flyer for a missing dog named Albert. And
then the words were texted, ain't she purty? Question mark?
What the hell did that mean? Ain't she purty? I
know this. You take a girl and she's now missing

(48:54):
for all of these days, and then your text message
is ain't she purty? It sends a shock to your
system because what does pretty have to do with anything
about a woman unless you were having some very devious
thoughts about doing things to her. So immediately though, when

(49:17):
the text came through, he didn't know what it meant.
But he got in contact with the FBI and was like, look,
there's a picture. There's this sign, it's got a dog
on it, and then it texted, ain't she purty? Well
agents knew Connor Park and they ran immediately to that
park and they went straight to where that bulletin board was,
and there it was that missing dog poster with a
picture it looks like a golden doodle or something like that,

(49:40):
named Albert. He's missing. But it wasn't that that they
actually needed to pay attention to. It was what was
underneath it, right below it was a plastic ziplock bag.
Now from the get go looking at it, what they
thought that they were opening was a newspaper clipping with
like a foe on it. But once they opened it

(50:02):
up and they got it fully visible, they realized, no, no, no, no, no,
this is a ransom letter. So it was typed out
on what looks like an old school typewriter, and it
had a picture of it, a picture of a newspaper
on it for the date purposes, and a picture of Samantha.

(50:23):
So basically the demand was go put thirty thousand dollars
in Samantha's bank account and if I can use the
debit card and get the money out, that's what I
need you to do. And it wasn't that simple. It
was way more taunting, and the demander said things like
either you're with the pigs or you're not, which I

(50:43):
take to be you're either with the police or you're not.
You're going to do this or you're going to not.
And then it also said things like this is the
last you're going to hear from me, and then added
she did almost get away twice, like taunting the person
that would be reading this. But the photo showed Samantha

(51:03):
holding a newspaper that was dated February thirteenth. Remember this
is February twenty fourth, so that was well after the
abduction date. And it's also after the date of the newspaper.
So was this a proof of life photo? Maybe totally possible.
Obviously he's got her in the photo and she's holding

(51:24):
up the newspaper to say I'm here. This is the
date for now, though, Daddy James was willing to do whatever, whenever,
and however he had to do it to get his
baby girl back. So following through with the request and
also under the supervision of the FBI, he didn't go
put thirty grand in there. He went and put five

(51:45):
grand into the account. Now, all the FBI and Dad
and all of them could really do was just sit
back and monitor the account for any activity. But it
would only take a few hours because later that evening.
Once it became dark, a man tried to withdraw cash

(52:05):
from an ATM from Samantha's account, and as soon as
they got the alert, the FBI flew to that location.
I mean they were on their horses rolling to the
location of that ATM. But by the time they got there,
the person was already gone. They missed the suspects captured
just by minutes. He was gone before they got there.

(52:26):
But there was a video, and as aggravatingly usual as
this is, the video was piss poor quality real quick.
If you were going to take the time to have
security cameras, how about we make it the standard that
you make the cameras worth a down. What good is

(52:49):
a blurry, fuzzy, crappy video other than to verify yep,
somebody was there. That drives me crazy and we live
this is twenty twenty five that I'm recording this. Get
good cameras. But even though it was terrible, the FBI
was able to create a basic, confirmed now profile of

(53:10):
at least the suspect getting the money out of the ATM.
A thin, white male with dark clothing. It was a
zip up hoodie. He was wearing gloves whenever he was
taking the cash out using Samantha's debit card. Other than
this nothing. He didn't drive up in a car. He
walked up to the ATM and then he walked away.

(53:33):
Another week would pass another Ya, we're over a month
now that Samantha has been missing. But Samantha's card was
used again a week later at another ATM, but this
time it was nearly four thousand miles away in Willcox, Arizona,

(53:55):
So again they were able to get video, and the
video showed this seim what seemed to be the same
man wearing a hoodie up, sunglasses, and this time he
had a bandana covering his nose in his mouth. But
when he did the withdrawal in Arizona, he fucked up.
So he parked really far away from the machine and

(54:16):
the like, over in the far end of a parking lot.
But what he didn't think about was the atmy may
not be able to see where I'm parked, but another
camera was able to see him clear his day. And
now they got a view of the vehicle that was
being driven and the FBI was going to focus quite
literally on a white Ford focus, but y'all, there's tons

(54:39):
of those driving around the us at that time. Matter
of fact, I can tell you shortly thereafter, there was
definitely a white Ford Focus in New Mexico at an ATM,
And then again there was one in Humble, Texas, white
car taking money out of the ATM. So this dude

(55:02):
seemingly was all over the place, but they were at
least able to pick up a pattern, and he was
definitely heading eastward in his travel. Patterns are good. Right
direction of travel is great because that's kind of given
a concept of where do we need to even be
looking for this fella that's consistently withdrawing money from her account.

(55:22):
Now I'll tell you this too. Some people are going
to come out me and go, why didn't you say
Humble Texas, not Humble Texes. My sister lives there, shout
out Courtney, and it's umble, and so I'm gonna say
it that way because that's how they announced it there
whenever I pronounced it there actually when I went there.
So on March thirteenth, some time later, which is actually

(55:42):
my sister's birthday, state troopers saw a car matching the
description of that white Ford Focus in a hotel parking
lot in Texas, and I have to give massive kudos
to this because, I mean, obviously a bolo had been
sent out to all of these different agencies along the
interstate corridor that they believe the suspect was traveling. But wow,

(56:05):
like this state trooper man, he had it under control.
He saw it parked and he noticed it. So what
did he do? Did he go storm up to the car? No,
he actually sat back and he waited and he watched
the vehicle, and after some time he saw a man
come out of the hotel and get into that car.

(56:26):
So the trooper just fell in line behind him and
he starts following down the road because he couldn't just
pull him over. You have to have probable cause. That's
the constitution. He had to get some type of probable cause.
And just so you understand, simply driving a white Ford
Focus doesn't meet the muster of probable cause here, especially
because it's in another state far away from where the

(56:49):
original kidnapping went. I mean, this could be anybody driving
this car. So the trooper followed him until that car
exceeded the speed limit and he had a reason to
pull him over, and he did. He turned on his
lights and he affected a traffic stop for speeding. So
the driver, whenever he got out of the vehicle, was

(57:10):
a white male. He looked to be in his late
twenties or early thirties. He had on a gray tank
top tucked into like a muscle shirt, you know, a
gray tank top tucked into his jeans, and he was
wearing a belt. He had short, wavy, dark hair, nothing
out of the ordinary, nothing that stood out. And the
officer asked him for his ID. He said, no problem.

(57:33):
He pulled out the ID and he handed it over
to the state trooper. And that's whenever the state trooper
read it and it had the name Israel Keys on it. Well,
who the hell was he? This was not a known criminal,
This wasn't somebody that the officer recognized. And looking at him,
he was a rather bony and dorky looking guy. To

(57:53):
be honest. He has almost this like Mark zuckerberg ye
type look, without those du those dumb bangs that Mark has.
But he just had that kind of Mark Zuckerberg look.
And looking through additional photos of this guy, his look
did shift over time. Sometimes he would have long, curly hair,

(58:15):
then he would have really shortcuts. Sometimes he wore glasses,
sometimes he didn't but he did fit that basic physical
description of the person seen at those different ATMs using
Samantha's debit card. So police conducted a search of the
vehicle and that's when the big discovery was made. Samantha's
I D and her car keys were in that white

(58:39):
Ford focus, so was her debit card, and so was
her cell phone. They also found a gun, and they
were able to locate the clothing that matched the clothing
of the person at the ATM, making all of those withdrawals.
So call me blue, but guys, I think we got
us a clue here. Israel Keys was promptly arrested and

(59:03):
he even smirked as he entered the police vehicle in cuffs.
Police though, were hard pressed to not believe that this
was the guy that they had been looking for. But
where was Samantha Because she was not in the car,
She was nowhere to be found. He was thousands and
thousands of miles away from Alaska, and he wasn't talking,

(59:27):
So was Samantha alive? That really became the pressing issue
at hand for now. Though they had Israel Keys in custody,
which is that was a great start, but he wasn't
what they were expecting. But that's the thing about scary people.
What does a kidnapper and an arm robber look like
when they aren't kidnapping and arm robbing? Could he really

(59:51):
be the one responsible for Samantha's actual abduction? You damn
right he could. The level of confidence he displayed wearing
a muscle shirt while being built dead ass like a
number two pencil shows you that there's more to this
guy than meets the eye. And police they were ready
to get straight to the point.