September 18, 2025 • 32 mins
As we prepare for Season 7 of True Crime Bullsh**, we're sharing episodes from the past 6 seasons that will be foundational for the upcoming season.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is a studio both and production.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Do you think over the years.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Any of any of the people that you were with,
Kimberly or whoever, or Cammy or whoever before, do you
think any of them had any any ideas.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
About about the other side of you. I imagine twenty twenty hindsight,
you might remember some stuff, but I don't can't remember
any time where where there was any question as to
(00:52):
what I was or who I was.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Maybe questions about where you were, but not necessarily there
were some questions about where I had been, but I always,
like I say, I usually.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Planning things so that I had I don't know. They
sounded like good reasons excuses to me, and nobody ever
really called me on.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
So. So was there a relationship between Tammy and Kimberly?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Not really, just.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
There was a little bit of drama at one point,
but no, there wasn't a relationship.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Was just that somebody in Washington.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
You said, you're asking if they knew each other?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
No, no, no, I'm asking who it is somebody else?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Cause yeah, for a while, who was uh uh? Her
name was Denise. She lived in she had a family
in Nia Bay and she lived in U can't don't
by Sea Tark or something.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
This is true crime bullshit. I'm your host, Josh Hallmark,
and this is a serialized story of Israel Keys.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There are a startling number of missing persons cases involving
car crashes in Washington and its bordering states. And when
you consider Keys' references to the book, intensity notes in
his suicide letter, and the many many tips from drivers
claiming that Keys tried to run them off of the road,
(02:47):
it's completely reasonable to take a closer look at some
of these cases, specifically three, the most notable of which
is the case of Leah Roberts. Lea disappeared from Wotcombe
County in Washington in two thousand. In fact, local law
enforcement even reached out to me to see if it
(03:10):
was possible that Keys could have been involved in her disappearance. And,
as I find myself saying quite frequently these days, with Keys,
anything is possible. However, in this case, it's highly unlikely
because at the time of Lea's disappearance, Keys was in
the army stationed in Egypt. However, again, with Keys, highly unlikely,
(03:37):
isn't necessarily exculpatory. Keyes did earn thirty days of vacation
per year while serving in the army, and that vacation
was use it or lose it, meaning it's quite likely
that Keys was making the most of his vacation time
since he'd otherwise lose it all at the end of
(03:58):
the fiscal year. And we know Keyes had a history
of abusing his paid time off. For the five and
a half months that Keyes was in Egypt, he would
have accrued about fourteen or fifteen days of vacation, and unfortunately,
there's no available records of Keyes' time off while on
active duty in Egypt. Leo Roberts was last seen on
(04:25):
March first of two thousand. Her car was discovered on
March eighteenth, abandoned along an old logging road in rural
Wockcom County, about eighty five miles north of Seattle. Her
jeep had clearly been in some sort of accident when
it was discovered with significant front end damage in an
(04:45):
embankment off the highway. At the time of her disappearance,
Leo was on a cross country road trip with her
kitten following the death of her parents. Authorities found a
gas receipt in her car, which placed her in Brooks,
Oregon at a around midnight on March thirteenth. They also
found a movie theater ticket stub placing her in Bellingham, Washington,
(05:07):
three hundred miles north of Brooks. Later that afternoon, searches
of her abandoned car yielded no signs of Lea or
her cat, although they did find cat food, a cat carrier,
twenty five hundred dollars hidden in a pair of pants,
and blankets covering the car's broken windows. There are many
(05:31):
theories that Leah walked away from the accident. However, it
seems unlikely she'd leave behind all that cash and take
her cat but not its carrier. On the same token,
it seems if foul play were involved, that cash would
have been stolen. There were, however, eyewitnesses who claimed that
(05:51):
a man was seen following Leah as she left a
diner in the days preceding the discovery of her car. Additionally,
there were no bose signs that Leah had been in
the car when it crashed. Upon further searches of Leo's car,
investigators found that a starter relay had been cut. Cutting
this would make it possible for the car to accelerate
(06:14):
without use of the gas pedal. An unknown fingerprint was
also discovered on the hood of the car. Shortly after
the discovery of Leo's car, investigators received an anonymous call
from a man claiming to have seen Leah after the accident.
He said she looked disoriented and confused, but when police
(06:36):
pressed further, the man hung up and the mysterious caller
he was never identified. Now, according to Israel Keys, he
didn't murder anyone while in the army. However, we also
(06:56):
know that Keys liked to play word games, and perhaps
he never murdered anyone while he was on active duty
or stationed in the army. But we can't even place
Keys in the United States at the time of Lea's disappearance.
He left for Egypt two months before her car was discovered.
(07:20):
But we do know that Keys worked on cars and
would likely know which wires to cut to immobilize or
mess with a car. Additionally, Keys is known to have
stalked his victims, and it seems very likely that someone
was following Leah at the time of her car accident.
The area Leah disappeared from is also one Keys knew
(07:43):
well and could easily return to from Tacoma, Calville, and
even Nia Bay, and many of Key's weird references in
a suicide note are very similar to Leah's disappearance, a
car accident, a young woman with brown hair, and most notably,
(08:03):
a line that's mostly illegible due to Israel's bloodstains but
ends with a reference to a victim's pet. I personally
don't think Keys was involved in Lea's disappearance, but there's
enough similarities to his mo O that it's worth exploring,
(08:23):
in addition to several other similar missing persons cases involving
car accidents or staged car accidents. Kenneth Adrian Greth was
last seen on July eighth of two thousand and two
in Grant's Pass, Oregon. Little is known about his disappearance,
(08:46):
including the exact date he disappeared. It is believed Kenneth
had a meth problem when he disappeared, and there were
rumors he could have been murdered. Seven years after he
was reported missing, his nineteen eighty one nine geo metro
was found at the bottom of a ravine in the
Rogue River Siskiyo National Forest, about twenty five miles west
(09:08):
of Grant's Pass. Much like Lea's car, all the windows
were broken out and the keys were still in the ignition. Additionally,
the tires were all flat, and again, as with Leah,
there were no signs that Kenneth or anyone was actually
in the car at the time of the car crash.
(09:30):
Keyes was living five hundred forty miles away in Nia
Bay at the time of Kenneth's disappearance, and there's no
available information regarding Key's whereabouts at any point in July
of two thousand and two. However, July seventh, eighth, and
ninth are all dates that come up multiple times on
(09:51):
the name is forty four, so it's clear Keys was
looking for something that occurred that first week of July. Interestingly,
there are about fifty five unsolved missing persons cases between
July two thousand and February of two thousand seven from
(10:11):
Washington State in its surrounding areas that match Keys's mo
and occurred while Keys was in the area. Of those
fifty five, seven people disappeared along with their cars from
within fifteen miles of Grant's Pass. Six of those seven
cars were eventually recovered, all in remote areas, five of
(10:34):
which had incurred significant damage. Thomas Randall Hedgecock was last
seen on Monday, May twenty four of two thousand four
in Filer, Idaho. He left his house at approximately ten
thirty that evening to attend a barbecue and hasn't been
(10:56):
seen or heard from since. On May thirty first, his
truck was found at the bottom of an embankment along
the Snake River between Phyler and Wendell, Idaho. Again, there
was no evidence that anyone had been in the car
when it went off the road, and much like in
both Leah's and Kenneth's cases, there was no blood at
(11:19):
the scene, nor were there any footprints nearby, and authorities
again suspected foul play. All we know about Israel's life
during May of two thousand and four is that he
and Tammy had just split up and he was still
working for the Macaw in Nia Bay. Phyler is approximately
(11:40):
eight hundred miles from Nia Bay, but only five hundred
from mop In, Oregon, and three hundred fifty miles from
Green River, Wyoming. I mentioned Green River because Thomas disappeared
just three months following Key's first trip there. The drive
from Mopin to Green River takes you directly through the
(12:01):
area where Thomas disappeared and where his car was eventually recovered,
and maps of this specific region of Idaho were discovered
in Key's home. Following his arrest, As I mentioned in
episode eleven, I started looking into car accidents after Israel
(12:22):
mentioned he staged one of his victims to look like
an accidental death. But pretty quickly into my car research,
I hit a excuse the pun roadblock when I tried
searching for similar area accidents where a body was discovered
in the wreckage, I was understandably overwhelmed. It turns out
(12:46):
Washington State has the eighth highest rate of traffic related
deaths in the country. Narrowing my searches down to rural
area as Keys was known to frequent or pass through, well,
that didn't help much either, especially and somewhat sadly, since
most cases where a body is found in a wrecked
(13:06):
car are generally written off as accidental and not investigated.
So if Keys did in fact stage his one recovered
victim to look like a car wreck, we'll probably never
know who that victim was. But there were two mysterious
deaths that took place in areas Keys was known to
(13:29):
frequent during his time in Nia Bay and both strongly
match Keys's known mos Fifty seven year old Wendell Harris
disappeared in two thousand and six, sometime between the afternoon
(13:50):
of March thirty first, when he was last seen teaching
a class at Olympic College in Polsbo, Washington, and the
morning of April first, when he failed to return to
work at Olympic College. His black nineteen ninety five Chevy
Tahoe disappeared with him. A search of his home found
(14:12):
no apparent signs of foul play. Prior to his disappearance,
neighbors said Harris had talked about going hiking somewhere in
Kitsap County or on the Olympic Peninsula. On April twelfth,
hikers found Wendell's body in the soul Duck area of
the Olympic National Park. His exact cause of death is unknown,
(14:38):
but his death was eventually declared accidental. His car was
found in a parking lot one mile from his body. Interestingly,
Keys had camped in the soul Duck area of the
park many times, both prior to and following Harris's death.
(15:01):
Harris's body was discovered just four miles from where a
man reported that he found a murder kit while hiking,
and then eventually threw that murder kit into a nearby embankment.
Keys can't be placed anywhere on either March thirty first
or April first. His last known whereabouts prior to Harris's
(15:23):
disappearance are on an eastbound ferry from Kingston, Washington to
Edmonds on March thirtieth. He can't be placed anywhere again
until April third, where he was working on a construction
project in Everett, Washington. But it's the second mysterious death
(15:45):
that rang alarm bells for me, so much so that
I ended up in a rental car driving across Washington
State to a remote island near Yakima. Alice Ida Looney
was last seen in Wapato, Washington, during the early morning
(16:08):
hours of August seventeen, two thousand four. Alice was a
member of the Yakama tribal nation, and Wapato, where she
lived and disappeared from, is part of the existing Yakama
Indian Reservation and tribal lands. There isn't a lot of
information about Alice's disappearance, other than references to it in
(16:32):
stories covering the many disappearances and unsolved murders of Yakama women.
We do know that she was reported missing in the
days following her last known sighting. Alice remained missing for
over a year until November thirty of two thousand and five,
(16:54):
when her body was discovered by a hunter. Alice's body
had been wedged under a tree on a small island
in Sadus Creek, about twenty miles south of Wapato. In
two thousand and six, the US Department of Justice launched
a review of unsolved and suspicious deaths, paying close attention
(17:18):
to the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Yakima. In
this review, the FBI listed Alice's cause of death as inconclusive,
and no apparent investigation was conducted unto her death thereafter.
In fact, none of her friends or family were ever
even interviewed during or following the Department of Justice inquiry.
(17:44):
There were a few things about Alice's case that struck
me initially. First was the location. Wapato is one hundred
twenty miles from Moppin and lies en route to Moppin
from both Na Bay and Callville. Well, It's also just
a ninety minute drive from James's father's house in Moses Lake,
(18:07):
and as I'm sure you'll recall, there were several times
where Keys drove James to his father's house from Nia
Bay on his way to allegedly visit friends and family.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I could always think of some excuse. I at the
time still had ties in eastern Washington, so.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It was.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Pretty easy to say, you know, I'm just going to
go over to eastern Washington to check on the old place.
Go see, go to and so. And when you say ties,
did you have a family living there? Or friends friends?
Speaker 5 (18:40):
So go and visit so and so right and be
gone for a few days, military friends or now like
child child friends.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
There's no known whereabouts for Keys on August sixteenth or seventeenth.
It is worth remembering, since it doesn't come up nearly
enough on this podcast, that Keys did have a nine
to five job while living in Na Bay, which means
that even when he can't be accounted for, it's safe
to assume that Mondays through Fridays, he was likely working
(19:17):
for the Macaw tribe. It's something he even brings up
in his interviews.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Washington was a lot easier in a lot of ways,
because once I lived out in Nia Bay, I knew
all of Washington pretty well, and except I was so
isolated out there.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Once you drive Passport Angelis, it's like.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Here in a new world. Anyways, what's that whole parts?
Speaker 5 (19:46):
A whole set mountains right there right that seperate in
thea Bay.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah, the Olympic Well there the Olympic Grange. There's mountains.
You don't really have to go over any mountain pass.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Is there anything to Seattle right right not to get there?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Is that parkland or oh?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah? Out of this area?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, there was.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Once I had the boat.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It was.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
By then I was.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Pretty much coasting in my job, so I would take
off for long weekends. You know, my accountability was pretty
low at that time.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's right. Keyes generally took long weekends while committing crimes
in Washington State. Alice disappeared between Sunday night and Monday morning.
And remember when Keyes was asking investigators whether Ellensburg, Washington
was part of the Eastern or western federal jurisdiction. Well,
(20:49):
Wapato is fifty miles due south of Ellensburg, and so
I drove to where Alice's body was found. Alice's body
was found in Granger, Washington, a rural and remote area
on the edge of the Yakama Reservation, just about equidistant
(21:14):
between Yakama City and Kennewick, Washington. The land she was
found on is just off Highway twenty two and Sadis
Longhouse Road. It's public land.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
And keep in mind the federal message that they talked
about the National Park.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
We have to do some research on that.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
We could do that.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Just give give, give me a couple of lakes.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Washington is I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I mean, I know all the places I went, and
I know that they are all public areas, but I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Which ones were state which federal.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I never really paid that much attention.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
After turning on to Sadus Longhouse Road from Highway twenty two,
if you take the first possible turn onto a public road,
and then your first possible turn onto a dirt hunting road,
it'll take you straight to the island where her remains
were recovered. About one thousand feet down that same hunting
(22:27):
trail is an abandoned service station. More interesting than that, though,
is that it's about eighty feet from that hunting trail
to the island, and along that stretch of eighty feet
is an old outhouse. We know that in the case
(22:52):
of the recovered victim, Keys ran out of time and
had to get rid of the remains quickly. He staged
the body in a way that would make the death
look accidental. We also know that the body was recovered
some time after the murder took place, and that Keys
(23:13):
wasn't certain how long after, because there wasn't much press
or information about the recovery or the ensuing investigation. We
also know that Key's very first attack occurred in an
outhouse along a river. Additionally, Keyes knew murders of Native
(23:34):
women on tribal lands would fall within the jurisdiction of
tribal police, and Keys was well acquainted with the jurisdictional
issues between the FBI, local law enforcement, and tribal police.
Beyond that, there are three striking pieces of information that
(23:58):
came from an interview with Denise, a woman Keys briefly dated,
between Kimberly and Tammy, and from an interview with Keyes's
former boss. According to Denise, who Keys was dating in
two thousand and four, he drove alone to eastern Washington
(24:21):
for a three day weekend at some point in August,
most notably from her statement is that he was driving
a white Sedan she had never seen before, and when
she asked him about the car, he said it was
a car he used specifically for traveling. When she saw
(24:44):
him about a week later, he had changed his entire appearance.
He'd cut his previously long hair and grew a mustache.
And this was somewhat corroborated by Keyes's boss, who told
investigators that Keys had called out sick from work on
(25:05):
two separate Mondays in late August and September of two
thousand and four. Now, there is a report in the
FBI files regarding Alice's disappearance, and in it it mentions
that Keyes called out sick on September twenty second, but
makes no mention of him calling out in August. That
(25:27):
same report, however, gets a lot of critical information wrong.
It says that Alice wasn't reported missing for months after
her disappearance, but interviews with her sister. Her sister who
reported her missing, have her reporting the disappearance just days
(25:47):
after Alice was last seen, and as you'll recall, the
FBI never even interviewed Alice's sister during their inquiry. Additionally,
it says Keys was at a wedding in Squim, just
twenty miles from where Alice was found. Well, Squim is
(26:10):
over two hundred miles from where Alice was found, and
the wedding he attended there with Denise it occurred two
weeks before Alice was last seen. So I'm much more
inclined to believe the interviews than this report. And of
(26:34):
all the possible recovered victims, Alice seems to me the
most likely Keys victim. But it was in the fact
checking of Alice's case that I stumbled upon something unrelated
that I'd previously missed, something that hasn't been made public
by the FBI. In the week following Keyes's final FBI interview,
(27:04):
investigators began reaching out to various residents in Hunters, Washington.
You may recall that Keyes drove Tammy's son James, to
see his dad in Moses Lake over the weekend of
April first, two thousand and five. The pair left on
March thirty first, and it's unclear when they returned exactly,
(27:28):
but it's believed somewhere around April fourth or fifth. A
few days later, on April ninth, Keyes purchased his boat
from James's dad while On that trip, Keyes told Tammy
and James's dad that he was visiting friends in Hunter's, Washington.
(27:52):
He later admitted to investigators that he didn't actually know
anyone in Hunters well that outreach following his final interview,
it was quite specific. The FBI were trying to find
out who owned a particular abandoned farmhouse in Hunters, Washington,
(28:19):
specifically who owned it in April of two thousand five.
They also interviewed neighbors of this particular farmhouse, notably asking
about anything odd happening on or around the property that month,
(28:39):
and some of these interviews were conducted in person, meaning
the FBI was actually in Hunters investigating this farmhouse. And
while the FBI were investigating the farmhouse, Keys killed himself
(29:03):
and other than four heavily redacted interviews included in the
FBI files, it never comes up again. So what exactly
did Keyes tell investigators about this farmhouse and Hunters and
why isn't it included in the available interviews or available
(29:23):
FBI files? And as a Keen observer noted, thirty minutes
have been edited out of the publicly available final FBI interview.
The timestamp skips ahead almost exactly thirty minutes, and when
the video resumes, you can hear Agent Godin entering the
(29:48):
room say I think we found it. They then note
that his rights were previously read to him that day,
something else which has been excluded from the available f footage.
The group then goes on to briefly discuss New York
before circling back to an in depth conversation about all
(30:08):
of Israel's Washington State victims. It will be his most
revealing discussion about these victims. So what does the FBI
not want us to know? About? An abandoned farmhouse and
Hunter's Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Mother and a
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Mother my down p
This is a studio both and production.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Do you think over the years.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Any of any of the people that you were with,
Kimberly or whoever, or Cammy or whoever before, do you
think any of them had any any ideas.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
About about the other side of you. I imagine twenty twenty hindsight,
you might remember some stuff, but I don't can't remember
any time where where there was any question as to
(00:52):
what I was or who I was.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Maybe questions about where you were, but not necessarily there
were some questions about where I had been, but I always,
like I say, I usually.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Planning things so that I had I don't know. They
sounded like good reasons excuses to me, and nobody ever
really called me on.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
So. So was there a relationship between Tammy and Kimberly?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Not really, just.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
There was a little bit of drama at one point,
but no, there wasn't a relationship.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Was just that somebody in Washington.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
You said, you're asking if they knew each other?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
No, no, no, I'm asking who it is somebody else?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Cause yeah, for a while, who was uh uh? Her
name was Denise. She lived in she had a family
in Nia Bay and she lived in U can't don't
by Sea Tark or something.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
This is true crime bullshit. I'm your host, Josh Hallmark,
and this is a serialized story of Israel Keys.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There are a startling number of missing persons cases involving
car crashes in Washington and its bordering states. And when
you consider Keys' references to the book, intensity notes in
his suicide letter, and the many many tips from drivers
claiming that Keys tried to run them off of the road,
(02:47):
it's completely reasonable to take a closer look at some
of these cases, specifically three, the most notable of which
is the case of Leah Roberts. Lea disappeared from Wotcombe
County in Washington in two thousand. In fact, local law
enforcement even reached out to me to see if it
(03:10):
was possible that Keys could have been involved in her disappearance. And,
as I find myself saying quite frequently these days, with Keys,
anything is possible. However, in this case, it's highly unlikely
because at the time of Lea's disappearance, Keys was in
the army stationed in Egypt. However, again, with Keys, highly unlikely,
(03:37):
isn't necessarily exculpatory. Keyes did earn thirty days of vacation
per year while serving in the army, and that vacation
was use it or lose it, meaning it's quite likely
that Keys was making the most of his vacation time
since he'd otherwise lose it all at the end of
(03:58):
the fiscal year. And we know Keyes had a history
of abusing his paid time off. For the five and
a half months that Keyes was in Egypt, he would
have accrued about fourteen or fifteen days of vacation, and unfortunately,
there's no available records of Keyes' time off while on
active duty in Egypt. Leo Roberts was last seen on
(04:25):
March first of two thousand. Her car was discovered on
March eighteenth, abandoned along an old logging road in rural
Wockcom County, about eighty five miles north of Seattle. Her
jeep had clearly been in some sort of accident when
it was discovered with significant front end damage in an
(04:45):
embankment off the highway. At the time of her disappearance,
Leo was on a cross country road trip with her
kitten following the death of her parents. Authorities found a
gas receipt in her car, which placed her in Brooks,
Oregon at a around midnight on March thirteenth. They also
found a movie theater ticket stub placing her in Bellingham, Washington,
(05:07):
three hundred miles north of Brooks. Later that afternoon, searches
of her abandoned car yielded no signs of Lea or
her cat, although they did find cat food, a cat carrier,
twenty five hundred dollars hidden in a pair of pants,
and blankets covering the car's broken windows. There are many
(05:31):
theories that Leah walked away from the accident. However, it
seems unlikely she'd leave behind all that cash and take
her cat but not its carrier. On the same token,
it seems if foul play were involved, that cash would
have been stolen. There were, however, eyewitnesses who claimed that
(05:51):
a man was seen following Leah as she left a
diner in the days preceding the discovery of her car. Additionally,
there were no bose signs that Leah had been in
the car when it crashed. Upon further searches of Leo's car,
investigators found that a starter relay had been cut. Cutting
this would make it possible for the car to accelerate
(06:14):
without use of the gas pedal. An unknown fingerprint was
also discovered on the hood of the car. Shortly after
the discovery of Leo's car, investigators received an anonymous call
from a man claiming to have seen Leah after the accident.
He said she looked disoriented and confused, but when police
(06:36):
pressed further, the man hung up and the mysterious caller
he was never identified. Now, according to Israel Keys, he
didn't murder anyone while in the army. However, we also
(06:56):
know that Keys liked to play word games, and perhaps
he never murdered anyone while he was on active duty
or stationed in the army. But we can't even place
Keys in the United States at the time of Lea's disappearance.
He left for Egypt two months before her car was discovered.
(07:20):
But we do know that Keys worked on cars and
would likely know which wires to cut to immobilize or
mess with a car. Additionally, Keys is known to have
stalked his victims, and it seems very likely that someone
was following Leah at the time of her car accident.
The area Leah disappeared from is also one Keys knew
(07:43):
well and could easily return to from Tacoma, Calville, and
even Nia Bay, and many of Key's weird references in
a suicide note are very similar to Leah's disappearance, a
car accident, a young woman with brown hair, and most notably,
(08:03):
a line that's mostly illegible due to Israel's bloodstains but
ends with a reference to a victim's pet. I personally
don't think Keys was involved in Lea's disappearance, but there's
enough similarities to his mo O that it's worth exploring,
(08:23):
in addition to several other similar missing persons cases involving
car accidents or staged car accidents. Kenneth Adrian Greth was
last seen on July eighth of two thousand and two
in Grant's Pass, Oregon. Little is known about his disappearance,
(08:46):
including the exact date he disappeared. It is believed Kenneth
had a meth problem when he disappeared, and there were
rumors he could have been murdered. Seven years after he
was reported missing, his nineteen eighty one nine geo metro
was found at the bottom of a ravine in the
Rogue River Siskiyo National Forest, about twenty five miles west
(09:08):
of Grant's Pass. Much like Lea's car, all the windows
were broken out and the keys were still in the ignition. Additionally,
the tires were all flat, and again, as with Leah,
there were no signs that Kenneth or anyone was actually
in the car at the time of the car crash.
(09:30):
Keyes was living five hundred forty miles away in Nia
Bay at the time of Kenneth's disappearance, and there's no
available information regarding Key's whereabouts at any point in July
of two thousand and two. However, July seventh, eighth, and
ninth are all dates that come up multiple times on
(09:51):
the name is forty four, so it's clear Keys was
looking for something that occurred that first week of July. Interestingly,
there are about fifty five unsolved missing persons cases between
July two thousand and February of two thousand seven from
(10:11):
Washington State in its surrounding areas that match Keys's mo
and occurred while Keys was in the area. Of those
fifty five, seven people disappeared along with their cars from
within fifteen miles of Grant's Pass. Six of those seven
cars were eventually recovered, all in remote areas, five of
(10:34):
which had incurred significant damage. Thomas Randall Hedgecock was last
seen on Monday, May twenty four of two thousand four
in Filer, Idaho. He left his house at approximately ten
thirty that evening to attend a barbecue and hasn't been
(10:56):
seen or heard from since. On May thirty first, his
truck was found at the bottom of an embankment along
the Snake River between Phyler and Wendell, Idaho. Again, there
was no evidence that anyone had been in the car
when it went off the road, and much like in
both Leah's and Kenneth's cases, there was no blood at
(11:19):
the scene, nor were there any footprints nearby, and authorities
again suspected foul play. All we know about Israel's life
during May of two thousand and four is that he
and Tammy had just split up and he was still
working for the Macaw in Nia Bay. Phyler is approximately
(11:40):
eight hundred miles from Nia Bay, but only five hundred
from mop In, Oregon, and three hundred fifty miles from
Green River, Wyoming. I mentioned Green River because Thomas disappeared
just three months following Key's first trip there. The drive
from Mopin to Green River takes you directly through the
(12:01):
area where Thomas disappeared and where his car was eventually recovered,
and maps of this specific region of Idaho were discovered
in Key's home. Following his arrest, As I mentioned in
episode eleven, I started looking into car accidents after Israel
(12:22):
mentioned he staged one of his victims to look like
an accidental death. But pretty quickly into my car research,
I hit a excuse the pun roadblock when I tried
searching for similar area accidents where a body was discovered
in the wreckage, I was understandably overwhelmed. It turns out
(12:46):
Washington State has the eighth highest rate of traffic related
deaths in the country. Narrowing my searches down to rural
area as Keys was known to frequent or pass through, well,
that didn't help much either, especially and somewhat sadly, since
most cases where a body is found in a wrecked
(13:06):
car are generally written off as accidental and not investigated.
So if Keys did in fact stage his one recovered
victim to look like a car wreck, we'll probably never
know who that victim was. But there were two mysterious
deaths that took place in areas Keys was known to
(13:29):
frequent during his time in Nia Bay and both strongly
match Keys's known mos Fifty seven year old Wendell Harris
disappeared in two thousand and six, sometime between the afternoon
(13:50):
of March thirty first, when he was last seen teaching
a class at Olympic College in Polsbo, Washington, and the
morning of April first, when he failed to return to
work at Olympic College. His black nineteen ninety five Chevy
Tahoe disappeared with him. A search of his home found
(14:12):
no apparent signs of foul play. Prior to his disappearance,
neighbors said Harris had talked about going hiking somewhere in
Kitsap County or on the Olympic Peninsula. On April twelfth,
hikers found Wendell's body in the soul Duck area of
the Olympic National Park. His exact cause of death is unknown,
(14:38):
but his death was eventually declared accidental. His car was
found in a parking lot one mile from his body. Interestingly,
Keys had camped in the soul Duck area of the
park many times, both prior to and following Harris's death.
(15:01):
Harris's body was discovered just four miles from where a
man reported that he found a murder kit while hiking,
and then eventually threw that murder kit into a nearby embankment.
Keys can't be placed anywhere on either March thirty first
or April first. His last known whereabouts prior to Harris's
(15:23):
disappearance are on an eastbound ferry from Kingston, Washington to
Edmonds on March thirtieth. He can't be placed anywhere again
until April third, where he was working on a construction
project in Everett, Washington. But it's the second mysterious death
(15:45):
that rang alarm bells for me, so much so that
I ended up in a rental car driving across Washington
State to a remote island near Yakima. Alice Ida Looney
was last seen in Wapato, Washington, during the early morning
(16:08):
hours of August seventeen, two thousand four. Alice was a
member of the Yakama tribal nation, and Wapato, where she
lived and disappeared from, is part of the existing Yakama
Indian Reservation and tribal lands. There isn't a lot of
information about Alice's disappearance, other than references to it in
(16:32):
stories covering the many disappearances and unsolved murders of Yakama women.
We do know that she was reported missing in the
days following her last known sighting. Alice remained missing for
over a year until November thirty of two thousand and five,
(16:54):
when her body was discovered by a hunter. Alice's body
had been wedged under a tree on a small island
in Sadus Creek, about twenty miles south of Wapato. In
two thousand and six, the US Department of Justice launched
a review of unsolved and suspicious deaths, paying close attention
(17:18):
to the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Yakima. In
this review, the FBI listed Alice's cause of death as inconclusive,
and no apparent investigation was conducted unto her death thereafter.
In fact, none of her friends or family were ever
even interviewed during or following the Department of Justice inquiry.
(17:44):
There were a few things about Alice's case that struck
me initially. First was the location. Wapato is one hundred
twenty miles from Moppin and lies en route to Moppin
from both Na Bay and Callville. Well, It's also just
a ninety minute drive from James's father's house in Moses Lake,
(18:07):
and as I'm sure you'll recall, there were several times
where Keys drove James to his father's house from Nia
Bay on his way to allegedly visit friends and family.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I could always think of some excuse. I at the
time still had ties in eastern Washington, so.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It was.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Pretty easy to say, you know, I'm just going to
go over to eastern Washington to check on the old place.
Go see, go to and so. And when you say ties,
did you have a family living there? Or friends friends?
Speaker 5 (18:40):
So go and visit so and so right and be
gone for a few days, military friends or now like
child child friends.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
There's no known whereabouts for Keys on August sixteenth or seventeenth.
It is worth remembering, since it doesn't come up nearly
enough on this podcast, that Keys did have a nine
to five job while living in Na Bay, which means
that even when he can't be accounted for, it's safe
to assume that Mondays through Fridays, he was likely working
(19:17):
for the Macaw tribe. It's something he even brings up
in his interviews.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Washington was a lot easier in a lot of ways,
because once I lived out in Nia Bay, I knew
all of Washington pretty well, and except I was so
isolated out there.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Once you drive Passport Angelis, it's like.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Here in a new world. Anyways, what's that whole parts?
Speaker 5 (19:46):
A whole set mountains right there right that seperate in
thea Bay.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah, the Olympic Well there the Olympic Grange. There's mountains.
You don't really have to go over any mountain pass.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Is there anything to Seattle right right not to get there?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Is that parkland or oh?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah? Out of this area?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, there was.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Once I had the boat.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It was.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
By then I was.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Pretty much coasting in my job, so I would take
off for long weekends. You know, my accountability was pretty
low at that time.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's right. Keyes generally took long weekends while committing crimes
in Washington State. Alice disappeared between Sunday night and Monday morning.
And remember when Keyes was asking investigators whether Ellensburg, Washington
was part of the Eastern or western federal jurisdiction. Well,
(20:49):
Wapato is fifty miles due south of Ellensburg, and so
I drove to where Alice's body was found. Alice's body
was found in Granger, Washington, a rural and remote area
on the edge of the Yakama Reservation, just about equidistant
(21:14):
between Yakama City and Kennewick, Washington. The land she was
found on is just off Highway twenty two and Sadis
Longhouse Road. It's public land.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
And keep in mind the federal message that they talked
about the National Park.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
We have to do some research on that.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
We could do that.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Just give give, give me a couple of lakes.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Washington is I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I mean, I know all the places I went, and
I know that they are all public areas, but I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Which ones were state which federal.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I never really paid that much attention.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
After turning on to Sadus Longhouse Road from Highway twenty two,
if you take the first possible turn onto a public road,
and then your first possible turn onto a dirt hunting road,
it'll take you straight to the island where her remains
were recovered. About one thousand feet down that same hunting
(22:27):
trail is an abandoned service station. More interesting than that, though,
is that it's about eighty feet from that hunting trail
to the island, and along that stretch of eighty feet
is an old outhouse. We know that in the case
(22:52):
of the recovered victim, Keys ran out of time and
had to get rid of the remains quickly. He staged
the body in a way that would make the death
look accidental. We also know that the body was recovered
some time after the murder took place, and that Keys
(23:13):
wasn't certain how long after, because there wasn't much press
or information about the recovery or the ensuing investigation. We
also know that Key's very first attack occurred in an
outhouse along a river. Additionally, Keyes knew murders of Native
(23:34):
women on tribal lands would fall within the jurisdiction of
tribal police, and Keys was well acquainted with the jurisdictional
issues between the FBI, local law enforcement, and tribal police.
Beyond that, there are three striking pieces of information that
(23:58):
came from an interview with Denise, a woman Keys briefly dated,
between Kimberly and Tammy, and from an interview with Keyes's
former boss. According to Denise, who Keys was dating in
two thousand and four, he drove alone to eastern Washington
(24:21):
for a three day weekend at some point in August,
most notably from her statement is that he was driving
a white Sedan she had never seen before, and when
she asked him about the car, he said it was
a car he used specifically for traveling. When she saw
(24:44):
him about a week later, he had changed his entire appearance.
He'd cut his previously long hair and grew a mustache.
And this was somewhat corroborated by Keyes's boss, who told
investigators that Keys had called out sick from work on
(25:05):
two separate Mondays in late August and September of two
thousand and four. Now, there is a report in the
FBI files regarding Alice's disappearance, and in it it mentions
that Keyes called out sick on September twenty second, but
makes no mention of him calling out in August. That
(25:27):
same report, however, gets a lot of critical information wrong.
It says that Alice wasn't reported missing for months after
her disappearance, but interviews with her sister. Her sister who
reported her missing, have her reporting the disappearance just days
(25:47):
after Alice was last seen, and as you'll recall, the
FBI never even interviewed Alice's sister during their inquiry. Additionally,
it says Keys was at a wedding in Squim, just
twenty miles from where Alice was found. Well, Squim is
(26:10):
over two hundred miles from where Alice was found, and
the wedding he attended there with Denise it occurred two
weeks before Alice was last seen. So I'm much more
inclined to believe the interviews than this report. And of
(26:34):
all the possible recovered victims, Alice seems to me the
most likely Keys victim. But it was in the fact
checking of Alice's case that I stumbled upon something unrelated
that I'd previously missed, something that hasn't been made public
by the FBI. In the week following Keyes's final FBI interview,
(27:04):
investigators began reaching out to various residents in Hunters, Washington.
You may recall that Keyes drove Tammy's son James, to
see his dad in Moses Lake over the weekend of
April first, two thousand and five. The pair left on
March thirty first, and it's unclear when they returned exactly,
(27:28):
but it's believed somewhere around April fourth or fifth. A
few days later, on April ninth, Keyes purchased his boat
from James's dad while On that trip, Keyes told Tammy
and James's dad that he was visiting friends in Hunter's, Washington.
(27:52):
He later admitted to investigators that he didn't actually know
anyone in Hunters well that outreach following his final interview,
it was quite specific. The FBI were trying to find
out who owned a particular abandoned farmhouse in Hunters, Washington,
(28:19):
specifically who owned it in April of two thousand five.
They also interviewed neighbors of this particular farmhouse, notably asking
about anything odd happening on or around the property that month,
(28:39):
and some of these interviews were conducted in person, meaning
the FBI was actually in Hunters investigating this farmhouse. And
while the FBI were investigating the farmhouse, Keys killed himself
(29:03):
and other than four heavily redacted interviews included in the
FBI files, it never comes up again. So what exactly
did Keyes tell investigators about this farmhouse and Hunters and
why isn't it included in the available interviews or available
(29:23):
FBI files? And as a Keen observer noted, thirty minutes
have been edited out of the publicly available final FBI interview.
The timestamp skips ahead almost exactly thirty minutes, and when
the video resumes, you can hear Agent Godin entering the
(29:48):
room say I think we found it. They then note
that his rights were previously read to him that day,
something else which has been excluded from the available f footage.
The group then goes on to briefly discuss New York
before circling back to an in depth conversation about all
(30:08):
of Israel's Washington State victims. It will be his most
revealing discussion about these victims. So what does the FBI
not want us to know? About? An abandoned farmhouse and
Hunter's Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Mother and a
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Mother my down p
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