The United States Attorney's office in Anchorage announced Sunday morning that the man who had been indicted for the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Koenig had been found in his cell dead from an apparent suicide. Keyes kidnapped Koenig from the "Common Grounds" Espresso at about 8pm on February 1st of this year as she was preparing to get off of work.

Authorities do not suspect foul play, Keyes was the sole occupant of the cell. His suicide was discovered at 6:30am Sunday. The United States Attorney’s office was notified of Israel Keyes demise by Alaska’s Department of Corrections early Sunday and the office quickly put together a press conference to inform the public of the death and to reveal other information.

In addition to announcing Keye’s suicide, the U.S. Attorney’s office also announced to the public that through repeated conversations with Keyes before his death, and further investigation of cases outside of the state of Alaska, that they believe Keyes to be a serial killer. He is suspected of at least seven additional deaths besides Koenig.

According to karen Loeffler, the U.S. Attorney for the state of Alaska, Keyes told investigators that besides Koenig, he had killed a Vermont couple, William and Lorraine Currier of Essex, four people in Washington state and another in New York. Investigators believe that he may have killed more than the eight that have recently come to light.

The identities of the additional five people that Keyes claims to have killed are still unknown. Authorities believe that Keye’s killing spree spanned at least a decade and are attempting to piece together years of his financial and travel records in an effort to pinpoint his other victims. Authorities do not believe that Keyes killed more than the one person here in Alaska.

Police believe that Koenig was killed on the very night that she was abducted.

After killing Koenig, Keyes kept Koenig’s cell phone and an ATM card, which he had taken from Koenig’s boyfriend’s truck. Keyes would use the ATM card and also created and sent a randsom note using Koenig’s cell phone giving the impression that Koenig was still alive. This act gave false hope to Koenig’s friends and family for a short time and investigators released to the press that they believed her to be an abductee and not a murder victim.

Although there was surveillance footage of Koenig’s encounter with Keyes on the night of her abduction, the video showed little other than a struggle and clues as to the make, model and approximate year of the vehicle that the abductor used.

Police were dispatched to check out all vehicles fitting the description, there were approximately 3,000 vehicles to check out. Police worked that list of vehicle for six weeks had not finished investigating vehicles before Keyes was apprehended in Texas.

On March 13th, six weeks after Koenig disappeared, Keyes was stopped while driving in Texas after a police officer there identified the rental car he was using as the one in video footage from an ATM machine that Keyes used to withdraw money from Koenig’s account. After stopping Keye’s vehicle, the ATM card and Koenig’s cell phone was found. The battery was removed from the phone in order to keep the phone from being tracked.

After Keyes was brought back to Alaska on financial fraud charges, he eventually told the investigators that he disposed of Koenig’s remains by cutting through the ice at Matanuska Lake and slipping her beneath the surface there. Koenig’s body was retieved from the lake on April 2nd.

In May of this year, while attending court, Keyes was able to extricate himself from loose-fitting leg irons and tried to make good his escape from justice by vaulting over the courthouse rail in a bid to get away. He was tasared and subdued by Deputy Marshals.

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