SERIAL MURDERER: Israel Keyes Part 3

0:06 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, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended 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, and we are back into this series on Israel Keys. I've had a lot of people call me, text me and message me, say, and WHOA, I didn't know so much happened in these cases, and I know this case, I said, right, It's all about I guess, digging in and seeing what all the truth is and what you can find. And so I'm going to continue to do my best in that regard. Now, what happened to Samantha Koenig was now painfully out in the open. Now everybody knew that she would not be returning home. Not only that, but only pieces of her

1:37 physical body would be returned for proper burial. That in and of itself was just heartbreaking for people that were invested in hoping that she would eventually come home. And the family handled this with such grace, yet on the inside, you know, there had to be a burning of anger down deep. We're all human, and if they admitted that, I would totally understand, and if they don't, that's fine too. But the man who did this confessed with such an air of nonchalantness and actually yawned throughout the confession. If you go watch these videos, it's incredible, and I have put those on Patreon for you. By the time that you listen to this, it'll be there, so you can go take a look at their long but you could you could look at some snippets of them and see what I'm talking about. Something that I wanted to address real quick in that regard to is that his facade of flatness was actually quite interesting when you do watch him.

2:38 So I took note of how many times or how often he yawned while he was giving these confessions, and I realized it hit me like an aha moment. I realized that this yawning wasn't out of boredom. No, don't. Don't for a second think that this was actually a release of tension. And I picked up on that thought because my own brother does this. Okay, when he is stressed, he yawns, and he yawns a lot. He'll be acting completely good on the outside, completely calm, but you can tell when he is extremely stressed because the yawning starts. And I saw this in Israel, and once I identified it, it almost gave me some sort of like angry joy in a way. Yeah, buddy, I hope you are stressed.

3:25 Keep on yawning, no problem. And once I addressed it and I figured that out, it tickled me. I hope he was freaking out on the inside. And the way it works because there is actually science to it too. If you want to know, is that the yawn is the body's attempt to regulate its nervous system. Did you know that? Because I didn't. I did not know that, but I know because I looked it up. I was curious if there was a correlation there of why he was doing it. But a yawn causes you to take in more oxygen on that when you breathe in and then it potentially cools your brain. So when stressed, your body will start entering this state of hyper arousal, which will lead to rapid, more shallow breathing because you're stressed out, and yawning can help reset your breathing pattern and it naturally promotes a sense of calm. So while I was ert at his yawning in the beginning, after a while I was loving it. Bight up bap bup ba. I'm loving it. So see if you pick up on that whenever you go watch these videos. So as you now know, the post mortem photo that he took of Samantha was to serve as a proof of life photo to convince everyone that she was unharmed Samantha, though she was long gone at this point. But the hope, the hope he knew that her family was clinging to, was what he was arming himself with. As long as that family had hope, he would toy with them and he would try to get some money out of them. He had already stolen

4:56 their most precious gift. He had already sexually abused her and tried to steal her dignity, and now he would make them pay, literally by the money demand in that ransom note, and more interviews would uncover a deeply sick and twisted individual. You may wonder was Israel ever worried about getting caught. Well, no, of course he wasn't. Here. I want you to listen to him explain it all by himself in his own words. So I knew I was taking a risk, but I still wasn't worried about it after it was all done, because because partly because it's anchored. Dambe, I don't know what about anchors. I just I had been listening to the police scanner a lot recently and just kind of felt like by the time anybody figured out what had actually happened the ky the trail would already be cold, and even if they had pictures in my truck, they wouldn't know whose truck it was. They wouldn't have tire tracks, they wouldn't have forensic evidence, they wouldn't have shoe prints, they wouldn't have certainly wouldn't have fingerprints or DNA or anything.

6:20 So I didn't worry about it. Like I say, I knew there were a lot of those trucks and anchorage. So he certainly felt that he was smarter than the police. He never imagined that they were going to pick up on his patterns of movement weeks later, and he figured by the time that if they did pick up on you, that his trail would be cold. He was long gone. He was nowhere near where this crime or crimes would have taken place. He went to Washington, California, Wyoming, Texas. I mean, he went all over the US. He was everywhere, and based on all of this, he then advised them that he had been living two different lives for fourteen years. And this is where I left off last episode. Because it now seemed like there may be more victims. Israel was willing to keep talking. He said he could give all the quote unquote gory details, but they had to make a promise to him first. Listen to this. He wanted to get the death penalty and he wanted to get an actual execution date before he would give up that information. Well, that obviously couldn't happen. I mean, damn, bro, you were read your frickin' rights before you even started talking to everybody, and everyone in America knows the saying you're innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

7:41 So the thought this guy that thinks he's so damn smart. The thought that he would even believe police could guarantee an execution is ridiculous. That's the damn court's job. That's what they do, that's what the separation of power is. And so their advice to him was, well, hey, man, tell us everything, and you'll probably get what you want eventually, but we can't guarantee that. Talk to us, and then we can probably hammer out a pretty solid case that will warrant the death penalty if that's what you want. And he didn't like that answer at all. You can tell in his body language, the shifting, the movement. But finally he caved, as I guess some people would say, but I'm gonna kind of disagree. I've heard people say he caved in it. No, no, no, no, no. He wanted to share it all everyone. He wanted to. It was his big moment. This was going to be his tell all, almost like his autobiography of his most devious actions, and now was his time to brag, yes, brag about what he had been doing. This wasn't the same day as his arrest, though. When he was arrested driving the vehicle when police pulled him over. No, no, no, don't think that for a second. He continued to play let's make a deal with police for months. He really tried to strategize when and how he was going to give up information,

9:14 and he was having fun playing these games, but he had these demands, and he knew if he held back a little bit and just kind of teased, then he would have leverage to get what he wanted. It was almost a manipulation or a game of cat and mouse. But seven months after his initial arrest, he did give multiple interviews and he chuckled and he laughed throughout all of them. See when he was talking, this is old news to him, I guess, And so he was rather lighthearted in his recollection of things that would make even the hardest of hearts feel something anything. I don't care how hardened you are, how bad life has been to you.

9:58 The things that this man did to innocent people is unconscionable. But he chuckled through it all. And his exact words were, and I quote, Okay, I'll give you two bodies. So maybe I hang on words too much. Maybe I do. I'll admit that. But those six words in combination said so much. I'll give you two bodies. They weren't people to him. They were bodies like they were extras in a war movie who die in battle, but no one really cares because they weren't named, nor were they the main characters of the story. You know what I'm talking about.

10:43 We lose people in movies, but they're not named. They're the random stormtroopers that get shot off in the middle of the film. But they matter to me, and they should matter to you. And when I hear people say they're true crime fans, in a way, it bothers me sometimes because I'm not a true crime fan. I'm a fan of knowing these people that went through something that I myself cannot even or want to imagine, what did they go through? I want to feel it almost with them emotionally. So since they do matter to me, before I cover exactly what Israel Key said, I'd like to introduce you to William Scott Courier. But friends and family they knew him as Bill and Bill was born in nineteen sixty one in Vermont, and he was a super bright kid. He excelled in school growing up. He was known for this. He was someone that they would say dedicated to his schoolwork and well beyond the dedication of most kids kids his same age. His parents, their names were Andrew and Marilyn, were beaming with pride whenever they spoke of their boy, because all of his academic success was something that would make any parent proud of the child that they were raising. And he would continue to make his parents proud, and by the time he was in his early twenties, he would meet a woman who

12:14 would become the absolute love of his life. And her name was Lorraine Arnold. Now she was from New Hampshire, a little firecracker, one could say, considering she was born on the fourth of July. They got along from the jump, and they knew very quickly that this was going to be more than just casual dating. They both knew that they were very interested in spending a lot of time with one another and for the long haul. They had a bond that was something made absolutely in heaven. This was friendship. You know. They wanted to know everything about one another. They wanted to hang out as much as they could. They wanted to not only eat to together, but sleep together, and shop together and do laundry together.

13:05 You know, just true love. When they were sick. They wanted to take care of one another. It was real and they could depend on one another. So this dedication was a long term commitment on both sides, and eventually Bill struck up the nerve to ask Lorraine's hand in marriage, to which she excitedly agreed, and on July twentieth of nineteen eighty five, they officially began their lives as a man and wife, settling on the west side of Essex, Vermont. Both Bill and Lorraine were what you would consider family people. They maintained very close relationships with their respective families, and Lorraine was especially close with her siblings. And the years would continue to pass the couple. You know, eventually, after a while you expect kids and all that, but the couple would never have children of their own. But that did not mean that they were out of children in their lives and that they were just these two people on an island. No, no, no, no, y'all. Between the both of them, they had tons of nieces and nephews to dote on and to bring them joy, and they were very involved and doting on these nieces and nephews.

14:19 But the couple worked very hard and they both decided to really dive into their careers. That was their baby, that they were good workers. So I told you some years had passed, right. Well. Bill was now forty nine years old and he worked at the University of Vermont and he was working as an animal care technician. I think that's kind of cool. The people at the teaching clinic on the campus are always there to learn and animal people, and I love people who are animal people. Bill sounds like a kind hearted guy to me. He was described as quiet but very friendly, and it seemed he found the love of animals a calling for him and he really enjoyed his job. Lorraine, she was a little bit older. She's now fifty five, and she was employed at Fletcher Allen Healthcare Center in the financial services department.

15:13 And I looked this up because I was curious what exactly this clinic was, so I wanted to know. And that's when it took me a little bit of time to figure this out too, because I finally realized that it too was on the UVM campus, so they both worked on the same college campus. But it's now known if you're from that area, I just se'll know. It's now known as UVM Medical Center, but it was originally called Fletcher Allen Healthcare. So both Bill and Lorraine were consummate professionals. They had a routine, it was well established, and they were the kind of people that would never know show to work. Matter of fact, looking at their employment history, neither one of them ever missed work. They were always there, you know, throughout the US, maybe once or twice, but these people went to work. And Wednesday, June eighth was no different. Both Bill and Lorraine worked their shifts and had normal days at their jobs, and at the end they said goodbye to their co workers.

16:12 This was around five pm when we all typically get off work, and then they both headed to the house to see each other and decide what they were going to be having for supper that night. They were in a good place in their lives and they were very proud to have just celebrated their twenty fifth wedding anniversary. And I always am so proud of people when I see their anniversaries, wedding anniversaries, and they hit that fifteen twenty twenty five plus mark, that's incredible, that's amazing because marriage is hard, and if you've been married, you know that there's always going to be ups and downs, and these guys had stuck it out for the long haul. So they both arrived home and began to settle in for the evening. So, as far as everyone knew, they were supposed to be at work the next day. So Thursday mornings started off as usual and Fletcher Alan Healthcare opened up to start seeing patients. But Lorraine must have been running late because she was notably absent from her office.

17:10 So after a little bit of time passed, it was realized that she hadn't called in, and so coworkers wondered if maybe she had overslept, because she would never not call in if she was going to be absent, So they started calling, but every call to Lorraine went unanswered. Now, strangely, I guess, or maybe luckily, Bill's own sister worked with Lorraine at that same clinic, and so as you can imagine, she was pretty upset or worried about Lorraine not coming in, and so she picked up the phone to call Bill, but she couldn't get in touch with her brother either. So this is one of those weird times where I'm gonna say, real quick, hindsight is twenty twenty you're listening to a true crime podcast, so I think you probably can figure out there's a problem here. But these were to grown adults who have the freedom to do what they want, when they want in this life. And so while it was very alarming, Bill's sisters still had to go about her work day, and they kept calling and trying to figure it out, and they just couldn't get a hold of them. But they still had to continue to do their jobs. But by the following day, the next morning, alarm bells are now going off. Something is very very wrong. People don't just change their habits after many, many, many years. We are creatures of habit. So Bill's sister, her name was Diana Smith, she went to their house.

18:39 She physically got in her car and went to their house, and when she pulled up, she realized that their car was missing. So she immediately called police around ten am that morning, and she wanted to file a missing person's report. So police agreed there there's something squirrely about this, especially when habits just completely stop up. And so they contacted Bill's employer, the veterinary Clinic, and found that he hadn't been at work either neither day. Did he show up. So obviously things became very pressing when it was realized that neither Lorraine nor Bill had made it to work the previous day nor the current morning of the next day.

19:22 That they were all in both living at the same home and both not showing up for work, and their car being gone qualifies as an emergencies, especially when these are family people that always answer the phone and are always in contact with people. So the police went by the couple's home to do a welfare check and see maybe they got sick, really seriously, maybe they got very sick, maybe carbon dioxide, maybe something happened in there, you know, But the car was gone, which would make that weird. But when they got there and they searched the house, sure enough they weren't there. And it's true the car was gone, But sometimes you have to think outside the realm of normalcy when you're trying to figure out what might have happened. And so police thought, well, maybe could they possibly have gone on a trip and forgot to tell people. It doesn't sound likely, but the car was gone, so I mean, it's not like it's completely totally out of the question. Or maybe they went somewhere and the car stalled and they didn't have their phones, and they are you know, something crazy like that could have happened.

20:28 So police look into their phone and their bank records, but it was very very easy to see that there had been zero usage by either spouse on both their cell phones and the bank accounts. No communication and no money used. No one is likely to go without talking nor using any money like this, let alone to people in this situation. So police now suspected something way more sinister, maybe at place, and they continued to chase down possibilities of the couple's whereabouts. Again, obviously they are adults and they can decide to up and leave, but everyone they spoke to was one hundred percent adamant. These were not those people. They were not wal you know what is it wild child's or wallflower people or something like that. No, they were very structured, very responsible people. But by Friday, so they the Wednesday, the Thursday, now Friday, police found a huge lead. They found the courier's vehicle, which was a dark green nineteen ninety six Saturn Sedan and what the police were out patrolling and they found that vehicle parked behind an abandoned apartment building near a dumpster and looking at it geographically, it was only just about a mile from their house. I mean that's walking distance. The dumpster site not only was potential walking distance from their house, but it was also very close to the bus stop.

21:59 All of this kind of makes you wonder did they walk or drive there? And then they could have walked back home and make did they want to disappear or did they jump a bus? You know, they had to look into all of these these circumstances. Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast. About it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally.

22:42 Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching crime wi Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. Now, people that live next to you, for good or bad? As a neighbor. You tend to know the people or at least some of their habits when you live next to them, even if you're not best friends. I mean, I can tell you right now. One of my neighbors is Daddy lives with them. He gets up every Saturday morning and he throttles up this truck. It's like a racing truck. And I know that he's gonna leave out and I know he's going to be back about four and a half hours later. It's just his routine. I know another neighbor of mine, I know for a fact that they have a third vehicle that's kind of like their fun vehicle. They're gonna take that out on a Saturday morning. I know. You know, just habits. I don't even know whose kids get get off the bus near me and what time, because I just see it every single day. Well, it was no different in their neighborhood and one of their neighbors, seventy two year old mister Shipley.

23:47 He lived just two houses down from the couple. Now, the Couriers had lived in this neighborhood for about five years, and during that five years they would always partake in small talk with the old man when they were out working in their yard or walk or whatever. And so he told police that the couple lived a very low key life, but they always had visitors, relatives. He believed it was relatives were constantly there visiting them, and he even believed he didn't know one hundred percent, but he knew that on Sundays a small bus would usually stop by their house, and mister Shipley always thought that it was a church related bus in some way, but he never asked. I mean, it wasn't his business. It was just a neighborly observation. They were the neighbors also that were known for their impressive Christmas decorations, and they always kept a very tidy home, a very tidy yard. They worked hard to make sure their flower beds were nice.

24:42 Did these sound like the types of people that will just up and disappear because they don't to me? So, knowing the car was found abandoned, and now realizing once they went into the home that Lorraine's purse was gone, the obvious consideration were that, okay, they were possibly carjacked, or the vehicle was stolen from their home, or they had been kidnapped, but two grown adults being kidnapped was kind of questionable. Now, Bill, he was five eleven and around two hundred and thirty pounds, certainly not a tiny guy. Could something have happened to them medically? Possibly? This is another consideration. Really, the only thing that Lorraine had that we would even call an issue physically was that her left leg was a little shorter than her right leg due to an ankle surgery that she had had. But that wasn't a major issue that would have caused her to not be able to be in contact with people.

25:43 But Bill, however, he had more serious ailments. He had ankylosing spondylitis, and I hope I pronounced that correct. I'm not a doctor, believe it or not, but this is an incurable disorder which causes inflammation of the joints. And as a result of this disorder, his neck vertebrae were fused and he was unable to turn left or turn his head right, so he was kind of stuck. He would have to turn his whole shoulders to be able to see something on the sides of him. Now maybe you're thinking, Okay, well that's not horrible. He just can't turn his neck good. But medication was also a big concern because Bill suffered from diabetes and he required insulin daily.

26:30 So this is where the police decided to release more information publicly, including the fact that they knew Bill did not have his insulin with him because it was still in the home. This would mean that this was a life or death issue, because if he wasn't medicated and he's now been gone for three days, he's going to be in a bind. Also to note was that Lorraine wore eyeglasses and they weren't optional eyeglasses. She needed these, yet both pairs, as well as her contact lenses were still in the house, but her purse and her wallet were missing, and that's why they were really starting to think about this is screening, maybe robbery or burglary to the common thinker. However, I want you to know that police continued to be very tight lipped from this point forward, which started to frustrate the general public. So the general public knew that this couple was missing, but that was about it other than they were medically in need and if anyone where they were police needed to know. But other than that, the police were not saying much and people wanted answers. But on the flip side. Police were wanting to maintain and protect the integrity of their investigation.

27:48 What they weren't sharing to this point, though, painted a very serious picture. When police arrived at their home, they found the home locked, but it was in less than desirable condition to missing people. The window of an interior door which connected the garage to the house was smashed and there were bits of glass. It was shattered everywhere inside that area and right outside on these brick steps. But when you're looking at this door, which I will post on Patreon, the glass wasn't completely busted out of this door. It was like a person, maybe a thin person could have walked through it, but it wasn't completely blown out of the door. They could, however, whoever broke this door could have smashed that glass and then reached their arm in and easily unlocked that door to gain entry to the house. They were also alerted the police were that a gun that Lorraine had purchased was missing from the home, and that was a snubnosed Ruger thirty eight, so a handgun. That gun was not in the house.

28:57 None of this was being released to the public, only investigators and the person responsible for whatever had happened, would know this detail. Now moving forward, police did canvas businesses in the area for their security camera footage or if they had seen anything, but that turned up nothing, absolutely nothing. So Bill's sister Diana, as you can imagine, was completely sickened by knowing her brother and her sister in law were missing and they were not in possession of this life saving medication that they would have needed. So she made a statement to the media and this is a direct quote of what she said. Bill and Lorraine Courier are kind and caring people, beloved members of our family.

29:41 We are heartbroken by their disappearance and at a loss to explain or understand it. Bill and Lorraine, if you can hear this, know that we love you and that we are doing everything we know how to to find you and to bring you home. I thought, Wow, what strength you must have to stand up and say that, and then to let them know if you hear this, were coming, And don't you worry. That's a great sister and a wonderful sister in law too. Now let's talk about enemies. Were there possible enemies that these people could have had. Well, the answer was no, they had no known enemies, and there was no one with like a specific vendetta either that the police could point out. They weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, and they weren't flashy people that might attract the scumma society, especially in this low key neighborhood where not a lot went on. So, with no clue as to what could have happened to the couple, family members stepped up and they announced publicly that they would give a ten thousand dollars reward for information that would break open the case of where their loved ones were. Basically, if people wouldn't talk just out of the goodness of their hearts, maybe money could possibly persuade someone to do so. And eventually, an old friend of Lorraine's would come forward to police with information she thought maybe useful. Now, I don't want to imply that

31:12 she came forward because of the money, because I'm not giving exact time dates and stamps, just to be clear. But this woman did come forward, and that friend's name was Linda Pratt, and she told police that she had run into Linda roughly two months prior to their disappearance, and according to Linda, Lorraine told her that she was afraid of a man in her life who may possibly be stalking her. Now that's a pretty solid thing for someone to come out and flat out say stalking, and without much else to go on, police followed up on this information heavily, but nothing ever came of it. They couldn't pinpoint anybody that might have been stalking her, no names.

31:57 So while the public began to voice frustrations over lack of breakthroughs in the case, it wasn't for lack of effort. Investigators, just for your knowledge, reviewed hundreds of hours of video surveillance. They were carrying out eleven search warrants. They had issued three subpoenas on people, all in the name of finding Bill and Lorraine, but everything that they were doing was leading to a dead end in the moment. One promising bit of information was something that the police wouldn't be telling the public for now, though they wanted to make sure that they didn't spook anyone that may be involved.

32:39 Investigators had collected and sent forensic evidence that they were able to collect from inside the couple's home to the Vermont Crime Lab for analysis, but this was going to take time for it to be evaluated and for the results to come back. And I don't know if you have this in your area, but locally we have these websites, these like rants and raves websites were every numb nut without an ounce of intelligence, is able to jump on there and make any complaint, any accusation, say things that are the furthest from the truth, and then people take that as just solid information. And I got the point, or I got the gist that that was kind of what was going on here. I'm not necessarily saying online, but I'm saying people were running their mouths and they really had no clue as to what was going on.

33:30 They just took their viewpoint that the police weren't saying anything, as the police were twilling the thumbs and doing nothing. But as the days and the weeks passed, I'm talking roughly we're now six weeks into this couple's disappearance, another man came forward and he claimed to police that he had seen a man driving the couple's green Saturn, and he was specific on Pearl Street, which was right near the dump site of the vehicle, and he gave the date, the date of ninth, that was the day that the couple was reported missing, so that little bit of information seemed pretty legit. Basically, the reason the man even realized that he needed to come to police was because he had been driving and he nearly collided with this vehicle and it upset him that this other person would almost hit him, and so he went and he jotted down the vehicle's license plate because he was pissed off at this erratic driver. So it's like, wow, what a break man.

34:31 Whoever that was wouldn't have been driving crazy, they wouldn't have gotten the license plate. So the man agreed, Hey, I'll come in. I want to help in any way that I can. Police asked him, would you be able to give enough information for us to possibly create a composite sketch of this guy, and the man said, I'll come and tell you what I saw, and so he did. And that sketch, which I also will put on Patreon for you, isn't something that I would call groundbreaking as far as a visual of a person. I mean, it was a white male with a beard and shoulder lengked hair that was parted in the center this sketch of this person. They had narrow eyes and a very thin nose, but I mean, basically, he looked like every white dude at Walmart when I go shopping. But it did give some general insight to the person who may possibly be involved.

35:23 And I'm gonna tell you this too kind of out of I guess timeline, but I want to tell you this, Whether it was a good guess or not, this sketch does resemble Israel Keys. In another chain of events, detectives were able to figure out that the courier's car had only driven up to forty miles, of which the couriers were not believed to have driven themselves. Now that statement, off the top seems kind of weird, Okay, how the hell could the police possibly know this? Well, you girl here researched it because I wanted to know, how would you even come to that conclusion? Not that I'm doubting it, but like, what in the world would make you even think that. Well, the answer is that these detectives that were being accused by the public of not doing enough, they straight up got down to the nitty damn gritty of detective work. Officers set out to determine how far had the car traveled since the couple disappeared, and so to do this. They actually had a pretty legit way of doing it because they found a receipt and it was dated June fourth. It turned out that the vehicle had luckily been serviced at a service station, and guess what, when it was serviced, the receipt had put the mileage on it. So things that don't even seem relevant whenever they're taken in evidence in these houses, you never know

36:53 what will be relevant. And so they started with the current mileage recorded on the vehicle's odometer when they founded at the dumpster, and then they subtracted the mileage that they knew the car had gone based on that June fourth receipt, and detectives then determined the known trips that the couriers would have absolutely made since June fourth, and those were trips to and from work, to the grocery store, which they knew that they went, and then to go visit a relative, which they were able to confirm. So, I mean, google map it. You can get the mileage that way, right, So they then subtracted that known mileage from the June fourth mileage, and that left approximately forty miles of unknown travel. And hey, maybe I'm simple, but I thought that was That was intelligent, That was great.

37:48 That was impressive to me that they would even go that route. So assuming then that the car would have traveled one way at least twenty miles to the place that it was ultimately found abandoned. I know, I told you that it was found ultimately one mile from their home, but they weren't found one mile from their home, so they're thinking that there was probably a twenty mile area that the car would have traveled. They then created a radius to search for the couple in that area. So was this an exact science, of course not, but it at least was something founded in fact that could be expanded upon. So meanwhile, using this what i'll call radius of concern, canines were brought in to assist with the search for the couple. And while I don't know the exact method that was used in the search, most likely tracking dogs or trailing dogs as they're sometimes called. Those were probably given an article of known clothing from the victims from the house, and then they would lock in on that scent based on the known scent that the police were able to give them. So the dogs are then going to turn around and basically try to do matching.

38:58 They're going to try to match the scent from what they've just taken in. So the Vermont State Police Search and Rescue Team they assisted a volunteer search organization that was called the New England K nine that focuses rescue efforts in Vermont and the New Hampshire area. And these were long, hot days spent searching for this couple, and that included a border Collie named Sadie and her handler. His name was Mike Halpin, and Sadie and Mike, along with others, spent these very very long hot days searching fields and wooded areas for the couple. And while not necessarily saying it out loud, most officers were now of the belief that this was going to be more of a recovery effort than a rescue mission. So they would spread out in teams of five or six. Talking about the police here. They would spread out in teams of five or six officers, and they targeted these ten specific areas that they thought would have been good areas to search that might hold clues. And so the teams would spread out roughly one hundred yards on either side of these half mile sections of road and then they would walk in unison so as to not miss a thing as they're looking down and searching for even the most minuscule of item, because the reality was that they were looking in places where a body maybe or a place that evidence very likely could have been thrown out of

40:31 a window. Now the chief, you might ask why one hundred yards? Why was that kind of the distance they could have gone way further. Well, the chief was directing them to this one hundred yard distance because according to him, that was the distance that someone could probably drag their bodies. Again, that's kind of morbid to think about, but that's the reality of recovery of people. If that's what you believe you're doing. Bill wade about two hundred and twenty pounds, Lorraine weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds, and if you translate that into dead weight, for lack of a better term, this would have been a lot of work for somebody, And so that's why he stuck it to that distance. And throughout all of this searching nothing was ever found. And this went on constantly. I believe overall they did eight different major searches for the couple. So while police were attempting to remain tight lipped to not hurt their investigation. The community now started placing immense amounts of pressure for something to happen or for there to be some new news broken to them, assuming that the lack of news meant police weren't trying, would in turn become an issue because the community, not realizing it was about to really get in the way. And maybe with good intentions, but what you don't know may just be

42:03 because the police need to keep type lipped, like I mentioned before, because they don't want to tip any other killer off to what they know. But the average citizen doesn't get this. And while I'm a true crime podcaster, I also would love to teach people something that no news being broken doesn't mean nothing's happening. I could stand outside of your house and not see movement all day long and say, you know, these are the laziest people I've ever seen in my entire life. They haven't come said one thing about what's going on here, and they need to. But on the inside of that house, you're cleaning your butt off right now. I know for a fact. My friend that I follow and that I love on TikTok, the crazy cleaning Lady right now, she has been over scrubbing somebody's tub, but nobody knows that because she's not out there telling everybody. So in response to no breaking news, incredibly, the Burlington Free Press made demands to see the affidavits police used to persuade a judge to grant those first eleven search warrants. So, to make it simple for you, the media was now putting in public records requests and saying, we want to see these warrants. Well, this wasn't something that the police wanted to release, okay, but based on the Freedom of Information Act that we have out there, two Vermont Superior judges denied three separate requests from the District Attorney's office to keep the warrants secret. Now, I

43:35 know a lot of us listening are not law enforcement professionals, and that's okay. But what I'm trying to tell you is that sometimes search warrants are done and the police don't find exactly what they need in that exact moment of the search warrant. But maybe those people that are involved, or something they do get later on will be so important and it may break this case wide open. But now here's the media wanting to blast it all over the news so every Tom Dick and Harry and bad guy in America can keep up with what's happening. I hope you can see how this could be a problem. It's not a transparency issue. It's an integrity of an investigation of two missing people issue. So the prosecutors filed an appeal and they said, look, judges, disclosing this information is going to absolutely jeopardize this investigation. But they said that it should be released. The superior court judges believed in their opinions, respectfully, that nothing in these warrants was overly sensitive and so it should be released. Sorry, guys, but it went to a higher court and that higher court would thankfully overrule them. In the end. The police weren't being tight liped to hurt the public or to hide information in a negative way. They just didn't want to tip off anybody. Please use this case as an example of a possible reflection of yourself to think inside when you get frustrated that there's no news on a

45:07 case that really bothers you, that doesn't mean work's not being done behind the scenes. Know that, Okay, not always, but in a lot of cases, silence sometimes is the best bet to ensure justice in the end. But incredibly, after all of that went on, which took effort and time and resources to combat, there then became a stirring amongst them the community of how much money was being spent on this special testing of DNA that they had taken during the initial investigation. It was like the community was mad no matter what happened. They were pissed off if you were working on it, and they were pissed off if you weren't telling them anything and they thought you weren't working on it. So the basic argument now became that the taxpayers were funding shoddy investigation or something along those lines. But the truth, if anybody would have done their due diligence here, was that taxpayers weren't actually footing that bill. Wow, but people don't care to know that.

46:15 They just want to bitch. The funding was coming from none other You're gonna love this. It was coming from none other than drug dealers. I know, you're like, what cleaning lady in the tub, just like through her clean and spatul or whatever the hell she's using. But drug dealers were actually the ones funding this. Because when the police were busting these drug dealers and taking in all of this property or cash during these busts, That money and that property was forfeited per the law. All of that was forfeited money and it was placed in the town's equitable Sharing fund, and then a select board had the final say on how all of that money was being spent. And I know right now, I'm not trying to be boring to you and tell you that, but what the public doesn't understand will always be a problem.

47:06 But if we don't care to educate ourselves, who in law enforcement wants to waste valuable time explaining all of this? You know what I mean. It reminded me one time one of my kids was begging for something at the store and I said, no, I don't have any money on me. And she turned around with God as my witness and popped off and said, but you have a check book. You have checks, so you have money. Like, do you think I'm gonna actually sit down and explain right there in the middle of Walmart? Why I feel like I'm always at Walmart? Sorry, Jim, I'm always talking about Walmart, But anyway, you know, I'm at TJ. Max. I need to quit playing with y'all, I'm at TJ Max. It's like I'm gonna turn around at TJ Max and explain to my six year old how checks work and how they clear and that you have to have money.

47:48 You're not gonna do that will now equate that to something more serious law enforcement situations. Ignorance of the law in this situations equates to an ungrateful and often problematic general public. If I'm being honest, and I'm being honest. Also, another thing that the public wasn't thinking about. Crime wasn't stopping just because two people were now missing. Criminals don't give a shit what's going on, and if the police are overworked, they don't care. And what if I told you this. Those same police and those same canines were also out looking for missing teen Selena Cass as well during all of this, and during all of that same time her body Selena Cass, this teenager that was also missing.

48:34 Her body was later recovered. Unfortunately, there was a lot going on, even though people didn't always know this or realize it. So while they're fighting the public, they're fighting records requests, the courts are involved, plus they're trying to get evidence and DNA and all that's taken care of. Time would pass and roughly a year would pass and there would still be nothing ever found of any great breakthrough. The missing couple would really become a cold case with no leads. It's tragic, it's sad, and it's sickening, but this does happen. But then, circling back to the start of this episode, Israel Keys decided that he would quote give up two bodies during an interrogation after Samantha's death.

49:28 Those two bodies, as you now know, will be that of Bill and Lorraine. See. Israel traveled a lot during his killing spreeze, and those trips that he would take he would justify by visiting family or going on a little short vacation, but he always had murder on his mind. He would actually plan these trips to murder. He flew in from Anchorage, Alaska to Shakha on June the eighth, and he confirmed that when that plane landed, when those wheels hit the ground, he already had specific plans of killing someone, but it would be spontaneous. He didn't know who, but somebody was going to die tonight. And once he landed he would go to the handy n suites in Essex, Vermont, where he would stay during this short trip. Now, that hotel, I want to tell you this. That hotel wasn't by chance.

50:33 It wasn't because of cost, It wasn't because of reviews that he had read online. No, there was a very specific reason that he stayed at that hotel. It turns out that he had been there before and was he back because he really liked it. No, a few years prior. He had actually been in that exact same area, and he left something behind. This item, if you're wondering, was a bucket. And no, it wasn't left as in he forgot it and the hotel might have it in their lost and found either That's not what this was. The bucket was an Orange Home Depot bucket, and no one would have found it. And he knew this. The reason he knew this was because he had buried it. So was he like geocashing or something like that. No, And if you don't know what geocashing is, the only reason I know is because my friend, who is a certifiable nerd and he knows it and I know and we love each other, was talking about geocashing one day and I was like, what the hell is that? And he was like, come on, let's do it on our lunch break.

51:40 And I went geocashing with him on our lunch break and I ended up finding the geocash in a pole in front of a Carter supermarket, but not before people thought that we were bad guys and got the police involved. Anyway, But was this guy was Israel Key's geocashing? Absolutely not. This wasn't to be shared and it wasn't to be found during an adventure with clues. Only Israel knew its whereabouts. And this bucket was valuable because the contents that were inside were what he called his kill cash. And I don't mean money, I mean as in his kill kit.

52:20 Inside of this bucket were bullets, guns, a homemade silencer, all of this for a twenty two caliber, including a drum canister. And if you don't know what that is, I'll post a picture online because I want you to understand what that is. There were zip ties, draino and duct tape. All of these items buried and stored for a future attack on unsuspecting people years prior. And basically the deal was this. He knew he was going to plan a trip in the future. So he left it specifically to use on a future murder. And now he was giddy with excitement to dig it up and go on the hunt. But first he would have to do some recon He couldn't just be all will nilly about it.

53:14 So he walked out of his hotel, and as luck would have it, there was a neighborhood right there, and it was just convenient that it was walking distance. Excellent. His whole goal during the recon mission was to pass just as a man on his walk, but really he was surveying the homes for easy access. Now, his preference, yes he had a preference, and I want you to think about this, because Israel Keys is not the only guy that thinks like this in the world. His preference was to choose a home number one with an attached garage. And I think that this purpose was so that if he broke in, like through a side window, you wouldn't be able to tell, and then he could move covertly in this garage, which every garage has access to a house.

54:04 You know, there's always going to be an entrance door. So that's what I believe that was about. So as he walked, he calmly assessed the homes until he saw it the first home that met his needs. And strangely, when you look at the courier's house, it almost looked like his own home, just the colors were in reverse. It was a white home with bluish shutters and accents, but it was perfect, and it also gave off some vibes to him that he liked. Maybe an elderly person lived there, which was great because this made this an easy target. He didn't see dogs, and he didn't get the gist that children lived there, so these would be much easier targets and there wouldn't be a lot of people to manhandle. So he got his bucket and he approached his target just about midnight, so it was dark. Now.

54:55 It would be silly to allow the people inside an opportunity to call for help if they heard something, so before he even went to go enter the home, first things first, he found the phone line and he cut it. He was able to do this without drawing attention, too, because he had preplanned his outfit for that evening, all black and accented with a headlamp. He was also armed with that handgun in case he was confronted by anyone, because his safety was paramount, and he slinked into the garage and he approached that glass door, which gave access immediately to the courrier's kitchen area, and smashing the glass, he was able to reach in, unlock that door and enter the home. And there must not have been an alarm because nothing sounded perfect. Now Israel had been ready to do what he called a blitz attack, but to his amazement and probably a shock, the home remained quiet, just the ticking of the clock and the air conditioner humming in the house, and no one knew. So he cautiously tiptoed through the home looking for the master bedroom, and he finally was able to find it, and he slowly opened that door and was able to see through the low, low low lighting through the through the blinds that there were two people in bed, resting peacefully, completely unaware that death was just feet away. But something made

56:27 them stir, and they sleepily started to wrestle and look about the room, but Lorraine, without her glasses nor her contacts in, she couldn't see well. But that quickly changed when the light from his headlamp jolted them both into immediate fear. Who's there or who are you? He wouldn't have to tell them, though, because the gun he shoved in their faces confirmed he was dangerous. That's who he was. And faced with that gun, they remained as calm as possible as the intruder ordered them up and led them both into their kitchen, and Israel added here that you have to make sure that they know who is in charge immediately, so you tie them up. Those were his words.

57:13 They have to know you're in charge, so you immediately tie them up. As if the cops needed to know this for future serial killing, I don't know, and that's exactly what Israel did, restraining them both with zip ties thirty six inches. I'm assuming and you know why if you've been paying close attention to all the episodes in this series so far. And once he had them both secure, he then began quizzing the couple on their valuables and their assets. Where are your cell phones? He snapped. He wanted to make sure that he got ahold of those because he did not want there to be any further communication to the outside world, and nothing should be readily available for them to be able to warn anybody that they are in trouble. So once he got their phones, Now where do you keep your guns? Is there a safe?

58:06 Now? Tell me he's got a gun at them the whole time, and the rain told him where a gun was, and so he went and he got that and he took it as well, and then he started asking them about ATM cards and did they have any cash? And the couple readily gave every single thing over to this captor. So, now satisfied with his victims and taking their possessions, he then untied their feet and he directed them both at gunpoint to get into their own car. So, scared out of their own minds, but willing to comply in exchange for assumed safety, the couple got into the car with their captor, and the three of them drove away from their home destination they don't know, but Israel. He was prepared.

58:56 He wasn't going to just be on some random trip with with an unknown outcome. Not this guy. He definitely had a place in mind as their next destination, an abandoned farmhouse not far from where the couple lived. So they drive in silence and in the dark, no one knowing that these two have been kidnapped and I'm sure the feeling of helplessness and just flat out terror to be ripped out of your bed in your pajamas at gunpoint and now you can't see well and your husband is right there beside you. You but he can't save you, can't help you. You're just at the mercy of a stranger.

59:39 So they drive along until eventually they pulled up in the dead of night to a home. So looking at it, though it was dark, it was abandoned, it was hot, and it was uninviting, but Israel turned off the car and with the gun he ordered Bill out. He turned and he threatened Lorraine with everything he had, you better remain seated or I'm going to kill y'all. So she shakes her head and she doesn't move. So Bill got out, and now realizing that the couple was going to be separated from each other, this became extremely stressful for the both of them. The old home in front of them was two stories, and Israel forced Bill inside and then led him down to the bottom level. Once inside, that's where he tied Bill up zip tying him to a stool before he went back out to go get Lorraine.

1:00:47 But when Israel walked back out the front door. He was pissed to find that Lorraine had escaped the vehicle and she was trying her best now to run towards the main road, unable to see well and unsteadying her gait, but she was running for her life. She was running with everything a fifty five year old woman partially bound could run with well. Israel jumped off the porch and tore off after her, running at Max's speed. He was younger, he was faster, he was more physically fit in age alone, so he continued to gain on her by the second, and just like he did Samantha Koenig, as he got right within reaching distance of her, he jumped. He slammed his body into lorrains, and he tackled her to the ground, knocking the breath from her and now angry and sneering that she would even fight back, she would even think about fighting back against him, Israel, he grabbed her, and without even the care enough to let her get back to her feet, he was now stamping while he dragged her back inside the rundown house. Well, as you can imagine, Bill was now beside himself, yelling for Lorraine and yelling at their abductor where is my wife? Where is my wife?

1:02:06 And everything inside of Bill screamed, save your love. But he was disabled and he was tied up, and in that moment all he had was his voice, so he used it and he was loud. And as Bill yelled in desperation, what are you doing? Bring me back my wife, Israel continued to drag Lorraine up the stairs. He drug her up the stairs into the bedroom where there happens to be an old bed. Now I know, you know what's about to happen. He drug her over to the bed and he threw her down on it, and he tied her up, arms and legs strapped to the bed corners.

1:02:50 But Bill Bill never stopped screaming for his wife. His beloved would know he was there, even if she only heard him, and Israel was mad about it. He wanted Bill to shut the fuck up, so he returned downstairs to go handle his business. But when he got down there, he found that Bill, in a surge of adrenaline mixed with the need to save his wife, Bill had mustered the strength beyond his normal capacity and had ripped himself partially free from that stool, and realizing this Israel lost all control. Israel's thoughts. You know, I'm in charge. Things are they're not supposed to go this way. I'm in charge.

1:03:40 You're gonna do what I say. But now Bill had altered his plans, which meant that Bill was messing up his fantasy. And if you're gonna mess up my fantasy, this isn't fun. This is a struggle for me. So Israel even said during his confession that he had landed out, he had everything he needed, and he wanted things to go exactly the way he planned and in a very specific way. And in that moment, they were not going that way. Bill, who was disabled, who had fused vertebrae in his neck, didn't have his insulin, was in his pajamas and was strapped to a stool, was ready for a fucking fight. Bring it on, you, psychopath. Bill was a gentleman usually, but this was different. This was war, and just like a bull that already has the swords in its back, it still faces the matador, and Bill was that bull. He was ready to risk it all to save his lorraine, even if he was physically no match for the person in front of him. The fight was on, and Bill did every single thing he could to stop this assailant. He struggled, he swung his arm as best he could. He tried to duck out of the way, but Israel simply had the upper hand. Israel found a shovel that was nearby, and he grabbed it,

1:05:11 and he was so enraged that Bill would even try to fight. He reached back with that shovel and he swung it with all of his might, smashing that metal end into Bill's skull, immediately injuring him. He then closed the distance that gap between him and Bill, and he continued to swing the shovel over and over and over again, smoking Bill with it with every swing, and he hit Bill over and over until Bill was unable to get back up and breathing heavy and spitting with anger. Israel then got up and retrieved his gun, where he walked back over to Bill, who is exhausted, who is gravely injured and doing anything he can to stay alive and try to save Lorraine. Israel walks up and he just stands over him. Bill was groaning, That's all he could do at this point. How dare he try to interrupt my fantasy? And seething with anger? Israel pointed the gun and he pulled the trigger, shooting Bill multiple times and killing him. Try and get up from that, Israel thought, so he brushes himself off. Bill's no longer moving, and

1:06:41 Israel returned up the staircase to the now insanely afraid Lorraine. There is no doubt she heard Bill yelling. There's no doubt she heard the struggle. She probably heard the gunshots, but remember Israel had a homemade silencer. But either way, there is no way that she didn't hear the silence. Bill was no longer making any noise, and that alone was terrifying. And considering their ages in comparison to Israel's Lorraine's to Israel's, I'm gonna say rape doesn't first come to mind. Lorraine was old enough to be his mother, a modest woman who didn't have a violent bone in her body. Yet she now lay strapped to a bed at the mercy of a psychopath in the middle of a night in an abandoned home. So when Israel re entered the room, he immediately attacked her. He took out a knife that he had and he started to rip through Lorraine's clothes, cutting through the clothes and then he commenced to raping Loraine Courier, not once, but twice, and throughout those rapes he decided he wanted to strangle her.

1:08:08 He liked this, He liked that violence while raping this woman. He choked her so hard that she would lose consciousness at times, it wouldn't be enough to kill her because she would come back to and when she realized he was back to she was being raped, and he'd choke her out again. She would now also, once he was done raping her for the second time, remain awake for the grand finale that he had planned. He was now satisfied sexually, but he still wanted to feel more control. He wanted to see the fear and the grief in her face. So that's when he decided to cut all of the ties that bound her to the bed, ordered Lorrain up out of that bed, and he marched her down the stairs and into the very room where she realized Bill's lifeless and bloody corpse lay battered and crumpled on the floor. And I'm sure she wanted to run to him and try to save him and do what she could. But don't forget, she's injured too. And he's long past any help. So Israel drug that sobbing woman, this fifty five year old woman who has done nothing to Israel, doesn't even know him. He drug her over

1:09:40 to a bench and he forced her down on it, sit down, And now she sat there, seeing Bill completely and totally resigned to the fact that, oh my god, this is reel. Israel approached her from behind and took the rope that he had in his hands, and he wrapped it around her neck, pulling at both ends as he twisted it as tight as he possibly could. Lorraine choked. She was gasping for air. She was trying to breathe until she just couldn't fight back, and her head eventually dropped.

1:10:22 Yet the pressure of that rope remained until Israel was sure that he had strangled her to death, and then he released the tension from the rope and let her body drop to the ground. What a night. After he caught his breath, he still had work to do, and so he drug both of the couple's bodies into a corner of that basement and dumped them together. Then he went back out and he got that bottle of draino that he had in his kil kit, and he went back inside and he poured that jug of draino all over their bodies. Now, the home was abandoned, nobody lived there, and it was full of junk and trash, and so he collected debris and trash and just covered their bodies up with all the trash that he could find. And once he was happy with his scene, he walked out, got in the car, and he drove away. He went back down that dark driveway and eventually back to the dumpster site where their vehicle was later found. And he admitted at that point that he had left his own vehicle at the dumpster first, and because he had plans that that would be the site that he would switch vehicles after he took his victim's captive. So, as you can imagine, investigators immediately jumped in their cars after this

1:11:54 admission and they drove to the abandoned home to recover the couple. But when they arrived, there was a very big issue. The house wasn't there. It was just land, and records showed there had been a home there just a few months prior, in April, like two months prior, the home had been there, but it had since been demolished. It was on a demolition list and all of the contents of the home had been demoed and hauled to a local landfill. There was no walkthrough done prior to the demolishing, so if their bodies were in that home, they were hauled off without realizing it in the middle of the rubble. So Detective George Mundy, he was the person who received the phone call from Alaska that originally informed his department of Israel's claims to have killed the Courier couple. But without their bodies, it couldn't be verified.

1:12:57 So there's a bigger issue here now. The FBI had spent twelve weeks after this, twelve weeks searching for their remains in this landfill, but they were never able to recover any of it. So Detective Mundy decided to speak with Israel and he wanted to validate. Okay, if we don't have bodies, then maybe I can get Israel to say things to me that only the killer would know and that can validate that he really did this. So he made the phone call and incredibly, when Israel Keys got on the phone, the first thing he tells the detective when their conversation starts is that he had no remorse for what he had done. He never would, And then he started to recount in exact details all sorts of things, including stuff that only the killer would be able to know. So thet active got those admissions, which was great, But he also went and followed up with the actual demolition crew of the farmhouse. And whenever he caught up with them and spoke to them, the workers said when they arrived to tear that house down, it smelled horrible. They said it smelled like something had died inside of it, but they never went in because they thought it was probably a dead animal or something. Because the house was abandoned, they didn't go inside. It smelled horrific just from the outside during the demolition. So all

1:14:33 in all, that seems to validate that Israel Keys was in fact responsible for this couple's disappearance, and that he was responsible for the murder of both Bill and Lorraine Courier. And to this day, neither body has ever been recovered. Their final resting place remains the dump among unwanted household items, old food, and remnants of demolished property. It took a long time now, but the case of the missing couple had at least been solved and it was now considered closed.

1:15:13 But these victims, the Couriers, they were just from this last year. Israel said that he had been a different man for fourteen years. So the interviews continued, as will this series one more episode to go. You now know in detail about Samantha Koenig's horrible death, and now you know the reality of what Bill and Lorraine Courier had gone through. But Israel was still talking. And there were tons of unsolved cases in the US, cold ones, ones as cold as Israel's icy stare. But while the evidence may have dried up in many of these cases, Israel's ego never did. And while he may have never spoken before to anyone about his devious travel plans and these murders that he committed in the dark, now he had everyone's attention. He loved the thought of people fearing him.

1:16:09 But now he's the one in custody. But he's in the custody of real men, men who are gonna play him like a fiddle, leaning in listening to him war story about all of his murders. But what Israel didn't know is that these men weren't actually interested in him. He was too proud of what he was saying to realize it. They were interested because they wanted to bring some sense of closure, to open cases, and to give room for families to finally breathe, to give justice to people who were still missing and who deserved to be found. But I still have more information on this guy. You're gonna get two episodes that drop this week, so look again tomorrow for the finale of this series. While Israel is smug and he's talking like he's the main character, the reality is he's just a tool. He's a means to an end. And while Israel loved the thought of being a monster, no doubt, I mean, his smugness proved this.

1:17:16 But while monsters get remembered, tools those get used and then thrown away. So guess which one Israel is