Timeline released of suspected serial killer's trips to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — For 40 hours after his capture in 2012, a self-proclaimed serial killer from Alaska sat with investigators dropping hints, but was careful not to reveal names or locations of unsolved cases.

The FBI said for 10 years, Israel Keyes committed bank robberies, burglaries and murders all over the United States. Keyes' criminal activity had gone undetected until investigators connected him to a homicide in Alaska and arrested him in 2012. He allegedly killed himself in jail, leaving behind a note that didn't help investigators solve the mystery of the identities of the victims.

FBI special agents believe he may have committed as many as 11 homicides, seven of which are unsolved. After learning about Keyes' trips to Utah and into Wyoming, KSL TV traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to speak with FBI special agent, Jolene Goeden, who is still working to solve the crimes.

"We do have a number of trips where he was in the Utah area," Goeden said. "Based on travel record, airline trips putting him in the state of Utah, we can say he was there three times for sure."

Using receipts, rental car and flight reservations, the FBI has published a timeline of Keyes' trips, including visits to Utah. Goeden said Keyes talked extensively about taking a victim from one state, crossing into a different state to commit the homicide and then driving into yet another state to dispose of the body.

Goeden said it's concerning to investigators that he put 522 miles on a silver Volkswagen Jetta he rented in Salt Lake City during a seven-day trip to Utah in February 2004. Investigators know he traveled north during his visit because he stopped at a Walmart in Logan.

The FBI said Keyes flew into Salt Lake City on Sept. 2, 2007. During his trip, he drove to Rock Springs, Wyo., and then caught a flight out of Utah on Sept. 6 after stopping by a gas station and ATM in Salt Lake City.

Keyes was in Utah on another trip during the Fourth of July, 2008. Somewhere along his drive back into Wyoming, Keyes bought a fishing license, according to Goeden. She said his behavior was disconcerting because he had purchased fishing licenses before he committed murders in other states.

During his visit in 2008, Keyes stopped in Evanston and spent a day in Green River, Wyo., and on one of his trips to the Green River area, Keyes secretly planted a cache that has yet to be found. Authorities have found two caches, or kill kits, Keyes had planted in other states. He would hide them long before he'd return to an area to canvas trails, campgrounds or lakes for his next victim.

"If the situation was perfect for him, he was going to take whoever was there," Goeden said. "(The caches) contained zip ties, they contained guns, they contained ammunition, they contained silencers."

Keyes hinted to investigators during his interrogation that he murdered men and women of all ages, and that most his homicides never caught the attention of the media. He said that local authorities had mistakenly ruled one of his killings an accident.

Keyes strangled or shot his victims, and during one of his interviews with police he said he killed one of his victims by hitting them over the head. He's also been known to have sexually assaulted his female victims.

Officials at the Unified Police Department were given the FBI files, and they immediately reviewed 59 missing persons and cold case homicides to see if any of their files matched Keyes' visits to Utah. To date, no matches were made. However, in light of KSL's report, UPD will issue an alert to police departments across the state of Utah to determine if any Utah law enforcement can help find what drew Keyes to Utah.

The FBI is requesting Utah law enforcement agencies to review any missing persons cases and unsolved homicides, bank robberies, or burglaries that fit Keyes' visits to Utah.

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