Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous Barista vanishes from coffee stand. What happened to Samantha Koenig?

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Gorgeous Barista vanishes from coffee stand. What happened to Samantha Koenig? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young barista goes
0:17
Speaker 1: missing from a coffee shop, But not just any coffee shop.
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Speaker 1: This coffee shop is situated in the middle of a
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Speaker 1: parking lot. Have you ever seen one of those? It
0:28
Speaker 1: can be any number of businesses. It can be a Starbucks,
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Speaker 1: it can be an ice cream shop, it can be
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Speaker 1: any will stand up. They're not big at all, almost
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Speaker 1: the size of a shed where you drive through on
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Speaker 1: one side and come out the other. But the point
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Speaker 1: is she's in the middle of a parking lot and
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Speaker 1: the coffee shop is lit up day and not you
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Speaker 1: can see straight in. I used to work at a
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Speaker 1: sandwich shop very similar to this when I was in
1:01
Speaker 1: law school. How did nobody see her go missing? Crime
1:12
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace? I mean, see Grace. This is
1:22
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
1:24
Speaker 1: Fox Nation and Sirius XM one eleven with me an
1:28
Speaker 1: all star panel to break it down and put it
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Speaker 1: back together again. First of all, Ashi Wilcot, judge and
1:34
Speaker 1: trial lawyer anchor Court TV. You can find her at
1:37
Speaker 1: ashe Wilcot dot com. Bobby Chicone, former special agent FBI
1:42
Speaker 1: screenwriter Criminal Minds and worked on this case in his
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Speaker 1: capacity as an FBI special agent. Doctor Bethany Marshall, psycho analyst,
1:54
Speaker 1: joining us from Beverly Hills. She's at doctor Bethany Marshall,
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Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, director founder of the Cold Case Research Institute,
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Speaker 1: and Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Nicole Parton. I
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Speaker 1: just don't understand how somebody goes missing that's sitting out
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Speaker 1: in a lit up coffee shop in the middle of
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Speaker 1: a parking lot. How does that happen? First of all,
2:19
Speaker 1: to Bobby Chicone, a former special agent FBI who actually
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Speaker 1: worked on this case. Bobby, I want to start by
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Speaker 1: describing the coffee shop and the location where Samantha goes missing,
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Speaker 1: because if you take a look at it, how can
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Speaker 1: anybody not see it? I mean, Bobby Chicone, isn't there
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Speaker 1: an intersection there nobody could look over and see the
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Speaker 1: coffee shop? Yeah, And it's actually on a pretty busy highway.
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Speaker 1: It's a two lane each way with a divider in
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Speaker 1: the middle. I was actually at that kiosk just a
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Speaker 1: few months ago. I went back up to Anchorage and
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Speaker 1: I stood at that coffee shop. Okay, Bobby, that's a
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Speaker 1: little creepy. Not that you went back, but just think
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Speaker 1: about it. The next girl that works there, what's got
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Speaker 1: to be going through her mind. So back to what
3:07
Speaker 1: you were just saying, you were just there, what did
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Speaker 1: you observe? You know, I observed that it's it's it
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Speaker 1: is only a few parking spaces away from this major
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Speaker 1: highway that has two lanes running each way. It's in
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Speaker 1: a shopping center that has a gym where people work out,
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Speaker 1: which means people are coming and going, you know, at
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Speaker 1: all different hours of the day or night. This shop
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Speaker 1: is barely big enough for two people to fit in.
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Speaker 1: It's like a closet, and it's made for people to
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Speaker 1: drive up or walk up to it, not to come inside,
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Speaker 1: but to drive up like an old photomat is somebody
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Speaker 1: my age would remember. And so it is out in
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Speaker 1: the middle of kind of of a parking mote, as
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Speaker 1: you would think. And Bobby to count if you come
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Speaker 1: forward to the street from where Samantha was working in
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Speaker 1: the coffee shop, isn't there an intersection there not too
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Speaker 1: far ahead of the coffee shop. There is, and there's
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Speaker 1: a traffic light there where cars are you know, obviously
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Speaker 1: Wiltinue we stopped when the lights change and things like that,
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Speaker 1: So there would be people, there would be cars lined
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Speaker 1: up at the traffic light at different times. Yeah, that
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Speaker 1: brings into a whole line of investigation, because Cheryl McCollum,
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Speaker 1: directorcal Case Research Institute, I'm always mystified when a crime
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Speaker 1: goes down. Okay, let's just say Tupac cur that's a great,
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Speaker 1: great example. Nobody saw anything. How can you not see anything?
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Speaker 1: It's in the open. This girl, a teen girl, is
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Speaker 1: working her job at a coffee shop right there. It's
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Speaker 1: lit up at night. In daytime, you can see straight
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Speaker 1: in there and see you're making coffee. And the fact
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Speaker 1: that people stopped at the red light very often don't
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Speaker 1: look either way, right, But when you do look, this
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Speaker 1: is what inherited that people understand. When you look, people
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Speaker 1: normally are only going to be attracted to something that
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Speaker 1: is unusual. That shouldn't be somebody standing at a window
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Speaker 1: of a coffee shop ordering coffee gonna get anybody's picture.
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Speaker 1: You know. It's a little freaky, Cherylum, but but I
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Speaker 1: understand it. Usually we think of drive throughs, right when
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Speaker 1: you're in a McDonald's. Let's just go with that, or
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Speaker 1: let's say Starbucks. This was not a Starbucks. It was
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Speaker 1: independently ooned. How often do you see somebody cut in
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Speaker 1: line at McDonald's, place an order at the drive through
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Speaker 1: and walk up never? Have you ever? The only time
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Speaker 1: I've seen a pedestrian and a McDonald's drive through, it's
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Speaker 1: when they were robbing or diving through the window trying
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Speaker 1: to get money. Have you ever? Can I make a
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Speaker 1: comment about this, is Kathany please talk some sense into
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Speaker 1: Cheryl McCullum. Okay, Nancy, this was in the dead of
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Speaker 1: winter and there was a huge snow bank between the
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Speaker 1: highway and this little kiosk. You're right, and it was dark,
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Speaker 1: you know what. I was about to bring that up,
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Speaker 1: and I'm glad you beat me to it, explained Bethany
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Speaker 1: the significance of that. Okay, So this little parking lot,
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Speaker 1: and as the former guest just said, you know there
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Speaker 1: was a gym, there were other businesses. But this was nighttime.
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Speaker 1: This was not in the middle of the day. You know,
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Speaker 1: the sun shining, as I understand, and when people drove
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Speaker 1: up the highway, you know, a kiosk is going to
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Speaker 1: be located so people on the highway can see it right,
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Speaker 1: because that's its best advertising. Okay, let's address that to
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Speaker 1: Bobby Chicone. We have skipped ahead to the weather conditions,
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Speaker 1: so let's address it now. I was right in the
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Speaker 1: middle of it, addressing the fact that, for instance, when
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Speaker 1: you're at a red light, how often do you really
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Speaker 1: look around? So many people are fiddling with their radio
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Speaker 1: or their serious XM. Or they're talking to their children
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Speaker 1: in the back stat they're talking on the phone. God forbid,
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Speaker 1: they're texting. But how often, Bobby Chicone to people really
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Speaker 1: look around and take in what they're seeing when they're
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Speaker 1: parked at a red light. They don't. And in fact,
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Speaker 1: I think you hit on it right now. In our time,
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Speaker 1: they're probably finishing their last text as soon as the
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Speaker 1: car comes to a stop, and we're texting out to
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Speaker 1: someone and there's a huge lock. In fact, they probably
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Speaker 1: pay less attention when they're stopped because they're attention because
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Speaker 1: of where they're driving. Their attentions on the road. When
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Speaker 1: they're not, it's probably on their phone. And so I
7:21
Speaker 1: you know, it's not really an automatic given that someone
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Speaker 1: just because they're stopped in a car that light is
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Speaker 1: going to be looking around. When you actually look at
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Speaker 1: the coffee stand where Samantha went missing. Bethany's right, there's
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Speaker 1: a huge snow bank around it. This happened in Anchorage,
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Speaker 1: and just looking at it, that snowbank, it looks to
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Speaker 1: be about ten feet tall. Yeah, the night, the night
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Speaker 1: of the incident when Samantha are missing, there was a
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Speaker 1: huge snowbank. This was in winter in Anchorage. Nine o'clock
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Speaker 1: at night is really the middle of the night in
7:54
Speaker 1: Anchorage because of how much darkness they have up there
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Speaker 1: in winter. And it was just we're closing, and so
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Speaker 1: many of the people that would normally use that the
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Speaker 1: regular snow when it closes and they, you know, they
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Speaker 1: just don't go at night when it's about to close.
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Speaker 1: So this was just before closing time, and so it
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Speaker 1: was empty. The parking lot was obscured from the main
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Speaker 1: road because of that huge snowbank. When they plowed that
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Speaker 1: parking lot, they plowed all of the snow from the
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Speaker 1: parking lot up against the berm that separates the parking
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Speaker 1: lot and the main highway is about a ten foot
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Speaker 1: stretch there of grass, and they just tiled all that
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Speaker 1: snow up on that grass, which completely obscured that parking lot.
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Speaker 1: From the road with me former FBI special agent Bobby Chicon,
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Speaker 1: screenwriter Criminal Minds who worked this case. Bobby, as I
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Speaker 1: recall the photo, you have the straight then you have
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Speaker 1: the parking lot with the coffee shop here. Then they
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Speaker 1: strip shopping centers behind it. But between the coffee shop
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Speaker 1: in the strip center, that's where the snow had been
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Speaker 1: shoveled so people could drive through or come up to
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Speaker 1: the coffee shop. So was the actual gem and everything
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Speaker 1: else behind it separated from view. The view is obscured
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Speaker 1: even by them because of the snow bank. It was,
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Speaker 1: and in fact the coffe of the way. And I
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Speaker 1: stirred this coffee shop and looked at it, and the
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Speaker 1: way the coffe shop is situated. It's on the side
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Speaker 1: of the strip mall, so all those storefronts and the
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Speaker 1: gym face into a parking lot. That's not where the
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Speaker 1: kiosk is located. So when you first drive in, yes,
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Speaker 1: the kiosk is right there, but it's actually on the
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Speaker 1: side of the strip mall, so it faces this basically
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Speaker 1: blank wall of the gym that has no windows. It's
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Speaker 1: actually it's actually perpendiculous, so it faces the minim the
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Speaker 1: mall faces away from the coffee shop. Prime Stories with
10:05
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. We are talking here at Fox Nation and
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Speaker 1: series Sex and One eleven about the disappearance of a beautiful,
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Speaker 1: young eighteen year old barista working at a coffee shop
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Speaker 1: until it closed that night. Now here's the problem. Happened
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Speaker 1: in Anchorage. Not only was it in the evening near
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Speaker 1: closing time, a huge snow bank had developed around, really
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Speaker 1: around the coffee stand, separating it from the Strip Center
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Speaker 1: where it was situated in front of the Strip center.
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Speaker 1: But not only that, they have six months daytime, six
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Speaker 1: months nighttime. Remember, so it's pitch dark at the time
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Speaker 1: Samantha was closing shop. Really didn't matter what time of
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Speaker 1: the day it was, because it's dark. We've discussed how
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Speaker 1: people pulling right up to the intersection don't look either way,
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Speaker 1: don't see anything going on around them, and sadly even
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Speaker 1: the people in that Strip center couldn't see through a
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Speaker 1: mountain of snow, a snow bank. But then the first
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Speaker 1: clue emerges. Take a listen to our friends at NBC
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Speaker 1: Anchorage worried about her safety. The search continues tonight for
11:23
Speaker 1: a teenager kidnap from her job at a coffee stand.
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Speaker 1: We learned a few minutes ago that the family of
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Speaker 1: Samantha Coning is offering a twelve thousand, five hundred dollars
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Speaker 1: reward for information leading to her whereabouts. In this weekend,
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Speaker 1: family and friends planned to post thousands of more flyers
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Speaker 1: around Anchorage as they intensify their search for the missing
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Speaker 1: eighteen year old. Detectives now say a surveillance capital posted
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Speaker 1: above the entrance to the common Grounds Espresso Hut on
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Speaker 1: Tudor and Fairbanks shows an armed man abducting Coning on
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Speaker 1: Wednesday night. Please say the two left the area on foot,
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Speaker 1: and Coning's family has not heard from her sons. How
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Speaker 1: in the world could he get in over? How are
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Speaker 1: her and get her to leave without her fighting and running?
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Speaker 1: At first, police think this must be staged. Joining me
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Speaker 1: Crime online dot com instigator reporter at Nicole Pardon, I
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Speaker 1: want to talk about the way the condition that the
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Speaker 1: coffee shop was left. Isn't it true that there was
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Speaker 1: a half made Americano cup of coffee sitting on the
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Speaker 1: counter being made when she was taken. That's correct, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: there was this half cup fare being made. Of course,
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Speaker 1: this was her job. Eighteen year old Samantha had landed
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Speaker 1: what her friends and family called her dream job. She
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Speaker 1: had a bubbly personality, enjoyed communicating with the public, and
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Speaker 1: there was this half made coffee. So it's believed that
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Speaker 1: she was in the middle of making something for a
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Speaker 1: customer who had approached the coffee shop. Take a listen
12:49
Speaker 1: now to our friends at Oxygen, one of their specials
12:52
Speaker 1: in the search for Samantha. As deep breaks so for Anchorage,
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Speaker 1: Samantha's dad calls the local police to report his only
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Speaker 1: on her missing. One of our officers contacted the owner
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Speaker 1: of common Grounds Coffee Shot and she was able to
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Speaker 1: show them video. A man came to the little kiosk
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Speaker 1: window at eight o'clock. Samantha made a coffee drink for him,
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Speaker 1: turned back around, and then you can tell she's shocked.
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Speaker 1: You see her body language change. She goes from someone
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Speaker 1: who's just serving someone a coffee to being very nervous
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Speaker 1: and very concerned. Samantha turns out the lights and you
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Speaker 1: can see the individual jumping in through the window. You
13:31
Speaker 1: can tell she's sort of going along with him because
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Speaker 1: he thinks that he's going to rob the place. It
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Speaker 1: just didn't come across to her that she was in
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Speaker 1: danger until he starts walking her out. Samantha and the
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Speaker 1: individual leave the coffee stand and then disappear from the
13:45
Speaker 1: line of sight from the camera. The next day, her
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Speaker 1: dad was raising hell about this, trying to figure out
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Speaker 1: where his daughter went. Used this area as a meeting
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Speaker 1: place because this is where my daughter was taken from.
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Speaker 1: People were just literally like, whose basement is she in?
14:00
Speaker 1: Whose door we have to go knock down to find her?
14:02
Speaker 1: The reality is is she dead or alive? Joining me
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Speaker 1: right now, Special guest, Doctor Kendall Crowns, Deputy Medical Examiner,
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Speaker 1: Travis County, Texas. That's Austin, doctor Crowns. If she's alive
14:18
Speaker 1: and she's in the elements the snow, how long can
14:22
Speaker 1: you live in snow like you would find in Anchorage, Alaska. Well,
14:27
Speaker 1: if the temperature is probably below zero, I would imagine,
14:30
Speaker 1: because it's Alaska, she wouldn't be able to live very long,
14:33
Speaker 1: especially if she's not dressed for the weather. I would
14:36
Speaker 1: I would estimate she probably creeze to death within a
14:38
Speaker 1: half hour. When you freeze to death hypothermia, what happens
14:43
Speaker 1: to your body, Well, initially you become confused and that
14:47
Speaker 1: at some point your body tries to warm you up
14:52
Speaker 1: by dilating the vessels, and when your vessels dilate, your
14:57
Speaker 1: body has this warm sensation. So often we see people
15:02
Speaker 1: undressed because they think they're getting warm right before they die.
15:05
Speaker 1: It's called paradoxical undressing. Then after you die, your tissues,
15:10
Speaker 1: because you're mainly water, begin to freeze and you actually
15:14
Speaker 1: become as hard as a rock. Either outlook is bleak.
15:19
Speaker 1: Either she's alive and out there, or she's dead. The
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Speaker 1: other possibility, as you heard, is she in somebody's basement
15:28
Speaker 1: being tortured. We hear just then about her body language.
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Speaker 1: What's that Security surveillance is reveal that she's surprised taken aback.
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Speaker 1: But now take a listen to more from our friends
15:42
Speaker 1: at Oxygen. Just a few days into the search, police
15:46
Speaker 1: discover a promising lead new surveillance footage captured by a
15:50
Speaker 1: neighboring business from the night of Samantha's abduction. We're able
15:53
Speaker 1: to determine that Samantha walked to a white pickup truck
15:56
Speaker 1: and then the truck drives away. They could estimate the
16:00
Speaker 1: year that it was built. It was like a ninety
16:02
Speaker 1: nine through two thousand and seven Chevrolet pickup trunck with
16:05
Speaker 1: white So at that point it's a matter of trying
16:08
Speaker 1: to track down how many of those vehicles are in
16:11
Speaker 1: the Anchorage Bowl, and there were several thousand of them.
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Speaker 1: Now we're on the hunt. It's like looking for a
16:17
Speaker 1: needle in a haystack for a white pickup, and that
16:20
Speaker 1: was only found through surveillance video of a neighboring business.
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Speaker 1: So clearly to you, Cheryl McCollum, Director Coal Case Research Institute,
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Speaker 1: he parked away from where she was, knowing his car
16:37
Speaker 1: would be spotted on that video, walked up, got her,
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Speaker 1: walked her to his white truck that was out of
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Speaker 1: view of the coffee shop surveillance, and took off. You
16:48
Speaker 1: look at the surveillance video, he's walking almost like he's
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Speaker 1: got his hand on her back, like there are a couple. Again.
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Speaker 1: There's no struggling, she's not fighting, she's not screaming. You
17:00
Speaker 1: would not notice this, I'm just telling you you wouldn't.
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Speaker 1: It looks like it is just a couple walk into
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Speaker 1: a truck. And you know, even with the obstruction of
17:10
Speaker 1: the snowbike and the light being out, he made her
17:13
Speaker 1: turn the lights out, so nobody's going to look at
17:16
Speaker 1: a closed coffee shop and stare at it again. This
17:21
Speaker 1: whole thing just looks like it ought to be happening.
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Speaker 1: I guarantee you joining me, Ashley Wilcott, Judge trial on
17:27
Speaker 1: your anchor Court TV. He doesn't just have his back
17:31
Speaker 1: his hand on her back. I guarantee you he's got
17:34
Speaker 1: a gun in that hand. When you said, you know,
17:36
Speaker 1: why wouldn't she be fighting for her life, that's the
17:38
Speaker 1: answer to me. It's because when someone has a gun,
17:41
Speaker 1: we don't know how we're going to react. And that
17:44
Speaker 1: beautiful young girl, probably because of the gun, just did
17:48
Speaker 1: what he said and was compliant, which I would suggest
17:50
Speaker 1: a lot of people would do in that scenario. So
17:53
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree with you. There's a gun and that's
17:56
Speaker 1: how you get someone to comply and not fight for theirs.
18:00
Speaker 1: And she gets in the car. I've already drilled it
18:03
Speaker 1: into my children. Whatever you do, do not get in
18:07
Speaker 1: the Vehicle crime stories with Nancy Grace Guys. A disappearance
18:27
Speaker 1: of this young barista ultimately ends up bringing in the FBI.
18:35
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at Oxygen. Due to
18:37
Speaker 1: the growing scope of the case, local authorities contact the
18:40
Speaker 1: FBI Field Office. When you bring manpower, when bring expertise, profilers,
18:45
Speaker 1: you know, these are things that sometimes a local police
18:48
Speaker 1: department might not have. The FBI assigns Joline Goden as
18:51
Speaker 1: the lead investigator. Jolene's pretty well known as someone who's
18:54
Speaker 1: a top agent, and one thing Joline excels at is
18:57
Speaker 1: she can delve into somebody's history with the best of
19:00
Speaker 1: reviewing social media. We're reviewing phone wreckers. We're really looking
19:02
Speaker 1: at anything we possibly can to determine is this a
19:05
Speaker 1: personal thing with Samantha, is a person that took her,
19:07
Speaker 1: somebody that knew her? Or is this truly a stranger abduction?
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Speaker 1: Then two and a half weeks after Samantha's abduction, there's
19:15
Speaker 1: a chilling turn in the case. Her boyfriend just goes
19:18
Speaker 1: sheet white. He's got his phone and there's a text
19:20
Speaker 1: from her phone. Basically it says Connor's Park underneath the
19:25
Speaker 1: Albert pick. Ain't she purty? Authority's race to Connor's Lake Park,
19:29
Speaker 1: just five miles southwest of Downham Anchorage, not knowing what's
19:32
Speaker 1: waiting for them. When you enter that park, there's a
19:35
Speaker 1: bulletin board and tact was a zip block bag that
19:38
Speaker 1: had what ultimately was a photograph of Samantha and a
19:41
Speaker 1: ransom note. The fact that there was a ransom note
19:43
Speaker 1: really ratchets up the tension because of, Okay, she's alive,
19:46
Speaker 1: and what are we going to do to get her back?
19:48
Speaker 1: And now we learn more details. Take a list at
19:52
Speaker 1: to our friends at Oxygen. The text message sent from
19:54
Speaker 1: Samantha's phone directs investigators to their biggest clue yet, a
19:58
Speaker 1: ransom note with a picture of the missing guard. In
20:00
Speaker 1: the photograph, Samantha was bound tape on her mouth, but
20:03
Speaker 1: it was obviously intentionally made fuzzier. So if they took
20:07
Speaker 1: the photograph to her father for him to identify it, he,
20:11
Speaker 1: after looking at it for a long time, said, yes,
20:13
Speaker 1: that's Samantha, but her hair was in a raid and
20:18
Speaker 1: Samantha never wore her hair that way. In the ransom note,
20:21
Speaker 1: Samantha's kidnapper demands thirty thousand dollars be placed in her
20:24
Speaker 1: bank account. It is really our biggest break because we
20:26
Speaker 1: know that we can still potentially have contact with a
20:29
Speaker 1: person responsible for taking Samantha. Authorities work with her dad
20:32
Speaker 1: to deposit a portion of the ransom, and then they wait.
20:36
Speaker 1: I told them he's going to use her debit carta.
20:38
Speaker 1: If he was going to do something stupid, that was
20:39
Speaker 1: going to be the one thing he did that was stupid,
20:41
Speaker 1: because we could find him. Every parent's worst a nightmare.
20:45
Speaker 1: You then get a fuzzy photo like a polaroid, sent
20:48
Speaker 1: via text, and you see your daughter with her hair
20:52
Speaker 1: done in a different way she's never done it before,
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Speaker 1: with a ransom note, and then the clot is ticking down.
21:00
Speaker 1: Bobby Chica, former special agent, FBI screenwriter Criminal Minds, Bobby,
21:04
Speaker 1: what does this tell you about her abductor? Well, this
21:08
Speaker 1: was clearly planned that this was not a Runner the
21:11
Speaker 1: mill robbery. This was a premeditated scheme that they had
21:16
Speaker 1: in place. And my biggest question would be why wait
21:19
Speaker 1: two weeks? So that would be as an investigator, why
21:22
Speaker 1: did we wait two weeks to get this ransom demand?
21:23
Speaker 1: That's not usual in a scheme like this, But clearly
21:27
Speaker 1: there is more going on than the original video of
21:32
Speaker 1: the abduction at the coffee chiost So now we have
21:35
Speaker 1: a ransom man, we have a kidnapping, and now it
21:38
Speaker 1: could change the whole tenor of this thing. She's apparently
21:42
Speaker 1: still alive somewhere, and now it ramps up to the
21:44
Speaker 1: emergency to find her where she being held? Can we
21:48
Speaker 1: glean anything from that photograph on where this location might
21:51
Speaker 1: be that she's held, And so it really does change
21:54
Speaker 1: the whole tenor and feeling of the investigation. Cheryl McCollum,
21:58
Speaker 1: what would you be looking for the photo to help
22:01
Speaker 1: identify where Samantha's being held? I would look for anything
22:04
Speaker 1: in the background. Is there any photographs on the wall?
22:06
Speaker 1: Is there but toular light? Is there a sign? Is
22:09
Speaker 1: there showing anything on the outside. The other thing that
22:12
Speaker 1: resonates for me is you're talking about two weeks. Any
22:15
Speaker 1: sent a text message first NaNs who, which means her
22:18
Speaker 1: phone is being charged. It means that he knows the
22:20
Speaker 1: principal players in her phone. Just text went to a boyfriend,
22:24
Speaker 1: not her dad. So all of this combined and then
22:27
Speaker 1: with the odd amount of thirty thousand dollars not fifteen
22:31
Speaker 1: of one hundred thirty is an unusual number. So all
22:34
Speaker 1: of these things to me are concerning because again, if
22:38
Speaker 1: you're waiting two weeks, it ain't about the money. Well put,
22:41
Speaker 1: But then, just as the FBI agent predicted, there was
22:46
Speaker 1: a slip up. Take a list of to our friends
22:48
Speaker 1: at Oxygen. They had worked out a deal with the
22:50
Speaker 1: bank so that Anchorage Police Department and the FBI would
22:54
Speaker 1: be notified immediately when her debit card was used for anything.
22:58
Speaker 1: So a few days ago buy and at this point
23:01
Speaker 1: we have our first ATM withdrawal from Samantha's account. There
23:03
Speaker 1: were three withdrawals in the city of Anchorage of five
23:06
Speaker 1: hundred dollars the daily limit in all of the ATM
23:10
Speaker 1: situations where he was using the debit card. As soon
23:12
Speaker 1: as the alerts came, we dispecial law enforcement there as
23:14
Speaker 1: quickly as we could, but we were literally minutes by him.
23:17
Speaker 1: Then the account went silent, and on March seventh, detectives
23:22
Speaker 1: were kind of shocked because there was a withdrawal from
23:26
Speaker 1: an ATM in Wilcox, Arizona. Then there was another withdrawal
23:30
Speaker 1: in Lordsburg, New Mexico. The next withdrawal was March tenth
23:35
Speaker 1: in Humble, Texas, and then shortly after there was a
23:38
Speaker 1: withdrawal in Shepherd, Texas. Each time this money was withdrawn,
23:42
Speaker 1: it was withdrawn by a person wearing a mask. So
23:46
Speaker 1: this guy is so smart. He's using your ATM card
23:49
Speaker 1: all over the country, always wearing a mask. To Bobby Chicone,
23:54
Speaker 1: when you look carefully at that picture of Samantha being
23:59
Speaker 1: held in captivity, could you tell anything unusual about her eyes? Well?
24:07
Speaker 1: I couldn't. But we send those pictures normally to a
24:09
Speaker 1: forensic photography lab back at Quantico and at the FBI laboratory,
24:13
Speaker 1: and they do you know, they were able to blow
24:15
Speaker 1: it up and maybe glean some additional information from the
24:19
Speaker 1: photograph using you know, certain technologies that it's just today,
24:22
Speaker 1: and we certainly did get some indication that, um, you
24:27
Speaker 1: know that her eyes there was something about her eyes
24:30
Speaker 1: that bothered the investigators who were looking closely at their photograph, Bobby,
24:33
Speaker 1: her eyes were soon open, were they not? Yeah? That's
24:37
Speaker 1: that was the conclusion of the people that were able
24:39
Speaker 1: to really enlauge that picture and look at really minute
24:43
Speaker 1: details of that photograph. And it appeared that her eyes
24:47
Speaker 1: were artificially held open by some kind of threading, that
24:50
Speaker 1: there was an attempt to cover it up with makeup.
24:52
Speaker 1: Doctor Kennel Crowns joining me, Deputy Medical Examined, Travis County, Texas.
24:55
Speaker 1: That's Austin, doctor Crowns, How would you about sewing someone's
25:02
Speaker 1: eyes open so you could use a thin layered supra
25:06
Speaker 1: material and then just look the needle through the eyelid
25:10
Speaker 1: and then tuck it up and pull it through the
25:12
Speaker 1: loose eyelid skin and then just make very smooth. No,
25:16
Speaker 1: it's almost like doing a an eyelid tuck or a
25:20
Speaker 1: plastic surgery. Why are you saying that you don't think
25:24
Speaker 1: a plastic suf What a plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills
25:27
Speaker 1: just tripped on over to Alaska, kidnaped this girl from
25:30
Speaker 1: a coffee shop, sent a ransom note, but she's already dead,
25:34
Speaker 1: obviously because her eyes are sown open. I mean, this
25:40
Speaker 1: is not a plastic surgeon. How would a regular person
25:44
Speaker 1: perform a procedure like this, obviously on a dead body.
25:50
Speaker 1: It would be using a sewing needle and thin, thin
25:56
Speaker 1: showing thread. I mean, that's all. It's just like doing surgery.
26:00
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. You haven't so many people that I would open.
26:03
Speaker 1: What did you just say you have or you have
26:05
Speaker 1: not have? Not have not crime stories with Nancy Grace, Guys,
26:26
Speaker 1: This girl disappears in the middle of a parking lot
26:30
Speaker 1: from a coffee stand. Then this picture emerges of her
26:35
Speaker 1: with her hair and braids and her eyes. Soon shut.
26:39
Speaker 1: The family doesn't know she's dead. They think it's a
26:43
Speaker 1: ransom to bring her home alive. Then a screw up
26:48
Speaker 1: the uses her ATM. Police rush to look at the
26:52
Speaker 1: ATM footage and he's wearing a mask. You can't see
26:58
Speaker 1: his face. To Nicole Pardon, Crimeline dot Com investigative reporter,
27:06
Speaker 1: the outsmarted the ATM. So how did the perp get caught? Well,
27:12
Speaker 1: at this point, authorities know the type of vehicle they're
27:14
Speaker 1: looking for, they know the last transaction of the ATM card,
27:19
Speaker 1: and in a wonderful turn of event, he was actually
27:21
Speaker 1: pulled over in Texas for a traffic violation. Once the card.
27:25
Speaker 1: I'm so happy, absolutely what traffic violation is that? Well,
27:30
Speaker 1: it wasn't clear. It seems that he was going over
27:32
Speaker 1: the speed limit for a bit. But then when they
27:34
Speaker 1: pulled him over, inside the vehicle they found the ATM card,
27:39
Speaker 1: the mask, and enough evidence to bring him in. So
27:42
Speaker 1: at the time they pulled him over for the traffic violation,
27:47
Speaker 1: they don't know they have a killer. Correct, that's correct. Okay, guys,
27:53
Speaker 1: let me go to Bobby check. Come, Bobby, I want
27:55
Speaker 1: you to take a listen to our friends at Investigation discovery.
28:00
Speaker 1: He's explained to us that Ms. Konig had already been
28:03
Speaker 1: killed when he took that ransom photograph, that he had
28:08
Speaker 1: used a needle and thread to make her eyes appear
28:12
Speaker 1: as though she might still be alive. And keys didn't
28:15
Speaker 1: stop there. He dismembered the body and dropped all of
28:23
Speaker 1: its parts underneath the ice of Lake Madamusca. About an
28:29
Speaker 1: hour north of Anchorage. Then Alaska that you build a
28:34
Speaker 1: shelter around yourself while you ice fish, and so that's
28:37
Speaker 1: what he did. He built a shelter and then he
28:45
Speaker 1: pretended to ice fish while he was weighted down Misconi's
28:49
Speaker 1: body and dropped it to the bottom of the lake.
28:51
Speaker 1: Joining me Bobby Chicone, Special Asian FBI at the time,
28:56
Speaker 1: Bobby Chicone, you were tasked with going out onto that
29:01
Speaker 1: frozen lake and trying to recover Samantha's body. Can I
29:07
Speaker 1: ask you how did you guys figure out that he
29:14
Speaker 1: disposed of her underneath frozen ice. Well, when I got
29:18
Speaker 1: the first call, it was based on information that Keith
29:21
Speaker 1: had provided that he actually told the investigators um that
29:24
Speaker 1: she was under she was at the bottom of that lake,
29:26
Speaker 1: and so we had an initial starting point. He said
29:29
Speaker 1: he had gone out there and posed as an ice fisherman,
29:33
Speaker 1: set up a set up a tent, and as they
29:35
Speaker 1: normally do, they start like little campfires or a little
29:38
Speaker 1: camping stoves, and edit keeple arm or eat some food
29:41
Speaker 1: or drinks. And when he was finished with the several
29:44
Speaker 1: trips that it took to get her body parts out
29:46
Speaker 1: there and into the lake, um he burned a piece
29:50
Speaker 1: of plywood that he had used to drag her out there.
29:52
Speaker 1: I don't hope he it has got on it or not,
29:54
Speaker 1: but he and that when when the initial last weeks,
29:58
Speaker 1: stay trooper went out there when I got there, in
29:59
Speaker 1: form and they dispatched somebody to run up to that lake,
30:02
Speaker 1: and they did find, in fact, a small piece of plywood,
30:05
Speaker 1: half burn that had now been kind of refrozen into
30:08
Speaker 1: the lake surface because it had been, you know, several
30:12
Speaker 1: weeks since she was put there, so the lake had
30:15
Speaker 1: frozen and unfrozen and refrozen, and so that plywood was
30:18
Speaker 1: still sticking out a little bit. So we figured that
30:20
Speaker 1: was the plywood he was talking about. So that's where
30:22
Speaker 1: we began our search. Why did you go and tell
30:24
Speaker 1: me about the recovery of Samantha's body, An eighteen year
30:27
Speaker 1: old girl. So we sat up. There was a great
30:30
Speaker 1: sunny day on that lake. It was blinding sun off
30:34
Speaker 1: off the surface of the ice. We cut several holes
30:37
Speaker 1: in the ice. The ice was about four feet thick.
30:39
Speaker 1: It took a while to cut through that type of ice,
30:42
Speaker 1: and so we had a lot of help. The press
30:45
Speaker 1: showed up shortly after. They were trained with long long
30:47
Speaker 1: range cameras and microphones on us. So we deployed the sonar.
30:51
Speaker 1: We deployed it. After that, we deployed a remote operated
30:54
Speaker 1: vehicle which is like a little mini underwa a robot
30:56
Speaker 1: that has cameras on it. And then and I deployed
30:58
Speaker 1: my divers. One we saw what we were looking for
31:02
Speaker 1: on the cameras of the robot. There were five separate
31:06
Speaker 1: body parts down there on the lake bottom. And under
31:10
Speaker 1: a frozen ice, a lake is crystal clear. The water
31:12
Speaker 1: is crystal clear because all the marine lights has kind
31:15
Speaker 1: of gone dormant in a suspended state on the bottom.
31:19
Speaker 1: So the water was very very clear. And the camera
31:22
Speaker 1: from the many robot that we had under the water,
31:25
Speaker 1: I was pretty clear. And you know, I deployed my
31:27
Speaker 1: divers and they had cameras on their helmets. So I
31:30
Speaker 1: watched the entire operation as they as they made their
31:33
Speaker 1: way to Samantha and water back. You know, Bobby, I've
31:37
Speaker 1: thought many times about what you went through as you
31:39
Speaker 1: were having your divers bring up one bag after the next,
31:42
Speaker 1: after the next, and you would take the bag knowing
31:46
Speaker 1: it hells Samantha's body parts, this little girl's eighteen years
31:52
Speaker 1: old dismembered body. What was that like in your mind? Well,
31:57
Speaker 1: you know, you don't deal with that at the time.
31:59
Speaker 1: And then certainly, this unfortunately our first recovery, and we
32:02
Speaker 1: had recovered children prior, and we had recovered, unfortunately even
32:05
Speaker 1: younger children priorum, some as young at four and five
32:09
Speaker 1: years old. Um, in fact, some of as young as
32:11
Speaker 1: eighteen months old. But that we're all victims. But so
32:15
Speaker 1: you you really put that out of your mind. You
32:16
Speaker 1: focus on the job at hand. But one thing I
32:19
Speaker 1: want to correct Nancy that you know, Keys had made
32:22
Speaker 1: the demand of the investigators that we not release the
32:25
Speaker 1: particular detail um that she was dismembered, that she was
32:29
Speaker 1: cut up, and he had reasons for that, and so
32:31
Speaker 1: when we did, You're you're absolutely right. What we would
32:34
Speaker 1: normally do is put each part that we found separately
32:36
Speaker 1: into a separate bag and bring them up in this
32:38
Speaker 1: particular case, because we knew the media was watching us,
32:41
Speaker 1: and we didn't want that detail to emerge, you know,
32:44
Speaker 1: so we we actually I had my divers actually put
32:46
Speaker 1: all of samped into one bag, and we brought her
32:49
Speaker 1: up in one bag to make it look like the
32:51
Speaker 1: body might still be intact, and then we moved that
32:54
Speaker 1: bag quickly into another pop up shelter near the hole
32:57
Speaker 1: in the ice where the medical examiners investor gets with air.
33:01
Speaker 1: That's when we transfer her to the medical Jameiner, I
33:03
Speaker 1: want you to hear from our friend Neil Kolinski, what
33:07
Speaker 1: at ABC, what we learn, what Baby Chico and his
33:10
Speaker 1: team learn about Israel Keys. Listen. He told agents something
33:15
Speaker 1: they've never heard before, that he left kill kits or
33:19
Speaker 1: cashes buried in several states filled with everything he'd need
33:23
Speaker 1: to commit a murder. They were in waterproof containers or
33:26
Speaker 1: five gallon buckets and included guns and different things he
33:29
Speaker 1: could use to dispose of bodies. His strategy to grab
33:33
Speaker 1: people in remote locations like parks, campgrounds, even cemeteries. Every
33:38
Speaker 1: serial killer, including I believe mister Keys, are not crazy.
33:42
Speaker 1: You cannot be that organized and deliberate and fit any
33:45
Speaker 1: legal definition of insanity. We learned that israel Keys got
33:49
Speaker 1: a quote high from killing. To doctor Bethany Marshall, what
33:53
Speaker 1: kind of mind Chris crosses the country hiding kill kits
33:58
Speaker 1: in various locations, searching for prey, including in campgrounds and
34:03
Speaker 1: RV parks. What kind of mind is that? Bethany well Nancy.
34:07
Speaker 1: This kind of a mind is motivated by sex and cruelty.
34:13
Speaker 1: Those are the two basic motivations in men. Aggression and
34:17
Speaker 1: sexuality are mediated through the same neural nets. And what
34:22
Speaker 1: that means is that for sociopaths, stadism, sex killing, all
34:29
Speaker 1: of those same drives get fused. They're all acted out
34:33
Speaker 1: at once. Serial Killers are very empty individuals. They cannot
34:38
Speaker 1: feel excitement in normal ways, like holding a baby or
34:41
Speaker 1: looking at the sunshine. They can only feel excitement by
34:45
Speaker 1: inflicting cruelty. And their sex drive is enormous, and they
34:50
Speaker 1: spend hours thinking about who they're going to kill, and
34:53
Speaker 1: all those hours driving around and preparing the kill kids.
34:56
Speaker 1: It's like a four play before sex. It's like the
35:00
Speaker 1: the prodromal, or the lead up to this very exciting
35:03
Speaker 1: event in their life, and they spend so much time
35:05
Speaker 1: searching that often they're not prolific, and they're killing because
35:09
Speaker 1: the searching and the ritual life aspect leading up to
35:12
Speaker 1: the killing is more important than the act itself. Here
35:16
Speaker 1: is the good news of this scenario. Israel Keys is dead.
35:23
Speaker 1: We may never know how many people he killed across
35:27
Speaker 1: the country because there's no logical connection, but we do
35:31
Speaker 1: know he is dead. He died behind bars. Good luck
35:37
Speaker 1: with him, Satan. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off, goodbye friend,