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.
0:21
Speaker 1: This coffee shop is situated in the middle of a
0:25
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,
0:33
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
0:41
Speaker 1: the size of a shed where you drive through on
0:44
Speaker 1: one side and come out in the other. But the
0:47
Speaker 1: point is she's in the middle of a parking lot
0:51
Speaker 1: and the coffee shop is lit up day and night.
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Speaker 1: You can see straight in Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
1:11
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories with me, an
1:14
Speaker 1: all star panel to break it down and put it
1:16
Speaker 1: back together again. First of all, Ashy Wilcot, judge and
1:19
Speaker 1: trial lawyer anchor Court TV. You can find her at
1:23
Speaker 1: ashe Wilcot dot com. Bobby Chicone, former special agent, FBI
1:28
Speaker 1: screenwriter Criminal Minds and worked on this case in his
1:35
Speaker 1: capacity as an FBI Special agent. Doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst,
1:39
Speaker 1: joining us from Beverly Hills. Cheryl McCollum, director, founder of
1:44
Speaker 1: the Cold Case Research Institute and Crime Online dot Com
1:47
Speaker 1: investigative reporter Nicole Parton. I just don't understand how somebody
1:52
Speaker 1: goes missing that's sitting out in a lit up coffee
1:57
Speaker 1: shop in the middle of a parking lot. How does
2:01
Speaker 1: that happen? First of all, to Bobby Chicone, a former
2:05
Speaker 1: special agent FBI who actually worked on this case. Bobby,
2:09
Speaker 1: I want to start by describing the coffee shop and
2:13
Speaker 1: the location where Samantha goes missing, because if you take
2:16
Speaker 1: a look at it, how can anybody not see it?
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Speaker 1: I mean, Bobby Chicone, isn't there an intersection there nobody
2:24
Speaker 1: could look over and see the coffee shop? Yeah? And
2:26
Speaker 1: it's actually on a pretty busy highway. It's a two
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Speaker 1: lane each way with a divider in the middle. I
2:31
Speaker 1: was actually at that kiosk just a few months ago.
2:34
Speaker 1: I went back up to Anchorage and I stood at
2:36
Speaker 1: that coffee shop. Okay, Bobby, that's a little creepy, not
2:40
Speaker 1: that you went back, but just think about it. The
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Speaker 1: next girl that works there, what's got to be going
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Speaker 1: through her mind? So back to what you were just saying,
2:51
Speaker 1: you were just there, what did you observe? Now? I
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Speaker 1: observed that it's it is only a few parking spaces
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Speaker 1: away from this major highway that has there two lanes
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Speaker 1: running each way. It's in a shopping center that has
3:01
Speaker 1: a gym where people work out, which means people are
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Speaker 1: coming and going, you know, at all different hours of
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Speaker 1: the day or night. This shop is barely big enough
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Speaker 1: for two people to fit in. It's like a closet,
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Speaker 1: and it's made for people to drive up or walk
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Speaker 1: up to it, not to come inside, but to drive
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Speaker 1: up like an old photomats somebody my age would remember.
3:21
Speaker 1: And so it is out in the middle of kind
3:24
Speaker 1: of of a parking motters you would think. And Bobby
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Speaker 1: to count if you come forward to the street from
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Speaker 1: where Samantha was working in the coffee shop, isn't there
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Speaker 1: an intersection there, not too far ahead of the coffee shop?
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Speaker 1: There is, And there's a traffic light there where cars
3:41
Speaker 1: are you know, obviously ultinely stopped when the lights change
3:43
Speaker 1: and things like that. So there would be people, there
3:45
Speaker 1: would be cars lined up at that traffic light at
3:48
Speaker 1: different times. Yeah, that brings into a whole line of investigation.
3:54
Speaker 1: Because Cheryl McCollum, directorcal Case Research Institute, I'm always mystified
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Speaker 1: when crime goes down. Okay, let's just say tuopucks cur
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Speaker 1: that's a great, great example. Nobody saw anything. How can
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Speaker 1: you not see anything? It's in the open. This girl,
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Speaker 1: a teen girl, is working her job at a coffee
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Speaker 1: shop right there, it's lit up at night. In daytime,
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Speaker 1: you can see straight in there and see you're making coffee.
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Speaker 1: And the fact that people stopped at the red light
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Speaker 1: very often don't look either way, right, But when you
4:29
Speaker 1: do look, this is what inherited that people understand. When
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Speaker 1: you look, people normally are only going to be attracted
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Speaker 1: to something that is unusual that shouldn't be. Somebody standing
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Speaker 1: at a window of a coffee shop ordering coffee is
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Speaker 1: not going to get anybody the picture. You know. It's
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Speaker 1: a little freaky, Cheryl, but but I understand it. Usually
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Speaker 1: we think of drive throughs, right when you're at a McDonald's.
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Speaker 1: Let's just go with that. Or let's say Starbucks. This
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Speaker 1: was not a Starbucks. It was independently owned. How often
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Speaker 1: do you see somebody cut in line at McDonald's, place
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Speaker 1: an order at the drive through and walk up? Never
5:07
Speaker 1: have you ever? The only time I've seen a pedestrian
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Speaker 1: and a McDonald's drive through. It's when they were robbing
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Speaker 1: or diving through the window trying to get money. Have
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Speaker 1: you ever can I make a comment about this, Kathany,
5:22
Speaker 1: please talk some sense into Cheryl McCullum. Okay, Nancy, this
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Speaker 1: was in the dead of winter and there was a
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Speaker 1: huge snow bank between the highway and this little kiosk.
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Speaker 1: You're right, and it was dark, you know what. I
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Speaker 1: was about to bring that up, and I'm glad you
5:39
Speaker 1: beat me to it, explained Bethany the significance of that. Okay,
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Speaker 1: So this little parking lot, and as the former guest
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Speaker 1: just said, you know there was a gym, there were
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Speaker 1: other businesses, but this was nighttime. This was not in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the day. You know, the sun shining
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Speaker 1: as I understand, and when people drove up the highway,
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Speaker 1: you know, a kiosk is going to be located so
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Speaker 1: people on the highway can see it, right, because that's
6:05
Speaker 1: its best advertising. Okay, let's address that to Bobby Chicone.
6:10
Speaker 1: We have skipped ahead to the weather conditions, so let's
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Speaker 1: address it now. I was right in the middle of
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Speaker 1: addressing the fact that, for instance, when you're at a
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Speaker 1: red light, how often do you really look around. So
6:25
Speaker 1: many people are fiddling with their radio or their serious XM.
6:30
Speaker 1: Or they're talking to their children in the back seat,
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Speaker 1: they're talking on the phone. God forbid, they're texting. But
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Speaker 1: how often, Bobby chicone to, people really look around and
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Speaker 1: take in what they're seeing when they're parked at a
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Speaker 1: red light. They going and in fact, I think you
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Speaker 1: hit on it right now in our time, they're probably
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Speaker 1: finishing their last text as soon as the car comes
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Speaker 1: to a stop, and or texting out to someone. And
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Speaker 1: there's a huge lack In fact, they probably pay less
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Speaker 1: attention when they're stopped because their attention because where they're driving,
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Speaker 1: their attentions on the road. When they're not, it's probably
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Speaker 1: on their phone. And and so I you know, it's
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Speaker 1: not really an automatic given that someone just because they're
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Speaker 1: stopped in a car that light is going to be
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Speaker 1: looking around. When you actually look at the coffee stand
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Speaker 1: where Samantha went missing, Bethany's right, there's a huge snow
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Speaker 1: bank around it. This happened in Anchorage, and just looking
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Speaker 1: at it, that snowbank, it looks to be about ten
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Speaker 1: feet tall. Yeah, the night, the night of the incident
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Speaker 1: when Samantha are missing. There was a huge snowbank. This
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Speaker 1: was in winter in Anchorage. Nine o'clock at night is
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Speaker 1: really the middle of the night in Anchorage because of
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Speaker 1: how much darkness they have up there in winter. And
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Speaker 1: it was just before closing, and so many of the
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Speaker 1: people that would normally use that the regular snow when
7:49
Speaker 1: it closes, and they, you know, they just don't go
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Speaker 1: at night when it's about to close. So this was
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Speaker 1: just before closing time, and so it was empty. The
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Speaker 1: parking lot was obscure from the main road because of
8:01
Speaker 1: that huge snowbank. When they plowed that parking lot, they
8:05
Speaker 1: plowed all of the snow from the parking lot up
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Speaker 1: against the berm that separates the parking lot in the
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Speaker 1: main highway is about a ten foot stretch there of grass,
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Speaker 1: and they just piled all that snow up on that grass,
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Speaker 1: which completely obscured that parking lot from the road. With
8:21
Speaker 1: me former FBI special agent Bobby Shicon, screenwriter Criminal Minds,
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Speaker 1: who worked this case. Bobby, as I recall the photo,
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Speaker 1: you have the street, then you have the parking lot
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Speaker 1: with the coffee shop here, then the strip shopping centers
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Speaker 1: behind it, but between the coffee shop and the Strip center.
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Speaker 1: That's where the snow had been shoveled so people could
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Speaker 1: drive through or come up to the coffee shop. So
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Speaker 1: was the actual gem and everything else behind it separated
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Speaker 1: from view. The view is obscured even by them because
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Speaker 1: of the snow bank. It was, and in fact the
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Speaker 1: coff of the way. And I stirred this coffee shop
9:06
Speaker 1: and looked at it, and the way the coffee shop
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Speaker 1: is situated. It's on the side of the Strip mall,
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Speaker 1: So all those storefronts and the gym face into a
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Speaker 1: parking lot that's not where the kiosk is located. So
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Speaker 1: when you first drive in, yes, the kiosk is right there,
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Speaker 1: but it's actually on the side of the Strip mall,
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Speaker 1: so it faces this basically blank wall of the gym
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Speaker 1: that has no windows. It's actually it's actually perpendiculous, so
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Speaker 1: it faces the mini the mall faces away from the
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Speaker 1: coffee shop. Time Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking
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Speaker 1: here at Fox Nation and Series Sex and one to
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Speaker 1: eleven about the disappearance of a beautiful young eighteen year
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Speaker 1: old very working at a coffee shop until it closed
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Speaker 1: that night. Now here's the problem. Happened in Anchorage. Not
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Speaker 1: only was it in the evening near closing time, a
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Speaker 1: huge snow bank had developed around, really around the coffee stand,
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Speaker 1: separating it from the Strip Center where it was situated
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Speaker 1: in front of the strip center. But not only that,
10:26
Speaker 1: they have six months daytime, six months nighttime. Remember, so
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Speaker 1: it's pitch dark at the time Samantha was closing shop.
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Speaker 1: Really didn't matter what time of the day it was,
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Speaker 1: because it's dark. We discussed how people pulling right up
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Speaker 1: to the intersection don't look either way, don't see anything
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Speaker 1: going on around them, and sadly even the people in
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Speaker 1: that Strip Center couldn't see through a mountain of snow
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Speaker 1: a snow bank. But then the first clue emerges. Take
11:03
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at NBC Anchorage worried about
11:06
Speaker 1: her safety. The search continues tonight for a teenager kidnap
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Speaker 1: from her job at a coffee staff. We learned a
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Speaker 1: few minutes ago that the family of Samantha Coning is
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Speaker 1: offering a twelve thou five hundred dollars reward for information
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Speaker 1: leading to her whereabouts. In this weekend, family and friends
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Speaker 1: planned to post thousands of more flyers around Anchorage as
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Speaker 1: they intensify their search for the missing eighteen year old.
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Speaker 1: Detectives now say a surveillance camera posted above the entrance
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Speaker 1: to the common Grounds Espresso Hut on Tudor and Fairbanks
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Speaker 1: shows an armed man abducting Coning on Wednesday night. Please
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Speaker 1: say the two left the area on foot in Coning's
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Speaker 1: family has not heard from her, sins how in the
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Speaker 1: world could he get in, overpower her and get her
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Speaker 1: to leave without her fighting and running. At first, police
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Speaker 1: think this must be staged. Joining me crime online dot
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Speaker 1: Com and Instigator reporter at Nicole Parton, I want to
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Speaker 1: talk about the way the condition that the coffee shop
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Speaker 1: was left. Isn't it true that there was a half
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Speaker 1: made Americano cup of coffee sitting on the counter being
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Speaker 1: made when she was taken. That's correct, Nancy, there was
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Speaker 1: this half cup there being made. Of course, this was
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Speaker 1: her job. Eighteen year old Samantha had landed what her
12:20
Speaker 1: friends and family called her dream job. She had a
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Speaker 1: bubbly personality, enjoyed communicating with the public, and there was
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Speaker 1: this half made coffee. So it's believed that she was
12:31
Speaker 1: in the middle of making something for a customer who
12:35
Speaker 1: had approached the coffee shop. Take a listen now to
12:37
Speaker 1: our friends at Oxygen, one of their specials in the
12:41
Speaker 1: search for Samantha. As daybreak so for Anchorage, Samantha's dad
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Speaker 1: calls the local police to report his only daughter missing.
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Speaker 1: One of our officers contacted the owner of common Grounds
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Speaker 1: coffee shop and she was able to show them video.
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Speaker 1: A man came to the little kiosk window at eight o'clock.
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Speaker 1: Samantha made a coffee drink for him, turned back around,
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Speaker 1: and then you can tell she's shocked. You see her
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Speaker 1: body language change. She goes from someone who's just serving
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Speaker 1: someone a coffee to being very nervous and very concerned.
13:16
Speaker 1: Samantha turns out the lights and you can see the
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Speaker 1: individual jumping in through the window. You can tell she's
13:22
Speaker 1: sort of going along with him because he thinks that
13:24
Speaker 1: he's going to rob the place. It just didn't come
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Speaker 1: across to her that she was in danger until he
13:30
Speaker 1: starts walking her out of Samantha and the individual leave
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Speaker 1: the coffee stand and then disappear from the line of
13:35
Speaker 1: sight from the camera. The next day, her dad was
13:39
Speaker 1: raising hell about this, trying to figure out where his
13:41
Speaker 1: daughter went. Used this area as a meeting place because
13:45
Speaker 1: this is where my daughter was taken from. People were
13:47
Speaker 1: just literally like whose basement is she in? Whose door
13:50
Speaker 1: do we have to go knock down and to find her?
13:52
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,
14:02
Speaker 1: Travis County, Texas. That's Austin, doctor Crowns. If she's alive
14:09
Speaker 1: and she's in the elements the snow, how long can
14:14
Speaker 1: you live in snow like you would find in Anchorage, Alaska. Well,
14:19
Speaker 1: if the temperature is probably below zero, I would imagine
14:22
Speaker 1: because it's Alaska, she wouldn't be able to live very long,
14:25
Speaker 1: especially if she's not dressed for the weather. Would I
14:28
Speaker 1: would estimate she probably freeze to death within a half hour.
14:31
Speaker 1: When you freeze to death hypothermia, what happens to your body, Well,
14:37
Speaker 1: initially you become confused, and then at some point your
14:40
Speaker 1: body tries to warm you up by dilating the vessels.
14:46
Speaker 1: And when your vessels dilate, your body has this warm sensation.
14:53
Speaker 1: So often we see people undressed because they think they're
14:57
Speaker 1: getting warm right before they die. It's called paradix mexical undressing.
15:01
Speaker 1: Then after you die, your tissues, because you're mainly water,
15:05
Speaker 1: begin to freeze and you actually become as hard as
15:09
Speaker 1: a rock. Either outlook is bleak. Either she's alive and
15:15
Speaker 1: out there, or she's dead. The other possibility, as you heard,
15:20
Speaker 1: is she in somebody's basement being tortured. We hear just
15:25
Speaker 1: then about her body language. Once that security surveillance is
15:30
Speaker 1: revealed that she was surprised taken aback. But now take
15:34
Speaker 1: a listen to more from our friends at Oxygen. Just
15:38
Speaker 1: a few days into the search, police discover a promising
15:42
Speaker 1: lead new surveillance footage captured by a neighboring business from
15:46
Speaker 1: the night of Samantha's abduction. We're able to determine that
15:49
Speaker 1: Samantha walked to a white pickup truck and then the
15:52
Speaker 1: truck drives away. They could estimate about the year that
15:56
Speaker 1: it was built. It was like a ninety nine through
15:58
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven Chevrolet pickup truck white. So at
16:01
Speaker 1: that point it's a matter of trying to track found
16:04
Speaker 1: how many of those vehicles are in the Anchorage Bowl,
16:08
Speaker 1: and there were several thousand of them. Now we're on
16:10
Speaker 1: the hunt. It's like looking for a needle in a
16:13
Speaker 1: haystack for a white pickup, and that was only found
16:18
Speaker 1: through surveillance video of a neighboring business. So clearly to you,
16:24
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCullum, Director Coal Case Research Institute, he parked away
16:30
Speaker 1: from where she was, knowing his car would be spotted
16:34
Speaker 1: on that video, walked up, got her, walked her to
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Speaker 1: his white truck that was out of view of the
16:42
Speaker 1: coffee shop surveillance, and took off. If you look at
16:46
Speaker 1: the surveillance video, he's walking almost like he's got his
16:50
Speaker 1: hand on her back, like there are a couple again.
16:53
Speaker 1: There's no struggling, she's not fighting, she's not screaming. You
16:57
Speaker 1: would not notice this, I'm just telling you you wouldn't.
17:02
Speaker 1: It looks like it's just a couple walk into a
17:04
Speaker 1: trust and you know, even with the obstruction of the
17:08
Speaker 1: snowbike and the like being out, he made her turn
17:12
Speaker 1: the lights out. So nobody's going to look at a
17:14
Speaker 1: closed coffee shop and stare at it again. This whole
17:19
Speaker 1: thing just looks like it ought to be happening. I
17:22
Speaker 1: guarantee you joining me. Asky Wilcott Judge trial on your
17:26
Speaker 1: anchor Court TV. He doesn't just have his back his
17:30
Speaker 1: hand on her back. I guarantee you he's got a
17:33
Speaker 1: gun in that hand. When you said, you know, why
17:35
Speaker 1: wouldn't she be fighting for her life, that's the answer
17:38
Speaker 1: to me. It's because when someone has a gun, we
17:40
Speaker 1: don't know how we're going to react. And that beautiful
17:43
Speaker 1: young girl, probably because of the gun, just did what
17:47
Speaker 1: he said and was compliant, which I would suggest a
17:50
Speaker 1: lot of people would do in that scenario. So I
17:52
Speaker 1: absolutely agree with you. There's a gun, and that's how
17:55
Speaker 1: you get someone to comply and not fight for their lives.
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
18:06
Speaker 1: the vehicle crime stories with Nancy Grace Guy's a disappearance
18:27
Speaker 1: of this young barista ultimately ends up bringing in the FBI.
18:34
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 bring manpower, we 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: the 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: or reviewing social media, We're reviewing phone rockers, We're really
19:02
Speaker 1: looking at anything we possibly can to determine is this
19:05
Speaker 1: a personal thing with Samantha, is a person that took her,
19:08
Speaker 1: somebody that knew her? Or is this truly a stranger abduction?
19:12
Speaker 1: Then two and a half weeks after Samantha's abduction, there's
19:16
Speaker 1: a chilling turn in the case. Her boyfriend just goes
19:19
Speaker 1: sheet white. He's got his phone and there's a text
19:21
Speaker 1: from her phone. Basically it says Connor's Park underneath Albert
19:26
Speaker 1: Pick Ain't she purty? Authority's race to Connor's Lake Park,
19:30
Speaker 1: just five miles southwest of Downham Anchorage, not knowing what's
19:34
Speaker 1: waiting for them. When you enter that park, there's a
19:36
Speaker 1: bulletin board and tact was a zip block bag that
19:40
Speaker 1: had what ultimately was a photograph of Samantha and a
19:42
Speaker 1: ransom note. The fact that there was a ransom note
19:45
Speaker 1: really ratchets of the tension because of, Okay, she's alive
19:48
Speaker 1: and what are we going to do to get her back?
19:50
Speaker 1: And now we learn more details. Take a listen to
19:54
Speaker 1: our friends at Oxygen. The text message sent from Samantha's
19:57
Speaker 1: phone directs investigators to their biggest yet, a ransom note
20:01
Speaker 1: with a picture of the missing girl. In the photograph,
20:04
Speaker 1: Samantha was bound tape on her mouth, but it was
20:06
Speaker 1: obviously intentionally made fuzzier. So if they took the photograph
20:11
Speaker 1: to her father for him to identify it, he, after
20:14
Speaker 1: looking at it for a long time, said, yes, that's Samantha,
20:18
Speaker 1: but her hair was in a gray and Samantha never
20:22
Speaker 1: wore her hair that way. In the ransom note, Samantha's kidnapped,
20:25
Speaker 1: her demands thirty thousand dollars be placed in her bank account.
20:28
Speaker 1: Is really our biggest break because we know that we
20:31
Speaker 1: can still potentially have contact with a person responsible for
20:33
Speaker 1: taking Samantha. Authorities work with her dad to deposit a
20:36
Speaker 1: portion of the ransom, and then they wait. I told
20:40
Speaker 1: them he's going to use her debit carton if he
20:42
Speaker 1: was going to do something stupid, that was going to
20:44
Speaker 1: be the one thing he did that was stupid, because
20:45
Speaker 1: we could find him. Every parent's worst a nightmare. You
20:49
Speaker 1: then get a fuzzy photo like a polaroid, sent via text,
20:53
Speaker 1: and you see your daughter with her hair done in
20:57
Speaker 1: a different way. She's never done it before with a
21:01
Speaker 1: ransom note, and then the clot is ticking down. Bobby
21:05
Speaker 1: Chico and former special agent FBI screenwriter Criminal Minds. Bobby,
21:09
Speaker 1: what does this tell you about her abductor? Well, this
21:13
Speaker 1: was clearly planned that this was not a runner of
21:16
Speaker 1: the mill robbery. This was a premeditated scheme that they
21:21
Speaker 1: had in place. And my biggest question would be why
21:24
Speaker 1: wait two weeks? So that would be as an investigator,
21:27
Speaker 1: why did we wait two weeks to get this ransom demand?
21:29
Speaker 1: That's not usual in a scheme like this, But clearly
21:33
Speaker 1: there is more going on than the original video of
21:38
Speaker 1: the abduction at the coffee kiosk. So now we have
21:41
Speaker 1: a ransom man, we have a kidnapping, and now it
21:44
Speaker 1: could change the whole tenor of this thing. She's apparently
21:48
Speaker 1: still alive somewhere and now it ramps up to the
21:51
Speaker 1: emergency to find her where she being held? Can we
21:54
Speaker 1: glean anything from that photograph on where this location might
21:58
Speaker 1: be that she's held, So it really does change the
22:01
Speaker 1: whole terror and feeling of the investigation. Chery mccollumn, what
22:04
Speaker 1: would you be looking for in the photo? To help
22:07
Speaker 1: identify where Samantha's being held. I would look for anything
22:11
Speaker 1: in the backgrounds there any photographs on the wall, is there?
22:13
Speaker 1: But toular light? Is there? A sign is there showing
22:17
Speaker 1: anything on the outside. The other thing that resonates for
22:20
Speaker 1: me is you're talking about two weeks. Any sent of
22:23
Speaker 1: text message first Nancy, which means her phone is being charged.
22:27
Speaker 1: It means that he knows the principal players in her phone.
22:29
Speaker 1: Just text went to a boyfriend, not her dad. So
22:33
Speaker 1: all of this combined, and then with the odd amount
22:36
Speaker 1: of thirty thousand dollars not fifteen o one hundred thirty
22:40
Speaker 1: is an unusual number. So all of these things to
22:43
Speaker 1: me are concerning because again, if you're waiting two weeks,
22:47
Speaker 1: it ain't about the money. Well put, But then, just
22:51
Speaker 1: as the FBI agent predicted, there was a slip up.
22:55
Speaker 1: Take a list of to our friends at Oxygen. They
22:57
Speaker 1: had worked out a deal with the bank so that
23:00
Speaker 1: Anchorage Police Department and the FBI would be notified immediately
23:04
Speaker 1: when her debit card was used for anything. So a
23:08
Speaker 1: few days go by, and at this point we have
23:10
Speaker 1: our first ATM withdrawal from Samantha's account. There were three
23:13
Speaker 1: withdrawals in the city of Anchorage of five hundred dollars
23:16
Speaker 1: the daily limit in all of the ATM situations where
23:20
Speaker 1: he was using the debit card. As soon as the
23:21
Speaker 1: alerts came, we dispetial law enforcement there as quickly as
23:24
Speaker 1: we could, but we were literally minutes behind him. Then
23:27
Speaker 1: the account went silent, and on March seventh, detectives were
23:32
Speaker 1: kind of shocked because there was a withdrawal from an
23:36
Speaker 1: ATM in Wilcox, Arizona. Then there was another withdrawal in Lordsburg,
23:42
Speaker 1: New Mexico. The next withdrawal was March tenth in Humble, Texas,
23:46
Speaker 1: and then shortly after there was a withdrawal in Shepherd, Texas.
23:51
Speaker 1: Each time this money was withdrawn, it was withdrawn by
23:55
Speaker 1: a person wearing a mask. So this guy is so smart.
23:58
Speaker 1: He's using your ATM card all of the country, always
24:01
Speaker 1: wearing a mask. To Bobby's jacone. When you look carefully
24:06
Speaker 1: at that picture of Samantha being held in captivity, could
24:13
Speaker 1: you tell anything unusual about her eyes? Well? I couldn't.
24:19
Speaker 1: But we send those pictures normally to a forensic photography
24:22
Speaker 1: lab back at Quantico and at the FBI laboratory, and
24:25
Speaker 1: they do you know they were able to blow it
24:27
Speaker 1: up and maybe glean some additional information from the photograph
24:31
Speaker 1: using you know, certain technologies that it's just today, and
24:34
Speaker 1: we certainly did get some indication that, you know, that
24:39
Speaker 1: her eyes there was something about her eyes that bothered
24:43
Speaker 1: the investigators who were looking closely at the photograph, Bobby,
24:46
Speaker 1: Her eyes were soon open, were they not? Yeah, that's
24:49
Speaker 1: that was the conclusion of the people that were able
24:52
Speaker 1: to really enlaunche that picture and look at really minute
24:56
Speaker 1: details of that photograph, and it appeared that her eye
25:00
Speaker 1: were artificially held open by some kind of threading, that
25:03
Speaker 1: there was an attempt to cover it up with makeup.
25:04
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns joining me, Deputy Medical Examined, Travis County, Texas.
25:08
Speaker 1: That's Austin, doctor Crowns. How would you go about sewing
25:14
Speaker 1: someone's eyes open, so you could use thin layered supra
25:19
Speaker 1: material and then just look the needle through the eyelid
25:23
Speaker 1: and then tuck it up and pull it through the
25:26
Speaker 1: loose eyelid skin and then just make very smooth. No,
25:30
Speaker 1: it's almost like doing a an eyelid tuck or plastic surgery.
25:36
Speaker 1: Why are you saying that you don't think a plastic
25:38
Speaker 1: So what a plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills just tripped
25:42
Speaker 1: on over to Alaska, kidnapped this girl from a coffee shop,
25:47
Speaker 1: sent a ransom note. But she's already dead, obviously because
25:50
Speaker 1: her eyes are sown open. I mean, this is not
25:55
Speaker 1: a plastic surgeon. How would a regular person perform a
26:01
Speaker 1: procedure like this, obviously on a dead body. It would
26:05
Speaker 1: be using a sewing needle and thin, thin showing um bread.
26:12
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all. It's just like doing surgery. I'm
26:15
Speaker 1: sorry you haven't sewn. Many people's eye would open. What
26:18
Speaker 1: did you just say? You have or you have not? Said?
26:22
Speaker 1: Have not? Have not? Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
26:41
Speaker 1: this girl disappears in the middle of a parking lot
26:45
Speaker 1: from a coffee stand. Then this picture emerges of her
26:50
Speaker 1: with her hair and braids and her eyes sown shut.
26:54
Speaker 1: The family doesn't know she's dead. They think it's a
26:58
Speaker 1: ransom to bring her home alive. Then a screw up
27:03
Speaker 1: the perp users r ATM police rush to look at
27:07
Speaker 1: the ATM footage and he's wearing a mask. You can't
27:13
Speaker 1: see his face. To Nicole pardon crimal line dot Com
27:19
Speaker 1: investigative reporter. They outsmarted the ATM. So how did the
27:25
Speaker 1: perp get caught? Well, at this point, authorities know the
27:29
Speaker 1: type of vehicle they're looking for, they know the last
27:32
Speaker 1: transaction of the ATM card, and in a wonderful turn
27:36
Speaker 1: of event, he was actually pulled over in Texas for
27:39
Speaker 1: a traffic violation. Once the card. I'm so happy, absolutely
27:44
Speaker 1: what traffic violation is that? Well, it wasn't clear. It
27:47
Speaker 1: seems that he was going over the speed limit for
27:49
Speaker 1: a bit. But then when they pulled him over, inside
27:52
Speaker 1: the vehicle they found the ATM card, the mask, and
27:57
Speaker 1: enough evidence to bring him in. So at the time
27:59
Speaker 1: they pulled him over for the traffic violation, they don't
28:04
Speaker 1: know they have a killer. Correct, that's correct. Okay, guys,
28:10
Speaker 1: let me go to Bobby check. Bobby, I want you
28:12
Speaker 1: to take a listen to our friends at Investigation Discovery.
28:16
Speaker 1: Keys explained to us that Ms Konig had already been
28:20
Speaker 1: killed when he took that ransom photograph, that he had
28:24
Speaker 1: used a needle and thread to make her eyes appear
28:29
Speaker 1: as though she might still be alive, and Keys didn't
28:32
Speaker 1: stop there. He dismembered the body and dropped all of
28:41
Speaker 1: its parts underneath the ice of Lake MADAMUSCA. About an
28:47
Speaker 1: hour north of Anchorage, then Alaska that you build a
28:51
Speaker 1: shelter around yourself while your ice fish, and so that's
28:54
Speaker 1: what he did. He built a shelter and then he
29:02
Speaker 1: pretended to dice fish while he waded down the risk
29:06
Speaker 1: on his body and dropped it to the bottom of
29:08
Speaker 1: the lake. Joining me Bobby Chicone, special Asian FBI at
29:12
Speaker 1: the time, Bobby Chicone, you were tasked with going out
29:18
Speaker 1: onto that frozen lake and trying to recover Samantha's body.
29:25
Speaker 1: Can I ask you how did you guys figure out
29:31
Speaker 1: that he disposed of her underneath frozen ice. Well, when
29:36
Speaker 1: I got the first call, it was based on information
29:39
Speaker 1: that Keith had provided that he actually told the investigators
29:42
Speaker 1: that she was under she was at the bottom of
29:44
Speaker 1: that lake, and so we had an initial starting point.
29:48
Speaker 1: He said he had gone out there and posed as
29:51
Speaker 1: an ice fisherman, set up a set up a tent,
29:53
Speaker 1: and as they normally do, they start like little campfires
29:56
Speaker 1: or a little sti camping stoves and edique balm or
29:59
Speaker 1: eat some drinks. And when he was finished with the
30:03
Speaker 1: several trips that it took to get her body parts
30:05
Speaker 1: out there and into the lake. Um he burned a
30:09
Speaker 1: piece of plywood that he had used to drag her
30:11
Speaker 1: out there. I don't know if he had blood on
30:13
Speaker 1: it or off, but he and that when when the
30:16
Speaker 1: initial Alaska State trooper went out there, when I got
30:19
Speaker 1: that information, they dispatched somebody to run up to that
30:21
Speaker 1: lake and they did find, in fact, a small piece
30:24
Speaker 1: of plywood, half burn that had now been kind of
30:27
Speaker 1: refrozen into the lake surface because it had been, you know,
30:31
Speaker 1: several weeks since she was put there, So the lake
30:34
Speaker 1: had frozen and unfrozen and refrozen, and so that plywood
30:38
Speaker 1: was still sticking out a little bit. So we figured
30:40
Speaker 1: that was the plywood and he was talking about. So
30:42
Speaker 1: that's where we began our search. Why did you go
30:44
Speaker 1: and tell me about the recovery of Samantha's body and
30:47
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old girl? So we sat up. There
30:50
Speaker 1: was a great sunny day on that lake. It was
30:53
Speaker 1: blinding sawn off off the surface of the ice. We
30:56
Speaker 1: cut several holes in the ice. The ice was about
30:58
Speaker 1: four feet thick. It took a while to cut through
31:01
Speaker 1: that that type of ice, and so we had a
31:04
Speaker 1: lot of help. The press showed up shortly after. They
31:07
Speaker 1: were trained with long long range cameras and microphones on us.
31:10
Speaker 1: So we deployed a sonar, we deployed it. After that,
31:13
Speaker 1: we deployed a remote operated vehicle which is like a
31:15
Speaker 1: little mini underwater robot that has cameras on it. And
31:18
Speaker 1: then and I deployed my divers once we saw what
31:22
Speaker 1: we were looking for on the cameras of the robot.
31:25
Speaker 1: UM there were five separate body parts down there on
31:29
Speaker 1: the bot lake bottom and under a frozen ice, a
31:32
Speaker 1: lake is crystal clear. The water is crystal clear because
31:35
Speaker 1: all the marine lights has kind of gone dormant and
31:37
Speaker 1: in a suspended state on the bottom. Um so the
31:41
Speaker 1: water was very very clear, and the camera from the
31:44
Speaker 1: mini robot that we had under the water, I was
31:47
Speaker 1: pretty clear. And you know, I deployed my divers and
31:50
Speaker 1: they had cameras on their helmets, so I watched the
31:52
Speaker 1: entire operation as they as they made their way to
31:55
Speaker 1: Samantha and brought her back. I've thought many times about
32:00
Speaker 1: what you went through as you were having your divers
32:03
Speaker 1: bring up one bag after the next after the next,
32:05
Speaker 1: and you would take the bag knowing it hells Samantha's
32:11
Speaker 1: body parts, this little girl's eighteen years old dismembered body.
32:17
Speaker 1: What was that like in your mind? Well, you know,
32:20
Speaker 1: you don't deal with that at the time, and certainly
32:22
Speaker 1: this wasn't, unfortunately, our first recovery, and we had recovered
32:25
Speaker 1: children prior, and we had recovered unfortunately, even younger children
32:29
Speaker 1: prior of his youngest four and five years old. In fact,
32:33
Speaker 1: some of us as as young as eighteen months old. But
32:35
Speaker 1: that were all victims. But so you you really put
32:38
Speaker 1: that out of your mind. You focus on the job
32:40
Speaker 1: at hand. But one thing I want to correct, um
32:43
Speaker 1: Nancy that you know, Keys had made demand of the
32:46
Speaker 1: investigators that we not release the particular detail that she
32:51
Speaker 1: was dismembered, that she was cut up, and he had
32:53
Speaker 1: reasons for that, and so when we did, you're you're
32:56
Speaker 1: absolutely right. What we would normally do is put each
32:58
Speaker 1: part that we found set into a separate bag and
33:01
Speaker 1: bring them up. In this particular case, because we knew
33:03
Speaker 1: the media was watching us and we didn't want that
33:05
Speaker 1: detail to emerge, so we actually I had my divers
33:09
Speaker 1: actually put all of Samanta into one bag and we
33:12
Speaker 1: brought her up in one bag to make it look
33:15
Speaker 1: like the body might still be intact, and then we
33:17
Speaker 1: moved that bag quickly into another pop up shelter near
33:21
Speaker 1: the hole in the ice where the medical examiners investigators
33:24
Speaker 1: with air. That's when we transferred her to the medical examiner.
33:27
Speaker 1: I want you to hear from our friend Neil Kolinski.
33:31
Speaker 1: What at ABC what we learn Bobby Chicon and his
33:35
Speaker 1: team learn about Israel Keys. Listen. He told agents something
33:40
Speaker 1: they'd never heard before, that he left kill kits or
33:43
Speaker 1: cashes buried in several states filled with everything he'd need
33:48
Speaker 1: to commit a murder. They were in waterproof containers or
33:51
Speaker 1: five gallon buckets and included guns and different things he
33:54
Speaker 1: could use to dispose of bodies. His strategy to grab
33:58
Speaker 1: people in remote location like parks, campgrounds, even cemeteries. Every
34:03
Speaker 1: serial killer, including I believe mister Keys, are not crazy.
34:07
Speaker 1: You cannot be that organized and deliberate and fit any
34:10
Speaker 1: legal definition of insanity. We learned that Israel Keys got
34:14
Speaker 1: a quote high from killing. To doctor Bethany Marshall, what
34:19
Speaker 1: kind of mind criss crosses the country hiding kill kits
34:23
Speaker 1: in various locations searching for prey, including in campgrounds and
34:28
Speaker 1: RV Parks. What kind of mind is that, Bethany Well Nancy.
34:32
Speaker 1: This kind of a mind is motivated by sex and cruelty.
34:39
Speaker 1: Those are the two basic motivations in men. Aggression and
34:43
Speaker 1: sexuality are mediated through the same neural nets. And what
34:48
Speaker 1: that means is that for sociopath sadism, sex killing, all
34:55
Speaker 1: of those same drives get fused. They're all acted out
34:59
Speaker 1: at once. Serial killers are very empty individuals. They cannot
35:05
Speaker 1: feel excitement in normal ways, like holding a baby or
35:08
Speaker 1: looking at the sunshine. They can only feel excitement by
35:12
Speaker 1: inflicting cruelty. And their sex drive is enormous, and they
35:16
Speaker 1: spend hours thinking about who they're going to kill, and
35:20
Speaker 1: all those hours driving around and preparing the kill kids.
35:23
Speaker 1: It's like a four play before sex. It's like the
35:27
Speaker 1: prodromal or the lead up to this very exciting event
35:30
Speaker 1: in their life. And they spend so much time searching
35:33
Speaker 1: that often they're not prolific and they're killing because the
35:37
Speaker 1: searching and the ritual life aspect leading up to the
35:40
Speaker 1: killing is more important than the act itself. Here is
35:43
Speaker 1: the good news of this scenario. Israel Keys is dead.
35:51
Speaker 1: We may never know how many people he killed across
35:54
Speaker 1: the country because there's no logical connection. But we do
35:58
Speaker 1: know he is dead. He died behind bars. Good luck
36:04
Speaker 1: with him, Satan. Nancy Grace cried story signing off, good
36:10
Speaker 1: bye friend,