FBI seeks help in rape case

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The FBI is turning to the public to learn more about a confessed serial killer who claimed to have raped a teenage girl near Maupin in the late 1990s.

Israel Keyes slashed his wrists and strangled himself with a bedsheet last December in an Alaska jail, where he was awaiting trial for the rape, murder and dismemberment of a woman abducted from an Anchorage coffee stand. The woman’s killing was Keyes’ final act in a 15-year crime spree he claimed began with the rape of the girl near Maupin, and went on to include the murders of 11 people and multiple instances of bank robbery, burglary and arson.

Keyes identified just three victims by name — Samantha Koenig, the Anchorage barista, and Bill and Lorraine Currier, a Vermont couple whose bodies were never recovered. Koenig’s body is the only one recovered of the 11 people Keyes claimed to have killed. He told investigators there was little or no media coverage concerning the disappearances of his other victims, though investigators recovered two caches of weapons and other supplies Keyes said he’d buried to assist him in committing future crimes.

Beth Anne Steele, spokeswoman with the Portland FBI office, said Keyes was not always forthcoming in the interviews conducted before his suicide. Due to the lack of detail in his accounts, it’s been difficult for investigators to know where to begin.

In one account given by Keyes, he claimed to have killed a couple in Washington sometime between 2001 and 2005. He said he disposed of the bodies near a valley and may have moved their car to place distance between it and the crime scene, but he declined to tell investigators if the victims were Washington residents or tourists, or abducted from a nearby state.

“Trying to tie all of these pieces together with a large amount of travel and a large number of unknown time periods is really difficult,” Steele said.

Keyes’ description of the Maupin rape, which he claimed to have committed in the summer of 1997 or 1998 against a 14- to 18-year-old girl who was tubing on the Deschutes River, is similarly light on detail. No police report exists describing such an incident, though investigators said it’s possible the rape was never reported to law enforcement.

On Tuesday, the FBI launched a website detailing what is known about Keyes’ claimed criminal activity and travel between the Maupin incident and his arrest in Alaska in March 2012.

The FBI site includes more than 61⁄2 hours of videotaped interviews between Keyes and investigators, as well as transcripts of the interviews. Keyes makes no mention of Oregon or the Maupin assault in the interviews, though in a news release, the FBI claimed Keyes was living in Maupin at the time of the alleged rape.

Steele said investigators hope to identify the rape victim, as well as anyone who may have known Keyes while he was living in Oregon.

Oregon court records show no evidence Keyes was ever arrested or cited by state law enforcement.

If you have information, the FBI asks that you contact the 24-hour Oregon office at 503-224-4181.