Serial Killer Found Dead: Israel Keyes, Samantha Koenig Murder Suspect, Commits Suicide In Jail

Police said Israel Keyes, the suspect in the Samantha Koenig murder case, as well as the possible suspect in other slayings around the country, was found dead in his jail cell Sunday of an apparent suicide.

Keyes, 34, was facing a March trial in Alaska for the murder of Koenig, an 18-year-old barista from Anchorage who went missing last February. Police said Keyes confessed to killing Koenig after he was arrested in Texas using her debit card as well as confessed to the killings of others around the country. Keyes faced the death penalty in the Koenig case.

Anchorage police chief Mark Mew told CBS Keyes admitting to killing Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vt. in June 2011, as well as four other victims whom he did not name in Washington state and another in New York.

Police did not release the details as to how Keyes killed himself but said he was alone in his cell when the apparent suicide happened.

According to the Associated Press, Israel Keyes owned a construction company in Anchorage and served in the Army for three years before starting his own construction business in Alaska in 2007.

Samantha Koenig went missing on Feb. 1 and was last seen on footage from a surveillance camera being forced away from the coffee shop she worked at with an armed man alleged to be Keyes.

The FBI said Keyes killed Koenig a day after she was kidnapped. Her body was found April 2 in an icy lake north of Anchorage. Koenig's family said there was no connection between the 18-year-old and Keyes prior to the murder.

Keyes was eventually found after stealing Koenig's debit card from her car and making withdrawals from automated teller machines in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Keyes also used her phone to send texts to hide her death, one of which included the demand for a ransom. He arrested in Texas charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Samantha Koenig.

After admitting to the slayings of others, the FBI said there may be victims in the four states Keyes admitted as well as other states across the country. The FBI said Keyes didn't have a clear pattern in the victims nor a motive other than money.