Samantha Koenig Missing in Anchorage: Israel Keyes Arrested As Suspect, Search for Alaska Teen Continues
Samantha Koenig, the teen barista from Alaska who was allegedly kidnapped, is still missing but authorities arrested a suspect named Israel Keyes, a man who owns a construction company in Anchorage, this week.
According to authorities, 34-year-old Keyes was arrested this week as a person of interest in Lufkin, Texas for the disappearance of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig.
He's the only person we charged and the only person of interest. The biggest thing at this time is that we haven't found Samantha Koenig and we don't know her whereabouts, Detective Slawomir Markiewicz told the Anchorage Daily News.
The charges against Keyes have not been fully disclosed other than the charge filed in a Texas federal courthouse for access device fraud.
According to Police spokeswoman Anita Shell, the warrant will remain sealed as Anchorage police, FBI and Texas authorities review the details.
Because of the sensitivity of the case, they sealed it so it didn't compromise the case, she told the Associated Press.
Shell also said police are interviewing anyone who might have more information on Keyes.
They're just wanting to talk to anybody who may have had contact with him in the past to see if there's any links that they can put together, Shell said.
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. Detective Slawomir Markiewicz did not address whether or not Keyes looked like the man seen in the video.
We haven't found evidence linking him to her, Markiewicz told the Anchorage Daily News. We don't know if he knew her before (she disappeared).
Since the footage was reviewed by police, her family and countless members of her community have posted flyers in the search for Samantha Koenig.
According to the Associated Press, Israel Keyes served in the Army for three years before starting his own construction business in Alaska in 2007.
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