FBI doubts Keyes behind Pinnacle Lake murders

SEATTLE — Before serial killer Israel Keyes ended his life in an Alaska jail cell in 2012, he talked about leaving behind a trail of death.

The FBI Tuesday released more information about its investigation into the former Washington state man.

The interactive page is complete with video, a timeline and a pin map of Keyes’ movements. It reflects results of the investigation that the FBI continues to pursue in conjunction with law enforcement agencies around the country.

Keyes lived in Washington from 2001 to 2007. Investigators believe Keyes is responsible for at least 11 homicides. Among other killings, he claimed to have killed at least one person and dumped the body in Lake Crescent on the Olympic Peninsula.

“He gave us a number of clues,” Anchorage-based special agent Jolene Goeden said in a press release. “He talked openly about some of the homicides, but much of what he said only hinted at the things he had done. So we are trying to get information out there about what he did tell us. We are letting the public know the types of cars he rented, towns he visited, campgrounds he frequented. Anything that might spur someone’s memory could help us.”

The FBI’s Seattle office has been working with local police and tribal officers in Washington, reviewing unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.

The investigation has all but ruled out Keyes as being responsible for the still-unsolved murders of a Seattle mother and her daughter while they were hiking on the flanks of Mt. Pilchuck in 2006, FBI spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich said Tuesday.

“Based on that review, FBI investigators find that it is highly unlikely that Mr. Keyes is connected to the tragic deaths of Mary Cooper and her daughter Susanna Stodden on July 11, 2006 on the Pinnacle Lake Trail in Snohomish County, Washington,” she said in a press release.

Cooper, 56, and Stodden, 27, were fatally shot and left deep in the woods along a hiking trail. Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives continue to search for whoever killed the pair.

The FBI urged anyone with information about the killings of Cooper and Stodden to call the sheriff’s office tip line at (425) 388-3845 or Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound toll-free at 800-CRIME13 (800-274-6313).

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