Today is Monday, February 1st, 2021. On this day in 2012, serial killer Israel

Keys kidnapped 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in Alaska. Her murder would lead to his undoing.

Welcome to Today in True Crime, a Spotify original from Parkast.

Today we're covering prolific serial killer, Israel Keys, and the victims he took.

Let's go back to the night of February 1st, 2012, on a snowy road in Anchorage,

Alaska.

18-year-old Samantha Koenig was finishing up her shift at Common Grounds, the little coffee

stand where she worked.

It was a bright blue shack with a drive-up window that mostly served morning commuters,

though on wintry nights like this, plenty of people stopped by for hot chocolates.

Around 8 p.m., a man walked up to the window and knocked. He

was covered head to toe, including a ski mask, but that wasn't uncommon when it was this cold out.

Samantha opened the window to take the man's order. Instead, footage later obtained from

security cameras showed her jumping back,

arms raised, as though someone had pulled a gun on her. Investigators later believed the

man in black told her to turn off the lights. She was quick to comply. After that, the shack went dark, save for the ambient light filtered in through the window.

The light cut out for a moment as the assailant jumped through the window and inside the coffee shack.

Seemingly at gunpoint, the man held Samantha close and escorted her out of the shack. The pair trudged

through the snow and across the street where a pickup truck was waiting. Meanwhile, Samantha's

family waited for their daughter to return home. Their worry grew when she failed to return

their texts and phone calls.

Several hours later, Samantha's boyfriend received a text from her phone,

...