Israel Keyes was born in Cove, Utah, on January 7th, 1978, the first boy and the second of 10 children to Heidi and John Jeffrey Keyes. Heidi and John did not believe in government interference, public schools, or modern medicine. Heidi Keyes changed religions as often as an average woman changed her mind. In Israel’s early childhood, the Keyes family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and were practicing Mormons. When Israel was four, Heidi and John moved their family to the woods outside Colville, a small rural town near the Canadian border in northeast Washington. Where they became Christian fundamentalists and joined an Amish church. The Keyes family lived almost entirely off the grid without heat, electricity, or running water. The Keyes children were homeschooled and had little contact with the outside world, apart from attending church. Due to being raised in an isolated lifestyle, Israel Keyes was essentially invisible since birth. He did not have a birth certificate, a social security number, or any hospital or school records. As I stated earlier, due to their religious beliefs, the Keyes family did not believe in any medical intervention, which eventually cost John Keyes his life. In the woods outside of Colville, the Keyes children were forced to work. They slept in tents outside on the property and did odd jobs to contribute to the family, cutting wood and working on neighbor’s farms. The boys helped their father contribute to food on the table by hunting for food on their property. The property consisted of several run-down buildings and several log cabins that Israel built himself in his early teens. During Israel’s teen years, Heidi moved the family from their Amish-style church to a church called the Ark. A church that Israel described as a Militant Millicent church. The Ark was a Christian Identity church, a church that was listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, “Christian Identity (CID) is an antisemitic, racist theology that rose to a position of commanding influence on the racist right in the 1980s. “Christian” in name only, asserts that white people, not Jewish people, are the true Israelites favored by God in the Bible.” In other words, a white supremacist group. The Ark, which is now known as Our Place Fellowship, the pastor of this church, Dian Henry, preaches that white people are the superior chosen race and the bible is their story. Israel began showing signs of Psychopathy at this time, which only further isolated him from his peers and also helped him develop the dissonance that would help him become a successful and inconspicuous serial killer. In an interview with Israel Keyes, he states “I’ve known since I was fourteen there were things that I thought were normal and that were okay that others didn’t think were normal or okay.” Israel talks about a time when a friend was staying with the Keyes family and his sister had a cat, and he told his sister if the cat got into the trash again he would kill it. Israel and some friends went out to the woods together and he had the cat with him. In an interview, he states “I took a piece of a parachute cord and I tied it to this tree, the parachute cord was about ten feet long and I had a 22 revolver with me and I shot it in the stomach and it ran around and around the tree and crashed into the tree, and it started vomiting, like for me I didn’t really react, I laughed a little I think as it ran around the tree, but then I looked over the kid that was with me started throwing up and acted traumatized I would say, and he told his dad about it and of course, his dad talked to my parents about it and that was the last time anyone went into the woods with me.” As gruesome as that statement by Israel is, keep in mind he laughed throughout that statement as if It wasn’t a big deal;. Israel did have friends throughout his teenage years, the Keyho family who were neighbors of the Keyes, also attended the Ark church, and their two oldest sons, Chevy and Shane became good friends with Israel. According to Jail House Interviews, the three boys would break into nearby cabins and steal guns from their neighbors. Israel has also been sighted by various sources of attending neo-Nazi campaigns with the Keyho family in the early 90s. Around 1996, the Keyes family moved to Oregon and it was around this time that Israel started to question religion. In his late teenage years, Israel told his family that he no longer shared their faith and he was evicted from his family home and his siblings were told to never speak to him again. On July 9, 1998, Keyes relocated to New York, where he enlisted in the US Army. He served as a Specialist in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, before passing a rigorous U.S. Army Rangers training course. He was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Lewis in Washington, and Sinai in Egypt. Although no crimes were reported during his time in Egypt, he did reportedly tell a fellow soldier that he would “like to kill him.” While at Fort Lewis, Keyes was known to keep to himself and drink heavily on the weekends. His only trouble with the law during this time was in February of 2001 when he received a DUI. Keyes received an Army achievement medal for his service as a gunner and an assistant gunner from December 1998 to July 2001. He was then honorably discharged and settled on the Makah reservation of Neah Bay, Washington. In 2000, Israel became involved with a woman he met on the Makah reservation in Washington. The next year, their daughter, whose name has not been revealed to the public, was born in July 2001. After being honorably discharged, he went on to live with the mother of his child from 2001 – 2007. In 2007, Israel moved to Alaska to live with a nurse practitioner he had been dating and brought his daughter with him. Once Israel was settled in Alaska, he started his own business, Keyes Construction, where he worked as a handyman, contractor, and construction worker. Israel was a member of the community, he was a family man, and anyone who knew him would say he was a great guy. One of Israel’s idols in the serial killer world was Ted Bundy, he definitely displayed similar aspects to Ted Bundy. After his arrest, Keyes expressed his desire to prevent his daughter from suffering due to his actions: “I want my kid to have a chance to grow up… you know… she’s in a safe place now, she’s not going to see any of this. I want her to have a chance to grow up and not have all this hanging over her head.” Israel Keyes only confessed and revealed two murders during his interrogations, however, the FBI has theories and speculations of 10-20 murders, although nothing is confirmed. This post is to analyze and look at how Israel Keyes was raised and his early life going into his first murder. As a writer, I feel that it is very important to understand where serial killers come from and to see if their upbringing has any ties to the cause of someone becoming such a horrific serial killer. My next two posts will consist of the murders that are confirmed by Israel Keyes and shed light on the confessions and interrogations of Israel Keyes. Stay tuned to dive into more of the sinister acts of Israel Keyes. Please leave any comments you would like to add. Thank you for reading! Resources for this post include the True Crime Bullshit podcast.