Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Missing Barista Case

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (AP) – A 34-year-old man accused of kidnapping and killing an 18-year-old barista from an Anchorage coffee shack has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Israel Keyes, who was arrested in East Texas, entered his pleas through his lawyer in U.S. District Court on Thursday in Anchorage. A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Keyes in the death of Samantha Koenig. Keyes pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping resulting in death, receiving and possessing ransom money, and debit card fraud.

Prosecutors believe that Keyes abducted Koenig on the evening of Feb. 1 just as she was preparing to close the coffee shack for the day, and then killed her the next morning. Koenig’s body was pulled two months later from the bottom of a frozen lake north of the city in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Keyes was arraigned March 27 in federal court in Anchorage on a fraud charge, shortly after being returned from Lufkin, Texas, where he was arrested. If convicted, Keyes could be sentenced to life in prison or death.