American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

by Maureen Callahan

Keyes was one of the most terrifying subjects they had ever encountered. There was no precedent for a serial killer with this MO: no victim type; no fixed location for hunting, killing, and burying; putting thousands of miles between himself and his victims; caches buried all over the United States. He avoided detection through travel. Travel! They thought about how onerous travel itself could be: booking flights; clearing post-9/11 security and searches; hoping a flight isn’t delayed or canceled; doing the paperwork involved in renting a car and then relying only on paper maps, no Garmin satellite or Google; checking into a hotel or setting up a campsite; filing for hunting and fishing licenses—to say nothing of successfully finding a victim, or victims, while trying to retrieve some cache buried months or years ago, the locations only in his head; then expertly disposing of his victims’ remains and leaving no evidence behind.