Keyes’ Family Pastor Says Killer Ranted at Wedding

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A Texas pastor says an Alaska murder suspect who confessed to targeting people across the country ranted at his sister’s March wedding about how he didn’t believe in God. Israel Keyes told authorities he killed Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig and at least seven others over the past decade. He was found dead last Sunday in his Anchorage jail cell after he killed himself. Pastor Jacob Gardner told The Anchorage Daily News that he was traveling with Keyes’ mother and other relatives for the killer’s funeral Sunday in Deer Park, Wash. Gardner says Keyes attended a sister’s wedding in March in Texas, where he ranted about how he didn’t believe in God. That would have been shortly before his arrest in Lufkin. The pastor says some of the preaching there had targeted Keyes to get him to “denounce his atheism.” But Gardner says the ceremony ended with Keyes raging against God.