New ‘DEVIANT’ podcast tells stories about people who do ‘very bad things’ including Utah-born serial killer Israel Keyes
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IDAHO FALLS — A new true crime podcast launched this week promises to tell “good stories about bad people who do very bad things” and the first episode focuses on a serial killer nobody knew existed until he was arrested.
It’s called DEVIANT and is hosted by Dan Szematowicz and Andrew Iden. The journalists have spent years reporting on crime and are bringing their talents to the podcast.
“We are going to delve into people who do bad things and try to explore the psychology behind it, the behavior and why people do the things they do,” Iden told EastIdahoNews.com.
The creators are behind the popular award-winning ‘Down The Hill: The Delphi Murders’ podcast. DEVIANT will feature different people in each series with the first being Israel Keyes.
Keyes was born in Utah in 1978 and was the second of ten children. Their family lived in a one-room cabin without electricity or running water.
He went on to murder at least three people and is suspected of killing many more. He also committed dozens of felonies including armed robbery, arson, rape, and burglary across the country between 2001 and 2012.
“The story of Israel Keyes is one of a guy who hid in plain sight for years. He was arrested in 2012 for the murder and abduction of a girl named Samantha Koenig in Anchorage, Alaska. Upon his arrest, when he started talking to authorities about what he had done to her, he actually spilled the beans and outlined for investigators that he was actually a guy who had been committing heinous crimes for years,” Iden explains.
Keyes committed his crime in “one of the most meticulous ways law enforcement or the American public has ever seen,” according to Iden.
For example, Keyes flew to Chicago in 2009, drove to Vermont and buried a “kill kit” in the woods. He returned to Alaska and two years later, flew back to Vermont, dug up the kill kit and picked people at random to murder.
Once abducted, Keyes outlined for investigators the details of his crimes.
“We’re going to do as many episodes as it takes to tell his story and then we’re going to turn around and have a new story the next week,” Iden says.
You can learn more and listen to DEVIANT here.
Watch our entire interview with Andrew Iden in the video player above.