Man transported to Alaska following indictment in Houston cold case

Just over twelve years after death of Loy Suthammavong, Palmer Judicial Services and the Anchorage Service Unit transported Keenon Leland Keyes from Idaho to Alaska for an extraditable arrest warrant for the charges of Murder I and Murder II. His bail was set at $500,000 cash appearance and comes with a stipulation of a court- approved third party. Keyes was also arrested for an in-state outstanding arrest warrant for two counts of Assault IV with no bail conditions.

Keyes had been serving time for domestic violence in Idaho, serving a 15-year sentence in Idaho for felony aggravated assault, felony injury to a child and possession of a firearm by a felon. The Spokane Spokesman-Review reported that a jury convicted Keyes of those crimes in January, 2023, after he fired a gun at his wife and 3-year-old child in Coeur d’Alene in August of 2022.

Keyes is charged with shooting and killing the 30-year-old Suthammavong on Dec. 3, 2011, in his home in Houston. At the time, Alaska State Troopers (AST) said at the time that Suthammavong’s family reported he was last seen alive on about Dec. 2.

AST began their investigation into his disappearance, while investigators in South Anchorage were responding to a vehicle that had been set on fire. The vehicle ended up belonging to Suthammavong, and Anchorage police and fire investigators ruled it an arson.

In March of 2012, hikers out snowshoeing in Eklutna found his body. AST would later say that he died as the result of a homicide. During the course of their investigation, it was revealed that Suthammavong was about to begin serving a sentence on two felony drug charges. On Dec. 12, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to report to prison.

During the initial investigation, friends and relatives “with prevailing concerns that he met with criminal violence of some sort,” according to a press statement issued at the time.

The case went cold until September 2022, when the Alaska State Troopers’ Cold Case Investigation Unit (CCIU) reopened the case.

“Your Alaska State Troopers will never give up on a murder investigation, and we will not rest until we have brought justice to anyone who takes the life of an Alaskan,” said Alaska Bureau of Investigation Commander Tony Wegrzyn in a press release in July, 2023, when a Palmer grand jury indicted 36-year-old Keyes on one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.

As reported in July, the case was presented to the grand jury by the Office of Special Prosecutions’ Cold Case Prosecutor, whose office maintains statewide responsibility for the prosecution of cases that have gone unsolved for a period of at least five years.

This is the fifth cold case indicted by the Office of Special Prosecutions in 2023.

“To anyone who victimizes Alaskans, know that sooner or later the Alaska State Troopers will find you, arrest you, and work with our partners at the Alaska Department of Law to hold you accountable for your actions. The indictment of Keenon Keyes is evidence of that.”

Defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted at trial, Keyes faces a sentence of up to 99 years of imprisonment.