Medical examiner confirms body is Samantha Koenig

ANCHORAGE — Police say a state medical examiner confirmed that the body recovered Monday from Matanuska Lake is Samantha Koenig.

“It’s her,” Anchorage Police Department Spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said Thursday afternoon.

FBI divers descended on the lake Monday, cutting a hole in the ice and, eventually, announcing they had found a body they believed to be Koenig’s. Official confirmation, as it does in most cases, came later from the medical examiner.

By Thursday morning, at the entrance to Matanuska Lake Park a makeshift memorial had sprung up with flowers tied to a road sign. A pink teddy bear sat at the base of the sign and a note saying simply “Samantha Rest in Peace” was taped to the signpost below the flowers.

Anchorage carpenter Israel Keyes has been arrested in connection with Koenig’s disappearance, which dominated headlines in Anchorage since she went missing in Feb. 1.

As of Thursday afternoon, Keyes had not been charged with her murder, only with fraud for using someone else’s debit card. He was arrested in Texas and flown back to Alaska. His case is being handled in the federal system.

At a press conference Monday, police and FBI stopped just short of saying explicitly they believe Keyes is the alleged murderer. Parker said that since it’s a federal case involving the FBI, the rules for what information can be released are different.

“Detectives are still working the case hard and when they’re ultimately finished we’ll be able to release a little bit more,” he said. But for now, “We have to be very careful about how much we share.“