The body of confessed serial killer Israel Keyes returned home to Washington state, one week after he killed himself in an Alaska jail.
"He was not only a murderer of others but a murderer of himself, in the end." said Pastor Jake Gardner.
The family's pastor spoke on behalf of Keyes' mother and sisters at a very small funeral in Deer Park Sunday. He said no matter how much Keyes' Christian family tried to persuade him to change his ways, he rejected the gospel.
"It's a heavy weight to know that a soul that you have loved and you have prayed for. We have prayed for him for hours and hours and hours. We've wept tears over this man, in secret places where he knew not. We were weeping for him. We pled with him for hours. And so it's like losing a child."
The pastor says earlier this year, Israel's sister tried again to convert her brother, not knowing he was a murderer.
"He had committed all the murders that he's now confessed to and many other things that he's still suspect for. And she said, not knowing any of this, to him, that the Lord can forgive you. It doesn't matter what you've done, he can forgive you. Holding back tears as she's pleading with him. And he, she said, even he was holding back tears, tears, welling up saying, 'You don't know what I've done. You don't know the depths of darkness that I've gone to. You don't know what I've done."
Keyes' family now grieves because their own faith was not enough to save him.
The pastor says the family thought it was important to share their thoughts publicly because of the notoriety of this case, to show they tried to change him.
The pastor wouldn't give details, but said Israel will be buried in Washington. He had nine siblings and the majority did not attend the funeral for religious differences, among other reasons.
Click here for the FBI request for public assistance on the travels of Israel Keyes.
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