ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A serial killer’s recent suicide has prompted federal prosecutors to seek dismissal of charges in the slaying of an Alaska barista.

Prosecutors in Anchorage said in a motion filed this week that the indictment against Israel Keyes “is abated by his death” by law.

A federal magistrate recommends granting the motion and has forwarded it to the judge assigned to the case against Keyes, who confessed to the February murder of 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig in Anchorage, as well as others across the country.

Keyes confessed to the 2011 murders of Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vt., and as many as five unnamed victims, four in Washington state and one on the East Coast, the body dumped in New York. Investigators believe there could be more victims as well.