Posted on 07/13/2005 6:24:29 AM PDT by GPBurdell
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago
Convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan bragged to his 8-year-old captive during more than six weeks on the run, telling her how he used a shotgun and hammer to kill her family after staking out their home for days, court documents show.
Shasta Groene remembered it all and has been providing authorities with details that are building a strong case against Duncan.
Duncan was charged Tuesday with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping in the deaths of Shasta's mother Brenda Groene, 40, her brother Slade, 13, and Groene's boyfriend Mark McKenzie, 37. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
"He told her he was out driving around looking for children to kidnap," Kootenai County sheriff's detective Brad Maskell testified during a probable cause hearing. "He ... saw her playing in the yard with her brother and wearing a bathing suit. At that point he chose them as possible kidnap victims."
Public defender John Adams declined to comment after the hearing. "We try to do our litigation in the courtroom," he said.
Shasta's ordeal began when she heard her mother call her into the living room early on the morning of May 16. Her mother, brother and McKenzie were bound with zip-ties and duct tape.
Duncan then bound her and Dylan and left them on the ground outside near a swing set. Shasta said she heard McKenzie yell out several times, and at one point they saw Slade stagger, incoherent and bleeding profusely from the head, out of the home. The children yelled for Slade to untie them, but he was unable to respond.
Shasta remembered that Duncan wore dark gloves and had a shotgun and night-vision goggles. She also recalled the brand name of the hammer used to bludgeon the victims, which Duncan showed her after the attacks.
During weeks of captivity at a remote campsite in western Montana, Duncan told Shasta that he cased the family's home for two to three days, using his goggles to look in the windows and study the family's habits and the layout.
"Shasta was very specific that Mr. Duncan is the only person responsible for these acts," Maskell added.
Shasta was rescued early in the morning of July 2, when employees at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene recognized her and called police. She has since been reunited with her father.
Dylan was found dead in Montana last week.
Duncan had been charged with kidnapping Shasta and Dylan, but those state charges will be dismissed and instead handled by the federal court system because the youngsters were taken across a state line, authorities said.
Officials have alleged that the children were repeatedly sexually molested during their ordeal, and sheriff Rocky Watson has said he believes the motive for the killings was to acquire the children for sex.
Duncan was released on $15,000 bail earlier this year in Becker County, Minn., after being charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy. Police in Fargo, N.D., where Duncan lived, had been looking for him since he failed to check in with a probation agent there in May.
Duncan had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Tacoma, Wash.
Buzz
Buzz Blog
That sick bastard sadly will never get what he deserves.
A merciful death is far too good for him.
Me, too! Problem is he deserves so much more than our laws deliver or than we civilized people are able to do.
Skin peeling time.
And I really hope that the bastards who released this guy on bail are forced to read, memorize, and correctly recite every single word of this little girl's testimony.
Thank, you liberal Minnesota.
why is he still alive?
Words cannot describe the punishment this piece of human excrement deserves. I cannot fathom the depths of this poor girl's terror and misery at the hands of this monster. First, he should have his hands and feet amputated and allowed to heal. Then slowly, piece by piece, remove parts of him that are not required for life, until just a hollow carcass, barely capable of living remains. Then just put in a feeding tube and put it in a room to itself, no sound, light or any type of sensory data input.........
Convict him and then put him in the prison's general population. He'll definitely get what he deserves. He'd last less than a year in general population.
I hope the justice system throughout this entire country finally gets it through their heads that child molesters are NOT people with a "little sex problem". They are out to destroy the most vulnerable among us -- our children -- through sex, intimidation, torture and fear. First offenders = 25 years. And that includes school teachers.
Well, I hope Duncan fries (for him they should bring back "Old Sparky"---no lethal injection for that slimeball)--but there is another culpable party here, and that is the idiot judge in Minnesota who let Duncan out on bail. He should be impeached and never hold a public office of any sort again.
The Constitution says "cruel AND unusual". As long as it's one OR the other apparently, it's okay............
I pray that this brave little girl will eventually be able to overcome the trauma she has been put through.
"If convicted, he could face the death penalty."
That's the part that scares me: IF CONVICTED. Kill him now, I say.
First offenders = 25 years
***
Nope...I say, the death penalty -- first time offense too.
None of these sorry excuses for human beings should be allowed to live.
I like your thinking.
I hope that the judge that turned him loose gets what he has coming to him also. Those poor kids. My heart bleeds for them.
Maybe you could explain why they should continue to live.
Night vision goggles?
It seems as if this nut got his modus operandi from "Man Hunter" and "Silence of the Lambs."
Thanks, I'm just an old softy at heart, I guess.......
Duncan was released on $15,000 bail earlier this year in Becker County, Minn., after being charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy. Police in Fargo, N.D., where Duncan lived, had been looking for him since he failed to check in with a probation agent there in May.
Is O'Reilly going after this judge?
This guy is what rope and tall trees are for
Were I that judge, at the very least, I would have resigned my judgeship on the grounds of impaired judgement, and begged the family and society in general for forgiveness.
There is no way this is the first time this guy has killed.
A more complicated crime? I honestly don't care about the lives of these animals.
Yet another victory for the ACLU
CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER.....
Someone explaint to me why this guy was ever let out?????
And he paid with a $1,500 bond.
Throw him into general population. It may be quick, but it will not be merciful.
"...sheriff Rocky Watson has said he believes the motive for the killings was to acquire the children for sex."
And what do you want to bet that this troglodyte spent hours exercising his First Amendment right to view kiddie porn - but hey it's ok because those aren't real children they just look like real children.
That is the reason that there are so many crimes against our children.
LONDON, March 16 (IranMania) – An Iranian serial killer convicted of kidnapping and murdering 21 children, was publicly flogged and hanged south of Tehran on Wednesday before thousands of spectators according to Agence France Press (AFP).
Mohammad Bijeh, branded "the vampire of the desert" in the Iranian press, was lashed 100 times, stabbed in the back by a furious brother of one victim before a blue nylon rope was placed around his neck by the mother of another murdered child.
The 22-year-old killer, who moaned and screamed throughout the ordeal, was then hauled into the air by a crane to cries from the crowd of "make him twist".
"Dance and think of what you did to our kids," shouted one father, as Bijeh was throttled to death over several minutes. Hanging by a crane does not involve the neck being broken. He eventually was strangled to death.
"Shasta's ordeal began when she heard her mother call her into the living room early on the morning of May 16. Her mother, brother and McKenzie were bound with zip-ties and duct tape."
Whaaaaaattttt??????
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162079,00.html
EXCERPT
On Friday, it was learned that Duncan wrote last year about a missing Minnesota girl on his Weblog, and investigators are looking into whether he might have had anything to do with her disappearance.
In his Internet diary, Duncan wrote in early 2004 that he was afraid he'd be blamed for the disappearance of 5-year-old Leanna "Beaner" Warner (search).
In a posting dated Jan. 4, 2004 — more than six months after Leanna's disappearance — Duncan wrote that he just found out about the case.
"I tried to figure out what I was doing that day, since I'm always afraid of getting accused when something like this happens," he wrote.
The little girl was last seen June 14, 2003, after leaving her home in Chisholm, some 190 miles east of Fargo, N.D., where Duncan lived.
Chisholm Police Chief Scott Erickson said Friday that investigators are trying to determine if there's any more of a connection between Duncan and Leanna's disappearance. But he acknowledged it's a long shot in a frustrating case.
"In reality, every community that has a missing child is going to try to connect this guy to it," Erickson said.
Leanna's father, Chris Warner, told the Duluth News Tribune for a story published Friday he found it unsettling that Duncan would mention his daughter's disappearance.
"I'm worried sick," Warner said. "It's kind of a double-edged sword. You hope it's not the case, but you also come away relieved knowing that there's something."
Erickson said FBI and state investigators were trying to determine if Duncan was in the Chisholm area around the time Leanna disappeared. He said he hadn't heard of any such evidence as of Friday.
Where does this trash get bail money? Let alone gas money to stalk his prey? He had to have some friends somewhere.
I suspect there are quite a few cold cases of missing children that may be solved now.
I believe Shasta's father has some sort of a drug problem (meth?). I hope he can get his act together enough to be the parent she will need as she recovers from this horrific ordeal. I can't begin to imagine what she saw and heard and went through over the past 2 months. She needs many prayers too.
As for that POS, I'd love to seem him suffer and die. But the important thing is that he is never loose in society again. After that, he doesn't deserve a second thought.
I've wondered about that, too. He sure traveled around a lot, and managed OK for a guy with no visible means of support. I'm assuming drug money. I'm sure we'll learn more as the case unwinds.
Everyone says it's her father. Actually, it's her mother's boyfriend, and he also died that day. Her father, by all accounts (except internet posts like this one where people are confused about who's who), is not involved in drugs.
Were I that judge, at the very least, I would have resigned my judgeship on the grounds of impaired judgement, and begged the family and society in general for forgiveness.
***
Don't hold your breath waiting for an apology or a resignation. But to be fair, there appear to be quite a few people who are to blame. He's not the only one. Seems this Duncan guy has a record even preceding this one. The problem seems to boil down to far too many lenient judges and/or inadequate laws. In some places, his crime would net him a maximum of maybe five or ten years. Sorry, that's just not enough.
This so bothers me. On occasion, I've seen children in our neighborhood--specifically young girls--running around, skating and riding their bikes--wearing nothing but bathing suits. The thought of some filthy-minded monster eyeing these girls troubles me tremendously. Kids should be able to do that, but not in today's world. I'm of the belief that what happened to these precious children and their family can happen ANYWHERE and for any parent to think otherwise is just being completely naive.
The nanny state and those two corrupt political parties keep going around passing stupid laws. Then they pat themselves on the back that the seatbelt law is saving thousand of lives or no smoking laws save thousand of lives. I say here is three lives that should have been saved if the nanny state justice system worked.But these sex offenders are can outsmart these permissive nanny state justice officials every time. And the only person sitting in a judicial robe with the balls to enforce the sex offender laws is Judge Judy and unfortunately she is not currently a judge, she just plays one on television. Nancy Grace and Judge Judy have more balls between than the entire Senate Judicial Committee.
Duncan was 16 when he raped a 14-year-old boy at GUNPOINT. Duncan was sentenced to 20 years and served 14. You do the math. He was still young enough to cause trouble.
That's why I say we have got to make tougher laws in this country. Duncan should have received life the first time around.
It's been shown that sex offenders are never "cured" of their deviancy. My solution will not be popular, but I think we can only do one of two things: jail them in perpetuity (expensive to taxpayers) or execute them after the first proven offense.
O'Reilly said he's going to look into that very thing!
You just never know.
Perverts make themselves sound tough
to kids they prey on
to scare the kids and
keep the kids under control.
I've read of cases
where children were told
outrageous lies by perverts
just to scare the kids.
The cops will have to
check everything this freak said.
Does anyone know
if the police have found
his encrypted journal and
gotten to read it?
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