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Joseph Edward
DUNCAN III
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics:
Rape
- Kidnapping
Number of victims: 5 - 7 +
Date of murders:July
6, 1996 / April 4, 1997 / May 16, 2005
Date
of arrest:July 2, 2005
Date of birth: February 25, 1963
Victims profile: Sammiejo
White, 11, and her sister, Carmen Cubias, 9 / Anthony Michael
Martinez, 10 / Brenda Groene, 40;
her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37; and her sons, Slade Groene, 13,
and Dylan Groene, 9
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: Washington/California/Idaho, USA
Status: In
all, Duncan has been convicted in the state of Idaho for
kidnapping and murdering the three victims in Coeur d'Alene, for
which he was given six life sentences; in federal court for
kidnapping Shasta and Dylan Groene and murdering Dylan, for which
he was given three death sentences; and in the state of California
for kidnapping and murdering Martinez, for which he is scheduled
to be given another life sentence
Joseph Edward Duncan III
(born February 25, 1963) is an American convicted serial killer and
sex offender who is currently serving multiple concurrent death
sentences and life sentences in conjunction with the 2005 kidnapping
and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
He has also been convicted and scheduled to be
sentenced to an additional life sentence for the 1997 kidnapping and
murder of Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, California, and has confessed
but not been charged with the 1996 murder of two girls in Seattle,
Washington.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Duncan's lengthy
criminal history dates to when he was 15 years old. In 1980, he was
sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a boy in
Tacoma and as a result has spent most of his adult life in prison. He
was paroled in 1994 but was returned to prison in 1997 for violating
the terms of his parole.
In May 2005, Kootenai County, Idaho authorities
discovered the bodies of Brenda Groene, her boyfriend, and her 13-year-old
son in the family home near Coeur d'Alene. Authorities also noted that
Groene's two other children were missing: Shasta, 8, and Dylan, 9.
After an intense search for the two children, Shasta was found alive
with Duncan at a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene nearly seven weeks later,
and Duncan was arrested in conjunction with her kidnapping. Dylan's
remains were found days later in a remote area near St. Regis,
Montana. Duncan was subsequently charged with murdering Dylan as well
as the three victims at the Coeur d'Alene home.
During his incarceration, authorities connected
Duncan with the long unsolved murders of Anthony Martinez in
California and two girls in Seattle, all of which occurred during
Duncan's parole from 1994–1997. Of those murders, Duncan has only been
charged in the California case. In all, Duncan has been convicted in
the state of Idaho for kidnapping and murdering the three victims in
Coeur d'Alene, for which he was given six life sentences; in federal
court for kidnapping Shasta and Dylan Groene and murdering Dylan, for
which he was given three death sentences; and in the state of
California for kidnapping and murdering Martinez, for which he is
scheduled to be given another life sentence.
Early criminal history
Duncan has a long history as a violent sexual
predator. His first recorded sex crime occurred in 1978 in his
hometown of Tacoma, Washington, when he was 15 years old. In that
incident, he raped a nine-year-old boy at gunpoint. The following year,
he was arrested driving a stolen car. He was sentenced as a juvenile
and sent to Dyslin's Boys' ranch in Tacoma, where he told a therapist
who was assigned to his case that he had bound and sexually assaulted
six boys, according to a report by the Associated Press. He also told
the therapist that he estimated that he had raped 13 younger boys by
the time he was 16.
In 1980, also in Tacoma, Duncan stole a number of
guns from a neighbor and then abducted a 14-year-old boy and sodomized
him at gunpoint. Duncan was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was
released on parole in 1994 after serving 14 years. While out on parole,
Duncan is known to have lived in several places in the Seattle area.
He was arrested in 1996 for marijuana use and released on parole
several weeks later with new restrictions. Authorities believe that
during his parole, Duncan murdered Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias in
Seattle in 1996 and Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, California
in 1997; however, both those cases went cold and were not tied to
Duncan until after his arrest in the Groene case. Duncan was arrested
in Kansas and returned to prison in 1997 after violating the terms of
his parole. Duncan was released from prison on July 14, 2000 with time
off for good behavior, and moved to Fargo, North Dakota
In March 2005, Duncan was charged with the July 3,
2004 molestation of two boys at a playground in Detroit Lakes,
Minnesota. On April 5, 2005, he appeared before a Becker County judge,
who set bail at US$15,000. A Fargo businessman with whom Duncan had
become acquainted helped him post bail; however, Duncan skipped bail
and disappeared. On June 1, 2005, a federal warrant was issued for
Duncan's arrest on the charge of "unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Idaho murders and kidnappings
On May 16, 2005, Kootenai County, Idaho authorities
discovered the bodies of Brenda Groene, 40; her boyfriend, Mark
McKenzie, 37; and her son, Slade Groene, 13, in their home along Lake
Coeur d'Alene, outside the city of Coeur d'Alene. Two of Brenda
Groene's other children, Dylan, 9, and Shasta, 8, were missing. An
AMBER Alert was issued and searchers combed the area for the missing
children while authorities investigated the deaths at the home as
homicides. Autopsies determined the cause of death to be "blunt trauma
to the head"; authorities also noted that the victims had been bound.
Seven weeks later, in the early morning hours of
July 2, 2005, Shasta Groene was seen in a man's custody at a Denny's
restaurant in Coeur d'Alene. A waitress, manager, and two customers at
the restaurant recognized Shasta from the media attention and
surreptitiously called police and positioned themselves to prevent
Duncan from leaving. Police officers arrived at the restaurant and
arrested the man, later identified as Duncan, without incident.
Shasta Groene identified herself to a waitress at
the restaurant and to authorities, and was taken to Kootenai Medical
Center for medical treatment and to be reunited with her father. Coeur
d'Alene police, meanwhile, detained Duncan on kidnapping charges and
on his outstanding federal warrant.
When Shasta Groene was found without
Dylan, authorities held little hope of finding Dylan alive. Police
asked the public for tips, specifically with respect to sightings of
the stolen red Jeep Cherokee with Missouri license plates that Duncan
was driving at the time of his arrest. Authorities discovered that
Duncan had rented the car in Minnesota and never returned it. A gas
station employee in Kellogg, about 40 miles (64 km) east of Coeur
d'Alene, recognized the vehicle as one that had stopped at her station
hours before Duncan was arrested. The employee suspected the girl
wandering around the station might have been Shasta, but did not
confront her, as nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The employee
and her manager notified authorities after reviewing surveillance
camera footage and seeing Duncan and Shasta in the video.
Many tips provided to authorities centered around
remote areas along the Idaho–Montana border. On July 4, 2005,
investigators found human remains at a remote makeshift campsite in
the Lolo National Forest near St. Regis, Montana. The remains were
sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia for DNA testing and were
positively identified as Dylan Groene.
Shasta
Groene's interview
Much of what is known about the murders of the
Groene family was revealed by Shasta Groene herself. According to
Shasta Groene's police interview, Duncan killed her mother, older
brother and her mother's fiance and then took her and her brother away
in the red Jeep Cherokee.
Shasta told investigators her mother called her
into the living room, from her bedroom where she had been sleeping,
and she saw Duncan wearing black gloves and holding a gun. Her captor
tied her mother's hands with nylon zip ties, and did the same to her
mother's fiance and her brother Slade. Dylan and Shasta were removed
from the house and placed inside the stolen rental car. While she
waited with her brother, she heard her mother's fiance scream out and
then saw her injured older brother staggering away from the entrance
to the home. Duncan then bludgeoned the three to death; neither Shasta
nor Dylan witnessed the murders. Both Shasta and Dylan were removed to
other locations, where they were repeatedly molested for six weeks.
She said that they drove a long distance and stayed in two different
campsites, Duncan told her of having beaten her family members to
death with a hammer. Dylan's remains were found in a remote, woodland
area in Montana days after Shasta was rescued. Shasta is now in the
custody of her father.
Other crimes
Duncan's arrest led the FBI to launch a nationwide
review of unsolved missing child cases. He was implicated as a
possible suspect in several crimes that occurred between 1994 and
1997, when he was on parole, and between 2000 and 2005, when he was
free from prison. Although he was cleared as a suspect in some cases,
authorities in California and Washington had enough evidence to
believe Duncan had committed unsolved murders in their jurisdictions.
Anthony Martínez
On April 4, 1997, 10-year-old Anthony Michael
Martinez was playing with friends in the front yard of his home in
Beaumont, Riverside County, California when an unknown man approached
the group asking for help finding a missing cat. When the boys refused,
the man grabbed Martinez at knifepoint and threw him into his vehicle.
After a 2-week search, on April 19 Martinez's body
was found nude and partially decomposed in Indio. Investigators noted
that he had been sexually assaulted and bound with duct tape. Although
a composite sketch of the suspect was made available and a partial
fingerprint taken from the duct tape found on Martinez's body, the
case eventually went cold.
In July 2005, bloggers noticed similarities between
Duncan and the composite sketch in the Martinez case, as well as
between Duncan's vehicle and the one Martinez's assailant was driving.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children became involved, and in turn contacted
Riverside County authorities. Riverside authorities were able to match
the fingerprint taken from Martinez's body to Duncan, and on August 3
the Riverside County Sheriff officially announced Duncan's connection
with the Martinez case.
Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias
Additionally, federal prosecutors have revealed
that Duncan confessed to the murders of Sammiejo White, 11, and her
sister, Carmen Cubias, 9, who vanished on July 6, 1996, after leaving
the Crest Motel in Seattle, Washington to panhandle. Their remains
were found February 10, 1998, in Bothell, Washington.
Trials
Joseph E. Duncan III has been convicted by three
separate courts: first, by the state of Idaho for the kidnapping and
murders of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie; second, by U.S.
federal court for the kidnapping of Shasta and Dylan Groene, the
murder of Dylan Groene, and various other crimes; and third, by the
state of California for the kidnapping and murder of Anthony Martinez.
Idaho
Duncan first appeared in a Kootenai County court on
July 13, 2005, where he was charged with three counts of first-degree
murder and three counts of first degree kidnapping, all in conjunction
with the deaths of Brenda and Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie. Kootenai
County prosecutors had initially planned to charge Duncan with the
kidnappings of Shasta and Dylan Groene; however, they deferred those
charges to the federal court system, as transporting children across
state lines for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a federal
offense under U.S. law.
Trial was set to begin on January 17, 2006, but was
delayed until April 4, after the district judge granted a request to
the defense for more time to prepare for the trial, and then again to
October 26, after the judge in the case stated that "No one wants to
try this case twice, including me." Duncan's defense attorneys blamed
the multiple postponements on the prosecution's insistence on pursuing
the death penalty.
On October 16, 2006, shortly after the jury
selection process began, Kootenai County prosecutors and Duncan's
attorney reached a plea bargain in which Duncan pleaded guilty to all
state charges against him. He was immediately sentenced to three
consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the
three kidnapping charges. Sentencing on the three murder charges was
continued pending the outcome of his federal trial on kidnapping and
murder charges; the judge said at the time that if he did not receive
the death penalty on the federal charges, he would return to Kootenai
County for a death penalty phase on the state murder charges.
Over 2 years later, after being sentenced to death
on federal charges, Kootenai County sentenced Duncan to three
additional life sentences. Duncan also agreed to cooperate with
Kootenai County sheriff's detectives investigating his crimes and
provide passwords to encrypted files stored on his computer.
U.S.
federal court
On January 18, 2007, Duncan was indicted by a
federal grand jury in Coeur d'Alene on 10 counts of "kidnapping,
kidnapping resulting in death, aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, and
sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death," and other crimes
related to illegal firearm possession and vehicle theft. He was
arraigned the following day at a federal court in Boise, Idaho, where
a judge ordered Duncan to stand trial the following March. Duncan's
defense attorneys immediately requested a postponement, which was
granted the week the trial was originally scheduled to begin; a new
trial date was set for January 22, 2008.
On December 3, 2007, Duncan pleaded guilty to all
10 charges against him. As a condition of the agreement, Shasta Groene
would not have to testify in the penalty phase of the trial. Due to a
gag order, other details of the plea agreement were not released.
The penalty phase for Duncan's federal trial began
on August 13, 2008. On August 27, 2008, after 3 hours of deliberation,
the jury recommended the death penalty, and the judge in the case
sentenced Duncan to three death sentences for "kidnapping resulting in
death, sexual exploitation of a child resulting in death, and use of a
firearm in a violent crime resulting in death," all related to the
death of Dylan Groene. On November 3, 2008, Duncan was sentenced to an
additional three federal life sentences for kidnapping Shasta Groene
and for sexually abusing Shasta and Dylan Groene.
California
On January 18, 2007 – the same day Duncan was
indicted in federal court – Riverside County officials announced that
Duncan was charged with Martinez's murder. Despite attempts by
Riverside County officials to extradite Duncan to California,
including an appeal by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Duncan's
federal trial proceeded. He was eventually extradited to California on
January 24, 2009, five months after being sentenced to death by
federal court.
On March 15, 2011, Duncan pleaded
guilty to Martinez's murder. As part of his plea deal, Duncan will be
sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or
right to appeal.
Although Duncan could have faced a separate death
sentence in addition to the ones he had already been sentenced to in
federal court, Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach
justified the life sentence by stating that he had consulted with the
Martinez family, who wanted closure in the case, and that "the federal
system will kill him long before the state of California would have
seriously considered it." He is scheduled to be formally sentenced on
April 5, 2011, after which he will be returned to death row at the
United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
"The Fifth Nail" and "Fifth Nail Revelations"
He published his ideas on the Internet. He titled
it "The Fifth Nail", which is also the URL for his personal Web site.
According to lore, in addition to the four nails used to pierce the
body of Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, there was a fifth nail that
was taken away and hidden by Roma. Duncan adopted the name for his own
website and blog. The website depicted Duncan's day-to-day life as a
sex offender.
"The Fifth Nail" advocates for sex offenders and
contained material that called for the legal reform law aimed at sex
offenders, calling them, "State Sanctioned Discrimination." Duncan was
particularly frustrated by the requirement for sex offenders to
participate in a public registry.
With the help of a "ghost blogger", Duncan posted
to his new blog, "Fifth Nail Revelations", from prison. He wrote his
blog entries by hand and mailed them to the "ghost blogger", who
posted them exactly as written. According to media reports, law
enforcement agencies have been watching the contents of the new blog
in hopes of gathering incriminating information about Duncan's crimes,
both known and unknown.
Wikipedia.org
Joseph Edward
Duncan III (born
February 25, 1963) is an American violent sex offender who received
national attention after being arrested in connection with the
kidnapping of Shasta Groene, age eight, and her brother Dylan, age
nine.
Duncan has a long
history as a violent sexual predator, and was clinically diagnosed
with antisocial personality disorder in 1980, while in prison for
raping a younger boy at knifepoint.
In 2004, Duncan
groped the genitals of a 7-year-old boy. He was arrested in April
2005 in Minnesota. The judge granted bail at $15,000. A businessman
in Fargo, Joe Crary, gave Duncan money for bail. While thus freed
Duncan jumped bail.
Idaho police
believe Duncan was also involved in the May 2005 murders of Dylan
and Shasta's family: Brenda Groene, 40, Slade Groene, 13, and Mark
McKenzie, 37. According to Shasta's police interview, an intruder
tied her family members up, and then she and her brother were taken
into a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.
A camera in a
convenience store, approximately forty miles outside of Coeur
d'Alene, Idaho, recorded Shasta wandering the aisles while Duncan
read a newspaper. Later on, in the early morning hours of July 2,
2005, Shasta was found in Duncan's custody. The two had entered a
Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene.
A waitress
recognized Shasta from media reports, as well as posters that had
been posted around town and in the restaurant. The waitress, Amber
Deahn, worked with her manager to delay the suspect and contact
local police. Deahn stalled the order until the police arrived and
made a positive ID on the stolen rental car 2000 Jeep Cherokee that
also displayed stolen Missouri state license plates.
Police later
entered the restaurant and arrested Duncan, removing Shasta to a
local hospital for observation and care. The waitress asked Shasta,
"Where is your brother?" Shasta replied, "My brother is in heaven."
Shasta told
investigators her mother called her into the living room, from her
bedroom where she had been sleeping, and she saw Duncan wearing
black gloves and holding a gun. Her captor tied her mother's hands
with nylon zip ties, and did the same to her mother's boyfriend and
an older brother. Dylan and Shasta were removed from the house and
placed inside the stolen rental car. While she waited with her
brother, she heard her mother's boyfriend scream out and then saw
her injured older brother staggering away from the entrance to the
home.
Both Shasta and
Dylan were removed to other locations, where they were repeatedly
raped and molested for six weeks. She said that they drove long
distances and had stayed in various campgrounds, while Duncan
bragged of having beaten family members to death with a hammer.
Dylan's remains
were found in a remote, woodland area in Montana days after Shasta
was rescued. Shasta is now in the custody of her biological father.
Duncan appeared in
court on July 6, 2005 during his arraignment on two counts of
first-degree kidnapping. His trial was set to begin on January 17,
2006, but was delayed until April 4, 2006 after the district judge
granted a request to the defense for more time to prepare for the
trial, and then again to October 26, 2006 after 1st District Judge
Fred Gibler stated that "No one wants to try this case twice,
including me," thus granting Duncan's attorneys the six-month
extension. Duncan may face further charges for failure to appear and
skipping bail in Minnesota.
"The Fifth Nail"
and "Fifth Nail Revelations"
Duncan recorded
many of his antisocial sexual fantasies, even to the extent of
becoming a sex offender advocate working for the repeal of sex
offender law. He published his ideas on the Internet. He titled it
"Fifth Nail," which is also the URL for his personal website.
According to lore,
in addition to the four nails used to pierce the body of Jesus
Christ as he was hung upon the cross, there was a fifth nail that
was taken away and hid by Gypsies. Duncan adopted the name for his
own website and blog. The website depicted Duncan's day to day life
as a sex offender. Together with his many years of incarceration,
Duncan expressed his feelings of persecution.
Investigators are
also considering the possibility that a "Minnesota girl" mentioned
in his online diary could be related to another minor who is listed
as missing. Duncan can receive the Death penalty.
"The Fifth Nail"
advocates for sex offenders and contained material that called for
the legal reform law aimed at sex offenders, calling them, "State
Sanctioned Discrimination." Duncan was particularly angered by the
requirement for sex offenders to participate in a public registry.
Criminologists and psychiatric researchers are studying the blog to
better understand the mind and behaviors of a sociopath.
With the help of a
"ghost blogger," Joseph Duncan has been posting to his new blog
"Fifth Nail Revelations," from prison. He writes his blog entries by
hand and mails them to the "ghost blogger," who posts them exactly
as written.
According to media
reports, law enforcement agencies have been watching the contents of
the new blog in hopes of gathering incriminating information about
Duncan's crimes, both known and unknown. People familiar with the
case and with Duncan's handwriting say that it's all but certain
that the entries are authentic.
Cold case
In August 2005,
California cold case investigators connected a single fingerprint to
Duncan in an unsolved homicide. The case, cold since 1997, is the
murder of 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez, a resident of
Beaumont, California. Anthony was abducted April 4, 1997 right in
front of his friends after an unknown male approached them with an
offer of one dollar, if they help him find his missing cat. The boys
refused the offer, but the stranger grabbed Anthony by the collar,
placed a knife near his throat, and threw him into a white vehicle.
Anthony's nude
body was found April 19 near Indio, California. His hands were bound
with duct tape, where the killer left his fingerprint. Duncan is
believed to have been in the southern California region around April
1997. It is unknown when Duncan will be formally charged. If charged
and convicted he may face a life sentence in Federal Supermax Prison
in Florence, Colorado.
Prosecutors: Alleged Idaho kidnapper, killer
confesses to slaying 3 other children
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
BOISE, Idaho — A man accused of kidnapping two Idaho
children, killing one of them, after slaying their family has
confessed to the killings of three other children a decade ago in
Washington state and California, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The
prosecutors cited the confessions to the old killings in court
papers saying that intended to seek the death penalty
against Joseph Edward Duncan III,
who was indicted last week on charges involving the two northern
Idaho children.
"The
defendant has engaged in a continuing pattern of violence, attempted
violence, and threatened violence," prosecutors said. Duncan "is
likely to commit criminal acts of violence in the future that would
constitute a continuing and serious threat to the lives and safety
of others."
Roger
Peven, Duncan's attorney, said he had not yet seen the filing and
could not immediately comment on it.
Duncan is accused of kidnapping Dylan Groene, 9, and his
sister Shasta, then 8, in May 2005, and taking them to the mountains
of Montana, where prosecutors say he sexually abused them for weeks
before killing Dylan. Duncan was arrested July 2, 2005, when he and
Shasta were spotted at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant. The boy's body
was found days later at a remote campsite.
The
U.S. attorney's office said Duncan confessed
that he killed Carmen Cubias,
9, and Sammiejo White, 11, in Washington state in 1996 and
Anthony Martinez, 10, in California in 1997. Officials did not
specify to whom Duncan made the confession.
The
two girls were kidnapped from the Crest Motel in Seattle in July
1996. Their skeletal remains were found 17 months later in Bothell,
a Seattle suburb. Anthony was forced into a car in Beaumont, Calif.,
in April 1997 as his friends looked on. Sixteen days later a forest
ranger found the boy's nude, bound body about 70 miles to the east.
Last
October, Duncan pleaded guilty in Idaho state court to first-degree
murder and kidnapping for the May 16, 2005, hammer slayings of Dylan
and Shasta's mother, Brenda Groene; her fiance, Mark McKenzie; and
Groene's 13-year-old son, Slade. Prosecutors say he killed them to
get the younger children.
If
federal prosecutors fail to win a death sentence in the case
involving the two younger children, a jury will be chosen in Idaho
state court to consider whether to impose the death penalty on the
murder counts that Duncan pleaded guilty to in October.
Duncan was charged Thursday in a California state court in Anthony's
death. Prosecutors there said they also intend to seek the death
penalty.
Duncan is a Tacoma, Wash., native who spent most of his adult life
in Washington state prisons for sexual crimes against children.
In
2004, he had been arrested for allegedly molesting a 6-year-old boy
and attempting to molest another boy in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Authorities
say he jumped bail on that charge.
Joseph Edward Duncan III (born February
25, 1963) is an alleged American serial killer, and convicted sex
offender and murderer who received national attention after being
arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, age
eight, and her brother Dylan, age nine.
Early criminal history
Duncan has a long history as a violent sexual
predator, and was clinically diagnosed with antisocial personality
disorder in 1980, while in prison for raping a younger boy at
knifepoint.
In 2004, Duncan groped the genitals of a 7-year-old
boy. He was arrested in April 2005 in Minnesota. The judge granted
bail at $15,000. A businessman in Fargo, Joe Crary, gave Duncan
money for bail. While thus freed Duncan jumped bail.
Shasta and Dylan
Idaho police are sure Duncan was also involved in
the May 2005 murders of Dylan and Shasta's family: Brenda Groene,
40, Slade Groene, 13, and Mark McKenzie, 37. According to Shasta's
police interview, an intruder tied her family members up, and then
she and her brother were taken into a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.
A camera in a convenience store, approximately 40
miles outside of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, recorded Shasta wandering the
aisles while Duncan read a newspaper. Later on, in the early morning
hours of July 2, 2005, Shasta was found in Duncan's custody. The two
had entered a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene.
A waitress recognized Shasta from media reports,
as well as posters that had been posted around town and in the
restaurant. The waitress, Amber Deahn, worked with her manager to
delay the suspect and contact local police. Deahn stalled the order
until the police arrived and made a positive ID on the stolen rental
car, which also displayed stolen Missouri state license plates.
Police later entered the restaurant and arrested
Duncan, removing Shasta to a local hospital for observation and care.
The waitress asked Shasta, "Where is your brother?" Shasta replied,
"My brother is in heaven."
Shasta told investigators her mother called her
into the living room, from her bedroom where she had been sleeping,
and she saw Duncan wearing black gloves and holding a gun. Her
captor tied her mother's hands with nylon zip ties, and did the same
to her mother's boyfriend and an older brother. Dylan and Shasta
were removed from the house and placed inside the stolen rental car.
While she waited with her brother, she heard her mother's boyfriend
scream out and then saw her injured older brother staggering away
from the entrance to the home.
Both Shasta and Dylan were removed to other
locations, where they were repeatedly raped and molested for six
weeks. She said that they drove long distances and had stayed in
various campgrounds, while Duncan bragged of having beaten family
members to death with a hammer.
Dylan's remains were found in a remote, woodland
area in Montana days after Shasta was rescued. Shasta is now in the
custody of her biological father.
Duncan appeared in court on July 6, 2005, during
his araignment on two counts of first-degree kidnapping. His trial
was set to begin on January 17, 2006, but was delayed until April 4,
after the district judge granted a request to the defense for more
time to prepare for the trial, and then again to October 26, after
1st District Judge Fred Gibler stated that "No one wants to try this
case twice, including me", thus granting Duncan's attorneys the six
month extension.
On October 16, 2006, Duncan plead guilty to three
counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping for the
deaths of Brenda, Slade, and Mark. In an agreement reached with
prosecutors, Duncan, 43, will receive three consecutive life
sentences on the kidnapping charges, which stem from the manner in
which Duncan detained the victims before their deaths.
His sentencing on the murder charges has been
delayed until the completion of his case in federal court for crimes
that allegedly occurred against Shasta and Dylan Groene after they
were kidnapped from the family's home.
In a January 23, 2007 interview, Duncan admitted
to killing three other children in the California area. Detectives
are checking into this new information.
"The Fifth Nail" and "Fifth Nail Revelations"
Duncan recorded many of his violent sexual
fantasies, even to the extent of becoming a sex offender advocate
working for the repeal of sex offender law. He published his ideas
on the Internet. He titled it "Fifth Nail", which is also the URL
for his personal website.
According to lore, in addition to the four nails
used to pierce the body of Jesus Christ as he was hung upon the
cross, there was a fifth nail that was taken away and hid by Roma.
Duncan adopted the name for his own website and blog. The website
depicted Duncan's day to day life as a sex offender. Together with
his many years of incarceration, Duncan expressed his feelings of
persecution.
Investigators are also considering the
possibility that a "Minnesota girl" mentioned in his online diary
could be related to another minor who is listed as missing. Duncan
can receive the death penalty.
"The Fifth Nail" advocates for sex offenders and
contained material that called for the legal reform law aimed at sex
offenders, calling them, "State Sanctioned Discrimination." Duncan
was particularly angered by the requirement for sex offenders to
participate in a public registry. Criminologists and psychiatric
researchers are studying the blog to better understand the mind and
behaviors of a sociopath.
With the help of a "ghost blogger", Duncan has
been posting to his new blog "Fifth Nail Revelations", from prison.
He writes his blog entries by hand and mails them to the "ghost
blogger", who posts them exactly as written. According to media
reports, law enforcement agencies have been watching the contents of
the new blog in hopes of gathering incriminating information about
Duncan's crimes, both known and unknown.
There has been no new blogs since May 2005.
Cold case
In August 2005, California cold case
investigators connected a single fingerprint to Duncan in an
unsolved homicide. The case, cold since 1997, is the murder of 10-year-old
Anthony Michael Martinez, a resident of Beaumont, California.
Anthony was abducted April 4, 1997 right in front
of his friends after an unknown male approached them with an offer
of one dollar, if they help him find his missing cat. The boys
refused the offer, but the stranger grabbed Anthony by the collar,
placed a knife near his throat, and threw him into a white vehicle.
Anthony's nude body was found April 19 near Indio, California. His
hands were bound with duct tape, where the killer left his
fingerprint.
Duncan is believed to have been in the southern
California region around April 1997. It is unknown when Duncan will
be formally charged. If charged and convicted he may face a life
sentence in Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado.
Answers.com
Idaho suspect tied
to ’97 California slaying
Duncan’s fingerprint links him to old
case, Riverside sheriff says
MSNBC staff and news
service reports - Aug. 3, 2005
Idaho
kidnapping and murder suspect Joseph Edward
Duncan III is under investigation in the 1997
kidnapping and killing of a 10-year-old Beaumont,
Calif., boy, the Riverside County sheriff said
Wednesday.
Duncan,
42, is linked by a single fingerprint to the
scene of the killing of Anthony Martinez,
Sheriff Bob Doyle told a press conference in
Riverside, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
Duncan
was arrested last month for investigation of
bludgeoning to death three people at a home near
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and kidnapping Shasta
Groene, 8, and her brother Dylan, 9, on May 16.
Duncan was seized when people at a restaurant
recognized the girl with him. Dylan’s body was
later found in Montana.
Confirmation of the fingerprint match was
received Monday, the sheriff said.
“We’re
pretty confident that he’s our suspect. ... This
is huge,” Doyle said. “We followed up 15,000
leads over eight years. You can imagine the
elation that everybody has.”
On April
4, 1997, Anthony was forced into a white car in
the town of Beaumont as his friends watched. The
children were playing when a stranger offered
them a dollar to help find his lost cat. Sixteen
days later, the boy’s nude, bound body was found
in a desert area about 70 miles to the east.
Blue-eyed stranger
The kidnapper was described at
the time as blue-eyed and mustachioed, but
efforts to track him down proved fruitless
despite the extremely high profile of the case.
Before the end of that April, authorities had
evaluated more than 100 people as suspects.
Anthony’s kidnapping united Beaumont, a small
town on Interstate 10 in the inland region east
of Los Angeles. Yellow ribbons were tied to
trees and thousands of fliers with sketches of
the suspect were handed out.
After
circling vultures led a ranger to Anthony’s
remains in Berdoo Canyon in the Indio Hills,
residents of Beaumont wept and prayed, and
authorities vowed to capture the killer.
“I know
we’re going to get this guy,” then-Sheriff Larry
Smith pledged at the time.
Idaho, federal cases
Duncan has been charged in Idaho
with kidnapping and murdering Shasta’s mother,
Brenda Groene, 40, as well as the woman’s son
Slade, 13, and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie, 37,
at their home outside Coeur d’Alene.
Idaho
had charged Duncan with kidnapping Shasta and
Dylan from the home, but the state dropped those
counts in anticipation of the federal government
charging him with kidnapping the two children
and with killing Dylan.
Federal
prosecutors have said they will file charges in
the abduction of the children and Dylan’s death.
Authorities have also said Shasta and Dylan were
sexually assaulted.
While it
is The Associated Press’ policy not to identify
alleged victims of sexual assault in most cases,
the search for Shasta and her brother was so
heavily publicized that their names are widely
known.
History of violence
Duncan was sentenced to 20 years
in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old
boy in Tacoma, Wash., in 1980. The term was
suspended and he was put into sex offender
treatment at a state hospital, but 22 months
later officials said the treatment wasn’t
working. He was resentenced in 1982 and served
14 years.
At the
time of his arrest, Duncan was a fugitive
charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in
Minnesota.
Duncan
reportedly has admitted committing his first act
of sexual assault 30 years ago, preying on a 5-year-old
boy when he was just 12.
Duncan’s
records reveal a history of inflicting violence
and sexual torture upon others, particularly
young boys, with his crimes escalating in their
seriousness. His past shows a series of failed
treatments and refusal to comply with therapists
and law enforcement officials who tried to
correct his behavior, which mental health
evaluators diagnosed in 1980 as consistent with
an antisocial personality and a sexual deviant,
the Seattle Times reported.
Duncan Confesses to Three More Murders
Jan. 24, 2007
The man charged with
kidnapping Dylan and Shasta Groene and killing
Dylan has confessed to the murders of three
other children in Washington State and
California. The confession was revealed in court
papers filed by federal prosecutors supporting
their effort to seek the death penalty in the
Groene case.
According to the court papers,
Duncan confessed to killing Carmen Cubias, nine,
and Sammiejo White, 11, in Washington state in
1996 and Anthony Martinez, 10, in California in
1997.
Cubias and White were
kidnapped from the Crest Motel in Seattle in
July 1996. The remains of the two girls were
found 17 months later in Bothell, Washington
near Seattle.
In April 1997, friends saw
Martinez forced into a vehicle in Beaumont,
California. A forest ranger found his body, nude
and bound, 16 days later in the woods about 70
east of Beaumont.
"The defendant has engaged in
a continuing pattern of violence, attempted
violence and threatened violence," the court
papers said. "He is likely to commit criminal
acts of violence in the future that would
constitute a continuing and serious threat to
the lives and safety of others."
Duncan pleaded guilty in
state court to the murders of Brenda Groene; her
fiance, Mark McKenzie, and her 13-year-old son
Slade, all of whom he killed so that he could
kidnap the younger children.
He faces federal charges of
kidnapping Dylan, nine, and Shasta, who was
eight at the time. Duncan held the children at a
remote Montana campsite of weeks before he
killed Dylan.
Timeline
of events
1980:
Joseph Edward Duncan III, 16, is
arrested at his Tacoma home for
the rape of a 14-year-old boy. A
judge gives him 20 years but
suspends that sentence so Duncan
can get sex-offender treatment
at Western State Hospital.
1982:
Duncan fails at the treatment
program and is sent to prison.
1994:
Duncan is paroled. He lives in
the Seattle area. He also
travels widely throughout the
United States.
1996:
On the night of July 6, sisters
Carmen Cubias, 9, and Sammiejo
White, 11, leave Room 16 of the
Crest Motel in North Seattle,
bound for a Taco Time. The girls,
who were living at the motel
with their mother and siblings,
disappear.
1997:
In April, a 10-year-old
California boy, Anthony Michael
Martinez, is abducted and killed.
His body is found 15 days later.
In December, Washington state
officials revoke Duncan's parole,
saying he is dangerous.
2000:
Duncan has served his sentence
and is released from prison near
Spokane. He eventually moves to
Fargo, N.D., enrolling in
college.
2004:
Authorities arrest Duncan on
suspicion of molesting two young
boys in July. A judge releases
him on bond.
2005:
In a rented car, Duncan leaves
North Dakota. On May 16, Brenda
Groene, her 13-year-old son,
Slade, and her boyfriend, Mark
McKenzie, are beaten to death
with a hammer in a home east of
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Groene's
9-year-old son, Dylan, and 8-year-old
daughter, Shasta, are missing.
Shasta is found with Duncan on
July 2, eating breakfast at a
Denny's in Coeur d'Alene. A few
days later, Dylan's body is
found in Montana. Duncan is
charged with the three deaths in
the home and likely faces
federal charges in Dylan's death
and the children's kidnappings.
Police in Riverside, Calif., say
a fingerprint ties Duncan to
Anthony Martinez's death. And
now a federal criminal justice
source says Duncan has
acknowledged kidnapping and
killing Carmen Cubias and
Sammiejo White.
