Posted on 08/06/2005 2:50:22 PM PDT by Types_with_Fist
COEUR d'ALENE -- When Joseph Edward Duncan III told the FBI he killed a Riverside, Calif., boy in 1997, he also admitted his involvement in the death of two Seattle-area sisters a year earlier, a source close to the investigation said.
The source, who demanded anonymity, said Duncan admitted he killed Sammiejo White, 11, and Carmen Cubias, 9, when they disappeared after leaving their north Seattle motel room July 6, 1996.
Law enforcement officials, who are under a gag order because of potential federal prosecution of Duncan, would not confirm what Duncan allegedly told the FBI, nor would they deny he said it.
The girls left the room to buy cigarettes, published reports at the time said. Their skeletal remains were found in a Bothell construction site in February 1998.
Duncan, 42, a level III registered sex offender from Fargo, N.D., is being held without bail in the Kootenai County jail. On Friday, Duncan waived his right to a preliminary hearing on six first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder charges. His case was bound over to 1st District Judge John Mitchell for trial.
On Friday, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said he would file a criminal information with the district court on Monday, alleging Duncan kidnapped and killed Wolf Lodge Bay area residents Brenda Kay Groene, 40, her son, Slade Groene, 13, and boyfriend Mark Edward McKenzie, 37.
Much of the state's case is based on interviews with 8-year-old Shasta Groene, who, along with 9-year-old brother Dylan was allegedly abducted from the murder scene and taken to rural Montana campgrounds, where they were held for several weeks. Authorities believe Dylan was subsequently killed while in Duncan's custody.
"This saves Shasta from having to testify," said Douglas, who said there was a "strong likelihood" he would have called the girl to provide brief testimony.
"This is a good thing for Shasta," Douglas said. "Now she won't have to testify until the trial."
Shasta's father, Steve Groene, also was happy his daughter won't be called to the stand just yet.
"It's a relief that she won't have to testify right now," he said.
Duncan is accused of binding McKenzie and Brenda and Slade Groene with zip ties and duct tape, then killing them with a claw hammer late May 15 or early May 16.
Investigators from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Idaho State Police and the FBI combed the crime scene and spent thousands of man-hours chasing leads.
But it wasn't until Duncan showed up with Shasta at the Coeur d'Alene Denny's restaurant just before 2 a.m. July 2 that the case was cracked.
Since then, California sources said Duncan confessed to killing 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez by bashing his head with a rock in April 1997.
Fifteen days after the boy's April 4 abduction from Beaumont, Calif., Martinez's nude body, his hands bound with duct tape, was discovered about 70 miles away in the Indio desert.
Sources close to that investigation said Duncan's thumbprint, which authorities said linked Duncan to the crime scene, was found on the duct tape used to bind the boy's hands and feet and cover his mouth. Cat hairs also were found on the duct tape used to bind Martinez, and Duncan is known as a cat lover.
Duncan was suspected of being in the Beaumont area during the time of Martinez's disappearance, and witnesses to the boy's abduction helped create a composite image of the kidnapper.
Earlier this week, public records showed Duncan was in the Seattle area in July 1996, living about three blocks away from the motel where the girls were living.
Police searched the area after the girls were reported missing.
About 19 months later a transient led police to three leg bones and a foot bone scattered at a construction site.
Four days of searching the site uncovered about 70 bones.
Key to the identification of the girls' remains were dental records, which determined a skull with teeth, and a jaw with a partial set of teeth belonged to the missing girls.
Police did not say how the girls died, but listed the cause of death as homicide.
King County (Wash.) Sheriff's Office spokesman John Urquhart told reporters there's no evidence to link Duncan to the case.
But, he said, in light of Duncan's history as a sex offender, every police agency is probably reviewing unsolved cases of child abduction and murder.
Since Duncan was living and working in Bothell at the time, Urquhart said investigators are checking to see if there's any possible connection.
The FBI on Friday again said they are developing a timeline of Duncan's whereabouts for the years he's been out of custody since his conviction for the 1980 rape of a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint.
After his parole from a Washington prison in 1994, records show he worked as a phone solicitor for a publishing company and a small software company.
He was in and out of prison on parole violations, and finally released for good behavior after topping out his sentence in 2000.
During the time of both the Seattle and California abductions, Duncan was out of prison.
Jeez. Once he gets through the list of the children he's killed, could he be shot, PLEASE?
Demon possessed soul-less horrible person.
Maybe this guy knows something about Jacob Wetterling who disappeard in St. Joseph MN in 1989 - right down the interstate from Fargo.
Duncan would have been about 24 then
Oppsy maybe the slug was in the pen in 1989
Sounds like this guy could be connected to missing kids all over the damned country. Another Bundy type... only with children. I wish everything bad for this scum but he'll never get exactly what he deserves.
The guys you mentioned all went after women - Duncan apparently like little boys
No. Girls AND boys. All kids.
Depends on what Clintoon appointed judge he gets - he coulb be out in 20 years
Your right
Duncan is one sick POS
Horrible, horrible, horrible. May he rot in hell for all eternity.
Wesley Alan Dodd murdered three little boys.
Man. I swear it's like that guy in Silence of the Lambs or something.
"Dear God, I know I'm not supposed to ask for this, but could I have 15 minutes alone in a room with Duncan?"
What Ducan did to these kids proves to me that there is not God.
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