COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - An 8-year-old girl who disappeared with her brother six weeks ago from a home where family members were bludgeoned to death was found Saturday at a Denny's restaurant in the same town.
The girl's 9-year-old brother, Dylan, had not been found, Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. He said Joseph Edward Duncan III, a registered sex offender from Fargo, N.D., had been arrested and charged with kidnapping.
Duncan was arrested without incident and was being held without bond, Wolfinger said. He said the suspect had an outstanding warrant for failing to register as a sex offender and had a history of rape.
Shasta was being interviewed by investigators, and Wolfinger said he had no information on where she had been held or where her brother may be.
Dylan and Shasta Groene had been missing since at least May 16, when sheriff's deputies responded to their rural home after a neighbor reported that dogs were barking and the door of one vehicle was open but no one was in sight.
The deputies found the bound bodies of Brenda Groene, 40, Slade Groene, 13, and Mark McKenzie, 37. The victims were bound and then bludgeoned to death.
FBI agents and local officers interviewed hundreds of people, searched through 800 tons of animal carcasses and other trash and devoted thousands of hours to the search.
More than 2,000 tips flowed in, with people offering theories that ranged from alien abduction to a motorcycle gang war, since the children's biological father, Steven Groene, owns a Harley-Davidson.
Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie had marijuana and methamphetamine in their bodies at the time of their deaths, according to autopsies.
So were Brenda Groene and her husband divorced? If not, where was he then, and where is he now? Who was Mark McKenzie? Could it have been a drug related hit? Maybe they owned their supplier, so the supplier killed them and took the kids?