Posted on 07/13/2005 11:59:52 AM PDT by TheOtherOne
Detective: Young Captive Remembered Every Detail of Attack on Her Family
Published: Jul 13, 2005 COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) - 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, according to the minutes and a recording of a closed-door probable-cause hearing.
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 the probable cause hearing Tuesday. "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.
Duncan's mother, Lillian, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., told The Seattle Times she had spoken briefly with him and he showed remorse, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
"I don't know what he has done or what he hasn't done," Lillian Duncan said. "I still love him; he's my son."
Shasta's family is trying to make sure she does not see news about the crimes. She was "devastated" Tuesday when she saw a picture of Duncan while changing television channels, said her grandmother, Darlene Torres.
"She saw this guy and said, 'There's Jet!'" Torres said, referring to a nickname used by Duncan. "It was really disturbing."
According to the court records and testimony, 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.
According to the account, 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, officials said.
"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.
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 were already widely known.
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.
AP-ES-07-13-05 1424EDT
Poor kid. She saw it and now she faces the possibility of having to relive it during trial. Maybe some jailhouse justice will intervene and she won't have to.
Good point..maybe they make the case without calling her to testify. I hope so.
Same thing happened to me once... I was reading and responding on one thread and, after my post, I found myself on an unrelated thread.
Her testimony of his confession alone should be enough to put this guy on death row without putting her through that.
I wasn't even reading that thread; it appeared after I started writing my comment. Just one of those things -- like happens so often in the liberal/Democrat bizarro universe where nothing ever makes sense and adds up. Sorry again to break everybody's train of thought. Carry on.
If she testifies at all she can be cross examined, as i understand it, but somebody else pointed put he could get death just for the murders and she might not need to testify at all.
Defense atty. Debra Opri said on CNN last night that the DA could offer Duncan life w/o parole for a guilty plea, thus saving Shasta from having to testify. I have a feeling that the DA won't even entertain such an idea.
Duncan will face murder charges for Dylan in Montana, if it can be decided that Dylan was actually murdered there.
I hope this little girl continues to recall what she needs to to get this man his just due. Then I hope, by the grace and mercy of God, that these memories are erased from her mind, never again to return. God can heal, but I think it will take the erasure of these memories.
This mutt could face the death penalty? I for one can't see how this isn't a foregone conclusion.
Did you see Shasta's older brother on cnn? He appears to be talking from jail/prison. What I caught of it, he was talking about what he would do to Duncan if he got hold of him. Anyone know what he's in for?
He should be DEAD now! And, in the old days.....the family members would have made sure he was by now.....
I say kill him, don't care how, but in the future if your gonna let one out you gotta first: pour acid on their face and blind them, castrate them, cut off their hands, remove one kneecap, install a taser system to go off every ten minutes and tattoo 'child molester' on their head.
There is no way this is the first time Duncan has killed. I recall on another thread of comments he made on his blog about another girl being missing and he feared he would be blamed.
He has remorse that he was caught.
They said he's killed a bunch.
The memories will never go away,
but having her story heard,
having people listen will help a great deal.
Remorse!?
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
Yeah, remorseful he got caught.
"My mind cannot envision what could be sufficient retribution for this scumbag"
Think of a tree, pulley, some small diameter cable, and a few friends with imagination. Repeat until done.
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