Joseph E. Duncan III is sitting in prison for the rest of his life. It took 26 years, it cost the innocence of at least 4 children and the lives of 5 known innocent people.
1980 a 16 yr old Joseph Duncan raped a 14 yr old boy at knife point in Minnesota. He was charged a year later with child molestation and sentenced to 20yrs, he was paroled in 1994. He was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder while in prison. He violated his parole and returned to prison to finish his sentence. His parole violation appears to be leaving the state.
7/14/2000 He was released again.
2004 Duncan molested a 6 yr old boy, attempted to molest the boys friend, he was arrested in 2005 was bailed out by a local business man then Duncan jumped bail.
April of 2005 The last time Duncan was seen in Minn.
Duncan is a computer wiz. He had his own websites and blogs. In a blog he had written that he was paranoid, he wanted to strike out at society, "harm society as much as he could, then die" He took offense to be labeled as a sex offender.
Hello????
Are you angry yet??
May 17th 2005 Idaho The bodies of Brenda Groene, her 13 yr old son, Slade and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie were found at their home outside of Wolf Lodge Bay Idaho. Brenda's 2 younger children Shasta 8, and Dylan 9 were missing. The bodies had been bound and they had been beaten. The weapon was found to be a framing hammer. A nationwide Amber Alert went out for the 2 children.
May 23rd 2005 America's Most Wanted features the missing children and case on the show, only 19 tips came in and none of them were real solid. 
June 9th 2005 Steven Groene, Shasta and Dylans father lets it be known it is ok to contact him with any information anyone may have about his missing children if someone does not want to contact the law. If they contact Mr.Groene, and his children are recovered safely he'll give his Harley worth $17K and $10,000 to the person with that information.
July 2nd 2005 2am at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene Idaho a waitress, manager and a customer recognized Shasta and called 911. The staff at Denny's managed to stall Shasta and her captor until the police arrived. Her capture was Joseph Duncan. When asked where her brother was, she simply replied " he was in heaven"
July 2nd 2005 Shasta and her father Steven are reunited at Kootenai Medical Center.
July 5th 2005 A boy's cremated remains were found in a remote area of Montana,
July 6th 2005 A statement was released by a County Detective that Duncan repeatedly molested the two children. It was not yet known if the children witnessed their mothers and brothers murder. Duncan makes his first appearance in court via video feed from the county jail. He was being held without bail on kidnapping charges and $2 million bail was set for being a fugitive.
July 11th 2005 The DNA results confirming the cremated remains are Dylan's.
August 4th 2005 Fingerprints from Duncan match a partial print on tape that was used to bind a 10 yr old boy in CA back in 1997. The boy's nude body was found in a remote canyon near Indio, CA. How many more victims does Duncan have out there?
August 9th 2005 Public learns of Duncan's "encrypted" home computer. It has been in the hands of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for year and they have not been able to break the code.
"Without a doubt the most challenging system I've looked at," Detective Jess Schoon said of Duncan's encryption.
September 17 2005 Duncan may face child porn charges too? There is a possibility that Duncan video taped himself molesting the children. The police haven't confirmed the video's exist yet.
October 20th 2005 Authorities admit Duncan made child porn videos with the children.
This back and forth between the prosecuting attorney and Duncan's Public defender goes on for a year. Can the evidenced found in his stolen Jeep be used as evidence (over 300 pieces), will Shasta have to testify? Can they use the CA case against Duncan? How about his prior convictions?
October 19th 2006 Duncan accepts plea deal:
•Duncan pleaded guilty to three counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. He faced kidnapping charges because he bound his victims before bludgeoning them to death with a framing hammer at their Wolf Lodge Bay home in mid-May 2005.
•Duncan will return to Kootenai County to face a local jury for sentencing if he doesn't receive the death penalty for his alleged federal crime.
•Duncan will provide the password and/or keys to his encrypted computer files to his federal public defender.
•Duncan's guilty pleas are irrevocable
Duncan was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without possibility of parole on the first-degree kidnapping charges. He claims to have accepted this deal to spare Shasta the pain of reliving the time spent with him. Whatever.... The death penalty was on the table had the case gone to trial. Well, at least Shasta, who at the time of the plea deal was 9 did not have to publicly recount her 6 weeks of hell with this monster. There are still federal charges pending against him, the death penalty is not out of reach. Shasta may still be called to testify. The FBI is still looking into unsolved cases in area's that Duncan lived. This saga is not over, and the computer? So far the only one to see any part of it is the Federal Defender, and he ain't talking.
January 10th 2007 Decisions Not Made On 2nd Duncan Trial
Sources: CNN.com, spokesmanreview.com, wikipedia.org
Photos: spokesmanreview.com
P.S It took me awhile to put this one together as it made me sick to my stomach and sooo very angry, I would have to put it down and come back later. I hope and pray young Shasta will be able to live a normal life and put the horrible past behind her. Lysa
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Thanks Lysa. Keep posting these. I really don't know what else to say.