Tortured Kids' Letters Shown To Idaho Jury
Anguished Father Confirms Handwriting On Notes Apparently Written At Behest Of Killer
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Joseph Edward Duncan III, right, is shown during a hearing at the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department Justice building in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Oct. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Kathy Plonka, Pool, File)
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Shasta Groene (left), 8, a few days after her rescue from the man police believe kidnapped her and her brother, Dylan (right), 9, at their Kootenai County, Idaho, home on May 15 or May 16 and killed him, their 13-year-old brother Slade, mother Brenda Groene, and Mark McKenzie, their mother's boyfriend. (AP/Kootenai County Sheriff)
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Joseph Edward Duncan III, of Fargo, N.D., who is charged with kidnapping, appears in this undated photo released by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. (AP)
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In this image made from security camera video provided by the owner of the convenience store, Shasta Groene and her alleged abductor, Joseph Edward Duncan III, are seen inside a convenience store Friday evening, July 1, 2005 in Kellogg, Idaho, hours before she was rescued. (AP)
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Death Penalty Sought
Prosecutors in Idaho say they plan to seek the death penalty for Joseph Duncan, who is accused of killing three people in an effort to abduct two children. Hattie Kauffman reports.
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Duncan Linked To '97 Murder
There's a new charge against accused killer Joseph Duncan, who is currently under arrest for four murders and a kidnapping. Police say he may also be responsible for the 1997 murder of a little boy.
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Idaho Suspect In Court
Joseph Duncan lowered his head and seemed to quiver as charges were read against him in court. Investigators are relying on the chilling testimony of 8-year-old Shasta Groene, John Blackstone reports.
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Steven Groene said it was the first time he had seen one of the letters, which offered a false promise. "I have good news we will be home soon," it read, "maybe in a week or 2."
Joseph Edward Duncan III pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal charges in the 2005 kidnappings of Dylan and Shasta Groene, and the slaying of Dylan. A federal jury is determining whether he should be put to death or spend life in prison without parole.
Earlier, Duncan pleaded guilty in state court to murdering the children's older brother, their mother and the mother's fiance during the attack at the family's Coeur d'Alene home. Prosecutors say he killed the three to kidnap and sexually brutalize Dylan, 9, and Shasta, then 8.
As their father testified, the letters from Dylan and Shasta flashed on a screen only briefly, and prosecutors avoided discussing the contents. But they're likely to be the letters found in the car Duncan was driving just before he was arrested with Shasta in a Coeur d'Alene restaurant weeks after the kidnapping.
Excerpts suggest Duncan directed the children to write them.
"Dear dad, I miss you very much. Me and Dylan know what happened," to their slain family members, one letter from Shasta read.
"I'm sorry you had to lose a son and an ex-wife and I'm sorry we were taken from you ... We are still alive and we are ok," read another.
After testifying about the identities of his children and confirming their handwriting, Groene stepped down, visibly choked up by the evidence. Duncan, who is representing himself, did not question him.
In May 2005, Duncan went to Idaho, broke into the home and bludgeoned 13-year-old Slade Groene, his mother, Brenda Groene, and her fiance, Mark McKenzie, before abducting Shasta and Dylan and taking them to a remote campsites and other locations in Montana. After sexually traumatizing the children for weeks, Duncan killed Dylan in front of his little sister and burned his body.
Former Kootenai County Deputy Dale Moyer, now a deputy in Spokane County, Wash., was the first prosecution witness Thursday.
He knew the family from previous calls to the house, and because when the children were playing in their front yard, they would sometimes wave him down as he drove by.
"The younger girl wanted stickers," the kind featuring law enforcement insignias, Moyer said. "And the 9-year-old, he wanted to talk about guns."
On the evening of May 16, 2005, Moyer was dispatched after the sheriff's department got a call asking them to go to the house.
As he approached the front door, he noticed blood on the porch and door, Moyer said.
While waiting for the other deputies to arrive, Moyer walked around the building and looked through a window. He could hear dogs barking inside and see blood on a wall inside the home.
"There was an odor ... of carnage and carnage smells," Moyer said. "There was a definite odor."
After other deputies arrived, Moyer said he went inside, finding the three bodies and realizing that Shasta and Dylan were missing.
One officer testified that the scene was so grisly he actually quit law enforcement for a time because "this case pushed me to the end," reports CBS affiliate KBCI-TV in Boise.
Duncan questioned FBI Special Agent Mike Geneckow, who took the stand to discuss a security video taken from a gas station in Kellogg, Idaho, on July 1, 2005, the day before Shasta was rescued.
In the video, Shasta walks around the convenience store with her arms tightly folded and Duncan nearby. At one point, Geneckow pointed out, a police car drove by the two, apparently not noticing that Shasta was the missing girl.
In cross-examination, Duncan asked the court to show the last frame of the video again - only to point out that a second police car had also passed them by.
During opening statements Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Tom Moss characterized Duncan as a cold, calculating killer and pedophile who terrorized the family because he wanted to "live out his fantasy" and exact revenge on society for perceived wrongs. Moss also said Duncan carefully researched police investigation procedures and took steps to avoid getting caught.
During his brief statement, Duncan told the jury that most of what Moss said was fair and accurate "up to the point of what occurred at the campground."
He said he would testify so he could try to "clarify things."
His standby legal counsel, Judy Clarke, has said Duncan doesn't plan to offer any mitigation, such as evidence of his own traumatic childhood.
Duncan's past is littered with arrests and prison time for crimes ranging from car theft to rape and molestation. He is suspected in the 1996 slayings of two half-sisters from Seattle and is charged with the 1997 killing of a young boy in Riverside County, Calif.
The sentencing hearing is expected to last up to six weeks.
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anybody who finds a really pathethic reason to spare this piece of sh*t the most fit punishment (DEATH) are more disgusting.
those who would argue that lethal injection would inflict undue and unusual form of punishment should be shot in the head along with this piece of cr ap
he needs to be tormented..
the wicked and the blasphemous will BE PUNISHED
This b.astard is lucky he''s not in Saudi Arabia or a place like that. Very lucky.
http://www.medievality.com/judas-craddle.html
Let that *** know what it feels like to be traumatized. He does not deserve the satisfaction of dying comfortably after what he''s done. Make him suffer to his last breath. Rebel, people, and get your government to act now! We must stand up for the innocents! Let there be no more victims like this poor family! Stand now and fight!
committed these crimes, he doesn''t deserve to smile
or have the comfort of a cell, those poor people
went through so much, the children were just babies.
I can''t believe someone hasn''t done him in yet.
Shasta used to go in the Farm store my daughter worked at after all these things happened to her,
my daughter said she looked so haunted and sad, this
was a year after it happened. I say prayers for her
and her Dad all the time.
Who cares if they were emoting. It was a horrific thing that guy did. Is there a point to your post or are you just a troll looking to stir up trouble? I think a troll
I am against capitol punishment as a rule. But even the church acknowledges to protect society death is the ONLY remedy for a man like this.
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Posted by Voltaire777 at 11:34 PM : Aug 14, 2008
What a sanctimonious goober you are.!!!! I%u2019m looking for intelligence from your posts and all I see is rabble rousing.
What are YOU saying that''s so interesting? Not much.
Have a good night.
+ report abuse
******
humm I wonder if you have child porn on your computer..seem a little sympatethic..its amazing how you can keep your ''cool'' about this..not unless of course it hits you right there..
As a therapist I have seen tremendous positive results from *** offenders who undergo counseling and then become positive members of society. Yet with the grand standing of politicians and the hysteria driven media, the good that comes from therapy is being erased.
If we keep persecuting registered offenders they will stop registering and then we won''t know where any of them all. Besides, your child has a much greater chance of being killed by a handgun than he or she does being molested by a registered offender
ST, I was looking for you the other day. Guess what I found? You tube "Chris rock introduces Obama" in that video, Mr. Obama has a very interesting thing to say about the constitution.
Now in light of his recent shift backwards to the right, one would be forgiven a bit of skepticism, but so far this is the only time I have heard these words from any politician.
Get back to me on this, let me know what you think, ok?
So. yes, FRY him.
So. yes, FRY him.
You are one sick S.O.B.
Kill him, till be burned to the bone, but like he made this little girl watch, what he did to her own brother.
Oh, I so feel for this little girl. How will she recover from something like this. She must have seen him kill her oldest brother and her mother,and her partner. and to later watch her other brother die, after being, someone she must have been reliant on for comfort. Then she had no one.
I pray that God will help her, and confort her. I will pray for her and her fast recover for peace of mind and security.
''CONVICTED *** OFFENDER'' (pedophile)
at the very minimum means a TRUE LIFE sentence, we will continue to read stories just like this one.
Mandatory Minimum Sentences==what is Obama''s position on this?
When I wanted to try to get the out of a person who refused to pay me the rest of the money for a business I sold her, the lawyer said that it was no use in trying to sue her as the law seems to be on the side of the criminal now, and it would cost to much for probably not winning.
Venting anger is healthy, it is if they carry out that anger that is not good...
I also would like to know that he has had the pain and hurt and feel the horrors that these little ones felt and what their family went through, but that would just be lowing myself to his level so we dont go there...
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