Cops: Idaho Suspect Stalked Family

Convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III was charged with three counts of murder and kidnapping Tuesday, accused of tying up and bludgeoning to death three people in the Idaho home where two young children disappeared.

"He showed premeditation," Prosecutor Bill Douglas said Tuesday.

Duncan, 42, has been held without bail in the Kootenai County Jail. He was already charged with kidnapping in the abduction of the two children.

The charges are for the deaths of Brenda Groene, Slade Groene and Mark McKenzie, Douglas told television reporters.

The three were beaten to death in their rural home near here sometime late on May 15 or early May 16. Shasta Groene, 8, and Dylan Groene, 9, were abducted at the same time.

Brenda Groene, 40, was the children's mother, Slade was her 13-year-old son and McKenzie, 37, was her boyfriend.

Newly released court documents from a closed-door hearing on Tuesday provide details into how and why authorities believe Duncan committed the crimes.

According to the documents, Duncan had spotted Shasta playing in a bathing suit with her brother, Dylan.

"(Duncan) told her he watched her two or three days, and at night would peer inside the home," Detective Brad Maskell told the judge, according to the records. The records also say Duncan used night-vision goggles to learn the home's layout before bursting in.

Shasta's ordeal began when she heard her mother call her into the living room early on the morning of May 16, according to authorities. There, she told investigators, she saw Duncan wearing dark gloves and holding a shotgun.

Her mother, brother Slade 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, bloody and incoherent, out of the home.

Maskell said Duncan bragged to the girl about killing her family with a hammer and showed it to her.

Officials have alleged that the children were repeatedly sexually molested during their ordeal and that the motive for the killings was to acquire the children for sex.

Duncan, raised in Tacoma, Wash., but most recently a resident of Fargo, N.D., has already been charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping. That crime can bring the death penalty in Idaho.

Shasta was rescued July 2 after being spotted in a Coeur d'Alene restaurant in the company of Duncan, who was arrested at the scene.

Duncan was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Tacoma in 1980. He was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota when he was arrested at the restaurant.

Dylan's body was found at a remote campsite in western Montana last week after Shasta gave authorities information about where the children were held.

Shasta Groene did not learn that Dylan was dead until last weekend, according to Steve Groene, the children's father and ex-husband of Brenda Groene. Officials announced Sunday that DNA analysis of remains found at the site showed they were those of the little boy. The family was informed before the news was made public.

Duncan was freed earlier this year on $15,000 bail after he was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota. The judge in that case has said he's not sure he knew when he set bail that Duncan was a high-risk "Level III" sex offender who had previously served a 20-year-prison sentence for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Tacoma, Wash.

After learning of Duncan's police record, Steve Groene, the father of the kidnapped and murdered children, asked the public to call on their elected officials to prevent Level Three sex offenders from being allowed out in public.

Outrage over the Groene kidnappings and murders is already spurring Idaho lawmakers into drafting plans to strengthen the state's sex offender classification system. They also may establish group homes for convicted molesters, allow judges to order lifetime probation and monitor offenders' movement with Global Positioning System satellites.

"My understanding is that the recidivism rate is so high, in my mind, once they've offended, they've lost all rights in society," Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "We can't afford to have them on the loose."

"We can put electronic chips in wolves and we have OnStar for when the car goes over the cliff, but we can't follow the movements of sex offenders?" Henderson said. "It's ridiculous."

Coeur d'Alene City Attorney Mike Gridley is investigating whether the city can ban convicted sex offenders from living close to schools, parks, day-care facilities and churches after they are released.

Thomas Hearn, chairman of the Idaho Sex Offender Classification Board, said Washington state's three-level classification system may be used as a model for Idaho, since it has withstood court challenges.

Idaho may also copy Washington's lifetime parole and-or probation law for sex offenders, which went into effect in 2001. Hearn said lawmakers will have to decide whether sex offenders who have already been released could be re-sentenced, and how to pay for the additional supervision.

"What you're talking about is hiring probation officers who are going to keep an eye on a group for a long time," he said. "People need to be aware these things come with a pricetag."

Hearn said he also is urging lawmakers to reconsider past opposition to group housing for sex offenders.

"I, frankly, would rather have them all in one place where you can keep an eye on them," he said.