'Person Of Interest' Questioned

A man sought for questioning in the bloody slayings of three people contacted authorities Wednesday as the search continued for two children missing from the home where the killings took place.

Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger says detectives began interviewing Robert Roy Lutner Wednesday evening. Wolfinger did not say where Lutner was found, but news reports say the interview was in Coeur d'Alene, in northern Idaho.

Police in several states had been attempting to locate Lutner, and Wolfinger said Lutner had known he was being sought.

The missing children, 8-year-old Shasta Kay Groene, and 9-year-old Dylan James Groene, were not with Lutner, the Spokesman-Review reported, and an Amber Alert remains in effect.

Authorities have said Lutner was known to have been at the children's home on Sunday night, the night before the bodies of their brother, mother and a man were found.

Police had sought Lutner, 33, of Hayden, to determine whether he may have seen something, or met someone at the home east of Coeur d'Alene where the bodies were found.

Shasta Groene, 8, is 3-feet-10 and 40 pounds with long auburn hair and hazel eyes, and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, is 4 feet and 60 pounds with a blond crewcut and blue eyes.

The bodies of their mother, Brenda Kay Groene, 40, and brother, Slade Vincent Groene, 13, and Mark E. McKenzie, 37, of Coeur d'Alene, were found in the house.

Brenda and Steven Groene were separated in 1998 and divorced in 2001. Brenda Groene had custody of the three younger children and her husband had custody of two older children, Vance Robert, now 20, and Jesse, 18, court records showed.

Jesse Groene, an older brother of the missing children who is jail on unrelated assault and burglary charges, told CBS News affiliate KREM-TV he couldn't believe he had lost almost his entire family.

"Whoever did this is just straight twisted; something's wrong with them," said Groene.

Police have released few details about the evidence found inside the house, but Wolfinger said there was "lots of blood."

"We know this was a triple homicide because all three victims were bound," Wolfinger said, declining to elaborate.

Autopsies are being conducted to determine how and when the three victims were killed. Neither Wolfinger nor Sheriff Rocky Watson would characterize the relationship between McKenzie and the others.

Wolfinger says police are draining small ponds near the home to search "for evidence of any sort, or, God forbid, the children, but maybe a tool or weapon, anything."

The search has also expanded from the siblings' home to nearby fields and woods where they are known to play. Wolfinger said police and civilian volunteers on horses and all-terrain vehicles were looking for "little forts" and "favorite places out in the woods" where the children might be hiding.

"The children are our number one priority," Wolfinger said. "We keep processing the scene with the idea that maybe we'll get that one clue at the scene that will lead us to where the children are, and who they may be with."

Jesse Groene also says his mother has known Lutner for about two years.

Police say Lutner was on probation for an unemployment fraud conviction and had left information Tuesday with a probation officer that he intended to visit his father and stepmother in the Boise area.

Police say they do not know the motive for the killings. Wolfinger says the sheriff's department received more than 150 tips in the first 12 hours after it set up a tip line, but not all the information was useful.

"Some were from some real weird people," Wolfinger said. "We're keeping some of that information close to the vest so we can sort out what is legitimate and what is not."