October 16, 2006 -- COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Police believe it was the children in their swimsuits who caught the attention of pedophile Joseph Edward Duncan III, triggering a spree of murder, kidnapping and child rape.
The registered sex offender, on the run from a child-molestation charge in Minnesota, drove past the rural home where 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, were frolicking in May 2005, investigators say.
Duncan's trial, on charges of killing three people so he could kidnap the two children for sex, begins today. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
And after the state case ends, federal prosecutors are expected to file charges against Duncan in the abduction of Shasta and Dylan and the slaying of Dylan. They have already said they, too, will seek the death penalty.
According to court records, Duncan stalked the Groene family for several days to learn their habits. Then he donned night-vision goggles and entered their home in the early morning of May 16. He surprised Brenda Groene, her 13-year-old son, Slade, and her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, then beat them to death with a claw hammer and abducted the two younger children, the documents allege.
The court records say Duncan, 43, molested the children for seven weeks at a primitive campsite near St. Regis, Mont.
