Thursday, November 3, 2005

ONGOING COVERAGE: GROENE INVESTIGATION

Transcripts detail murder, kidnapping case

Court documents discuss investigators' search, give information on Groene, McKenzie deaths

Taryn Brodwater and Becky Kramer
Staff writers
October 22, 2005

Court transcripts unsealed Friday shed more light on how authorities believe Joseph Edward Duncan III murdered three members of a Coeur d'Alene family – and about the weeks that he allegedly held young Dylan and Shasta Groene at a remote Montana campsite and committed a fourth murder.

The heavily redacted transcripts from search warrant hearings give a glimpse into investigators' frantic quest for information in the first days after the killings.

Early on, for instance, detectives wondered if a plain, brown-paper parcel addressed to Steve Groene might contain a ransom note for his two missing children, or if a school letter about the behavior of 13-year-old victim Slade Groene could yield clues or a motive for the killings.

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The documents indicate that at least 10 days into the investigation, Steve Groene – ex-husband of homicide victim Brenda Groene and father of Slade, Shasta and Dylan Groene – had not been eliminated as a "potential suspect."

Meanwhile, as Duncan was holding the children at a campsite in Montana, 8-year-old Shasta told investigators, he took pictures of himself with the children and showed her some of the digital images. According to testimony from lead investigator Brad Maskell, Shasta said Duncan shot her brother Dylan, who was 9.

Other details of Dylan's death and Shasta's account of the incident were edited from the transcript.

An order from 1st District Judge Fred Gibler, filed Friday, said portions of the transcripts, used to obtain several search warrants in the high-profile case, were redacted to protect the victims' privacy and to ensure a fair trial for the defendant.

The transcripts begin the evening of May 16. Maskell said he was home when he received a call at 7:20 p.m. from officers. They described entering the victims' house through a back door left ajar and finding the body of Slade Groene, lying facedown in a pool of blood inside the kitchen, next to his mother, Brenda Groene. The body of Mark McKenzie, Brenda Groene's boyfriend, was found in the living room.

Before determining that the victims had been bludgeoned with a framing hammer, authorities believed the three had been shot in the head, the transcripts reveal.

By 11:15 p.m. on the day the bodies were discovered, Maskell was in the judges' chambers, asking for search warrants for a detailed examination of the house, the property, and a 1988 Ford pickup found on neighbors' property.

Inside the pickup was a fresh roll of duct tape, and wadded duct tape had been tossed in the back. The victims had been bound with duct tape, as well as zip ties.

Later, Shasta would tell officers that Duncan stole the keys to the pickup from Mark McKenzie and drove the children across the property to where his stolen Jeep was parked.

Maskell told Magistrate Judges Scott Wayman and Benjamin Simpson that the search would include looking for additional bodies. At 11:40 p.m., the judges agreed to issue the search warrants.

The next day, Terry Turnbow, a criminal investigator with the Kootenai County prosecutor's office, was back in court, asking for a search warrant for computer records, phone records and cell phone records.

A forensic fingerprint examiner from Boise examined the crime scene, along with a behavioral scientist from Virginia, and a blood-spatter pattern expert from Washington, D.C.

Sheriff's detectives asked for search warrants to examine mail addressed to Steve Groene, as well as mail addressed to Brenda Groene and McKenzie. Investigators initially wondered if the plain, brown-paper parcel from Lake Placid, N.Y. – sent to Steve Groene but with no specific address other than Coeur d'Alene, which was misspelled – might contain a ransom note for the children.

Detectives also wanted permission to examine a school letter about Slade Groene. "Perhaps there's something interesting from school that … would be interesting to know about Slade's behavior that might lend more information towards a motive," Detective Jerry Northrup told Judge Simpson.

Authorities would eventually seize nearly 300 items of evidence.

According to transcripts of search warrant hearings following Duncan's July 2 arrest and the recovery of Shasta at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant, Shasta helped investigators piece together the events of May 16.

Duncan, she said, told her that he had entered the family's home through an unlocked back door and that he pointed the gun at the family's dogs, which ran and hid. Shasta said Duncan held McKenzie and her mother at gunpoint. She said she saw her brother, Slade, bleeding from a deep head wound.

She said she and Dylan were bound and gagged and then placed in the truck. Shasta told detectives that she believed it was Montana where Duncan had taken her and her brother because he had shown it to her on a map.

Based on information from Shasta, authorities found the Lolo National Forest campsite. Dylan's cremated remains were found nearby.

Shasta told investigators that Duncan took Dylan alone to another location at some point, and she described the acts that occurred during that time, based on what her brother told her when he returned. Details of those acts were redacted from the documents.

A detailed listing of what authorities found on cameras, a laptop computer and electronics in Duncan's stolen rented Jeep has yet to be released.

Federal charges against Duncan in connection with the kidnappings of Dylan and Shasta, and Dylan's murder, have yet to be filed. U.S. District Attorney Tom Moss announced earlier that Duncan may also face charges for production of child pornography in connection with the case.

Duncan was accused in previous court testimony of repeatedly molesting both children.