SEATTLE -- The man arrested Saturday with a missing 8-year-old girl had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a boy at gunpoint and had a Web site that called for lighter sentencing of sex offenders, officials said.

Joseph Edward Duncan III's criminal record stretches back to 1980, when as a teenager he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy in Washington state and pleaded guilty.

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Download/Print: Missing Children's Poster

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He was charged Saturday with kidnapping Shasta Groene, who disappeared with her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, six weeks ago from a home where three family members were bludgeoned to death. Dylan was still missing Saturday and officials said early information indicated he might be dead.

Duncan was being held without bond. His first court appearance was not expected until after the weekend.

At age 17, Duncan pleaded guilty in adult court to first-degree rape and was sentenced to prison. He was released on parole in 1994 but violated it and was sent back in 1997.

After his release again in 2000, he moved to Fargo, N.D., and began studying computer science at North Dakota State University, where officials said he was a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society and made the dean's list.

Fargo Police Capt. Jeff Williams said Duncan initially followed the rules required of high-risk offenders, and neighbors said he kept to himself.

"As far as we know, he was more or a less a model," Williams said.

That changed after Duncan was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy at a middle school playground in Becker County in Minnesota last year. He was accused of approaching two young boys with a video camera and pulling down the shorts of one of the boys and touching him.

He was released in April on $15,000 bond and ordered to stay in contact with a probation officer. In May, authorities said they were seeking Duncan on a warrant after he failed to do so.

Police last visited his Fargo apartment on May 5 with a search warrant, Assistant Police Chief Keith Ternes said Saturday. He said does not believe Duncan ever returned to Fargo after that and said authorities had had no reason to suspect he might be connected with the Idaho case.

Duncan also authored a Web site called fifthnail.com, Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. The site was down Saturday but could be seen in archived Web pages.

The name was derived from a myth involving a fifth nail that was crafted for Christ's execution but that was not used after gypsies hid it from Roman soldiers. "The Fifth Nail is the nail that was meant to peirce the Heart of Christ and end his suffering," the site said.

In one posting, he said he knew his 1980 sex offense was wrong, "but I can honestly say that I had no clue of the impact my actions would have on my victim, or society, or myself. ... I was abused, even raped, so often and by so many different people growing up that I thought it was like smoking pot, everyone did it, but nobody openly admitted it."

In another, he said as a teen he was sentenced to a group sex offender program "where half the men in my 'treatment group' sat and fantasized about me."

He said forcing sex offenders to register was discriminatory.

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