"It shows these kinds of aberrations can occur to anyone, anywhere, any time — predators strike from Brentwood to Mayberry RFD."

FBI agents in Idaho are still working to construct a timeline of Duncan's whereabouts over the last decade, to see if there may be more victims, said Donald Robinson, supervisory senior resident agent for the FBI's Coeur d'Alene office.

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"The investigation's really in its infancy here — we need to find out where he's been," Robinson said.

Doyle said FBI officials told him Duncan was being investigated in connection with two child killings in Washington state.

Duncan has an extensive criminal history. At 16, he started serving a 14-year prison sentence in Washington state for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint. He was released from prison in 1994. Investigators believe Duncan may have traveled to Southern California in 1997, because his father lived in Highland in San Bernardino County.

By the end of 1997, Duncan was back in custody in Washington state on a parole violation, Doyle said. Duncan remained in prison until July 2000, when he moved to Fargo, N.D., and enrolled at North Dakota State University.

In March 2005, Duncan was charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy at a school playground in Detroit Lakes, Minn. Duncan became a fugitive in early April 2005 after posting $15,000 bond.

Anthony's mother said investigators contacted her Friday to inform her that Duncan was a suspect in her son's killing.

Medina said she had worked hard to carve out a normal life for her and her children, Marcos, 15, and Monica, 12. Her daughter was too young to remember much of what happened the day Anthony was kidnapped, but Marcos has struggled, she said: He was playing with Anthony that day.

"I can't be a victim my whole life, and neither can they," she said. "I'm trying to raise my family the right way and do what's right and work and do what everybody else does."

In Beaumont, residents were relieved to hear that a suspect was in custody but said the memory of Anthony's abduction and horror over his killing had never left them.

Longtime resident Kim Bledsoe, 49, said that the case made her more concerned for her own daughter's safety and that she would also wonder if strangers she saw could be Anthony's killer.

"Everyone I didn't know could have been the one," said Bledsoe, a hairstylist who had cut Anthony's hair. "I was really more aware of things that I never noticed before…. When something like that happens, you really take your daily routine for granted."

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Times staff writers Susana Enriquez and Sam Howe Verhovek contributed to this report. Enriquez reported from Beaumont and Verhovek from Seattle.