Child Killer Joseph Edward Duncan III Sentenced (Photos)

Posted on November 3, 2008

Prosecutors are seeking three life prison terms today for convicted child-killer Joseph Duncan III today during his sentencing in Idaho. Read more about Joseph Edward Duncan III below.

Joseph Edward Duncan III has already been sentenced to be executed for the 2005 kidnapping, sexual exploitation and murder of a 9-year-old Dylan Groene, of Coeur d`Alene, Idaho.

Federal prosecutors state that the convicted child-killer should also get should three additional life prison terms.

Joseph Edward Duncan III will be sentenced today (Monday) in Boise, Idaho on seven federal counts stemming from his 2005 kidnapping and sexual exploitation of a northern Idaho boy.

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss has said court papers that Duncan’s conduct is “perhaps the most horrific, cruel and depraved criminal episode in Idaho’s history.”

Joseph Edward Duncan III has already been sentenced to death in August for the 2005 kidnapping, sexual exploitation and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. But Duncan, 45, also murdered Dylan’s mother, Brenda Groene, her 13-year-old son, Slade, and Brenda’s boyfriend, Mark McKenzie.

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According to the coroner’s report, all three victims died from blunt trauma to the head. Each victim suffered skull fractures and contusions of the brain, and investigators believed that a claw hammer may have been the blunt instrument used on each of the bound victims. Following a toxicology analysis, tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, was found in the blood of Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie. Traces of methamphetamine were also found in their blood.

Duncan had watched their home for days, viewing the children playing outside their home in their rural area. Joseph Edward Duncan III murdered the family and kidnapped Shasta, 8, and Dylan, 9.

Thankfully a person recognized Shasta Duncan from the missing posters when he saw Duncan and Shasta enter a Denny’s restaurant. He phoned police and they arrived to arrest Duncan and return Shasta to her biological father.

But of course Dylan, 9 was still missing. But his sister Shasta had knowledge of what had happened to her brother.

From TruTV:

According to the details that Shasta recounted to Kootenai County Detective Dan Mattos, contained in court records from a probable cause hearing held on Tuesday, July 5, 2005, Shasta was asleep in her bedroom the night that her family was killed. Her mother came into her room, woke her up, and led her into the living room where she first saw Duncan. According to court records, Duncan carried Shasta and her brother outside and placed them inside a pickup truck and drove them to a location where he had parked the red Jeep Cherokee. He then placed the children inside the Jeep and drove them to a campsite deep in the forests of western Montana. Over the next several weeks, according to Shasta, he repeatedly raped and sexually abused both of the children. She told Mattos that Duncan had acted alone. She also said that she had called Duncan “Jet,” a nickname of his own device, Joseph Edward the Third.

According to a report in USA Today, Shasta recalled vividly the smallest details of the night that her family was killed and she and her brother abducted. Shasta told the investigators that Duncan wore dark gloves inside the house, and carried a shoulder-style weapon, such as a shotgun. During a search of the stolen Jeep, investigators found dark gloves, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a red shotgun shell. She even recalled the brand name of the claw hammer that Duncan allegedly used to kill her family, a FatMax. Although Shasta said that she and her brother had not witnessed the actual murders, she explained how Duncan had showed her and her brother the FatMax hammer and how he told them that he had used it to kill her family.

According to Kootenai County Sheriff’s Detective Brad Maskell, investigators purchased a FatMax brand hammer and were able to match the tool markings on it to the wounds on victims’ skulls.

Shasta also explained to the investigators how Duncan had said that he used the night vision goggles to watch the Groene-McKenzie home for two or three nights prior to the murders and abductions. Police also found night vision goggles in the stolen Jeep.

Shasta also stated that Duncan had told her sordid details of how he had sexually molested her brother. He had even tortured him, burning him with cigarettes.

Based on Shasta’s statements, investigators were able to locate the remote Montana campsite where Duncan had allegedly held Shasta and her brother captive. A short time later, authorities sadly announced that they believed they had found Dylan’s remains off of a remote Forest Service road in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. A week later, forensic DNA testing confirmed that the remains were indeed Dylan’s. The authorities announced that he had been shot to death and that his body had been burned.

This guy is one sick f**k.

Let’s hope this guy gets what he deserves in his sentencing today. Just look at Joseph Edward Duncan III’s eyes and you can see the evil. It’s freaking scary.