Joseph E. Duncan III

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Joseph E. Duncan III
mugshot of Duncan
Background information
Born:	February 25, 1963 (1963-02-25) (age 45) Tacoma, Washington
Penalty:	still pending
Killings
Number of victims:	7
Span of killings:	May, 2005 through May, 2005
Country:	U.S.
State(s):	Idaho
Date apprehended:	July 2, 2005

Joseph Edward Duncan III (born February 25, 1963) is an American convicted sex offender and murderer who received national attention after being arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, age eight, and her brother Dylan, age nine.

Contents 1 Early criminal history 2 Idaho murders 3 Federal Case 4 "The Fifth Nail" and "Fifth Nail Revelations" 5 Cold case 6 References

[edit] Early criminal history

Duncan has a long history as a violent sexual predator, and was clinically diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder in 1980, while in prison for raping a younger boy at gunpoint.

In 2004, Duncan was charged with groping the genitals of a six-year-old boy. He was arrested in April 2005 in Minnesota. The judge granted bail at $15,000. A businessman in Fargo, Joe Crary, gave Duncan money for bail.^[1] When freed, Duncan jumped bail.

[edit] Idaho murders

According to Shasta Groene's police interview, Duncan tied her family members up and then took her and her brother away in a 2000 Jeep Cherokee. Almost seven weeks after their abduction, a camera in a convenience store, approximately 40 miles outside of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, recorded Shasta wandering the aisles while Duncan read a newspaper. Later on, in the early morning hours of July 2, 2005, Shasta was found in Duncan's custody. The two had entered a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene. A waitress recognized Shasta from media reports, as well as posters that had been posted around town and in the restaurant. The waitress, Amber Deahn, worked with her manager to delay the suspect and contact local police. Deahn stalled the order until the police arrived and made a positive ID on the stolen rental car, which also displayed stolen Missouri state license plates. Police later entered the restaurant and arrested Duncan. When one of the officers asked Shasta where her brother was, she replied "My brother is in heaven." The girl was then removed to a local hospital for observation and care.

Shasta told investigators her mother called her into the living room, from her bedroom where she had been sleeping, and she saw Duncan wearing black gloves and holding a gun. Her captor tied her mother's hands with nylon zip ties, and did the same to her mother's boyfriend and her brother Slade. Dylan and Shasta were removed from the house and placed inside the stolen rental car. While she waited with her brother, she heard her mother's boyfriend scream out and then saw her injured older brother staggering away from the entrance to the home. Both Shasta and Dylan were removed to other locations, where they were repeatedly raped and molested for six weeks. She said that they drove long distances and stayed in various campgrounds, while Duncan bragged of having beaten family members to death with a hammer.

Dylan's remains were found in a remote, woodland area in Montana days after Shasta was rescued. Shasta is now in the custody of her father.

Duncan appeared in court on July 6, 2005, during his arraignment on two counts of first-degree kidnapping. His trial was set to begin on January 17, 2006, but was delayed until April 4, after the district judge granted a request to the defense for more time to prepare for the trial, and then again to October 26, after 1st District Judge Fred Gibler stated that "No one wants to try this case twice, including me", thus granting Duncan's attorneys the six month extension. On October 16, 2006, Duncan pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping for the deaths of Brenda, Slade, and Mark. In an agreement reached with prosecutors, Duncan, 43, will receive three consecutive life sentences on the kidnapping charges, which stem from the manner in which Duncan detained the victims before their deaths. His sentencing on the murder charges has been delayed until the completion of his case in federal court for crimes that allegedly occurred against Shasta and Dylan Groene after they were kidnapped from the family's home. ^[2]

In a January 23, 2007 interview, Duncan admitted to killing three other children in the California area. Detectives are checking into this new information.

[edit] Federal Case

On December 2, 2007, Duncan appeared in Federal court in Boise, Idaho. At this hearing he pleaded guilty to a total of 10 federal felonies related to the Idaho kidnapping and murders. During this court appearance, he read a statement in which he said, "The not-guilty plea was not entered by me, but on my behalf."

There was no deal made by federal prosecutors in return for the plea, and they may still seek the death penalty, as they have previously suggested they would. Duncan is yet to be sentenced.

[edit] "The Fifth Nail" and "Fifth Nail Revelations"

Duncan recorded many of his violent sexual fantasies, even to the extent of becoming a sex offender advocate working for the repeal of sex offender law. He published his ideas on the Internet. He titled it "The Fifth Nail", which is also the URL for his personal website. According to lore, in addition to the four nails used to pierce the body of Jesus Christ as he was hung upon the cross, there was a fifth nail that was taken away and hid by Roma. Duncan adopted the name for his own website and blog. The website depicted Duncan's day-to-day life as a sex offender. Together with his many years of incarceration, Duncan expressed his feelings of persecution.

Investigators are also considering the possibility that a "Minnesota girl" mentioned in his online diary could be related to another minor who is listed as missing. Duncan can receive the death penalty.

"The Fifth Nail" advocates for sex offenders and contained material that called for the legal reform law aimed at sex offenders, calling them, "State Sanctioned Discrimination." Duncan was particularly angered by the requirement for sex offenders to participate in a public registry.

With the help of a "ghost blogger", Duncan has been posting to his new blog, "Fifth Nail Revelations", from prison. He writes his blog entries by hand and mails them to the "ghost blogger", who posts them exactly as written. According to media reports, law enforcement agencies have been watching the contents of the new blog in hopes of gathering incriminating information about Duncan's crimes, both known and unknown.

[edit] Cold case

In August 2005, California cold case investigators connected a single fingerprint to Duncan in an unsolved homicide. The case, cold since 1997, is the murder of 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez, a resident of Beaumont, California. Anthony was abducted April 4, 1997 right in front of his friends after an unknown male approached them with an offer of one dollar, if they help him find his missing cat. The boys refused the offer, but the stranger grabbed Anthony by the collar, placed a knife near his throat, and threw him into a white vehicle. Anthony's nude body was found April 19 near Indio, California. His hands were bound with duct tape, where the killer left his fingerprint. Duncan is believed to have been in the southern California region around April 1997. It is unknown when Duncan will be formally charged. ^[3] If charged and convicted he may face a life sentence in Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado.

In January 2007, Robert Pacheco, the Riverside, California District Attorney, stated he will seek to extradite Duncan to California for the 1997 murder. If convicted he will face the death penalty from the state of California. ^[4]

[edit] References

True Stories of Law & Order: SVU, pages 192-205 (Berkley, 2006. ISBN-10: 0425217353)