http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050705/ap_on_re_us/idaho_missing_children
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A newly discovered videotape shows Shasta Groene and her alleged abductor at a store hours before she was rescued, and an officer said Tuesday it looks as if the 8-year-old girl was trying to get someone to recognize her.
Authorities said they had found human remains that might be her missing 9-year-old brother, Dylan.
Dylan and Shasta had been missing since May 16, when the bound and bludgeoned bodies of their mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were found at their rural home near here. Early Saturday, employees and customers spotted Shasta eating breakfast with Joseph Edward Duncan III, a violent sexual predator, at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene.
Authorities were reviewing security camera videotape that showed Shasta and Duncan at a gas station and convenience store Friday evening in Kellogg, about 40 road miles east of Coeur d'Alene.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben. Wolfinger said Tuesday that from his study of the videotape it appeared Shasta was "wanting to be recognized by the patrons there in the store."
"In the small takes I saw out of that surveillance video, she's walking around, stopping, looking right at the faces of the different patrons there," Wolfinger said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
The assistant manager of the Cameron Conoco, Charlotte Adsitt, said she and the station owner reviewed the videotape after seeing news reports, then called authorities.
"She didn't seem nervous, mistreated, nothing out of the ordinary. I almost asked her name ... but I didn't because I didn't know if she was with her father," Adsitt told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.
Adsitt said she "felt sick all day" at the thought that the girl "was with this creep longer than she should've been."
Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson told reporters Monday that "possible" human remains had been found at a site in western Montana, and would be sent to the FBI crime lab in Virginia for DNA analysis. That is expected to take three days.
Watson would not answer questions.
"Unfortunately, we believe Dylan to be deceased," Wolfinger said after Watson's announcement.
Duncan, 42, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and other charges. Duncan, from Fargo, N.D., has spent much of his adult life in prison.
Authorities planned to formally charge him with kidnapping and being a fugitive from justice, and have said more charges were possible. An initial court appearance was set for Tuesday.
The sheriff's office released a photograph showing a smiling Shasta hugging her father Steve at Kootenai Medical Center. Another photo showed her holding a doll. The photos do not show any apparent injuries from her nearly six weeks of captivity.
"She's a much happier little girl right now," Wolfinger said, adding she was listed in good condition.
Officers have interviewed the girl a couple of times, but details of what happened to the children are agonizingly slow in coming. Duncan has refused to cooperate, officials said.
Major questions include: Was Duncan involved in the three initial slayings? Have the children been with him the whole time? If so, where have they been hiding?
"We've got a lot of questions left unanswered," Wolfinger said. Some 60 local, state and FBI investigators are working the case.
Authorities have relied on information from Shasta, evidence from Duncan's stolen red Jeep Cherokee and some 100 new tips from the public in the search for the boy. The tips have poured in since photos of Duncan and the Jeep were released, and many are "vehicle-specific and Duncan-specific," Wolfinger said.
Shasta has provided helpful information, but Wolfinger would not say exactly what she was telling officers. "It's a slow process with Shasta," he said. "We're taking that very slowly."
The children were missing when authorities arrived at their home May 16 and found the bodies of their mother, Brenda Groene, 40, brother Slade Groene, 13, and their mother's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37.
Authorities believe Duncan and the children remained in the Northwest during the past seven weeks, but Wolfinger would not say where. He also would not say if there was any evidence anyone else accompanied Duncan.
Officials have not said why they believe the Groene family was targeted. Steve Groene said he had never heard of Duncan before Saturday.
Duncan, who was raised in Tacoma, Wash., had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint and was a fugitive at the time of his arrest for allegedly molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.
On Saturday, Wolfinger said Duncan authored a Web site called fifthnail.com. The name was derived from a myth involving a fifth nail that was crafted for Jesus's crucifixion but 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.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A newly discovered videotape shows Shasta Groene and her alleged abductor at a store hours before she was rescued, and an officer said Tuesday it looks as if the 8-year-old girl was trying to get someone to recognize her.
Authorities said they had found human remains that might be her missing 9-year-old brother, Dylan.
Dylan and Shasta had been missing since May 16, when the bound and bludgeoned bodies of their mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were found at their rural home near here. Early Saturday, employees and customers spotted Shasta eating breakfast with Joseph Edward Duncan III, a violent sexual predator, at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene.
Authorities were reviewing security camera videotape that showed Shasta and Duncan at a gas station and convenience store Friday evening in Kellogg, about 40 road miles east of Coeur d'Alene.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben. Wolfinger said Tuesday that from his study of the videotape it appeared Shasta was "wanting to be recognized by the patrons there in the store."
"In the small takes I saw out of that surveillance video, she's walking around, stopping, looking right at the faces of the different patrons there," Wolfinger said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
The assistant manager of the Cameron Conoco, Charlotte Adsitt, said she and the station owner reviewed the videotape after seeing news reports, then called authorities.
"She didn't seem nervous, mistreated, nothing out of the ordinary. I almost asked her name ... but I didn't because I didn't know if she was with her father," Adsitt told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.
Adsitt said she "felt sick all day" at the thought that the girl "was with this creep longer than she should've been."
Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson told reporters Monday that "possible" human remains had been found at a site in western Montana, and would be sent to the FBI crime lab in Virginia for DNA analysis. That is expected to take three days.
Watson would not answer questions.
"Unfortunately, we believe Dylan to be deceased," Wolfinger said after Watson's announcement.
Duncan, 42, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and other charges. Duncan, from Fargo, N.D., has spent much of his adult life in prison.
Authorities planned to formally charge him with kidnapping and being a fugitive from justice, and have said more charges were possible. An initial court appearance was set for Tuesday.
The sheriff's office released a photograph showing a smiling Shasta hugging her father Steve at Kootenai Medical Center. Another photo showed her holding a doll. The photos do not show any apparent injuries from her nearly six weeks of captivity.
"She's a much happier little girl right now," Wolfinger said, adding she was listed in good condition.
Officers have interviewed the girl a couple of times, but details of what happened to the children are agonizingly slow in coming. Duncan has refused to cooperate, officials said.
Major questions include: Was Duncan involved in the three initial slayings? Have the children been with him the whole time? If so, where have they been hiding?
"We've got a lot of questions left unanswered," Wolfinger said. Some 60 local, state and FBI investigators are working the case.
Authorities have relied on information from Shasta, evidence from Duncan's stolen red Jeep Cherokee and some 100 new tips from the public in the search for the boy. The tips have poured in since photos of Duncan and the Jeep were released, and many are "vehicle-specific and Duncan-specific," Wolfinger said.
Shasta has provided helpful information, but Wolfinger would not say exactly what she was telling officers. "It's a slow process with Shasta," he said. "We're taking that very slowly."
The children were missing when authorities arrived at their home May 16 and found the bodies of their mother, Brenda Groene, 40, brother Slade Groene, 13, and their mother's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37.
Authorities believe Duncan and the children remained in the Northwest during the past seven weeks, but Wolfinger would not say where. He also would not say if there was any evidence anyone else accompanied Duncan.
Officials have not said why they believe the Groene family was targeted. Steve Groene said he had never heard of Duncan before Saturday.
Duncan, who was raised in Tacoma, Wash., had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint and was a fugitive at the time of his arrest for allegedly molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.
On Saturday, Wolfinger said Duncan authored a Web site called fifthnail.com. The name was derived from a myth involving a fifth nail that was crafted for Jesus's crucifixion but 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.
