Boise, Idaho – A man accused of kidnapping two Idaho children, killing one of them, after slaying their family has confessed to the killings of three other children a decade ago in Washington state and California, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The prosecutors cited the confessions to the old killings in court papers, saying that they intended to seek the death penalty against Joseph Edward Duncan III, who was indicted last week on charges involving the two northern Idaho children.
Duncan is accused of kidnapping Dylan Groene, 9, and his sister Shasta, then 8, in May 2005, and taking them to the mountains of Montana, where prosecutors say he sexually abused them for weeks before killing Dylan. Duncan was arrested July 2, 2005, when he and Shasta were spotted at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant. The boy’s body was found days later at a remote campsite.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Duncan confessed that he killed Carmen Cubias, 9, and Sammiejo White, 11, in Washington state in 1996 and Anthony Martinez, 10, in California in 1997.
In October, Duncan pleaded guilty in Idaho state court to first-degree murder and kidnapping for the May 16, 2005, hammer slayings of Dylan and Shasta’s mother, Brenda Groene; her fiancé, Mark McKenzie; and Groene’s 13-year-old son, Slade. Prosecutors say he killed them to get the younger children.
