Monsters on the prowel

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Joseph Edward Duncan III (search), the violent sex predator who stands charged with kidnapping two Idaho siblings, repeatedly molested both children, according to an 8-year-old girl's account of her ordeal.

In a hand-written court document containing Shasta Groene's story of her abduction, Kootenai County Sheriff's Sgt. Brad Maskell wrote that both children "were repeatedly molested."

Duncan, 42, who appeared in court via video hook-up Tuesday, was charged with two first-degree kidnapping counts and ordered held without bail.

Wearing a yellow jumpsuit, Duncan was shackled and appeared unshaven as he looked intently at the judge during the televised hearing. He appeared to be crying and said little, other than to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him and asking if could consult his attorney, Lynn Nelson, a public defender.

The intent of the crimes, court documents said, was to rape, seriously injure or commit a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 16 years old. Convictions can carry the death penalty or life in prison.

Dylan, 9, and Shasta Groene, 8, vanished May 16, when the bodies of their mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were found at their rural home. Shasta told investigators Duncan, a stranger, was also their killer.

Maskell told reporters that according to the girl's account, Duncan bound the family in ligatures after entering the home. She and Dylan were carried out of the house and placed in the pickup Duncan was driving.

After switching vehicles, Duncan took the two children to a campsite in Montana, the first of what would be several such sites. The two were repeatedly molested, Shasta told investigators.

Early Saturday, employees and customers spotted Shasta eating breakfast with Duncan in Coeur d'Alene.

Authorities on Tuesday continued to wait for DNA test (search) results of human remains found in western Montana earlier this week that may be those of the 9-year-old boy, who authorities believe is dead. Those results are expected to take three days.

Duncan has refused to cooperate with authorities, officials said. Authorities have relied on information from the 8-year-old girl, evidence from Duncan's stolen red Jeep Cherokee and some 100 new tips from the public in the search for the 9-year-old boy.

At a news conference in St. Regis, Mont., FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim Fuhrman of Salt Lake City confirmed Tuesday that the children were with Duncan in the Lolo National Forest of northwestern Montana sometime over the past seven weeks. But he said officials had not yet confirmed whether Duncan was with them the entire time.

A gas station and convenience store clerk in the western Montana logging community of about 300 people told The Associated Press she recognized Duncan after seeing his photo.

Jackie Allen, 26, told police Duncan had been a customer several weeks after the children disappeared. Neither of the children were with him at the time, she said.

"It's been crazy. I mean, if I would have known I probably could have saved those babies," said Allen, a mother of two.

Authorities believe the 8-year-old girl may have tried to get patrons at another gas station and convenience store to recognize her, hours before she was found at the Denny's restaurant.

Security camera videotape showed the girl and her alleged kidnapper at the store Friday evening in Kellogg, about 40 road miles east of Coeur d'Alene (search).

"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," Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Cameron Conoco owner Ted Beamis told The Associated Press that the girl's alleged abductor, "acted like he didn't have a care in the world" until one point during his visit.

"He was walking around. You could see him kind of watching her. One time in the store she's wandering up and down the aisles, and he kind of loses track of her, and you can see him looking around in a panic."
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Should this be the kind of case where the public starts pushing for more protection for monsters like this guy?

I think it is high time that child predators be implanted with tracking devices. If Joseph Edward Duncan had had a tracking device implanted on him he would have been found. In a case such as this authorities could have activated all trackers and started looking for the predators. I'm sure they would have been able to find this monster before the possible death of the little boy and the unimaginable horror the little girl suffered.

It's high time the public demanded stiffer treatment of child predators.