SPOKANE - Registered sex offender Joseph Edward
Duncan III is apparently blogging again, this time from a jail
cell.
Messages that Duncan allegedly wrote in longhand and mailed to
another person are being posted on the Internet.
The messages are mostly religious in nature, and do not address
the charges that Duncan killed three people outside Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho, last year so he could kidnap two small children for sex.
The blogs were revealed this week on a web site called "The
Cellar" that is exhaustively dedicated to Duncan.
Jules Hammer, an East Coast blogger who operates The Cellar,
refused to identify who is helping Duncan post the messages, saying
that person wanted to remain anonymous. She said that person had
been helping Duncan since November in hopes that Duncan's writing
would provide incriminating evidence.
An FBI agent, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity, said the agency cannot confirm conclusively that the
writings are Duncan's. But agents have been monitoring the new blog
and assuming it was Duncan's work.
"There is a real dearth of information about him, anyway," the
agent said. "We are certainly going to look at any of his
writings, to see if they have any investigative value."
"I want him to write as much as he can," the agent added.
The FBI would have no way to prevent Duncan from mailing
letters, the agent said.
Officials for the Kootenai County Jail in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho,
where Duncan is being held, could not confirm the blog contained
letters written from jail by Duncan.
"We don't know," sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said Tuesday,
even though all mail sent by inmates is read by jail staff.
"All we scan for are contraband requests or escape plans or
plans to commit crimes," Wolfinger said. "The rest of it just
goes on through."
Duncan is provided two stamped envelopes a week for free to send
letters, Wolfinger said.
Duncan's public defender, John Adams, declined to comment.
Hannah McFarland, a handwriting expert from Seattle, analyzed
copies of the actual letters Duncan allegedly wrote, provided to
her by KXLY-TV of Spokane. She compared those letters to documents
known to have been written by Duncan, and said they appeared to be
the work of the same person.
"It's a qualified opinion because I didn't have original
documents," said McFarland, who worked with Internet files of the
documents and a fax, "which distorts writing a little."
But she said nothing in the new letters was different from the
known Duncan documents.
Duncan, 42, of Fargo, N.D., has pleaded innocent to three counts
of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree kidnapping
in the slayings of three people in a northern Idaho home in May
2005. His trial is set for April 4.
Prosecutors allege Duncan killed Brenda Kay Groene, 40; her son,
Slade Vincent Groene, 13; and her boyfriend, Mark Edward McKenzie,
37, in order to abduct and sexually assault Dylan Groene, 9, and
Shasta Groene, who was 8 at the time. Shasta was rescued seven
weeks later, but Dylan's remains were found in Montana.
Duncan has not been charged with the children's abduction, or
with Dylan's slaying. Federal authorities said they will wait until
the Idaho charges are resolved before filing those charges.
Duncan is a computer expert who wrote extensive, often
unsettling, blogs before his arrest, chronicling his life as a
registered sex offender. In his final entry before his arrest, he
wrote "My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."
His blogs were not updated for months after his July arrest at a
Coeur d'Alene Denny's, because he does not have computer access
from the jail.
The most recent posting on the blog - called "Blogging the
Fifth Nail: Revelations" - is dated Monday, Jan. 23, and is
headlined "We Need Tougher Sex Crimes (Uh...laws)"
In it, the writer compared the nation's focus on cracking down
on sex crimes with the failed Prohibition effort of the 1920s,
which he said expanded organized crime.
"So now we need to get "tough on sex crimes?" the blogger
wrote. "That's synonymous to saying, "We need more sex crime!"
The blog said that sex offenders who find themselves under
greater public scrutiny because of new laws will only be spurred to
commit more crimes to prove they have control of their own lives.
"A very good friend of mine who happens to be a `serial killer'
told me that he committed more sex crimes during the two years he
was on parole (including killing three children) than he did in the
entire five years he was not on parole," the blogger wrote.
In addition to the Idaho charges, Duncan has been identified by
authorities as the prime suspect in the killing of a boy in
California.
The blogger wrote that his serial killer friend did not commit
more crimes until police began checking quarterly at his home.
"So now more people are dead and hurting because some police
chief decided to take it upon himself to get tough on sex crime,"
the blogger wrote.
Before his arrest, Duncan had vehemently complained on his blog
about all the attention he was receiving from Fargo police.
Many of the new entries are philosophic ruminations on love,
religion and philosophy, and he gives God the name of "William."
On Jan. 2, the blogger wrote about visiting the Seattle Center
at the age of 10 and taking carnival rides. Duncan was raised in
the Tacoma area.
He also wrote that day that he felt remorse every time he filled
a car with gas rather than protesting the war in Iraq, or saw a
homeless person and didn't offer them a place to stay.
"I feel remorse for every time I licked a stamp to pay a bill
but did not send a letter to someone in prison," he wrote.
"As a matter of fact, I feel remorse for all the times I forgot
about God and thought only about myself! So, yes, I do feel
remorse. Don't you?"