Shasta Groene said her nightmare began in 2005 when she was awakened, tied up and carried with her 9-year-old brother to a waiting pickup truck. Police said that by the time her ordeal ended six weeks later, Shasta would have been repeatedly molested by a convicted sex offender and become the only surviving victim.

"This little girl really went through more than any little girl should ever have to think about," Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said at the time.

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, of Fargo, N.D., a convicted sex offender on the run from an earlier child molestation count, was charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping.

Shasta Groene's statements to police placed Duncan inside the rural home near here where the girl's mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were bound and bludgeoned to death. Their bodies were found on May 16, 2005.

The tiny girl told authorities the man repeatedly molested her and her brother Dylan. Her ordeal finally ended when people at a Denny's restaurant recognized her and called police.

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.

"Shasta and Dylan were repeatedly molested," Kootenai County Sheriff's Sgt. Brad Maskell wrote in a terse, handwritten affidavit released Tuesday. "Shasta saw Mr. Duncan molest Dylan."

The girl told Maskell she had never seen Duncan before.

She was awakened at her home and watched as her mother Brenda Groene, 13-year-old brother Slade and Mark McKenzie, her mother's boyfriend, were tied up, the document said. She and Dylan were also bound and placed in the pickup truck. The children were later transferred to a stolen red Jeep and taken to the first of three campsites, she said.

The affidavit does not mention the beating deaths of the girl's family or whether she witnessed the killings. It also did not say if she witnessed what happened to Dylan.

Shasta told officers that Duncan did not have an accomplice. Despite her statement, investigators were still trying to determine if Duncan acted alone, Wolfinger said.

Remains Identified As Dylan's

Human remains discovered at a remote western Montana campsite were identified Sunday, July 10, 2005 as those of Dylan Groene.

"Out of respect for the Groene family and to maintain the integrity of the investigation and prosecution of this matter, there will be no further comment regarding these results," Captain Ben Wolfinger of the Kootenai County, Idaho Sheriff's Department said in a press release.

Searchers say they found Dylan's remains at a remote campsite in western Montana the previous week.

Steven Groene: This Needs To Stop Here

In an outdoor news conference, Steven Groene said, "This needs to stop here." He went on to say, "People like this should not be allowed in public." He was referring to Duncan, the man police accuse of abducting his 8-year-old daughter Shasta.

Groene said Americans need to pressure lawmakers to protect children from people like Duncan, who is also suspected of murdering the family of the kidnapped children.

"These people are put in their positions by us, and they're supposed to be working for us, but they're not doing their jobs," Groene said of politicians. He added that "people need to get on their congressmen, senators and even the president" to stop convicted predators from preying on children.

Describing the trauma of his ordeal, Groene said: "This is still so incomprehensible that it's going to take a long time for us to realize what's happened."

"We need to get some laws changed," he said. "We need to do it quickly."

Police say he ran a website advocating that child molesters not be prosecuted. According to authorities, at the time of the abduction and murder, he was a registered sex offender in Washington. Authorities say he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old boy at gun point.

Duncan graduated from North Dakota State University with honors. He claimed to be a software developer and researcher.

Prior to Duncan's arrest, police in Fargo, N.D., had been looking for him since May, when he failed to check in with a probation agent. Duncan was released on $15,000 bail after being charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.

On July 6, 2005, police said Duncan was the sole suspect in the murder of the family and kidnapping of two children. Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said, "We believe Joseph Duncan is the only one responsible for these crimes. There is a sense of relief ... a sense that we've got the right guy."

Duncan was never a suspect in the attacks on the family, and his name never came up until his arrest, Wolfinger said. He could not explain why Duncan's fingerprints were not found at the scene.

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. Duncan has not been charged with anything other than the kidnapping counts, which can carry the death penalty or life in prison.

The affidavit does not mention the beating deaths of the girl's family or whether she witnessed the killings. It also did not say if she witnessed what happened to Dylan.

Shasta told officers that Duncan did not have an accomplice. Despite her statement, investigators were still trying to determine if Duncan acted alone, Wolfinger said.

Duncan was shackled and appeared unshaven and choked up as he quietly answered Magistrate Judge Scott Wayman's questions during his brief first appearance in 2005.

Duncan had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Tacoma, Washington and was a fugitive at the time of his arrest after he was charged with molesting the boy in Minnesota.

In 2007, Duncan pleaded guilty to murder charges for the slayings of Brenda Groene, Slade Groene and Brenda's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie. He also pleaded guilty to kidnap charges for Shasta and Dylan. In August 2008, his sentencing hearing began.