Kidnapping suspect had Web log
Told of demons, internal battle
BOISE, Idaho -- Convicted sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III spent months on the Internet documenting his internal struggle over right vs. wrong. Then, four days before two Idaho children he is accused of kidnapping disappeared, he wrote, ''The demons have taken over."
It was one of the last entries in Duncan's Internet log before the 42-year-old North Dakota man was arrested and charged this week with two kidnapping counts. Authorities believe he took 9-year-old Dylan Groene and 8-year-old Shasta Groene from their Idaho home shortly before their 13-year-old brother, mother, and mother's boyfriend were bludgeoned to death May 15. Police say Duncan is a suspect in the killings.
''God has shown me the right choice, but my demons have me tied to a spit and the fire has already been lit," Duncan wrote April 24, after he had jumped bail in Minnesota on charges of molesting a 6-year-old boy at a playground.
The last entry in his Web log was May 13, two days before Dylan and Shasta were taken from their home and their family members killed.
''As far as 'taking people with me,' well, I don't know if that is right or wrong," he wrote. ''I don't know much anymore what right and wrong even is."
Duncan was arrested Saturday at a
Richard Forno, a computer crimes specialist in Washington, D.C., said prosecutors will probably use Duncan's log as they prepare the case against him.
''This type of information in his blogs, where he's telegraphing things and revealing some of his other issues, certainly that is relevant in a case like this," Forno said.
Duncan began his ''Blogging the Fifth Nail" online journal in January last year. The title is a reference to a fifth nail intended to end Christ's suffering on the cross.
Police concluded that Duncan was the author of the journal based on interviews of people who knew him and on the Internet Protocol address, an identifying number specific to a computer. The entries each include the tagline ''Posted by: Joe."
In sporadic entries, usually posted in the middle of the night, Duncan used the journal to vent his anger over the stigma of being a convicted sex offender.
''I have decided to give up on trying to convince people that I am a real person, with honest and good intentions, not some evil monster they should be afraid of," he wrote last year.
The entries include excerpts from a book he said he was writing based on his conviction at 16 in Tacoma, Wash., of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint. He documents his nightmares, his anger over serving 20 days past his 20-year prison sentence, and his difficulty making friends and dating. Also included are diatribes against police checking on his whereabouts and confiscating his computer and camera to check for child pornography.
