In a quiet home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the life of 37-year-old Mark McKenzie, a White/Caucasian male, was brutally cut short on May 16, 2005. McKenzie was found murdered alongside his fiancée, Brenda Groene, 40, and her 13-year-old son, Slade Groene. The scene that greeted investigators was one of unimaginable horror; the three victims had been bound with duct tape and zip ties before being bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
The grim discovery was compounded by the terrifying
realization that Brenda's two youngest children, eight-year-old Shasta and nine-year-old Dylan, were missing from the home. This sparked a massive search effort involving local and federal law enforcement. For weeks, the community held its breath, hoping for the safe return of the children while grappling with the shocking violence that had shattered their sense of security. The last time a family member had seen Mark McKenzie alive was the previous afternoon, noting nothing out of the ordinary.
A breakthrough in the case came nearly seven weeks later, on July 2, 2005. An alert waitress at a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene recognized Shasta Groene with a man and notified the authorities. The man was Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sex offender who was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota. Duncan was immediately arrested, and Shasta was rescued.
The subsequent investigation revealed the full depravity of Duncan's crimes. He had stalked the Groene-McKenzie family before breaking into their home to commit the murders and abduct the two younger children. He took them to a remote campsite in Montana where they were subjected to horrific abuse. Tragically, Duncan murdered Dylan Groene at the campsite.
Joseph Edward Duncan III was charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Mark McKenzie, Brenda Groene, and Slade Groene. He faced further federal charges for the kidnapping of Shasta and Dylan Groene and the murder of Dylan. Duncan was ultimately convicted for his heinous acts and sentenced to death. However, he died of brain cancer on death row in 2021 before his execution could be carried out.
