Wolf Lodge Bay murder site razed

The house that stood as a reminder of a terrible tragedy is gone.

The Idaho Transportation Department on Saturday destroyed the Wolf Lodge Bay home of Mark McKenzie and Brenda Matthews Groene, bringing some closure to the couple’s family and friends.

“I didn’t like going by that house twice a day and seeing it out the window,” said neighbor Cheryl Hollingsworth.

The white cinderblock home along Interstate 90 east of Coeur d’Alene is where Joseph Duncan in 2005 murdered McKenzie, Groene and Groene’s 13-year-old son, Slade, in order to kidnap the family’s two youngest children, Dylan and Shasta Groene.

The demolition began before dawn Saturday.

“When I left about 8:30 a.m., it was just a pile of trash,” Hollingsworth said. “It looked like they just bulldozed it. I took a picture.”

Attorneys had wanted the house preserved in case they needed it for evidence against Duncan. The house was released after he was sentenced; he received nine life terms in prison and three death sentences for the Wolf Lodge Bay murders, the molestation of Shasta and Dylan, and Dylan’s murder.

The 5.1 acres where the home stood is owned by the state. Officials plan to use it for wetland mitigation, according to previous news reports.

“It’s a relief that it’s down,” said Ralph McKenzie, Mark McKenzie’s father. “It was hard to see it when you drove by.”

Ralph McKenzie, who sold the house to the state for $140,629 in October 2006, was unaware it would be torn down Saturday until his brother called and told him.

The McKenzie family had owned the Wolf Lodge Bay property for close to 60 years.

“There were a lot of good memories there, but the one bad one wipes all those out,” Ralph McKenzie said.