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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

‘What everybody came to love’

Steve Groene resisted when Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan referred to his murdered son by initials as “D.G.” “I would like to state, I’m not comfortable diminishing my two boys’ names down to initials,” he told the court. The court proceedings have used only initials to refer to the minor victims, as part of a procedure designed to comply with a federal law regarding child victims. “Sir, I’m so sorry, you really can’t,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan told Groene.

The father recalled Dylan’s birth, back in 1995. “Dylan was born with that smirk on his face that everybody came to love,” Groene said. He noted that the video the jury had just seen of a school program in which Dylan and his classmates were singing and doing hand gestures ended with a view of a grinning Dylan. “I think when you stopped that video, he had that same smirk on his face. That’s what everybody came to love.”

Groene said Dylan was “very close in age to his sister, so he was kind of like her guardian angel.” The 9-year-old protected his little sister from her older siblings in sibling conflicts, he said. “I’d seen many a time where Dylan stepped in between Slade and Shasta when they were having their little problems, and stood up for his sister,” Groene told the court.

The little boy loved to ride on the back of his dad’s Harley, Groene said, especially loved to dress up in his dad’s old leather gear, including goggles and gloves. “He would run around like that before we took a ride,” the father recalled. “He was very soft-hearted …. Just a very soft-hearted, kind kid.” Groene said Dylan and Slade, his 13-year-old son who also was murdered by Joseph Duncan, “had a lot of life left in front of ‘em, and they should’ve been allowed to have that.” Asked what he learned from his youngest son, Groene said it was a lesson he unfortunately didn’t learn until after Dylan died. “Every minute with your children – you can’t take any of that time for granted, because you can wake up the next day, they may not be there.”



Eye On Boise

News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.