Reward question needs an answer

Everyone has a theory on what should be done with the rewards offered in the kidnappings of Shasta and Dylan Groene.

In a letter to The Spokesman-Review, a Nine Mile Falls writer upbraided anyone who’d think of claiming the reward for the safe return of the children. “Why not take the money and put it in a high interest earning account for Shasta when she turns 21,” she said.

Others have taken a measured approach to the combined reward of $107,500 from the FBI and Spokane Secret Witness program and a secondary reward offered by Shasta’s father, Steve, of $10,000, plus his 1997 Harley Davidson custom motorcycle. Split the money among the quick-thinking employees and customers at Denny’s restaurant who alerted police when they saw Shasta with registered sex offender Joseph Edward Duncan III, they say, but allow Shasta’s father to keep his reward offer – or at least his motorcycle.

This subject may seem tacky in view of Shasta’s suffering and the horrendous crimes allegedly committed by Duncan. But it needs to be addressed.

The brave citizens who risked their lives by helping rescue Shasta deserve all the acclaim they get, whether they are in line for reward money or not, whether they claim the reward money or not. They weren’t thinking about reward money when they wrote down Duncan’s license plate number, stalled him in the restaurant and called police. They were acting at their noblest. They deserve to split every cent of the reward money among themselves.

Consider what would have happened if the citizen rescuers had hesitated and allowed Shasta and Duncan to leave – or had mishandled the situation.

Duncan is a man with a violent past and violent fantasies. He is the suspected brutal killer of at least three people from the Wolf Lodge Bay area. He could have harmed Shasta in the restaurant had he suspected she’d been recognized. He could have hurt courageous waitress Amber Deahn as she maneuvered for time until the police arrived. He could have become suspicious and left to harm Shasta elsewhere before authorities closed in on him.

The reward is nothing measured against the tens of thousands of dollars the FBI has spent per day to investigate this case.

If those in line for any of the reward decide to forgo the money and motorcycle offered by Steve Groene, it would be a nice gesture. Certainly, the grieving man needs his money to provide for Shasta as best as he can now. But it’s doubtful he would begrudge anyone who claims the personal reward.

Those who advocate giving Shasta the reward earned by others can play a role in her recovery by contributing to funds set up in her name at U.S. Bank’s Coeur d’Alene branches or at Inland Northwest Bank in Post Falls or Coeur d’Alene.