Case prompted deputy to quit

Former Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Dale Moyer, the first officer on the bloody scene after the three murders at the Groene family home, went around the yard after finding the bodies, looking for the two missing children and calling their names to no avail. The case got to him, he said. He’d been with the department for more than 10 years, but after dealing with this crime, he quit. “This case had brought me to a point in my career where I just hung it up, I’d seen enough,” Moyer told the court. “I went into the civilian world for four months, kind of got my head together.” He eventually returned to law enforcement, and now is a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy. “I realized my true job is law enforcement … to protect the innocent and the weak, that’s my job,” he said.