‘He said that I taught him how to love’

The frightened, tearful voice of an 8-year-old girl filled a Boise courtroom today, as audio of little Shasta Groene’s conversation with a Coeur d’Alene Police officer just after she was rescued from Joseph Duncan was played for jurors.

“Where’s your brother at?” Officer Shane Avriett asked the dirt-covered, thinly dressed little girl. “In heaven,” she responded, breaking into tears. When the officer asked again if she knew where here little brother was, Shasta said, “There may be some evidence down in the Lolo Forest, because that’s where we were.”

The officer told the little girl, “We’ve got a lot of people looking for you, you know,” and she responded, “I know.”

The conversation, taped on Avriett’s police cruiser dash-cam while the two sat inside, took place in the parking lot of a Denny’s restaurant in Coeur d’Alene where Duncan was caught with the child on July 2, 2005.

“How’d you end up here tonight? Were you hungry?” the officer asked the little girl. “He was going to take me home,” she responded. “What made him change his mind?” Avriett asked.

“He was going to change his mind because he said that I taught him how to love,” the little girl responded, her voice breaking into a sob.

Later on the tape, Avriett asks Shasta, “What’s his name?” “Jet Duncan,” she responds.