Investigators have renewed hope that two children missing from the scene of a triple homicide last week could still be alive, authorities said, after getting initial DNA results from the FBI's forensic laboratory. Preliminary DNA testing of blood spatter at the homicide scene shows that none of the blood samples belonged to either Shasta Groene, 8, or her brother Dylan "D.J." Groene, 9, said Capt. Ben Wolfinger, of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.

The home of homicide victims Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie was not some scene out of the "Leave it to Beaver" television show, but it also wasn't a drug den, McKenzie's family members said Wednesday. "Mark and Brenda were good people," said McKenzie's youngest brother, Steve McKenzie. "The media has pounded on the rampant drug use out there. It wasn't true."

Relatives and community members gathered in a field in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday night to pray for three people who were recently killed near Wolf Lodge Bay and to plead for the return of the two children still missing. About 150 people lighted candles and stood in a circle at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds during the first large public vigil since the discovery early last week of the beaten and bound bodies of 40-year-old Brenda Groene; Mark McKenzie, 37; and Slade Groene, 13.

Thirty more investigators from the FBI are joining the biggest criminal investigation in Kootenai County history, as a team that sometimes numbers in the hundreds assists with the search for two missing North Idaho siblings and whoever killed three of their loved ones. Along with the manpower, the FBI is offering up to $100,000 in reward money for information that leads to the safe return of the children or helps authorities capture their abductors, FBI special agent Timothy J. Fuhrman announced Monday during a press conference with county Sheriff Rocky Watson.

Investigators gave up the search in the woods near Wolf Lodge Bay on Friday for two children missing since three bloody homicides earlier this week. Now they're sifting through a mountain of information – tips, sightings, rumors and even psychic visions – in their efforts to find Dylan and Shasta Groene. The siblings haven't been seen in the week since their 13-year-old brother, mother and her boyfriend were found bound and beaten to death Monday in their home in the forested area near Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Investigators still had no explanation Thursday for why three people were murdered earlier this week in a house near Lake Coeur d'Alene or who may have done it, but the Kootenai County Coroner's Office revealed what killed them. Brenda Groene, her teenage son and her boyfriend suffered fatal injuries from blows to the head, according to a coroner's report released Thursday.