Joseph Duncan

Joseph Duncan says he will plead guilty to four murders, kidnapping and other crimes against a Coeur d'Alene family if he's promised life in prison with no chance of parole. Duncan's lawyers said Wednesday he will confess and cooperate with prosecutors even though he still could be sentenced to death in a pending federal case. Duncan also offered to help investigators open his encrypted computer files and view pictures and videos that may be related to the case.

The father of kidnap victim Shasta Groene was released from a Seattle hospital on Monday after his vocal cords and a cancerous tumor were removed, the University of Washington Medical Center said. The prognosis for Steve Groene, a blues musician who lives in Coeur d'Alene, is good, according to his sister, Wendy Price.

Steve Groene is suing to keep the man accused of killing two of his sons and kidnapping and molesting his daughter from profiting from the crimes. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against accused killer Joseph Duncan in U.S. Federal Court in Boise.

The U.S. attorney general's office has given federal prosecutors the green light to seek the death penalty for murder suspect Joseph Duncan. It's a development some hope will lead to a plea deal in Kootenai County's case against Duncan, saving the county from a long and expensive trial this month. Two county commissioners said Monday they also favor such a deal to keep 9-year-old Shasta Groene from having to testify.

Jurors in Joseph Duncan's triple-murder trial can hear incriminating statements the suspected killer made following his arrest, 1st District Judge Fred Gibler ruled Thursday. Gibler denied a motion by Duncan's attorneys to keep statements Duncan made about the crimes from being used against him at his trial, which is set to begin Oct. 16.

Shasta Groene is "pretty scared and nervous" about having to testify against Joseph Duncan at his triple-murder trial next month, the Idaho girl's father said Thursday. Now the 9-year-old has even more weight on her shoulders: Her father is scheduled for surgery in Seattle on Monday to have his vocal cords removed, a consequence of his throat cancer.

Federal prosecutors want to seek the death penalty for Joseph Duncan, the U.S. attorney's office confirmed Friday. The ultimate decision on whether Duncan could face death for alleged crimes against Dylan and Shasta Groene lies with the U.S. attorney general, said Jean McNeil, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Idaho. McNeil said there is no timeline set for that decision.

Because Joseph Duncan isn't charged with crimes against Shasta Groene in Kootenai County, his attorney says the 9-year-old must face Duncan in court when she testifies against him later this fall. Public Defender John Adams filed a formal motion Wednesday afternoon opposing a request by prosecutors that Shasta be allowed to testify with her back turned.

If 1st District Judge Fred Gibler finds the 9-year-old is capable of taking the stand, Shasta Groene will be in the same room as Joseph Duncan when she testifies against her alleged abductor in October. Prosecutors originally wanted Shasta to be allowed to testify against Duncan at his Oct. 16 triple-murder trial without having to be in the courtroom with him. Closed-circuit TV was one option they considered.

Kootenai County prosecutors filed a reply to Joseph Duncan's attorney late Thursday afternoon to keep the death penalty on the table in the homicide suspect's case. Duncan is accused of killing three members of a North Idaho family and will stand trial in October.

Homicide suspect Joseph Duncan is not expected to appear in court next week during two days of arguments over motions in his triple-murder case, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said Wednesday that Duncan, who is set to go on trial in October for the 2005 slayings of three members of a North Idaho family, will not be in the courtroom for the hearing on pretrial motions scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Joseph Duncan isn't set to be tried on triple-murder charges until October, but his attorney is already asking for the state's protocol for lethal injection. Public Defender John Adams sent a formal request to Kootenai County prosecutors this week asking for the state's protocol for the method of execution, which has become increasingly controversial in recent years.

Bruce Duncan, 41, the brother of murder/child-rape suspect Joseph Edward Duncan III, has died in Western Washington. The cause of death was a heart aneurysm. But a good case can be made that he was overwrought from the stress caused in his last year of life by being the brother of one of the most notorious men in the Pacific Northwest. In her blog, The Cellar, Easterner Jules Hammer paints a poignant picture of Bruce Duncan, one of Joseph Duncan's lesser known victims. She knew Bruce as "Spyder." Her blog is dedicated to keeping track of news about Spyder's monstrous brother. Via e-mails and phone conversations, she wrote in a recent entry, she came to know Spyder "as a great conversationalist, once you managed to break past the one- or two-word replies. Yeah, he had a lot to be wary and protective about." Bruce Duncan, according to Hammer, was taunted at the warehouse where he worked for having the misfortune of sharing DNA with the alleged Groene family killer. Kids told his goddaughter that their mothers wouldn't let them play with her. Worst of all, blogger Hammer says, "the crap" he read about his siblings and himself on the Internet ate away at him. Hammer: "On and on went the persecution of this genuine, intelligent, caring man." That persecution ended July 31. His Tacoma News-Tribune obituary was kind to mention only that his survivors included an unnamed brother. (You can read Hammer's entire post about Bruce Duncan at Huckleberries Online this morning.)

Denny's was proud of Amber Deahn and other employees after they helped rescue Shasta Groene from the clutches of sadistic Joseph Edward Duncan last July – so proud that it bought a USA Today ad to salute them. That was then. After the hoopla died down, Denny's canned Amber while she was on maternity leave. Seems Amber was hired the day she became pregnant, stopped working in August, and went into labor on Labor Day. She delivered the bouncing baby boy 32 hours later. She was ready to go back to work during the Christmas holiday but figured something was up on Dec. 30 when she and hubby Nathan were treated badly when they dropped by the Coeur d'Alene Denny's. She discovered only after she applied for her current job at Coeur d'Alene's AutoZone that Denny's had fired her. While the baby fussed in the background, Amber told Huckleberries during a phone interview that she's worked for AutoZone for three weeks and that she's now counting down the 545 days until Nathan returns from Iraq. He was among the 60 Army reservists from the region deployed Monday. The reward money's gone. Amber joked that she wasted it on medical bills. But she remains in the spotlight. On July 27, she will appear on "The Montel Williams Show" along with other women involved in the rescue of others. And she's often recognized by well-wishers who ask about the reward offer made by Steve Groene of his $17,000 motorcycle and $10,000 in cash. She's tired of the question. She hasn't received a dime from him.

Washington state voters will not get a chance in November to decide whether certain sexual predators should face life in prison after a single offense. Initiative 921 – also known as Dylan's Law in honor of a North Idaho boy who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed – failed to collect enough signatures for sponsors to turn them in for verification.