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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. Episode 141.
I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Rosland Weyborg Thun, and welcome to a brand new Serial Killer Exposé. I have received quite a few remarks that people miss the standalone episodes, and that eight episodes covering a single serial killer was too much. While I cannot promise to stop making long-form serialized exposés,
My listeners' demands must be adhered to, so today I bring you a stand-alone episode covering a serial killer far less famous than the butcher-baker Robert Hansen. But this episode's subject's crimes were, in my humble opinion, even worse than what Hansen wrought.
Tonight I will bring you along on a downward spiral into depravity and death, and although I usually refrain from doing so, I choose to this time issue a warning.
I will detail gruesome sexual crimes against children in this episode, and I completely understand those that cannot endure listening to such. Even I had trouble getting through writing this expose and had to take frequent breaks. With that, I introduce you to tonight's serial killer, Joseph Duncan III.
As with so many American serial killers, he was raised and started his crimes on the Pacific Northwest. He is, in addition to being a serial killer, a serial rapist, a kidnapper, and a predatory pedophile. After kidnapping, raping, and murdering 10-year-old Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, California,
I drove down south, then east into Arizona. I decided to drive into Mexico and take my chances on the streets, on some big city down there, rather than in the US, where I had warrants and a criminal record.
I assumed the record and warrants wouldn't follow me or hound me down there. Maybe I could get a job, learn the language, and live my life unmolested and free. But I never got to find out. In fact, I never even got into Mexico. This, dear listener, was an excerpt from Joseph Duncan III's personal blog, The Fifth Nail.
He is, as far as I know, the only serial killer to have posted online details of his life and crimes. He did so both before and especially after his eventual arrest. From prison, he managed doing so by writing letters to a friend outside of prison, who published the words online for him.
So, join me as I explore the life and crimes of this bona fide psychopath, from his birth to his incarceration on death row. Enjoy. As always, I want to publicly thank my elite TSK Producers Club. This club includes 29 dignified members of exquisite taste, and their names are...
Ann, Anthony, Brenda, Brian, Cassandra, Christy, Cody, Colleen, Corbin, Corin, Fawn, Lloyd, James, Jennifer, Kathy, Kylie, Libby, Lisa, Lisbeth, Mark, Mickey, Monica, Russell, Sabina, Samira, Skortnio, Trend, Val,
William and Zosia, you are the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast, and without you, there would be no show. You have my deepest gratitude. Thank you. If you want to support the show, you can do so at patreon.com slash theserialkillerpodcast. Link in the show description.
To join the TSK Producers Club costs $15. To access all bonus material, it costs $10. So don't miss out and join now. Joseph Edward Duncan III was born on the 25th of February 1963. That's exactly 60 years ago to the day that I am writing this episode.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Duncan has an extremely long criminal history that for some reason has not been given much limelight in the media. His first recorded sex crime occurred in 1978 in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, when he was just 15 years old.
In that incident, he forced a 9-year-old to perform oral sex on him before raping the boy anally at gunpoint. The following year, he was arrested driving a stolen car. He was ultimately charged, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape with a firearm and was given a 20-year sentence.
However, due to his young age, the sentence was commuted to a number of months at Dislin's Boys Ranch in Tacoma, Washington, a treatment center. While recovering and receiving therapy at the ranch, he told one of his therapists that he had already raped 13 boys. His modus operandi was to bind them up and repeatedly torture them with sexual assaults.
It is difficult to imagine what happened to Duncan to inspire him to commit such abhorrent acts upon innocent small children at such an early age. Unlike famous serial killers like Ted Bundy, Duncan only has small articles written about him here and there, and most of them are concerned with his final crime and arrest.
I have, however, managed to find an interview with his sister and his brother that may shed some light. According to his sister, Duncan was abused by his mother. She did not go into much detail, but it is apparent that she beat Duncan and verbally abused him regularly.
Apparently, his mother hated her husband and men in general, and took out her anger and resentment on her son, Joseph Duncan. His father was away on work travels most of his childhood, so he never had a stable, safe father figure to look up to. Interestingly, his brother Bruce tells a different story than their sister.
Bruce Duncan said he and his brother were normal children of an army family while growing up. Every two years, they packed up and moved, as their father was relocated to a new army base. This went on for many years, until their father's retirement and ended up settling in Tacoma, Washington state. According to Bruce,
Their childhood was typical of a middle-class suburban nuclear family. They went to school, went to church on Sundays, and the boys were members of the Boy Scouts. Their parents ended up divorcing when Duncan was 15 years old. In prison, Duncan stated that he had indeed been the victim of abuse growing up, while his sister only claimed to have witnessed violent and verbal abuse from their mother
Joseph Duncan told prison therapists that he had also suffered incestual sexual abuse at home. Supposedly, his first sexual encounter was at the age of eight years old with two of his sisters. Four years after that, at the age of 12, he then sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy.
Bruce denies this, saying he grew up in the same house and was never abused and never saw any abuse going on. He further stated in the interview that his brother was a habitual liar and that 99% of the stories Duncan told of his childhood was false.
He believes the nearly two decades his brother Joseph Duncan spent in prison, from age 16 onwards, changed him. I quote, You take a teenager who is confused about his sexuality, he commits a horrific crime that was inexcusable even for a child, and you throw him in prison with a bunch of murderers and rapists.
He's 100 pounds soaking wet and became the target of other prisoners looking for sex. End quote. Being raped in prison, especially in the United States, is not uncommon. Reports of men being raped in prison are staggering.
Research has shown that juveniles incarcerated with adults are five times more likely to report being victims of sexual assault than youth in juvenile facilities. Duncan spent time in both as a teenager and was in all likelihood the victim of extensive aggravated sexual rape and abuse by older and stronger prisoners.
considering he was incarcerated for crimes against children would have put him on all the prison gangs' hit lists, and the abuse would probably have been extra violent for this reason. In 1980, by the time he was 17 years old, he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for raping a 14-year-old boy, again at gunpoint.
He broke into a neighbor's house, stole a gun, and then forced the young boy into a nearby wooded area with threats of using the gun on him. He sexually assaulted the boy twice before beating him and burning him with cigarettes. Duncan would let the boy go and was later charged with first-degree rape, first-degree burglary, and third-degree statutory rape.
While in prison for this rape, he was forced to take part in a sexual offender program at Western State Hospital. However, after just under two years in this program, his therapist concluded that the therapy was not something that would be helpful to Duncan. He was not willing to adhere to the rules or facility staff.
Therefore, he was sent back to the state penitentiary where he would serve the rest of his prison sentence. Throughout his sentence, he had numerous reviews for protective custody, issues with other inmates, and sexual misconduct. In April of 1988, he took a job at the prison as a tool crib attendant.
By August of that year, he was sentenced to 10 days of segregation for having a VCR and two X-rated movies in his room. At numerous times throughout his stay in prison from 1988 to 1994, he was put into segregation or was under review for infractions related to sexual misconduct.
Many times, those who reviewed him said that he needed close supervision and specialized treatment. He was paroled 14 years later, in 1994, with the understanding that he would have absolutely no contact with children. He went to a halfway house to try and straighten up his life.
He did hold a job as a telemarketer for a little while, but would later break parole in 1997 after being caught with marijuana and a firearm. Joseph Duncan would later have a parole revocation hearing to determine whether he should stay in prison or be released. Dr. Waxman, his therapist, testified on his behalf, but the board denied his request.
Duncan went back to prison until July of 2000. Upon his release, he traveled to Washington for a visit with his mother. Duncan had not benefited from spending all those years in prison as a youth and young adult. On the 6th of July, 1996, Samieho White, 11 years old, and her sister, Carbon Kubias, 9 years old, disappeared.
They were last seen leaving the Crest Motel on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday to get cigarettes at a nearby restaurant for an older brother. Their bodies were found two years later, on the 10th of February, 1998, in Bothell, Washington.
It was determined that they were probably raped, tortured and killed shortly after being kidnapped. The case was denoted a cold case for years until August of 2005 when Joseph Duncan III provided police with details of what happened to the two girls in 1996.
An eyewitness later confirmed that she saw Joseph Duncan and a girl that looked like Carmen Cubias at a grocery store. The girl seemed frightened from what the witness said. Keeping victims alive for a period of time before raping, torturing, and perhaps murdering them was the typical modus operandi of Joseph Duncan.
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Visit BetterHelp.com slash SerialKiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash SerialKiller. On the 4th of April, 1997, Joseph Duncan approached 10-year-old Anthony Martinez at his home in Beaumont, California.
He and some of his friends were playing football in his front yard when Duncan asked for help finding his cat. All of the boys refused to help the strange man, but the man became enraged and grabbed one of the boys. He used a knife to scare the boy and fight off the other kids who tried to help their friend. He forcibly put the child in his vehicle and fled the scene.
Fifteen days later, Anthony Martinez's body was found in Idaho, naked and bound. An autopsy revealed that Anthony had been brutally sexually assaulted. Duncan had forced him to strip naked, perform oral sex on him, and then he had the boy tied up with his hands behind his back.
Once tied up, the boy was anally raped repeatedly, causing extreme pain and bleeding from tearing of the anus. When he was finished, Duncan beat the boy's head in with a hammer until he was dead. Although there was duct tape used to bind Anthony and a partial fingerprint from that tape, the case went cold for eight long years.
It was not until after the 2005 Idaho murder that Joseph Duncan was tied to the Martinez case. Once the Federal Bureau of Investigations started tying similarities together, it became obvious that Joseph Duncan was involved.
Authorities tested his fingerprints against the one found on the tape, and it was a confirmed match. Duncan later confessed and was convicted of the crime. In March of 2005, Joseph Duncan was charged with the 3rd of July 2004 molestation of two boys at a playground in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
His bond was for about $15,000, and he began making plans to leave the state immediately. He was able to convince a businessman, Joe Crary, to pay his $15,000 bond. Apparently, they had a romantic relationship.
and Joseph Duncan did an outstanding job of making it seem like he was a misunderstood man with the discipline to turn his life around. Little did Joe Crary know what was coming next would be one of the worst crimes in Idaho history. Joseph Duncan meticulously planned his crime. Stopping to pick up tools at a Walmart, he bought night vision goggles,
a video camera, a shotgun, shells, and a claw hammer. After two weeks, he decided it was time to leave the state of Minnesota. He rented a red Jeep Grand Cherokee in St. Paul, Minnesota, and traveled out of state. He went through Missouri, then entered Idaho with plans to go on a killing rampage. He knew that at some point, the vehicle he rented would be reported as stolen.
So, Duncan stole license plates off of another vehicle and placed them on the red Jeep Cherokee to avoid detection and capture. Subsequently, he drove up Interstate 90 towards Corr, The Alley in Idaho. He located the Groney and McKenzie home in a secluded area, not far off the front road. Duncan saw Shasta Groney and her brother Dylan playing in the front yard of the house.
It was the kind of idyllic neighborhood where people felt confident in letting their children play outside at will. Children played at the park, rode their bikes, and came and went from house to house without a care in the world. The Groney and McKenzie home was one of the first houses you see when one enters the neighborhood, but also very secluded with trees.
The house was off the front road a ways, but positioned in a way that it was the first one available in case of an emergency. Many strangers had stopped by before if there was a problem and they needed help. The Groney and McKenzie family never turned anyone away. They were always willing to help anyone in need.
It is believed that Joseph Duncan was so intrigued by the children and the ease of community that this felt like the right time and the right family to attack. He used a few days to survey the family and perform reconnaissance prior to confronting them.
The 15th of May, 2005, was the last time anyone saw Mark McKenzie, Brenda Groney, and Slade Groney alive. The family had been to a large barbecue with other neighbors that evening before heading home.
Authorities were alerted on Monday, the 16th of May, 2005, when a neighbor went by the residence to pay Slade for mowing his grass the day before. The neighbor said that the house was very quiet, there was no lights on in the house, but both vehicles were home with car doors left open. It seemed odd, and it was appropriate that authorities check it out.
The same neighbor had seen a white pickup at the house earlier in the day. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department sent deputies to check out the house and check on the family. After surveying the outside of the house, deputies decided to gain access to the house to check on the wellness of the homeowners.
Upon entering the house from the backyard, they found two bodies in the kitchen area that were duct-taped and zip-tied. Both had been brutally killed, either by blunt force trauma to the head or a gunshot wound. One was a male and the other was a female. Deputies also found an additional victim in the living room, also bound by duct-tape and zip-tied.
Again, the third victim had suffered blunt force trauma to the head. After investigating the rest of the house, it was determined that the three victims were Mark McKenzie, his girlfriend Brenda Groney, and her son, 13-year-old Slade Groney. Brenda's younger children, Shasta Groney, 8 years old, and Dylan Groney, 9 years old, were nowhere to be found.
At this point, the case then turned to the two missing children. Search teams gathered to cover terrain around the Growney and McKenzie home and Lake Coeur d'Alene. The search team included deputies with trains, search dogs, helicopters, volunteers on foot, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An amber alert was issued with pictures and descriptions to ensure as many people as possible knew about the two missing children. Authorities also set up an emergency tip line that allowed citizens to call in tips if they had any information about the two missing children. Within the first 12 hours, the police had over 150 calls.
Volunteers helped take calls and sift through the information to determine what might be a valuable lead or not. Some tips included information about where the children's favorite play spots were, possible sightings, etc. Unfortunately, the tips did not generate many useful leads, and most did not pan out.
This case quickly became the largest in Kootenai County history and even generated an FBI reward of $100,000. However, the case was not generating any traction. It was growing cold every day. America's Most Wanted on TV even ran a special on the 21st of May 2005 to help generate new leads to find the children.
Nine new tips came in, but none of them panned out either. However, two days prior to the America's Most Wanted TV special, the children's biological father gave a heartfelt plea to release his children. During that time frame, a sporting goods store owner in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, called in to the police department with a huge tip.
He told deputies that a man with two children fitting Shasta and Dillon's description came into the store asking for directions to Montana. He said that they left in a white van with Washington state license plates. Unfortunately, even after notifying Idaho State Police, there were no signs of the van or the children.
Time was slipping away from authorities, making this investigation harder and harder on everyone involved. However, on the 2nd of July, at 1.30 in the morning, the same red Jeep Cherokee that Joseph Duncan had rented just after his release from prison showed up at a local Denny's in Coeur d'Alene.
A middle-aged man and a little girl matching the description of Shasta walked into the restaurant together. Two men outside the restaurant and a waitress inside the restaurant recognized little Shasta. They quietly notified the manager of the Denny's who called 911.
Three police cars showed up about ten minutes after the middle-aged man and little Shasta arrived at Denny's. Joseph Duncan III was arrested, and Shasta was rescued. Unfortunately, Dylan was not found in the Jeep Cherokee. After Shasta was rescued, police were able to put a better timeline together.
Joseph Duncan broke into the Groney and McKenzie home in the middle of the night on the 15th of May, 2005. Duncan took Shasta and Dylan to a white truck outside. He placed them in the truck where they did not witness the brutal murders of Mark, Brenda, and Slade.
After Duncan had murdered the rest of the family, he took Shasta and Dylan to a remote location where the Jeep Cherokee was hidden. He used a white truck to transport the kids to the Jeep Cherokee. He then moved the children to the other vehicle and took off for Montana.
The three of them stayed in two separate campsites in Montana for six weeks, where Joseph Duncan repeatedly raped and sexually abused both Shasta and her brother Dylan. Shasta told investigators that Duncan told her in vivid detail how he had killed her family and how he watched them for several days prior to breaking into their home.
She was also forced to witness Joseph Duncan as he was torturing and raping her older brother, knowing that she would be next. She was able to give enough details about their final campsite that investigators were also able to locate the place where Duncan kept them, which ultimately led to the discovery of Dylan's remains.
Joseph Duncan III was originally charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping in Idaho, which warrants death or life in prison. With evidence linking him to the Groney and McKenzie murders, he was also charged with three counts of first-degree murder, which means that Joseph Duncan would serve three consecutive life sentences.
Although, after recovering Dylan's body, it was determined the little boy was shot to death and burned to cover up evidence. With this discovery, an additional charge of murder was added. Eventually, Duncan chose to waive his right to appeal the death sentence he ultimately received. He is currently on death row, awaiting his execution date.
He wrote about his first night on death row in his blog. I find it fitting to conclude this episode with his own words. I quote, I am here, in jail, in California, facing death. This is my worst nightmare come true. It is the thing I have feared more than anything for most of my adult life. It was that fear that ultimately drove me here.
But now, I'm not afraid anymore. I'm not sad or depressed or angry. Of course, I'm not happy or pleased either. I'm just here, and I'm not ill, worried or suffering. I get stressed over the noise at times, but when it is quiet, like now, I can empty my mind and totally accept things as they are. Totally.
I sleep, eat, read and meditate on a narrow 22-inch concrete bunk. The mattress is 2 inches of foam padding wrapped in nylon reinforced plastic. It is 6 inches wider than the bunk and 10 inches shorter than me. There is no pillow and one thin dirty and torn wool blanket.
It is uncomfortable, but I don't mind. I did not come here to sleep. I came here to die."
Forever!
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And with that, we come to the end of the saga of Joseph Duncan III. Next episode, number 142 in number, will feature a fresh Serial Killer Expo say. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening.
If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillarpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you, good night, and good luck.