True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Top picture: Kathleen McCluskey. From bottom left: James McCluskey, Marvin Brodie, Ray Diaz. Mohammed Assadi was also a victim but his picture is not posted here due to lack of any proper photographs available online. Picture credit: pictures taken from BBC News and collage was created by myself)

This case is one of those that has had a brief mention in the press and then just totally disappeared from people's minds which is very unfortunate but is quite common. That is one of the positives of being a true crime blogger, you can refresh the story to help raise awareness so other writers can cover the case and it informs more people about what actually happened. 

I stumbled across this case recently and I'd never heard about it before. There's only a small amount of information online and forgive me for the pictures above but those were limited too. I had to leave the only available picture of one of her alleged victims out because it was completely blurry. 

Luckily I have a number of true crime books which had some details about the case which helped with my research. 

[Please note before I begin that I will be mentioning things to do with substance misuse, alcoholism and suicide]

So let's get into the case....

Kathleen McCluskey was born Kathleen Baxter in South Yorkshire in 1960, not much is known about her early childhood other than that she was the daughter of a hospital porter and had left home at the age of 16 to live in Brighton, England. 

She was involved in prostitution and became dependant on various substances and alcohol and would use her looks to get what she wanted from men. People who knew her would later tell investigators that Kathleen had a high sex drive as well as an overactive imagination. She would tell people that she was a witch and talked about Satan and witchcraft, she even insisted that every time a visitor visited her flat they had to stroke a brass statue that she kept in her living room. She also had a penchant for opening her front door naked to anyone who dare knock such as postmen, milkmen etc. 

Her life was a constant upheaval of drugs, alcohol, sex and various men. In the 1980s she continued to move around and at one point stayed in Cambridge before going to London. 

Fast forward to 1994 and Kathleen is now in a relationship and about to marry a man by the name of James Wormold (also known as James Baxter. He changed his surname to McCluskey when he married Kathleen - the confusion is real with the surnames). James actually came from a highly respected family and he even attended Eton but soon dropped out and became a bit of a rebel. Instead of focusing on a career and carrying on the family traditions, James decided to travel, take drugs, party and become a hippie. He and Kathleen got married in the December of 1994 and both were addicts and this caused issues for their sex life. James had such a problem with the drugs that he had difficulty maintaining an erection but the pair came up with a solution to the problem. 

As I mentioned earlier, Kathleen had a high sex drive and was very adventurous, James didn't seem to mind this and the pair decided that she would have sex with other men whilst her husband watched. Watching his wife with other men enabled James to ejaculate and this arrangement seemed to suit them both fine until disaster struck and one of the men she was having sex with, Mohammed Assadi, died. 

Apparently in the August of 1999, Kathleen and James were up to their usual tricks and Mohammed Assadi was their willing guest for the evening. James watched his wife and Mohammed have sex and at some point he left the flat to get a bottle of Methadone (a heroin substitute) whilst they carried on. Neighbours later reported that they heard Kathleen shouting ''I CAN F!CK ANYBODY'' during intercourse with Mohammed. Some time later, James returned with the methadone and all three of them (who'd been drinking and taking drugs all night) fell asleep. 

When Kathleen and James finally woke up they found Mohammed nude, unresponsive with the almost empty bottle of methadone by his side. Neighbours heard Kathleen shouting for Mohammed to wake up. An ambulance was called and when paramedics arrived at the scene they found Kathleen hysterical and shouting that she had poisoned him. James was a mess, he was high as a kite and told the paramedics ''SHE'S MY WIFE & HIS WHORE''

Mohammed was dead at the scene, the coroner recorded an open verdict and whether it was the problems with the drugs or guilt over what had happened, James decided that 16 months later he would take his own life by vehicular suicide (inhaling carbon monoxide in his car). 

Not long after the incident with Mohammed, two other men had died in suspicious circumstances involving Kathleen. Both of these men had been vulnerable addicts too who fell under her spell. 

Another two men that she was involved with by the names of Peter Bakulinsky and Charles Horsepool  claimed that she had tried to give them some kind of poison, luckily they survived. Another bizarre fact about this case is that Kathleen kept photographs of herself having sex with Mohammed just before he died. These photographs were on the wall in her bedroom along with the sex toys and handcuffs that she always had around. 

It seemed that Kathleen's taste for kinky sex went beyond just a bit of rough pleasure. The act of having sex with the men and then taking their lives seemed to be something that she enjoyed. It was a tricky situation because she lured the men to the flat, the men were only happy to go, they had this attractive woman who wanted to have sex with them and party with them, it must have been just too good an offer to refuse. 

With the men being highly intoxicated and high, she would persuade them to swallow whatever substance she gave them, making these men have an involuntarily hand in their own deaths. It was very cold and sadistic. 

The police launched a full investigation into Kathleen and then suddenly the party was over, she tried to deny everything but her manipulative ways and fluttering her eyelashes at investigators didn't work for her and she was found guilty but only convicted of the murders of Mohammed Assadi and Marvin Brodie. She was cleared of the other charges relating to the other men. It was a difficult case to prove especially as all the victims had a long history themselves of alcohol and substance abuse. At the trial some witnesses said that they had previously overheard Kathleen say ''I DON'T WANT TO GO TO PRISON, I'LL KILL YOU LIKE ALL OF THE REST''. A Pharmacists book was also found in her flat, a book which enabled her to learn about different types of drugs and their affects on the human body. 

Kathleen, who claimed to be innocent, screamed obscenities in the courtroom as she was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003. 

It's now been 18 years since Kathleen McCluskey was sentenced to 10 years in prison which is a ridiculous sentence for the lives of two men and not to mention her other victims. Even the prosecutors doubted that her husband James had committed suicide himself, they felt she could have possibly had a hand in that too. 18 years and I can't find anything to suggest that she has been released so I can only assume that she is still behind bars, she was involved with psychiatric care and deemed mentally unfit so maybe that is the situation right now that she is to remain locked up. 

If there is any more updates on this case I will let you know but thank you as always for checking out my latest case and be sure to find more of my content etc here

Further Reading & Sources:

- Talking With Serial Killers by Christopher Berry-Dee

- Kathleen McCluskey | BBC News Article

- Kathleen McCluskey Artcle | The Guardian

- Kathleen McCluskey Article | The Free Library

- Kathleen McCluskey Article | Irish Examiner

Hopefully I will see you in the next post. Stay safe x 

 

When it comes to sick and twisted, this guy definitely takes the cake, you may or may not recognise him from the picture above but maybe his name might ring a bell? Randy Kraft. Well, the harmless looking man in the suit who's all smiles just happens to be one of the most sadistic serial killers in America and perhaps the world. 

I knew briefly of the story of Randy Kraft (aka The Scorecard Killer, The Freeway Killer and The Southern California Strangler) and his crimes but the case has been brought to my attention again due to a request from one of my Patrons. As I delved into the details of his crimes I was both shocked and horrified and I realise in posting this story here that I will have to try my best to be as sensitive with the details as much as possible without leaving out the facts. 

So please take that into consideration that some of the details shared will be quite disturbing.

Looking back over Randy Kraft's childhood and his teen years, anyone would think that this guy was destined for great things. A very intelligent individual who seemed to be able to charm people everywhere he went. Former colleagues, friends and former fellow students would have plenty of positive things to say about him, There was no abusive childhood, he came from a good home and seemed quite popular at school and very sociable. Even into university Randy was highly involved in social activities and one of his passions was politics. He was a strong supporter of Robert F Kennedy in the 1960s and was delighted to receive a letter from the man himself to thank him for his support. When the news came of Robert's assassination in 1968, Randy was devastated. 

During his time at university Randy was exploring other aspects of his personality and learning more and more about himself. He'd discovered quite early on in his teenage years that he was homosexual. This was something that he felt that he had to keep private especially being from such a conservative family and that era being quite closed minded to certain things. His relationship with his mother was quite close but his father was never that approachable to him. Randy had three older sisters and despite being the only son and the youngest, he was still praised and got a lot of attention from his mother. Randy knew that if he ever did tell his parents that he was gay, his mother would be more open minded about it but his father would be an absolute nightmare so he kept this side of his life private. 

As I mentioned earlier, he was doing what all students do at university and that is not only to learn about their chosen subjects but to explore who they are as people. Randy felt that he could really be himself and hit the gay clubs. He could also be quite private about this too, with friends later reporting that he would vanish for hours at a time during the evening but wouldn't talk much about what he was up to. After graduating he joined the U.S Air Force and like a lot of things that he put his mind to, he excelled and quickly rose up to Airman First Class. Feeling confident and ready to live his life as he saw fit, he plucked up the courage to tell his parents that he was gay. As predicted, his mother was quite laid back about it but his father wasn't too happy.   

For some reason he also decided to tell the Air Force about his sexuality (remember this was back in the days when there was a lot of backward thinking in regards to homosexuality) and one wonders if this was done because he wanted out of the Air Force? Well, they took a negative view and decided to release him under 'medical grounds' which is outrageous but that's what it was like in those days. 

On release from the Air Force, Randy continued to cruise and fully enjoy his life as a gay man. He took a job as a barman in a gay club, had liaisons. At this point he was living with his parents but had his own life and was quite independent. 

So here was Randy, an intelligent young man, quite a bit of experience behind him, a decent childhood with a doting mother. The only negative thing Randy would say about his childhood was that he was very accident prone. But underneath the surface something was bubbling deep within Randy Kraft, a dark evil side to him that was just bursting to get out and eventually it did. Randy met a 13 year old boy by the name of Joey Francher who was running away from home. Randy convinced the young boy that he could move into his parent's house and once he had Joey in his home, he drugged and raped him. 

Joey managed to get away when Randy left for work and went straight to the police claiming that Randy had beaten and robbed him, he didn't mention the sexual assault. Joey mentioned that he'd left some items at Randy's house so the police searched the place, got the items but found some explicit photographs of Randy with numerous other boys/men. Due to the fact that the police didn't have a warrant to search the house and Joey not reporting the rape, nothing was done, no arrest was made. 

From what we know, Randy's first murder victim was a 30 year old bartender by the name of Wayne Dukette, however when Wayne's body was found it was so badly decomposed that investigators just ruled his death as alcohol poisoning. As if the senseless murder of this young man and the horrific rape of the young boy was not enough, Randy Kraft would go on to inflict more pain and terror on his unsuspecting victims. Randy had a penchant for marines and he didn't care if they were gay or straight, he would hunt them down. His victims were all said to have been aged between 13 and 35 years old. 

From the 20th of September 1971 right through to the 13th of May 1983, Randy Kraft would torture various young men. He would drug them, ply them with alcohol and then he would torture them. His methods of torture were the stuff of nightmares, the victims would be burned with a cigarette lighter, some had their genitals cut off, socks or other objects would be stuffed into the victim's anus. In one case Randy inserted a cocktail stick into a victim's penis with such force that it pierced the man's bladder. In another case a victim had their genitals cut off and stuffed into their mouth. All of the victims had died due to strangulation, Investigators later found the remains of these young men along the highways across America which led a lot of people to believe that they could have been victims of another serial killer, William Bonin (who was also known as The Freeway Killer and had been responsible for the rape, torture and deaths of over 20 young boys). 

In 1975, Randy had a close shave with the law when the skull of one of his victims was found and some witnesses had come forward to the police to report a car fitting the one that Randy had owned being at the scene months prior. Randy managed to get away yet again because there was not enough evidence and the death of the young man who was identified as Keith Crotwell was ruled as an 'accidental drowning' 

To think that if Randy had been taken into custody in 1975 and found guilty of Keith's murder, the number of deaths that could have been prevented. Randy's reign of terror would soon run out when on the 14th of May 1983 he was pulled over on a highway in Orange County, California due to driving erratically. When Randy stepped out of the vehicle looking the worse for wear with his trouser zipper undone, it was clear that he'd had quite a bit to drink.  

As Randy stumbled about smiling and trying to cooperate with the police officers. One of the officers decided to have a quick look into his car and it was there in the passenger seat that the deceased body of a young marine (25) by the name of Terry Gambrel was found slumped over. There were obvious signs that Terry had been sexually assaulted and had been strangled. Randy was arrested and his car was thoroughly searched. 

47 explicit photographs were found in the car of various young men, investigators couldn't work out if the men were unconscious when the pictures were taken or if they were indeed deceased. The seats appeared to have blood stains on them and various pills were found along with a knife and belt. A briefcase which was found in the trunk contained a notebook with what looked like a list of over 60 codes. This list would be later termed 'The Scorecard' and was said to be a secret coded list of all of Randy Kraft's victims. 

(Randy Kraft's 'Score-card' which was a list of codes supposedly describing each of his victims. Investigators were able to unravel some of the codes. This is a photocopy so some of the codes are unintelligible)

Investigators also searched Randy's house and found more damning evidence including fibers from a rug in his garage that matched those found at one of the crime scenes. Three victims were identified on some of the photographs as being those of unsolved cases so the police were able to determine that Randy was responsible for those deaths and were able to inform the families. As serial killers often do, Randy kept a stash of personal items that had belonged to each of his victims as if he was keeping trophies and little souvenirs of what he had done along with the photographs. 

The police had enough evidence to charge Randy with 16 murders but they were well aware that he was responsible for so many more especially as his scorecard had over 60 possible victims listed. 

Randy Kraft did his best to delay his trial and like a lot of psychopaths he tried to outsmart the system. He was able to do this for 5 years until he had no choice but to go through with it. The trial was the most expensive trial on record for Orange County and still remains so to this day. The duration of the trial was 13 months but he was finally convicted on all counts in 1989 and sentenced to death.

He has been carrying out his sentence at San Quentin State Prison in California and claims to this day that he is innocent of all of the crimes he has been convicted of and suspected of being responsible for. In another sick and strange twist to this story, Randy became friends with fellow monsters, Douglas Clark (who I recently wrote about and who is still currently on death row), Lawrence Bittaker (who is now deceased as a result of natural causes) and William Bonin (who was executed by lethal injection on the 23rd of February 1996). 

In 1993, Randy tried to bring a case against an author and their publisher because of a book which was based on his case. According to Randy, he was painted very unfairly in the book and didn't take to kindly to being described as sick and twisted. Being his delusional self, he claimed that the book would damage any future career prospects he may have. The case was thrown out much to Randy's disappointment.

Unfortunately, Randy Kraft is still alive and well on Death Row. He is now 76 years of age and is managing to keep the grim reaper at bay for as long as he possibly can. 

I think of all of the lives he destroyed, not just the victims but the families too. He caused so much pain and suffering and one can only wonder where all of this anger and evil behaviour came from? With serial killers it is often to their childhood's that we look to for answers, we try to see a pattern along the way but here was a man who had a good childhood and seemed to be quite a talented and intelligent individual before he carried out his sickening acts.

There's a lot of theories on this case too, some believe he didn't act alone and some believe that he wasn't responsible for all of the murders he was convicted of or suspected of. A man was later questioned by the police who claimed to have been involved with some of the murders with Randy but the police could find no evidence to link the two and due to the man's mental state they had him referred to a psychiatric hospital.

This was a difficult case to cover but I hope I managed to be as gentle as I could with some of the details and that you gained some information about the case from this post. 

RIP to all of the victims of Randy Kraft 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton

- Talking With Serial Killers - Christopher Berry Dee

- Randy Kraft | Wikipedia

- Randy Kraft | Murderpedia

- Randy Kraft | Orange Coast Magazine

- Randy Kraft Comment Thread | Reddit

Thank you as always for checking out my latest case and I hope to see you in my next post x

 (Right: Joseph Duncan in court. Picture credit: oregonlive)

I've written about some pretty heavy cases on this blog but I have to admit that this one was one of the most difficult stories that I have ever had to cover. I don't think that even the strongest of people would be able to sit down and look at the details of this case without feeling sheer horror, absolute disgust and anger. I've felt anger all the way through my research. This case started off horrific and just continued and continued, getting even more horrendous as it went on. Before I go into any more details I have to warn you that this is going to be a very difficult post which includes disturbing details (I always try to be as sensitive as possible) and includes sexual assault, torture and murder of children and adults. 

This week I have had the unfortunate opportunity of looking into this sick and depraved monster known as Joseph Duncan Edward III. I don't think that evil is enough to describe this individual, he is beyond evil. He's that vile that I can't come up with the words to properly describe him. 

I titled this post 'Every Parent's Worst Nightmare' but to tell the truth, Joseph Duncan was everyone's worst nightmare and I say 'was' because he's no longer breathing and wasting American tax payers money. 

Before we get into this post, just a reminder that you can find all of my social media links here, if you would like to make a donation to help keep my weekly true crime work going, you can do so here, thank you. 

To be added to my mailing list and have my latest true crime cases sent straight to your inbox, please send a quick email to Jo at caledoniankblog@yahoo.co.uk 

So let's begin this horrendous journey and as I mentioned at the beginning, please be aware that disturbing details are included in this post. 

Well, where do I start with Joseph Edward Duncan? It was like he was born evil and was never going to be any good for this world. He was born on the 25th of February 1963 in Tacoma, Washington and even at the age of just 15 years old he had already shown the pure evil which lay within him. Joseph sexually assaulted a 9 year old boy and a year after this horrific incident he was in trouble again for being caught stealing a car. 

He was sent to a rehabilitation home and assigned a therapist who he proceeded to tell that he had ''raped 13 boys''. Joseph was later diagnosed as a sexual psychopath and it seemed that his reign of terror had begun at an early age. 

In Joseph's case (which I have seen with many others) he was another dangerous predator who would continue to see the easy side of the law with being released and getting off lightly for things which were screaming red flags. 

In 1980 he sexually assaulted a young boy and was sent to prison for 20 years. He was released on parole in 1994 and between that time and 1997, he was considered a suspect in an number of unsolved cases. The two that we know he was involved in was the rape and murder of 10 year old Anthony Martinez in 1997 and the two young girls, SammieJo White who was 11 and her half sister Carmen who was 9. Anthony had been outside playing with his friends when Joseph Duncan approached the group of boys and asked them if they would help him look for his cat. Anthony and the boys didn't feel comfortable and knew better than to talk to a stranger. The boys politely refused and suddenly Joseph grabbed Anthony threatening him with a knife before forcing the frightened child into his car. The little boy's nude body was later found partially decomposed and it appeared that he had been bound with duct tape during his ordeal. All the police had to go on was a partial fingerprint on a piece of the tape obtained from Anthony's body. 

Joseph didn't confess to these crimes until many years later. He also admitted to murdering the two girls. At the time in the 90s these two cases had gone cold. He was returned back to prison in 1997 for violating his parole and released again in 2000 for ''good behaviour''. Joseph Duncan was classed as a level 3 sex offender which meant that he was more than likely to commit another offence against children but for some reason he wasn't monitored closely as he should have been. I'm sure a lot of us would have preferred him to have stayed in prison or at least a psychiatric hospital giving the fact that he was a sexual psychopath and known offender. 

It wasn't long until Joseph was on the prowl looking for another poor child and from what we know he sexually assaulted two young boys at a playground in 2004. Knowing his history it wouldn't surprise me if he had committed other sickening crimes against children that were not reported from the period that he was released from prison in 2000 until 2004 when he attacked the two boys. 

Having been caught for putting yet more innocent children through a horrendous ordeal you would think that this time they would lock him up and throw away the key but for some ridiculous reason the judge decided to set bail at just $15,000. The judge would later say that he was unaware of Joseph's past history when coming to his decision, Whatever the case, Joseph paid up the $15,000 without blinking an eye and had plans to disappear. 

So here we have a dangerous predatory peadophile with a horrendous track record for abusing children (unknown to police at the time, was also a child killer), is a level 3 sex offender, in and put of prison his whole life up to that point and he gets $15,000 bail. Suddenly Joseph Duncan was back on the streets to try and destroy more innocent lives. 

He took off and was now on the run and he wanted to get his revenge on the system for what he saw as an injustice that they put him in prison. 

More horror at his evil hands was to come when a neighbour in an area just outside of Coeur d'Alene in Idaho spotted that the house near to them had blood on the front door so they contacted the police. When the police arrived on the scene they noticed the uncomfortable feeling about the place and proceeded to enter the house slowly where they found blood everywhere and three deceased members of the Groene family. Brenda (40), along with long-term partner Mark (37) and son Slade (13) were found on the floor, all three had been bludgeoned to death. 

It was a horrific sight and one that affected the officers deeply as would be understandable. Who would do a thing like this? The officers noted that there was blood in every room of the house and that two of the younger children, Shasta (8) and Dylan (9) were missing. What the officers and the shocked community didn't know was that Joseph Duncan had been driving in that area previously and spotted Shasta and Dylan playing on the front lawn. He decided that he wanted to kidnap the two children for his own sickening needs and tried to figure a way to get them away from the house. 

Joseph decided that he would get into the house at night, bound and gag everyone and pretend to Brenda and Mark that he was there just to steal valuable items when infact he just wanted the children.  He carried out his sickening plan and Shasta would later tell the police that she had been woken by her mother and both she and Dylan were told to go into the livingroom. One wonders what must have gone through those little innocent minds when they saw their mother, Mark and Slade all bound with Joseph Duncan standing over them. Dylan and Shasta were bound, taken outside and put on the grass whilst Joseph murdered Brenda, Mark and Slade. The children could hear the desperate cries of their loved ones as they laid there, unable to get up and get away, it was the stuff of nightmares. 

As soon as Joseph was finished creating horror at the family home, he put the two frightened children into his car and drove to a remote cabin where he spent hours sexually assaulting and torturing both of them. 

The police didn't know if some of the blood found around the Groene household was Shasta and Dylan's, after further investigation it was determined that most of the blood was Slade's and that there was no trace of blood from the younger children. Where were they? Were they even alive?. The children's biological father was contacted and naturally he was beside himself with panic but like a lot of these situations, the police had to investigate him. It was no secret that the children's biological parents did not get on and some of his behaviour rang a few alarm bells but after further investigation the police could see no link with him and the murders. The next possible suspects was Brenda's older sons who had been in a spot of trouble themselves in the past with drugs and petty crime. It turned out that they had no connection to the murders. The police were looking at every option and even interviewed everyone who had a attended a barbecue at the family home the day before the murders.

An Amber Alert was sent out across America and the news reports were everywhere. The local community were terrified and did what they could to help. As the weeks went on they wondered if they would ever see the children again as in a lot of these cases, children are often murdered not that long after being abducted. 

Whilst people were praying and investigators were searching high and low for the children, both Dylan and Shasta were living in hell with this dangerous predator. Subjected to constant rapes, being tortured and forced to pose for indecent photographs had become an every day occurrence. One wonders how these two children were able to get through what must have been a sheer living hell. Weeks went on and the children had been with Joseph Duncan for seven weeks. 

At one point the sick and depraved naked Joseph took 9 year old Dylan into an abandoned shed, tied him up, tortured and sexually assaulted him whilst filming the whole ordeal. Members of the jury were later forced to watch this video (one of many) and had to have counselling because of this and the other horrific evidence that was presented at the trial. As the poor child screamed in pain, Joseph shouted back at him ''The devil is here boy, the devil himself....The devil likes to watch children suffer and cry''.

Shasta said that not long after this Joseph murdered Dylan and burnt his remains. Apparently he cried and said it was an accident. He tried to kill her too and gave her the option to either die by gunshot or strangulation, she chose strangulation but as his hands grasped her throat she shouted out ''Jet'' (his nickname) and he stopped. He told her that he didn't want to kill her because she taught him how to love. 

In a strange turn of events, Joseph took Shasta to a diner in the early hours of the 2nd of July 2005 and it was there that a waitress recognised her and called the police. Thankfully the police arrived and took the monster known as Joseph Duncan into custody. Everyone was relieved to see Shasta but they wondered where little Dylan was too, they were horrified and devastated when they later found out the truth. 

Dylan's remains were found a few days later and Joseph confessed to the murders of the Groene family as well as the murders of Anthony Martinez, SammieJo White and Carmen Cubias. 

It was also revealed that during his time out of jail he had an online blog called ''The Fifth Nail'' which detailed his life as a sex offender and his struggles with the law. He was in denial about being a peadophile. When he returned to prison a new blog mysteriously appeared which was owned by him. The blog was called ''Joseph E Duncan III Returns To The Web From Federal Death Row To Expose The Meaning Of The Fifth Nail'' There was no way for Joseph to have access to the internet behind bars so he had someone, an individual by the name of 'Silenced' have him update the site whilst he would post out letters and materials to put on it. 

Joseph Edward Duncan pleaded guilty to all charges put before him and received 6 life sentences with 3 more added on a few years later. The families of his victims breathed a sigh of relief that he pleaded guilty to everything because after all they had been through they could not face having to go through everything again. He also received 3 death penalties and was sent to Death Row. 

Shasta spent some time in hospital after her ordeal and once the time was right she was reunited with her biological father. Despite all that the little girl had been through she was a tough cookie and impressed all of the adults around her with her strength. She was able to help the police enormously with the investigation and her father later reported that she was returning to doing her usual favourite things again whilst receiving regular counselling. 

As for Joseph Duncan, instead of being executed he was struck down with brain cancer in 2020 and refused to have any treatment. He died in march of this year (2021) at the age of 58. Shasta was said to have been relieved that he was no longer alive. 

Shasta's life after the hell she went though was not an easy one, she made mistakes, got into trouble but she was able to find her way again. She said in a statement after the news of Joseph Duncan's death was reported:

''One thing is for sure, he does not exist anymore. Now, we can live our lives knowing that. For so long I have been struggling with hate towards that man. Today, I woke up feeling like my soul was finally free. I hope other people affected by Joseph Duncan were able to wake up feeling the same way. For some reason I can't stop thinking about the Anthony Martinez family the last couple of days. They were victims as well as my family. As were Carmen Cubias and SammieJo White's family. I just want to reach out to them. If I could, I would hug them all. If I could I would take all their pain away.'' - Shasta Groene. 

In 2016, Shasta created a petition in tribute to her two brothers, Dylan and Slade. The petition was aimed at keeping convicted sex offenders in prison for life, The petition was supported by 51,820 people. She wanted to created a new law called 'Slade and Dylan's Law'. As part of this new law she wanted the three strike rule for sex offenders to be reduced to just one strike. I completely agree with all of this as we all know that sex offenders cannot be cured. It's important that we protect our children and in this case, we had a very dangerous and very sick predator who was able to commit these crimes and had been committing these offences since he was a child himself, the signs and red flags were all there but nothing proper was done. We can only hope that the system both in America and here in the UK as well as elsewhere in the world, will improve and put the safety of children at the top of the list. 

RIP Michael, SammieJo, Carmen, Brenda, Mark, Slade, Dylan and all of the other unknown victims of Joseph Duncan. 

Prayers also for the survivors, for Shasta, the families of the victims and all who worked tirelessly on the case. 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- Joseph Duncan Article | CNN

- Joseph Duncan Article | People

- Joseph Duncan Article | AP News

- Joseph Duncan | Murderpedia

- Joseph Duncan | Wikipedia

- Joseph Duncan Article | NY Post

- Joseph Duncan Article | Seattle Times

- Stolen In The Night (Book) by Gary C King

- Shasta Groene Article | Daily Mail

- Reddit Discussion On The Case

- Joseph Duncan (Documentary) | Investigation Discovery

Thank you for checking out my latest post, hope you will join me next Sunday for another case. Don't forget you can find me and more of my content here x