11:29 AM PST on Thursday, March 2, 2006

Reported by Shannon Sims | shannon@krem.com

COEUR d'ALENE -- The murder of two California children took place during the time Joseph Duncan was on probation.

Now Steve Groene, the father of abduction victim Shasta Groene, says his daughter may have to testify in criminal proceedings in California and an additional trial in Seattle.

Becker County Sheriff's Office

Jospeh Edward Duncan was arrested on July 2nd, 2005 on kidnapping charges after he was found in a Denny's restaurant with 8-year-old Shasta Groene.

KREM 2 News has learned Shasta helped authorities by giving them information to solve other missing children cases.

Groene says alleged kidnapper and murderer Joseph Duncan told his daughter about the cases, while he allegedly held her captive.

“Shasta basically told them right when they interviewed her when she was first found he had told her about killing a boy in California,” Groene said.

The boy was Anthony Martinez.

In 1997, the ten-year-old boy was abducted at knife point in front of his Beaumont home.

krem.com

Nine-Year-Old Shasta Groene

Authorities later found his body 90 miles away from his home. The only evidence was a partial-thumb print on a piece of duct tape.

After Duncan's arrest F-B-I agents received a court order to take full hand prints of Duncan. “If he hadn't told Shasta it would have never been linked to him,” Groene said. “He could have gotten away with that.”

Shasta's statements to investigators also helped crack a cold case in which authorities say Duncan was living near a motel during his probation. Their skeletal remains were later found in Bothell, Washington.

Sources close to the investigation have confirmed these details with KREM 2 News.

Duncan will face charges for these crimes after the murder and kidnapping trial in Kootenai County is complete.