Joseph Duncan dies

From wire and local reports

Joseph Edward Duncan, the convicted serial killer whose victims included members of a Kootenai County family in 2005, died Sunday at a hospital in Indiana, authorities said.

Duncan died at the medical center near United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, where he was on death row, according to a statement from prosecutors in Riverside County, Calif.

Duncan, 58, had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the statement said.

He was sentenced to death in 2008 following his conviction for the May 2005 killing of 9-year-old Dylan Groene and three adults in Kootenai County.

After killing Brenda Groene, her boyfriend, and her 13-year-old son at their Wolf Lodge Bay-area home, Duncan took 8-year-old Shasta Groene and Dylan Groene. Shasta was rescued at a Denny's in Coeur d'Alene seven weeks later, where Duncan was arrested. Dylan's remains were found near St. Regis, Mont.

Following that conviction, Duncan was extradited to Southern California to be tried for the death of 10-year-old Anthony Martinez of Riverside County in 1997. Duncan pleaded guilty and received a sentence of life in prison.

“While I would’ve liked to witness his execution, knowing he is now standing before God being held accountable for what he has done, what he did to my son, and the horrible crimes he committed to others, that’s the real justice,” Anthony’s father, Ernesto Martinez, said in a statement provided by prosecutors.