BOISE, Idaho — Jurors in the death sentencing hearing of a convicted child killer were told Tuesday that he lived near where two girls were abducted in Seattle in 1996 and worked near where their bodies were found months later.
The testimony is part of an effort by government lawyers to convince jurors at Joseph Edward Duncan III's federal sentencing hearing that he should be executed for the kidnapping, torture and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in 2005. Duncan has already been convicted in state court of murdering the boy's older brother, mother and stepfather at their home in the Coeur d'Alene area.
Retired Bothell, Wash., police Detective Dennis Nizzi testified that the skeletal remains of 9-year-old Carmen Cubias and her half-sister, 11-year-old Sammiejo White, were found in an empty field in the same suburban neighborhood where Duncan worked.
The bones were so badly damaged by decomposition and work done in the field to prepare it for development that Kathy Taylor, a forensic anthropologist with the King County medical examiner's office, told jurors she could list their cause of death only as "homicidal violence of undetermined origin."
People are also reading…
The testimony comes a day after FBI agent Mike Sotka testified that after Duncan was caught at a Denny's restaurant with Dylan's kidnapped sister, Shasta Groene, he eventually confessed to the slayings of Sammiejo and Carmen in Seattle, and to the 1997 slaying of Anthony Martinez in Riverside County, Calif.
Joseph Ruan, a former roommate of Duncan, testified Tuesday that their home was a few blocks from the Taco Time restaurant in Seattle where Cubias and White were last seen.
Duncan scoffed at the effort to find the missing children after learning his roommate had helped distribute fliers about them, Ruan said.
"He said, 'Look at those two little whores. They're dressed like gangbangers ... What are you worried for?' " Ruan said.
Cindy Snyder, a friend of Ruan, told jurors that she saw Duncan smirk when Ruan talked about volunteering to help with the search.
"He was smirking while Mr. Ruan was saying where they went," Snyder said. "He said, 'Oh well, I'm sure that was a complete waste of time.' "
On Monday, Margaret Delaney, the mother of Sammiejo and Carmen, sobbed on the stand as she testified about the day her daughters disappeared.
Delaney said she left the two girls with their 15-year-old brother and another younger sibling with instructions to remain inside a motel where they were staying. Then Delaney went to pick up a change of clothing for the children and to a friend's house where she could get money to buy some groceries.
While she was gone, the two girls decided to walk to Taco Time to see whether they could get some food, Delaney said.
Their bodies were found months later in the suburban subdivision in Bothell, Wash.
