House where family died to be demolished

The house along Interstate 90 where Joseph Edward Duncan III killed three members of a family and kidnapped two others will be demolished soon.

Attorneys say they no longer need the house for evidence in the case against Duncan, who has received his final sentences in federal and state courts - nine life terms in prison on top of three death sentences.

The Idaho Transportation Department owns the house.

Duncan burst into the house in 2005 and beat three family members to death with a hammer so he could kidnap and molest two children, Shasta Groene, then 8, and Dylan Groene, then 9. The little boy was later murdered in Montana; Shasta was rescued and returned to her father.

Killed in the home were Dylan and Shasta's older brother, Slade Groene, 13, the children's mother, Brenda Groene, and her fiance, Mark McKenzie.

McKenzie's mother, Lee McKenzie Wood, said the house is a reminder of horrible crimes and should be torn down.

"It's just eating me alive that it's still standing, and it's going on four years," she said. "Now it's just a house sitting there empty and haunting everybody."

The Transportation Department bought the property from the McKenzie family and plans to use it for wetlands. The boarded-up home is plainly visible from I-90.

The agency said this week it couldn't tear down the house until the Kootenai County prosecutor and U.S. attorney gave their go-aheads.

Bill Douglas, Kootenai County prosecutor, has approved the demolition.

"There's no earthly reason to keep that house," he said. "It is a constant reminder of a dark chapter in the history of this region."

The U.S. attorney's office had asked that the house remain until Duncan received his final sentences, which occurred earlier this month.

Barbara Babic, spokeswoman for the state Transportation Department in Coeur d'Alene, said she expects the department's district office to get the go-ahead soon to demolish the house.

"We'd also like to see it torn down," Babic said, adding the department did not plan to announce a demolition date. "We aren’t going to announce when and all that one day it will be there, and the next day it won’t. We don't want to make a public spectacle out of it, out of respect for the family."

The Transportation Department bought the home in 2006 for $140,629. It came with 5.1 acres that officials said are suited to the department's "wetland banking" program, which preserves wetlands as a tradeoff for area highway projects that encroach on wetlands elsewhere.