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Last post was getting long but there was a little more to tell!

So I guess you could say this is part 2 from the last post weeks ago now.

All because I was going to add to this post then didn't and forgot to go ahead and post it!
Then things got really busy in our little department so I wasn't able to continue the story until now, almost June!

A really interesting, but somewhat long day was March 30th. Myself and another employee, the Juvenile Probation Officer, were set up to attend a day long class just over the Idaho state line and in Newman Lake, Washington.  I drove my Solstice and the other person her own car since she lives about a half hour closer than we do if going South.

It meant getting up really early, like 5 am for me, to be on the way early enough to get there before the 8:00 am start time. GPS estimated about an hour and a half to make the right at 90 mile drive and while it was just a bit longer than that due to some traffic, I still got there about 15 minutes early.

The heading of the class flier was "Preventing Sexual Violence Through Understanding, Assessments, Treatment and Safe Management".
Not exactly the topic one posts on Facebook for a "guess where I was today!" So when I did post about the trip, I didn't mention that aspect of it.
And to be honest, the day wasn't really as stated, it turned out to be a morning of reviewing a 2005 case with the retired area FBI agents involved which was really interesting and an afternoon of a too brief but too packed and fairly boring overview of treatment options for sexual violence offenders.

Being in the 'probation biz' for our second career, Stacy wanted us to go see what we could learn that could possibly help us when our department gets people with this issue in their background or current cases.
As mentioned above, the morning part of the day was great. Everyone there, and quite a few people from the entire region attended, were given the entire Court case of the Groene family murders, Shasta and Dylan Groene kidnapping case.
While it was big national news at the time in 2005 even I had forgotten about the case over the years and at this class found out how much was really involved in the case.
The case was by a very scary murdering sexual predator of kids, that at the time of the Groene family incident had already killed 3 no one knew about yet, two in Seattle, Washington and one in Beaumont, California. The killer, John Duncan, had staked out and stalked the Groene family for several days before the attack during the night in 2005.
As said above it made the national news and was followed for several weeks almost nightly before ending when the perp and the girl went to a Denny's in Coeur d'Alene at 2 in the morning and Shasta was recognised with quite a few people calling 9-11 on their phones and getting the police there. Duncan was arrested without fighting much and had not only killed Shasta's family and killing her kidnaped brother right in front of her in 2005, he had almost killed Shasta many times during her imprisonment. We were told of the last time he'd attempted to strangle her was the same evening he drove her back to Idaho from Montana.
The details were truly horrific of their imprisonment ordeal and almost daily torture and sexual assault and when I looked up info online about the case that evening there is some of the information we'd been told that morning in the class.
The basics however are there if after reading this you also what to check it out.
Shasta is grown now just having her own kid a few months ago. She went through years of counseling and has said she has no desire to ever talk with Duncan again.
John Duncan is still alive, in a prison back East on death row, but it seems that even though says he wants to be executed there are years of automatic, in place appeals, for death penalty cases that keep getting reviewed keeping him alive as they are gone through.

The facility was, until 2011, a middle school that had closed and was taken over and became a Sheriff Training Center. It was interesting that the students of those last classes had been allowed to sign the walls of the auditorium / basketball and sports room. I wondered if they'd signed the room thinking it would be torn down or knowing even then it was going to be 'repurposed'?  Still, it was interesting seeing the names and comments written.







The afternoon class was not the greatest, it was also on the basic topic of sex offenders, but it wasn't tied in with the morning class and was just a too fast, too much information and too brief of an overview of everything that can be used to treat offenders in the prison systems.
The class went to 5 pm and we were there to the end!

Tad


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