Blog Bares Sex Offender's Demons
Netizens began gathering at the chilling weblog of accused kidnapper Joseph Duncan this week, turning the online journal into both a forum for their rage against the convicted sexual predator and a tribute to his victims.
"Thank God and our law enforcement community that you are now permanently behind bars," wrote one anonymous poster, addressing Duncan. "I would have reported you if I had seen this blog earlier," wrote another. A third reads simply, "Thoughts and prayers for the family."
In all, there were more than 1,000 comments posted to the weblog by the end of the day Tuesday.
Duncan, 42, was arrested early Saturday after turning up in a 24-hour diner with 8-year-old Shasta Groene just a few miles from where the bodies of Shasta's mother, her mother's boyfriend and an older brother were found bound and bludgeoned at their home near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Shasta and her 9-year-old brother Dylan had been missing since the murder was discovered May 16. Police have said they believe Dylan to be dead. On Tuesday, they charged Duncan with two counts of kidnapping.
A convicted sex offender and a fugitive from child-molestation charges at the time of his arrest, Duncan spent approximately 18 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint when Duncan was 16. Released in 2000, Duncan moved to Fargo, North Dakota, and studied computer programming at North Dakota State University.
While police continue to investigate Duncan's life after prison, armchair internet detectives are piecing together details of his electronic life, digging up an online personal ad, two amateur videos, Usenet postings seeking computer advice, and forays into the geek sport of GPS geocaching.
But the most revealing -- and disturbing -- ripples in Duncan's data wake come from a weblog called Blogging The Fifth Nail that he started in January of last year.
A static website maintained by Duncan and hosted by GoDaddy was not accessible Tuesday. But Duncan's blog, hosted by Blogger, has remained up and running even following heavy media attention. (Google, which runs Blogger, didn't return phone calls regarding Duncan's blog.) The weblog is easy to find, and Duncan configured it to allow visitors to post comments, a feature that appears to have enjoyed little use prior to his arrest.
According to his first post, dated Jan. 4, 2004, Duncan launched the blog to document his comings and goings in case he was "falsely accused of some crime or another." The first six months of entries complained about the challenges of moving through society while wearing the scarlet letter of a registered sex offender: keeping a job, finding a girlfriend, dealing with aggressive police.
In several entries, he insisted he was not a pedophile. "I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it," he wrote.
Read the complete article at Wired News
"Thank God and our law enforcement community that you are now permanently behind bars," wrote one anonymous poster, addressing Duncan. "I would have reported you if I had seen this blog earlier," wrote another. A third reads simply, "Thoughts and prayers for the family."
In all, there were more than 1,000 comments posted to the weblog by the end of the day Tuesday.
Duncan, 42, was arrested early Saturday after turning up in a 24-hour diner with 8-year-old Shasta Groene just a few miles from where the bodies of Shasta's mother, her mother's boyfriend and an older brother were found bound and bludgeoned at their home near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Shasta and her 9-year-old brother Dylan had been missing since the murder was discovered May 16. Police have said they believe Dylan to be dead. On Tuesday, they charged Duncan with two counts of kidnapping.
A convicted sex offender and a fugitive from child-molestation charges at the time of his arrest, Duncan spent approximately 18 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint when Duncan was 16. Released in 2000, Duncan moved to Fargo, North Dakota, and studied computer programming at North Dakota State University.
While police continue to investigate Duncan's life after prison, armchair internet detectives are piecing together details of his electronic life, digging up an online personal ad, two amateur videos, Usenet postings seeking computer advice, and forays into the geek sport of GPS geocaching.
But the most revealing -- and disturbing -- ripples in Duncan's data wake come from a weblog called Blogging The Fifth Nail that he started in January of last year.
A static website maintained by Duncan and hosted by GoDaddy was not accessible Tuesday. But Duncan's blog, hosted by Blogger, has remained up and running even following heavy media attention. (Google, which runs Blogger, didn't return phone calls regarding Duncan's blog.) The weblog is easy to find, and Duncan configured it to allow visitors to post comments, a feature that appears to have enjoyed little use prior to his arrest.
According to his first post, dated Jan. 4, 2004, Duncan launched the blog to document his comings and goings in case he was "falsely accused of some crime or another." The first six months of entries complained about the challenges of moving through society while wearing the scarlet letter of a registered sex offender: keeping a job, finding a girlfriend, dealing with aggressive police.
In several entries, he insisted he was not a pedophile. "I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it," he wrote.
Read the complete article at Wired News
posted by Ray at 1:27 PM
2 Comments:
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