Police: Duncan is a computer whiz

Joseph Duncan III is a computer expert who bragged online, days before authorities believe he killed three people in Idaho, about a tell-all journal that would not be accessed for decades, authorities say.

Duncan, 42, a convicted sex offender, figured technology would catch up in 30 years, "and then the world will know who I really was, and what I really did, and what I really thought," he wrote May 13.

Police seized Duncan's computer equipment from his Fargo apartment last August, when they were looking for evidence in a Detroit Lakes, Minn., child molestation case.

At least one compact disc and a part of his hard drive were encrypted well enough that one of the region's top computer forensic specialists could not access it, The Forum reported Monday.

Detective Jess Schoon, a Fergus Falls (Minn.) officer and a specialist for the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, checked the equipment for evidence in the Detroit Lakes case.

"Without a doubt the most challenging system I've looked at," Schoon said of Duncan's encryption.

Most of the seized discs and computer files were accessible and revealed nothing significant, he said. But he could not get at the hidden data.

"Nobody that I know of has the ability to crack that encryption," Schoon said.

A Becker County prosecutor later charged Duncan with child molestation in the Detroit Lakes case. He posted a $15,000 check for bail in April and disappeared within weeks. He was arrested last month in Idaho.

The FBI, which continues to investigate Duncan in the Idaho killings, now has the encrypted data, Schoon said.

Special Agent Brent Robbins, whose Salt Lake City office is leading the case, said he could not comment on the material. Another spokesman in Washington said the agency would not discuss the FBI's decryption abilities, citing national security and crime issues.

While basic encryption is not necessarily difficult to apply, Schoon said, Duncan appeared to be "very, very highly skilled" on the computer.

He came to Fargo after a 20-year prison sentence in Washington state for raping a 14-year-old boy.

In 1987, prison psychologist S.C. Sloat wrote that Duncan "has gained respect here for how well he has mastered computers."

In Fargo, Duncan took computer science classes at North Dakota State University and worked for a computer consulting firm in Moorhead, Minn.

He is charged in Idaho with the May 16 killings of Brenda Groene, 40, her 13-year-old son Slade, and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie, 37.

Authorities also allege Duncan kidnapped 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother Dylan, and sexually assaulted them. Shasta was found with Duncan on July 2, and Dylan's body was found a few days later.

While it is The Associated Press' policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault in most cases, the search for Shasta and her brother was so heavily publicized that their names are widely known.

California authorities say Duncan also is a suspect in the 1997 abduction and murder of a 10-year-old boy, Anthony Martinez of Beaumont.

Schoon said he hoped federal investigators can get to whatever information Duncan had hidden with his computer.

"It's very frustrating," Schoon said.

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