Sole survivor of Duncan's violence recounts attacks on tape

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By The Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho - A girl who is the sole survivor of a murderous attack on her family told detectives soon after her rescue that she was raped by Joseph Edward Duncan III and forced to watch him torture, molest and kill her younger brother.

The videotaped interview with Shasta Groene was played for a federal jury Tuesday. It's the latest account of the days that Shasta, 8 at the time, and her 9-year-old brother Dylan spent with Duncan after he abducted them from their home east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 2005.

Duncan pleaded guilty in December to 10 federal counts involving the kidnapping and torture of the children and the slaying of Dylan at a remote campsite in western Montana. Three of those counts carry a potential death penalty.

The jury is being asked to decide whether Duncan should be sentenced to execution, or to life in prison without parole. The interview presented in court was taped at the hospital where Shasta was treated, shortly after she was spotted at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant and rescued.

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