Did Duncan have a prior connection to this area?

[kline]

For somebody from Fargo he sure seemed awfully comfortable
commiting his crimes and hiding out here in Idaho and western Montana without even coming close to getting caught.
Ive lived in both areas alternately my entire life and I doubt I could have done a better job.Which makes me wonder had he spent time in this area before?
Does he know anyone in the area? Also where did his money come from?
It costs money for food and gas.Traveling and eating out of convience stores for six weeks would not be cheap.It makes me wonder if he had any kind of support system.Even an old prison buddy to hit up for a few hundred dollars and a couple sleeping bags.

[mysteriew]

For somebody from Fargo he sure seemed awfully comfortable
commiting his crimes and hiding out here in Idaho and western Montana without even coming close to getting caught.
Ive lived in both areas alternately my entire life and I doubt I could have done a better job.Which makes me wonder had he spent time in this area before?
Does he know anyone in the area? Also where did his money come from?
It costs money for food and gas.Traveling and eating out of convience stores for six weeks would not be cheap.It makes me wonder if he had any kind of support system.Even an old prison buddy to hit up for a few hundred dollars and a couple sleeping bags.

Duncan was originally from Washington, I believe it was Tacoma. He appeared to be active in a lot of outdoor activities (diving, skiing, etc) so I would say he probably camped also. That explains his general familiarity with the Idaho area as it is in the "panhandle" between Wash. and Mont. His mother lived in Wash. And from his blog we identified several friends/and or relatives living in Wash.
When Duncan was arrested in Minn. he got $6,500 from his doctor friend for "legal expenses". He would only have had to put up about $1,500 for bail. (10% of the $15,000). It is generally believed that the remainder of that money is what funded him on the run. While he was paying for food and gas, the main expenditure of traveling would normally be lodging- but he was camping in remote places, so would not have had that expense.

[Cowgirl]

The DA asked for $25K in bond and the judge granted on $15K, but he did not use a bondsman at all. In fact, that is the biggest reason he had a good chance to escape. So he had put together some cash for himself before going to court. At one time he had two jobs even while going to school and he also mentioned in his blog someplace that he was making good money with the web designing and such that he did. And he didn't live a lavish lifestyle but spent a lot on cameras and gadgets like that. So between what he had managed to save since the offense last July and his court date in April plus the $6,500 he got from his doctor buddy, he had enough to bond himself out in cash.

This point was made when the writer of the article was pointing out that even if the judge had set the bond much, much higher, even $150,000, this creep could have made the bond with the cash that he had. And this brings up a good point. Maybe bond should stop being a right, huh?

[wondering22]

....Which makes me wonder had he spent time in this area before?

Does he know anyone in the area? Also where did his money come from?
Hello, kline.

There's another messagethread on this board where posters are trying to track down all the known places Duncan has been.

It might interest you to check in on that thread:

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25751

[mysteriew]

The DA asked for $25K in bond and the judge granted on $15K, but he did not use a bondsman at all. In fact, that is the biggest reason he had a good chance to escape. So he had put together some cash for himself before going to court. At one time he had two jobs even while going to school and he also mentioned in his blog someplace that he was making good money with the web designing and such that he did. And he didn't live a lavish lifestyle but spent a lot on cameras and gadgets like that. So between what he had managed to save since the offense last July and his court date in April plus the $6,500 he got from his doctor buddy, he had enough to bond himself out in cash.

This point was made when the writer of the article was pointing out that even if the judge had set the bond much, much higher, even $150,000, this creep could have made the bond with the cash that he had. And this brings up a good point. Maybe bond should stop being a right, huh?

Cowgirl, I would like to read that. Could you post the link for that info? I don't think I have seen it yet.

[caryatid]

For somebody from Fargo he sure seemed awfully comfortable
commiting his crimes and hiding out here in Idaho and western Montana without even coming close to getting caught.
Ive lived in both areas alternately my entire life and I doubt I could have done a better job.Which makes me wonder had he spent time in this area before?
Does he know anyone in the area? Also where did his money come from?
It costs money for food and gas.Traveling and eating out of convience stores for six weeks would not be cheap.It makes me wonder if he had any kind of support system.Even an old prison buddy to hit up for a few hundred dollars and a couple sleeping bags.
Or money in a geocache.

[Cowgirl]

Cowgirl, I would like to read that. Could you post the link for that info? I don't think I have seen it yet.About the cash bond part? Sure, I will look for it. Since he didn't own property he would have had trouble any other way, unless they would have taken his car as property.

This is not the article I read, but this is one. It requires membership, but if you have subscription in other free ones, yours may work. If not, this is the part that says it was cash:

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/12044676.htm

Duncan, 42, reportedly pulled down the shorts of the younger boy and touched him, the complaint said. He tried to do the same thing to the older boy but wasn't successful. The younger boy described the man and his car to police, who matched both to a sex offender database, and the boy identified Duncan in a photo lineup.

On April 5, Duncan had his first appearance on the charges in Becker County District Court. He posted a cash bond of $15,000 and was ordered to keep in touch with a probation agent before his next court appearance. Prosecutors had asked for a $25,000 bail, said Becker County Attorney Joe Evans.

Becker County authorities issued an arrest warrant for Duncan in the first week of May because he hadn't checked in with his probation officer since the week of April 18, Evans said.

Detroit Lakes police contacted the Minnesota Fugitive Task Force, saying they believed Duncan had fled the area, Minneapolis FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said Saturday.

[indigomood]

Cowgirl, I would like to read that. Could you post the link for that info? I don't think I have seen it yet.
I'm not cowgirl but here's a bit of info for ya...
http://startribune.com/stories/484/5490693.html

Sex offender charged in Idaho vanished from police radar
Howie Padilla, Star Tribune
July 6, 2005

Three weeks after an April court date in which he was released on $15,000 bond, Duncan buckled. He vanished without a trace, skipping at least a week of school and missing an exam, according to a letter written by his probation officer, Larry Boomgaarden. Duncan had also rented a car in St. Paul without returning it.

Boomgaarden recommended that a warrant for his arrest be issued.

Becker County, Minn., prosecutors had asked that his bail be set higher, up to $25,000. But County Attorney Joe Evans wonders how high it would have had to go to make a difference.

Duncan paid the bond without the help of a bail bondsman, putting up $15,000 cash. With that kind of money, a bail bondsman could have put up as much as $150,000 for Duncan's release.

"It's a prosecutor's worst nightmare," Evans said from his office Tuesday. "With the clarity of hindsight, we would have asked for bail to be at a number so high it would have been unreachable."

But other variables came into play at the time, he said. Duncan's attorney argued that because his client was employed, in school and on the dean's list and had complied with his registration, he should be released without bail.

"He didn't look like a guy that was a significant flight risk," Evans said.

[Liz]

>>snip to here>> When Duncan was arrested in Minn. he got $6,500 from his doctor friend for "legal expenses". He would only have had to put up about $1,500 for bail. (10% of the $15,000). It is generally believed that the remainder of that money is what funded him on the run. While he was paying for food and gas, the main expenditure of traveling would normally be lodging- but he was camping in remote places, so would not have had that expense.


You're right, mysteriew, that JED "would have only had to put up $1,500 for bail", using a bail bondsman.

But, JED didn't use a bail bondsman, as I heard it!
He doled out the entire $15,000 of cold, hard cash, right then and there! Now that's really weird, isn't it?

Why would he do that? Unless at that time he wasn't planning on commiting those crimes?

Or, unless he didn't care about losing the money because he planned on dying?

Nothing like screwing his good doctor friend out of the $6,500 he'll never see again, huh? (My guess only about never seeing his $6.5 Gs! ... Heck, maybe JED has lots of cash stashed in a cache somewhere.)

[Cowgirl]

I'm not cowgirl but here's a bit of info for ya...
http://startribune.com/stories/484/5490693.html

Sex offender charged in Idaho vanished from police radar
Howie Padilla, Star Tribune
July 6, 2005

Three weeks after an April court date in which he was released on $15,000 bond, Duncan buckled. He vanished without a trace, skipping at least a week of school and missing an exam, according to a letter written by his probation officer, Larry Boomgaarden. Duncan had also rented a car in St. Paul without returning it.

Boomgaarden recommended that a warrant for his arrest be issued.

Becker County, Minn., prosecutors had asked that his bail be set higher, up to $25,000. But County Attorney Joe Evans wonders how high it would have had to go to make a difference.

Duncan paid the bond without the help of a bail bondsman, putting up $15,000 cash. With that kind of money, a bail bondsman could have put up as much as $150,000 for Duncan's release.

"It's a prosecutor's worst nightmare," Evans said from his office Tuesday. "With the clarity of hindsight, we would have asked for bail to be at a number so high it would have been unreachable."

But other variables came into play at the time, he said. Duncan's attorney argued that because his client was employed, in school and on the dean's list and had complied with his registration, he should be released without bail.

"He didn't look like a guy that was a significant flight risk," Evans said.Thanks, Indigomood, that was the same article I read where the writer mentioned how the bond could have been set much higher and still, he would have been able to make it.

[Tom'sGirl]

."He didn't look like a guy that was a significant flight risk," Evans said[/i]."
Boy, were they more than wrong :doh:

[Liz]

Sorry caryatid and indigomood. I wasn't trying to steal your thunder. I hadn't read your posts yet.

I remember reading mysteriew's post from about 4 am this morning and wanted to respond to it, and actually did a forum search to find it and paid no attention to any posts since then.

Sorry, I didn't mean to step on any toes.

[Cowgirl]

."He didn't look like a guy that was a significant flight risk," Evans said[/i]."Boy, were they more than wrong :doh:I agree. I supposed when a 42 year old man has a criminal history that on paper only shows a crime he committed as a teenager some 25 years prior, it would be easy for a judge to just not think that much of it. Apparently Duncan knew it was going to put him away though, once they put all the pieces together. For all the interest people seem to have with his blog, he made no mention of the incident other than to mention that he had decided to retain a lawyer "just in case" someone might "falsely" accuse him down the road...heheh yeah, right.

His blog, to me, was just a place for him to reflect on "life the way it should be" and the fact that he had an encrypted blog someplace tells me that would be the real deal of his black heart. In his blog, he played the part of the falsely accused guy -- the reformed ex con -- who had never really committed an act of perversion anyway (as if everyone rapes his friends at gunpoint and burns them--a teenage prank?) and his blog seems to be something of an alibi at times. In other words, any time he might have trouble, he could say, look, I knew this would happen, didn't I say so? He could not very well rant and rave about the injustice of having to be a registered sex offender to regular people -- one person who found out ran as fast as she could from him. The gist I got from his blog was that he wanted to do some pretty sick stuff, but he was stopping himself from it and was not getting a bit of credit for the fact he was not doing the sick things he had the urge to do. The same day that he molested that little by in Detroit Lakes he blogged about taking a pleasant evening stroll... so I take everything in the blog with a grain of salt.

[Liz]

For somebody from Fargo he sure seemed awfully comfortable
commiting his crimes and hiding out here in Idaho and western Montana without even coming close to getting caught. >>snip>>


Kline, I heard on the news that he does have a prior connection to the area ---- JED served part of his prison sentence (year 2000) at Airway Heights C.I.!!! That had to be just prior to his release.

Wonder if anybody from CdA could have beee in to visit a mutual friend/inmate? Perhaps Brenda went to visit another inmate there and maybe took the two little ones with her and the creep scoped them out? I would like to know where Lutner served his time, too.

I dunno, maybe it was just completely random.