On May 16, 2005, 37-year-old Mark Edward McKenzie was found murdered in his Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, home alongside his fiancée Brenda Groene, 40, and her 13-year-old son, Slade Groene. The three victims had been bound with duct tape and zip ties and bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Brenda’s two younger children, eight-year-old Shasta and nine-year-old Dylan, were missing from the scene, prompting a large local and federal search effort.

A break in the case came on July 2, 2005, when a waitress at a Denny’s in Coeur d’Alene recognized Shasta with a man and alerted authorities; the man was arrested and Shasta was recovered. Investigators determined the suspect had stalked the family, broken into the home, murdered Mark, Brenda and Slade, and abducted Shasta and Dylan, taking the children to a remote campsite in Montana where Dylan was later killed.

This remains a case marked by extreme violence and the abduction of the two youngest children. If anyone knew the family, saw suspicious activity near their home in May 2005, or has information about the abduction, please come forward.