The news that another family had children abducted by a known high-risk sex offender broke the heart of Dru Sjodin's mother.
"You feel the heartache and the pain," Linda Walker said Sunday. "It's something you don't want anyone else to go through."
On Saturday, an 8-year-old Idaho girl was found eating breakfast with Joseph Edward Duncan, a registered sex offender from Fargo.
Shasta Groene and her brother Dylan, 9, had been missing since May 16 when the bludgeoned bodies of their mother, her boyfriend and an older brother were found in their rural Coeur d'Alene home.
Dylan is feared dead, too, Idaho officials said Sunday.
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That news is especially painful when the country has tools and technology to fight for safe communities, Walker said.
Walker's daughter was kidnapped from Grand Forks, N.D., in November 2003 and found dead near Crookston the next April. Twice-convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 52, faces federal charges of kidnapping and killing the University of North Dakota student.
Walker, who lives in Pequot Lakes, Minn., said people need to support lawmakers who are trying to pass legislation and laws that make it easier to track sex offenders.
This summer, the Justice Department plans to devote a national Internet site to state-by-state information on sex offenders. It will be designed to allow someone to do a national search online to determine whether an individual who has been convicted in one state has moved to another.
Participation is voluntary.
The tool will be helpful, Walker said, but she believes federal money needs to be behind the effort for it to be effective.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced similar legislation, named "Dru's Law," to create a national database. He said last month he would continue to push other portions of the bill, including notification for local authorities when high-risk sex offenders are released from prison.
Walker also supports legislation introduced recently by Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The bill updates the nation's sex offender registration and community notification law, which is named after Jacob Wetterling, a Minnesota child kidnapped in 1989.
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Highlights of the legislation include requiring a first-time sex offender to wear a tracking device for the duration of their supervised release and requiring a second-time offender to wear the device for their lifetime. It also establishes a sex offender DNA database.
"It's all about our kids," Walker said. "This is about Shasta and Dylan and all the children who have been taken away from us needlessly and senselessly."
While she doesn't think Duncan should have been allowed to post bail on charges that he molested a 6-year-old boy in Detroit Lakes, Minn., Walker refuses to point fingers at law enforcement or the judicial system.
The responsibility for keeping sex offenders off the streets lies with the public.
"It's our job as voters to make our lawmakers knowledgeable on our demands for what we want for our community," she said. "It's about the rights of our children."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Erin Hemme Froslie at (701) 241-5534
