Man sought in 3 Idaho slayings surfaces

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — A man sought for questioning in the bloody slayings of three people contacted authorities Wednesday as the search continued for two children missing from the home where the killings took place.

Detectives were interviewing Robert Roy Lutner Wednesday evening, Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. Wolfinger did not say where Lutner was found, but news reports said the interview was in Coeur d'Alene, in northern Idaho.

Wolfinger would not discuss whether the missing children, Shasta and Dylan Groene, were with Lutner, but an Amber Alert remained in effect hours after the man was located.

Authorities have said Lutner was known to have been at the children's home on Sunday night, the night before the bodies of their brother, mother and a man were found.

Police in several states had been attempting to locate Lutner, and Wolfinger said Lutner had known he was being sought.

Police had sought Lutner, 33, of Hayden, to determine whether he may have seen something, or met someone at the home east of Coeur d'Alene where the bodies were found.

Shasta Groene, 8, is 3-feet-10 and 40 pounds with long auburn hair and hazel eyes, and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, is 4 feet and 60 pounds with a blond crewcut and blue eyes.

The bodies of their mother, Brenda Kay Groene, 40, and brother, Slade Vincent Groene, 13, and Mark E. McKenzie, 37, of Coeur d'Alene, were found in the house.

Police released few details about the evidence found inside the house, but Wolfinger said there was "lots of blood."

"We know this was a triple homicide because all three victims were bound," Wolfinger said, declining to elaborate.

Autopsies were being conducted Wednesday to determine how and when the three victims were killed. Neither Wolfinger nor Sheriff Rocky Watson would characterize the relationship between McKenzie and the others.

Authorities prepared to drain small ponds near the home Wednesday to search "for evidence of any sort, or, God forbid, the children, but maybe a tool or weapon, anything," Wolfinger said.