Idaho blood tests don't match siblings
DNA evidence 'gives us more hope children weren't harmed'
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (CNN) -- Blood found at an Idaho home where three people were slain last week does not match that of two children missing from the home, according to preliminary DNA test results, police said Thursday.
The finding by the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, bolstered authorities' belief that Dylan Groene, 9, and his sister Shasta, 8, are alive, said Kootenai County Sheriff's Department spokesman Capt. Ben Wolfinger.
"The blood is just of the victims, the three known victims," Wolfinger said. "It is not of the children."
"That gives us more hope that the children weren't harmed there at the residence, they're still out there," he said.
"They're out there for us to find them and bring them home."
The children have been missing since May 16, when their mother, a brother and the mother's boyfriend were found beaten to death in the mother's home.
A memorial service was held Wednesday for 40-year-old Brenda Groene and 13-year-old Slade Groene.
Authorities said they and 37-year-old Mark McKenzie died from blunt-force trauma to the head. The last time they were seen was May 15, when they had a Sunday get-together with friends at the home.
Police have said they have no suspects in the deaths or the children's disappearance.
"We've always believed that if they were going to kill everybody in the house, they would have killed them and left them there," Wolfinger said. "But they didn't."
He said the findings were the first wave of evidence expected back from the Virginia lab.
Police also began searching a landfill Thursday, sifting through "tons and tons of trash" in a half-acre site, Wolfinger said.
Authorities are looking for anything of value as evidence, he said, and the search is expected to take five to 10 days.
On Monday, authorities announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the return of the children or information that could lead to those responsible for their abduction. In addition, Kootenai County posted a $7,500 reward. (Full story)
Authorities continue to receive tips in the case, but the number is diminishing as time goes on, Wolfinger said.
On Wednesday, Wolfinger asked that campers enjoying Idaho's national forests over Memorial Day weekend keep an eye out for "anything suspicious" that may lead to clues.
An Amber Alert initially was issued for the children but was canceled earlier this week due to the lack of new information in the case for five days.
Authorities described Dylan as 4 feet tall, 60 pounds, with crew-cut blond hair and blue eyes, and Shasta as 3 feet 10 inches tall, 40 pounds, with long auburn-brown hair and hazel-green eyes.
Father no 'person of interest'
Wolfinger said Monday the children's father is not a suspect or a person of interest in the case.
"We don't have any person of interest," he said, adding that investigators were considering all possibilities.
His comments followed a televised interview in which Steven Groene -- the father of Dylan and Shasta Groene -- said an FBI agent told him he failed "portions" of a polygraph test and that there were doubts about his innocence.
"It's pretty devastating to have to hear somebody say that they think you know something about this," the father told Fox News on Sunday.
Wolfinger said, however, that a polygraph "measures the physiological response" of the subject.
"This man is extremely emotional, and very understandably so," he told reporters.
In the interview, Groene said the polygraph test included questions on whether he used drugs and alcohol, and he said he admitted he used drugs as a youth.
"I did not lie," Groene said. "This is something I could not have done to my children. I love my children."
Groene admitted he was angry with his ex-wife on Friday, May 13, because she refused to let Shasta and Dylan spend the night with him the following Saturday night.
The father also said he couldn't account for his whereabouts between about 10 p.m. Sunday, May 15, and the following morning, when he went to work.
He watched TV part of the time, he said, but couldn't recall what programs.
Groene's oldest son, Vance, 20, who also took an FBI polygraph test, said on the same program that he was close to his mother and was aware of mounting tension in the household -- one of the reasons he recently moved away.
Vance Groene said his mother was worried that McKenzie, who lived with her, was drifting away.
The son said the couple used the illegal drug crystal methamphetamine.
He said he believed his mother's drug use had increased in the past year and it was no longer an occasional recreational habit.
Kootenai County coroner Dr. Robert West said last week that a preliminary toxicology report showed the presence of "illicit drugs" in the two adults, but not in the teen. West did not say what drugs were found.
"I get the impression that the last couple of weeks, stuff was getting a little more stressful and a little harder to deal with," Vance Groene said.
