Joseph Duncan allegedly kidnapped two children in mid-May—8 year old Dylan Groene and his 9 year old sister, Shasta.  He did this after murdering the kids’ older sibling, mother, and mother’s boyfriend.  And it appears that Duncan later killed Dylan.

Fortunately, Duncan was apprehended this past weekend, and Shasta was rescued.

Duncan left behind an eerie blog called “Blogging the Fifth Nail”, including this, one of his last entries before embarked on his murder/kidnapping spree, in which he discusses his “Happy Joe” persona:

To be more specific, I am scared, alone, and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die. As for the “Happy Joe” (Jet), well he was just a dream. The bogeyman was alive and happy long before Happy Joe.
I was in prison for over 18 years, since the age of 17. As an adult all I knew was the oppression of incarceration. All those years I dreamed of getting out…And getting even. Instead, I got out and I got even, but did not get caught. So, I got even again, and again did not get caught. So, I figured, well, I got even twice (actually more, but that’s here nor there), even if I’m the only one who knows, so now what? Well that was when the “Happy Joe” dream started. I met a bunch of really great people, the kind of people I didn’t even know existed, but here they were, bunches of them, my neighbors, my landlords, my professors, my coworkers, and they were all good people, who were willing to give me a chance despite my past. They were willing to accept me and be my friend, something that was new for me, having been betrayed by many “friends” and even my own family.
So, I tried to make it work. But the problem was those demons. The ones who “got even” for me.

The blog goes back to January 2004, and makes for interesting—if not uncomfortable—reading.  You can almost watch the derangement slowly sinking in.