MINNEAPOLIS - The convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping two children in Idaho mentioned the disappearance of a Minnesota girl on his blog, and investigators are now looking into whether he might have had anything to do with it.

On his Internet diary, Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, of Fargo, N.D., wrote that he was afraid he'd be blamed for the disappearance of 5-year-old Leanna "Beaner" Warner, who was last seen after leaving her home in Chisholm on June 14, 2003.

Chisholm Police Chief Scott Erickson said Friday that investigators are trying to determine if there's any more of a connection between Duncan and Warner's disappearance, but he acknowledged it's a long shot in a very frustrating case.

"In reality every community that has a missing child is going to try to connect this guy to it," Erickson said.

Duncan is charged with abducting 9-year-old Dylan Groene and 8-year-old Shasta Groene from their home shortly before their 13-year-old brother, mother and her boyfriend were bludgeoned to death May 16. Police say Duncan also is a suspect in the killings. Authorities had been looking for Duncan since he jumped bail in Minnesota on charges of molesting a 6-year-old boy on a Detroit Lakes playground.

In a posting dated Jan. 4, 2004 - more than six months after Warner's disappearance - Duncan wrote that he just found out about the case, and he appeared to be trying to establish an alibi in case police came calling.

"I tried to figure out what I was doing that day, since I'm always afraid of getting accused when something like this happens," he wrote.

Erickson said the fact that Duncan mentioned Warner's case on his blog is reason enough to dig deeper, given that investigators have no other leads.

Erickson said the FBI and state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were trying to determine if Duncan was in the Chisholm area around the time when Warner disappeared. Chisholm is about 190 miles east of Fargo.