WOLF LODGE, Idaho – In 2005, then 8-year-old Shasta Groene was kidnapped alongside her brother Dylan. Their family: Mom Brenda, Slade, and Brenda’s boyfriend Mark, were murdered at what became known as Wolf Lodge.
For seven weeks, Shasta and Dylan were held captive by Joseph Edward Duncan III, who forced the children to call him “Jet”, in the Lolo National Forest near St. Regis. There, Shasta and Dylan were subjected to horrific physical abuse, culminating in Duncan shooting and killing 9-year-old Dylan.
After Dylan’s murder, Duncan drove Shasta to Denny’s, where on June 2, 2005, a waitress recognized her.
Shasta’s story was everywhere, but some details were not shared.
20 years later, Out of the Woods changes that. In that book, author Gregg Olsen takes a deep dive into Shasta’s life, revealing new information about the abuse, and the subsequent 20 years of attempting to heal and rebuild.
“I feel like Shasta Groene of anyone on the planet was uniquely qualified to survive this,” Olsen said.
He continued in the book, “Shasta was a survivor before Joseph Edward Duncan III murdered her family. She had been sexually abused, gone to bed hungry, put up with drugged out rantings from adults, lied because she’d been told to, pretended everything was fine, and used a hole in the ground as a toilet. And while all of that afforded her a unique resilience, the reason she made it out of the woods was something that those who have so much just can’t grasp.”
Olsen says that Shasta’s story has transformed her into what Shasta calls “that girl.”
“That girl that everyone has an idea or guess about who she is,” Olsen said. “They see her, they whisper.”
This book, Olsen hopes, shows people who Shasta is.
“Here’s what I want people to know about Shasta Rae Groene,” Olsen wrote in Out of the Woods. “Not the survivor but the woman she is… With Shasta there is no race to the bottom to see whose trauma is darker than another’s. Hurt is hurt. Pain is pain. Never a judgement.”
But Olsen says that Shasta still carries guilt over the brother she couldn’t save.
“She knows its not her fault, but it will always hurt her to the core that she couldn’t get Dylan out of those woods,” Olsen said.
Olsen said the survivor’s guilt will likely last a lifetime.
In the years since her abduction, Shasta Groene has endured loss and change. Duncan died in jail of brain cancer, and her father, Steve, also passed away. Groene has also undergone therapy and rebuilt her life.
“The one thing that I want people to know, bring your love for her because she deserves it,” Olsen said.
Gregg Olsen and Shasta Groene will be at The Well Read Moose in Coeur d’Alene for a book signing on Friday, August 8th, from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm.
