Nearly 20 years after she was kidnapped by serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan III, Shasta Groene is telling her story in her own words. Groene, who survived weeks of captivity and abuse after Duncan murdered her mother, older brother, and her mother’s boyfriend in northern Idaho in 2005, has released a new book detailing her journey from unimaginable trauma toward recovery.
Out of the Woods, co-written with New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen, was released August 1. While the crime itself received extensive national coverage at the time, Olsen said this account is not centered on the violence but on what came after — the decades-long process of healing. For him, capturing that arc was the most challenging work of his career.
Groene was eight years old when Duncan broke into her family’s home along Lake Coeur d’Alene on May 16, 2005. According to her account to investigators, her mother woke her and her brother Dylan in the middle of the night, telling them someone was in the house. They entered the living room to find Duncan armed and wearing gloves. He restrained the adults and her older brother Slade with zip ties before forcing Shasta and Dylan outside. From there, she heard the sounds of a violent attack inside the home before Duncan emerged and drove away with the two children in a stolen Jeep Cherokee.
Over the next six weeks, Duncan moved Shasta and Dylan between remote campsites, where he repeatedly assaulted them. She later recounted the killing of her brother — first described as accidental but, by her account, carried out deliberately with a shotgun. In the days that followed, she narrowly escaped death herself when Duncan gave her a choice in how she would be killed. Her plea for him to stop, using his nickname, caused him to relent. Soon afterward, he drove toward Coeur d’Alene, stopping at a Denny’s restaurant in the early morning hours of July 2, 2005.
It was there that employees and patrons recognized Shasta from news coverage and contacted police, who arrested Duncan without incident. Dylan’s body was recovered later, and Duncan was eventually convicted of multiple murders in Idaho, Washington, and California. He died in federal prison in 2021 while on death row.
For Groene, the years since have been marked by the slow work of rebuilding her life. Olsen said the book documents not only her memories of the crime but also the choices and challenges of living after such trauma. At recent book events, she has spoken about the enduring effects of that summer and the ways she has found stability and hope.
Out of the Woods arrives two decades after one of Idaho’s most harrowing criminal cases, offering a rare perspective on survival and resilience. It is, Olsen said, “about what it means to live — fully — after the worst thing imaginable.”
