Shasta Groene, a survivor of a notorious serial killer, has opened up about the traumatic events surrounding her kidnapping in 2005.
At the tender age of eight, Shasta and her older brother Dylan were forcibly taken from their home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho by Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted child molester. Duncan brutally attacked the rest of their family with a hammer in a horrifying massacre that occurred almost twenty years ago.
The victims included Shasta’s mother Brenda Groene, stepfather Mark McKenzie, and brother Slade Groene.
Joseph abducted the children, driving them away in a stolen Jeep Cherokee. It wasn’t until early July of that year that he was finally caught by law enforcement.
Tragically, Dylan was killed by a shotgun wound before authorities could rescue them.
Shasta recently spoke with Inside Edition Digital to promote her book “Out of the Woods,” reflecting on that harrowing period of her life.
In the days leading up to the murders, Joseph had reportedly been observing the family from a distance.
Shasta recalls a moment when her mother and stepfather, in the midst of an argument, noticed someone watching them from afar.
“I remember looking out of my bedroom window and they just stopped fighting and she was pointing at something up on the hill,” Shasta recounted.
“When I looked over, it looked like there was a person with binoculars up there. My stepdad, who didn’t have very good eyesight, went to get his binoculars, but by the time he returned, the figure was gone.”
Joseph later admitted to Shasta that her mother hadn’t imagined the figure; he had simply hidden behind a tree stump when he realized he was being watched.
The family’s home was easily accessible since they often left their backdoor open for their dogs to roam freely.
“We lived in the middle of nowhere and we just didn’t think that was an issue really,” Shasta explained. “He had said the night prior to that he was also in the house learning where we slept and stuff.”
During one of these nocturnal visits, Joseph inadvertently woke Shasta.
“I thought I saw a face in my closet, like a face of a person,” she recalled.
“I woke my brother Dylan up and was like, ‘Can you come sleep in my bed because there’s somebody in the closet?’ I remember telling my brother that.”
In Idaho’s federal court, Joseph was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the Coeur d’Alene family, receiving six life sentences and three death penalties. Additionally, he was sentenced to two more life terms in California.
He passed away in March 2021 at 58, due to a brain tumor.