Shasta Groene.

8 year-old Shasta Groene , the lucky one?

Idaho police are sure Joseph Edward Duncan a convicted sex offender was also involved in the May 2005 murders of Dylan and Shasta's family: Brenda Groene, 40, Slade Groene, 13, and Mark McKenzie, 37. According to Shasta's police interview, an intruder tied her family members up, and then she and her brother were taken into a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.

A camera in a convenience store, approximately 40 miles outside of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, recorded Shasta wandering the aisles while Duncan read a newspaper. Later on, in the early morning hours of July 2, 2005, Shasta was found in Duncan's custody. The two had entered a Denny's restaurant in Coeur d'Alene. A waitress recognized Shasta from media reports, as well as posters that had been posted around town and in the restaurant.

The waitress, Amber Deahn, worked with her manager to delay the suspect and contact local police. Deahn stalled the order until the police arrived and made a positive ID on the stolen rental car, which also displayed stolen Missouri state license plates.

Police later entered the restaurant and arrested Duncan, removing Shasta to a local hospital for observation and care. The waitress asked Shasta, "Where is your brother?" Shasta replied, "My brother is in heaven".

Dylan aged 9

Shasta told investigators her mother called her into the living room, from her bedroom where she had been sleeping, and she saw Duncan wearing black gloves and holding a gun.
Her captor tied her mother's hands with nylon zip ties, and did the same to her mother's boyfriend and an older brother.

Dylan and Shasta were removed from the house and placed inside the stolen rental car. While she waited with her brother, she heard her mother's boyfriend scream out and then saw her injured older brother staggering away from the entrance to the home. Both Shasta and Dylan were removed to other locations, where they were repeatedly raped and molested for six weeks. She said that they drove long distances and had stayed in various campgrounds, while Duncan bragged of having beaten family members to death with a hammer.

Dylan's remains were found in a remote, woodland area in Montana days after Shasta was rescued. Shasta is now in the custody of her biological father.

Duncan has a long history as a violent sexual predator, and was clinically diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder in 1980, while in prison for raping a young boy at knifepoint.

In a January 23, 2007 interview, Duncan admitted to killing three other children in the California area. Detectives are checking into this new information.