Ten years after escaping from the kidnapper who murdered her family, an Idaho woman is engaged and pregnant and hoping to make a positive new start in her life.
Shasta Groene was just eight years old in May 2005 when Joseph Duncan beat her mother Brenda, stepfather Mark and 13-year-old brother Slade to death with a hammer in their Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-area home.
Duncan then took off with Shasta and her nine-year-old brother Dylan, moving from campsite to campsite for nearly two months as he attempted to evade the police.
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Shasta Groene, 18, is speaking out ten years after surviving a brutal abduction by Joseph Duncan, right
For those seven tortuous weeks, Shasta says Duncan raped both her and her brother until eventually Duncan murdered Dylan - and Shasta was all alone with her captor.
Shasta finally found freedom in July 2005 when Duncan made the mistake of taking her to a Coeur d'Alene Denny's for a meal, and she was recognized.
Police took Duncan into custody and he was later sentenced to death, a punishment he is currently trying to appeal.
Now more than 10 years after her ordeal, Shasta spoke with Idaho news station KHQ to describe how she for years turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the trauma of what happened to her.
But she says she's now back on the right track, after a year-long imprisonment, and is engaged and pregnant.
The bodies of Shasta's mother Brenda, left, stepfather Mark McKenzie, center, and 13-year-old brother Slade, right, were found beaten to death with a hammer inside their home in May 2005
Above, Groene's home near Couer D'Alene, Idaho where the massacre happened
Shasta says that immediately after she was rescued, she became a well-known figure in the area for all of the wrong reasons.
'I couldn’t really live my life or go out without someone recognizing me,' Shasta said.
'Everywhere I went it was "Oh, there’s Shasta Groene," as if I were famous, and I didn’t like that. I was like "I’m a normal girl, treat me like a normal girl."'
Every time someone recognized her, it brought up the old memories and at the time she still felt responsible, which is common for the survivors of traumatic experiences.
Shasta, 8 (left), and her brother Dylan, 9 (right), were kidnapped by Duncan in May 2005. Duncan eventually murdered Dylan while they were on the run. Shasta was rescued when she was recognized at a restaurant
'There were years and years where I felt that what happened was my fault,' she said. 'Like I could have done something to change what happened… I had my innocence taken from me. I felt really ashamed of that.'
Shasta says her life took a turn at age 12, when she got drunk for the first time, and by 14 she tried meth and started getting high every day with a group of older teens.
Eventually, her addictions landed her in a juvenile detention center in February 2014, and she was sentenced to stay in the prison for a year - something she believes saved her life.
Shasta says after spending a year in a juvenile detention facility, her life took a turn for the positive. It was there hat she met her fiance, pictured together above
While in the detention center, Shasta says she was able to soberly process what had happened to her, all while making friends and meeting her future fiance.
Now 18, Shasta says she's finally moving in a positive direction in life. She knows that she will never be able to forget what happened to her, so instead she embraces it by celebrating her mother's and brothers' birthdays, trying to remember them for the good memories instead of the bad.
Helping her through her dark days is her fiance, who she says she has a deep connection with. And the couple look forward both to their wedding and the baby they are expecting in March.
Shasta says she considers her baby a miracle since she thought the injuries she sustained enduring weeks of sexual assault at the hands of Duncan may have prevented her from conceiving.
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Share'I almost feel like this is a miracle baby. It’s something that’s going to change my life for the better,' Shasta said. 'I think it just symbolizes me being able to take what’s happened to me and making something good out of it.'
As for Duncan, she has a message for him as he rots behind prison walls.
'I’d want him to know that he doesn’t control me, and he doesn’t control how I feel,' Shasta said. 'He’s the person who took away my family and my innocence, but I don’t ever really think about him. It’s just my family. And I want him to know he doesn’t have any power right now, because he’s the one sitting in prison while I’m out living my life.'
Duncan was originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, after taking a plea deal before trial. But then he was indicted on separate charges in federal court and the conviction for those charges resulted in him getting the death penalty. He is attempting to appeal that conviction.
Shasta and her fiance are expecting their 'miracle' baby in March. Above an ultrasound of the baby
Spokane, North Idaho News
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