Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home

by Gregg Olsen

Overview

From a girl’s abduction by a serial killer to the harrowing aftermath—a gripping and heart-wrenching true-crime story by Gregg Olsen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell.

In May 2005, authorities discovered the Groene family murdered in their Idaho home. The family’s youngest members—eight-year-old Shasta and her brother, nine-year-old Dylan—were nowhere to be found.

As a community prayed for their return, Shasta and Dylan were already miles away in the woods of Montana at the hands of serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan. After a harrowing forty-eight day ordeal, Shasta was rescued. In many ways, her survival story was only beginning.

In the following years, while Shasta struggled to outrun her trauma, a pattern of self-destructive behavior shadowed her like an ever-worsening thunderstorm. She still had hope buried deep inside. Every bit as much as the little girl who had been held captive in the woods. This would be an all-new battle for Shasta. And she was determined not to lose.

Out of the Woods is the haunting and intimate true-crime story of one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history—and a young woman’s journey to reclaim her life in its wake.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662528569
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	08/01/2025
Pages:	335
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gregg Olsen is the #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author of more than thirty books, including If You Tell, The Amish Wife, I Know Where You Live, The Hive, Lying Next to Me, and The Last Thing She Ever Did; five novels in the Detective Megan Carpenter series; and The Sound of Rain and The Weight of Silence in the Nicole Foster series. His work has received critical acclaim, numerous awards, and prominence on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestseller lists. Washington State officially selected his young adult novel Envy for the National Book Festival, and The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year. The Amish Wife was a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Born in Seattle, Olsen lives with his wife in rural Washington State and is already at work on his next book. Visit him at www.greggolsen.com.

Editorial Reviews

Olsen, a prolific and popular author of multiple true-crime books and fictional mysteries, became close to his subject over several years. His chief concern here is to tell the story of the therapeutic work Shasta did to try to find her way “out of the woods” of her trauma. He weaves that somewhat hopeful story together with the nauseatingly disturbing details of the crime, each parallel path unfolding through the book, dropping hints along the way of ever worse revelations to come.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Novelist and true crime author Olsen (The Amish Wife) paints a heartbreaking portrait of a woman haunted by her narrow escape from a serial killer…As in Olsen’s previous works of nonfiction, there’s plenty of rigorous research on display, but it’s his empathetic consideration of what happens to high-profile victims after news cameras stop rolling that sets this apart…It’s moving stuff.” —Publishers Weekly

“Prolific true-crime author Olsen offers another exemplary narrative of unimaginable trauma that packs an emotional punch.” —Booklist

“Out of the Woods takes you into the dark nightmare world of eight-year-old Shasta. Gregg Olsen portrays her ordeal with compassion, understanding, and hope, providing an intense look at trauma and its effect on victims and those who love them. Out of the Woods is a remarkable, heartbreaking story told well.” —Diane Fanning, author of Lizzie

“In Out of the Woods, Gregg Olsen unravels the horrific story of Shasta Groene, the survivor of a serial killer who lived to tell her darkest secrets, exclusively to him. This tale is so outlandish and shocking, it will haunt you forever. True crime fans, you have a rollercoaster ride waiting for you, so be prepared to be glued to your seat. Olsen has written a masterpiece!” —Aphrodite Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Sacrifice

From the Publisher

2025-05-02
A young woman’s determination to overcome deep trauma and survivor’s guilt in the aftermath of an unspeakable crime.

Shasta Rae Groene and her brother, Dylan, were 8 and 9 years old in the summer of 2005, when they were kidnapped from their home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where their mother, her boyfriend, and an older brother had just been tied up and beaten to death with a framing hammer and a rifle butt. The younger children were the actual targets of the massacre’s perpetrator, Joseph Edward Duncan III, aka Jet, a sadistic pedophile and recidivist sex offender with a Messiah complex. After the murders, Duncan took the children over the Montana state line and up into the wilderness of Lolo National Forest, where he held them captive and repeatedly raped them for seven weeks while regaling them with tales of previous rapes and murders of children in California and Seattle. An unusually strong-willed and resourceful child who was more worried about her brother’s life than her own, Shasta survived the ordeal, but Dylan did not. She would later say of Duncan, “I don’t think he counted on the fact that I was like ten steps ahead of him.” Olsen, a prolific and popular author of multiple true-crime books and fictional mysteries, became close to his subject over several years. His chief concern here is to tell the story of the therapeutic work Shasta did to try to find her way “out of the woods” of her trauma. He weaves that somewhat hopeful story together with the nauseatingly disturbing details of the crime, each parallel path unfolding through the book, dropping hints along the way of ever worse revelations to come.

Not for the squeamish or seekers of uncomplicatedly happy endings.

Kirkus Reviews