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

By Gregg Olsen

Book 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1662522428
• ISBN13: 9781662522420
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 3.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

True psychological crime story

10/14/25 x 10/19/25 Out of the Woods by Gregg Olsen This was the October Book of the Month Club for the Brenda Novak Book Club. It is a true psychological crime story that Mr. Olsen wrote based on the research and interviews with the victim of the crime(s) Shasta Groene, the only survivor of the person who for years managed to get away with such heinous crimes. What Shasta witnessed and lived through in life as an eight year child/victim is totally incomprehensible to even think she would not be affected for the rest of her life. A weaker individual might even had attempted suicide to rid themselves of the horrors of what they lived through. Due to the legal system, and to the injustice of the victim and her family, she was robbed of seeing the accused and convicted of being being given the death penalty as he was sentenced to by the the fates of him dying before that punishment was justly served. In some ways her closure to this abhorrent atrocity in life was not completely fulfilled. While I cannot phantom what this poor child went through, and what followed when she was re-entered into society, it comes knowing that there are survivors of crimes such as this. Thank you, Shasta, for having the courage to share it. Thank Gregg Olsen, for listening and making Shasta’s story known.Hopefully we as a society will do more for the victims instead of the deviants.