BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The only survivor of an attack on an Idaho family 10 years ago is expecting a child in March.
“I almost feel like this is a miracle baby,” Shasta Groene, 18, told KHQ-TV. “It’s something that’s going to change my life for the better.”
She also said she’s still working on finding a path forward.
“I’m getting there,” she said. “And I feel a peace in my life that I’ve never felt before.”
In May 2005, Joseph Duncan broke into the Groene family’s Coeur d’Alene home, fatally bludgeoning 13-year-old Slade Groene, his mother Brenda Groene and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie.
Duncan abducted Shasta, then 8, and Shasta’s brother, 9-year-old Dylan. Duncan killed Dylan in front of Shasta at a camp in Montana.
Shasta was rescued when Duncan took her to a restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, where a waitress recognized Shasta and called police.
“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.”
The crime and trial created intense news coverage.
“I couldn’t really live my life or go out without someone recognizing me,” Groene 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.’ ”
She said that wore her down, and in February 2014 she landed in juvenile detention on a drug-related crime. She said the 12-month sentence saved her life.
“I don’t know where I’d be,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d be alive.”
During that time, she met new friends and her fiancé.