Back in 2005, a serial killer with the initials JED broke into the Groene home, murdered Brenda Groene, her boyfriend Mark, and her son Slade. He kidnapped nine year old Dylan and eight year old Shasta and held them captive in a remote area of the woods in Montana for weeks, abusing them in the most horrific ways imaginable. I think one of the worst things he did was give them hope: he told them if they could capture a wild chipmunk that was hanging around their campsite he would take them home. The kids did everything they could think of to get the chipmunk and when they finally did they were ecstatic at the idea that they were going home, only to have JED brutally murder Dylan right in front of Shasta. He took her and ran, stopping to eat at a Denny's. The waitress and several of the customers recognized them from the AMBER alerts and billboards and called the police. The waitress was able to stall them by pretending the printer wasn't working while several of the male customers hung back at the ready to physically restrain him if he tried to grab Shasta and run. The police came and arrested him, and unfortunately it felt like that was just the beginning of Shasta's nightmare.
Her father was devastated that Dylan was dead and refused to believe it until the police took them back to the campsite and recovered what remains they could. He was a shattered man who didn't want to hear about Shasta's ordeal, even though the poor girl needed someone to talk to. She ended up acting out, drinking, doing drugs, cutting herself, all sorts of horrible things, despite everyone around her trying to help her. She was shipped off to a group home for teens, which made things worse.
Twenty years later and Shasta is still fighting daily to have a "normal" life. It was such a heartbreaking story. Olsen said in the afterward that he really hopes she can make a good life for herself. I hope so too. What a goddamn tragedy all the way around.
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