48 pages 1 hour read

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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2025

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Prologue-Chapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of rape, mental illness, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, self-harm, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Prologue Summary

Shasta Groene was eight years old when she was rescued from captivity. Even at her young age, doctors expected that she would never have children because of the damage that Jet’s abuse caused her body. Shasta went on to have five children, but in her mid-twenties, her life wasn’t what she wanted it to be. Her husband was in prison due to drug crimes, and Shasta was on her own with five young kids.


In March of 2024, Shasta woke up to one of her five sons cuddling her. After attending to her children, she went to shower and was soon alerted to the fact that there was a fire inside the mobile home. Shasta had no time to get dressed as she found her children and ran from the home. She went back inside to save the dog, who was still in its kennel, and made it back out. Realizing she left her keys inside, she could not drive away, and she and her children watched as their home burned. People in the neighborhood stared at Shasta, and she knew what they were thinking of her; she had a history of media appearances, drug charges, and bore tattoos on her face and body.

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