April 21, 2026

The Denny’s Rescue: The Shasta Groene Case

A brutal home invasion. Two children taken.
47 days of unimaginable horror.

Show Notes
Transcript

In 2005, Joseph Edward Duncan III murdered members of the Groene family and abducted two children into the Montana wilderness. Only one would survive.

This is the story of Shasta Groene — and the moment everything changed inside a Denny’s at 2 AM, when four ordinary people trusted their instincts and stopped a predator.

🍸 This week’s cocktail: The Grand Slam

Deadly and Depraved — true crime with a cocktail twist.

New episodes every other week.

YouTube: @DeadlyandDepraved

Email: crime.sippers@gmail.com

29 seconds

Welcome back to Deadly and Deprades,

31 seconds

where your favorite duo, Karen and Paula, dive into the deepest corners of true Oh, deepest excuse me, I had a

40 seconds

little frog in my throat. Dive into the deepest corners of true crime with a drink in hand, just to make the twisted

47 seconds

just a little easier to swallow. I'm Karen, educator by day,

52 seconds

true crime detective by night, and I sort of try to keep my lipstick in place, but didn't always work.

58 seconds

I know. Oh, and she also was going to um wear her lipstick to go with her shoes today. Show your amazing shoes today.

1 minute, 4 seconds

Oh, look at that with your red, but she went back with pink. So, I'm I'm pink as usual.

1 minute, 10 seconds

But it's all fine. I'm Paula because she matched my designer shoes today.

1 minute, 14 seconds

Designer, I might add. Hers are designer. Mine are $40 ones,

1 minute, 18 seconds

but we Oh my god, I love when you What are those?

1 minute, 23 seconds

We're already starting off with a hilarious jokes. These are Jimmy Chews.

1 minute, 26 seconds

These are some of your favorites. Did you actually tell me to wear these?

1 minute, 28 seconds

I need those cuz I have a hot pink dress to wear the It looks wonderful. Okay. Like like I love the lipstick. Thank you.

1 minute, 34 seconds

So, and I am a HR guru, HR rebel, I like to say, too. And then basically I coach people. I'm an executive and I do this with her um all my crime in my stiletto.

1 minute, 45 seconds

So that it's our little hobby together. It is our hobby together. Yes.

1 minute, 49 seconds

All right, Karen. So, where are we headed today?

1 minute, 51 seconds

Okay. Today it's called the Denny's Rescue. And it's interesting. It's called that and you'll find out why

1 minute, 58 seconds

because our drink is pertain to that. In May 2005, Cord de Lane, Idaho. Um, which

2 minutes, 6 seconds

is kind of hard to say, but I think I said it correctly. You did. You said perfectly.

2 minutes, 9 seconds

Thank you. Two kids in swimsuits in a sprinkler in their front yard. A predator watched them from Interstate

2 minutes, 15 seconds

90. I know th this case is really um so dear to me that you're there's three there's a family then there's three

2 minutes, 23 seconds

murders then two kids are actually kidnapped. So this is what the whole point of our story is today.

2 minutes, 29 seconds

Yeah. And it's hard to do children and normally that's not our mo. We're not going to do children. But this story shows a a um a story of resilience. And

2 minutes, 39 seconds

this is a 10-year-old girl who who showed remarkable resilience in the face of terror. So, um I thought I just thought it was good to kind of talk

2 minutes, 47 seconds

about that. So, um 47 days, 8-year-old Shasta Green alone in the Montana

2 minutes, 54 seconds

wilderness. Um literally, this guy had a the kidnapped him had a IQ of 143, which is high. Isn't that the highest?

3 minutes, 4 seconds

Well, you're supposed to look that up. Don't say she did. It's really high.

3 minutes, 8 seconds

And he had 27 years of practice in doing all this. Mhm.

3 minutes, 12 seconds

So, yeah. So, I think like let's I think that was such an amazing introduction.

3 minutes, 16 seconds

Let's jump in, I think, to the drink and then that way we can this case is really is really important. So, all right,

3 minutes, 23 seconds

let's Karen, I always love when you help me make the drink if you don't mind. But today's a little bit different because I asked Karen to to grab a couple of the

3 minutes, 31 seconds

different kind of things that we want to do. And one would be that Kendall Jenner is it's going to be the tequila that she

3 minutes, 38 seconds

actually has been promoting at Coachella. That's why I wanted Oh, Coachella. I haven't seen that on Instagram before. Yeah. So, I wanted you to grab the 818,

3 minutes, 45 seconds

which I 818 area code for Los Angeles, one of their suburbs, I think.

3 minutes, 51 seconds

Yes, you're right. But it starts with a C. Okay. Well, we won't That's where she lives. It's her Calabasas.

3 minutes, 57 seconds

There you go. There you go. Okay. All right.

3 minutes, 59 seconds

Not that I want to know that, but Well, what do you think I'm going to call this one? Something about Denny's.

4 minutes, 5 seconds

Okay. We're calling this drink today the grand slam. Like the egg. Very good. bacon and all that fun.

4 minutes, 13 seconds

Okay, so let's talk through why. And if you don't mind kind of helping Oh, Karen, you forgot to open that.

4 minutes, 18 seconds

This is going to be She wanted me to prepare. I just I bought it. So, damn. I thought that was good enough. All right. Well, oh, shoot. That is tougher to open.

4 minutes, 27 seconds

We might have to get our producer to help us open this up. Let's see. Um, producer, help us.

4 minutes, 35 seconds

All right, here we go. Yeah, this is Well, let's start. Yeah,

4 minutes, 39 seconds

there's And by the way, that this is literally Karen and I like every day, so we don't mind. Like, this is hilarious. Okay, so let's start. Wait, wait, Karen,

4 minutes, 47 seconds

we're supposed to start with fresh lime juice and we don't have a knife.

4 minutes, 51 seconds

So, I thought that we could just That's like a true crime.

4 minutes, 57 seconds

So, so far the the recipe is going really well. Okay. All right. So, then All right. So, let's go back to

5 minutes, 5 seconds

Okay. Let's start with the grapefruit cheese. Yes. Now, I'm I put the grapefruit juice in here. I have a frog in my throat three. What's wrong with this?

5 minutes, 13 seconds

I don't know. Hormonal.

5 minutes, 15 seconds

Yeah. All right. The grapefruit juice is about the crime today. And why I why I did that is because it's a little bit bitter and sweet until the end, right?

5 minutes, 26 seconds

And by the way, grapefruit supposed to be really good for your gut. I found that out this week. I mean, I need that. You want to pop the cork on this?

5 minutes, 34 seconds

Oh, you should put cork like a champagne on that.

5 minutes, 37 seconds

I don't know. It looks like Let's try it.

5 minutes, 39 seconds

Okay. So, now Karen's gonna Karen's going to bring in 818, which is the tequila. We're going to put my eye.

5 minutes, 45 seconds

We're going to do 2 oz. And this is in this is for Joseph Duncan. This is our predator that we're going to talk about today.

5 minutes, 53 seconds

Okay.

5 minutes, 54 seconds

So, um, go ahead and add 2 ounces of that for our predator. This is the 2 oz. Gulp gulp.

6 minutes, 2 seconds

Excellent. And then we're going to do this grapefruit spritz. I think this is going to be really interesting. This is for Shasta just because I feel like a spritz is very, you know, it's good for

6 minutes, 11 seconds

like something youthful. Yeah. Like has a little bit little bit of a youth to it. So, why don't we go ahead and add the spritz to that as well.

6 minutes, 19 seconds

Okay. Okay.

6 minutes, 25 seconds

You're supposed to put salt around the rim, but I think we're just going to skip that all day today because we don't that's not real youth. Well, we don't we don't have the lime,

6 minutes, 32 seconds

so Okay, fine. But what I did do, and I think is one of my favorite parts of this, is the garnish is going to be a Trader Joe's mini sand dollar pancake.

6 minutes, 41 seconds

So, these are going to be our garnishes. Okay. In honor of the grand slam,

6 minutes, 48 seconds

whatever the What? She grand slams it in the drink.

6 minutes, 53 seconds

So, so good. Well, then yeah, to Deadly and Depraved.

6 minutes, 59 seconds

To deadly and depraved to Denny's rescue. Again,

7 minutes, 7 seconds

not I'm I'm really proud of myself with these drinks. That's okay.

7 minutes, 11 seconds

Well, it's tequila, so that kind of is not the best.

7 minutes, 14 seconds

I personally think it's better than what she's saying, but I got Okay. Well, um good. So, let let's get into the story. Karen, this is going to

7 minutes, 22 seconds

be all around, you know, I want to hear all around like what happened, who are the players, what you know, what what's

7 minutes, 30 seconds

take it from top. Ah, the players. Oh my goodness. Okay, so Celane, Idaho. Population 35,000. Okay.

7 minutes, 37 seconds

Um, pristine lakes, mountain forest,

7 minutes, 39 seconds

small town feel, neighbors know each other, kids play outside until dark,

7 minutes, 44 seconds

doors unlocked. Basically, a Hallmark movie. Really? But that was my line that you just you lost.

7 minutes, 50 seconds

Yeah, but I thought about it right now and behind it.

7 minutes, 55 seconds

So the discovery is they r they rarely see true crime there or stranger crimes.

8 minutes, 2 seconds

The family friend arrived at the greenhouse in Wolf Lodge Bay, front door wide open, dogs barking frantically and

8 minutes, 9 seconds

they walked into a massacre. Three bodies, three and two missing children.

8 minutes, 15 seconds

So the the mother, the stepfather, and the the brother slate, who's only 13 years old,

8 minutes, 21 seconds

right? We'll get to the victims in a minute. But what I think is really important that you set up here was the fact that like it was a massacre. And I

8 minutes, 30 seconds

think that let's go back to like why you you love to get into this because you always love to know why and

8 minutes, 37 seconds

the background. So I always like to talk you through like take me through. So,

8 minutes, 42 seconds

the victims were Brenda Green, medical assistant. She worked really hard to provide for her kids. Um, Mark McKenzie,

8 minutes, 48 seconds

boyfriend of six years. The kids called him the stepdad, and um, Slade Green, who like I said,

8 minutes, 55 seconds

was only 13 years old. He was the big brother,

8 minutes, 58 seconds

and he died trying to protect his family.

9 minutes, 1 second

And, um, Dylan Green, who was only nine years old, quiet, loved to play with little frogs. and um Shasta Green 8

9 minutes, 9 seconds

years old and she had her mother's stubborn strength. So the family they lived modestly in Wolf um lodge Wolf

9 minutes, 16 seconds

Lodge Bay just outside Cordon Lane and the money was tight but Brenda made it work. I mean they lived on land so the kids were always playing outside.

9 minutes, 26 seconds

Yeah.

9 minutes, 26 seconds

And um dancing in the living room. Steve Green, the biological father, was involved in their lives, but he um

9 minutes, 34 seconds

didn't get to see them every day, but at least he was a part of their lives. It wasn't a perfect family, but camping trips, inside jokes, and and lots of fun

9 minutes, 42 seconds

on the land that they So, there wasn't like any um he was like a good stepdad or or he was the

9 minutes, 49 seconds

boyfriend. He wasn't the dad. The Yeah, the one that got murdered was the stepdad. Okay. But he was very involved in their lives. Okay. Yes.

9 minutes, 57 seconds

Okay. So that was this is a Sunday night where it happens. It's May 15th, 2005.

10 minutes, 2 seconds

And the kids were outside in their swimsuits playing the sprinklers just like little kids like to do. Don't you Did you ever do that as a child? Yes, I did. Yeah.

10 minutes, 10 seconds

I don't Do kids do that now?

10 minutes, 13 seconds

I don't know. I would feel like it would be a danger. People would think the cord or something would strangle. I

10 minutes, 22 seconds

don't know. You know, everything's little Yeah. Okay. Like Okay. We did. Karen and I were definitely in our little one pieces like in in the playing in running back and forth in the sprinkler.

10 minutes, 32 seconds

So Shassa and Dylan were visible for Interstate from Interstate 90 and splashing and lapping without a care in the world. And what nobody knew is that

10 minutes, 41 seconds

a predator Duncan James Duncan.

10 minutes, 45 seconds

Yeah. We were going to get Yeah. But I'm just letting you know who he is first because and he' been planning their destruction for three

10 minutes, 52 seconds

days and by the evening three family finger fingers three family members um had died and two children were gone.

11 minutes, 4 seconds

Yeah. I Okay. So I think like this has been a little bit heavy. So can we go back to the drink break a little bit? I think I think um we need it with all of

11 minutes, 13 seconds

that. So, I I was going to tell you my mom listened to our last podcast and she told me that she got a chance to Yeah.

11 minutes, 21 seconds

She told me that she felt that our toast the last two times were really the most heartfelt towards our victims. So,

11 minutes, 28 seconds

well, that's what we like to do is make a toast to the victims because it is all about the victims. Yes.

11 minutes, 32 seconds

And what I told her was, well, maybe it's because I read it instead of just going off the cuff. So, I'll read it again. Okay.

11 minutes, 39 seconds

Okay. So, what I definitely want to say is we made the grand slams about this Denise rescue, which I think is one of the neatest stories that we're going to hear as they get rescued today. Me, too.

11 minutes, 50 seconds

And then it's the it's the way that the child Shasta literally was a an amazing psychological

11 minutes, 58 seconds

like negotiator at the age of eight years old. So, like I resilience, you're just going to hear this child like is is phenomenal. So, Karen to the toast.

12 minutes, 7 seconds

Okay. to the warning signs everyone ignored and the system that kept giving monsters second chances. But to the little girl that made it.

12 minutes, 15 seconds

Oh, cheers. That's wonderful.

12 minutes, 17 seconds

Yeah. Thank you. To the drink you don't like. Actually tastes a little more smooth. I mean, it's not bad. It's not terrible.

12 minutes, 24 seconds

Yeah. So, okay. So, the body count before the greens. G July 1996 Seattle.

12 minutes, 33 seconds

This predator lured Sammy Joe White, 11, and Carmen Cubius, nine, from a motel,

12 minutes, 40 seconds

beat them to death with a crowbar. In April 97 in California, Anthony Martinez, 10, playing in his yard, use

12 minutes, 48 seconds

the lost, which a lot of them like to do. Oh, I can't find my dog. I can't find my Chihuahua. Can you help me find them? which is going to um open a kid's

12 minutes, 56 seconds

heart and they're going to want to be concerned and anybody is going to want to help especially at that age and they're not going to be skeptical.

13 minutes, 4 seconds

Um he kidnapped and sexually assaulted and left them to die in the desert.

13 minutes, 8 seconds

These two Jo these these two children Sammy Joe and Mhm. So at what age was he doing this Karen?

13 minutes, 17 seconds

I mean I think he was in his 20s then.

13 minutes, 19 seconds

He's been doing this like for since his 20s and above.

13 minutes, 24 seconds

Okay. So, this was not The Greens were not a new No, they weren't the first. They were not the first. Okay.

13 minutes, 31 seconds

They were not the first victims. Okay.

13 minutes, 33 seconds

So, in March 2025, I mean 2005. He's deceased now, fortunately.

13 minutes, 40 seconds

He was charged with molesting boys at a Minnesota playground. Posted bail and vanished. started driving in a stolen red Jeep act act actively hunting victims.

13 minutes, 49 seconds

Okay.

13 minutes, 50 seconds

And he would find them by driving west on I90 in Idaho and he spots two children in swimsuits which is our

13 minutes, 58 seconds

victims Shasta um and her brother visible from the highway. Shasta and Dylan Green. They're splashing having

14 minutes, 5 seconds

fun. And he actually used night vision goggles. I mean, this is like a Marine or somebody in the military action to stalk the Green family for three nights.

14 minutes, 17 seconds

Okay.

14 minutes, 17 seconds

First of all, where do you get night vision goggles? I don't know.

14 minutes, 23 seconds

I don't think they're legal to have if you're not military based. Maybe.

14 minutes, 28 seconds

I mean, that's probably a fact we should have looked up. But I I do think that's very interesting that he had night vision goggles to actually so you could see the family at night,

14 minutes, 37 seconds

see where their what their comingings and goings were. Um so this was so premeditated.

14 minutes, 43 seconds

Oh, for sure. Like three days that you're watching your victims.

14 minutes, 46 seconds

He studied their routines, learned the home, planned like well planned like a military operation essentially. So,

14 minutes, 54 seconds

so Shasta wakes up in the middle of the night to her door flying open with her mother coming up to her saying there's somebody in the house um and he doesn't

15 minutes, 2 seconds

want us to be here. Okay. Yeah. So, so we're setting the scene a little bit,

15 minutes, 5 seconds

Karen. We're like he's pre he's watched them for three days now. The night that he decides he barrels into the home,

15 minutes, 15 seconds

Shasta is asleep. Her mom comes and wakes her up, okay,

15 minutes, 19 seconds

and tells her that somebody's in the house. Yeah.

15 minutes, 21 seconds

Can you imagine you're 9 years old and you're sleep soundly in your bed and then your mother comes and that's terrifying when you see her expression cuz she's terrified,

15 minutes, 29 seconds

right? Like so you know something's going on. Okay.

15 minutes, 32 seconds

And there's a man in here that wants doesn't want us to be here. This is what she says. And Duncan is an all black our

15 minutes, 40 seconds

perpetrator in a ski mask holding a shotgun. My god.

15 minutes, 45 seconds

So Mark step the stepdad tried reasoning. He's like, "We don't have any money." Which is usually the culprit, which you think with what's going on,

15 minutes, 52 seconds

the robbery, but Duncan wasn't there for any money.

15 minutes, 56 seconds

Well, of course he's not. Like, you're in a military glasses. I mean, you're not there. You're not there for money, right?

16 minutes, 3 seconds

Yeah. You're there. You're there for some other twisted. He brought zip ties, duct tape. I mean, just like our other perpetrator,

16 minutes, 12 seconds

Randy Woodfield did the same thing.

16 minutes, 14 seconds

I know. But that right there tells you he's not there for money. He's got zip ties and he's like I mean okay and so I mean I guess a robbery would do

16 minutes, 22 seconds

that and keep him captive but um he bound all of them together and then he used a Fat Max claw hammer.

16 minutes, 30 seconds

What is that?

16 minutes, 31 seconds

It's a 20 o Stanley claw hammer. It's like the type of hammer that you use to take out nails in wood. Okay.

16 minutes, 39 seconds

So you know it's like a claw with metal and so it's going to be extremely painful. a painful painful death.

16 minutes, 47 seconds

Okay.

16 minutes, 49 seconds

And he bludgeoned all three of them to death. Um Slade tried to escape the 13year-old and

16 minutes, 56 seconds

he's bleeding and dying. Crawled back to die next to his mother.

17 minutes, 1 second

This this part's hard for us to like Yeah. And we can't even like and this is probably the last case we'll talk about um in our true crime series

17 minutes, 9 seconds

about children. But there was a reason that we did discuss this just because it shows just the resilience of a nineyear-old and we wanted to talk about that.

17 minutes, 17 seconds

She's not eight. I thought she was eight. I'll let me look back as you're talking.

17 minutes, 21 seconds

Nine or eight. Okay. No, I think Dylan was 10. She's eight. Okay. That's even worse.

17 minutes, 29 seconds

The resilience of an eight-year-old. Okay. So, okay. So Slay tried to escape.

17 minutes, 34 seconds

He bleed and died by his mother. And then Duncan carried um Dylan and Shasta into a stolen red Jeep, I might add, and drove away.

17 minutes, 46 seconds

Here's the other thing I thought about how dumb he was. A red Jeep is not It's not very in.

17 minutes, 51 seconds

You can literally see this red Jeep like, you know, like it's coming down the It's not like you're in a black just, you know, all tinted out Suburban.

17 minutes, 59 seconds

But that I think that's the only one he could steal.

18 minutes, 1 second

Okay. So he takes them to the Lolo National Forest in Montana, dense wilderness where screens wouldn't carry

18 minutes, 9 seconds

pre-prepared campsite with cameras and video equipment.

18 minutes, 12 seconds

So mad he pre-prepared. This makes me so mad. So premeditated. And this wasn't random.

18 minutes, 18 seconds

This was this was planned premedited torture.

18 minutes, 23 seconds

And what he did to them, he filmed the abuse, which we're not going to get into into detail. forced them to perform sex acts for him and on each other.

18 minutes, 33 seconds

Hate that.

18 minutes, 33 seconds

Dylan got the worst. Bound to logs and beaten until sticks broke. Um he taunted Dylan for being afraid of the dark and called him a coward for crying. I mean,

18 minutes, 44 seconds

poor little excuse me, nineyear-old. Um Dylan is nine.

18 minutes, 49 seconds

Well, thank you. She's really on my case about these numbers right now. And um Dylan never broke. Even while being

18 minutes, 57 seconds

tortured, he tried to comfort his sister. I mean, okay. Just their bond. Yeah.

19 minutes, 3 seconds

So, this is her survival strategy for Shasta. She realized her only chance was to make Duncan think that she actually

19 minutes, 11 seconds

liked him. So, this is where her psychological Yeah.

19 minutes, 15 seconds

where I was saying why this is such an important story like that. Yes. Okay.

19 minutes, 20 seconds

Um, she realized her only chance was starting to ask about his family using he had a nickname named Jet. So asking

19 minutes, 28 seconds

him questions about his mother, his upbringing, and he actually started thinking that she was in love with them. His wart's mind thought.

19 minutes, 36 seconds

When you were reading the book, did they talk a little bit why he was called Jet? That was just a nickname that he had.

19 minutes, 42 seconds

They never said like it came from a jet.

19 minutes, 50 seconds

because it's nice like a flying jet or he's Joseph Duncan so what a what a weird I guess it's easier to say than Joseph you know some people have Bob Robert

19 minutes, 58 seconds

something like that so anyway she started acting like his friend not his victim and

20 minutes, 5 seconds

really you're lying but I'm going to say it an eight-year-old become a host a hostage negotiator literally you're stealing what is today

20 minutes, 13 seconds

you're stealing all my because I like her lines better than mine next time cuz she gets no lines written on there.

20 minutes, 20 seconds

So it worked. Duncan treated her differently. Less violence, more twisted connection.

20 minutes, 27 seconds

So this is the false promise, which is God, this is so sad. Um Duncan promised.

20 minutes, 33 seconds

Yeah. So So let me kind of like let me make sure that like we're all following. Mhm.

20 minutes, 38 seconds

Family's been murdered. He takes him down to this forest. He's already set up the criminal and crime scene. I'm gonna call it a crime scene where they're he's

20 minutes, 46 seconds

going to do all these things with the children and then basically now they've been out there for how many days at this point?

20 minutes, 54 seconds

So the total is 47 days. I don't know the exact day that was. I mean but she she knew at the beginning how to work

21 minutes, 2 seconds

him, how to manipulate him. Okay. And that saved her from from more beatings.

21 minutes, 7 seconds

Okay. So she kind of knew how to start to jump in psychological, you know,

21 minutes, 10 seconds

messing with him then. Now what happens with you know moving them forward because I mean at some point they do leave the forest.

21 minutes, 19 seconds

Well Duncan promised and this is so this is part just really struck me and and affected me. He promised them if if they

21 minutes, 27 seconds

were to catch a squirrel which is really hard to do for sure. Um that he they would both be released.

21 minutes, 35 seconds

So her brother Dylan practiced every single day trying to catch a squirrel. And he

21 minutes, 42 seconds

finally, this is probably on the 30th day after they've been because he had so much practice been captain for that long, finally caught a squirrel.

21 minutes, 50 seconds

And so they are jumping. They're they're they are ecstatic that they're going to be released and they're going home even though they're going home to

21 minutes, 59 seconds

um a deceased family, but they know they're getting out of his grips. They're getting out of the forest. Yeah.

22 minutes, 4 seconds

So then what happens? They started walking through the forest. Dylan's holding Shassa's hand happily and Shassa all of

22 minutes, 14 seconds

a sudden her hears two gunshots behind her. Mhm.

22 minutes, 17 seconds

And he slowly releases his hand and he's dead.

22 minutes, 22 seconds

Right. Because what you and I talked through was this was execution style,

22 minutes, 27 seconds

which first of all I'm glad because it means that he did not know it was coming. Yeah.

22 minutes, 33 seconds

Right. Like I mean, she would not have expected that at all. He thinks he's going home,

22 minutes, 38 seconds

right? Which to me is like, at least if you're going to do this to a child, then please don't let them suffer.

22 minutes, 45 seconds

Yeah. So, okay. So, then the minute he But it kills him instantly. He lets go of the hand of her and then they're

22 minutes, 52 seconds

continuing into the for like they're walking through the forest,

22 minutes, 55 seconds

right? So, he lets go of her hand and then she realizes that he's dead and she she goes on overdrive and she's just

23 minutes, 2 seconds

like, "Oh my god, this guy is really not keeping to his word." So, he proceeds to wrap him in a tarp and right from the campground.

23 minutes, 12 seconds

Uh-huh. Okay.

23 minutes, 14 seconds

And then from the campground because he's prepared. Remember, he has goggles and all that sort of stuff. and um takes

23 minutes, 21 seconds

him to another place further in the camp campground and burns him. Okay. And with Shasta there watching.

23 minutes, 29 seconds

Okay. Yeah. So she he forced Shassa to watch.

23 minutes, 33 seconds

So I was like when's our drink coming up?

23 minutes, 36 seconds

Um I think that's coming up in just a minute.

23 minutes, 40 seconds

So right after murdering Dylan, he then gives Shassa a choice. Would you rather die by gun or strangulation?

23 minutes, 51 seconds

Okay, which one would you want to go by?

23 minutes, 55 seconds

Oh my god, I hate even having to think about that, but strangulation.

23 minutes, 59 seconds

Oh, we talked about this. And I looked up that it takes three minutes. Three to four minutes or something. Takes longer than people think.

24 minutes, 7 seconds

Yeah. To actually. So I said I said I would do gunshot.

24 minutes, 10 seconds

I know. And they say like Yeah. Really? Hopefully, we'll never have that choice. But um she chose

24 minutes, 18 seconds

strangulation and then Duncan proceeds to choke her with a rope. Okay. Losing consciousness, she found the breath to beg him to stop. And she's like,

24 minutes, 27 seconds

"Please, Jet." Um and that nickname saved her life. Like I think he just was like that was like his nickname from the

24 minutes, 36 seconds

past and he's like like the nickname stopped him. The nickname woke him up. Okay. Okay.

24 minutes, 42 seconds

So the long game is that anywhere or anytime Duncan needed her to be friend,

24 minutes, 48 seconds

daughter, companion, anything but victim for three more weeks alone with her brother's killer, Duncan started believing his own delusion. He thought

24 minutes, 57 seconds

that he thought that she generally cared for him.

25 minutes

I don't know how you can think an 8-year-old is caring for you. I mean, it's just words. It's demented.

25 minutes, 5 seconds

And in May 17th, a neighbor arrived at the greenhouse, saw the devastation,

25 minutes, 10 seconds

called the police. Amber Alert went out immediately and Duncan was already deep in the Montana wilderness,

25 minutes, 16 seconds

right? He was like already gone. I don't even know how like this could even happen. Okay, this has to be our drink break, which I always love. And I This

25 minutes, 24 seconds

always sets I'm going to set this one up with the heroes that we're about to walk through with the way the rescue happens and then the people that actually do

25 minutes, 32 seconds

this. So, I'm going to say this is to our This is really the grand slam. Thank you, man. But hang on. I got the I got the toast.

25 minutes, 41 seconds

But I don't know if like this would be a really cool garnish at the end of the day, like a pancake. I mean, now that it's absorbing and I last sip, it tasted it gave it a little sweetness.

25 minutes, 50 seconds

I wonder if you could also like eat it and it would be like, you know, a jello shot, but it's a jello pancake tequila.

25 minutes, 56 seconds

All right, so let's let's do my uh toast to now. This is to the heroes. So to the pregnant waitresses, there's some teenagers on a smoke break and night managers who trusted their instincts.

26 minutes, 7 seconds

Sometimes heroes don't wear badges. They wear name tags that say Denny's. So, cheers. Love that. Cheers.

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I do not think that's a bad drink, but okay. Slowly but surely, it gets smoother.

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So, what Shasta said. So, oh god, I lost my place. I'm sorry, guys.

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Don't worry. But we've also had some drinks at this point.

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Okay. So, in the police car after the rescue, is that right? No. Okay. Well, this is fun. Hang on.

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So, well, I'm going to talk about the rescue anyway. So, she was at Denny's um with Duncan

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and um the waitress noticed that she looked a little bit like the she was on

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billboards everywhere. And I almost feel like I saw her on a billboard in Texas for some reason back then. You said that the other day when we were talking through this. It is funny that you lost her cards.

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I didn't lose them. She didn't bring them.

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So anyway, I could I know the story enough that I don't need the card. So um basically they're Denny's and the

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waitress goes a little suspicious. Um thinks that there's something going on and she's kind of inappropriate that this older

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man is with this little girl and she's proceeding to color. They give her one of those little coloring things and she colors the whole time. So, two guys that

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are smoking outside, a 17-year-old and then um another friend of his and they all work at Denny's noticed the same

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thing too and then mentions it to the waitress and the waitress so she's stalling him so he can't leave. So, she

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keeps saying um that there's something going on with the register and I'm sorry that printer doesn't work. So, she's stalling and stalling. Finally the when

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the police came. So in the police car after the rescue officers asked why Duncan brought her back instead of killing her which I know but what happens in the rescue?

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So who like how does the rescue go down?

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The police come and without fight or anything like that Duncan surrenders.

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So the these people that observe this then they go and they call the they call the they call the police and then they stall him and her they stall him to stay longer until the police can come.

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Okay. So then the police get there and they come up to him and they said to her, "Are you Shasta Green?" And she nods.

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Okay.

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So then they know that that's the kidnapper. Okay.

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And then they said, "You're coming with us." And he didn't proclaim like it's not me or this is my daughter, this is someone else or anything like that. He knew that was the end.

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He knew he knew it was over for him. And also are they are they eating breakfast like right like you told me that well they're eating they're the grand they're eating the grand slam.

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Yeah right that's why we call the drink that's why we call the drink. Okay which I think the grand slam is like everything I think it's eggs bacon

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sausage biscuits which sounds so good right now actually wants to go for a sushi right well that's either Denny's or

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sushi and um so that's what ends up happening. So Shasta spent 47 days asking about his

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family, using his nickname, pretending to care. Uhhuh. Duncan, a narcissistic predator,

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interpreted survival tactis tactics as genuine affection, and he turned a kid's fight for survival into his own personal

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romcom. Shassa wasn't teaching him using my lines. That was my line. Well,

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when it says Paula Well, when it says Paula there, but I'm not sure that you were able to just like, okay, Shasha wasn't teaching him

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love. She was using every psychological tool an eight-year-old could muster.

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I promise you, Crime Zippers, we practice a lot, but we might be drinking when we're practicing. And so, when we come into We think it sounds better.

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So, anyway, this is what his sentence is. He ends up getting six life sentences for the Green family murders.

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The federal court, three death sentences for kidnapping and murdering murdering Dylan, plus three more life sentences.

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California, his murders there. Two more life sentences for murdering Anthony Martinez. Um I saw his picture. He's

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just a precious little baby um 10-year-old. Um confessed to killing Sammy Joe White and Carmen Cubius. never

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formally charged and total admitted to killing at least five children and attacking dozens more over decades.

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Yeah. And what I think Karen I looked up while we were doing all this was I asked you where Shasta is now and the book that Karen read in order for us to even do this out of the woods.

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Out of the woods is the book that Shasta wrote as a memoir with him. We had to look up what a memoir was um versus like a bio or whatever and auto.

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Yeah. And so what we discovered is she also is a mom of five.

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Yes. And the doctors had told her I mean at such a young age she had so much scar tissue from all the molestation that she wasn't going to be able to have kids but

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miraculously she ended up having to die which is amazing.

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Yeah. And and she has a pretty good life as she is now. And then she also is a big advocate for victims.

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Vict that always happens there. victim advocacy because they've been through it themselves themselves. Yeah. And then she from that wrote the book in order for us to be able to know that her side of the story.

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So that that I think that's a big it's a fascinating read if you want to read it out of the woods. Yeah.

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Um so now where he is well he's dead now fortunately. Good but um federal death row in terra Tara

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Aoot Indiana 2020 he was diagnosed with brain cancer and he refused treatment. Mhm.

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Um died March 28th, 2021 at age 58. And Shasta says, "Today after she found out

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he died, I woke up feeling that my soul was finally free."

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I mean, I'm really happy. Like that's I mean, this that's one of the better ones that we can we can end with. Um we've got to end with well, the system's failure in this.

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Yeah, that's I think that's the bigger picture is where you and I always like to end on that part of it.

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40 years of warning signs. um documented confessions at 16, multiple prison sentences. Duncan killed at least five

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children while the system kept him chances, kept giving him chances.

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Yeah. And I think Karen, this is the part that like we like to talk through is meaning that like the Randall Woodfield case was a different way of

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the system failed, right? He like he was also young. He was also exposing himself to people and they

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didn't catch him. So, this gentleman was on a spree and you even told me at one time he had a blog.

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Yes. He had his own murder blog called The Fifth Nail in the 90s and talked about this type of stuff and they didn't

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have um the people that would look at stuff like that like back then,

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right? And we talked Karen and I talked about this as a bigger picture is would this happen now if he was actually No, I think they would be like cornered by the police immediately.

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Yeah. So we've covered two cases now of around the bigger picture is the system is not actually catching people

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at that at a younger age at a younger age and then also you know allowing them to move into their their later lives and still getting away with

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stuff. But again this was back in the '9s 2000 so would they might not have had the manpower or the technology to do it like they do today.

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Right. And you and I might want to look up now like do we see as many cases what as what we're reporting on now?

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Well, and you have to remember well the Vander Woodfield case was older. That was happened in the like early early 80s.

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This one happened still was a while back ago in 2005. Okay.

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So things have really improved since then. Okay.

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Um but the real heroes in this Yeah. are those are the Nicholas and Chris who were the two guys that were on a smoke break. Um,

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Amber, who was six months pregnant, serving coffee at 2 am at Denny's.

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Linda, the night manager, just trying to get through her shift. No advanced training,

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no federal funding, just four people who looked at a little girl and thought, "Something's not right here."

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Right. So, I think I mean, Karen, this wraps up everything. Let's do one last toast of the Grand Slam and then you take us out with our your beautiful sign off that we always do.

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Okay, so the takeaway is you don't need a badge sometimes. You just need to trust your gut and give a damn. Shasta

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survived because strangers became heroes. And if they can do it, so can any of us. So can anybody.

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So follow Deadly and Depraved on Facebook on Facebook and Instagram. Stay curious,

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stay kind always tune in to Deadly and Depraved where true crime with cocktail twist.