COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — For 8-year-old Shasta Groene, the terror is behind her. What's ahead for the little girl with the shy smile is anyone's guess.

The girl was released from Kootenai Medical Center, Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said this morning, but he would not disclose when she was released or whose custody she was in.

With her mother and one older brother slain, a second brother likely dead — and traumatized herself by nearly seven weeks of captivity with a convicted sex offender — Shasta faces a new life with different family members and the psychological fallout from her ordeal.

Wolfinger said he had no information on what Shasta's followup treatment would entail.

Her father, Steve Groene, said Shasta was doing very well. "Certainly more than we could hope for. She's very upbeat, she's pretty healthy, she's glad to be home."

He said after leaving the hospital, Shasta would benefit from a large extended family on both her mother's and father's side, who have clustered around her now.

Her father, 48, is a blues musician. Older brother Jesse, 18, is serving at least the next six months in prison on a burglary charge. Brother Vance, 20, is so upset out by all the activity swirling around his family that he left to stay with relatives in Tacoma.

"This is all so incomprehensible," said Steve Groene, who had a new tattoo on his arm saying "In Loving Memory Slade Vincent 13" in honor of son Slade, 13, who was killed at the rural home near here where Shasta lived with her mother, two of her brothers and her mother's boyfriend. "It will take quite a lot of time for us to even realize what happened here."

Mental health experts agree with that assessment, and caution that the savage ordeal that Shasta survived is bound to have lasting impacts.

"She has witnessed horrible things," said Dr. Paul Domitor, a Spokane psychiatrist. "These things will stay with her."

Shasta is believed to be the sole survivor among the five people in her home the night Kootenai County sheriff's officers allege Joseph Edward Duncan III appeared and bound them all. Bludgeoned to death in addition to her brother Slade were her mother, Brenda, and her mother's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie. Their bodies were found May 16.

Brother Dylan Groene, 9, was abducted with Shasta, and is believed dead. Kootenai County officials said they believe Duncan acted alone. Sheriff Rocky Watson said he believes the motive was to acquire the children for sex.

FBI agents in St. Regis, Mont., led reporters yesterday to a remote camp site in the Lolo National Forest where the agents believe Duncan spent at least several weeks with the children.

The site is accessible only by an old dirt logging road. About an hour's drive from Interstate 90, the small campsite, nothing more than a dirt clearing, juts out from a steep cliff and is surrounded by towering ponderosa pines. Evidence of a campfire and burned metal cans could be seen to one side, but the site otherwise was barren.

Privacy laws prevent Kootenai Medical Center from releasing any details of Shasta's condition, but family members say she did not suffer any physical injuries.

Hospital may still be the best place for her, Domitor said. "It gives her a place of safety and security," he said. "It allows medical professionals an opportunity to talk gently with this child."

By all counts, Shasta has already been a remarkable witness. She has described for law enforcement officers the night of her abduction, helped them pinpoint the Montana campsites where she and Dylan were kept, and told them Duncan was the only person involved.

"She's a normal 8-year-old girl," said brother Jesse, 18, in a pooled interview from a jail in Wallace, Idaho. "She's a little girly girl."

Jesse Groene recently pleaded guilty to a burglary charge and was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary. But he could be released on probation in six months.

Steven and Brenda Groene were married in 1986 and had five children before they divorced in 2001. After the divorce, Brenda lived in a rural home owned by McKenzie. Slade, Dylan and Shasta lived with her.