It hasn’t received as much attention as the Aruba/Natalee Holloway story, but the kidnapping of Shasta and Dylan Groene is heart-wrenching. If you tuned into the cable nets over the weekend, you know that 8-year-old Shasta was found at a Denny’s restaurant a few miles from her house with a Level III sex offender, Joseph Duncan, who had an outstanding warrant for his arrest in a May molestation incident involving two young boys on a Fargo, N.D., playground.

Shasta and Dylan disappeared last month from their house, where the bodies of their mother, her boyfriend, and one of their older brothers were found. Dylan is still missing and believed dead. Shasta is in a hospital and has been reunited with her father.

Clayton Cramer has an excellent post highlighting a heroine in the case–the waitress who recognized Shasta, called police, and stalled until authorities arrived. Craig Arcilla takes a chilling look at the accused kidnapper’s blog. More background on Duncan’s monstrous criminal history here.