Teen, abductor stood out in Idaho wilderness
Kidnapper killed by FBI rescue team
BOISE, IDAHO — Almost from the moment he laid eyes on 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her abductor, James Lee DiMaggio, former Idaho county sheriff Mark John was swept with the feeling that something just didn’t seem right about the pair.
John recalled on Sunday his encounter with fugitive James Lee DiMaggio in Idaho’s rugged backcountry the day before that led to the rescue of Anderson and the death of DiMaggio, 40, in an intense shootout with the FBI and police. It was the culmination of a case that began when the charred bodies of Anderson’s mother, Christina Anderson, 44, and the teen’s eight-yearold brother, Ethan, were found in DiMaggio’s burning house outside San Diego, near the Mexico border.
John told a new conference in Boise Sunday that his suspicions were set off initially by the pair’s lack of openness on the trail, a reluctance to engage in the polite exchange of banter or adventures like so many other recreationists John has encountered on horseback excursions.
Then John and his partners on horseback puzzled why Anderson and DiMaggio were hiking in the opposite direction of their stated destination, the Salmon River. But more than anything, it was their gear, or lack of it.
“They just didn’t fit,” said the 71-year-old John. “He might have been an outdoorsman in California, but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho. ... Red flags kind of went up.”
John and his three riding mates shared the kind of details from their encounters with Anderson and DiMaggio that helped focus the massive manhunt and rescue effort on a southwest corner of wilderness in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
On Saturday, after searchers spotted the pair by air, two highly specialized FBI hostage teams moved in on ground, ultimately rescuing Anderson and killing DiMaggio in a shootout at their encampment at a remote, alpine lake.
Anderson was immediately transported to an unidentified hospital.
DiMaggio is also suspected of killing Anderson’s mother and brother at his home in Southern California.
On Sunday, FBI agents returned to process the scene at the camp at Morehead Lake, about 12 kilometres inside the wilderness border and 70 kilometres east of the central Idaho town of Cascade.
But authorities made clear Sunday that the rescue may have taken longer if not for the chance encounter with John and the other riders, who included John’s wife Christa, 68, and Mike Young, 62, and his wife, Mary Young, 61.
“If she was sending us signals that she was in trouble, we didn’t key in on it,” said Mary Young.
It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon when the Johns returned home and saw the girl’s photographs on the news that they made a connection. After confirming with the Youngs, Mark John immediately called Idaho State Police, setting off the investigation in Idaho.
On Friday, police found DiMaggio’s car hidden under brush at a trailhead on the border of the wilderness area. Details about the operation that ended in Hannah’s rescue are being released slowly.
FBI spokesman Jason Pack said the rescue teams were dropped by helicopter about 2-1/2 hours away from where Anderson and DiMaggio were spotted by the lake. Pack said the team had to hike with tactical gear along a rough trail.
The teams then surrounded the camp and waited until Anderson and DiMaggio were no longer near each other before moving in, and ultimately killing DiMaggio. Few other details about the shootout are being released pending an automatic investigation by FBI agents of everything that occurred before, during and after the shooting.
DiMaggio was close to the Anderson family. Christina Anderson’s husband, Brett Anderson, has described him as a best friend and said the children thought of him as an uncle.
Authorities have said DiMaggio had an “unusual infatuation” with Hannah, although the father said he never saw any strange behaviour.
An Amber Alert was issued, and tips led investigators to Oregon after DiMaggio and the teen were reportedly spotted there.
Brett Anderson has not returned telephone messages left Sunday by The Associated Press. But he issued a statement to the media Saturday expressing relief his daughter is safe.
Hannah Darby, one of Hannah Anderson’s closest friends, was elated by the news.
“I’m probably going to make a really big basket with all of her favourite things in it,” she said.