- A terrifying case of murder and kidnapping
Has gripped the lakeside community,
And police are looking at texts
And social media for answers.
- We were supposed to hang out that day.
- I'm like, "is everything okay?"
And there was just nothing.
- Hey, we got a problem. - Come on.
This isn't funny. Like, where are you?
We're supposed to be hanging out.
I didn't wanna believe it was real.
- Would he have kidnapped my daughter?
I wouldn't have thought so in a million years.
- What is even going on?
- Where's my daughter?
- There is no way to make sense of it.
It's shocking, it's frightening.
- This is the biggest, hardest, most disturbing case
That I've investigated.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- A young woman is missing tonight
After leaving a bar with a stranger,
Then texting "help" to a friend.
[keys clacking]
You are watching her terrifying abduction.
♪ ♪
- A missing woman's nude body was discovered in this ravine.
- Miraculously, the young woman survived.
♪ ♪
- There is an alarming crisis of violence, kidnapping,
And murder against innocent women.
- The senseless murder has struck a chord
With thousands of women.
♪ ♪
- This has sparked a global movement online
Of women sharing their own fears.
♪ ♪
- They're united under a hashtag:
#textmewhenyougethome.
A phrase that women are all too familiar with.
♪ ♪
[light music]
♪ ♪
- We were very, very close.
We did everything as a family.
We camped together,
We hiked together,
We had fun together.
♪ ♪
Hannah was a jock from day one, you know,
She was in dance, and she was in gymnastics
For most of her years in high school.
She was your typical teenage girl, you know.
She spent a lot of time on her phone,
But that's what they did.
So you know, she wasn't doing anything bad on her phone.
They were just texting back and forth
And making jokes to each other
And talking about boys and doing whatever.
She was gonna do her thing,
And I'm gonna give her my grief
When I didn't like what she was doing.
And when she brought a boy over,
I was gonna give them grief.
So it was your typical father-daughter situation.
- My first impression of hannah
Was that she was just like me.
Exactly, like, we're both crazy, loud, fun, talkative,
Like being the center of attention, like, everything.
It was perfect.
- [laughing] our faces are touching.
- She was in dance and gymnastics
And doing cheer things.
She was in a good place, yeah. Always happy and smiling.
We hung out all the time. Texted 24/7.
Would hang out after school.
We'd either walk to her house or go to my house.
Like, pretty much inseparable.
Same thing with ethan. We were pretty close.
He was the funniest kid I've ever met.
We'd make food, make videos, jokes.
- Ethan was fearless, absolutely fearless.
They would go fishing all the time.
And these boys couldn't even
Put a worm on their hook, you know.
And he would go and bait their hooks
And then take the fish off, and he was just--
He was a gem.
♪ ♪
Tina, you know, she helped so many people.
Not only was she a holistic health practitioner,
But she was such a good friend to so many people.
- Tina was just an amazing person.
You know, she'd give advice, we'd talk.
She was like the second mom, almost.
- Myself, I was the kind of the worker bee,
And it was just a very dynamic family.
We lived in a gated community,
And the people that we knew in this gated community
Were all good people, and so we felt very safe there.
♪ ♪
I first met jim, I was working in telecom
Out here in san diego in 1996.
And he was a subcontractor for our company,
And that's how we met,
And we hit it off from day one.
He was funny. He was happy.
He was always willing to lend a hand.
The more we hung out, the more he would come over,
And we'd have cookouts, we'd go camping.
We'd go to shooting, we'd go fishing.
He just blended in, became a part of the family.
He was in the hospital when hannah was born, you know?
And he was around when ethan was born.
♪ ♪
I think that jim wanted to have his own family.
And he was pretty serious with a couple of girls for a while.
But for whatever reason, it just didn't pan out,
And we were kind of like the surrogate family.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Hannah and I, you know, we're teenagers,
We're trying to find something fun to do.
You know, parents, ehh--
So hannah's like, "oh, I have an uncle
"that has a big property.
"like, we could hang out there.
"you know, he's fun.
He'll let us do whatever we want."
♪ ♪
My initial impression of jim was that he was cool.
He was like a kid in an adult's body.
He would talk with us, understand us,
Let us do whatever we want.
It was like anything someone would want, you know,
Like, that figure in their life.
Jim and hannah were pretty close.
I mean, it seemed that way.
He would give her rides multiple times a week.
He would let us go to his house and hang out,
Invite friends over, have little parties there.
He seemed like the most trustworthy,
Like, caring, nice person,
Almost that I've ever met in my entire life.
♪ ♪
- I had lost my job in biotech,
And I'd been a couple of months without getting paid,
And I had an opportunity from a friend out there,
And it was a very good opportunity,
So I moved that direction to tennessee
To try and help my family.
Jim really helped me make my decision
To take the job in tennessee.
He's like, "this could be a good idea for your family."
I did feel confident that jim would help and oversee
And, you know, if anything needed to be done,
Yes, with my family.
I missed them very much.
Every couple of days, we would talk to each other.
She's just telling me what's going on
And, you know, something like, "hey dad, I'm gonna--
I wanna get my belly button pierced."
And "no, you're not."
And then her mother took her and got
Her belly button pierced, so-- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- We would just message him about hanging out.
[laughs] like, at his house.
"oh, can we hang out this weekend?"
Or, "are you gonna give us a ride?"
♪ ♪
We would just have fun.
We'd blast music, have parties.
We would drink, like, smoke--anything.
He would give us anything we wanted, buy us food.
And then he would hang out for, like, ten minutes,
And then just go upstairs
And let us have the rest of the night
And the next morning to ourselves.
He was like a friend.
So we would tell him who our crushes are.
If we ever asked to bring one of our crushes there,
He would just be like, "I'm not comfortable with that.
"you're not allowed to bring them here.
It's just you guys."
I asked him one time.
I was like, "do you have any, like, friends your age?"
And hannah was blunt too.
So she would just be like, "do you hang out
With people your age?"
And I think he made some comments
Like he does have them.
He hangs out with them when we're not around,
Or he just likes to do his own thing.
And so we were just like, "okay."
♪ ♪
He would never let us go upstairs.
And, like, if we even stepped on the stairs,
He would, like, come out of his room
And yell at us not to come up the stairs
Or, like, go on the stairs.
So that was--it's kinda questionable now.
I would assume upstairs was something in his room
That he wanted no one to see.
♪ ♪
I remember it was after a gymnastics or dance meeting
That we were in the car and some song came on.
It might have been a bruno mars song.
Some, like, soft slower song.
And it got me and hannah talking about relationships.
Like, something like that that we weren't in one.
And then jim started, like, complimenting her.
And he said, you know, "not in a creepy way,
"but if you were my age or I was your age,
I would date you."
And then just--we-- no one really said anything.
And then he was like, "no, I don't wanna be creepy,
"but I have a crush on you, but not weird.
"if I was your age or you were my age,
I would definitely date you."
She got quiet.
And when hannah's quiet, she usually is thinking
Something in her mind, so I'm sure it made her
Extremely uncomfortable.
After that, I really did think, okay,
Yeah, he's a little weird.
And thinking about it, he's spending 90% of his time
With two teenage girls,
So it definitely changed after that
Because we went from, like, texting
Or facebook messaging, like, almost every day
To we didn't even, like, go to his house.
♪ ♪
I think he did pick up on the distancing
Because I remember him towards the end
Sending hannah a very long facebook post message
About how he missed her and how he doesn't wanna come off
As creepy or seem weird.
He tried to, like, calm her down a little bit.
But after that, it was still just like, you know,
If I have to see you, I have to see you.
[ominous piano music]
We stayed up till, like, 2:00 in the morning messaging
'cause we were supposed to hang out that day.
We actually hadn't seen each other in a week and a half.
So we had plans to hang out after she left her cheer camp.
We were gonna meet at her house,
And then we were gonna get this burrito
That we liked down the street
And then just hang out and do makeup and dance.
And basically, just hang out like us,
'cause we hadn't seen each other in a while.
The last message she sent was,
"I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."
And I was like, "okay, perfect.
"text me when you're done, and then
I'll come down to your place."
♪ ♪
When she didn't text me back, I was like,
"oh, great. She's blowing me off."
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
Then my friend texted me saying, "oh, my gosh!
"turn on the news.
Did you see what happened to jim's house?"
And I was like, "what?"
So I ran out in the living room, turned on my tv,
And jim's house was on fire.
- My cousin sent me a text.
"hey, did you see this on the news?
Jim's house is on fire."
And I'm like, "what are you talking about?"
And I was at work,
And so I looked it up, and I'm like, "oh, my god!
That is jim's house." you know?
And my first instinct is, like, "oh, I hope he's okay."
You know? I--that was my first thought.
I tried to text and call jim,
And I'm like, "hey, is everything okay?
Are you okay?"
You know? And there was just nothing.
- And so I was, like, freaking out.
And he's like, "I think hannah was supposed to be there."
And then I was like,
"hannah and I were supposed to hang out.
I don't think she was supposed to be there."
And so we kinda just brushed that aside.
But then I was like, "why is hannah not responding to me?
We're supposed to hang out."
At the same time, it was, like, jim's house is on fire.
And then the newscaster said that
There was a body found in the fire, and it was a woman's.
And I was like, a woman's body in the fire
At jim's house?
♪ ♪
And that's when everything started
To become extremely real.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- People were texting me, saying,
"hey, what's going on here?" and I'm like, "I don't know.
"I'm trying to get ahold of tina.
"I'm trying to get ahold of hannah.
"I tried calling them.
I'm not getting ahold of anybody."
- The fire department had responded
To dimaggio's residence.
The cabin literally burnt to the ground.
They put out a fire in the garage,
And while they were putting out that fire,
They discovered a deceased woman covered with a tarp.
- Hannah had to have been there.
She was going there after practice, apparently,
Something happened.
- I went in.
We lifted the tarp off of the decedent.
And right away, you could tell that it was going to be
A homicide just based on the bindings,
The manner in which she was laying.
It absolutely looked like foul play.
I found a dog that had been shot,
And it was the andersons' dog,
And it was covered with a sleeping bag.
We saw a vehicle next to the burnt cabin,
And we ran the license plate,
And it came back christina anderson.
I had somebody send me a department of motor vehicles
Driver's license photo of christina
And looked at the decedent.
That was her.
- There was a body found in the garage.
And they go, "it's tina."
And I'm like, "what?"
They found my wife dead in the garage.
- They confirmed it was an adult female body,
And I just broke down.
♪ ♪
- I'm getting fed information that, hey, we got a problem.
Christina has a 16-year-old daughter
And an eight-year-old son named hannah and ethan,
And we don't know where they are.
And the dad is not in the picture.
Dad is in another state.
And we knew that jim dimaggio owned that property.
Where is he?
- If jim wasn't there, you know,
And my kids weren't there,
You kinda speculate-- what did he do?
- We did know that the house was set up for arson.
And then we started getting the stories from neighbors
That hannah, her mother, and her brother,
And the dog were going to uncle jim's
Because he had told them a story
That his house was in foreclosure,
He was losing it.
He wanted one more last hurrah weekend up at the cabin.
Bring the kids, bring the dog.
Let's do a barbecue. Let's let the kids play.
My house is going bye-bye.
I don't know what I'm gonna do next.
None of that was true.
That was a ploy to get hannah, her mother, ethan, and the dog
Up to his property.
- Hannah made a comment that jim was having,
Like, a going-away party for his house
And that people were going.
And I was just like, "oh, okay. I'm not invited."
But at the time, I didn't know it was that specific day.
- And so then things just take a turn.
And, boom, I was out to san diego.
♪ ♪
- We didn't know who could have been
In the burnt-down house.
So jim dimaggio could have been in the burnt-down house,
Hannah could have been there,
Ethan could have been there.
♪ ♪
- The next news is...
They found...A small body.
♪ ♪
And they're like, "we don't know who it is.
It could be anybody," and I'm like, "come on."
♪ ♪
I knew it was ethan.
♪ ♪
And I collapsed.
♪ ♪
And then my thought turned to, where's my daughter?
♪ ♪
- In my 14 years, I've probably investigated
About five kidnappings,
This one being by far the most severe.
And when I say the most severe,
The victim was in the most danger.
We did find ethan in the burnt remains of the log cabin.
I didn't know it was ethan.
I could make a general assumption that it was ethan.
He was unrecognizable,
So we put out a local amber alert
Looking for hannah and ethan both because I didn't know
If that was another child.
What that ended up doing is broadcasting
The very first fema amber alert
On everybody's cell phones.
That's the first time it was ever used.
- They're doing an amber alert for her.
And I was like, "an amber alert?
Like, what is even going on?"
And my mom was like, "he kidnapped hannah."
And I was like, "he did not kidnap hannah."
- Would he have kidnapped my daughter?
I--I wouldn't have thought so in a million years.
- I was just like, "this is all a joke."
I even texted hannah, you know, "come on. This isn't funny.
"like, where are you?
"we're supposed to be hanging out.
Turn your phone on."
I didn't wanna believe it was real.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- There was no way that this guy kidnapped my best friend.
There's no possible way.
A child and a mother?
If he's capable of this, he could be capable of anything.
And then knowing my best friend's still out there,
I couldn't handle it.
♪ ♪
- If somebody was kidnapped, and I had access
To that cell phone, I would track that cell phone,
And I would be able to find the person relatively easy,
And it would help us save the victim.
In this case, that did not happen.
- I've often regretted that I wasn't here for my family.
[somber music]
I didn't protect 'em.
But if you think about it,
I would've been the first one to go,
And I think that's why he pushed me
To take the job in tennessee.
♪ ♪
- Everyone instantly got together,
Posting 24/7 on social media,
Just photos of her, like, praying for her return.
My friends and I would get posters and post them
All along, like, a wall.
I was in constant communication with her family.
Like, no one gave up on her.
Like, it was actually amazing to see the community
Come together like that.
♪ ♪
- In the garage, there's an attic,
And a detective came down with trash bags.
And those trash bags told a huge story.
They had empty packaging that looked like for camping,
A big hunting knife.
The knife was missing, but the packaging was intact.
And boxes for handcuffs, but there were no handcuffs.
That elevated my concern that he had fled,
And now, we would probably be looking in a wilderness area.
♪ ♪
This is my career case.
This is the biggest, hardest, most disturbing case
That I've investigated.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I knew hannah was in deep trouble.
I had no reason to believe that jim dimaggio
Was gonna return hannah to anybody.
He set up that arson at his property with a delayed timer
So that he could get a head start
On law enforcement.
♪ ♪
- Tina was gone. Ethan was gone.
It just made everything real.
This guy that I spent close to every day with
Could not have done this.
It's impossible.
- We knew that she had been
Taken from san diego.
We knew who she was with.
We knew that they had found their car,
And clearly, it had been, you know,
Covered with leaves and branches so they
Did not want it to be found.
We knew that she was likely somewhere near that car
Because we didn't have any reason
To believe they had another way to travel
Except by foot from that area.
And that's it.
- So now, I'm like, okay,
My wife is dead, my son is dead,
And my daughter is with this guy
That has somehow blown a fuse.
The one thing that kept me going was,
I actually got a phone call from john walsh.
And he said, "whatever you do, keep this in the media."
He goes, "if you do not keep this in the media,
And some bigger story comes along,
And this gets pushed to the edge," he goes,
"you're never gonna find your daughter."
- All we knew was that we had a trailhead.
We assumed that they went down that trailhead.
It's difficult to explain just how rugged this terrain is.
There's no cell service.
It's definitely a place where you would
Not expect to find people.
There's really no place to go other than
Down that river of no return.
♪ ♪
- A citizen called in and said that they
Had been on a horseback ride.
And while they were riding horses,
They came across a man and what they believe
May have been his daughter.
- She didn't seem to want to look at them.
She didn't seem comfortable where she was.
It definitely was not a young girl
Excited about a camping trip
In the awesome wilderness of idaho.
- The man was dressed appropriately for hiking
And the young girl was totally inappropriately
Dressed for safety.
She was in, like, sweatpants and a t-shirt, a backpack.
And she was carrying a grey tabby cat.
I learn from neighbors-- 'cause neighbors wanna help--
They said he had cats.
And they said, "oh, they loved this grey tabby cat."
- The cat was the key--
Knowing they had a cat in the backcountry
And did not seem prepared, was a huge red flag.
- When they told me that, I was like--
I turned to my wife, I said, "I'm outta here."
I was jumping on an fbi airplane and flying to idaho.
- How do we find where they are?
And how quickly can that hostage recovery team
Get here from the fbi?
♪ ♪
Anytime you have someone who is clearly causing harm,
Taken two lives, and now is with a girl
That he should not be with against her will,
That's a huge cause for alarm,
And we know that we have to get her away from him
As quickly and as safely as possible.
That's the bottom line.
♪ ♪
- On Saturday, August 10th, myself and other
San diego investigators in idaho
Were notified that the plane I travelled over to idaho on
Was flying above a location they believed they had hannah,
James, and the camp in sight.
- "we have her in sight," you know,
And that they're moving in.
- For rescue folks, the only way to get in was by air.
You have to rappel out of the helicopter.
There is no flat land to land on,
And then hike about an hour and a half to two hours.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
Figuring out a way, finding a way to let someone know
Can be incredibly scary and very, very difficult to do,
Especially when you are a young child
Who is at the mercy of someone older than you,
Someone bigger than you, someone who has
The capability to harm you.
♪ ♪
- My friends were blowing me up
To leave the house,
To get out, to stop just focusing
On my phone and the news
Because it was just stressing me out at that point.
So I went to my friend's house,
And then someone texted me.
A friend said, "turn on the news."
And then the newscaster said hannah was found.
[suspenseful music]
It was just a shock to me.
♪ ♪
- I'm hannah anderson,
And I was kidnapped on August 3rd, 2013.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- That morning, I did not want to go to jim's house.
I was doing everything I could to not go.
I was begging my mom, "please let me go
To marissa's," you know.
"I don't wanna go," and she's like,
"no, like, this is our last time to hang out
With him and say goodbye."
Like, "this is family time. You're going."
We dropped ethan off at his practice,
And then my mom dropped me off at cheer camp,
And they were gonna go up straight to jim's
When he was done.
Then either her or jim were gonna
Come get me and bring me up there.
As soon as I knew that jim was the one picking me up,
I immediately got that, like, ugh...
[sighs] gotta sit in the car with him alone.
But it's just an hour till we get there
And then I'll be with everyone.
♪ ♪
As soon as we arrived to his house,
My mom's car wasn't there.
I instantly asked. I said, "where--where's mom?"
He told me that they probably are at the neighbors' house.
And then the next concern was when I walked inside.
My mom's things were all spread out on the table.
Her bag was dumped.
As soon as I turned around, that's when
He threw me handcuffs and told me to put them on
And sit on the couch.
And at that point, you kind of--
You don't wanna think the worst
Because you don't wanna start freaking out.
I didn't want to accept what the heck was just happening
'cause I was pretty sure I had an idea
Of what was about to come.
So I sat down on the couch, put the handcuffs on.
On the table was a little black gun with some bullets.
He sat down, and he told me that he gives up.
He couldn't do it anymore.
That he's struggling,
And he told me that he wanted me to help him
Get to idaho where he would be, you know, living there.
He was super vague about it.
Didn't, you know, really give me any details.
I was very confused to what was happening.
And then he took the gun, and he told me,
He said, "you have a chance.
"I can put a bullet in this gun and I put it in my mouth.
"and if it goes off, you're free and you can go
And you'd live your life."
And he's like, "have you ever played
Russian roulette before?"
And obviously not, so, "no."
And that's when he put the gun in his mouth.
He pulled the trigger.
♪ ♪
[click] nothing happened.
At that point, I was begging him not to do it.
I was like, "you don't need to do this.
Like, everything will be fine."
You know, I was just trying to calm him down.
And then that's when he was like, "all right.
It's your turn," and he held the gun to my head.
That's when I started crying and, you know,
Begging him to, "please don't.
I don't wanna play. I don't wanna do this."
And he would just be like, "are you sure?
Are you sure?" and you could tell
His pupils and his eyes-- he just looked really scary.
Just, like, no soul.
♪ ♪
I kept asking where my mom was.
He said, "she's in the garage.
"I have her in the garage with your dog, callie.
"they're fine. I obviously can't take your mom,"
Because she had a leg problem.
She had a metal rod in her leg,
And, "ethan's too young. He's only eight.
"he's not gonna be able to carry backpacks
"heavier than him.
And your dad is away, so you're my only option."
♪ ♪
I could hear ethan upstairs kind of like a mumbling.
Kind of like if you were to have, you know,
Like, a sock in your mouth or something and trying to yell.
That's what I could hear.
At that point, I instantly started screaming his name.
And jim told me, "if you yell anymore, I will kill you."
At that point, he left for a couple of minutes.
♪ ♪
And then he came back, and I did not hear ethan at all.
I don't know if he did something to ethan.
♪ ♪
I started to act like I was in pain.
I started saying my stomach was hurting.
I started, you know, trying to force myself to throw up--
Anything to freak him out.
And that's when he said, "okay, I have some pain pills."
And I just took them to humor him, whatever,
And I was out cold.
Don't remember anything besides waking up
Handcuffed inside of a car.
♪ ♪
I don't know if he kept giving me things to keep me asleep
Or whatever was wrong with me.
I don't know how I went to the bathroom.
All I know is, we were really far away from home,
And I had no idea where I was.
I remember looking behind me in the car,
And there is just cans on cans of red bull.
So he must have not even slept,
Stopped, for the 19 hours,
Or however long it takes to drive to idaho from boulevard.
And he had his cat with him.
I was so out of it that I think I just fell back asleep.
♪ ♪
"oh, your mom and your dad, and everyone
Is probably looking for you right now."
Like, "you'll be safe, blah, blah, blah."
Honestly, if I knew what he did, I--
I don't know if I would've cooperated as much as I did.
♪ ♪
When we arrive in idaho,
We're trying to find a place to park.
And I remember seeing this car coming towards us,
And he made it very clear.
He said, "if you give off any distress, anything," he's like,
"I will kill this person, and I will kill you."
Obviously, didn't want anyone to get hurt.
I was terrified out of my mind.
So this lady is driving, and she pulls up next to us.
And she asked if we are lost or if we need help.
And he was like, "oh, no, we're just
Trying to find this trail."
And she was like, "okay. Well, good luck.
Have a good time,"
It was just a quick, like, ten seconds,
And then she drove off.
Other than that, never saw another person again.
We pitched a tent next to his car
And slept in the tent that first night.
He also had me handcuffed in the tent, as well.
I wasn't allowed to do anything.
I wasn't even allowed to go to the bathroom
Without him watching.
♪ ♪
The next day, we finally found the trail.
He forced me to break off branches,
And he's like, "I need help hiding this car,
It needs to be out of view, out of sight."
That was, like, a warning, you know.
It was like, okay, you just wanted
To live at the river, you know.
Whatever your plan was-- why are you hiding things?
He had his gun with him, a knife.
We started on our way.
There was not much talking the whole time.
I was wearing his shoes.
Obviously, way too big for me.
And, like, just sweatpants and a t-shirt and stuff.
I just was very uncomfortable.
Obviously, I looked out of place, staying up all night
'cause you're terrified.
And then obviously, trying to, you know,
Keep your body warm was definitely a struggle.
He definitely would threaten me saying like, "oh, if we don't
"hurry up, it's getting late.
"it's getting cold. Like, we're gonna have to,
"like, snuggle, we're gonna have to get
Really close to keep warm."
I was terrified for my life.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
There were times where I probably could have tried
To escape or, you know, run.
But if you think about it, I was in the middle of the woods.
Didn't know where I was.
You know, I run, I get away from him, and then what?
I don't have anything to survive in the woods.
I would probably freeze to death or starve or get lost.
And then same with the gun.
I've never shot a gun before.
So if I would've shot jim, what if I missed?
I believe in my heart that he would've killed me.
- I did text her the week she was missing.
Like, just, "I miss you. I love you.
"stay strong. I don't know what's happening.
Please text me back."
It was just mainly "text me back, get back to me."
'cause I know she would contact me back if she could.
♪ ♪
- One of the days, we saw these horseback riders.
Instantly, my stomach dropped 'cause I was like,
Maybe they'll notice something's weird.
He had his gun in his pants behind him.
Instantly, he was like, "if you say a word,
If you even make a facial expression and I catch you,"
He's like, "I will shoot them, and I will take their horses
"and I'll leave you out here or I'll kill you.
If you try and run, I'll kill you."
Just innocent people minding their own business.
So, of course, I'm not gonna say anything.
He used fake names.
He told them, "this is my daughter.
We're on a father-daughter camping trip,"
Or something.
I couldn't even look at them
'cause I didn't want him to even think
I was making a facial expression.
I remember them making a comment like,
"we don't see many people on foot on this trail.
It's really heinous," you know.
"that's why we take horses."
I did see jim's hand on his gun behind his back
The entire time that he was talking.
♪ ♪
They left.
We set up camp down there by the lake.
The next day, we searched forever for this trail.
I had the heavy backpack.
It was probably about 50 pounds.
And I bent under a tree, and my knee just completely,
Like, locked out.
It just felt like it snapped.
It was terrifyingly painful.
And I told him what just happened.
I was trying not to cry.
He kind of, like, helped me crutch to our tent.
And that is when I was like, there's no way.
I was like, "I don't know what you want me to do.
Like, I can't."
And that's when he was like, "well, we're lost anyways.
There's no trail." he was just lost.
He was lost.
And his plan was, we can signal rangers.
They'll come down here on horses.
He said, "I promise you, I won't hurt them.
"I'll tie them up, and we'll take their horses
And we'll go somewhere new."
♪ ♪
The next day, obviously, there's no hiking involved,
So we're kind of just hanging around.
I was sitting there reading a book
That he had I found in his bag called
"how to survive in the woods,"
And that's when I read that whole thing
About how, you know, an sos signal is the three shots.
At first, he tried to signal with a smoky fire.
That wasn't working.
And that is when I saw this white little airplane.
♪ ♪
So I thought that was maybe my chance of starting to signal.
The sleeping bag cover was neon orange.
So every time that he'd turn around, I'd wave to them.
I was like, "there's no way they can see me.
They're so far away."
♪ ♪
Couple of hours later, that's when I expressed the whole,
"maybe you should fire a gun three times.
Someone will hear it and come looking for us."
It took a lot of convincing, but he was like,
"okay, I'll try it."
And he shot it in the air. [gunshot]
He lowered it, and then shot it again.
And that's when all of the shots went off.
[gunfire]
It was a bunch of shots.
And he, you know, just like a trust fall
Where you fall backwards, someone's there to catch you,
It was just straight on the ground.
♪ ♪
All of a sudden, I was being told to get down.
"put your hands over your head."
Like, "cover yourself,"
And all the fbi agents coming out,
And they helped me up, and ran me to the side.
- They engaged.
Dimaggio was killed.
And hannah was rescued.
- They've got her.
After knowing that he had killed my wife and my son
And my dog and kidnapped my daughter,
I was just relieved that...
He was no longer with us.
- Is he dead? They would not tell me.
They just said, "just know you're safe."
And I said, "no, like, I need to know.
"I can't, like, go on or do anything not knowing.
Like, I need to know."
They're just like, "just know you're safe.
Just know you're safe."
♪ ♪
When I got to the hospital,
The first thing they told me was,
"he's dead. The fbi shot him."
They told me the house burnt down
And they found two bodies,
And it was my mom and my little brother.
They didn't tell me how or why or what.
They just left me with that and gave me time to process it,
Which I mean, I didn't at all.
You refuse to accept the truth.
[somber music]
- I remember calling home
After one of the press conferences
When I had a bit of a moment to breathe.
And my oldest daughter, she would've been
About seven at the time.
Her first question to me was, "mama, does she know her mom
And her brother are dead?"
And I think that was the first time it hit me that we had been
So anxious for her to be okay
And so anxious for her to be safe
That the real trauma and what it would mean
Ultimately for hannah in the days and weeks
And years ahead hit.
Hit hard.
- That put an end to this crime spree,
And it left a lot of questions for hannah,
For the sheriff's department, for the fbi,
For everybody involved.
♪ ♪
- He was just so close to us, and we were such good friends,
And I don't quite understand it,
But to find out that he planned it for so long--
- You trusted someone your whole life
And they betrayed everything that you thought they were.
It kinda makes you second guess everyone.
♪ ♪
- First time I saw my daughter was obviously
In the hospital in idaho.
- Being reunited with my dad was hard.
I didn't want to be around any male at all.
- She was very pale, very skinny,
Looked a little beat up,
And she wouldn't look at me.
♪ ♪
But I understood.
♪ ♪
- I made him leave the room, and I instantly felt bad.
I instantly, you know, cried.
It was really hard.
- She was alive, and that's what kept me going.
- It actually made me feel worse, sending him out
Of that room because I knew he just wanted
To be with his daughter and, you know,
Make me feel okay and wanted to be, you know, a dad.
He lost the same people I did.
It ate me alive.
♪ ♪
- I blew her up.
She did text me back and she's like, "yes, I'm safe.
I'm at a hospital."
Everything was just like-- [exhales]
♪ ♪
- When I got home with my dad, I would actually cry myself
To sleep every night.
- Just took some time together and, you know,
And that really helped, so.
- I gave her a few days,
And then we met at this little burger place.
I saw her, and she saw me, and we instantly just, like,
Looked at each other, and I hugged her
For I don't even know how many minutes.
We just sat there and ate potato skins and talked,
And then she started giving some details
As to what happened, and talking about it,
And I was like, "you don't have to if you don't want to."
And she's like, "I need to."
And I was just literally disgusted.
Like, there was a point where I had
To go to the bathroom and just cry
And throw up because it was just--
I couldn't believe it.
- If he was still alive today, and, you know, in jail,
I would fear for my life every day that I woke up.
♪ ♪
I was the first successful amber alert.
That is something that was really significant in the case
On helping me get rescued and noticed
And keeping my story alive.
- You know, I find peace with this in each success
That my daughter has.
I find peace in her moving forward.
- I know it's a cliché, but hug your loved ones.
You--you don't know.
And if you do get that gut feeling,
Speak up and tell someone. Don't wait.
Don't think it's gonna hurt someone else's feelings.
If you're uncomfortable, there's a reason.
If personalities and everything start to change
And you can't even be around that person,
That's a red flag.
As a woman, trust yourself in everything that you're feeling.