Horseback riders who encountered a missing California teen and her abductor said Sunday that "red flags" went up for them because the pair seemed out of place in the rugged Idaho back country, refusing to give many details on where they were heading or what they were doing.
At a news conference in Boise, the four riders - two men and two women - said they came across 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio on Wednesday morning.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the backcountry and usually you don’t run into somebody wearing pajamas,” Mike Young, a 62-year-old resident from Sweet, said about Anderson's attire.
Young said he had a "gut feeling that they didn't belong" in the area and when trying to talk to Anderson, she “kind of had a scared look on her face” and kept trying to look away.
"They didn't fit," said 71-year-old Mike John, who is a former sheriff's deputy from Gem County. "He might have been an outdoorsman in California but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho ... Red flags kind of went up."
John described how he saw DiMaggio sitting on the side of a trail petting a gray cat. He feared that the cat would attract wolves to the area.
“All of their gear [also] looked like it was brand new -- that was another flag that this wasn’t normal or natural,” John added.
John said when he returned home he saw an Amber Alert that had been sent out for Anderson, and he contacted police.
Brett Anderson, the father of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, told “Fox & Friends” that it was “nerve-racking” and “exciting” when a detective handed him a phone Saturday and he was told that Hannah was safe. He said he planned to tell her that he loves her when they reunite for the first time since the kidnapping at an Idaho hospital on Sunday.
DiMaggio, who was shot and killed on Saturday by authorities, also is suspected of killing Hannah's mother, 44-year-old Christina Anderson, and her 8-year-old brother, Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found last Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California, near the Mexico border.
Brett Anderson, speaking on “Fox & Friends,” described his wife as a “hard worker and a great mother.”
“My son was my buddy, he wore his heart on his sleeve and if he had $2 he would take three kids to the store with [him] and share it with everybody,” he said. “I loved them both very much.”
FBI agents are now processing evidence at the campsite in central Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness where they first discovered Anderson and DiMaggio.
Law enforcement agents first spotted two people who looked like Anderson and DiMaggio on Saturday afternoon, as they flew over the wilderness area in a plane, according to a statement from Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden.
The air was filled with smoke blown in from distant wildfires, and that made both flying and seeing the ground tough, Dearden said. The law enforcement commanders decided to send in an FBI Hostage Rescue Team immediately to get Hannah while they could.
The mountainous area is extremely steep, and the closest point where the helicopters could drop the team was more than a two-hour hike away. The agents crept close to the camp, waited until DiMaggio and Hannah separated, and then moved in.
The FBI moved the teen to an area where she could be picked up by a helicopter. The FBI won't release details about what happened between DiMaggio and law enforcement at the campsite until an investigation is complete, other than to say DiMaggio was killed. According to Fox40.com, DiMaggio was killed around 7:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Mary Rook from Salt Lake City said the FBI will continue to work with law enforcement in both Idaho and California as the case transitions back to the San Diego Sheriff's Department.
Anderson appeared to be uninjured and was taken to an Idaho hospital where crisis counselors and health care providers were assisting her. Her father was expected to arrive in Idaho on Sunday to reunite with her.
"We will make sure she gets as much care as possible, physically and emotionally," said Dearden.
A contingent of about 270 law enforcement officers from the FBI, the Valley and Ada County sheriffs' offices, Idaho State Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Border Patrol, aided by experts from federal land management and wildlife agencies, worked around the clock to figure out the best way to track DiMaggio and the teen in the roadless area.
Speaking by phone on Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine" Saturday night, Brett Anderson said he had mixed emotions on the ordeal, saying, "I'm ecstatic that my daughter and I will soon be reunited. I'm saddened by what happened to my wife and son, and I'm worried about what my daughter has been put through."
“"She is a strong girl, she made it this far and all we can do is hope that whatever help she needs to get through this,” he added.
Anderson also said the Amber Alerts sent out for Hannah made a “big difference” in the search to find her.
“Kudos to law enforcement,” Anderson said. “They did an excellent job and I can never show my appreciation enough to anybody out there that showed us love and support; terrific country, love you guys.”
Investigators believe that after killing Christine and Ethan Anderson, DiMaggio set fire to his log cabin and detached garage and fled with Hannah Anderson in tow.
As the week went on, the manhunt expanded to Washington, Nevada, British Columbia and Mexico's Baja, California.
A car belonging to DiMaggio was found in the Idaho wilderness on Friday after a horseback rider reported seeing the man and girl hiking in the area two days earlier, authorities said.
As tips poured in from up and down the coast, police cautioned that with Amber Alerts issued in five states for the car, DiMaggio may abandon the car and leave it rigged with explosives.
A friend of Hannah Anderson claimed last week that the girl was "creeped out" by a crush the suspect had on her. The friend said DiMaggio explained that he didn't want the girls to think he was weird in an effort to defend himself after noticing he and the teen exchanged glances. She said he spoke while driving them home from a high school gymnastics meet a couple months ago.
Authorities have said DiMaggio had an "unusual infatuation" with Hannah, although Brett Anderson said he never saw any strange behavior. If he had, Anderson said, "we would have quashed that relationship in an instant."
A neighbor also told Fox5SanDiego.com that Hannah was afraid of DiMaggio and did not want to be around him anymore, but "she didn't know how to tell anyone."
DiMaggio, a telecommunications technician at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, was planning to move to Texas and invited Christina Anderson and the children to his home last weekend to say goodbye, Christopher Saincome, Christina Anderson's father, told AP.
It's unclear how Christina Anderson and her son Ethan were killed, though police believe the crime was planned.
Brett Anderson said his friend is an outdoorsman, and San Diego Sheriff William D. Gore noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/11/calif-teen-found-safe-suspected-abductor-killed-in-idaho-wilderness-police-say/#ixzz2bhdFNx6e
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