01x04 - The Kidnapping of Hannah Anderson

[bunniefuu]

- We knew that a fire had
been set

at the residence
of Jim DiMaggio.

- DiMaggio is suspected
of setting fire to his home.

- There was a body
in the garage.

That turned out
to be Hannah's mother.

They assumed that he had
taken Hannah with him.

- James DiMaggio
is suspected of k*lling

a woman and abducting
her 16-year-old daughter.

- Her father issued
some statements

directly to DiMaggio.

- The damage is done.

I'm begging you to
let my daughter go.

You've taken everything else.

- They issued an AMBER Alert
throughout initially California

and then up
the Pacific Northwest

as the search area grew.

Soon after the description
of the car went out,

the abandoned vehicle was
spotted near Cascade, Idaho.

It's a very remote area.

We had aviation assets
flying around.

The pilot said there's
an adult male down there

and what we think to be
teenage blond-haired girl.

Somebody who finds themselves
in this horrible set

of circumstances through
no fault of their own,

my job is to go there
and get her back.

And then I hear a small-caliber
firearm discharge.

[g*nshots pop]

[dramatic music]

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

♪

Drug busts,

mob stings,

t*rror1st takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

[indistinct radio chatter]

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent to agent.

♪

This is "FBI True."

[ominous music]

♪

- So, Chuck, I know
that you were involved

with the Hannah Anderson
kidnapping case.

- Yep.

- It's the end of the summer,
you're in Virginia.

I know it's sticky and warm.
Where are you?

What's going on?

- Kristy Kottis is
a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked gangs,
crimes against children,

as well as human
and drug trafficking.

Kottis was the supervisor

of the FBI's
threat response squad,

overseeing the Bureau's
response to terrorism threats

in New York City.

- It's a Friday afternoon.

My little sister and her
husband and three kids were

visiting from Germany,
and my mom was in town.

And my phone rang.

- Chuck Davis was a decorated
Air Force vet

when he joined the FBI
in 1998.

He was a b*mb technician,
freefall jumper,

and SWAT team leader.

He ran hostage rescue teams
before retiring

as supervisory special agent
in Denver.

- So got in the car and ran
code from Northern Virginia

down to Richmond airport,
which is where we have

our alert bird on standby.

- When you go code,
that's lights and sirens.

What are you learning
at this point about the case?

What do you know?

- We had heard of this case
earlier in the week.

It was a kidnapping case,
but it started

as an arson investigation.

We knew that a fire had
been set at the residence

of Jim DiMaggio.

- DiMaggio is suspected
of setting fire

to his home 65 miles
east of San Diego on Sunday.

- And when the fire department
responded to the residence,

there was a body in the garage.

That body turned out
to be Hannah's mother,

tortured, but obvious signs
of a struggle.

- The victim in that structure
has been identified

as Christina Anderson.

She's a 44-year-old
Lakeside resident.

And it has been determined that
Ms. Anderson has been m*rder*d.

- There was an
arson investigation,

and they determined that
somebody had set the house

on fire utilizing devices
on timers

and they had an intact device
that they could analyze.

And so that led
them to believe then

that Mr. DiMaggio
was a prime suspect

in the m*rder of Hannah's mom.

And they knew there was
another body in there.

Turned out to be her brother
in the house.

- Police say the charred
remains found inside the home

of DiMaggio are consistent
with that

of an eight-year-old boy,

the same age, of course,
as young Ethan.

- DiMaggio was
a close family friend

of the Andersons, right?

- That is correct.

- They called him Uncle Jim.
- Yes.

They also learned that
at some point before the day

of the fire,
DiMaggio apparently took

Hannah and some
of her friends on a trip,

and he said something
to the effect that,

if you and I were the same age,
Hannah, I would...

I would want to date you.

- Hm.
- And so since Hannah was

last seen where
Mr. DiMaggio picked her up

at cheerleading practice,
they assumed that

he had taken Hannah with him.

- An intense manhunt
is underway this morning

for a California man.

James DiMaggio is suspected
of k*lling a woman and her son

and abducting her


- They issued an AMBER Alert
throughout initially California

and then up
the Pacific Northwest

as the search area grew.

- So we just learned
that the AMBER Alert has

been extended to Oregon
and Washington state.

- Any time there's
a child involved,

it ups the ante considerably,
and as a result of that,

we're super focused on
getting all the guys and gals

and the whole team
on the airplane

and getting on our way as
quickly as we possibly can.

- Now you're really in focus.

Where was Hannah's father
during all of this?

- He was away from the family
in Tennessee on, like,

a three-month work trip.

But as soon as it became
apparent that DiMaggio had

kidnapped Hannah,
he issued some statements

directly to DiMaggio.

- Jim, I can't fathom
what you were thinking.

The damage is done.

I'm begging you to
let my daughter go.

You've taken everything else.

Hannah, we all
love you very much.

If you have a chance,
you take it.

You run.

You'll be found.

- So there were
numerous sightings.

- Meanwhile, a sighting at this
California border checkpoint

not far from DiMaggio's home
appears to confirm

that Hannah is alive.

- A San Diego County sheriff's
department spokeswoman said

the 16-year-old was
photographed with suspect

James Lee DiMaggio
in his Nissan Versa

at a westbound
Old Highway 8 checkpoint

shortly after midnight
on August 4th.

- Soon after the description
of the car went out,

the abandoned vehicle was
spotted near Cascade, Idaho,

by the Frank Church River
of No Return Wilderness.

- San Diego officials
announced a major new lead.

- The blue Nissan Versa was
discovered covered in brush.

- The license plates
had been removed,

and whoever parked the car
there attempted to hide it.

- Local law enforcement
in the area

were able to confirm
through the VIN number

that the vehicle did
belong to DiMaggio.

- There were a number
of sightings and false leads,

but this sort of
at least pinpointed that

he at least was here

and that's what got us
moving in that direction.

The investigators on scene
did a search of the vehicle

and found some receipts from,
I believe it was a Walmart down

in San Diego, California,
and they identified

the items that
he had purchased.

And it was
some camping supplies

to include a tent, blue tent,

and one very odd fact
said a gray house cat.

And I thought to myself,
why would anybody

even put that in there?

At the time, I thought it was
really kind of silly,

then sometime that,
either Thursday or Friday,

a group of horseback riders

were riding way back
into the wilderness area

and they came across
a gentleman

and a young girl who they
said were ill-equipped to be

in the area where they were.

She was described as having on
sweatpants and tennis shoes,

and when they returned
to their house...

- Just had a gut feeling
about him.

- The AMBER Alert was
on the television,

and I told my wife,
I said that is that girl

we seen on the mountain.

- She did appear frightened,
but I thought

it was a fear of the horses.

- I have to stop you
right there.

So here are these couples
pony riding in the woods,

and they come across
a 16-year-old girl

and basically Grandpa Monkey
with her.

And, you know,
how does that even happen?

- So the Frank Church River
of No Return Wilderness area

is something on the order
of 2.3 million acres.

It's a very remote area,

and the fact that the two
of those parties crossed paths

is very fortuitous for us.

- I've had cases also
like that where

it's just, like, you can't even
calculate the odds of that.

- As you well know,
you need a start point

into something that big.

And so I think that was
the linchpin that sort of

got us involved in this case.

[dramatic music]

♪

We Landed About 11:00 at night
and drove up to Cascade.

The next morning, people
just start streaming in,

all the various jurisdictions,
all the people that are there,

you know, to try and figure out
how we're going to best

slice up this giant pie.

The chances of us
in 2.3 million acres

coming across those folks
is fairly slim.

Logical investigation said,
OK,

he was last seen here
by the hikers.

How far could two
of them travel on foot?

Where might they be going?

There was a river that
had river rafting,

like river guides,
and so we thought, oh,

maybe he's working
his way there,

and he's going to get
on one of these rafts

and float down the river.

So the idea was we were going
to flood the area

with as many resources
as possible.

So we had other
FBI tactical assets there.

We had, I believe,
the San Francisco SWAT team,

Salt Lake SWAT team,
and some other resources.

And so the bosses
all got together,

and we just started
slicing the area up

based on where the car was

and where they were
last sighted.

My team, which was me
and four other guys,

we were assigned an area
called Morehead Lake,

and it was an Alpine lake
up in the mountains

and our job was
just going to be

to get up there
and search the area

and see if we could
find anything.

- Did we have at this point...
I know you guys have all kinds

of things in your toy box,
something that allows you

to have an aerial peekaboo?

- We had Bureau resources,
aviation assets,

and they were just generally
flying around

the River of No Return
Wilderness.

And they were
at Morehead Lake,

and they saw a tent
on the ground.

We knew that DiMaggio
had purchased a blue tent...

- Right.
- At Walmart.

We asked the pilot
if he could tell

what the color of the
tent was, and he said,

"Yes, it's a blue tent."

Well, over the next
couple of minutes,

they said there's
an adult male down there

and what we think to be
a teenage blond-haired girl.

Things are going
really, really well,

and then the pilot comes
across the radio one more time

and says, "Oh, I also
see a house cat"...

a piece of information
that I thought

was absolutely ridiculous...

DiMaggio, Hannah,
and a gray cat.

And so now we have
all those things

pointing us to that location.

That's where we need to go,

and it trips from
an area search

to a deliberate hostage rescue.

- From this point forward,
my team became primary

on getting to Morehead Lake
and arresting Mr. DiMaggio.

[tense music]

♪

They took the five folks
that were originally with me.

They gave us a canine
and canine operator

and then five sn*pers.

So it was a total of 11 of us.
- Wow.

- One small helicopter...
I believe

it was an Airbus Air Star.

Four people were in that one,
and the rest of us were

in a Customs and Border Patrol
Black Hawk helicopter.

Immediately, the point man
went and started talking

with the helicopter pilots
to identify

a landing zone that
we could put helicopters in.

Now that's a tricky business,
you know.

You don't want to alert
DiMaggio to your presence.

You know, you're going
to offset considerable distance

so they don't see
and preferably

don't hear the helicopters.

Everybody's just focused,
hyper focused

on making sure that
they have what they need

to get there and do the job.

[dramatic music]

♪

And I remember we're coming in,
and the pilots

are like, OK, 30 seconds.

And we're like, OK, 30 seconds.

♪

And then we see where we
were supposed to land,

and then we just keep going.

They said we can't land there.

- They just decided
at that point...

- It was untenable
for the large helicopter.

They couldn't get
the helicopter

down onto the ground.

- Are you feeling anxious
at this point?

- Absolutely, right?

We need to get moving.

We continue just to fly,
and they picked a spot

on the ground somewhere else.

They landed us on a small ridge
off of a summit.

♪

And for the first 45 minutes
to an hour,

it was straight uphill.

Very, very difficult.
We're in camouflage uniforms.

You'll have body armor,
a r*fle, p*stol,

helmet, night vision goggles,
ammunition,

and then various other types
of equipment

based on what your role is.

At that time, I weighed
about 200 pounds,

and with all my
tactical as*ault kit

and I weighed about 265,
so pretty hefty.

And it was warm, and in
the first minute and a half,

you're just like, oh, man,
this is gonna really be hard.

- Hm.
- People don't understand.

It's like, well, why is HRT
going out to Colorado

to the mountains to train?

Well, if I have to hike
in the mountains,

I need to be
in the mountains to train.

- Right.

- And so you fall back
on that training.

In the end, it all falls back
to the training.

And so you're like,
yep, this is gonna suck.

I know it's gonna suck.

But, hey, I've trained,
and I can do this.

And you just put
your head down and go.

So the point man immediately
calculated that we had

about three miles
to move over land.

It's Now about 3:00
in the afternoon,

And we know we have till 5:00,


and we can anticipate
them getting

into the tent for the evening.

- Does this feel different
because it's a child?

- Absolutely.

A lot of these
abduction cases don't

end favorably for children.

- You have a daughter.

You have family.

What are you thinking
at this point?

- My job is to go
there and get her back.

And as a parent,
I think of my daughter.

And I was like, well,
you know, I'd want someone

to come help find
my daughter if she

was in a situation like this.

So, yeah, it becomes personal.

There's a time and a place

when you think
about your family,

but you've gotta keep
your world small.

You have to focus
on the task at hand.

Bottom line is there's only a
few things that I can control.

That's my thoughts, my words,
and my actions,

and everything else
is superfluous.

So we establish
what's called the ORP,

an objective rally point.

That's the last position
that, collectively,

we were all together prior
to moving to the crisis site.

- And were you getting updates?
- Yep.

So the airplane's
still overhead

providing us with
that sort of

real-time tactical
intelligence.

- So can you see the plane?
You?

- Oh, yeah.
- OK.

So do you think they
can see the plane?

Are you wondering?
- Yeah.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yes.

- What kind of things
are they telling you?

- They're telling us, like,
where the tent is on the lake,

what DiMaggio is doing,

what Hannah's doing,
sort of like,

OK, he's down by the lake

and Hannah's next to him
at the lake.

And then he's back
at the tent,

and just painting a picture
for us to better understand

what we're coming into
when we get to the crisis site.

[ominous music]

The sn*per team leader
and I kind of

developed a hasty plan.

So the sn*pers were gonna
move to the west side

of the lake and see
if they could establish

sn*per observer positions
on the west side of the lake

looking back across the lake
to the north,

to give them line of sight
to provide intelligence.

And then my group,
we were going

to continue moving east
below the lake and then move

from south to north,
up to the lake.

There is nothing like
a guy on a sn*per scope

that's covering your advance
to the target, right?

So if there's a threat
to Hannah at this point,

or a threat to one of us...
- Mm-hmm.

- They can solve that problem
very, very easily.

If you were going to devise

the worst possible
hostage rescue,

this would be a good contender
because it was daylight,

uphill,

to a potentially armed
and dangerous subject.

We'd covered maybe


and then I heard
over the radio,

"Freeze, freeze,
freeze."

If you're in mid-step, you
don't even finish that step.

The sn*per team leader is
relaying to me over the radio

that, hey, DiMaggio
is away from the campsite.

He looks like he's
collecting firewood.

And so we stop
what we're doing.

We all take positions of cover.


and through the underbrush,

I can see this movement
where DiMaggio is.

And then he's off
back towards the campsite.

So then, the airplane overhead,
he says,

"Oh, he's back
at the campsite,"

and then we can see smoke
coming up through the trees.

So now we know, OK,
that's where the tent is,

and that's where we need to go.

And then the pilots came
over the radio and said,

Hannah is down by the lake.

She's as far away from DiMaggio
as we've seen her from him.

[dramatic music]

So that was the impetus
behind us saying,

OK, now is the time.

So I gave a command...
execute, execute, execute,

and all four of the guys
in front got up

and we just started advancing
on the crisis site.

And then I hear small
caliber firearm discharge.

[g*nshots pop]

- What's that sound like?

- Sounds like bundle
of sticks snapping.

That's DiMaggio opening fire,

and then immediately,
I hear return fire

that I know is our guys.

[g*nshots pop]

I immediately
just start running

as fast as I possibly can

straight towards
the crisis site.

Probably covered


and I popped out
into sort of a clearing

and I could see the lake.

And off to my right,
I heard Hannah screaming.

But our first priority
obviously

is to deal with the subject.

So I turn to my left,
close that distance down,

and come upon DiMaggio
who is at the campsite

laying on his back.

He was dead.

So he had been shot
numerous times.

Told the guys there,
hey, secure him

so we're going to
handcuff him regardless,

you know, just part
of the procedure.

And I said, let's begin
securing the crime scene.

And I ran back over to Hannah.

[tense music]

♪

By this time, the other
two guys that were with us were

providing medical aid.

I said, hey, how is she,

and they're like,
we think she's fine.

So no visible injuries.

And she was incredibly,
incredibly agitated.

I took a very hard
look at the subject,

and I was not quite sure
that it was DiMaggio.

- Why is that?

- So his face was very gaunt.

We've seen this in the
past with folks that are

suffering from mental issues.

It made me question
whether it was him.

And I looked and I looked
and I looked and I said OK.

So I ran back, and I
said, "Hannah, who is that?"

She goes,
"That's Jim DiMaggio.

Well, how is he?"

I said,
"Don't worry about him.

He's not gonna
hurt you anymore."

So one of the things
that you have

to understand
in these situations

is the bad guy has a say and...

- Absolutely.

- He chose,
and he chose poorly.

- What about Hannah?

What is she doing
at this point?

- She visibly started
to calm down.

And I said, "Hey, Hannah,
we're gonna get you

"out of here really quickly.

"Is there anything here
that's yours

that you wanna take with you?"

And she says, oh, yes, there's
a pair of jeans over there.

And so one of the guys
crawls in the tent,

and he's like, these?

So I grab them, and I said,
Hannah, are these yours?

And she goes no, no,
no, these are my mom's.

How's my mom and my brother?

- Mm.

I mean, here's this young woman
who's just been

through this crazy ordeal.

These, you know, guys
pop out of the woods,

and they get in a gunfight.

He was dead.
- Right.

- And, you know, she's trying
to process all this

and all she wants to do
is get the jeans

so she can give them
back to her mom, right?

- When she was saying that
about her mom,

what were you feeling
at that point?

- Just I felt...

I was crushed.

I said, hey, Hannah,
we'll figure out

about your mom and your
brother further down the line.

Our goal is to get you off
this mountain as safely

and as quickly as
we possibly can.

Radioed back to the operation
center, helicopter's en route,

and it comes in.

And I said, "Hey, Hannah,
have you ever been

on a helicopter before?"

She said no.

I said, "OK, make
sure you look around.

It's pretty cool."

And, you know, she visibly
got excited and, you know,

actually saw a smile
on her face.

That made me feel good.

The helicopter comes in.

We run up there
and get her strapped in.

And helicopter takes off,
and that's the last time

I saw Hannah Anderson.

- What happened to the kitty?

- Sure enough, that night,

they were securing
the crime scene.

The cat wandered
back into the tent,

and they rescued
the cat as well.

[somber music]

♪

- Chuck, you've worked
all kinds of cases.

What makes this case stand out

amongst all the cases
that you've done?

- When you have the ability
to save somebody

who finds themselves in this
horrible set of circumstances

through no fault of their own,

it's a tremendously rewarding
experience.

Nothing prepares you
for that elation.

When I put her
on that helicopter

and that helicopter
flew away, I mean,

I was overwhelmed, overwhelmed
with positive emotion

and you successfully
accomplished the mission.

And the idea that as horrible
as this circumstance was,

we gave Hannah
at least a future.