True Crime with Kimbyr - The Anderson Family Tragedy: Stalked, Abducted, and Torn Apart: Part 3

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

In the emotional conclusion of the Anderson family case on True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha reveals how the manhunt ends—and the haunting truths that followed. As law enforcement closes in, a deadly confrontation leaves more questions than answers. How did Hannah Anderson survive? And what lasting trauma did this terrifying ordeal leave behind? With powerful insights and heartfelt analysis, Kimbyrleigha brings closure to a case that shocked a nation and forever changed a family’s story. This is the final, unforgettable chapter you won’t want to miss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a hard trying time. This was Ethan's playground. This was his fishing hole. He was here probably five days a week. Fishing, fishing. If he wasn't fishing, he was playing Xbox and hanging out with his buddies that are all here, back in this area.

This is this gang. They loved each other. And my wife, beautiful woman, always there for everybody, help. And I have nothing bad to say about any of these people. They were wonderful, wonderful people. They didn't deserve this. But now our focus is getting my daughter home.

And this is great that we found a siding today. And we hope that everything is going well to bring her home. But thank you and God bless. Many people were wearing shirts with Hannah's picture on them that said Hannah strong. Friends spoke. And they said they were so happy. The Hannah was seen alive, but prayers were needed for Ethan. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars.

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with it and hannah when someone tells you something very confidential about being uneasy tell you your parents tell someone you're not going to get in trouble you're you're going to help that person as we can see here today you know we just the information didn't get out and this is what happens so kids be strong don't be afraid you've got to tell right know something's wrong bullying and all that you just have to tell somebody an adult that can help you and save your life tell a bus driver tell a teacher Tell a friend's mom. You have adult friends out there.

People will act and you are not going to get in trouble. You just, you know, you're going to do the best thing ever. It'll be helping everyone. What she was referring to was the fact that the information about Hannah being creeped out by Jim was not brought out until it was too late. I realized Marissa could have felt like she didn't speak up or Allen, but these are 15-year-olds. It's hard. You want to keep your friends secrets. And Marissa was blown away because she had spent every day with

Jim and Hannah. She didn't see any signs that he would ever do this. And it's not Marissa's fault. Because we have to remember, she too had been manipulated by Jim, an adult, who knew how to use the right words and get close to these young, impressionable girls. Brett made sure to address the media and say that the rumors of his daughter being involved in this and being anything but a victim are just wrong. Some people are talking about Hannah possibly making it look like she went willingly to save her own life. What do you have to say about that? I know she's a smart girl. She's got good instincts. What do you have to say? I do think that she is absolutely a victim here, make no mistake. She is a smart girl. I'm sure she has a lot of mental stress going on right now

and that she's doing the best that she can because she thinks she needs to survive. And you heard that there was a possible siting in this very backcountry type of area on Wednesday night. news comes out today. What was the first thing that you thought, knowing she's with someone who people have described as an expert outdoorsman? I kind of suspected this in the first place and said, look to the woods, look to the camp camping. So I'm glad that they found the car and they have the right to direction to go. I'm not surprised at all. When they found, you know, whoever talked to them, the person on the horse or whatever and said that Hannah didn't look like she was in distress, that's because she's playing it smart.

I'm sure she, he's warned her. You see anybody, you say anything, we're gonna have problems. But now it's time for law enforcement to get in there, do their job, and I know they're gonna do this. They're gonna find her and they're gonna bring her home. When Brett was asked about his son, Ethan, he said he's mourning his loss and that he knows it's him. He knows it, even without a positive identification,

because it's obvious that no one else has come forward saying a child is missing. So who else would it be? Ethan was eight. He had to have been there with Tina, and we know where she was found. Brett said that in his heart, he knows it's his son.

They're working on the DNA, and it'll come out soon, but in my heart, I know it was him. By that evening, authorities removed the debris on top of the car and realized it was missing the license plates, but they confirmed it belonged to Jim by looking up the VIN.

The investigators had reason to believe that Jim had rigged this car with explosives, which is why they had to bring in a bomb and arson technician to search it. But fortunately, it revealed no evidence of tampering or explosions. It was now Saturday, August 10th, 2013, and the United States Marshal Service plane flew over a campsite north of the Moorhead Lake. And that's when they spotted a blue two-person tent below. You can see it here. This is what it looked like. They were scanning the area nearby, and they spot two people near the lake, a man who was taking off his shirt and a female

right next to him. They were walking beside the lake and the man knelt down near the water with the female close behind him. And finally, the female moved away and she's sitting on a rock while the man is looking for wood and starting a campfire. As the plane passed over, it looked as though the female started to wave something back and forth like a piece of cloth or material or a shirt trying to get the plane's attention. Here's footage of what the helicopter was looking at. I know it's really hard to see. The sun is actually going down.

They were using infrared cameras, and they zoom in. Now remember this, because this is also going to come into dispute. And you can see there's something waving. But remember this, because this is also going to be disputed. Some people will later say they don't believe that she was doing anything more than fanning herself in the heat. way, they have just spotted who they are certain is Jim DiMaggio and Hannah Anderson. It's time for the FBI hostage rescue team to move in. They were on the ground and in position, concealed and waiting for the right moment to get in there and break Hannah away from her captor.

Time was a critical factor. The sun was going down. It was beginning to get darker and the team knew they had to act now. Every second that passed could be the difference between life and death for Hannah. Once they saw Jim move back into the woods to get more wood for the campfire, the team waited until he was far enough away, and they began moving in. At the same time, Hannah begins to run, and the FBI rescue team approaches her and grabbed onto her. They finally had her. And these next details aren't exactly clear. They were also disputed later, but it said that Jim fired one shot, either in the air or at the officers. But either way, they believed neutralizing him was imperative, and they had a clear shot, so they opened fire.

Jim was shot six times in the head, arms, and upper torso. When Hannah was finally to safety, she did not appear to have any visible injuries. However, she was visibly frightened. The agent spoke to her in a calming voice. They reassured her that they were there to help and that she was going to be okay now. She was clinging to them. Her eyes were wide. Her body was trembling.

But in that moment, she did know that she was being rescued. She was airlifted to a local hospital for crisis counseling. and to be reunited with her father, who is immediately flown out to Idaho the minute he was told that Hannah was rescued. Coincidentally, that same evening, the DNA results came back. The body and the fire was identified as eight-year-old Ethan Anderson.

This family, Brett lost everything, but he's got his daughter. And before Brett got there, the FBI had informed Hannah that her brother and her little brother had been killed, and set on fire. They had trained psychologist in that room with her, so although she was a teenager, hearing such heavy news, they believed that this was a safe space.

And of course, as hard as it was, they had to question Hannah while everything was fresh in her mind. Knowing this poor girl had been manipulated by someone that she thought was family, they also wanted her to know what he had done, so that she would be more open and as vulnerable as she could be

and tell them everything. Stockholm syndrome is real. It's when hostages develop a connection, a psychological bond with their captors. But in this case, it's more about grooming that's believed to have caused Hannah to trust Jim so much. After everything had happened, Hannah was ready to let the investigators know her side of the story. I really think it's important for you to hear this because these are her words. This is her version that she did in an interview just months after this happened on the Today Show with her father by her side. This is also Hannah's version of events. Jim's dead.

So there's no way to know for sure what happened. And I want you to remember this. I told you there would be people who come forward with some conflicting evidence. Hannah says that it all started on August 3, 2013. Hannah told her mom, Tina, that she did not want to go to Jim's house. She was trying everything she could to get out of going to his going away party. But Jim had convinced Tina to attend with Ethan and Hannah. Hannah begged to be able to go to Marissa's instead,

but her mom said, no, after all Jim is done for us, this is this last time that'll be able to hang out and say goodbye. It's the right thing to do. Tina wanted them to spend some family time together. What Tina didn't know was that Hannah had become increasingly uncomfortable in his presence for weeks. He kept sending her emails and long Facebook messages expressing his fear that she was growing up and getting older

and that they were going to grow apart. Hannah was hesitant to tell her parents about Jim's strange comments, even though she felt awkward about the situation, because she didn't want to break the news and destroy the friendship that they had built for the last 16 years. She knew that it would be a difficult conversation and she wasn't sure she was ready to have it. So Hannah listened to her mom. That morning they dropped Ethan off at football and then Tina dropped Hannah off at cheer practice. Tina told Hannah that they would all head to Jim's cabin once Ethan finished football and that either she or Jim would pick her up later.

When Hannah found out through text messages that it was Jim who was coming to get her, she felt a wave of nausea. She knew she was going to have to sit in this car with him alone for about an hour drive. And even though she wasn't thrilled, she figured, you know what, it's the only choice I have. So I've got to put on a brave face

knowing that she would be reunited with her mom and brother soon enough. But remember, the probable cause for the search warrant It said that there were 13 calls exchanged between Jim and Hannah before he arrived. Well, Hannah says that these were not calls. These were text messages. She was telling him where to pick her up. He had never been to this location before, and he couldn't find her. There was construction going on at the school, and she was merely giving him directions,

and they only talked on the phone once he was getting closer so she could meet him at his car. Another thing is, we know both her and Jim's phones were immediately turned off at 4. when she was picked up. Why would she agree to that? She doesn't even address that in any interview that I've seen. A teenager who is that glued to her phone and says she's uncomfortable with this man agreed to turn her phone off. I don't know. But let's keep going because we may understand more as things progress. She said that everything seemed perfectly normal with Jim. They were laughing and joking, just like usual. But as soon as Hannah arrived at Jim's cabin, she said, she said, she began to feel a little bit apprehensive because she noticed her mom and brother were nowhere to be seen.

Her mom's car wasn't there. So she asked Jim, where's the car? And he said, you know what? They probably went over to the neighbors because Ethan used to play with the neighbor's kids. But that seemed a little bit odd to Hannah. Then when Hannah walked inside Jim's cabin, she was taken aback. On the table was her mom's purse and all her other belongings. And it was though someone had dumped her mom's purse out on the table.

All of its contents, the pens, coins, and cards were scattered across the surface, and Hannah couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. She knew something wasn't right. As soon as she turned to confront Jim, he threw handcuffs at her and said, put those on and sit down on the couch. Despite her disbelief, Hannah complied. She thought she had an idea of what his intentions were. And I think we all know what she was most likely thinking, considering he had a crush on her. And now he had her all alone, and he was demanding that she be restrained. She said that he put zip ties on her ankles, and then he told her that he was going to take her to Idaho,

and he needed her help. He was planning to live off the grid, and he wanted to make sure she got back safely, and then no one was going to get hurt, but he just needed to get down to that river. Then out of nowhere, Jim told her that he had given up on everything. He couldn't do it anymore. Hannah had no idea what he was talking about. She asked him, what do you mean? But he just shrugged and he remained very vague.

He was continuing to ramble and then he slowly reached onto the coffee table and grabbed a gun. It was sitting there next to some bullets. He then looked at Hannah and he told her that she had a chance to get away. She could play Russian roulette with him. He said, if she wanted to leave, he would put a bullet in the gun and put the gun in his mouth. And if the gun went off and he died, it was. would mean that she was free to go and live the life she wanted without him. Hannah was frightened. She was stunned. And Jim asked her, have you ever played Russian roulette? She was

16. So of course she had not. She had never been exposed to anything like this. After Hannah said no, she never had, Jim put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It clicked, but nothing happened. Poor Hannah, who sees this man as family begged him to stop. Tears were ruined. running down her cheeks. She was shaking and pleading for him to put the gun down, that everything would be okay. But he insisted, it's your turn. He said, you want to play? And through tears, Hannah said no, but he just pointed that gun at her head. She was bawling, telling him, please, I don't want to do this. When Hannah looked at Jim, she was terrified. He was detached. His eyes had no emotion in them. To her, it seemed like he had become someone sinister, like he had no soul.

Hannah kept asking Jim, where's my mom? And he assured her that Tina was fine. She was in the garage with Callie, their dog, and that they were both doing well. And she had nothing to worry about. Jim gave her a weird excuse as to why her mom couldn't go with them. According to Jim, it was because she had a metal rod in her leg from surgery. And I guess that meant it would be too hard on her. And that Ethan was too young. He wouldn't be able to carry any of the items that they needed. And of course, their father was away, which, which meant Hannah was the only one, and he seemed unhinged. He had gone crazy. Hannah heard a muffled noise coming from upstairs, and she knew that that was her little brother. It sounded like he was screaming, but that there was a sock or something in his mouth. She started to scream, and she was crying out his name, but Jim told her if she kept yelling, he was going to kill her. Then he walked upstairs to where the noise was coming from, and Hannah was filled with fear and desperation. just sitting there bound on the couch. She could only imagine what her brother was experiencing.

And after a few minutes, she no longer heard another noise. Jim came back down and she was terrified. Hannah started to act like her stomach hurt. She tried to make herself throw up. She was doing anything she could to scare Jim into letting her go. But Jim told Hannah that all she needed to do was take some pain pills. She said he made her take them. And within minutes, she was out cold. I wonder how many other times this man has forced this young girl to take a drug like this. Hannah said she thinks she was probably at Jim's house for two or three hours before he drugged her because the next thing she knew, she was waking up in Jim's car surrounded by a cans of Red Bull. And it was clear that they had been driving all night and Hannah had no recollection of how she got there

if she ever went to the bathroom on the way. She had been passed out. She was only awake for a few minutes and then she passed out again. Later it was believed that she was actually given Ambien, a sleep drug, and she thinks that he may have given it to her more than once while she was in that car, but she does not know. However, she does remember seeing Jim's cat at that point. I told you that Jim's car was seen at a checkpoint around midnight, and both Jim and Hannah were awake on that footage. Remember this, because again, these are things that people are going to question. That checkpoint was only 22 minutes away from Jim's. So if Hannah was passed out, would she be sitting up in the passenger seat? Maybe. Maybe he put her like that

on purpose so that it wouldn't raise any suspicion. Later when Hannah was alert and awake, she asked Jim, where is my family? He said that Tina and Ethan were tied up and they were in his garage and that he had set detonators to go off at his main home at 7 p.m. after they left. but that there were signs on the garage that would lead firefighters to know her family was safe and inside and they would be saved. However, we know that's not true. Jim told her that everyone was safe and that her loved ones were probably searching for her right then and there, but she didn't have to worry because she was going to be okay. Jim assuring her that she was going to be safe was enough to give Hannah the confidence to cooperate with him. She said that if she would have known the extent of the

harm that he had caused to her mother and brother, she would have never did this. She would have had second thoughts. Hannah told the investigators that when she and Jim arrived in Idaho, they attempted to find a spot to park Jim's car. And as they were stopped on the side of the road, another car pulled up next to them. Even though Hannah was terrified, she managed to stay calm because when Jim saw this other person, he told her that if she showed any signs of distress or attention, he would kill her and that other person. So she remained quiet. The lady came up and asked if they were lost. She didn't say a word. Jim just said, no, we're just looking for a specific trail. So the lady wished them luck and told them to have a good time as she drove away. Eventually,

they arrived at a place where Jim pitched a tent next to his car and they began to settle in for that night. He was watching Hannah closely. He handcuffed her and never let her out of her. his sight. Even when she used the bathroom, Jim was right there watching her every move. And the next morning, as soon as they woke up, Jim was like, come on, you got to help break off these branches. We've got to cover this car up. And that's when, in this moment, she's like, wait a minute. His plan isn't to go live at the river? Because why go through all this trouble to cover the car? He had a machete, a couple guns, and they both had very heavy backpacks that were about 50 pounds each. according to Hannah. They had all their survival gear inside, plus they had a cat to hold. After they

covered the car, he started walking. Hannah had really bad knees, and it was hard for her to hike in this terrain. It would also randomly rain. There were full on thunderstorms, and it would be really slippery, and she wasn't wearing the right clothes or shoes, so it made it very difficult. That's when she realized that her only real option was to stay with Jim, because running away would be a risk. She was in the woods. If she did manage to get away, she was completely lost and she had no way to survive on her own. Hannah even thought about overpowering Jim and taking his gun and shooting him,

but Hannah had never used a gun. She was scared it would go off or get jammed, and he would kill her if he turned it on her. She also said that she could have never killed him, so that wasn't going to work. Ultimately, Hannah chose to stay with Jim and do whatever was possible to stay alive. There were times where Hannah was carrying both 50-pound bags. And Jim, he just carried a pack of water bottles. Hannah said they walk for

two to three days to get up to where they set up camp. This is what it looked like. Here's the tent. And sure enough, there's a machete, a rifle, and a handgun, as well as survival items that were scattered around. There were times they had to hike up carrying only one bag because it was too much for them, and then they'd have to hike all the way back to get the other bag. Wow. Once they were at the campsite all tucked away from the main trails. This is when Hannah and Jim came across those two couples on their horses. Hannah's stomach dropped as soon as she saw them. She was so desperate. She hoped they would notice that something was off about her situation and get help. Hannah felt like, okay, we stick out, especially the way we're dressed in their usual sweatpants, a t-shirt,

and they were carrying a cat. It was a far cry from the usual camping attire. And she was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable as their journey went on because she had to wear a pair of Jim's shoes that were way too big for her. She was exhausted from staying up all night every night and she was really cold. So the thought crossed her mind that she should run or she should cry or scream or let these people know she needed help. But she was terrified. Jim had a gun tucked into his pants and he warned her if she made a single sound or facial expression even suggesting that she was in trouble, he would kill anyone they came across. And so Jim took over. He quickly introduced himself and Hannah to the people using fake names. And because Hannah wanted to be safe and wanted these innocent people

to be safe, she didn't say or do anything to put them in danger. She could see that Jim's hand was behind his back and on his firearm the entire time. After the conversation ended, neither of them had any inkling that these strangers would later end up being instrumental in the investigation of Hannah's disappearance and rescue. It wasn't until much later that Hannah discovered that they had seen the Amber Alert and reported to the authorities that they had spotted her in the wilderness in Idaho. She saw them a second time, and she was hoping that they would notice something. Jim told her to go to the lake so that they wouldn't talk to her. When they left, she thought that would be the last time, that that would be her only chance to be

rescued, and she was really helpless and disappointed. At that point, Jim told her they got to pack up. They got to get back to camp. It's getting dark, and they better hurry. Because if not, they'd have to cuddle up real close, and that's disgusting. While Hannah and Jim continued through the wilderness, she ducked under a tree and her knee locked. She fell and she heard a snap. And suddenly, she was in excruciating pain. She was trying not to cry. But she told Jim she couldn't go any further. After he helped her up, Jim told her they were lost anyway. So they had to set up camp and then start to signal for Rangers to come help them. He said that he was going to start a fire and that would get their attention. This was the night before they were found. Jim promised Hannah that when the

rangers arrived, he wouldn't hurt them. He would tie them up and just steal their horses, and then they would leave. The following day, Hannah and Jim were hanging out around the campsite, but the fire wasn't working. She said she was reading a book that she found in Jim's bag about how to survive in the wilderness. Now, in her first interview that I told you about, the one on the Today Show when she was 16 and had just been rescued, she said that she read this book. before going on the hike and that she remembered it. But years later, in a later interview, she said that she found the books among his things, but as her story goes, she read that there was a technique about firing three shots in the

air as an SOS signal. Jim didn't want to do that. So we just started to try the fire first. He hoped that the smoke would alert the forest rangers and they would be at their location, but he just couldn't get it going strong enough. He was out there gathering firewood, and that is when she saw the smoke. the FBI plane above. Hannah said she was looking up. She noticed that white airplane passing high in the sky and she quickly thought this is her opportunity to signal. So she grabbed her neon orange

sleeping bag cover to wave at the plane every time it circled overhead. Hannah said she never took her eyes off that plane and she waved as much as she could. Here's that clip of that. But what's interesting is she doesn't even mention this part in her first interview. She goes right into explaining how Jim got shot. She said that after a few more hours had gone by and no help had come, Hannah suggested they tried to fire those three shots in the air as a signal. It took a lot of convincing, but Hannah said finally, Jim decided they had no other choice. He picked up his gun and he fired it into the air. Then for the second round, he lowered the gun and fired again. But that time, all of a sudden, Hannah heard a bunch of shots going off and saw Jim drop to the ground and she didn't

know what happened. She even asked him, are you okay? She was also on the ground covering her head and face. Now, we don't have the whole video, so we can't confirm this. But the FBI talked about how Jim only fired one shot before they ambushed him. Either way, once Jim was down and presumed dead, the agents made contact with Hannah. In her interview years later, Hannah said that as the agents tried to remove her from that scene, she just kept asking one question. Was Jim dead? And no one would give Hannah any answers, but she could barely take another step without knowing that the man who had hurt her was finally gone forever. Finally, she got a definite answer from the agents. He was dead. And this brought her such a relief. In both interviews, she talked about how at first she didn't want to

be around anyone, because it was overwhelming. But she didn't go into detail in the first interview. In the second interview, she said when she was reunited with her father, she had a really hard time being around him or any man. The first time he went to visit her in the hospital, she asked him to leave. And once he did, she felt even worse and was filled with guilt and cried a lot. Brett was just happy to know that his daughter was alive. But despite his understanding, it still hurt Hannah that she requested for him not to come see her. Hannah said when she was informed that Jim, her mother, and her little brother were dead, that it didn't seem real, that she just broke down. At a press conference after Hannah was rescued, her dad,

thanked everyone who called in tips. Thank you and thank you all for coming. I want to thank all who spread the word, shared their hearts and thoughts through social media across the country. Because of you, this reached across and beyond the U.S. have no doubt that this made did make a difference. Though relentless, I would also like to thank you the media. All of your coverage, keeping the issue alive and helped with bringing my daughter home. As a country, there are many missing children. Some of you might find the Amber Alert annoying. Please pay attention. Keep your eyes open. Let's bring those children home. No one should have to go through this. Now it's time for us to grieve and move on to the healing process. I

respectively ask you to give me all of our family and our friends the respect and time to allow this to happen. As for my daughter, the healing process will be slow. She has been through a tremendous horrific ordeal. I'm very proud of her and I love her very much. She is surrounded by the love of her family, friends, and community. Again, please, as a family, give us our time to heal and grieve. Thank you. After a few days of recovery, the father and daughter returned to San Diego.

The details of the shootout that ended the kidnapping remained sealed. And it left the public unaware of exactly what happened. No one knew Hannah's version of events. She came home to so many people asking a lot of questions, but I think that's not a big surprise. It's just that the questions weren't ones that she wanted to address or could because a lot of them were just random comments from strangers on social media. Now, Hannah had no idea the gravity of this case. It was international. It threw her into the spotlight.

Her life before and after this kidnapping were being picked apart by the public every post. that she'd ever made on Facebook was being looked at. Many people thought Hannah was hiding something. They didn't understand why she didn't just run away, why she let this man control her, why she didn't speak up sooner about him. She was frustrated. And as a teen, the only way she knew how to resolve this

and to heal was to go on social media and be the one to provide those answers. So she did. She went on a site called ask.fm. I don't know if you remember this, but it's a place where people can ask you questions, either anonymously or publicly. And Hannah thought this would be a good idea,

but it kind of backfired on her. All she wanted was a voice, a way to express herself. So she answered all kinds of questions under the name Hannah Banana 722. She told people everything from her favorite color to how she felt about the entire situation. In one answer, she said,

quote, I wish I could go back in time and risk my life to try to save theirs. I will never first. forgive myself for not trying harder to save them." I did manage to find this one screenshot, and here's a person asking, are your ex-boyfriends trying to talk to you more now that this happened? Hannah's answer was a simple no.

Someone else said, you're naturally gorgeous, you should model. Hannah thanked them and said, I've been there and I didn't like it. People wanted to know why letters from her were found in Jim's home, and she explained, those were from a year earlier. Anna said that she and her mom were not getting along, so she turned to Jim for advice. He was helping her deal with the situation, offering support, and being an ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on. She said, they weren't anything bad.

He was just there to help me through tough times. Yeah, I'm sure that's what Hannah thought, but I think we all know what Jim was really doing. In this conversation on Ask FM, Hannah went on to discuss her celebrity crush, as well as thanking a bunch of people who were telling her how pretty she was. When she was asked whether she was going back to school, Hannah said, yeah, she couldn't wait to get back to normal. But some people thought it was odd that she could just talk about these things like they weren't as serious as they really were. Others mentioned how it seemed like she wanted all the attention, especially when she made her first public appearance. It was to attend a fundraiser that was organized way before she was rescued.

These are the pictures. And yes, I have to say, they look like they were taken by paparazzi, but you know how the media is. They were like vultures. She couldn't go anywhere. Her family had to shield her from reporters just to get her into this restaurant in Lakeside where this event was being held. This was days after she was rescued. But the way that she carried herself, after such a horrific ordeal, it confused the public. She finally did address this, and she said, quote,

They don't really know the story. So they kind of have their own opinion on what they hear, end quote. And they were hearing a lot. For one thing, Jim's sister Laura had been defending him in the media while Hannah was still missing. She even accused Hannah of being trouble and warned her brother about her. She went on Pierce Morgan. Yes, she did. And she said that the person Hannah portrays to the media isn't the one she knows at all.

The sister of suspected murder and abductor James DiMaggio speaking out for the very first time Laura DiMaggio is defending her brother saying he thought of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson as a daughter. What she said, though, is causing outrage this morning and also raising new questions. The Hannah Anderson that I saw a few nights ago on the TV, certainly not the girl that stayed in my home three weeks prior to them disappearing. I remember very vividly telling my brother she's trouble. Laura also spoke out after her brother was killed and said, quote,

Where is the evidence? The only evidence that has come forward at this point is that there's two bodies found on his property, end quote. She went on to say that she wanted to remind the public that her brother was merely a suspect at this point. He wasn't a killer. According to Laura, Hannah was very upset with her mother. She blamed her mom for her father moving to Tennessee.

And Laura wanted to ask the public, do you believe everything a 16-year-old tells you? I thought it was important to add all of her. of this because this is what was happening during this time. I don't condone victim blaming, but there were a lot of discrepancies and unanswered questions. Laura wanted to know how they knew her brother was the one who killed Tina and Ethan, and I understand she was most likely in denial at the time, but she actually said that her brother was a victim and that Hannah was to blame, insinuating that Hannah had possibly done this to her own family and that her brother gave up his life

in her words, to protect Hannah. Laura wanted to get a hold of things like the note that was found or the letters, both of which authorities would not release. And they haven't so far as I know. The investigation was closed. Even when a FOIA request was sent in by a news station, it was denied. One reason I think this may be is because I want to remind everyone, Hannah was a child. Jim groomed her for many years, blaming a teenager for her act.

in relation to the way that she behaves around an adult that has manipulated her and saying that she caused it upsets me as a mom of a young girl myself. I'm not going to go into details on grooming, but as I mentioned earlier, it's not something I was really familiar with until I really dug deeper while researching this case. And I highly encourage you all to visit Darkness to Light website. I'm going to leave it below. Please know the signs. Grooming is when someone builds a relationship and trust an emotional connection with a child or a young person so that they can manipulate, exploit, and abuse them. There are stages to grooming.

I'm not going to read them all, but I think it's important to at least let you know the first stage is targeting. These predators will target a child's perceived vulnerabilities. If a child needs more attention, if they come from a chaotic home life, if they have a lack of parental oversight, and we know that happened with Hannah. She was the typical teen who had struggles with her mother, and Jim acted. as the concerned, cool adult friend who is understanding in offering her advice. On this website, they give examples.

And one of them is that the offender will pay special attention to the child, and we know Jim did. There were so many other red flags. This video would be five hours long if I continued, but it's evident to me and to investigators that Hannah was a victim here, not Jim. These groomers, they gain a child's trust, they fill a need. They isolate them from others. they begin sexualizing them, and they maintain their control with threats.

And all these things we know Jim did from the evidence. Anything Hannah did as a result of these actions was out of a response of a child that's a victim. The signs were there, taking her on trips, giving her gifts, acting younger than he was, and being authority figure? Nevertheless, the Lifetime Network. They took the opportunity to tell Hannah's story the way they wanted and to twist the situation and portray her in a very negative light, in her opinion. The movie is called Kidnapped, the Hannah Anderson story, but it wasn't her story.

In the opening scene, the movie already made it look like there was something going on between Hannah and Jim. The narrator says as the dust settled, questions began to emerge about the nature of the relationship between Hannah and her kidnapper and what really happened. In that scene, the actress that's playing Hannah blows a kiss to the actor playing Jim. There's even a clip of actors playing out that Pierce Morgan interview with Laura. And in the movie, Laura says, Hannah flirted with Jim. And I wouldn't put anything past her. Well, Hannah wasn't happy about this.

And she took to Instagram to express her shock and anger over the film. She said they never got permission. And there was so much false information in untrue events, which only added more grief for her. And there are some networks that are notorious for this. Hannah said if anyone's going to tell my story, it should be me. She was an honor student at her high school at the time that she posted this. Her grandma, Tina's mother, also went public defending Hannah and saying she was shocked. She thought at the very least Lifetime would have contacted their family first.

Even Sheriff Bill Gore, who was involved in the investigation and rescue, went on the record in interviews saying, there is no doubt in their minds that Hannah was definitely a victim. She was under extreme duress from the time she was abducted by Jim until she was rescued. I want to emphasize that during the law enforcement interviews with Hannah, it became very clear to us, very clear, that she is a victim in every sense of the word in this horrific crime. From the time of her abduction in Boulevard to her recovery in Idaho by the FBI's hostage rescue team, she was under extreme, extreme duress. After the rescue mission, the FBI continued its investigation into Jim DiMaggio.

However, whatever he had been hiding upstairs in his log cabin was never found. Court records uncovered by the investigators revealed a chilling and startling fact, though. Jim DiMaggio wasn't the only one in his family to abduct a teenage girl. His father, the late James Everett, DiMaggio, had done the same thing. years ago. Two felony cases were also filed against the older DiMaggio on July 18th, 1989, and August 9th, 1989. In the summer, just like this case, it was in San Diego's East County. Some refer to this as a generational curse. Jim's dad, James Everett, was a troubled soul. He was addicted to meth, and he was involved in a lot of criminal activity at the time. And one day,

he decided to break into his ex-girlfriend's house, wearing a ski mask and carrying a sawed-off shotgun in handcuffs. Fortunately, his ex-girlfriend was not home, but unfortunately, he did manage to hold her 16-year-old daughter and her boyfriend at gunpoint. On December 25, 1989, James Everett DiMaggio was charged with attempted murder. He was 35 at the time of this incident and disappeared shortly afterward. The two victims suffered broken bones and lacerations and following his conviction and kidnapping, James DiMaggio spent time in. in prison. The victim of James' kidnapping, now an adult, has spoken out about her traumatic experience. She recounted her attacker's bizarre behavior, how he was professing his love to her after breaking

up with her mother and announcing that he was going to take her way to give her a good life. She pleaded with James not to harm her or her boyfriend or her brother. Sound familiar? James ended up taking his own life 19 years before his son Jim murdered the Anderson family and took Hannah Anderson. In another weird twist, days after this rescue mission had brought Hannah Anderson home, a spokesperson for the now deceased Jim DiMaggio confirmed he left $112,000 to Bernice Anderson, Brett's mom, Hannah's grandma. The spokesperson went on to say, and this was what was wild, that he didn't know why Jim chose to do this. However, he thought it was possibly because Jim was the real father of Hannah and Ethan. And this was unbelievable. They were actually requesting DNA to be tested. And Brett Anderson

and his family were outraged. The Anderson family, they quickly refuted these allegations. They said Brett and Tina were not even acquainted with Jim DiMaggio until Tina was six months pregnant. And they went on to say Brett Anderson's DNA was used to prove that the body found in that rubble was their son. Ethan Anderson, did you really want to hurt this family more? That was kind of the impression they had. So the family issued a statement to provide a clear answer and closure to all of these allegations. At the end of the interview that Hannah gave after her rescue, she shared some very powerful words for her uncle, Jim, a man that she was close to at one time. She referred to him as a psycho, and she said that he got what he deserved.

Hannah's story is one of courage and resilience, and it's one. about the first wireless Amber Alert in California. Brett Anderson is a man of strength and of courage. Despite the tragedy of losing his wife and his son and his dog, and almost losing his daughter, he finds comfort watching Hannah grow up and live her life to the fullest. Hannah said it might sound cliche, but hug your loved ones like there's no tomorrow.

It's an important reminder that we never know when our last moment will be. It's important to take time and show our loved ones how much we care about them and appreciate them for all they do for us, because life can change instantly. Throughout her interviews, Hannah has stressed that people should speak up if they have a gut feeling about someone and they make them feel uneasy. She emphasized not being afraid of hurting someone's feelings. No one should ever feel like they can't speak up about something that makes them uncomfortable. Trust your gut. And I agree with that. Hannah seems to have grown up into an intelligent, wise woman who overcame something. that I hope none of us will ever have to go through. I'm so very sorry to the Anderson family.

I wish you nothing but healing because I know that no matter how much time has gone by, it does not make up for your loss. And I hope the memory of Tina, Ethan, and Little Callie will go on forever. Remember this family when you hear an Amber Alert. Don't ignore it. You never know. You might help save someone's life.

Thank you all so much for being here. I will see you in my next video. Bye.