x
Breaking News
More () »

Hannah Anderson welcomed home after kidnapping

A 16-year-old girl got a warm welcome home reception five days after FBI agents killed a longtime family friend suspected of torturing and killing her mother and brother and escaping with her to the I

LAKESIDE, Calif. (AP) — A 16-year-old girl got a warm welcome home reception five days after FBI agents killed a longtime family friend suspected of torturing and killing her mother and brother and escaping with her to the Idaho wilderness.

Hannah Anderson was mobbed by reporters as she entered and left a restaurant that hosted an all-day fundraiser. News crews were told to wait outside while Hannah and her father stayed for hours. She did not make a statement.

"I don't know what I want to say. I just want to give her a hug," said Alyssa Haugum, a classmate of Hannah's in Lakeside, an east San Diego suburb of 54,000 people.

Brett Anderson said his daughter was taking things one day at a time. He said he spoke with the horseback riders who saw the pair in the Idaho wilderness and alerted authorities, thanking them for saving Hannah's life.

"Right now, she's with her family and, of course, with some friends, and she's just happy to be here," he told reporters outside the restaurant Thursday.

Firefighters found the body of Christina Anderson, 44, near a crowbar and what appeared to be blood next to her head. James Lee DiMaggio is believed to have shot and killed their family dog, found under a sleeping bag in the garage with blood close to its head.

Investigators found 8-year-old Ethan's body as they sifted through rubble.

DiMaggio "tortured and killed" the mother and son, San Diego County Sheriff's Detective Darren Perata wrote, offering no elaboration, in the warrants released Wednesday.

Investigators who searched DiMaggio's home found letters from Hannah, an incendiary device, a handcuff box and "arson wire," according to one warrant, which does not elaborate on the content of letters or nature of the devices.

The warrants say DiMaggio and Hannah exchanged about 13 phone calls before she was picked up from cheerleading practice Aug. 4, hours before firefighters found DiMaggio's burning garage in Boulevard, a rural town 65 miles east of San Diego. They do not indicate the time, duration or nature of the calls.

Jan Caldwell, a San Diego County sheriff's spokeswoman, said they may have been discussing pickup times.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore has been adamant that Hannah was an unwilling victim from start to finish. "I can't make it any clearer," he said at a news conference Monday.

DiMaggio was extraordinarily close to both children, driving Hannah to gymnastics meets and Ethan to football practice. The warrants say the former telecommunications technician took Hannah on multi-day trips, most recently to Malibu and Hollywood.

Asked on her ask.fm social media account this week if she would have preferred DiMaggio got a lifetime prison sentence instead of being killed, she said, "He deserved what he got."

The account was disabled but there were postings on an Instagram account linked to Hannah's now-disabled ask.fm page.

"Dad is not taking this very well," she wrote late Wednesday. "None of us are but please watch over him. I'm all he's got left. Even though your gone we are still a team. Love and miss you. "

___

Spagat reported from San Diego.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Before You Leave, Check This Out