Hannah Anderson Speaks for First Time

 Samrawit Gougsa,

Correspondent (North America)

 

SAN DIEGO — A California teenager, who was abducted earlier this month, has clarified details on Thursday, August 22, about her relationship with the family friend who authorities say murdered her mother and younger brother before kidnapping the teen.

On August 4, James Lee DiMaggio, abducted 16 year old Hannah Anderson after torturing and killing her mother, Christina, and 8 year old brother, Ethan. According to authorities, DiMaggio had trapped the two in his rural home in east San Diego which he rigged to a timer, and let it naturally ignite after taking Hannah hostage and fleeing the state of California.

According to search warrants, Hannah engaged in an estimated 13 phone calls with DiMaggio before he had picked her up from cheer camp on the day of her abduction. However, Hannah clarified in the first news interview since her rescue that communications made with DiMaggio that day were made through texts, not phone calls, and were exchanged in order to explain details of where DiMaggio was suppose to meet her after her cheerleading practice.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said it was unable to immediately explain the discrepancy.

Hannah also said the letters that investigators found in DiMaggio’s home were written about a year ago, at a time when she was struggling to get along with her mother and therefore sought advice and solace from DiMaggio.

“They weren’t anything bad, they were just to help me through tough times” said Hannah.

DiMaggio was killed during a shootout with FBI agents in Idaho on August 10, during which Hannah was rescued. The moment ended a six day manhunt across the Western region of the United States.

For the most part Hannah kept herself collected during the interview, but when conversation shifted to her deceased 8 year old brother, Ethan, she described him as having “a really big heart” before she emotionally choked up and started wiping away tears.

A few days after Hannah was rescued from Idaho she had gone online and answered questions on social media websites; a move several members of the public have catechized considering her ordeal and successive media scrutiny. She expressed her surprise at some responses she received and that she “didn’t know people could be so cruel.”

On social media website ask.fm, where users can post questions anonymously, Hannah spoke about how she feared for her life when the man she knew as “Uncle Jim” abducted her. When asked anonymously if she was glad DiMaggio was dead, she responded with “absolutely.”

Amidst all the criticisms, Hannah had a clear-cut answer for why she took presence on the social media platform: “I’m a teenager.”

She justified her actions saying that she and her friends communicate most often through social media sites including Facebook and Instagram and that talking to her friends helped her grieve during this deeply tough time.

This interview with NBC aired a day after a spokesman for DiMaggio’s relatives announced a request for DNA samples from Hannah and anything from the charred remains of Ethan. DiMaggio’s family had raided paternity suspicions when they discovered DiMaggio named Hannah’s grandmother as the single beneficiary of his life insurance policy instead of his sister. The policy is worth an estimated $112,000 and was intended to help both Hannah and Ethan with their future.

The Anderson family has furiously rejected the mere possibility that DiMaggio was the children’s father.

Hannah’s parents “did not meet Mr. DiMaggio until the sixth month of Christina’s pregnancy with Hannah. Brett Anderson’s DNA was used to identify the body of his dead son Ethan Anderson,” said an Anderson family statement. Hannah expressed thanks to her father and said the ordeal only strengthened their relationship.

The entire calamity has proven to be a hard time, but Hannah is optimistic she will make it through. “In the beginning, I was a victim,” she said, “but now knowing everyone out there was helping I consider myself a survivor instead.”

A public memorial service for Ethan and Christina took place at a church in the San Diego suburb of Santee this past Saturday, August 24.

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Image Courtesy: DF Shapinsky for PINGNews.com/Shapinsky MultiMedia via Flickr