horseback rode up behind them. >> she had a pure look of fear on her face. >> with one rider sharp observation, showdown time was at hand. >> the next thing we heard was suspect down hard, jackpot, jackpot. >> i consider myself a survivor. way up beyond here in the wilderness country of idaho, there's a river that flows into this one with a nickname that goes back to the days of the explore explorers, lewis and clark. it's called the river of no return. it turned out to be all of that for one james dimaggio who made his last camp near the river of no return and didn't get out alive. his violent story regarded as a double homicide, kidnapping and manhunt as big as the west begins in the foothills of san diego county, california. boulevard, california, not much more than a wide spot on old

highway 80 just north of the mexican border. a refuge for some from freeways fatigue. bill gore is the san diego county sheriff. >> it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. beautiful countryside in the mountains but very isolated. >> and it was to boulevard up on ross avenue that firefighters were rolled out to a report of a log cabin on fire. that was the start of everything. august 4th, a sunday night about 8:00. >> pretty quickly, i assume, you knew who the homeowner was. >> we immediately identified james dimaggio as the homeowner. >> the 40-year-old was single and worked in telecommunications at the scripps research institute. >> he was the kind of person that was caring and thoughtful. >> andrew spanswick says his friend jim was steady and relabel as they get. >> he would always help anybody in need. not just people, but animals. >> now it looked as though jim was the one who needed help in the worst way.

his cabin was a tinderbox, gone. firefighters couldn't save it. and they quickly made a terrible discovery. a body. >> we assumed that it was jim. we actually thought jim had died. we were sort of grieving the death of our friend. >> but it wasn't jim dimaggio. firefighters had discovered the body of a woman. >> the body was deceased. the victim in that structure has been identified as christina anderson. >> christina anderson lived in a community called lakeside less than an hour's drive from boulevard. she was raising her two children, hannah, a teenager and her little brother ethan, a woman admired by her friend. >> loving, involved, nurturing. >> there wasn't a day that went by that it wasn't for the kids. >> christina was 44 years old, separated for the last few months from her husband brett. >> christina was a great mother,

she really was and she was a good wife. >> brett and jim dimaggio went way back together, 15 years as best of friend. he was like a second dad to the anderson kids. but now christina's body was found near the smoldering char of the friend's ruined cabin. it was appent she hadn't died in an accident. the dog was nearby shot o death. >> there was premeditation, technology involved in starting the fire. arson, not to commit murder but to cover it up. >> there appears to be a crowbar found next to the mother. next to christina's body. can you confirm that? >> yeah, i can confirm that and i will say -- >> this was a bludgeoning death. >> there was extreme trauma to the body. >> as they sifted through the rubble, they came across another bod, i a small one, definitely a child. thought to be the boy ethan. >> it's not him. it can't be.

i refuse to believe that it's him. it crushed my heart. it was horrible. >> and the crime scene was about to get more confounding. if jim wasn't a victim of the fire and his blue any shan -- nissan was gone, where was hannah? >> we realized there's a 16-year-old girl missing too. that's when the real manhunt began. >> hannah anderson was now a missing person and according to police, abducted on the same day her mother and brother were killed. >> here's a picture of our suspect, his name is james lee dimaggio. >> could such hands-on brutality be the work of a guy who punched the clock at the office and seemed to live for camping trips and his gray cat? nothing added to up to christina's friend. >> he was nice, he was pleasant. you would hope that you feel when somebody is not a good person. and we all missed it. >> we did.

>> we all missed it. >> with the fbi now involved, a massive search was under way and questions being asked in san diego that were about to echo across the nation. who was jim dimaggio? why did he take teenage hannah? and where were these two needles in a seemingly infinite number of haystacks? coming up -- >> a cell phone amber alert and hannah's best friend remembers something disturbing. >> he was telling her how beautiful she was and that he had a crush on her. she was really weirded out by it. john, it's over. don't punish yourself, it's my fault. of course it's your fault and i'm not punishing myself. i'm having dannon oikos zero per cent fat yogurt; twice the protein of regular low fat yogurt. that's what makes it so thick, rich. oh,.. this is kate... already? my sister... and that was my mother.

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hannah anderson, 16 years old, had vanished. abducted the authorities believed, by a long time trusted family friend, jim dimaggio. by the wee hours of tuesday morning, more than two days since the girl had last been seen, cell phones up and down the pacific coast had begun wailing like a smoke alarm. it was an amber alert for the girl, the kidnapper and his vehicle. >> dimaggio, we believe killed two people, he burned his house down, killed a dog. she's definitely in grave danger. he's a very dangerous man. >> the authorities needed the public's help. the story was now playing beyond san diego. the mother and brother's bodies found in the deliberately torched cabin home of the friend, jim dimaggio, who was apparently fleeing who knew where with young hannah anderson in his clutches. >> we all love her and miss her.

>> friends and family began holding candlelight vigils. >> she's one of the greatest friends i ever had. i love her to death. if you get a chance, you're alone, run. please, please just run. as fast as you can. >> in san diego, a state, local and federal investigative task force had come together and high on its priorities was collecting more info about dimaggio's relationship with the andersons. a family snapshot seemed to say it all. there was the anderson clan on a happy occasion. hannah, her mom, her kid brother ethan and over on the rye, the man the children called uncle jim. jim dimaggio. everyone in hannah's school crowd knew him. >> he's like the surrogate uncle or almost like the father figure to hannah because he's just always been there and always been such a cool guy to her. >> at the time of hannah's

abduction, her father and mother had been separated for several months. the dad, brett anderson was living and working back in tennessee. jim dimaggio, the investigators were being told had been helping out his friend brett with the family in his absence. but hannah's good friend and confidant, allen mcnabb had a different perspective on good 'ol jim dimaggio. he recalls hannah telling him about an incident with uncle jim that made her skin crawl. >> he was telling her how pretty and beautiful she was and that he had a crush on her. but he would only date her if she was his age. she was really weirded out by it. i mean, even i told her that that was really weird and she shouldn't talk to him anymore. >> dimaggio had taken teenage hannah on several day trips, most recently to malibu and hollywood. but if dimaggio had become infatuated with the daughter of his friend of 15 years, hannah's father definitely did not see it. >> there are things that you

think back of now and say, maybe that wasn't totally appropriate. but still it's never something directly in front of me like there was no patting or anything like that. so i really can't say that there was ever any one definite thing that you would bring me pause. >> but for the investigators at the moment, what had made jim dimaggio snap wasn't his urgent a question as finding out where he was. was hannah even still alive? they quickly pieced together a timeline of the anderson family's last day. hannah's friend allen for one knew what the plans had been for that weekend. uncle jim had invited hannah, her mom tina and brother ethan up to his remote cabin home in boulevard. >> jim found out he was going to lose his house into foreclosure and tina, ethan and hannah always went up there for vacation. he has a very big property. they always went up there to see

him. and they -- he said that he wanted them to go up there for one last time before he loses his house. >> that was saturday, august 3rd. that afternoon, hannah's brother was playing with his pop warner football team, then his mother picked him up. hannah was at the school too, coaching the team's young cheerleaders. according to investigators, hannah and dimaggio communicated on their cell phones about a dozen times that day before he picked her up around 4:00. >> then all communications stopped. cell phones apparently were turned off. >> that's ominous in itself. how many 16-year-old girls turn off their cell phones. >> that's very unusual. >> there was no clue about hannah's whereabouts until after the weekend when a surveillance photo was taken at midnight saturday from a highway checkpoint not far from dimaggio's home in the sticks. the two were seen in his car. >> when you blow up that frame what do you see? >> him and her kind of reclining back in the seat.

but awake. and at that time they were heading west on interstate 8. that was the last sighting we had. >> did that tell you anything about the possible route they were taking? >> it would lead you to believe they were coming west and then would turn and go up to head north. hence, the amber alert that goes to california, oregon and washington. >> if hannah was last seen being picked up at the playing field by dimaggio. if she was picked up not far from his cabin, what happened in the intervening hours? when were her mother and brother killed? to further muddy the timeline, before he took off with the girl, dimaggio rigged his cabin with timing devices of some kind to delay the start of the fire by several hours. so when the cabin exploded in flames about 8:00 sunday evening, the first sign that anything was amiss with the anderson family, he and the teenager were long gone.

>> so he had a big headstart on us and the trail was pretty cold. >> hannah's father made a painful personal appeal to a man he regarded as his trusted, long time friend. >> 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. >> the task force could only look at its roadmaps of mexico, canada and the united states and wonder where to put their pin. fervently hoping for the break that would bring to an end a monstrous crime in progress. coming up, investigators find a clue to dimaggio's crimes in his family's dark past. >> i heard his name and my heart stopped. i was scared for her. >> when "dateline" continues. yep yep. three blocks up. three blocks up. no problem, buddy.

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new details in the manhunt for a missing 16-year-old girl from california and the man suspected of kidnapping her. >> by monday, the county, state police, fbi and u.s. marshals work together had called out the national and international manhunt for dimaggio and his captive. 16-year-old hannah anderson, now missing for two days. >> i was horrified. >> dimaggio's friend andrew

could hardly believe what he was hearing, that his long time hiking and camping buddy was suspected of a double homicide and kidnapping. >> how do you explain a tragedy like that? it's complete shock all the way around. >> andrew, a social worker and mental health counselor recalls insights into dimaggio's life at campsites at yosemite park. they talked about jim's love of animals, one cat in particular, the big gray tabby, oliver. >> this was his favorite cat. >> and the friend knew that jim for many years had a close relationship with a san diego area couple, the andersons and that jim saw himself as a second dad to their daughter hannah. >> it was nothing unusual. >> he said jim dimaggio took on a similar role in his sister. >> i think hannah represented what his sister represented growing up. a person that he could take care of and take on the fatherly role

that his father didn't provide for him. >> but jim's father, james dimaggio sr. was a don't go there subject around the campfire. >> he had said he had a bad childhood, but it was always vague and never really wanted to talk about it. >> but it was jim's sister who revealed to andrew unsettling stories of what she said was their father's physical and emotional abuse. she was proud, she said of overcoming their childhood trauma. >> they had managed to break the cycle, the violent and abusive relationships. that jim is stoic and always held the emotions back and never brought it out. >> and there was one episode involving their father that had a chilling, eerie, almost parallel tie-in replaying out with the son and hannah. a friend and high school classmate of jim jr., but she'll never forget her terrifying encounter with his father 25 years ago when she, like hannah, was just 16. >> i remember he wore leather

jacket a lot and jeans. kind of a greasy loser. >> jim dimaggio sr. was her mom's one-time boyfriend. >> i think they dated five or six months in november of '88 is when they split up. >> the boyfriend had been told to take a hike. but one day he was back and now he had his eye on danielle. >> he showed up right before my birthday with concert tickets. he says he was in love with me and asked me to runoff with him. >> as bold as that. i'm in love with 16-year-old you, let's get out of here. >> took the concert tickets and said no thank you. thought what a weirdo, you know. >> eight months later, danielle and her boyfriend were asleep had if her mother's apartment. the kid brother in another room. 6:00 a.m. >> woke up to a noise and look up and see a man climbing through our bedroom window. >> did you see a weapon, a gun, a knife? >> he had a sawed-off shotgun. proceeds to pull out handcuffs from his jacket and apple from the other.

>> does he handcuff you? >> not me. >> he handcuffs the boyfriend? >> yeah. and put the apple on the end of the shotgun. >> using it as a silencer. >> that's what he told me. >> the intruder covered his face with a stocking. but the voice told her it was joe dimaggio sr. he held the sawed-off on them for an hour. dimaggio sr., doped up for sure, raging about danielle's mother. >> what happens next? >> i thought to myself, this guy said he was in love with me. maybe he'd let me use the bathroom. >> the bathroom was her opportunity. i said please don't kill us. i said don't worry, it will be over quick, you won't feel a thing. i begged him goen use the bathroom. >> he said don't do anything stupid or else i'm going to kill your brother and boyfriend. >> and then i saw my opportunity. i turned to the left and ran out the front door.

>> i made it up the stairs to the neighbor and i hear jim yell my name. and danielle don't go or come back. and my door slam. i thought for sure he was going to kill my -- i thought i had just killed my brother and my boyfriend. >> you think he would have killed the both of you? >> he would have killed us all. >> dimaggio sr. fled without firing a shot. he was quickly arrested and charged but made bond and walked free to await trial. >> he's not sitting in jail. >> yeah. >> you're fear continues. what happens when you're at school? >> jimmy came up to me -- >> jimmy dimaggio the son. >> jr. >> the classmate. came up to me between classes and my father is out and he'll be waiting for you. >> you bolted school. >> and started a different high school a couple days later, i think. >> danielle has been looking over her shoulder for the menace of jim dimaggio sr. ever since.

she didn't know until recently that the man who terrorized her died six years later. the story goes, he did a lot of meth, wandered off into the desert and died. this month though the past came roaring back at her when she started hearing the name jim dimaggio all over the news. not her jim dimaggio, but the son she knew from high school. heard his name and my heart stopped. >> here he is accused of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl that he may well have been infatuated with. was he acting out his father's life. >> i was scared for her. >> and so was andrew, who feared the timing of the kidnapping was not coincidental. andrew was now passing on to the fbi a worrying tidbit. the anniversary of jim's father's death in the desert was just two days away. >> i told them that i was pretty sure he had a homicidal and suicidal plan. i was pretty positive that he was going to try and kill

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. just an average morning, nothing unusual about it. we probably got up a little later than usual, but that might be an age issue. [ laughter ] >> tuesday morning, three days after hannah anderson went missing in san diego, two couples way up in idaho were finally getting around to their postponed horseback trip to morehead lake for fishing and a couple of nights sitting around their campsite. >> spur of the moment, we said it's time to go, the fish are getting big and we need to go and get some.

>> the couples in idaho hadn't heard a thing about a deadly house fire, kidnapped girl or amber alert when they set out on their trail ride. mark john, the former elected county sheriff, his german born wife krista and their friends mike young, a rancher and his wife mary, a college mathematics professor. they made camp at the trail head that night before the grueling ascent into the high country the next morning. >> every state claims to have the roughest, steepest country, but until you get to idaho, you haven't seen it. >> the riders and animals wering moving at a good clip, always wary of shale rock that could send a skittish horse and rider plunging into the steep canyon below. >> you don't ever want to fall down. you'll keep rolling until you hit bottom. >> if you don't have the back country experience of these four friends and the horses and horsemanship to get you in and out, no roads up here, then you've probably got no bisque here in the first place.

which is why mike riding single file lead was surprised to see two hikers, a man and a teenage girl with only one light day pack between them. >> i think we startled them a little bit when we come up on them. i concentrated on features quite a bit when i ride past and hers is the first face i seen. she had a -- to me a pure look of fear on her face. >> fear? >> yeah. when i looked at him, just one of them faces that kind of give you a prickly feeling. it give me quite a gut feeling on the two. they were totally out of place. >> it was apparent to the riders that these two were at the very least recreational hikers out of their depth. the wrong foot gear, wrong clothing, no water bottles. the girl was wearing sweats, okay for the mall maybe but not out here where summer hail could be just minutes away. >> mary was the next rider by. >> by the time i had reached the couple, he was standing right

next to her with his arm around her. >> in a romantic kind of way or protective kind of way or how do you read it? >> i thought at the time a protective kind of way. >> mark the sheriff didn't see the fear that mike did in her eyes but by then she was consciously averting her face. he didn't know what to make of the untalkative pair. >> first i was trying to put it together as if it was a father daughter or boyfriend, girlfriend. none of that fit. >> the trail riders pushed on past the hikers two-man tent nearby. then took a break to water their horses in the water ahead. mike started talking about the fear he saw in the girl's eyes. by then, all four were wondering what was going on with those two out of place hikers. >> it's not leaving us alone. something isn't adding up here. >> but the friends goal was fishing at morehead lake, a

favorite spot down the switchback about an hour ahead. they dismounted, hoofed it in and caught six fish between all four of them. >> the fishing needs to restock that lake. it's bad. >> as they headed home for the long ride back to their base camp, they were surprised to once again come upon the two hikers. the pair now had brand new 50-pound backpacks and had covered a lot of distance on foot from where the riders had previously encountered them. the man with a few days of beard was petting an old gray cat cradled in his arms. >> i said what are you doing with a cat in here? they're just good bait for wolves and mountain lions. he just kind of put a smirk on his face and kept stroking the cat. >> mark turned and spotted the girl then. 25 yards away or so dangling her feet in the water staring out into the lake. mark called out a little joke about her feet killing all the fish. she didn't respond. but as the party rode on, she

turned her head to them. >> i heard her say, looks like we're all in trouble now. >> what did that mean? >> by then, krista's head was buzzing with mike owes growing conviction that something was wrong here. she wanted to turn back and talk to the girl on the qt. >> as a mother and grandmother, i just thought i would just nonchalantly ride close to her and say here's the rocks we fished on and out of the corner of my mouth ask her without moving, are you in trouble? >> krista, you really thought that? >> i really thought that. take your feet out of the water if you are and still pointing. but mark held me back. >> she want to talk to her. i said you leave it alone. that might be a family dispute, lovers quarrel, leave it alone. let's ride on out of here. >> at camp that night, the steaks and corn tasted good but they could not get the two on the trail out of their heads. >> mike says that guy just made

the hair on the back of my neck stand up. i did not like his looks. and he mentioned to me, he said when we get home, we need to watch the news and see if something is going on. >> the thing that kept coming back was the look in her eyes. >> the next morning, thursday now and five days since hannah and dimaggio had last been seen, they loaded the horses and headed home. >> mark was getting the last of the gear stowed at home. >> finally i come in the house and she's got the tv on. i looked up and there's an amber alert flash on the tv screen. i said, krista, that's the girl we seen on the mountain. i said, call mike and mary tell them to turn their tv on and check this out. >> now both couples were on the computer reading up on the girl in the amber alert. san diego, a fire, a murdered mom and brother. the photos definitely the girl. the guy? hard to say exactly.

mike and mary were pretty sure it was him. with that, the former sheriff got on the phone with the idaho state police, then the command post head in san diego. >> he talked to me and he said his final comment was he says, you might have just blown the lid right off of this thing. >> the search map on the entire american west had gotten a lot smaller. but could rescue teams pinpoint jim dimaggio's exact location in time to rescue the girl hannah? the clock was now very much ticking on a cornered man in unfor giving back country terrain. coming up -- >> new details about howser chers found their kidnapper. one involves his cat. >> bam, there's a blue tent there, there's a male, a blond female and then there's a cat. >> when "dateline" continues. i need to redeem some venture miles before my demise. okay. it's easy to erase any recent travel expense i want. just pick that flight right there. mmm hmmm.

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the horseback riders had with 99% certainty encountered the two in the back country. >> i feel like all of us were sent here for a purpose. maybe this was just part of our ride. >> following the riders' tip a rookie state trooper came up with a clincher. checking out a trail head, he caught a glint of reflective light under brush and tree limbs. he cleared away the branches and there it was. a cleverly concealed car with the vehicle identification number confirming it as dimaggio's. >> by that fry evening, scores of local, state and federal law enforcement officers were

converging on cascade, idaho, 75 miles north of boise to set up a hostage rescue command post. among their numbers was san diego-based marshal steve german. with a much reduced search grid, dimaggio was still out in the wild. the u.s. marshall felt the clock ticking to get to the girl in time. >> it was a dire situation. i really truly believe her live was in grave danger. >> the marshals job that saturday morning, a full week now since hannah had disappeared, was to get in a small plane and look down from 5,000 feet for a sign of dimaggio and his captive. it was all timber, gray rocks, no one home at first. >> it was a tremendous land mass that we're talking about. but very rugged terrain. so movement would have been very slow. we had that going to our advantage. >> dimaggio and hannah were on foot in a vast wilderness with no roads out. but they had been spotted just three miles from the salmon river.

whitewater rafters went down it every day. was it also a possible exit route for uncle jim and the teenager. ? >> checkpoints were set up at the rafter's haul-out spots. >> could they have made the river, could they have gotten on a raft? could they have made it to a highway down river and hitchhiked their way out? >> the focal point was the mountain fishing area where the horseback riders run into the man and the teenager for the second time. >> we circled morehead lake a couple times and just as we were getting ready to peel off of it, i thought i saw something on the north side. then it was like the light hit it just right and bam, there's a blue tent there. >> a blue tent like the one the riders had seen. they had almost missed it. now they had a good hard look through their binoculars. >> there's a male, blond fee may. then there's a cat. there's a small animal. able to identify a small animal. right there, we knew we had something extraordinarily valuable.

>> a house cat in the wilderness. it could only have been oliver. >> it was a bingo moment in the command post down in cascade where andrea dearden a local sheriff's spokesperson was briefing the media. the spotter plane reporting back. >> we heard him say there's a man, we see a female and we heard them say we see a gray animal. it's a cat. >> and there you were. >> that's when we knew. >> that cat became the confirmation ultimately? >> we had no doubt in our minds that that was hannah and dimaggio. >> we had dimaggio, 100%. >> now they had to get a team on the ground to rescue hannah. did dimaggio suspect from bumping into the horseback party or the aircraft above that he had been made? >> you got to get to him. >> logistics become a challenge because you can't land the helicopter in the camp without dimaggio knowing they're there. >> now you have to worry whether he's clued to you and is this girl in terrible peril because here they come.

>> the window of opportunity was very small that day. >> the outcome of the next few hours was anything but a sure bet. the fbi hostage rescue team had to assume he was armed. they would go in by helicopter. >> there's a challenging landing. not a lot of flat land. they put that helicopter down a mile to two miles from the camp sight and then they began that two to 2 1/2 hour hike to surround the camp. >> in san diego, a thousand miles away, the sheriff who committed all his resources to the case could now only stand by and sweat it out in real time. >> one much our deputies was in the command post with an open line to us. we were getting simultaneous information as it was occurring in idaho. >> the command post in two states waited silently. >> that was probably the most tense time. we know that from what we can see, she's physically okay. so now we just need to get in and make that rescue. >> coming up -- the rescue in

the mountains. >> the next thing we heard was shots fired. >> and in her first television b interview, hannah answers her critics. >> most of them think that i'm not innocent. but i am. >> and coming up next friday on "dateline," they worked hard to make their american dream come true. then the unthinkable. >> it's just killing me. >> slammed by the recession, they lived what so many feared. watching their income disappear. >> i feel like a failure. >> the economy may have improved but millions are still in dire financial straits. >> now, one family lets you in to see what most wouldn't. the emotional fight to save their home from foreclosure. >> he is still trying to get us our last minute stay, like an execution. >> parents try to keep it together for the kids. >> never happy. >> i know. i'm trying.

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jim dimaggio and his 16-year-old hostage was spotted from the air. now a rescue team was inserted by chopper two miles away, so they weren't heard by the suspect. the unit made it across the rocky wilderness by foot until they had a vantage point of the campsite. hannah moving a few feet from dimaggio. the rescuers made their move. so did a surprised dimaggio. >> dimaggio had a rifle, fired one round, lowered the rifle to shoulder height, fired one more round. >> the snipers took their shot. a five-round volley to the head and chest. the radio down in the local command center so tensely silent for so many minutes now crackled the news. >> and the next thing we heard

was shots fired, suspect down hard, jackpot, jackpot. >> what's that mean to civilians? >> jackpot, we knew, meant that they had hannah. >> andrea dearden, the briefer for the media along with the others could at last exhale. >> it was a huge sigh of relief. >> with dimaggio dead on the ground, the rescuers called for the chopper to come in and pick up an uninjured hannah and oliver, dimaggio's beloved gray cat that was the final confirmation of his whereabouts. hannah as evaced to a hospital in mccall where she recounted her story to a sole fbi investigator trained to work delicately with adolescents like her. for the first time, she learned that her mother and little brother had been murdered. >> back home in san diego, elation that hannah was spared. since coming home, hannah has been embraced by the same loving community that held vigils for

her safe return. circle of healing so strong that this wednesday, just 11 days after being plucked out of the idaho wilderness, she felt ready to speak out about her ordeal giving an exclusive first interview to nbc news. >> really scary. >> we met a nervous teenager who was remarkably poised for someone so young who had endured so much. >> it's kind of hard. but i'm hanging in there. >> this is a picture of hannah anderson. >> hannah was surprised to learn about the nationwide search for her and says she never heard of the amber alert. >> i didn't really know what it was. but i know it helped people find me and it made them like realize that it's hard to find people out there. but with everyone's support, it can help a lot. >> she thanked the legions of people who helped bring her home. >> i wanted to thank the horsemen and the amber alert and the sheriff and the fbi, with

everyone that put in their time to find me. and my dad and my friends and my family. just all my supporters that helped spread the word. >> her dramatic rescue. >> back up. >> the overwhelming homecoming she's received. all of that nonstop stimulus has delayed for hannah making sense for now about how her life is changed. about her awful loss. >> through all of this, like i don't know how i feel. so i can't really like show it as much. >> in these early days of grief, she embraces a teenager's symbols. a t-shirt she designed to honor her mom and brother. a special manicure. >> i got my nails done to help support my mom and brother. the blue is for ethan and the pink is for my mom. >> her father brett was by her side as hannah spoke publicly for the first time about the mother she lost so brutally.

>> my mom raised me to be strong. she was strong hearted and very tough. she had a temper, but she knew how to handle things. >> and then little ethan. >> he had a really big heart. and -- >> it's clearly all too much. and likely will be for some time. >> which is partly why just three days after coming home, she did something she says a lot of people misunderstood. hannah logged on to a social media site popular with high school kids called ask fm to field questions from anonymous strangers about her ordeal. some of the questions were blunt. were your mom and ethan burned alive? yes, she replied. are you happier they shot him or would you have wanted him to have life in prison? >> she answered shot him, he

deserved what he got. some questions were frivolous. are you into drake, lil wayne, et cetera? >> yes. >> her online chat may have seemed inappropriate to some people, but it's how she found the emotional support she craved. she is a digital teen. >> well, a lot of my family and friends that i don't have numbers to or they don't have cell phones, i connect to them through facebook and instagram, it just helps me grieve like, post pictures and to show how i'm feeling and i'm a teenager. i'm going to go on it. >> in our interview, she also addressed some of the eyebrow raising details about the investigation. facts that have fueled speculation about her relationship with her abductor. things like why was there so much cell phone communication between dimaggio and hannah the day he killed her mother and brother? >> the phone calls weren't phone calls. they were texts. because he was picking me up

from cheer camp and he didn't know the address or like where i was. so i had to tell him the address and tell him that i was going to be in the gym and not in front of the school. and just so he knew where to come get me. >> and what about the letters from hannah to dimaggio that investigators found at his place? >> the letters were from like a year ago when me and my mom weren't getting along very well. me and him would talk about how to deal with it and i'd tell him how i felt about it and he helped me through it. they weren't anything bad. they were just to help me through tough times. >> and to anyone who remains skeptical about her, hannah had this to say. >> they don't really know the story. so they kind of have their own opinion on what they hear. most of them think that i'm not innocent. but i am. >> authorities are resolute that

hannah is unquestionably the victim here. >> she was a victim in every sense of the word. >> she was taken against her will. >> she was taken against her will. he controlled her. no doubt about it. >> from beginning to end? >> from beginning to end. >> is this an open investigation? >> it's still an open investigation because we want to try to answer all the unanswered questions. there's no doubt in our mind she was a victim. >> jim dimaggio never made it to a courtroom to face the monstrous charge. why did you destroy almost an entire family? >> the sheriff in san diego for one can live without knowing the answer? >> am i going to lose sleep that he's not going into a court of law? after seeing what he did hear in san diego, i'm probably not going to lose any sleep over that. >> unless hannah herself elects to tell the whole story someday, the details of her awful journey to the river of no return, the before and after of her young life will probably never be made public. after all, she is a teenager. >> legally a minor.

still just a kid in so many ways. and with any kind of luck, the journey ahead will get easier for her. >> i'm never going to forget about t but i think i can move on. this was a hard time. there's going to be harder times in life. but if i could get through this, i'm sure i can get through a lot more. that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again next friday at 9:00, 8:00 central. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." i'm lester holt and for all of us at nbc news, good night. next at 11:00, a new twist in the search for baby daphne. proposed soda ban. the rim fire puts more in danger.

right now at 11:00, the rim fire near yosemite forcing the governor to declare a state of emergency for the city of san francisco. that fire is burning more than 150 miles away, but there is plenty of concern right here in the bay area. >> that's because the fire is burning closer to the reservoir which supplies the city's water and electricity. in fact, 85% of the city's water comes from that reservoir near yo assembly chit is not yet affected. its power lines which run