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16-Year-Old Kidnapping Victim Answered Questions About Her Ordeal Online
After 16-year-old Hannah Anderson returned home from being kidnapped and dragged to the wilderness of Idaho by a family friend James Lee DiMaggio, she returned home to answer questions about her harrowing experience online.Anderson answered some very blunt and serious questions about her ordeal this week on the website ask.fm. Her account hannahbanana722 has since been disabled but outlets including the Los Angeles Times, CNN and the Associated Press reprinted some of her answers.
And it sounds like it was really her: Users asked her to post a picture of herself, and she complied by offering up a smiling selfie. Dawn MacNabb, whose son Alan is close to Anderson, confirmed for the Associated Press that it was her account. They also encouraged her to delete some of the postings.
Anderson wrote about her survivors' guilt after learning that both her mother Christina Anderson and brother Ethan had been killed: "I wish I could go back in time and risk my life to try and save theirs. I will never forgive myself for not trying harder to save them."
She said that the night she was kidnapped she was separated from her family who had been tied up in the garage. She didn't realize there had been a fire, because her captor timed the fire: "He had it set where it would catch on fire at a certain time."
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Anderson said that DiMaggio brought her along, in part, so that she could help him carry equipment into the wilderness. He kept her from screaming for help by threatening to kill her or anyone who tried to save her from him with the gun that he carried. She wrote: "I had to act calm I didn't want them to get hurt. I was scared that he would kill them." She said that she "basically" stayed awake six days straight, and DiMaggio refused to feed her despite her pleas. She said she was terrified the entire time and prayed constantly to be rescued.
She also explained her feelings about DiMaggio. She said he once told her that he had a "family crush" on her and told her that "he wanted nothing bad to happen to me." She said though she was creeped out by him, she felt uncomfortable since he was a family friend: "In part, he was my dad's best friend and I didn't want to ruin anything between them."
But she didn't feel bad about the way things ended up for DiMaggio. She wrote that she was "absolutely" glad he was dead and also: "I hope he burns in hell."
Anderson refused to answer questions about whether or not she had been raped: "I'm not allowed to talk about it, so don't ask questions about it, thank you." She also refused to answer any questions from media, telling reporters, "Please leave me alone."
One commenter on the site said that she didn't sound very emotional, and she responded: "I'm trying to stay strong. You don't know I could be crying answering these questions at the moment."
Related:
Kidnap Victim Hannah Anderson Didn't Know Her Mother And Brother Were Dead
Hannah Anderson's Family Responds To Her Rescue
California Kidnapper Killed In Idaho, His 16-Year-Old Victim Is Safe
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