Hannah Anderson kidnap case?

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
I've been semi following the story of the girl whose mother and brother were killed and who was kidnapped and found in the wilderness. The kidnapper was her dad's best friend and was killed by deputies.

Anyone else thinking there is way more to this story? I have my doubts about her story. I understand she may be in shock, but doing a Q&A on a social network site within 48 hours of being rescued sounds odd to me. Also, photos that have been shared show a bit of a wild child to me. I guess what I'm saying is that the entire story is setting off every difficult child alarm in my body. Having been through my own difficult child and her nutty behavior at age 16, my gut it telling me that something isn't right with the story. I'm just not buying it. Anyone else?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I also followed that case -I am an avid HLN watcher. I did find it odd that if Hannah had told so many of her friends that she was creeped out by this guy, why didnt she tell her parents or some other trusted adult? And why didnt any of her friends tell someone else. I dont know many teens who can keep that sort of secret for long.

It does seem that he is responsible for the killings of her mother and brother but if you are thinking what I think you are, well, it could be possible that she was in on it in some way. I havent seen anything in the last day or two because other things are taking up TV time but the last I heard the searchers thought it odd to find her sitting on the bank of a creek soaking her feet.

Of course now we have more people gone missing and the Usher custody issues to look at. And Jodie Arias has to be sentenced sometime soon.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
My difficult child radar has not been triggered. My Dad had four or five friends who were around my whole life. They were referred to as "Uncle Bill" "Uncle John" etc. due to the close connection. One of my sister's did not like one of them at all and I, on the other hand, kinda avoided another. None of them ever "did" or "said" anything inappropriate and it was not rare for them to drop me at Girl Scouts or pick up my brother from ball practice. I assume time will tell. I also would presume that "if" she knew she was going anywhere she would have been dressed in jeans and boots...not pajama bottoms and barefeet. Fingers crossed she was not injured. DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Oh I didnt hear how she was dressed. Like I said, I only caught the news when they found her and that the man was in a fire fight with the FBI. I dont mean to say that I am sure there is something more. Most likely its exactly what they thought.

I didnt grow up with friends of my parents being called Uncle but my boys have dozens of friends who they call their cousins. I think they are related somewhere down the line but its so far back that I dont think the word cousin is the right word.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
We had close family friends as well, but only one gave me the heebies and he turned out to be my brother in law that was abusive to my sister. He tried something with me once and when I told my mom, she blew it off. He was thrown out not too much later.

I just thing it's odd the way she's talking about things so freely on line, etc., after the dad asked for time for Hannah and her family to process things.

My radar has been wrong before, but not usually in these kinds of cases. Oh well, just asking. I, unlike Janet, do not watch much television at all. What I learn is usually from non-mainstream media. NBCnews is the only mainstream news I read on line usually and that is where I've been keeping up with this story.
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I have to admit that when I first heard the story I kinda wondered but law enforcement spokesmen have been adamant about saying that she was a victim and not involved and I'm willing to believe them. I think, in this country, we are too often ready to blame the victim. The guy was a creepy jacka$$ and people need to let her heal in whatever way works for her, even if it's not the way that would work for us.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Very good reminder!


I have to admit that when I first heard the story I kinda wondered but law enforcement spokesmen have been adamant about saying that she was a victim and not involved and I'm willing to believe them. I think, in this country, we are too often ready to blame the victim. The guy was a creepy jacka$$ and people need to let her heal in whatever way works for her, even if it's not the way that would work for us.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I'm sure there is an appropriate term for social media addiction by teens and by adults. Obviously I "shouldn't" address a subject that I'm not really personally familiar with due to my age BUT based on what I've "seen" members of my family put on FB I really "think" there is a perception that everyone is your friend, everyone shares everything, everyone cares about all the details of your life....and (LOL, old people rant) I think that social media replaces hanging out in person with people you know and care about. She is a teenager and I'm betting that instead of picking up the phone and calling one or two close friends...it's second nature to connect with everyone at one time. Her Dad may think "they" need to keep a low profile and quietly mourn BUT he's from the telephone generation. I'm glad my eight are older and out of the house! DDD
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
This has made it to even our news (well to tabloids' web news but still) so I do know the basics, but not much details. But I have to say that I'm not at all surprised if the teen doesn't tell parents or other adults that they find someone creepy. I would be more surprised if they did. Teens fear parents would not take them seriously; or take them too seriously and start to demand proof or have a confrontation. This based on my own experience. When I was at High School I had a teacher who creeped stuffings out of me. And he did creep out other girls too and no one ever told any adult. To this date I don't know if there was any reason to be creeped out. He never did anything actually improper and it can be that he just had trouble noticing small unverbal hints and issues with recognizing proper personal space. All I do know is, that hair back of my neck did stand up when he came close to check my work.

And when it comes social media, I'm with DDD. To my kids generation it really is so totally different. They have grown up with social media and it is often their main communication tool. It is very difficult to consider what is 'normal reaction' for them based to our own experiences. We simply grew up, and still live, in totally different world than our kids when it comes to these things.

It's also police's job to find out what happened. Until proof I would be very hesitant to blame the victim.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Hmmm I think you maybe right that something isn't right here. If it is true that he exchanged 13 calls with her earlier that day and then picked her up from cheer leading practice and hours later the mother and brother were killed and the house burned, what did the daughter think was happening?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well I heard more last night on HLN and the website she was talking on was not FB but some other place I had never even heard of...lol. They showed some of her texts and they really werent bad. In some she even talked about getting her nails done in pink and blue...pink for her mom and blue for her brother. I think that is pretty normal teen talk. When anyone actually got pesky asking for real details she shut them down saying she wasnt allowed to talk about details and to please not ask her.

I know this would be the first place I would come if something bad happened to me. I would need your support.

Now there is a weird case out of VA where someone was actually sending messages on this girls twitter account and she didnt know them. She is missing and they really wonder if the texter isnt involved. It was obvious by his texts that he had been watching her.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
While she may not have known what she was getting into, I still feel that something is missing in this story. If he was a creeper and she a typical teen with a difficult child edge to her, who knows?

Also, please do not misconstrue my questioning this case with me blaming the victim. Having been a victim myself and watching my own 15 y/o daughter go through a horrifying incident of luring, kidnapping, and sexual assault...I do NOT blame the victim. I was merely pointing out that her actions and past behaviors screamed difficult child to ME and, as we all know all too well, difficult child's often act before thinking. Know what I mean??
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
Yes, gfgness certainly makes you a prime candidate to be exploited by creeps. Same as developmental and physical disabilities or poor home life. Creeps know very well to target to the easy victims and pass the kids who are more likely able to defend themselves.

In my understanding it isn't too often, that creeps would victimise kids they have more difficult time to have access, when there are kids that are more accessible. Or less likely to report them. For example disabled children are three to four times more likely to end up being abused (three times as likely for sexual abuse and four times for physical abuse) than kids without disabilities.

And while almost all teens have their dirty little secrets, kids with issues have them more and are much more vulnerable to be used than kids with less secrets. And that added to their overall vulnerability making them to be more in the risk, it is indeed likely, that most kids who ended up being hurt by creeps had issues even before that.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I'm with Muttmeister and Suzir. Being a difficult child gives people so much more opportunity to exploit kids. She's a little girl, and even if she did go willingly - and I have seen no evidence that she did - that's a tragic life that would lead her to go with someone who killed her family. Now that they're gone, who is there to tell her to not get an interview on a social network?

I was thinking just this morning about how wild, but also naive I was when I was young. I was thin and poor and had no boobs whatsoever, so I never wore a bra. I had no clue that when I wore sheer clothes outside you could see right through them, there was no mirror! That wouldn't mean it would be ok to kidnap me and kill my family. I did however, figure out the blouse thing from a creepy man whom I knew marginally, and not in a "let's guide you in the right direction" kind of way.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Nancy, I read about the texts going back and forth between the girl and the kidnapper, too, which did make me wonder if there was more to this than we know.

As far as her using social networking to process what happened to her, I didn't find that odd at all. I work with teenagers every day and that is their world now. It would be just like us calling our best friends after something happened to us. They really don't even think about the fact that everything that they say on social media can be viewed by the whole world.

I make my students put their electronics in their bookbags and then put the bookbags in the front of the room so that they focus on me and math rather than spend the class period texting or surfing the internet. One boy told me recently that it made him feel like a part of him was missing. That is how connected they are to social networking.

ETA: I just went to the NBCnews website and saw this:

A telephonic search warrant detailed how close DiMaggio was to Hannah Anderson in particular.
It said that 40-year-old DiMaggio and Hannah Anderson exchanged 13 phone calls before she was picked up from cheerleading practice at Sweetwater High School at about 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) by someone who was unknown at that time.
Her cell phone was switched off at about this time. DiMaggio’s phone had also been turned off earlier that day.
“It has been learned through interviews with Hanna [sic] Anderson's friend that DiMaggio took her on multiple day trips. The most recent one being to Malibu and Hollywood,” the warrant said.

This makes me think that there was a relationship between Hannah and DiMaggio. Why would she go off with him on multiple day trips if he "creeped her out"?

~Kathy
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
This makes me think that there was a relationship between Hannah and DiMaggio. Why would she go off with him on multiple day trips if he "creeped her out"?

More to the point, what kind of parents allow that? She's a kid whose been exploited, and it sure as hell didn't turn out well. No doubt we'll see plenty more of it.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I agree Kathy, it's the phone calls earlier in the day that has me wondering. Texting or going on social media after the fact is quite normal, albeit maybe shows an emotional disconnect from the actual event. I'm not blaming her at all but wondering what she was doing on the phone with this guy and then saying she wishes she tried harder to save them which suggests to me she knew they were dead or going to be killed. Lots of questions for sure. Without knowing the background here it's hard to say but obviously this guy did not have her interests at heart.
 

pasajes4

Well-Known Member
My radar went up when they interviewed the couple that camr across them in the oregon park. They said the girl did not say anything until the couple had started to leave. The woman said that the girl said something to the effect that now we are both in trouble. It made me think that maybe she was with him because she wanted to be. Pictures of him with her appeared pretty chummy. I think that it is possible that this young girl was under some unnatural attachment to a psycopath that cast her in his sick web.
 
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