by Patrick H. Moore
Now that Hannah Anderson has been rescued by the heroic efforts of law enforcement in general and the FBI tactical rescue teams in particular, it’s time to take stock of this tragic situation and talk about what we can learn from this disaster. It is, in a sense, unfortunate that kidnapper James DiMaggio was not taken alive for the simple reason that now we will never learn what drove him to not only kidnap Hannah (that part is perhaps obvious), but why he chose (apparently) to murder Hannah’s mother Christina Anderson and her brother Ethan before absconding with Hannah.
Although the precise circumstances that drove the FBI tactical rescue teams to shoot and kill DiMaggio, rather than taking him alive, may never be revealed (the FBI is generally reluctant to reveal what actually transpired in situations like this), no matter what the circumstances, I do not fault them for killing DiMaggio. Hannah Anderson was clearly at grave risk and was already, it appears, lucky to still be alive after spending a full week alone with this madman. If the FBI had gone to great effort to capture DiMaggio alive it could have backfired and conceivably resulted in Hannah dying instead of DiMaggio.
What Were Hannah’s Parents Thinking?
What I want to address in this brief reflection is why did this happen and how can we as citizens and parents make sure that similar tragedies don’t occur in the future. Although there are no easy answers to this question, certain things are fairly obvious:
First, Hannah’s parents should never have allowed James DiMaggio to spend time alone with their child in clearly inappropriate situations. It was inappropriate for DiMaggio to take Hannah to Disneyland for her birthday. It was completely inappropriate for DiMaggio and Hannah to share a motel room alone at Disneyland (assuming this actually took place). The fact that DiMaggio routinely drove Hannah and her teammates home from gymnastics practice is not necessarily inappropriate but had I been Hannah’s mother or father I would have been very wary of permitting this situation to occur.
Why Do I feel This Way?
I am not saying that grown men should never be allowed to spend time alone with teenage girls but in the case of DiMaggio there were clear indications that he was not a good candidate to be given this privilege. DiMaggio was unmarried, had no children of his own, and there have no no reports that I am aware of that he even had a girlfriend. The man was apparently a loner. At the risk of generalizing, I think it is fair to suggest that grown heterosexual men pushing 40 who are neither married nor involved in intimate relationships with a member of the opposite sex may be far more likely to become inappropriately enamored with a desirable 16-year-old teenage girl than a more typical married guy with a wife, children, etc.
I strongly suspect that most grown heterosexual men experience at least some physical attraction to pretty teenage girls. It’s a biological imperative. The powerful physical attraction that heterosexual men feel for females in general is necessary for the human race to propagate and it doesn’t magically only begin when the girls reaches the age of 18.
If DiMaggio had not been allowed to spend so much time with Hannah, he most likely would not have developed his unhealthy infatuation toward her. It was simply not smart for Hannah’s parents to permit this relationship to progress.
Why Were Hannah’s Parents So Naive?
This is a hard question to answer. During Hannah’s week of captivity, her father, Brett Anderson, stated repeatedly that he was absolutely shocked by what had occurred and I’m sure he was completely sincere. This, however, does not change the fact that both he and Hannah’s mother failed utterly to be sensitive to the fact that they were placing both Hannah and DiMaggio is an extremely compromising position. The bottom line is that had this close proximity not been permitted by Hannah’s parents, this tragedy would never have happened. Christina and Ethan Anderson would still be alive. James DiMaggio would still be alive. The entire situation could have easily been avoided.
What Are Appropriate Guidelines?
At the risk of being overly rigid, I believe that parents should not allow grown men to be alone with their teenage daughters when it is completely unnecessary. For example, with my daughters’ girlfriends, I have always made it a practice to make sure that anytime I needed to drive one of them home from the mall or home from school, or home from anywhere for that matter, I have always insisted that my wife or daughter accompany us in the car. That way I am never alone with the girlfriend. It’s not that anything inappropriate would occur if I was alone with one of my daughters’ girlfriends; rather, it simply makes sense for adult males to be, in a sense, “chaperoned” by other parties. That way nothing untoward can possibly happen. It’s simply good policy and one I have always observed.
Click on the links below to view our previous posts on this case:
Breaking News: James DiMaggio Exchanged Gunfire with FBI Prior to Being Shot and Killed
Hannah Anderson Rescued: SWAT Team Kills Kidnapper James DiMaggio in Idaho Wilderness
Amber Alert: Abducted Teenage Girl Hannah Anderson Sighted with Kidnapper in Idaho Wilderness