Hannah Anderson Rescue: The 14-Mile Trail to Freedom

by Patrick H. Moore

Historical recreations are popular in America these days. For example, my niece and her husband are deeply involved in Civil War re-creations. My niece designs Civil War costumes and they like nothing better than attending weekend retreats where Civil War scenes are re-created. The reason I mention this is because this week Kevin Tibbles of NBC and the 4 riders who discovered James DiMaggio and Hannah Anderson and Hannah’s cat deep in the Frank Church Idaho wilderness at their campsite on the shores of Lake Morehead, re-rode the trail that led from civilization to the campsite and back again.

It’s a 14-mile, 5-hour ride through the majestic and treacherous wilderness to the dirt track where the riders encountered the kidnapper DiMaggio and his victim, the 16-year-old SoCal teenager. When retired sheriff turned rancher Mark John and his wife, Christa, and their friends Mike and Mary Young, crossed paths with Hannah and DiMaggio they were struck by a very curious fact — as they conversed DiMaggio was stroking Hannah’s cat. But yet DiMaggio managed to feign enough normality to convince the four riders, once they got back on the trail, that although the situation was certainly unusual, it was no cause for alarm.

It was only when the riders got back to civilization and turned on the television — something Jim Bridger and the Mountain Men of the Old West never did — that they realized an Amber Alert had been declared and that the rather morose teenage girl they’d seen quietly cooling her feet in a stream was kidnap victim Hannah Anderson. Retired sheriff Mark John immediately alerted the authorities and three days later DiMaggio was dead and Hannah was rescued.

Kevin Tibbles at Morehead Lake and Tracy Connor in New York of NBC News report:

Dense forests, rugged trails, steep ridges and deep canyons. That’s the stunningly beautiful and deceptively dangerous terrain of the Idaho wilderness where four horseback riders encountered murder suspect James Lee DiMaggio and kidnapped teenager Hannah Anderson last week.

Joined by NBC News, the intrepid riders — whose tip sparked a dramatic rescue operation in which DiMaggio was shot dead and Hannah was rescued — retraced the 14-mile, five-hour journey to the dirt track where they fatefully crossed paths with the pair on Aug. 7.

It’s a treacherous path — strewn with rocks and fallen tree limbs — even for experienced outdoorsmen on horseback. For a teenage girl from suburban San Diego, on foot without the proper gear and under tremendous stress, it could have been deadly.

The four riders recalled that DiMaggio, 40, and Hannah, 16, seemed curiously out of place there in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, their tent perched on an unprotected ridge.

“It’s probably as rough as anything there is in the United States,” Mike Young said of the unforgiving landscape. “Every state says they have the steepest mountains, but they haven’t been to Idaho.”

Although a hiker or rider traversing the backcountry is sure to be dazzled by the soaring trees and glistening lakes, he or she must at all times be aware of the hazardous cliffs and the craggy rocks that pose a threat to even the sure-footed.

“It’s like stepping on marbles,” Mark John’s wife Christa John said.

Those familiar with the area wear cowboy hats and thick-soled shoes. They load up their horses with sleeping bags, readily accessible meals, and plenty of water. Contrast this to Hannah Anderson in her tennis shoes and sweats, hauling a brand-new 60-pound rucksack.

“That was super-strength,” said Mark John.

The four riders downplayed their role in Hannah’s rescue.

“I don’t know if we saved her life,” Mark John said. “I know we set the stage for somebody else to save her life.”

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Mark John is wrong about one thing. He and his wife and friends did save Hannah’s life. And the FBI tactical teams who were helicoptered into the wilderness, hiked for two hours through the rough terrain, and then liberated Hannah — shooting and killing James DiMaggio in the process — also saved her life. Hannah’s friends who came forward and told the authorities that Hannah had privately mentioned that DiMaggio had begun to make her feel uncomfortable did their small part to save her lifde. But most of all, in a certain sense, Hannah saved her own life. We may never know what she had to do to save it, how she kept DiMaggio at bay, and she was undoubtedly helped by the fact that in his own twisted way DiMaggio was very fond of her and obviously didn’t want to kill her. But carrying the 60-pound rucksack up and down 14-miles of bad road was only part of what this girl did to survive. I hope that someday we will get to hear the whole story. And I’m not talking about the rape, or the lack thereof. I’m talking about how she kept the fiend from going completely berserk and blowing her head off in a mad rage or beating her to death. After all, this is the guy who murdered Hannah’s mother and brother for absolutely no reason. He would have gotten just as much of a running start by merely leaving them tightly bound in the garage with rags stuffed in their mouths. But he didn’t. He killed them and if the police reports are right, he also “tortured” them. Yet Hannah somehow kept him at bay, a fact I will always marvel at.