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16-Year-Old Hannah Anderson Rescued; Suspect James DiMaggio Killed; Riders Who Spotted Teen Speak
Aired August 11, 2013 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Absolutely, Fred. Thank you very much.
As you said extraordinary confluence of events, we are going to continue on with that and much, much more. I'm Don Lemon.
We have bizarre new details of the alleged kidnapping of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson. The couple who spotted Hannah and her suspected captor in Idaho say the teen was wearing pajamas and she and DiMaggio were hiking with a cat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK JOHN, SPOTTED HANNAH ANDERSON IN IDAHO: These people did not want to talk to us whatsoever. And I said to the girl soaking her feet, I said what are you doing with your feet in the water, I said don't you know there's fish in there, kind of joking. And as we turned to ride away, she didn't make any comment until we started riding away and she says it looks like we're all in trouble now. All of their gear looked like it was brand new. That was another little flag that wasn't -- just wasn't normal or natural.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Hannah Anderson expected to rejoin her father, Brett, today for the first time since a once-trusted family friend shattered their lives. Hannah was rescued from the Idaho wilderness yesterday after the FBI shot and killed her alleged kidnapper James DiMaggio, also suspected of murdering Hannah's little brother and her mother.
FBI hostage rescue teams hiked for hours to find her. Some rescuers wept when mission ended successfully. Physically Hannah's OK, but the trauma of her ordeal could linger for years. For Hannah and her family, the family reunion may be filled with joy and grief. They have each other, but they have lost so much, so much.
It is agonizing what -- one agonizing week for the entire family of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, waiting, hoping, praying for good news. And the reunion sure to be sweet. Remember Hannah's mother and brother died a week ago. Their remains found in the suspect's burned out house near San Diego.
Covering that angle of the story for us is CNN's Paul Vercammen. He is live in San Diego. Paul, a news conference with the horseback riders who spotted the pair just wrapped up. You heard it right here on CNN. The details we're hearing are really just extraordinary about these people, really Good Samaritan, every day men and women who helped to find her.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, Don, in front of the grandparents house, the Brits, the maternal grandparents and they watched a little bit of that conference and they were shaking their heads, and they said just awesome. I mean, they were extremely delighted by the people in Idaho who helped find their granddaughter.
And actually the maternal grandmother, Sarah, said that perhaps Ethan somewhere from heaven had sent a message to the fisherman, the sheriff who spotted them and said reel them in, the pun certainly intended, Don. You know, they were so glad for what these people did. And as you also heard, Don, the man who spotted them was a sheriff's deputy and also an army ranger. They say -- one woman said, his wife, it was a one in a trillion shot that they came upon him. Just astounding to hear all of that.
And he also said that his buddy was an outfitter and that all of them were packing pistols. And he joked that if there was an exchange, he might have gotten one of them, but they certainly would have gotten him, Don.
LEMON: Yes. Again, you were talking to the grandparents, what more did they have to say to you, Paul?
VERCAMMEN: Well, off camera they were reacting to those heroes, if you will, in Idaho. And on camera we had a discussion as you pointed out, this is absolutely bittersweet. They are so happy and relieved that Hannah is safe, but don't forget they now have to turn their thoughts to unimaginable tragedy. They are heartbroken. They have to bury their only child, their daughter Tina, and they have to bury their 8-year-old grandson, Ethan. And let's listen to what Mr. Brit had to say about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: And how would you like to remember Christina?
RALPH BRIT, HANNAH ANDERSON'S GRANDFATHER: As a daughter and mother of two great kids. That's it.
VERCAMMEN: Did you ever have any sense looking back, and hindsight of course is 20/20, that somehow Jim DiMaggio, this trusted family friend, would snap?
SARA BRIT, HANNAH ANDERSON'S GRANDFATHER: Never.
RALPH BRIT: No. No.
SARA BRIT: And even the way it turned out, I mean, he loved little E and he loved my daughter. And for him to do such a horrific act is just not fathomable. I can't understand it because he loved them too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: And back here live, don, I can also tell you that the Brits say there will be at some point here, they're just planning it now, an open memorial service.
LEMON: All right. Paul Vercammen, thank you very much. I really appreciate that.
I want to get back now to that press conference, those horsemen that held a press conference a short time ago talking about their extraordinary ordeal, how they stumbled upon Hannah and James DiMaggio in the woods and what made them think something was odd about it and volunteering their time and their horses. Let's take a listen to that.
MARK JOHN: Mark John. Got a ranch up in sweet. Former Jim county sheriff. Retired army officer -- army rangers. This is my wife Christa. She's been with me for 52 years, actually, 53, 54. So we're hanging in there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: So you guys can get started by asking questions. As you come up you guys can talk about --
MARK JOHN: I would like to have Mike and his wife.
MIKE YOUNG, SPOTTED HANNAH ANDERSON IN IDAHO: Mike and Mary Young. We are also from Sweet, Idaho. We got a ranch there also.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Which one of you guys made that first phone call?
MARK JOHN: I made the first phone call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
MARK JOHN: Well, when we got up on the mountain that morning. We hadn't been into the lake fishing for quite a while. And so, that Tuesday morning we took off and went up to the lake and that Wednesday morning we rode in, we set up camp and rode in. Mike here was the first one to encounter the two hikers, the guy and the girl. Red flags kind of went up on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What red flags?
MARK JOHN: The girl -- I will let Mike explain that to you what he saw. And then when we went to the lake and then they showed up at the lake and there was just like a square peg going into a round hole. They didn't fit. He might have been an outdoorsman in California, but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho. He didn't fit.
So, when we got back to the camp that night after fishing, after our twice we encountered them, then we discussed it. Then we got home Thursday evening and I put all the horses away, took care of our livestock and everything and then we went into the house and the news flashed on. And the amber alert was on the television. And I told my wife, I said, that is that girl we seen on the mountain. But there was no phone number, so I talked to my wife and I called Mike and Mary and we said look at the TV and see if that girl doesn't look exactly like what we seen on the mountain. They kind of confirmed that. And then I called a friend of mine in the Idaho state police, Tom Nesbit, he used to work for me as my investigator when I was a sheriff. And so, I had all the confidence in the world in him and I called him and told him what we had seen and what was going on. And I knew that he would get the ball rolling and keep it rolling. And then the next morning we heard on the news where they found the car exactly where we told them it would be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Did you guys see the car too?
MARK JOHN: We never seen the car. Our trail head -- our trail going in T'd, came to a t with a trail that they came in on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
MARK JOHN: I can't hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What was the mood between the two? Did she seem frightened at all?
MARK JOHN: They didn't -- they weren't friendly and they didn't talk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: They didn't talk at all?
MARK JOHN: They asked Mike some simple questions.
MARK JOHN: What did they say?
MARK JOHN: Mike?
YOUNG: I just asked him where he was headed and he said he was going to the Salmon River, hopefully. But they were headed the wrong direction to get to Salmon River. That was one red flag for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How would you describe how Hannah was behaving?
YOUNG: She was trying to turn her face away. I talked to her -- well, I didn't talk to her. I was mainly concentrating on him, but she was kind of had a scared look on her face when I first come up the trail. We didn't know if it was from the horses or what. But then when I turned and talked to him a little bit, I just had a gut feeling about him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How long was that interaction?
YOUNG: Just a few seconds. And then when we went up the trail a little ways I turned around and told these guys that there was something wrong there. It just wasn't right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Did you get a sense at all that there was danger? That somebody was in danger? YOUNG: Not really. You know, we thought maybe she was just scared of the horses or something like that. But I spend a lot of time in the back country and you usually don't run into somebody that's wearing pajamas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Who was wearing pajamas?
YOUNG: Well, it looked kind of like pajamas bottoms that she was wearing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What were those guys wearing?
YOUNG: She-- he had a backpack on and she was just wearing either sweats or pajamas. You know, regular top. But like I say, she not long after I got she turned and, you know, was trying to look the other direction. And at the second encounter we had was kind of the same way and I talked to him a little bit there too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What did he say?
YOUNG: They actually followed us into the lake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Was there anything else about them that made you feel that they didn't fit?
YOUNG: No, just kind of a gut feeling. You know, like they didn't belong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How were they outfitted? What kind of gear did they have?
YOUNG: Well, he had a pack on. And when we got up the trail a ways, they had had a tent society up on a big dry ridge up there, which was really strange.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: A two-man tent.
YOUNG: A two-man tent. And there was a lot of foot traffic going back and forth from the tent to the trail head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What was strange about having a tent on that ridge?
YOUNG: No water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lightning.
YOUNG: Yes. And just like being a lightning rod sitting up there on top of that ridge. It's a dangerous place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: There were some reports that he had tried to disguise his campmate, did you notice that at all?
YOUNG: No. That was after we left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Was he bearded or dirty? Were they dirty?
YOUNG: He had a couple days growth. But they weren't dirty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did they approach you, or did you approach them?
YOUNG: No, I seen them when we was coming up the trail. They moved off the trail for us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Did she appear to be there against her will? Did you have any indication?
YOUNG: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did she say anything to you?
YOUNG: No. No. She never did speak.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Were they going the same direction or opposite when you first met them?
YOUNG: They were going the same direction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Toward Morehead lake.
YOUNG: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: This was Wednesday morning, you guys --?
YOUNG: Right. Yes. We left our trail head about 8:30 and encountered them about 9:30.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
YOUNG: It was about 5:00 is when we left the lake and they had followed us in.
MARY YOUNG, SPOTTED HANNAH ANDERSON IN IDAHO: When mike first passed them, they were about ten feet apart. And I followed mike up the trail, so it was a short time later that I encountered them. And in that time he had moved closer to her. And it looked like he had his arm around her waist. She did appear frightened, but I thought it was a fear of the horses because she was wanting to move off the trail.
But that encounter was very brief because we were moving up the trail at the time. And they were off the side of the trail. And they did not want to talk with us. Mike asked a brief question. He did say as I went past he said that's the way to travel in this country is horseback.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Usually when you meet people --
LEMON: Very interesting. Very interesting there. After two encounters that they deemed strange. Intuition they said told them that something was wrong, a gut feeling, body language. And they also mentioned the amber alert that they said helped them find this young lady. Because they went back and said that's the lady we saw on the trail.
All this is interesting because I'm going to talk to Wendy Walsh. And then also Marc Klaas who is the father of Polly Klaas who disappeared almost 20 years ago. And Wendy Walsh is a human behavior expert.
Wendy, I want to talk to you when we come back about that gut intuition. And, Marc, I want to talk to you about that body language when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We are following the developing news here on CNN. 16-year-old Hannah Anderson found in the woods. Her captor was killed yesterday. She is about to be reunited with her father. I want to bring in Wendy Walsh, she's in Los Angeles, and Marc Klaas in San Francisco.
Mark, you know, just a little bit earlier they mentioned that amber alert system. They said when they got back to where they were staying where they had a television, they said that is the young lady we saw in the woods. And so, the amber alert system, although many have criticized it, it can be handled better, you even said that yourself, but that's really what alerted them. That's how they knew.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: It's tremendous. It's just a wonderful result. And, Don, you know from covering these kinds of cases that so often we find the victims dead. And the fact she's alive is just extraordinary.
LEMON: Yes.
Can we talk about intuition here, Wendy? It was a gut feeling, I have a hunch, something was off. And many people don't believe in that. It was right-on for these people.
WENDY WALSH, HUMAN BEHAVIOR SPECIALIST: Well, I think one of the factors that helped was there were four people on horseback in the outdoors. Two of them were trained in intuition, a former sheriff, a former army ranger, and their wives. So you know, studies show, research shows that the best kind of group intelligence is actually two-gendered intelligence because women tend to have social intelligence, men tend to have maybe more visual intelligence. So they're looking at kind of his backpack and, oh, he's a California guy, what's he doing here. And the women are looking at what's the relationship? This young girl, what's the deal here? So I think that was very helpful that you had the four people together and you had both genders.
LEMON: OK. Let's play a little bit more of what they had to say and we'll talk about it.
MARK JOHN: When we left them at the lake, the girl was down at the lakeshore soaking her feet in the water. We was already saddled up and mounted our horses and everything. That's when we first seen them. We felt that was quite strange because they had a whale of a hike coming down through the rocks in that steep country. And when I say steep, when we go down some of those switchbacks going down through there and that trail, it will just about take the hide off a horse's tail going down through there because they're sliding down on all fours getting down to the lake. So we was kind of surprised because they had hiked a long ways. And they had some big rug sacks at that time sitting on the ground. Like I said, she was soaking her -- but he was off to the side of the trail petting a gray cat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What?
MARK JOHN: Petting a gray cat. And I made comment then, I said what are you doing with a cat in here? And cats are only good for wolf, you know, to chum a wolf in, or to bring in a mountain lion or something. And he just kind of grinned. Didn't say much more. Had a little smirk on his face.
Again, that was strange because in the back country in Idaho, you run across somebody back there hiking, they are usually quite friendly and they exchange pleasantries and they exchange knowledge about where they have been, what they have done, where they were going. These people did not want to talk to us whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, pause it there.
Wendy, again, that is that intuition and also knowing how people act around there. Clearly, these two were in a place that they were unfamiliar with. And it was important that they acted on that intuition and just observing this couple in the backwoods, just little things like that.
WALSH: Very important. And I don't think this could played the part where he said to her Hannah was soaking her feet in the river -- or the lake. And he said, what are you putting your feet in there for, there's fish in there. As a joke, meaning put a line in there and get some fish, right? And she said I guess we're all in trouble now.
Again, playing on his joke, but there was the Freudian, you know, message to him we were in trouble here. Although, Don, we don't know all the details. We don't know if Hannah even knew that her mother and brother were murdered. We don't know if Hannah, if this groomer or this pedophile, hadn't already started a relationship with her before and that she was somehow thinking she was sneaking away to have fun. I mean, we don't know if she really felt in fear at that moment.
LEMON: OK, let's play a little more and we'll talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK JOHN: -- to the girl soaking her feet, I said what are you doing with your feet in the water? I said don't you know there's fish in there? Kind of joking. And then as we turned to ride away, she didn't make any comment until we started riding away and says it looks like we're all in trouble now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: She said that?
MARK JOHN: I had no idea what she meant. Maybe she was in trouble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Wendy, we're all in trouble now.
WALSH: Exactly. So whether she knew consciously that her mother was dead and now these potential witnesses are being pulled into it, whether she knew that the guy she was with might have been armed, but whether she knew consciously or unconsciously doesn't matter, she was sending a message to them. We're all in trouble now. There's something in here that's not right.
LEMON: Marc, I think Wendy is right. There's a lesson here. What is the lesson for kids? Does this teach all of us to teach how our children to act when put in situations like this because clearly she want toed to save her own life whether she knew she was acting to save her own life.
KLAAS: Sure. I think we need to follow the example of the riders. You have to follow your instinct. If something is wrong, you need to put distance between yourself and whatever it is that makes you feel wrong and go to a trusted adult who can help you. But very, very quickly here, Don, remember, we can't read too much in the fact she turned away and she didn't want to engage with these people because remember, Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart and Sean Hornbeck, all initially denied who were they were once they were rescued. These people were in such deep trauma and they are so under the thumb of these characters that sometimes it takes a while to extract themselves.
LEMON: All right, Marc Klass, Wendy Walsh, stick around. We are going to play more of this press conference and get your take on it right after this. And also, we are awaiting the reunion of this young lady with her father. We are back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I'm Don Lemon in New York.
We are following developing news here on that young lady that was found yesterday, and also how they killed her alleged kidnapper. It was an agonizing week for the entire family of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, waiting, hoping, praying for some good news. And the reunion sure to be bittersweet.
Now, remember, Hannah's mother and brother died a week ago. Their remains found in the suspect's burned out house near San Diego, California. There was a press conference that was held just a short time ago by four horsemen, four people, who were out fishing and riding their horses on those trails and they came across those two people, that man and young woman, twice yesterday. And they alerted authorities. And that's how they eventually found Hannah safe and also killed her alleged kidnapper, James DiMaggio.
I want to bring in now Wendy Walsh. She is in Los Angeles. Marc Klass in San Francisco. We're going to talk to you about -- a little bit more about what they said and how they came upon these two people. I want to play a little bit more of the press conference and then we'll talk, guys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK JOHN: Well, because she's killing fish with her feet in the water or something, I don't know. I just said it jokingly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: So what was it you heard her say?
MARK JOHN: She said it looks like we're all in trouble now or we're in real trouble now. And then we rode on out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did she say it to you or herself?
MARK JOHN: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did she say it to herself?
CHRISTA JOHN, SPOTTED HANNAH ANDERSON IN IDAHO: Loud enough to hear.
MARK JOHN: It was loud enough to hear, but it was mostly to herself. And I thought it was extremely strange that they were up there packing when all of their gear looked like it was brand new. That was another little flag that just wasn't normal or natural.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: So you guys are fishing all day on the lake.
CHRISTA JOHN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Did you observe any interaction with them?
MARK JOHN: We didn't see them until we was getting ready to leave at 5:00. And the fishing wasn't that great either.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Do you have any daughters yourself?
CHRISTA JOHN: No. We have lots of granddaughters. As a matter of fact, one of them looks just like Hannah. And so we were really concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Pause it there. OK.
These are ordinary and extraordinary people at the same time. I mean, this is America, right? And this was personal to them because they said they have daughters and they have granddaughters and they were really -- they had the well-being of this young lady that was top of mind for them because they said they weren't sure if they were daughter and dad, they weren't sure exactly what it was.
Before I talk to you guys, I want to tell you about who these people are. Mary Young, who is 61, she's from Sweet, Idaho. Mike Young, 62, Sweet, Idaho. Mark Young, 71, Idaho, and he is the one who is a former sheriff there. And then there is his wife, Christa John, Mark John and Christa John.
I think they're extraordinary people, Marc Klass, don't you?
KLAAS: I think they're absolutely wonderful people. If they hadn't done what they had done and the way they did it, this might have been ended differently. They could easily have ignored the fact that these people were out there and just gone on with their lives. They stepped up, they knew that it might not pan out but they did exactly the right thing. And Hannah and her father are the better for it.
LEMON: Look. These are not easy conditions to be out in Idaho hiking on trails like this. But the brand new shiny equipment, Wendy, you know, striking a tent -- pitching a tent in a place where they're like what are you doing up here, this is a lightning rod, there's no water up here, what's going on? Obviously DiMaggio did not plan all of this, this was just something that I guess he said he thought he could go to this place and it would be in conspicuous and nobody would think anything, but clearly, he picked the wrong place.
WALSH: And who knows what his long range plans might have been. But let's go over all the visual red flags, OK? She, the young girl, is wearing pajama bottoms, not hiking clothes. They got brand new equipment. He has got a domestic feline cat that he's petting, what did the guy called him a Wolf charmer, is what that is.
LEMON: A chum for Wolf.
WALSH: Right. They put the tent up on a ridge that could act as a lightning rod that was nowhere near a water source. So, all the visual cues were there. But our four outdoorsmen go back to their camp at night, you know, they fish during the day.
And what does the wife say? I want to go talk to that girl. I want to see what's going on.
And the husband says and wasn't it sweet he mentioned they've been together almost 54 years, no, don't get involved. You know, don't worry about their problems.
But the wife really want today go back. It was only after they came back to their own ranch and put their own horses away, went in, the TV, the power of the media that all the way in Idaho there was a TV station that was showing this story, that's when all the wheels came together and they went wait a minute, this is really something.
LEMON: OK. Standby.
WALSH: I was going to say they were still afraid that they were going to waste the time of the search parties if they were wrong.
LEMON: That's a lesson about, you know, people saying I don't want to get involved in that. Maybe we should get more involved. But standby, let's hit play and then we'll talk more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We are just one month away from the Nautica Malibu triathlon. It's a little scary. Six of our viewers in the Fit Nation Team, along with me and some staff are going to be swimming a half mile in the Pacific Ocean, biking 18 miles along the Pacific Coast Highway and running four miles on the beach.
It's going to be a culmination of seven months of pretty intense training that is changing each one of our teammates from sedentary to fit. I can also tell you they're happy and they're healthy.
If you're looking for a way to get fit as well but you aren't quite ready to commit to a triathlon, let me give you this quick tip, just try getting a bit more sleep. Not only does sleep give you the energy you need, but it also gives you the willpower to not reach for that bag of potato chips the next day.
A new study finds that less sleep actually means less activity in your frontal cortex, front of your brain. That's the part of your brain that helps you make decisions about what to eat. You don't get enough sleep, you don't have the good judgment to make wise food choices. Hope that helps.
I hope you all will join us next month on CNN for the race. Until then, of course, stay healthy.
Back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Continuing now our coverage of the rescue of Hannah Anderson. I want to go back to Los Angeles and bring in Wendy Walsh and also Marc Klaas in San Francisco. Let's hit play, guys, and then we'll talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I spoke to him also and I says what the heck are you doing out here? And he said, well, last year it was her turn to pick a place. And she wanted to go to Los Angeles and Hollywood. And I went -- and he says that's why I picked this place. And so, we left it at that.
REPORTER: What was your gut feeling about --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you know, that could have been father and daughter and he drug her along on a hiking trip that she didn't want to go. So, you know, there was no immediate we said, oh, boy, we got to rescue her. It was nothing like that. It was unusual, it was strange, but it was explainable.
And I thought he'd handled it pretty good when he said she picked Los Angeles and Hollywood and I picked this place. So -- REPORTER: Do you remember -- when you got home do you remember the newscast you were watching, do you remember how quickly you called after that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were -- we'd gotten home and we had unpacked our outfits and put our livestock away and everything else and then walked in the house. And I believe we was on Channel 7 or something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the evening news. And this Amber Alert flashed and that's when I said -- we had discussed this so much at the camp the night before and that next morning that we was all very suspicious of what they were doing there and everything. And then when we got -- I seen that picture on the screen, I told my wife, I said that is the girl that was up on that mountain.
REPORTER: Was that Thursday?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was Thursday evening at about, oh --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Let's pause it right there.
OK, Marc Klaas, I want to speak with you about the Amber Alert, because even though they had the intuitions and suspicions, had they not gotten back and had they not seen the Amber Alert, had they not seen the evening news, nothing may have happened from this, nothing may have occurred. She may still be out there with him at this moment.
MARC KLAAS, FATHER OF POLLY KLAAS: Well, yes, that's absolutely correct. I mean, when the Amber Alert works well, it works fantastically. But there really are some problems with it. I don't think it's the right time to get into it about, but because this was such a great victory. But, first of all, it should be geographically distributed, it shouldn't be a statewide distribution, there's a myriad of problems with it.
But I think that those can all be fixed. And I think it can be made much more effective than it is so that not only Hannah but many, many other children that become victims of these kind of creeps are able to be rescued alive.
LEMON: Yes. I think it's appropriate. I'm allowing you to talk about it because, I think, you know, if this moment passes and we don't take the opportunity to improve the Amber Alert system, then we all will have failed. How do you think it can work better?
KLAAS: Well, OK, very good then. Let's talk about that. First of all, I think it should be a geographic distribution. I live 500 miles away from San Diego, and my wife and I received the alert at 10:45 on Monday evening. And it was a loud shrieking alarm. Many people received that loud shrieking alarm through the night. I think that would turn people off and prompt them to opt out of the Amber Alert system when in fact we want people to be inside of it, we want them to be included. Also, I was unable to find out any immediate information from the alert that I received. Also, I think that they should depend much more upon radio for people in the early, early mornings and late, late at night simply because, again, you don't want to be awoken by a shrieking alarm time after time after time.
LEMON: All right.
Marc, standby, Wendy, standby. Let's hit play again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Wednesday evening --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it was Thursday evening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We spent Wednesday night at the trailhead. And then Thursday, we --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it was in the afternoon. Don't know exactly what time it was. It was probably pretty late wasn't it, Mike?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it was about the time you called me.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: And then we called Mike to verify it and everything. And then I immediately called the Idaho state police, Tom Nesbit, and he got the ball rolling. And then everybody was calling us wanting information. The next morning, the FBI showed up and set at the table. And that night, we told ISB where the car was probably at, where they'd entered the trailhead up there on Burnt Log Road later to find out it was snowshoe cabin road, right?
REPORTER: How does this make you feel that you helped crack this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You've been listening here on CNN to really the four people who are responsible for authorities finding Hannah Anderson on that trail in Idaho. These are four horsemen, one of them a former sheriff out there talking about their encounters, twice, with Hannah Anderson and James DiMaggio.
Wendy Walsh is in Los Angeles. She's a human behavior expert.
Marc Klaas is in San Francisco. Marc had to deal with this sadly 20 years ago when his daughter, Polly Klaas, went missing. Sadly, Polly was not found alive. But Hannah was found alive.
We're going to play a little more of that with these two folks. Play it again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was found and she's safe. I'm very grateful for the Amber Alert program and how it played the role in the whole thing because without that this would not have happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Idaho wasn't even on the radar for her. Nobody suspected her to be there. And the area -- I mean, you saw aerial photos of it, it's much worse than it looks from the air. Let me tell you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's rough country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for us to be there at the precise time to interact with them is one chance in a trillion. I mean, everything had to be just meshing otherwise we would have missed them. If they'd been over the side hill a little bit or inside their tent, we wouldn't have bothered. We would have never known. We would have never seen them.
So, that was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime events.
REPORTER: What made you want to come forward with your story?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't know, maybe get a little bit on the limelight or something. You know, we had volunteered our services immediately because Mike here is an expert back countryman. He's been an old outfitter. He can read the terrain, he's read maps and he knows the trails and he can track.
And, likewise, I'm an army ranger and I've had all the experience. And we felt that we could have been a real asset to that search party. We volunteered our horses, our trailers and one thing and another and --
REPORTER: Did they take you up on it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt like we was kind of put on the back burner like chopped liver, so I called and kind of complained about it. And next thing you know we're standing here shaking.
REPORTER: From the point that you realize there was an Amber Alert, to the point you found out about the conclusion yesterday, what was that like for you just knowing that you had run into them?
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: We were all on pins and needles wondering what was going on and what was happening. You know, you get all sorts of thoughts that go through your head like did we alert them to the point where he's going to do something stupid like, you know, shoot her and then do himself in. Or -- you know, we was really worried we had caused a problem by reporting it and getting things stirred up.
And we was extremely happy when we found out that it turned out the way it did. And we want you to know, we want our hearts -- our hearts went out to her father, her grandmother. And we're extremely sorry that what happened to her mother and her little brother.
REPORTER: Do you feel like heroes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. You know what, I think if you'd been there -- if you had been there and been us, you would have done exactly the same thing. That's people in Idaho. That's --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Pause it right there.
If you had been there, you'd have done exactly the same thing. Do you feel like heroes? No, I do not.
Listen, it was -- the timing, the people, one is an expert back countryman, he said. He knows the terrain. The other is an army ranger, former sheriff -- the perfect people to find her.
Here's what I want to know, Wendy. When you look at these four people and you see these two big guys, right, these two rugged guys, and it's you, if you're the young lady, and it's Mr. DiMaggio, why didn't she say I have been kidnapped and run into the arms of those big guys or run into the arms of those ladies and hold her ground there? Why not do that, Wendy?
WALSH: Excellent question, Don. And I'm sure marc can weigh-in here too, but keep in mind this is a mind emotionally of a child. She's just turned 16 years old. Who knows what kind of relationship she was in with the guy or what she thought she was in because he was grooming her for these years.
You know, I was alluded when I started to think about potentially that he could have already sexually abused her or sexually molested her a year ago when they slept in a hotel room in Hollywood and made her believe that he loved her and it was their special little secret.
We had a neighbor of hers on the Dr. Drew show the other night. And she was saying that one time Hannah wanted to get a young guy from school give him a ride home and DiMaggio said, no, I don't want to see you kissing other boys. Why did he say other boys? Why didn't he say I don't want you kissing a boy?
It led me to believe that maybe this relationship, this molestation, this abuse, this victimization had started earlier, but she was now kind of in the spell of him, if you will. And maybe didn't even know that her mother had been murdered, that her brother had been murdered, maybe she thought she was eloping with him. I mean, teenage girls have crazy delusions, Don.
LEMON: Marc Klaas?
KLAAS: Well, yes, I think that everything she said is correct. And, remember, as I've mentioned earlier, Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, Shawn Hornbeck, all had opportunities during the course of their captivity to escape and none of them did that.
People have characterized it as Stockholm syndrome, I think it's probably a little bit more complicated than that given the circumstances. But she needed to keep herself alive. That's the key to absolutely everything. And that's exactly what happened. And she is alive.
LEMON: You'll hear these four horseback riders, horsemen, who were out in the wilderness talking about that a little bit later on during this press conference.
We'll hit play, we'll pause, take a break and come back. Play it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Wendy Walsh is here. Marc Klaas is here. Both have expertise in this subject.
We're talking now of the rescue of Hannah Anderson in Idaho yesterday, our continuing coverage.
Let's play the press conference, and then we'll talk more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have that prickly feeling. You do what is right. And sometimes, it's better to call and be wrong and not call and wish you had. So, I think everybody that's standing here would have done exactly what we did.
There's nothing heroic about it. Nothing. Just that's what you do.
REPORTER: Do you feel like you were part of a miracle?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do now.
REPORTER: What was it like for you when you got home, turned on the TV, and in that instant you realized that's the --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your heart is up here.
REPORTER: You've been through a lot of sort of law enforcement stuff before, you've made arrest and all that stuff, investigations. Is this different?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was -- when we put the connection together and we realized that it was possibly her. We didn't know 100 percent for sure. Then you've always got this reservation about, are we sending these people out on a wild goose chase? Or is this going to be a real thing?
But then after we made the phone call, we did what we had to do, and they found that car the next morning, then we knew we'd done the right thing. And we felt really good about it. But we were still nervous about what the outcome was going to be.
REPORTER: What was your reaction when you did hear about the outcome? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very relieved. Very relieved.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was watching the news and he was coming up on the four-wheeler and I was just jumping up and going like this and he was looking at me. You know? So we were relieved that she's OK.
REPORTER: I'm sure that you were throughout the course of this what investigators believe essentially happened from last Sunday leading up to yesterday. You think back to the comment you heard her made about we may all be in trouble now. Is that something you thought about in hindsight now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I don't think -- I didn't think about that very much. And in hindsight, you do.
While we were at the lake, my wife wanted to go up and talk to her because she felt so strongly about something being wrong. She wanted to talk to the girl. And I said, no. You leave it alone. This might just be a lover's quarrel or a family problem or what have you and it's none of your business.
And it makes me very nervous as to what may have transpired if she had gone up there and started talking.
REPORTER: Were you folks armed at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We were all three packing pistols. Don't go in the woods without pistols.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Let's push it. Don't go in the woods without a pistol.
Marc Klaas, let's talk about it. Wendy talked about it a littler bit before. Let's talk about grooming here because by all indications, she appeared to, you know, not want to not be there, at least through their assessment. There was something off, they said, but she didn't run off and say I'm kidnapped.
Let's talk a little bit more about grooming there.
KLAAS: Well, I think that Wendy's exactly right.
I mean, these guys targeted these kids. They put themselves in a position where they have influence over them. And then they try to get themselves into a position where they can have unsupervised access to these kids. And apparently this character, DiMaggio, did a good job of that.
Very quickly, Don, we always tell our kids not to talk to strangers. But this shows exactly why that's wrong. The person that she knew in this scenario was the one that was ready to cause grievous danger. And the strangers as it appears would have done anything they could to help this child.
So, again, it's not about not talking to strangers. It's about trusting your gut instinct and then realizing that if you are in trouble, strangers may be the exact kinds of people you need to help you out of that difficult situation. I include men in that. I know men tend to be the problem.
WALSH: Exactly.
KLAAS: But the vast majority, the vast majority of men would do whatever they could to help this girl or any child in a similar situation.
LEMON: All right, Wendy, stand by. We're going to talk more Wendy and Marc, both of you. We'll be right back.
More of the press conference and our analysis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.
It almost began a year's worth of research and an open mind. Now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta says we been misled about medical marijuana and he's changed his mind on the benefits. He'll present his research and reasoning tonight in a new CNN documentary tonight. Sanjay will join me at the bottom of the hour here on CNN.
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