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Nancy Grace
Manhunt for San Diego Kidnapper
Aired August 07, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An Amber Alert remains in effect for 16-year-old Hannah and her 8-year-old brother, Ethan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for 40-year-old James Dimaggio is quickly turning nationwide.
BRETT ANDERSON, CHILDREN`S FATHER: Jim, I can`t fathom what you were thinking. The damage is done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe he`s extremely dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dimaggio had been considered a close family friend and the children considered him like an uncle.
ANDERSON: I`m begging you to let my daughter go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe she`s in great danger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know Hannah did say she was a little creeped out when Jim did tell her that he had a crush on her.
ANDERSON: You`ve taken everything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her mom, who didn`t make it through this tragedy...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The children`s mother, Christina Anderson, was found murdered. The remains of a child were also found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been able to identify the child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we just don`t know. And we`re praying that it wasn`t Ethan.
ANDERSON: Hannah, we all love you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They may be traveling in a blue Nissan Versa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe that they were last seen in the blue Nissan Versa.
ANDERSON: If you have a chance, you take it. You run.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please just run, as fast as you can!
ANDERSON: You`ll be found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Breaking news tonight, live, San Diego suburbs, a nationwide Amber Alert. At this hour, police dragnets in the hunt for a suspected killer believed to have abducted two children, the mother`s body, along with the dog, found burning dead in the fiery rubble of a home and garage.
Wanted, a 40-year-old white male. IT computer expert James Lee Dimaggio tonight on the run, we believe with the 8-year-old child and the 16-year-old sister, the obvious target of his affections. Forty-year-old Dimaggio has, quote, "romantic feelings" for the girl -- translation, sexual feelings for the girl whose mother he likely murdered and burned the home to hide the evidence, Dimaggio an avid camper. He is a survivalist.
Bombshell tonight. Police now admitting they have no idea which way Dimaggio is headed, in the last hours Hannah`s father begging for his daughter`s life and sending the message to his little girl, Run, if you can!
Last night, we were given tips to make us believe that Dimaggio may be headed for Mexico, Texas or Canada. But again, tonight, police admitting they have no idea which way he is going.
Also new, just in, there was a report that this tag number had shown up in one of those automatic scanners -- for instance at toll booths. FYI, your tag is often scanned at toll booths. Turned out it was a mistake. The tag was not spotted.
What this is saying to many of us in law enforcement is that he is possibly off the main roads. He is not on an interstate. He is either on the run on back roads, or he has dug in somewhere, using his survivalist instincts, still holding hostage the 16-year-old girl and possibly her 8- year-old little brother.
Straight out to Mark Evans, morning anchor, KOGO. Mark, what do you know?
MARK EVANS, KOGO (via telephone): Nancy, this guy`s disappeared into thin air, no sign of 40-year-old James Dimaggio, Amber Alert, as you mentioned, still very active.
It is looking more and more like he only has 16-year-old Hannah Anderson with him. Little Ethan, it looks like, died in that fire in that home, his home, Dimaggio`s home, when it was burning Sunday night.
Here`s what the police are saying. The remains of a child found in the burned-out rubble of the home are consistent with those of an 8-year- old. They still have not definitively IDed the body, but it is a child about 8 years old.
There is officially an arrest warrant out for Dimaggio, filed yesterday, the charge of murder, and the bond has been set at $1 million. It could be two murders, if, indeed, this is little Ethan in that rubble.
GRACE: Mark Evans with us, KOGO.
Now joining me outside the sheriff`s office, San Diego, CNN correspondent Paul Vercammen. Paul, thank you for being with us. Paul, this is putting everything in an even more disturbing light, the fact that he would kill the mother and now an 8-year-old little boy, the brother, if these reports are true? It was intimated last night, but we didn`t have solid reports that this was the little brother.
But the fact that he`s willing to not only kill the mother and the 8- year-old, then burn down the house to hide the evidence?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, we`re talking about a whole host of potential charges. It was pointed out that there`s a million dollars bond. And there`s a single murder charge. In talking to authorities here, a second murder charge likely to be added, arson charges. Then we have the debate of whether or not she went willingly with him, kidnapping charges in play. Also, don`t forget the dog was killed in all this. There`s a cruelty to animals charge pending. They could absolutely throw the book at Jim Dimaggio.
And what`s so stunning about this, Nancy, is the sense of this breach of trust and betrayal, Jim Dimaggio being friends with the Anderson family for more than 20 years, some relatives telling us at one point he may have actually lived with the paternal grandmother, and some friends of the family saying that this family was great to Dimaggio and basically saying, How in the world could he do this?
Of course, he has been AWOL for three days now. It is believed that he would be a flight risk. Back in 1995, by the way, he did plead guilty to a misdemeanor back in Texas, and the charge, fleeing from a police officer, Nancy.
GRACE: And you know, Paul, that puts it in another light. That leads us to question, who would run from police? I mean, if a policeman told me to stop, I would stop, all right? I would do what the cop told me. Whether I thought the cop was right or wrong in arresting me, I would do what I was told by a uniformed police officer.
I`m hearing in my ear right now, in addition to Paul and Mark, joining me right now exclusively tonight is the ex-wife of Dimaggio, on the run. We are withholding her name and her location.
Ma`am, thank you for being with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.
GRACE: You were married to Dimaggio back in 2002. You dated for a year, about a year before you married him. What was it about him that attracted you? Why did you marry him? Of all the other men in the world, why him? What did he have going for him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honestly, he was very, very nice. He was great to my son. I had a son, and my son was about 5 years old. And he was -- he was just an all-around nice guy. And you know, there was no -- he gave me no reason to have any -- there was no red flags whatsoever.
GRACE: Ma`am, you had a 5-year-old son. When you say he was nice to your child, what do you mean by that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean that he was -- he`d always make plans that always included my son. It was never just, Oh, let`s go on a date. He included my son in everything we did, which -- you know, in a mother`s eyes, that is a wonderful thing.
GRACE: Did he ever take your son on trips?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
GRACE: So you never left him alone with your son, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we were married, maybe once or twice while I ran to the store or something like that. But typically, no, I didn`t make a habit of that.
GRACE: Because -- again, everybody, with me is suspect Dimaggio`s ex- wife. They dated for about a year before they married. She had a 5-year- old son.
Something disturbing me a lot tonight, and that is that I`ve learned that this guy, Dimaggio, was referred to as "uncle" by these children, one of whom I believe he killed, the little boy, referred to him as Uncle. He was Daddy -- one of Daddy`s best friends, one of Mommy`s friends. And he now has admitted that he had romantic feelings for the 16-year-old girl that he`s known since she was a baby.
Now I`m learning tonight in the last hours that the mom, they trusted him so much, allowed him to take the 16-year-old on a trip to Hollywood for a couple of days for her birthday, never thought a thing about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That surprises me in a couple ways. Tina, the mom -- I knew her and I -- I know how she is. She`s so sweet and trusting, and unfortunately, too trusting. And that`s what -- you know, I`m sure that`s why she allowed her child to go with him.
GRACE: Let`s talk about the mom for a moment. We are talking about Christina Anderson, 44 years old, the mother of two, found dead, her body burning in the fiery rubble of a home and garage. Also in that fiery rubble, a child`s body who we now have reason to believe is 8-year-old Ethan, her little boy. There`s Ethan.
And missing is a 16-year-old girl that he claims he`s got, quote, "feelings" for -- in other words, sex feelings. I mean, the man`s 40 years old, she`s 16. What could it be? If it`s not fatherly feelings, then it`s sex feelings.
What do you make of that? Everybody, with me is Dimaggio`s ex-wife. She divorced him. What do you make of that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you asking me?
GRACE: Yes, ma`am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m sorry. I think it`s disgusting. And to be honest with you, it surprises me. When we were married, the Andersons would come over all the time. We`d barbecue. He never indicated in any way weird anything. There was no red flags of any kind to indicate, you know, one way or another towards any child, for that matter. So this to me is shocking and disgusting, and I`m just -- honestly, I`m speechless about it. I`m in disbelief.
GRACE: Well, OK. I hope you`re sitting down. With me is Dimaggio`s ex-wife, talking to us exclusively tonight. I`ve got a quote from your ex- husband. You`re going to do a back-flip. He actually told the girl, the 16-year-old missing girl tonight, Hannah -- he told her in front of some of her little friends that go to gymnastics together, "If I were your age, I`d date you."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh!
GRACE: Yes. After that, the little girl, Hannah -- I don`t think she told her mother about this, but all of her little friends knew about it. She would never let him ride her alone to gymnastics or back. She wouldn`t tell her mom, because she thinks, Hey, Mom and Dad love this guy. He`s their best friend. He`s Uncle Dimaggio. He`s Uncle James Lee Dimaggio.
But she told her friends, and in her own self-protection -- this is just breaking my heart tonight -- she would no longer go to gymnastics by herself. She would always make one of her little friends ride with her in the car with this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s sad, very sad.
GRACE: What happened to the marriage? Is it true he got obsessed with video games and those virtual reality games where people have their own houses and villages and towns and...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.
GRACE: What happened? I -- I -- I`m just stunned that people -- their own life is going on around them, and they`ve got a virtual life on line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s exactly what happened. And again, he was great until we got married. After we got married, then he no longer did anything with my son and myself. He would just stay up all night on those video games.
GRACE: Wait, wait! I`ve got to hear about this. It`s just hard for me to take in a man -- he`s married to a lovely woman. He`s got a 5-year- old son, your son. And he stays up all night with a virtual video -- what was he doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just playing his video games.
GRACE: What game was it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was Everquest (ph).
GRACE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was called Everquest. And it was, like, a Viking -- and they need to play with other people. He`s play with other people at work and God knows where else.
GRACE: A Viking game? A Viking game? Did I hear that?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... a Viking game?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think...
GRACE: What, do they have a Viking town and the Vikings would fight each other and go pillage and rape? What`s a Viking game?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no idea, to be honest with you. I was so disgusted with it, I really didn`t want to know.
GRACE: I tell you what. If I woke up and my husband was playing a Viking virtual reality game, I agree with you, I would divorce him immediately.
OK, you said he became distant. What do you mean by that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much what I described, the video game -- he would not -- he no longer would do anything with us. We never went out and did anything. We never did anything as a family. We never sat down and ate dinner as a family. We did nothing as a family. Therefore, I did not want to stick around. There was no point.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Bombshell tonight. On the run, a 40-year-old white male, an IT computer specialist, a telecommunications specialist. He is on the run with whom we believe 16-year-old Hannah. Hannah was a friend of his. He was a friend, considered to be an uncle, with the mom and the dad, the dad living in Tennessee at the time of the murders, mother dead, little brother, 8 years old, dead, found in the burning rubble of a home and garage, apparently to cover the evidence. There is a shot of the burning.
This was a log cabin Dimaggio had built, had saved money for years to build this home, clearly trying to burn the evidence.
And with me right now, joining me exclusively, Dimaggio`s ex-wife. Well, I looked it up, OK? You`re never going to believe what this says. Everquest, the game that your ex-husband, now on the run with a 16-year-old girl, was obsessed with, Everquest...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes?
GRACE: It is the Everquest universe, "vast world of fantasy and magic await daring adventurers."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.
GRACE: Please, daring -- now, what is this business about him being an avid camper and survivalist? And the reason I ask -- everyone, we are not revealing her location or name, so I`m referring to her as "ma`am."
The reason I ask is because this guy is not on any interstate. He`s not at any shopping mall. He`s not at any gas station with a surveillance camera. He is somewhere else where we can`t find him. Is he a survivalist and avid camper?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t really comment about the camping thing because I never went camping with him, to be honest with you. But I do know that he is not a materialistic person. He`s very resourceful. Those things I do know for sure. Otherwise, I really can`t comment.
GRACE: You said he was consumed by video games. What else can you tell us about him? I mean, there had to be something about him that attracted you to him to start with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, again, I am a mother and I was more concerned about my son. My son seemed to take to him because, again, he was -- he`s a very -- he was a gentle person, very soft-spoken, very -- you know, he was just an all-around nice guy. And the fact that he continued to include my son to do things, you know, as a family, that was a big thing for me.
GRACE: How did he react when you told him you wanted a divorce?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surprisingly, just fine.
GRACE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GRACE: Were you ever concerned about his relationship with this family, with Hannah and her family and her mom?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. They were all friends and very close before I came along. And they were -- they all just seemed to be like brothers and sisters, and they were just very, very close.
GRACE: With me is Dimaggio -- now on the run with at least one hostage, possibly the 8-year-old, but we now believe the 8-year-old is dead at his mother`s side in that home. What are your words to him tonight, if he could hear your voice?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He needs to take Hannah and let Hannah go. He desperately needs to let her go. She -- I feel terrible for her father and all of his loss, their whole family. He needs to -- he needs to give her up and let her go and turn himself in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you seen this guy, James Lee Dimaggio?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An all-out manhunt, a nationwide manhunt.
ANDERSON: Jim, I can`t fathom what you were thinking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a case of just unbelievable betrayal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A close friend of the Andersons, Uncle Jim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man who investigators believe killed Anderson`s wife and possibly his 8-year-old son, then kidnapped his 16- year-old daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He allegedly had a crush on her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe she`s in grave danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Dimaggio, wherever you are, we are after you. James Lee Dimaggio, a 40-year-old white male now believed on the run with a 16-year- old girl, possibly the girl`s 8-year-old little brother, although a child`s body was found in the fiery rubble of a home. We believe the child, the 8- year-old little boy, Ethan, and his mother, both murdered at the hands of Dimaggio. Why? So he could get the 16-year-old girl. He was considered to be a close friend and uncle of these children.
Straight out to Paul Vercammen, CNN correspondent joining me at the sheriff`s office. Paul, police are now admitting that they don`t have a clue which way he was headed. For a minute, they thought he may be headed to Texas, where he has some connections, maybe Mexico or Canada. But now they`re saying they don`t have an idea, not even a clue.
VERCAMMEN: Yes, exactly. They also said that, listen, somebody was just using as a turn of phrase, we`ll search from Texas to Canada. In fact, they said it might as well have been Oshkosh. That`s a direct quote.
So now the focus extending well beyond California`s borders, as we said, with FBI, U.S. Marshals also involved, spreading out to other states and into Mexico, all of them, you know, circulating this photo of a clean- shaven Dimaggio.
You might remember, there`s that old booking photo, Nancy, that had him with the goatee and the beard. They want to make sure that everybody looks at him clean-shaven. And they even made a mock-up with him with a shaved head just in case he saves his head to disguise his identity.
Also, they want everybody to keep their eye open for Hannah. She is 5-7, 115 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes. You`ve seen the pictures, so perhaps it will be the girl who jogs somebody`s memory somewhere on the road.
And still, they`re on the lookout for that Nissan Versa with the California plates. That`s the one that was central to the California Amber Alert, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigations now updating pictures of the kids and the alleged kidnapper.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New photos show the suspect clean-shaven and what he might look like with a shaved head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shave his head to cover his identity or conceal his identity.
ANDERSON: You`ve taken everything else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deputies also found the body of a child who has not been identified.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While it is believed that child was Ethan, investigators are still waiting on autopsy results.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keeping our hopes alive that he is still out there and alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators in San Diego believe a family friend is responsible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel that the children are at risk.
ANDERSON: I beg you to let my daughter go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And in the last hour, we obtained some family Christmas photos that we wanted to show you. For all of you seeing these photos, this is Hannah Anderson, now 16. That is her little brother Ethan. We believe dead in the blaze. A 40-year-old white male, James Lee Dimaggio, on the run with 16-year-old Hannah.
Unleash the lawyers, Brian Claypool, Renee Rockwell, first of all out to you, Renee Rockwell, Atlanta defense attorney. He is looking straight at the California death penalty. He meets so many of the aggravating circumstances. There is heinous. There is in the middle of an arson. There are so many that he meets.
RENEE ROCKWELL, ATTORNEY: Nancy, not if he goes to Mexico. If he can get across that border, Mexico will not let him return unless the United States takes the death penalty off the table. But, Nancy, that`s presuming that the state can overcome his defense of a mental health defense. Don`t you think that`s the first thing that any defense attorney is going to say, that he just snapped and lost his mind with these video games? That`s what I would do.
GRACE: The video games were back during his relationship with his ex- wife. Out to you, Claypool, of course, that`s what a defense lawyer says, but that means, that`s nothing more than a hill of beans to me, what a defense attorney dreams up to say in court means nothing to me. He`s looking straight at the death penalty.
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, how many times do we pre-judge people before they`re arrested, then we find out later, oops, we`re wrong? Case in point, Andrea Sneiderman, that all went away. We have another example here.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, wait, put (inaudible) back up. Just because the state didn`t feel they didn`t have enough to prove murder doesn`t mean she`s innocent. OK? Now, what were you saying?
CLAYPOOL: What I was going to say is right now at this point, the only evidence you have of Dimaggio is that he`s a creep. And if everybody was a creep was indicted, your living room would be filled with criminals. There is no evidence right now to prove that he set a fire, that he killed anybody, No. 1.
GRACE: Really? The fire in his home?
CLAYPOOL: We don`t even have an autopsy report of either of the deceased.
GRACE: OK, so let me get it straight. You are telling me that the fire in his home, he burns down his whole home, and if he didn`t do it, then where is he? Why hasn`t he filed for insurance? Why hasn`t he called for police? If he isn`t on the run, where is he? He`s not dead in the home, he`s not at work. Where is he, Claypool? So I don`t know -- you know what, let me go out to Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids foundation. You know more about missing people than any of us. What are your thoughts, Marc, now that police are telling us point blank we don`t know which way they`re headed?
KLAAS: Well, thank you, and to get away from that alternate universe that defense attorneys live in, here`s a couple of things that I would put forth. No. 1, I think that her father did exactly the right thing by making a direct appeal to the kidnapper and by making a direct appeal to his daughter and giving her an action plan on what to do if she has an opportunity. I think that that was a brilliant move on his part.
No. 2, I think that they need to start looking into his past purchases to see if this is something that he had planned out and if he has bought any kind of survival gear recently, so that he might be with her someplace. Because definitely, Nancy, he is off the grid. He is not going to be detected in that vehicle, and I would suspect that he`s probably closer rather than further away, and I also think they might start putting some pictures of her out with her in an altered appearance, with her hair cut shorter, et cetera, et cetera, because he might be doing things to her to make her less detectable than she otherwise would be.
GRACE: Marc Klaas, I know the mother was very trusting of uncle Jim, and I get it. He had been a family friend, a friend of the father forever. She let him take her, the little girl, the 16-year-old, to Hollywood. They were supposed to be gone a week, and abruptly ended after three days when the two had an argument. After that, the girl would not return his phone calls or texts. What does that say to you, Marc?
KLAAS: Well, it was an absolute mistake to allow that to happen. You know, I`ve got all kind of nieces and young girls that are in and around my family. I wouldn`t for a minute think of doing something like that. And I don`t think most people would. I don`t think most people would.
GRACE: I think you are right, Marc Klaas. Out to Paul Vercammen, CNN correspondent joining me at the sheriff`s office, San Diego. Response, Paul.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just wanted to let you know one thing, Nancy, this is concrete. Obviously, detectives and prosecutors are not showing a lot of cards, but they do have enough that the judge issued the warrant for the arrest of the murder of the mom, and then, of course, detectives saying, likely other charges to follow, and as we said, likely a second murder charge, arson charges, possibly kidnapping, cruelty to animals, and a host of other charges possibly on deck, Nancy.
GRACE: You know, Paul Vercammen, everyone, joining us at the San Diego sheriff`s office. Paul, the warrant issued, it has to state probable cause, what`s the PC?
VERCAMMEN: I`m sorry, Nancy, I couldn`t hear you clearly. But I want to tell you right now--
GRACE: What`s the PC?
VERCAMMEN: Oh, here in California--
GRACE: Probable cause in the arrest warrant.
VERCAMMEN: Well, the probable cause on this is murder. It`s because they found the body. By the way, they say this body was less charred than that of the boy`s, of the mom, Tina Anderson, inside the house. They have not revealed that yet. All of this trickling in. As I said, they are playing it extremely close to the vest because they don`t want to give any information in case that at some point they`re able to extract a confession.
GRACE: What do you think police are doing now that we know they don`t know which way that Dimaggio was headed with the girl? What are they doing?
VERCAMMEN: Well, they`ve obviously enlisted the help of federal agents. They`re checking Mexico. They`re checking throughout the United States. They`re fanning out in neighborhoods. They`re also actively talking to her high school friends, hoping that perhaps some of them might have heard her discuss something about Dimaggio, maybe develop a pattern, maybe there could be a trace even in social media. We understand from an interview with a neighbor that at one point Dimaggio took the 16-year-old girl with him on a trip to Hollywood. So they`re following all of these strands right now, hoping that somebody, and it might be a teenager, provides a clue, Nancy.
GRACE: And when we come back, Hannah`s best friend joining us with that information.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His wife is dead, his two children are missing. And investigators in San Diego believe a family friend is responsible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gentleman that was a friend of ours for a long time. He`s taken everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They considered him an uncle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for 40-year-old James Dimaggio is quickly turning nationwide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe he is extremely dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But his life-long friend was nearby, uncle Jim.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t imagine why he would do this horrific thing. People that loved him so much and considered him family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m so sorry, baby girl, you are alone. Just run, please! Please, just run! As fast as you can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Right now, Hannah has no one, no mother reaching out to her. Her mother`s body has been found in the fiery rubble of a home. Her little brother likely the second human victim there, the 8-year-old little boy, Ethan. Also the family dog, all found dead and burning in the home of prime suspect James Lee Dimaggio, a 40-year-old white male. We are taking your calls. I want to go out now to Alan McNabb, best friend of the missing 16-year-old girl. Ellen, thank you for being with us.
ALAN MCNABB, FRIEND OF HANNAH ANDERSON: Hi. Thank you for having me.
GRACE: Alan, I know this is horrible for you to go through. But everything you know may be of help to the police. Tell me when Hannah first realized that Dimaggio basically had a crush on her, he`s a 40-year- old man considered to be her uncle.
MCNABB: She has told me that when she had gone through (inaudible), he had told her that she`s beautiful and great (ph), and he`d told her that he would date her if she was his age.
GRACE: What can you tell me about their Hollywood trip?
MCNABB: For her 16th birthday, he was going to take her to Hollywood and then go camping, but their trip was cut short because they went back for her mother`s birthday and they had gotten in an argument.
GRACE: What was the argument over, Alan?
MCNABB: Her and Jim had been driving up to L.A. It`s a long drive, and she had taken a bunch of pictures on his phone and was on Facebook and such. And he was really mad that she was on Facebook so much and not talking to him, and she had deleted all the pictures she took on his phone, and he was like crying and yelling at her and really upset that she had deleted all of them.
GRACE: Did she do it by accident?
MCNABB: No, she had just deleted them because she had already uploaded some and she had taken so many different ones.
GRACE: Oh, you mean she deleted the ones that she had taken during the trip?
MCNABB: Yes. Just of herself.
GRACE: Oh. So she deleted all the photos on his phone of her, and that made him angry and he started crying?
MCNABB: Yes. And they didn`t talk for a while after that.
GRACE: Alan--
MCNABB: And they ended up cutting their trip short.
GRACE: Was she at all concerned about going on the trip with him?
MCNABB: Yes. She was definitely nervous about it.
GRACE: What do you mean by that?
MCNABB: She just said that it was going to be like weird being with him alone that long.
GRACE: Do you have any idea why the mother, Christina Anderson, thought it was OK for Dimaggio to take the girl?
MCNABB: Because, I mean, they came so close when Hannah`s dad left, and Jim has been there for them so long, and he`s been a family friend for years, and so she just thought that she could trust him.
GRACE: Is it true that Dimaggio rented a room in the home with Hannah, so he, while he was saving up money to buy his own home?
MCNABB: No.
GRACE: So he never lived in the home?
MCNABB: No. I know he did live, he has lived with Hannah`s grandparents, but not in Hannah`s house.
GRACE: How did Hannah respond to the fact that Dimaggio had a crush on her?
MCNABB: She was really weirded out by it and concerned, and I told her, I mean, not to -- like not to talk to him, because I thought it was really strange.
GRACE: Did she have any idea that he was showing up that weekend? You talked to her the Friday night before she went missing?
MCNABB: Yes. I talked to her on Friday, but she had to go to bed because she had cheer camp coaching, and on that Saturday after her cheer camp coaching, they were going to go up to Jim`s house.
GRACE: Alan, is it true Dimaggio would come to her gymnastics and cheer practices?
MCNABB: Yes.
GRACE: How did she feel about that?
MCNABB: She was, I mean, she really appreciated it, but I mean, she always said it was weird, he was at every single one, like never missed one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overnight a vigil of hope allegedly kidnapped by this man, James Dimaggio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all miss you, Hannah, we love you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators anxious to catch a break.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is safe to say he is a very dangerous person, armed or not. If she has an opportunity to escape him, then take it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. Tonight on the run, a 40-year-old white male. Believed to be with him, a 16-year-old girl. He was considered an uncle within the family to the 8-year-old boy and the 16-year-old girl. That boy tonight, we believe, dead, along with his mother. The girl missing.
Now to Caryn Stark, psychologist, we are learning a lot about his psyche, Caryn, between an obsession with an alternate universe and that Quest online game, the fact that he would actually confront then elude a police officer, what is this telling you about him?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: I suspect, Nancy, that this is pathological love. Pathological love is based on fantasy and illusion, just like the game that he loved. And so he built up this whole fantasy about what his relationship with her was supposed to be about. And when she rejected him, when she stopped e-mailing him or allowing him to be in touch with her, he was devastated. And I think that that`s what caused the break, because the pathology was there to begin with.
GRACE: You know, Caryn, that`s really interesting that you have pointed that out. Don`t move, Caryn Stark. Alan McNabb still with me, best friend of the missing girl, Hannah Anderson. When was it, Alan, that she quit returning his texts and phone calls?
MCNABB: Probably about in April or May, I want to say, but about two or three weeks after she (inaudible) contact with him.
GRACE: So, she stops returning calls and e-mails, texts in about May, and then this happens at the beginning of August. Does that support your theory, Caryn Stark?
STARK: Sure it does, because if she wasn`t in touch with him, Nancy, the longer she wasn`t in touch with him, the more that he was going to feel bereft and not be able to function. So, I suspect he was just waiting for the opportunity, especially if he couldn`t go to all the games, he never missed any of her practices, he wasn`t able to be in touch with her. He was just waiting for this opportunity.
GRACE: Out to Columbia, South Carolina. Joining me, Dr. Michelle Dupree, medical examiner, forensic pathologist. Doctor, I`m very disturbed about the child`s body being found in that burning rubble. The mother`s body, the body of a dog also found. I don`t know what the method of murder is, although they were found in a burning home. What does it take to make a positive I.D.? I suspect police know it`s the little boy and they`re not releasing it.
DR. MICHELLE DUPREE: Chances are you`re probably correct. We know that the body is consistent with an 8-year-old child. We can tell from the remains if it`s a boy or a girl. We`re likely also to be able to perhaps match dental records, and perhaps DNA, which would take a few days longer, but I suspect they already do have a positive I.D.
GRACE: When I look at this child, this 8-year-old, he`s just a couple of years older than my twins. I mean, there would be no way that this boy could fight back against Dimaggio. Dr. Dupree, another question, will they be able to look at the crime scene, even though it`s burned, and try to determine how the murders went down? What could they learn from the body, if the body is burned?
DUPREE: Yes, Nancy, there`s a lot of things we can actually tell from a burned crime scene. For example, we will look for things, the totality of the scene. Was it organized or disorganized? We can also look for types of injuries. Were the bodies alive when the fire actually took place or were they perhaps killed and left in the fire to cover that up? A lot of the physical evidence and trace evidence may very well be found, or at least destroyed, but there might still be a lot of things we could tell from that, including the cause and manner of death.
GRACE: Mark Harold, former Atlanta PD, lawyer, author of "Observations of White Noise." Mark Harold, weigh in.
MARK HAROLD, ATTORNEY: Well, this is a tough search. You really don`t have anywhere to start. This is an individual whose ex-wife says that he`s resourceful, he has survival skills. He may be able to get into Mexico. They also should look at the ocean. Obviously, they`re on a coast there. Everything indicates they`re looking at land, but he might have gone into the ocean, you just don`t know. Not into the ocean, but use it to travel, but this is very dangerous. And hopefully, she can escape, as authorities have said she should try to do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did a mock-up of Dimaggio as a bald person, in case he was to shave his head, which is probably one of the quickest ways to change his appearance. The same thing could have happened for Hannah. He could have cut her hair, dyed her hair. We just don`t know at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to Chelsea in Florida. Hi, Chelsea, what`s your question? Chelsea? Are you there? What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: Um, yes, ma`am. I was wondering, so, was it -- are they thinking that it was the boy`s body that was found inside the house along with the mom and dog?
GRACE: Back out to Clark Goldband. Clark, what do we know about what they`ve said about the body?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, a law enforcement force tells CNN that the body does appear to match both the shape and size of an 8-year-old boy. However, they`re waiting for DNA tests to come back. That information has not been confirmed just of yet. Also, Nancy, want to point out really quickly here that, in fact, the grandma of these two kids spoke with us and says that the suspect taught the children survival skills and camping skills in caves.
GRACE: Out to you, Mark Evans, KOGO. What are police doing at this hour?
EVANS: Well, they are searching, and this has been going on now, it`s been three days he`s been on the run. He knows how to hide. He knows to go into places where he won`t be seen. I want to talk about the father, what he is going through, the father of the children, Brett Anderson. His impassioned plea, where he said I`m begging you to let my daughter go, you`ve taken everything else. Hannah, we all love you very much. He directed all of his emphasis on Hannah, not on Ethan. That could be the fact that the police have already told him --
GRACE: Oh, Mark, you`re right, you`re right. You`re absolutely right. Tip line, everyone.
EVANS: Already told the father that Ethan is the dead boy in the burned rubble. One sad fact about the story, too. Brett Anderson said before all of this happened --
GRACE: The tip line tonight -- 888-580-8477. As we sign off, our thoughts and prayers with Texas friend Charlene in the fight of her life. Mother of three, registered nurse, grandmother of seven. Please pray for Charlene. And a special good night from friends of the show from Georgia and Illinois. Autumn, Rodney, Amy, Brian, Megan, Madison and Morgan. Aren`t they beautiful? Everyone, Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night in the search for Hannah. 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
