Police searched for a week for missing California teen Hannah Anderson before encountering her and her alleged kidnapper at an Idaho campground. Her suspected assailant, James Lee DiMaggio, 40, was killed by FBI agents outside of the campsite Saturday. The 16-year-old was uninjured. Anderson was taken to a local hospital where crisis counselors and doctors were attending to her. Her father is expected to arrive in Idaho to reunite with her Sunday.
The FBI said it is sending an investigation team to discover what happened before, during and after the shooting. It offered little details on the current course of the investigation. It is unclear what prompted FBI agents to shoot DiMaggio.
"No one really knows where an investigation like this will lead," said Mary Rook, special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt Lake City division. "In this case, our team faced a very challenging situation."
Officials believe that DiMaggio burned down Anderson and her family's home last Sunday. The blaze killed Anderson's 8-year-old brother Ethan, and mother Christina Anderson, 44. It is believed that the suspect then kidnapped Hannah for unspecified motives, which prompted an expanded search for the teen in Canada and Mexico. Ralph Britt, Anderson's grandfather, said that her recovery will now allow the family to grieve for those they lost in the fire.
"We had to put the murder of Ethan and Tina on hold in the back of our minds because we had to totally focus on Hannah," Britt said. "So now we can take the time to grieve my daughter and grandson.''
Police issued an amber alert regarding Anderson's disappearance. An Idaho horseback rider called in a tip that led officers to find DiMaggio's car abandonned at the beginning of a trail located in Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, where the pair were found.
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