James Lee DiMaggio is shown in this photo released by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. A coroner told NBC News on Wednesday that the suspected kidnapper of Hannah Anderson was shot at least five times when FBI found him in the wilderness.
By Andrew Rafferty and Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News
Suspected murderer and kidnapper James Lee DiMaggio tortured a mother and her son before killing them, setting them ablaze in his own home and abducting the woman’s 16-year-old-daughter, according to court documents unsealed late Wednesday.
The documents — search warrants that investigators used to try to track DiMaggio and his captive down — contain chilling new details of what police discovered when they responded to a fire at a log cabin home in Southern California on Aug. 4 .
According to the court documents, "DiMaggio tortured and killed his best friend's wife and 8-year-old son. DiMaggio also shot and killed the family dog."
They don’t provide further specifics on the exact nature of the torture, but he did also set the house on fire.
While battling the blaze, authorities noticed smoke coming from a detached garage where the body of 44-year-old Christina Anderson, was found under a tarp.
Next to the body sat “a crow bar and what appeared to be blood on the ground,” according to the search warrant.
When authorities were finally able to enter DiMaggio’s home, they found the charred remains of 8-year-old Ethan Anderson, whose body was burned so badly it took days to identify.
DiMaggio, who had been a longtime friend of the Andersons, was killed Saturday in Idaho during a shootout with police.
The coroner in Boise told NBC News earlier on Wednesday that DiMaggio was killed by "multiple gunshot wounds" to the head and the chest. He was shot by FBI tactical agents after being discovered in the Idaho wilderness.
After receiving a tip from horseback riders on Saturday that they had spotted a man and woman matching the descriptions of the people in a multi-statewide Amber Alert, U.S. Marshalls flew over the backcountry of Idaho and spotted a tent.
At that point, an FBI tactical team was called in and traversed the wilderness for two hours so that they would not spook DiMaggio, according to NBC San Diego.
Officials told NBC San Diego that they zeroed in on DiMaggio after they were sure Hannah Anderson was far enough away from him. Agents reported that DiMaggio was armed and fired one shot before they shot him and killed him in the wilderness.
Anderson was then rescued by FBI agents.
Officials told NBC San Diego that Anderson had a "close platonic relationship" with DiMaggio, but investigators have stressed that she was taken and held against her will.
A spokeswoman for the DiMaggio family told the Los Angeles Times that DiMaggio's body was cremated.
Meanwhile Hannah Anderson apparently broke her silence on social media on Tuesday and offered new details about her ordeal — saying that her captor “deserved what he got” when he was shot to death.
Posts from what family and friends confirmed was Hannah Anderson’s account on the site Ask.fm answered hundreds of questions submitted from around the world. The writer expressed hope that DiMaggio burns in hell.
