The two couples who tipped authorities on the whereabouts 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her alleged kidnapper said they knew something was off when they ran into the pair in the Idaho back country.
Mark John, a rancher and retired county sheriff, and his wife Crista were out horseback riding with another rancher and his wife Wednesday when they ran into Anderson and 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio. They would later recognize the girl on television as the subject of an Amber Alert.
"When they showed up to the lake it was like a square peg in a round hole - he didn't fit. He might have been an outdoorsman in California but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho ... Red flags kind of went up," John said.
The girl ended up being Anderson, a California teen who had been missing for about a week after she was abducted by DiMaggio, a family friend also suspected of killing her mother and brother. After the tip, law enforcement officers found them Saturday afternoon, fatally shooting DiMaggio and rescuing Anderson unharmed.
AP/San Diego Sheriff's Department
John told reporters that one of the biggest red flags was that the two did not seem interested in talking, which he said was unusual for fellow campers they ran into on the trail. Something particularly strange, he said, was that the older man had a gray cat with him.
"I said, 'What are you doing with a cat here?'" John recalled, adding a cat was only good for attracting mountain lions and wolves to the area. John said the man "just kind of grinned, had a little smirk on his face," but didn't say anything.
The girl was also quiet and appeared scared, John and his wife both said. According to the couple, she said nothing except for "looks like we're all in trouble now" in response to something John said to her. The second rancher, Mike Young, said he thought it was strange she was wearing pajamas, or sweatpants, while out hiking. Yet another red flag was that all their camping gear looked brand new, John said.
It wasn't until the amber alert, however, that they realized the situation was much more serious than they had originally thought.
"For us to be there at the precise time was one chance in a trillion," Crista John said. "That was just one of those once in a lifetime events."
Mark John, a rancher and retired county sheriff, and his wife Crista were out horseback riding with another rancher and his wife Wednesday when they ran into Anderson and 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio. They would later recognize the girl on television as the subject of an Amber Alert.
"When they showed up to the lake it was like a square peg in a round hole - he didn't fit. He might have been an outdoorsman in California but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho ... Red flags kind of went up," John said.
The girl ended up being Anderson, a California teen who had been missing for about a week after she was abducted by DiMaggio, a family friend also suspected of killing her mother and brother. After the tip, law enforcement officers found them Saturday afternoon, fatally shooting DiMaggio and rescuing Anderson unharmed.
John told reporters that one of the biggest red flags was that the two did not seem interested in talking, which he said was unusual for fellow campers they ran into on the trail. Something particularly strange, he said, was that the older man had a gray cat with him.
"I said, 'What are you doing with a cat here?'" John recalled, adding a cat was only good for attracting mountain lions and wolves to the area. John said the man "just kind of grinned, had a little smirk on his face," but didn't say anything.
The girl was also quiet and appeared scared, John and his wife both said. According to the couple, she said nothing except for "looks like we're all in trouble now" in response to something John said to her. The second rancher, Mike Young, said he thought it was strange she was wearing pajamas, or sweatpants, while out hiking. Yet another red flag was that all their camping gear looked brand new, John said.
It wasn't until the amber alert, however, that they realized the situation was much more serious than they had originally thought.
"For us to be there at the precise time was one chance in a trillion," Crista John said. "That was just one of those once in a lifetime events."