Hannah Anderson Found Alive After FBI Kills Kidnapping Suspect

The law enforcement search for James Lee DiMaggio, the man accused of kidnapping 16-year-old Hannah Anderson from San Diego County, ended like a scene lifted out of the Manhunter reel yesterday when FBI agents shot and killed DiMaggio in, the LA Times explains with an ominous flourish, “the Idaho wilderness.” Fortunately, this Thomas Harris crime novel has a happyish ending — Anderson was found safe and, according to San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore, “appears to be in pretty good shape.”

Gore told the Times that, though law enforcement officials would definitely have preferred to capture DiMaggio alive so he could “face justice in a court of law,” DiMaggio didn’t surrender to FBI agents after an extensive manhunt that culminated at a remote location in Idaho.

From the Times:

DiMaggio, 40, was killed not far from the remote Idaho location where a group of horseback riders had seen him and Hannah earlier in the week, law enforcement sources told The Times.

DiMaggio was the subject of an intensive manhunt in the wilderness above Cascade, where he had taken Hannah, who had been missing from her San Diego County community since Sunday.

DiMaggio had been considered armed and dangerous. Earlier in the day, FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said that danger required officials to send in “highly trained, enhanced SWAT teams and law enforcement” as part of the search.

By Saturday, the search for DiMaggio and Anderson ballooned to a huge law enforcement undertaking: roughly 150 FBI officials were transported to the remote wilderness of Ada County, Idaho, where they teamed up with local law enforcement for a combined search party of more than 200 personnel. Anderson was taken to a hospital for a “thorough evaluation” before detectives talk to her, and officials plan to reunite her with her father sometime today.