The 16-year-old girl rescued during an FBI shootout with her captor in the Idaho wilderness was recovering at her Southern California home Tuesday, the start of what her father said will be a slow recovery.
“She has been through a tremendous, horrific ordeal,” said Brett Anderson at a press conference Monday afternoon. “I am very proud of her and love her very much.”
Hannah Anderson, 16, was rescued Saturday by federal agents in the wilderness. Her suspected abductor, James Lee DiMaggio, was killed in the shootout with FBI riflemen, authorities said, bringing a week-long search to a dramatic end.
DiMaggio, 40, was wanted in the killing of Christina Anderson, 44, and 8-year-old Ethan, as well as the kidnapping of Hannah.
San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore, speaking at the same press conference, said that Hannah was “under extreme duress” during her abduction — and she was not aware that her mother and brother were dead until rescuers told her, he said.
Gore said the girl is doing "as well as can be expected after the terrible ordeal she's been through."
“It’s time to grieve and move on to the healing process,” said her father, pleading for privacy.
Christopher Saincome, Hannah's grandfather, told The Associated Press that Brett Anderson wanted to take Hannah with him to Tennessee, where he recently moved.
Saincome urged him to have her stay in the San Diego area, where she grew up and has a large circle of friends. "I think she needs to be here with friends," Saincome told the AP. "I know she's taking it very tough. One of her best friends is with her, talking to her."
Anderson is a gymnast at El Capitan High School in Lakeside, an east San Diego suburb of 54,000 people, where she also participated in an advanced dance class, the AP said. She recently celebrated a birthday with about two dozen friends at a San Diego cabaret bar.
At Monday’s news conference, Anderson also thanked “all the branches of law enforcement” involved in the investigation as well as people who “shared their hearts and thoughts” through social media channels.
“We have no doubt that this made a difference," he said.
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore says interviews with Hannah made it "very clear" that she is "a victim in every sense of the word."
Anderson also thanked the four horseback riders who spotted Hannah and DiMaggio in the Idaho backcountry on Wednesday. That fortuitous sighting drew authorities to DiMaggio’s car Friday and to his campsite near Morehead Leak on Saturday.
Gore also said that DiMaggio did have a “shoulder weapon” and that he “fired at least one round prior to being shot and killed” by federal agents.
Authorities on Monday offered scant details of Hannah’s captivity and rescue, saying only that the investigation is ongoing.
Gore said Hannah had been subjected to a “terrible ordeal” since she was kidnapped from Boulevard, Calif., and taken out of state.
Hannah “is a victim in every sense of the word,” Gore said.
“She was a victim in this case, she was not a willing participant, and she was under extreme duress from the time she left Boulevard to the time she was recovered in Idaho,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hannah's grandmother has said it was "fitting" that DiMaggio was killed by an FBI sharpshooter.
Sara Britt, Hannah’s maternal grandmother, said death of DiMaggio — known by the Anderson family as "Uncle Jim" — had been for the best.
“The way it ended up for both Hannah and Jim. It’s fitting,” she told NBCSanDiego on Sunday. “No one wants to go through years of jury trials and putting Hannah through any of that,” she added.
NBC News' Alastair Jamieson, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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