It wasn’t exactly a reddit AMA, but Idaho kidnapping victim Hannah Anderson was reportedly online less than 48 hours after returning home to share a bit about her experience and field questions.
Anderson, 16, was rescued Saturday after being kidnapped by a close family friend suspected of killing her mother and 8-year-old brother. The kidnapper, James DiMaggio, was killed in a shootout with authorities in the Idaho wilderness, ending the hunt.
Though she has turned down requests from news organizations for interviews, Hannah Anderson was apparently comfortable enough to start fielding questions about her experience on the ask.fm social networking site Monday night. Under the handle “Hannahbanana722,” the Lakeside teen answered hundreds of questions, reports the Associated Press.
The postings started mere hours after the teen’s father publicly asked for privacy as the family grieves and continued into Tuesday evening, reports Fox News . Brett Anderson didn’t respond for comment on his daughter’s social media activity. Police say they’re aware of the online postings, but they can’t confirm whether the account is actually Hannah’s.
Dawn MacNabb, whose son is one of Hannah’s closest friends, said that the posts are legitimate.
Anyway, some of the questions fielded were about Hannah’s persona interests (Justin Bieber, the color pink, etc.), but “Hannahbanana722” also very openly answered questions about the kidnapping, the kidnapper and about grieving passed members of her family.
Some highlights from the postings:
“He told us he was losing his house because of money issues so we went up there one last time to support him, and to have fun riding go karts up there but he tricked us,” she wrote, explaining how DiMaggio managed to kidnap the Anderson family members.
“I wish I could go back in time and risk my life to try and save theirs. I will never forgive myself for not trying harder to save them,” she wrote in reference to her mother and brother. She found out they were dead in the hospital Saturday when an FBI agent told her.
She said DiMaggio “basically” stayed awake for six days and “threatened to kill me and anyone who tried to help.”
She also talked about the group of horseback riders they encountered. Members of that group reported last week that they had run into a strange couple after finding out about the search on the news. Hannah said she tried to remain calm to keep them from being hurt.
“I had to act calm I didn’t want them to get hurt. I was scared that he would kill them,” she wrote.
She also said that DiMaggio made her uncomfortable before the kidnapping, and had even admitted at one point to being attracted to her.
“He said it was more like a family crush like he had feelings as in he wanted nothing bad to happen to me,” she wrote. But she didn’t tell her parents because DiMaggio was her father’s best friend “and I didn’t want to ruin anything between them.”
She also said that she is still in shock, but “trying to stay strong.” When asked if she thought that DiMaggio should have gone to prison instead of dying at the hands of FBI agents, she very pointedly responded:
“He deserved what he got.”
Do you think that Hannah Anderson will come forward to tell her story more publicly?