SAN DIEGO — A family friend tortured and killed a mother and her 8-year-old son before setting his home on fire and escaping with the mother’s 16-year-old daughter, according to search warrants unsealed Wednesday.
The warrants do not describe the torture but say firefighters found the mother’s body in James Lee DiMaggio’s garage near a crowbar and what appeared to be blood next to her head. A dead dog was found under a sleeping bag in the garage with blood near its head.
Investigators found the child’s body as they sifted the rubble.
DiMaggio and 16-year-old Hannah Anderson exchanged about 13 calls before Hannah was picked up from cheerleading practice on Aug. 4. Both phones were turned off, and the home burned several hours later.
DiMaggio, 40, was like an uncle to the children and close to the parents for nearly two decades.
Hannah Anderson was rescued when FBI agents killed DiMaggio in the Idaho wilderness on Saturday. Hannah Anderson described on a social media site how she survived captivity and how she is coping with the deaths of her mother and brother.
“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.
The account was disabled Wednesday.
DiMaggio was shot at least five times in the head and chest, according to authorities.
DiMaggio had invited the children and their mother, Christina Anderson, 44, to his house in Boulevard, a rural town 65 miles east of San Diego.
“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,” Hannah wrote.
Hannah said she “basically” stayed awake for six straight days. She couldn’t escape because DiMaggio had a gun and “threatened to kill me and anyone who tried to help.”
