Murder and kidnap suspect's car found in remote Idaho

California murder and kidnap suspect James DiMaggio and his teenage hostage were spotted Wednesday in a remote wilderness area of Idaho by campers on horseback who did not realize until later that the pair were the subject of a multistate manhunt, the San Diego County sheriff said Friday.

The pair, described as appearing "in good health," had vanished by the time investigators could reach the site, about 6 miles from where DiMaggio's abandoned blue Nissan Versa was found Friday morning, said Sheriff Bill Gore. There was no indication that Hannah Anderson's 8-year-old brother, Ethan, was with them. Authorities suspect he was killed Sunday night near San Diego with their mother, 44-year-old Christina Anderson.

"As far as we know, it didn't appear (Hannah) was being held against her will," he said at a news briefing, without elaborating.

The four horseback riders said DiMaggio and 16-year-old Hannah were spotted with backpacks and a tent around Morehead Lake in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, about 30 miles from Cascade, Idaho.

Gore confirmed that the car, which was found about 8 a.m. in "very difficult terrain," was the same one described in AMBER Alerts by five states. It was covered by brush and the California license plates had been removed, but investigators were able to identify it as DiMaggio's through the vehicle identification number, Gore said.

On Thursday, a sheriff's official said that DiMaggio, a telecommunications technician at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., may have fled with homemade explosives and that he may have planned to booby-trap the car.

Bomb experts will examine the car for possible explosives, Gore said.

Authorities have not said whether DiMaggio might also have firearms. They have said they believe that the teenager is "in grave danger."

The sheriff said the riders spoke briefly with the pair and thought they "were out of place in that area" because they had "light camping gear." Only after leaving the backcountry did they learn of the manhunt "and put two and two together."

The 2.3-million-acre area is described as

a wilderness of steep, rugged mountains, deep canyons, and wild, whitewater rivers. The Salmon River Mountains, located south of the Main Salmon and west of the Middle Fork, are the most massive range, and dominate the Wilderness. North of the Main Salmon River are the Clearwater Mountains, east of the Middle Fork are the Bighorn Crags. The Salmon River Canyon is one of the deepest gorges in North America, deeper even than the famous Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona. But in contrast to the Grand Canyon, the Salmon River Canyon is not noted for sheer walls and towering heights, but instead for the variety of landscapes visible from the river; wooded ridges rising to the sky, huge eroded monuments and bluffs and slides, picturesque castles and towers, and solitary crags.

Authorities said DiMaggio bought camping gear about two weeks ago.

"It was obviously a planned event," San Diego sheriff's homicide Capt. Duncan Fraser said.

Dozens of tips had poured in from Oregon and Washington, but none of the reported sightings had panned out, homicide Lt. Glenn Giannantonio said Thursday.

The focus on the Northwest intensified after Oregon State Police reported a possible sighting of DiMaggo's car Wednesday near Alturas, in northeast Oregon, and later about 50 miles along the same highway near Lakeview, in south-central Oregon. Fraser called that tip "very credible."

The 40-year-old DiMaggio is wanted in connection with the death of Hannah's mother, whose body was found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burned down home in Boulevard, Calif., about 50 miles east of San Diego.

Citing a source, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Anderson, of nearby Lakeside, died from blunt trauma and may have been hit with a crowbar.

The body of a child was also found, but investigators were unable to obtain enough DNA from the charred remains to make an identification. Authorities and the family believe it is the body of Ethan Anderson. The family's dog also was found dead.

DiMaggio was a close friend of the family and known as "Uncle Jim."

Christina Anderson's father, Christopher Saincome, said his daughter and the children had visited DiMaggio's home to say goodbye before he moved to Texas, where he was born. He and friends said DiMaggio was depressed because he had lost his home to foreclosure and had to leave.

Brett Anderson, Anderson's husband and the children's father, who was in Tennessee when the crimes occurred, pleaded with DiMaggio to release Hannah, saying, "You've taken everything else."

"Jim, I can't fathom what you were thinking. The damage is done," he said Tuesday night outside San Diego County Sheriff's Department headquarters.

He also appealed to Hannah, saying he loves her very much and "if you have a chance, you take it. You run. You'll be found."

Although DiMaggio was like family to the children, Hannah's friends said he had recently expressed different feelings for the teen.

"He said he had a crush on her, but didn't mean it in an intimate way," 15-year-old Marissa Chavez told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "He said, 'If I was your age, I'd date you.'"

The comment made the girls uneasy, Marissa added.

She said DiMaggio took Hannah to Hollywood for a week-long "Sweet 16" birthday celebration. The trip was cut short, however, because DiMaggio became upset about the amount of time Hannah spent on her cellphone.

"After that, she never responded to his texts and e-mails," Marissa told the San Diego newspaper.

DiMaggio's friends and family are shocked that the man they describe as a "caring person" could be person portrayed in the media.

"We're all very concerned about Jim. It seems so out of character that this would have happened, and it's hard to believe that that's what we're actually seeing," Andrew Spanswick, who said he often camped with DiMaggio, said Thursday during a CNN interview.

"It's hard to face that your friend would do that," Spanswick, who operates a drug-and-alcohol treatment center in Los Angeles, told Piers Morgan. "Nobody wants to think that someone is a serial killer or pedophile."

He said it's possible DiMaggio had some kind of mental breakdown.

"It would have to have been some really mind-altering event that would change his character so dramatically from the man that I know who is actually someone who cares very deeply about people," Spanswick said.