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| FILE - This combination of undated file photos provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department shows James Lee DiMaggio, 40, left, and Hannah Anderson, 16. A massive search entered a seventh day Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, for DiMaggio, suspected of abducting 16-year-old family friend Hannah. DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border. |
CASCADE, Idaho
(AP) -- Federal and local law enforcement agents say they're focused
on getting feet on the ground in the search for 16-year-old Hannah
Anderson and her suspected abductor, 40-year-old James
Lee DiMaggio in
central Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
Helicopters
and fixed-wing aircraft have been flying FBI agents and other law
enforcement officers into the roadless wilderness area throughout the
day Saturday.
"We are going to continue
searching for as long as we believe this is the area most likely where
this pair would be," Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden
said. "We're going to put every resource possible here, every person
possible that we can."
Detectives with the San
Diego County Sheriff's Department finished searching DiMaggio's car
Saturday afternoon at the remote trailhead where it was found about 40
miles east of the tiny town of Cascade. They had the vehicle towed to a
garage in Cascade for further processing.
DiMaggio
is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her
8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night
in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.
The
steep and mountainous terrain makes it impossible to do a traditional
grid search - and the search area itself spans more than 300 miles,
Dearden said. Though search dogs have been brought in from out of state
and horses have been identified for possible use, the animals aren't
currently helping in the search, Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea
Dearden said Saturday afternoon.
Time is a
critical concern. Dearden said investigators believe both Hannah and
DiMaggio are alive, but they are worried about whether the 16-year-old
has the right clothing and footwear for the mountainous conditions and
whether she has the stamina to handle days of hiking through steep
terrain.
Instead, search coordinators are
trying to choose the most strategic locations to place the searchers,
whether it be along trailheads, at the few airstrips within the
wilderness borders, or along drainage paths and river shores.
It's
Idaho's wildfire season, and though no blazes threaten the search area,
smoke from big fires to the south has reduced visibility and ash is
falling on the town of Cascade.
Though Dearden said the smoke hasn't yet hindered the search, nightfall is a problem.
"Simply for safety reasons it isn't practical to have people out there at night," she said.
Ray
Arnold, a backcountry pilot and the owner of charter flight service
Arnold Aviation in Cascade, said he flew local crews into the wilderness
area to help with the search on Friday.
On Saturday, he was helping law enforcement out at the Cascade Airport, fueling aircraft and offering other support, he said.
"There's
quite a bit of smoke but you know, if you get down a little lower, it's
fine. It's not anything different than any other summer around here,"
Arnold said.
Though there's not a ton of tree
canopy cover in the high alpine area where Anderson and DiMaggio are
believed to be, it would still likely be difficult to spot the pair from
a plane, Arnold said.
"If a person stands
beside a tree or something and his clothes are similar to surroundings,
it's hard to see a person, especially if they're not moving," Arnold
said. "The people on the ground are probably using spotting scopes and
they have a better chance of finding them in some ways. A person gets
pretty small when you're up in the air."
Law enforcement officials in San Diego have noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago.
