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Kidnapping suspect killed by FBI; Hannah Anderson in ‘good shape’

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CASCADE, Idaho -- The man accused of kidnapping 16-year-old Hannah Anderson was killed in the Idaho wilderness Saturday, but the teen was found safe and “appears to be in pretty good shape,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said.

Gore said the suspect, James Lee DiMaggio, was shot by the FBI.

“Obviously we would have liked Mr. DiMaggio to surrender and face justice in a court of law, but that was not the case,” Gore said. Hannah will be “thoroughly evaluated” at a hospital before detectives talk to her, he said.

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Hannah’s father, Brett Anderson, was notified this afternoon and was “very relieved,” Gore said at a press conference in San Diego. Plans are in progress to reunite him with his daughter Sunday. She was taken to a hospital for observation.

DiMaggio, 40, was killed not far from the remote Idaho location where a group of horseback riders had seen him and Hannah earlier in the week, law enforcement sources told The Times.

DiMaggio was the subject of an intensive manhunt in the wilderness above Cascade, where he had taken Hannah, who had been missing from her San Diego County community since Sunday

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DiMaggio had been considered armed and dangerous. Earlier in the day, FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said that danger required officials to send in “highly trained, enhanced SWAT teams and law enforcement” as part of the search.

DiMaggio’s blue Nissan Versa — the subject of a five-state Amber Alert — was found Friday roughly 60 miles northeast of Cascade, at a trail head leading into the wilderness.

Ada County sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said it was “the last place you can go before you hit the wilderness and stop driving.”

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Much of the terrain is so rugged and remote that some ground search crews had to be flown in Saturday morning. Others took to horseback, while helicopters buzzed overhead.

By Saturday afternoon, roughly 150 FBI officials had combined with local and state officials to amass a force of more than 200 personnel, according to Dearden.

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Twitter: @katemather

kate.mather@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

jason.wells@latimes.com

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