Memorial today for slain mother and brother of kidnapped teen

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Phillip Garrido enters a courtroom in Placerville, Calif. Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison for Jaycee Dugard’s abduction. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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A tent in the backyard of a home in Antioch, Calif., where authorities say kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard lived. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

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Elizabeth Smart addresses the media outside a federal courthouse following the guilty verdict in the Brian David Mitchell trail in Salt Lake City. Mitchell was found guilty in the June 5, 2002, kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. (Colin E. Braley / Associated Press)

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Elizabeth Smart poses with her parents, Lois and Ed, outside their home in 2003. Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 (Tom Smart / Associated Press)

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Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper, is escorted into the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City in 2010. (Jim Urquhart / Associated Press)

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Katie Beers, whose kidnapping attracted nationwide headlines in 1992, poses for a photo in Old Westbury, N.Y. The 30-year-old mother of two co-wrote a new book about her ordeal. (Frank Eltman / Associated Press)

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John Esposito sits handcuffed in a van in Hauppauge, N.Y., as he is about to be taken to court for arraignment on charges of kidnapping Katie Beers. (Michael Albans / Associated Press)

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Shawn Hornbeck, 15, watches as his parents Craig and Pam Akers talk to the media in Richwoods, Mo. Shawn, who was missing since Oct. 2002, was recovered in 2007 with another missing boy. (Tom Gannam / Associated Press)

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Michael Devlin is escorted out of the Franklin County Courthouse in Union, Mo. Devlin pleaded guilty in Franklin County to one charge of child kidnapping and one count of armed criminal action in the 2007 abduction of 13-year-old William “Ben” Ownby. (Tom Gannam / Associated Press)

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Steven Stayner, right, and and his brother Delbert Stayner walk toward their Merced County home as Steven was reunited with his family following a 7-year kidnap ordeal. (Ted Benson / Associated Press)

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Convicted kidnapper Kenneth Eugene Parnell during a court appearance in Oakland in 2003. Parnell was convicted in the kidnappings of Steven Stayner in 1972 and Timothy White in 1980. (Nick Lammers / Associated Press)

By Tony Perry

Aug. 24, 2013 11:16 AM PT

A memorial service was held Saturday for the mother and brother of kidnapped teen Hannah Anderson, who was rescued two weeks ago by the FBI in the forest of southern Idaho.

The service for Christina Anderson, 44, and Ethan Anderson, 8, was held at the Guardian Angels Roman Catholic Church in Santee.

“For the death of Tina and Ethan there are no easy words,” the Rev. Kevin Casey told the memorial gathering. “We struggle with deaths like this because they are not right. They are an abomination.”

The two were killed, allegedly by family friend James DiMaggio, in DiMaggio’s home in Boulevard in rural San Diego County on Aug. 4 before he kidnapped Hannah and fled north. Sheriff’s investigators say DiMaggio set fire to the home before leaving town.

Mother and son died from “horrific and cruel murders,” Casey said. “We are touched by this evil and we can never be the same again.”

After an Amber Alert and six days of a massive search, DiMaggio and Hannah were spotted in the rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho. On Aug. 10, DiMaggio was shot and killed by FBI agents sent to rescue the teenager.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said later that Hannah did not know that DiMaggio had killed her mother and brother. The teen was being held under “great duress,” Gore said.

The fire that destroyed DiMaggio’s home was set with incendiary devices, probably with timers, investigators said.

Back in her home in Lakeside, Hannah took to social media to answer questions about the ordeal.

“I’m a teenager,” she said during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’m gonna go on it.”

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