Hannah Anderson is shown during an interview for the "Today" show in San Diego, Calif., in this Aug. 21, 2013.
The California teenager who was rescued in August after a nationwide manhunt said the family friend who kidnapped her claimed he had a crush on her
Hannah Anderson said on NBC’s Today show that her captor bound her feet with zip ties after abducting her in San Diego. DiMaggio, who was killed during Anderson’s rescue, is believed to have murdered the girl’s mother and little brother after abducting her.
“He told me he had a crush on me,” she said in the interview that aired Thursday.
“When we got into the house after he told me the plan he made me play Russian roulette with him,” Anderson said. “And when it was my turn, I started crying and, like, was freaking out. And he said, ‘Do you want to play?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And I started crying and then he’s, like, ‘Okay.’ And he stopped.”
Anderson said she was then drugged, possibly with Ambien sleeping pills, and driven to the Idaho wilderness.
Anderson described her three-day hike with DiMaggio through the rugged Idaho wilderness. “I had to carry 50-pound backpacks. Two of them,” she said.
Many times she thought of escape, she said, but DiMaggio’s threat that if she tried he would kill her and anyone who helped stopped her from acting.
Anderson recalled the moment after her rescue when she learned her mother and brother had been murdered, and described what it’s like living now with them gone.
“I miss them so much,” she said, tearfully. “Sometimes it’s like I wait for them to get home and then they’re not there.”
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy