Speaker 1: One day, fourteen year old Abbey left school on a
Speaker 1: crisp afternoon, walking home the same familiar route, only this
Speaker 1: time she never made it. She vanished without a trace,
Speaker 1: setting off a desperate search that would consume her family, community,
Speaker 1: and law enforcement for months. However, soon speculation spread that
Speaker 1: Abbey may not have been abducted, but instead just a
Speaker 1: runaway teen looking for attention. What no one knew was
Speaker 1: that just thirty minutes away, she was trapped in a nightmare,
Speaker 1: held captive, and her only means of escape was her
Speaker 1: own wit. This is the survival story of Abigail Hernandez.
Speaker 1: My name's Ben, I'm.
Speaker 2: Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and.
Speaker 1: Grim, a true crime podcast. The following audience listener, it's
Speaker 1: time for a survival story.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness, right, I'm stoked. We haven't done a survival
Speaker 2: case for some time.
Speaker 1: We haven't done a survival case in sometime, actually, and
Speaker 1: I think it's well overdue. And this is a good one. Honestly,
Speaker 1: when I found it, I was like hell to the
Speaker 1: s because I didn't realize it was even a survival
Speaker 1: story at first, and then I realized it was, and
Speaker 1: I was like hell to the yes, So yeah.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yeah, looking forward to this one.
Speaker 1: Do you want to know what's not awesome though?
Speaker 2: I was just going to bring that up, but you
Speaker 2: go for it.
Speaker 1: We had a little bit of a technical difficulty situation
Speaker 1: happened with uploading our last episode, so it was uploaded,
Speaker 1: it just did not actually published like expected. So yeah,
Speaker 1: our Friday's episode did not publish, publish on Friday. We
Speaker 1: ended up going through the weekend because we had some
Speaker 1: celebrations and stuff and we were like work free sort
Speaker 1: of thing, or at least I was. I know you
Speaker 1: were doing a little bit more, but I was definitely
Speaker 1: hungover and not paying attention much to work. So I'll
Speaker 1: just say that. And it took a few days to
Speaker 1: notice that the episode did not publish, so totally our apologies.
Speaker 1: It was published yesterday, so it is now up for
Speaker 1: your listening pleasure.
Speaker 2: M So it's kind of cool that you have like
Speaker 2: probably two in one day that you get to bin
Speaker 2: for now. I mean, fair enough, but yeah, it was
Speaker 2: done and everything, so that sucks. It sucks, but you
Speaker 2: know what should happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the quirk of an indie podcast. We
Speaker 1: don't have a team who's like messaging us like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, something's wrong.
Speaker 2: Like where the hell was your episode?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Fair enough, I mean we did have people message us,
Speaker 1: and to be fair, if we paid attention to our
Speaker 1: messages a little bit better, we would have seen. But
Speaker 1: like I said, I was in hangover mode. We had
Speaker 1: a Robbie Burn celebration and I had a lot there
Speaker 1: was there was free wine on the table.
Speaker 2: Bringing this up right now, I was.
Speaker 1: Not gonna let that free wine go to waste before
Speaker 1: we left.
Speaker 2: It wasn't technically free, Ben, because we paid for our
Speaker 2: tickets to be at said table.
Speaker 1: Well you know what I mean. Okay, Well, we paid
Speaker 1: for the wine. It wasn't gonna let it go to waste.
Speaker 2: And for some reason, no one at our table was
Speaker 2: drinking wine. So that was a big problem for Ben.
Speaker 1: Well, I had multiple bottles, I'm sorry, multiple glasses of Scotch.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, the evening was winding down and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, you guys aren't drinking this wine. Well,
Speaker 1: I better get to work. So and that was a mistake,
Speaker 1: let's say that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I got in trouble for letting you
Speaker 2: make said mistake.
Speaker 1: Well, it's your fault. I made that mistake. It's definitely
Speaker 1: not but I like.
Speaker 2: To oh, oh my gosh, yeah, well I was actually my
Speaker 2: mistake because I had to deal with that shit.
Speaker 1: So sorry. Anyways, I think Abby's survival story is much
Speaker 1: better than my survival story, So I think we should
Speaker 1: get on to talking about that. But before we do,
Speaker 1: we have some patrons to thank. We sure do, so
Speaker 1: shout out to Steve Collins, Clara, Margie Winarski, page more,
Speaker 1: Rachel Russell, and Cora. Thank you guys so much for
Speaker 1: supporting us all around Patreon. You guys get a big
Speaker 1: library of all those back back track backlog there we go,
Speaker 1: backlog of the exclusive episodes plus one coming out here
Speaker 1: in just a few days, because hey, it's almost the
Speaker 1: end of the month. January is gone already.
Speaker 2: Good bye January, right, But honestly, I'm kind of okay
Speaker 2: with that because January February, like I could just be
Speaker 2: done with them because then it's like our weather gets
Speaker 2: warmer than snow, kind of spring smelting, and oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm for that. Yeah, Okay, let's do this. Okay,
Speaker 3: let's get into it. So the story is of young
Speaker 3: Abigail Hernandez, but she also went by Abby, which is
Speaker 3: more frequently what she was called. So I'll be calling
Speaker 3: her Abbey for the duration of the show.
Speaker 1: So. Abby was born on October twelfth, nineteen ninety eight,
Speaker 1: in Manchester, New Hampshire. She was raised primarily by her mother, Zenya,
Speaker 1: alongside her sister Sarah, after her parents were divorced when
Speaker 1: she was relatively young.
Speaker 2: Did you realize her birthday.
Speaker 1: October twelfth, same as yours, except she was a decade later?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Was it ninety nineteen ninety eight? Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Could I say eighty eight?
Speaker 2: I thought you said eighty nine, but I could be
Speaker 2: totally off here.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well you weren't born in eighty nine either, You
Speaker 1: were born in eighty eight.
Speaker 2: Yes, I know, so one year. I was thinking one year.
Speaker 1: Okay, but difference.
Speaker 2: But that's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, despite her parents' separation, Abby had a relatively
Speaker 1: happy childhood. Like, honestly, it was one of those childhoods
Speaker 1: that was like most people would look at it and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, you grew up in a really good home.
Speaker 1: You had like the perfect childhood sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Right, Hey, that's good.
Speaker 1: Not that it was anything over the top. It was
Speaker 1: just a good child, right, There wasn't anything wrong with it, exactly,
Speaker 1: So despite her her parents, she had this childhood and
Speaker 1: she was a bright student. Right, Sorry, not despite her
Speaker 1: her parents, despite her parents' separation, I should have said.
Speaker 1: She was a bright student, well liked by her classmates
Speaker 1: and known for her athleticism. Friends described her as kind,
Speaker 1: upbeat and always full of energy. At fourteen years old,
Speaker 1: she had just started her freshman year at Kenneth High
Speaker 1: School in North Conway, looking forward to all the experiences
Speaker 1: that came with being a teenager. You know exactly, those
Speaker 1: exciting years, right, the exciting yet terrifying years of being
Speaker 1: a teenager.
Speaker 2: When you think you're like just hot shit really.
Speaker 1: Oh one percent. But trust that you had no idea,
Speaker 1: or at least I didn't anyways. But on October ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, everything changed for Abby. That afternoon, she left
Speaker 1: school as usual, walking home like she did every other day,
Speaker 1: but this time she never made it home. Now, at first,
Speaker 1: no one noticed anything wrong, but by seven pm, when
Speaker 1: Danya got home from work, it was clear something was off.
Speaker 1: Abby wasn't there, The family's dog hadn't been let out,
Speaker 1: and no one like none of her belongings were home
Speaker 1: from school, right, they were missing. Her bag wasn't by
Speaker 1: the door, her shoes, those little signs right. She knew
Speaker 1: she hadn't gone out with friends, and it wasn't like
Speaker 1: her to just disappear without telling her that she would
Speaker 1: be going anywhere after school. So Zenya's concern quickly turned
Speaker 1: into fear. She had a gut feeling that something was
Speaker 1: terribly wrong, So, wasting no time, she went to the
Speaker 1: police and quickly filed a missing person's report. Abby hadn't
Speaker 1: been having trouble at home, she told them, Not at home,
Speaker 1: not at school. There's no reason that she would have
Speaker 1: run away. She hadn't taken anything with her either, no
Speaker 1: clothes or nothing like that to suggest that she would
Speaker 1: have run.
Speaker 2: Away prepared for it anyway exactly.
Speaker 1: So this only deepened that worry that something had happened
Speaker 1: to the police and Zenya were on the same page thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: something most likely happened, And sadly those fears were justified,
Speaker 1: oh God, because Abby had been abducted on October ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. That day, fourteen year old Abby left Kennett
Speaker 1: High School like she did every afternoon, but on this
Speaker 1: particular day, there was one small difference. She had a
Speaker 1: slight limp in her walk. Wasn't anything obvious, not necessarily
Speaker 1: if you were like paying attention, you might see it,
Speaker 1: but you know, just kind of like a slight limp. See,
Speaker 1: her feet were aching. She had been wearing a brand
Speaker 1: new pair of boots that were an early birthday present
Speaker 1: from her mother that day. Though nice and stylish, they
Speaker 1: were stiff and uncomfortable. Still that she was, you know,
Speaker 1: breaking them in, right, yeah, So by the time school
Speaker 1: let out, every step was a little bit painful, Oh gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So as she made her home, you know, the last
Speaker 1: stretch in these painful boots. Yes, a man in a
Speaker 1: navy blue truck slowed down beside her on the road.
Speaker 1: He noticed that little bit of a limp in her walk,
Speaker 1: and he offered her a ride. At first, Abby hesitated.
Speaker 1: She knew better than to get into a car with
Speaker 1: a stranger, but her feet were aching, and the idea
Speaker 1: of skipping a long walk was so tempting, So, thinking
Speaker 1: she could, you know, keep things safe, she asked to
Speaker 1: be dropped off at a local restaurant near her home
Speaker 1: instead of giving her exact address, Right, okay, so the
Speaker 1: man agreed, but with one small condition. He said he
Speaker 1: needed to make a quick stop at a home depot
Speaker 1: first on the way. So as soon as the truck
Speaker 1: pulled into this parking lot, an uneasy, feeling washed over abby,
Speaker 1: something wasn't right. Instinctively, she knew that she needed to
Speaker 1: get out of the vehicle, so she reached for her seatbelt,
Speaker 1: ready to open that door and go. But before she
Speaker 1: could open the door, the man pulled a gun on her.
Speaker 1: He pressed it again her head, and he threatened to
Speaker 1: shoot her or even slit her throat if she didn't comply.
Speaker 1: Any hope of escaping vanished instantly.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is this terrible Like she completely knew better,
Speaker 2: but like it was just that her feet were just
Speaker 2: so fucking sore that she just like had a moment
Speaker 2: of weakness.
Speaker 1: Comes exactly, Oh.
Speaker 2: That is Oh that is just honestly terrible, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Holy shit? And like to just have I don't know
Speaker 2: this person, maybe he has had been watching hers. I
Speaker 2: was gonna say, like it's a terrible like in the
Speaker 2: wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing for
Speaker 2: him to like notice this, But maybe he had already
Speaker 2: been noticing her I don't know, but ugh, yeah, brutal.
Speaker 1: So the man restrained her. He wrapped a jacket around
Speaker 1: her head to prevent her from seeing where they were going,
Speaker 1: and he took her phone away and immediately destroyed it,
Speaker 1: making sure that no one could track them mm hm.
Speaker 1: As they drove, Abby tried to peek through the fabric,
Speaker 1: desperate for any clue about her location or where they
Speaker 1: were going, but her captor caught on that she was
Speaker 1: trying to look, so he tased her. The pain was sharp,
Speaker 1: and she knew she was powerless against him. She kept
Speaker 1: her head down and didn't try to peek again. The
Speaker 1: drive felt endless. When the truck finally stopped, Abby was
Speaker 1: pulled out and taken into a dark room. Her captor
Speaker 1: forced her onto a bed, taped her eyes shut, placing
Speaker 1: a motorcycle helmet over her head, and her hands were
Speaker 1: zip tied down, and then the nightmare truly began. Abby
Speaker 1: was sexually assaulted and raped for the first time, something
Speaker 1: that would happen repeatedly over the next nine months that
Speaker 1: she was held. She had no idea where she was
Speaker 1: or if she would ever make it home again.
Speaker 2: Nine fucking months, okay.
Speaker 1: Nine months of this.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this guy, Holy shit, it's just like
Speaker 2: the anger.
Speaker 1: That it's Oh, trust me, I share that feeling of
Speaker 1: anger the entire time I was researching this. I'm just
Speaker 1: like you, mother, But trust me, well he gets he
Speaker 1: gets his dues.
Speaker 2: Still, like, it's just still I can't fathom or you're
Speaker 2: just doing this stuff, Like even though we've done so
Speaker 2: many episodes, we've been doing this for so long, it
Speaker 2: just literally still.
Speaker 1: It hits home every time and it's unfathomable, Like you
Speaker 1: say that humans are actually capable of this. When we
Speaker 1: do these episodes, it's like, okay, this is a one off.
Speaker 1: You know what, one rotten person out there could do this,
Speaker 1: one rotten thing. But we are well over two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty episodes in a sea of way more cases.
Speaker 1: It's not one off now. There there is way too
Speaker 1: high of a percentage of human beings that are willing
Speaker 1: and capable to do this.
Speaker 2: It's like, how fucked up are you that you think
Speaker 2: that you can just take this little girl that's like
Speaker 2: walking home from work from her family or walking home
Speaker 2: from school storry and just held her captive for like
Speaker 2: your own disgusting needs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so while Abbey's nightmare was just beginning, and clearly
Speaker 1: it was a nightmare, because I mean, Nichole is certainly
Speaker 1: reacting to it, and I'm sure you guys are too,
Speaker 1: because rightfully so. Law enforcement agencies wasted no time in
Speaker 1: trying to find her. The Conway Police Department, New Hampshire
Speaker 1: State Police and the FBI joined forces, determined to track
Speaker 1: down any leads that they can to point to her whereabouts.
Speaker 1: Search dogs, in fact, were even brought in retracing Abby's
Speaker 1: usual route home. Now these dogs noses, They confirmed what
Speaker 1: investigators already suspected, that she had made it part of
Speaker 1: the way home before her trail disappeared. Right meanwhile, volunteers
Speaker 1: from the community covered miles of wood a terrain, hoping
Speaker 1: to find any clue that could lead them to her
Speaker 1: safe of val return. At Kennet High School, Abbey's absence
Speaker 1: was deeply felt. One of her classmates described the atmosphere
Speaker 1: as very thick with sadness, like a cloud hanging over
Speaker 1: the entire school. Flyers with her face were everywhere, taped storefronts,
Speaker 1: on street signs, they were on car windows. The entire
Speaker 1: town kept watch, clinging to hope that someone somewhere had
Speaker 1: seen something her mother's. Enya avoided the press as much
Speaker 1: as possible, only speaking in carefully prepared statements as the
Speaker 1: advice of investigators. During one emotional press conference, she spoke
Speaker 1: directly to her daughter, quote, Abby, you matter to me.
Speaker 1: I believe you're alive, and I know that hope speaks
Speaker 1: louder than fear. It is my hope that you can
Speaker 1: reach out to me. I feel your absence every day,
Speaker 1: and I want you home with me.
Speaker 2: I couldn't say yeah.
Speaker 1: Even as the search dragged on with no major breakthroughs,
Speaker 1: Zenya and those close to Abby refused to give up. Then,
Speaker 1: nearly a month after her disappearance, something unexpected happened. On
Speaker 1: November sixth, twenty thirteen, Zenya received a letter. It was
Speaker 1: postmarked October twenty second, just two weeks after Abby had vanished,
Speaker 1: and investigators kept the letter quiet at first, needing time
Speaker 1: to verify its authenticity. When it was finally confirmed to
Speaker 1: be written by Abby in her own handwriting, relief washed
Speaker 1: over her loved ones. It was proof that she was
Speaker 1: still alive, but something felt wrong. The letter made no
Speaker 1: mention of a kidnapping. Instead, it was read as if
Speaker 1: Abby had left her on her own free will, reassuring
Speaker 1: her mother that she was safe, but she wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be coming.
Speaker 2: Home, so he made her write this fucking letter.
Speaker 1: He made her write this letter. So now I didn't
Speaker 1: actually have this in here. I did see it on
Speaker 1: a documentary though, because we know this is a survival story,
Speaker 1: so that's straight out there. So I saw Abby talking
Speaker 1: about this letter and the first time that she was
Speaker 1: told to write this letter from her captor, Like the
Speaker 1: man had left her alone to write the letter, right,
Speaker 1: she wrote it, and she wanted to make sure she
Speaker 1: got out a message to authorities and her mom still right,
Speaker 1: So on the back of the paper, she took her
Speaker 1: fingernail and wrote help kidnapped.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, yeah, oh my goodness. Okay, so like the
Speaker 2: fact that she's already been missing for what two weeks
Speaker 2: and still has her like wits about her to like think,
Speaker 2: you know, how can I make this hopefully benefit me?
Speaker 1: Exactly, So she didn't write that in inkor or whatever
Speaker 1: that's's given to to write, and she just kind of
Speaker 1: scrolled it in a fingernail on the paper. However, her captor.
Speaker 2: Did did find that oh really, yes.
Speaker 1: After taking the letter. He came back a little while
Speaker 1: later and he said, I found your message.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, okay, So.
Speaker 1: Then he forced her to rewrite it. So, unfortunately, Abby
Speaker 1: was unable to get out that message on the letter
Speaker 1: to her mother. But still her n authorities knew that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they weren't buying that she ran away and she was
Speaker 1: fine on her own, just not coming home.
Speaker 2: Okay, well good, I'm glad that they're not buying that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Authorities now had more questions and answers if Abby,
Speaker 1: you know, of course, truly left willingly, as his letter said,
Speaker 1: but they weren't buying it. Why hadn't she taken anything
Speaker 1: with her right? Why was her phone destroyed? Whatever? Like,
Speaker 1: nothing just made sense. So the questions were piling up,
Speaker 1: of course, and when news broke the letter, it sent
Speaker 1: out a wave of doubt through the community. Some people
Speaker 1: who had spent weeks searching for Abby now wondered if
Speaker 1: she had simply just run away on her own. Theories
Speaker 1: and room or spread quickly. One even suggested that she
Speaker 1: had been secretly pregnant and sent away by her mother.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, fucking rumors.
Speaker 1: Another one claiming that she left to be with someone
Speaker 1: that she met online.
Speaker 2: Well, the police would probably have found if she was
Speaker 2: talking to someone online though.
Speaker 1: Right, But the public is basically now split down the center, yeah,
Speaker 1: saying like, Okay, we have a missing child, and the
Speaker 1: other half is like, we have a letter saying she's fine.
Speaker 1: Why are we putting this effort and money public taxpayers
Speaker 1: money into finding this child? We need to drop this.
Speaker 1: And there were even comments from certain individuals among the
Speaker 1: public that the money consumed for this you know search
Speaker 1: should be paid back by the family.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, honestly, it's like easier for I feel humans
Speaker 2: to believe though that she okay, like she just went
Speaker 2: away on her own, like you know, instead of what
Speaker 2: actually was happening. It's just easier for our minds to
Speaker 2: go to be like convince ourselves she's fine.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if it is. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: think I might disagree with you on.
Speaker 2: That, really, what I do, Like, you don't want to think,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, she's held captive and being like a
Speaker 2: sex slave, well a little fourteen year old girl. No,
Speaker 2: she just like ran off on her own.
Speaker 1: If you're convincing yourself that she ran off on her own,
Speaker 1: you're also convincing herself that the police aren't doing their jobs.
Speaker 1: You're convincing yourself that her mother was complicit in helping
Speaker 1: the situation or not telling the truth. That there's bigger
Speaker 1: lies going around than one individual. I think it's a
Speaker 1: case of you know, keyboard warriors, you know, people sitting
Speaker 1: behind a keyboard and doing the lazy thing of just
Speaker 1: pointing fingers without even coming to a consensus of what
Speaker 1: reality might hold.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't quite understand though, why, like that keyboard
Speaker 2: warrior thing isn't necessary in the situation at all.
Speaker 1: But that's what people were doing, like on news posts
Speaker 1: and stuff, or on Facebook posts on fine you know,
Speaker 1: find Abby. This sort of commenting and mentality was what
Speaker 1: was coming forward.
Speaker 2: So this letter kind of really didn't help.
Speaker 1: This letter was more so what created this riff and
Speaker 1: this thought because the letter said, hey, you know, I've
Speaker 1: run away and I'm not coming home. So then people
Speaker 1: were like, well, she ran away and she's not coming home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's move on kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So her mother, though Zenya, never wavered. She dismissed
Speaker 1: the rumors outright, insisting that her daughter had been taken
Speaker 1: against her will. While investigators in the community searched tirelessly
Speaker 1: for Abby. She was being held just thirty minutes away
Speaker 1: in the town of Gorham, New Hampshire. Hidden away on
Speaker 1: her captor's property, she was confined in a cold, windowless
Speaker 1: storage container, isolated from the world, enduring daily abuse. Now,
Speaker 1: despite the horrors of her situation, Abby remained determined. She
Speaker 1: knew that fighting back or trying to escape outright could
Speaker 1: get her killed. I mean, she's already been hazed multiple times,
Speaker 1: She's had a gun held to her head and threats
Speaker 1: uttered to her. So she took a different approach. She
Speaker 1: tried to humanize herself in the eyes of her captor.
Speaker 1: To quote her, she told her captor this quote, I
Speaker 1: don't judge you for this. If you let me go,
Speaker 1: I won't tell anybody. You don't seem like a bad person.
Speaker 1: Everybody makes mistakes.
Speaker 2: Hm. Wow, Yeah, I've seen that happen before or her.
Speaker 2: I was watching a documentary and yeah, they were just
Speaker 2: like I think it was actually the the we did
Speaker 2: the episode.
Speaker 1: The dating game Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and were they his like last victim or whatever.
Speaker 2: It was just like like, can we not tell anyone
Speaker 2: about this kind of thing, and you know, like you
Speaker 2: just like completely play with their head, which is kind
Speaker 2: of smart.
Speaker 1: It really honestly is. And to be fair, this is
Speaker 1: going to be what I He's gonna do during her
Speaker 1: entirety of being helped.
Speaker 2: Wow. And that takes strength, it does.
Speaker 1: And like, honestly, at first, like these words that she
Speaker 1: was saying to him, it was falling on deaf years.
Speaker 1: Of course he's not believing her at first, right. Instead
Speaker 1: of showing mercy, you know, he kept her locked away,
Speaker 1: subjecting her to these repeated assaults. But in these like
Speaker 1: in these darkest moments when she's locked up and she's alone,
Speaker 1: after these assaults and everything, Abby actually did even take
Speaker 1: like to prayer, right, So she's praying to God. However,
Speaker 1: one thing that this breaks my fucking heart. When she
Speaker 1: prayed to God when she was done, she refused to
Speaker 1: say Amen at the end because she didn't want God
Speaker 1: to leave her alone. Whoa seriously, yes, so she never
Speaker 1: closed the prayer that God wouldn't leave her.
Speaker 2: Whoa, whoa? Whoa? Okay, yeah, my heart just just sunk
Speaker 2: through the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So these days and weeks turned into months and
Speaker 1: the times going by, and Abby continued to play this
Speaker 1: long game. She was very careful and always compliant, never
Speaker 1: giving her captor any reason to doubt her, and slowly
Speaker 1: her strategy began to work. He started allowing her into
Speaker 1: his home, though only under strict conditions. He made her
Speaker 1: work for him, forcing her to print counterfeit money. He
Speaker 1: recently came up with this plan. He's going to start
Speaker 1: printing money, so he got her to work on this,
Speaker 1: but he still didn't trust her fully, so to make
Speaker 1: sure that she never tried to escape or call for help,
Speaker 1: he placed a canine shop caller around her neck, and
Speaker 1: to demonstrate his power, he forced her to raise her
Speaker 1: voice when she first put it on to activate the
Speaker 1: caller so that she got the painful shock right, And
Speaker 1: of course the shock made her body sees up, and
Speaker 1: he told her he's like, now you feel what it's like.
Speaker 1: So basically, if you try anything this is going to
Speaker 1: happen immediately, you're not getting anywhere. Like, just do as
Speaker 1: I say, right, uh huh yeah. So it was his
Speaker 1: way of controlling her and a concert reminder that he
Speaker 1: was in charge, and to reinforce that authority, he demanded
Speaker 1: Abby even call him Master, something that she had been
Speaker 1: already doing, but she had obeyed, you know, making sure
Speaker 1: that she's compliant, being nice and doing what he wants, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, she had no other choice, and she had
Speaker 1: this game plan, this long game plan, and I mentioned
Speaker 1: it was working.
Speaker 2: What a disgusting piece of shit though, just this master thing, ugh,
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: So Abby never lost sight of her ultimate goal, which
Speaker 1: was survival. She continued to build trust, convincing her captor
Speaker 1: that she was, you know, on his side, and over
Speaker 1: time he began to give her these small privileges I
Speaker 1: already mentioned, you know what she's now let in the house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but she also got other ones, like books to pass
Speaker 1: the time. So he gave her whatever books he had
Speaker 1: in his house, including one that was an old cookbook.
Speaker 1: Now the cookbook would change everything. See that cookbook. As
Speaker 1: she flipped through the pages, Abby noticed something written on
Speaker 1: the inside of the cover, a name, Nick Sorry, Nate Kibby.
Speaker 1: She had never heard this name before, and up until
Speaker 1: that moment, she hadn't known what to call the man
Speaker 1: who had stolen her freedom. You know, he just master
Speaker 1: as he demanded, right, So, trying to appear casual, she
Speaker 1: looked up and asked, who's Nate? Kibbi. The man was
Speaker 1: stunned and he replied, how do you know my name?
Speaker 2: Oh? Okay so.
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Kibby was born on July fifteenth, nineteen eighty and
Speaker 1: grew up in Conway, New Hampshire. He attended Kennett High School,
Speaker 1: the same school Abby would later go to. From a
Speaker 1: young age, he had a history of trouble with the law.
Speaker 1: At eighteen, he was arrested for assault, the first in
Speaker 1: a series of run ins with the U S authorities.
Speaker 1: One officer who knew him described him as intelligent but argumentative,
Speaker 1: someone who thrived in conflict. Nate had strong political opinions
Speaker 1: and was deeply interested in conspiracy theories. He was also
Speaker 1: an avid gun enthusiast. As an adult, he moved to Gorham,
Speaker 1: but continued working in Conway. He was working as a
Speaker 1: machinist at EMM Precisions Inc. Now. He held that job
Speaker 1: for eighteen years before unfortunately being laid off in April
Speaker 1: of twenty fourteen due to economic cutbacks. Those who knew
Speaker 1: him had mixed impressions. Some neighbors said he was polite
Speaker 1: but mostly kept to himself. His landlord described him as grumpy,
Speaker 1: but noted that he always paid his rent on time
Speaker 1: and never caused problems. No one suspected that he was
Speaker 1: holding a teenage girl captive in a storage container contained
Speaker 1: on his property.
Speaker 2: Was he so? Was he laid off once he got
Speaker 2: her then or captured her?
Speaker 1: I believe so. Yeah, in fact, this is my theory.
Speaker 1: I haven't looked at the exact timeline or dug into
Speaker 1: my theory on this, but I believe he may have
Speaker 1: started printing counterfeit money once laid off.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I feel like when you, I don't know,
Speaker 2: people who just like are laid off or don't have
Speaker 2: jobs or something, I just think get in trouble, Like
Speaker 2: when you're not busy enough. I think you can just
Speaker 2: you have too much time on your hands. That sometimes
Speaker 2: isn't always good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're right on that one, I think. But
Speaker 1: in all honesty, like I think that might have played
Speaker 1: into Abby's hand a little bit because now you have
Speaker 1: someone who's been working for the same company for eighteen
Speaker 1: years laid off and he's at home alone, so he's
Speaker 1: got a whole whack of emotions he's going through with that, right,
Speaker 1: and if you have you know, her being nice to
Speaker 1: him or consoling him all these sort of things. It's
Speaker 1: now going to even more bring that like human connection
Speaker 1: out and maybe you know, it could have saved her
Speaker 1: life even that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: So to backtrack a little bit though, just days before
Speaker 1: abducting Abby, Nate had actually even been arrested for marijuana possession,
Speaker 1: though nothing significant came of it. But then in March
Speaker 1: of twenty fourteen, while Abby was still being held, he
Speaker 1: was charged with assault after an incident involving another woman.
Speaker 1: So Nate had been in a minor car accident when
Speaker 1: a woman apparently hit his vehicle. He got out, enraged
Speaker 1: and struck her with the handle of his pistol and
Speaker 1: shoved her to the ground. So this led to an
Speaker 1: assault charge in a court order to surrender all of
Speaker 1: his firearms. Now, as I mentioned, he was a firearm enthusiast,
Speaker 1: so he had quite the collection of arms in his home.
Speaker 1: So he actually had a date that he had to
Speaker 1: surrender these by and surprisingly enough, a pairent. This doesn't
Speaker 1: ever happen like this, but Nate called police a few
Speaker 1: days before the collection date and he's like, come pick
Speaker 1: them all up. So police they arrived to his property
Speaker 1: to collect the weapons. They would go inside. You know,
Speaker 1: they're taking all his arms and everything. But one officer
Speaker 1: looked over and saw the shipping container. He asked Nate
Speaker 1: about it, kind of casually. He's like, what's in there?
Speaker 1: Nate shut down the conversation quickly. He reminded the officer
Speaker 1: that the court only applied, so the court order only
Speaker 1: applied to his firearms, that he needed to surrender, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't required to answer any other questions. Unfortunately, Nate
Speaker 1: was right, Okay, the officers had no legal reason to
Speaker 1: investigate further.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised that it would have grabbed like the police
Speaker 2: officer's attention, Like was he just thinking there was more
Speaker 2: firearms and stuff in there? Think?
Speaker 1: So okay, Yeah, they didn't have any any legal reason
Speaker 1: or they weren't allowed to search the property. They were
Speaker 1: just coming into seas firearms. Yeah, Nate led them to
Speaker 1: his firearms.
Speaker 2: There they are because like I mean, a lot of
Speaker 2: people have shipping containers and shit, right, Like, it's not
Speaker 2: necessarily abnormals.
Speaker 1: It's honestly not And I don't think every single shipping
Speaker 1: container is holding a human being, And honestly, most shipping
Speaker 1: containers probably aren't holding firearms either.
Speaker 2: I mean storage most likely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like humidity and frost in cold weather, moisture and
Speaker 1: stuff can damage firearms quite easily, and in a shipping
Speaker 1: container they're susceptible to that, right, So I don't think
Speaker 1: most people would be storing firearms in there, So I
Speaker 1: don't think these officers have any reason to suspect that
Speaker 1: he would be, and thus they don't have a legal
Speaker 1: reason to go ask questions or open it. So they
Speaker 1: moved on. But what they didn't know was, of course
Speaker 1: that Abby was trapped inside that very container, still waiting
Speaker 1: for her chance to escape. So close, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so far. There's often things like these like this
Speaker 2: in cases. Some are similar to this, where it's like
Speaker 2: there's that small chance but it just doesn't.
Speaker 1: Well in this case though, because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: cases where we cover, especially these abduction cases, where yeah,
Speaker 1: officers are on property and it's like they just didn't
Speaker 1: quite do their job searching this one, I think the
Speaker 1: officers did do their job search. Yeah, they had no
Speaker 1: they had no ability to search further, which is unfortunate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this was of course a close call for Nate,
Speaker 1: but he knew as long as he kept quiet, he
Speaker 1: could stay in control of the situation and he managed
Speaker 1: to dodge suspicion once, but another encounter was soon coming,
Speaker 1: one that would ultimately bring him down. So over time,
Speaker 1: Nate's dynamic with Abby did shift. He started seeing himself
Speaker 1: as some sort of a guardian, if he will, who
Speaker 1: is taking care of Abby?
Speaker 2: So her game was her mind game.
Speaker 1: Was working one hundred per cent.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is so smart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So as a result, he stopped assaulting her and
Speaker 1: instead began seeking out escorts instead to fulfill that void.
Speaker 1: And this is how he met a woman named Lauren.
Speaker 1: So he met Lauren online and during one of their meetings,
Speaker 1: he paid Lauren one hundred and fifty dollars for their
Speaker 1: time together. But instead of anything physical, Lauren reported that
Speaker 1: he simply just kind of held her and he kind
Speaker 1: of just rubbed her head on his lap, and she
Speaker 1: eventually fell asleep and she woke up and he was
Speaker 1: gone sort of thing. So it was an interesting encounter.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that it was more of an emotional thing.
Speaker 1: I guess now. What Lauren didn't know was that the
Speaker 1: money that he left behind when she woke up, that
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars was counterfeit. So Lauren later
Speaker 1: tried to use one of the fake bills at a
Speaker 1: store and the clerk at the store looked at the
Speaker 1: bill and was like, can you hold on a second,
Speaker 1: And she called a manager over and she walked off.
Speaker 1: Had a conversation Lauren suspects nothing, hey, no reason to
Speaker 1: think that this is fraudulent money. Just politely stands there
Speaker 1: and wait. Then the till clerk came back over and said,
Speaker 1: you police are on their way. This is you know,
Speaker 1: counterfeit money. Yeah, she called the police. So Lauren was
Speaker 1: about to be rested on the spot. She wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to leave the store, and she realized that the trouble
Speaker 1: that she was about to get in and Lauren called Nate.
Speaker 1: She had his phone number. She told him she gave
Speaker 1: his name to the police as a source of the
Speaker 1: counterfeit money quote. She even said whatever you're making your basement,
Speaker 1: you better clean it up right now because they're coming
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: I wonder why she would decide to call him like that.
Speaker 1: It was more of a threat. I think like she
Speaker 1: called to Bret him being like, you asshole, you fuck
Speaker 1: me over now I'm getting arrested. Just so you know,
Speaker 1: I fucking gave him your name, h like, you know,
Speaker 1: rubbing it in his face sort of.
Speaker 2: Thing, I guess. But then that does give him the
Speaker 2: opportunity in time to you know, fix stuff or hide stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but panic set in for Nate. He knew that
Speaker 1: once police arrived, they would be searching every inch of
Speaker 1: his home, which meant not only would they find the
Speaker 1: things that he has for making counterfeit money, but they
Speaker 1: would also find Abby. He had no time to think,
Speaker 1: he had no time to react. He just flew into
Speaker 1: panic mode. He had to get rid of everything that
Speaker 1: he could, anything that would incriminate him, so he started
Speaker 1: with getting rid of Abby. On July twentieth, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Nate rushed Abby into his car and drove her back
Speaker 1: to North Conway. By this point, she was now fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, and as they approached the town, he handed
Speaker 1: her a bag containing the same clothes that she had
Speaker 1: been wearing the day she he had a ducted that
Speaker 1: abducted her. There we go, thank you. Then, in a
Speaker 1: surreal full circle moment, he dropped her off exactly in
Speaker 1: the same spot picked her up, Oh my goodness. Before
Speaker 1: driving away, he made Abby promise not to turn him in.
Speaker 1: As he disappeared down the road, Abby stood there in
Speaker 1: disbelief she was free. She later recalled, laughing in pure joy,
Speaker 1: unable to believe it was real.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: To quote her, oh my god, this actually happened. I'm
Speaker 1: a free person. I never thought it would happen to me,
Speaker 1: But I'm free.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh. Okay, that that is just like I don't
Speaker 2: know this Abby girl, Like I am kind of obsessed
Speaker 2: with her.
Speaker 1: If Abby never built up the trust, he more than.
Speaker 2: Likely would have killed her.
Speaker 1: He would have killed in that situation. She had nine
Speaker 1: months to build up enough trust with her captor that
Speaker 1: he believed she would not turn them in.
Speaker 2: Holy shit. Hey, and then that just that moment of
Speaker 2: like pure joy, like where she actually is out.
Speaker 1: Yeah whoa yeah. So if there's any doubt in your mind,
Speaker 1: Abby is one hundred and ten percent our badass of
Speaker 1: the day, no shit. So Abby walked the mile back
Speaker 1: to her home, her heart racing with every single step
Speaker 1: along the way, and when she finally arrived, the reunion
Speaker 1: with her family was both shocking and of course emotional.
Speaker 1: Zenya could hardly believe that her daughter was now standing
Speaker 1: right in front of her she was alive. She later
Speaker 1: recalled that Abby was pale and thin, having lost a
Speaker 1: lot of weight, but what stood out was the look
Speaker 1: in her eyes. Something dark and unfamiliar laid in her stare,
Speaker 1: a reflection of the trauma that she endured over the
Speaker 1: last nine months.
Speaker 2: She would not have been the same girl.
Speaker 1: No now. At first, no detail about Abby's captivity captivity
Speaker 1: were released to the public. Authorities wanted to fully understand
Speaker 1: what had happened before sharing any information. The only statement
Speaker 1: made was that Abby had not left on her own
Speaker 1: and did not know her captor before being abducted.
Speaker 2: So then all those people just had to eat their words.
Speaker 1: Eh, exactly. I bet you they felt like, right, shit out,
Speaker 1: I thought too.
Speaker 2: So really, if they took the time to just be like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, bitch and for no reason or whatever, like,
Speaker 2: that's bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, despite her fear, Abby worked with law enforcement
Speaker 1: to create a sketch of the man who had taken her.
Speaker 1: She described him as having dark brown eyes, stubbled facial hair,
Speaker 1: and a stocky build, standing around five foot four inches tall.
Speaker 1: The sketch was made public in hopes that someone would
Speaker 1: recognize him. Abby also released the personal statement, thanking the
Speaker 1: community for their relentless efforts to find her. She expressed
Speaker 1: her belief and hope and prayers, and she figured that
Speaker 1: they had played a very large role, a very major
Speaker 1: role in her return. But there was one crucial detail.
Speaker 1: Abby hadn't shared her captor's name.
Speaker 2: Okay I was just like she knows his name.
Speaker 1: She does know his name. Throughout her nine months in captivity,
Speaker 1: Nate had instilled a very deep fear into Abby. He
Speaker 1: had threatened not just her life, but also the lives
Speaker 1: of her family, even her pets. The psychological manipulation that
Speaker 1: he used was still fresh in her mind, and she
Speaker 1: thought of what might happen, what he might do if
Speaker 1: he found out that she spoke about him, So she
Speaker 1: did not want to release that name. The only person
Speaker 1: she can find it in about the name would be
Speaker 1: her mother. She told Zenya that she hadn't revealed everything
Speaker 1: to police. She said that she did know his name.
Speaker 1: So when Zenya learned it the name, she did go
Speaker 1: to police and she gave the name Nathaniel Kibbi. One
Speaker 1: week later, authorities raided Nate's trailer and took him into
Speaker 1: custody in Carroll County. His bond was set for one
Speaker 1: million dollars. As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered the full
Speaker 1: extent of the control they had that he had over Abbey.
Speaker 1: They found the zip ties that he used, They found
Speaker 1: the shot collar, they found the stun gun, and even
Speaker 1: found spake surveillance cameras that he had placed around to
Speaker 1: keep Abby under his control. He had made repeated death threats,
Speaker 1: not just against Abbey, but yes against her family, and
Speaker 1: he did everything he could to keep her from attempting
Speaker 1: to escape. The charges against him were severe. In addition
Speaker 1: to his kidnapping charge in Carroll County, he was indicted
Speaker 1: on two hundred and five additional charges in Coos County,
Speaker 1: including illegal firearm possession, assault, robbery, criminal threat, threatening, and
Speaker 1: illegal use of electronic restraining device. At first, Nate pled
Speaker 1: not guilty and his trial was set for June twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: but in May of that year he changed his plea.
Speaker 1: He had a plea deal, and as part of it,
Speaker 1: he pled guilty to seven charges in exchange for a
Speaker 1: sentence of forty five to ninety years in state prison
Speaker 1: with mandatory participation in an offender treatment program. So during
Speaker 1: the hearing, Nate admitted to his crimes and even apologized
Speaker 1: to Abby. Her response was something no one expected. But
Speaker 1: it's something that I fully expect from a fucking badass.
Speaker 2: I I don't even know if I want to hear it.
Speaker 2: It's going to break us, I think.
Speaker 1: To quote Abby, she said to him, some people might
Speaker 1: call you a monster. I've always looked at you as human,
Speaker 1: and I want you to know that even though life
Speaker 1: became a lot harder after that, I still forgive you.
Speaker 2: Holy shit. Yeah wow, I just feel like, Okay, the
Speaker 2: whole time that she was in there, I don't know,
Speaker 2: she just like had this strength about her that is
Speaker 2: just so I don't like, impressive. And then she never
Speaker 2: really had a victim mentality even like when in that
Speaker 2: like she I don't know, people who go through like
Speaker 2: far less sometimes have this like victim mentality that just
Speaker 2: like I don't know, disables them slightly, right, Yeah, and
Speaker 2: she just like isn't doing that whatsoever. It's like it's
Speaker 2: I can't believe how strong she is. It's unreal.
Speaker 1: And to be fair, there's nothing wrong with having that
Speaker 1: victim mentality because like those people, they are fucking victims,
Speaker 1: and these people stripped humanity from them, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm thinking it's like some people that go
Speaker 2: through like nothing. There's just some people in this world
Speaker 2: that have victim mentality that they haven't really gone through shit,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: What I mean, definitely, But she went through shit, and
Speaker 1: she went.
Speaker 2: Through serious shit and she is like just strong as hell.
Speaker 2: It's unreal.
Speaker 1: Well, the biggest thing for me, because one thing we
Speaker 1: really like to do on this show we make jokes.
Speaker 1: We try and humanize ourselves, but we also try and
Speaker 1: humanize these perpetrators. You know, we joke about them, we
Speaker 1: call them names, we laughed them. I hope they rot
Speaker 1: whatever you piece of shit sort of thing, that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. We do that on purpose because we don't
Speaker 1: want to give them the power that they think that
Speaker 1: they have. We try to strip that away and humanize
Speaker 1: them and say you're just an asshole, Abby put it
Speaker 1: into fucking phenomenal words. And I think this is the
Speaker 1: first time I've heard a victim do it this way.
Speaker 1: Some people might call you a monster, but I've always
Speaker 1: looked at you as human, like holy yeah fuck.
Speaker 2: And that just forgives him, which is just I mean,
Speaker 2: like she didn't she doesn't have to forgive him. But
Speaker 2: in the long run it's probably gonna it will probably
Speaker 2: help her healings. Like like, I'm assuming a little bit right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've never been through anything like tat brutal, So holy shit,
Speaker 2: I'm just like flabbergasted with her, I know.
Speaker 1: So today Abby keeps a low profile, she remains close
Speaker 1: with her family, and she built a new life for herself.
Speaker 1: She now works as a hairdresser and is a mother.
Speaker 1: Though the past will always be part of her, she
Speaker 1: refuses to let it define her, moving forward with strength,
Speaker 1: resilience and always trying to take in the little things
Speaker 1: in life, you know, look up at the sky, enjoy
Speaker 1: the sun, those little things. And that is the story
Speaker 1: of Abbigail Hernandez.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, Wow, I do just need to clarify, like
Speaker 2: she is a victim. That's not what I was like
Speaker 2: meaning earlier with the victim. Oh no, I kind of
Speaker 2: thing like, yeah, she totally is a victim here. But
Speaker 2: I just I just can't believe the strength that she
Speaker 2: has and then two for her to later go and
Speaker 2: have like kids and stuff, because I feel like there's
Speaker 2: just be so much fear too. There could be so
Speaker 2: much fear. I think having kids itself is scary as hell,
Speaker 2: and then having been through something like that, knowing like
Speaker 2: what you know really really could happen, and then to
Speaker 2: still have kids and like live the life you wanted and.
Speaker 1: Shit, like, wow, right, I wasn't saying you weren't saying
Speaker 1: she was a victim. I'm saying what I thought you
Speaker 1: were going for was people who go through this, they
Speaker 1: let that victim mentality defeat them, like, not even let
Speaker 1: it defeat them, but like because they are a victim,
Speaker 1: they have every right to be afraid, and like it's scary. Shit.
Speaker 1: She is looking all of that in the face and
Speaker 1: basically saying fuck you, yeah, which is incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She I think she is just like the badass day
Speaker 2: of the century.
Speaker 1: And she was a teenager.
Speaker 2: Not only was she fourteen at the time, yeah.
Speaker 1: Fourteen when she was abducted, fifteen when she was finally
Speaker 1: released home, and I believe she would have been sixteen
Speaker 1: or seventeen, probably seventeen during the trial and everything. So yeah,
Speaker 1: to be abducted at fourteen, released at fifteen, and forgive
Speaker 1: by seventeen.
Speaker 2: Wow yeah wow, Yeah. I just you know how when
Speaker 2: you tell something to be quiet with like the finger
Speaker 2: over your mouth, like I just did that to the dog.
Speaker 2: They would fucking know what the hell that meant. Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, we just did that to Ripley. They It's
Speaker 2: so weird how they've just gathered when we're kind of
Speaker 2: wrapping up her podcast and they just get up. They know,
Speaker 2: they know crazy.
Speaker 1: Actually, but yeah, no, I just had a dog drip
Speaker 1: water all over my foot from the water bowl. So
Speaker 1: that's phenomenal. I'm not even socks right now, so yay. Gross. Anyways,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. All our links are in
Speaker 1: the description of this podcast. You know the story. We
Speaker 1: have Patreon, Instagram, Facebook, you name it, it's all there. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you being here. It really supports us. And I
Speaker 1: know tomorrow this isn't going to matter, but I still
Speaker 1: feel bad that our last episode didn't upload properly, so
Speaker 1: our apologies on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was shitty, but that was.
Speaker 1: It happens once in a while, but I mean that's
Speaker 1: the first time that's happened. But technical difficulties happen occasionally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to happen, so.
Speaker 1: It's hopefully it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2: Things happen also, it's very cool that you kind of
Speaker 2: have like two episodes in a day here, so that's
Speaker 2: like you kind of binge without realizing you got to
Speaker 2: kind of binge as long.
Speaker 1: As you got through the withdrawal.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, okay, well until the next episode, Stay Wicked.