← Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Teen Girl Tricks Her Kidnapper: Held Captive in a Shed for 277 Days!! | The Unbelievable Story of Abby Hernandez
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Foreign. Hey everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead serious. There is a case out of New Hampshire that has always haunted me. And not because of how the case began, but more so because of how the case ended. A 14 year old girl walking home from school in broad daylight. Something millions of our kids do every day in America. She simply vanished without a trace. And what came next in her story is the thing that keeps us up at night. Parents. It's the thing that gnaws away at all of us. A random crime that can strike at any time, anywhere, and target any one of us. But most specifically, our kids. October 9, 2013 was a crisp fall afternoon in North Conway, New Hampshire. It was. It was the kind of day that looked ordinary in every possible way. 14 year old Abigail Hernandez, Abby to her friends and her family, had just finished classes at Kennett High School. She was a freshman and she was bright. She was also athletic and full of confidence. But Abby was also a little bit shy. Her 15th birthday was just three days away. At 2:29pm, Abby left the school and started walking home. That's what she did all the time. She was texting with a classmate as she crossed the soccer fields and as she cut through a familiar trail under the power lines. And at 2:53pm, Abby sent her last text message. And then she vanished. When she didn't come home by 7 o' clock at night, her mom, Zenya Hernandez, called the police. And by nightfall, search teams were everywhere. They were combing the woods. They had their flashlights. Helicopters were circling overhead. Neighbors taped her photo on every light pole all around town. Maybe Abby took a wrong turn on the way home. Maybe Abby didn't know where she was. Maybe Abby was lost. But Abby wasn't lost. Abby had been taken on that trail where Abby was walking home from school. A car pulled up beside her. An older man was behind the wheel. And that man was holding a gun. He ordered Abby to get into his car or he'd kill her. And then the kidnapper handcuffed her, covered her head with a jacket and smashed her cell phone so it couldn't be tracked. When Abby tried to peek out of a gap in the fabric, the man hit her with a stun gun. That car traveled for what must have seemed like to Abby an endless journey. And 30 miles later, it finally came to a stop at the kidnapper's property. It was a rundown trailer hidden by trees in Gorham, New Hampshire. The man dragged Abby inside and took her to a dark room in that Trailer where she was able to see tools hanging from the walls and a yellow Don't Tread on me flag that was hanging above a workbench. Next, the kidnapper wrapped tape around Abby's eyes, pulled a T shirt over her head, and then shoved a motorcycle helmet on top of that. And then the real nightmare began. The man began to rape 14 year old Abby Hernandez, blindfolded and terrified. That was Abby's first night of what would become a nine month long ordeal in captivity. Days and weeks and months that blurred into an endless nightmare. Abby was kept in a metal box. Abby was controlled with a shock collar. The assaults, the terror, the control. It was endless. Day after day, night after night. But Abby, at just 14, did something that few of us might ever consider doing. She came up with a plan. And she put her strategy to work. While Abby was trapped in that metal box, life outside continued on. The search for Abby kept going. Hundreds of volunteers and FBI agents and canine units, they were everywhere, searching for her endlessly. But they came up with nothing. And then, almost a month after Abby vanished, something showed up in Abby's mother's mailbox. That Zenya. It was a plain white envelope with no return address. The postmark was from October 23rd. That's two weeks after Abby disappeared. Inside was a handwritten letter. It was short and polite, but it didn't sound exactly like Abby. Even though it was in her handwriting, news reports said that the letter said something along these lines. Dear Mom, I miss you and love you more than you can imagine. I'm sorry I did this. I've seen the newspaper and TV reports, and to answer your questions, yes, I'm alive. I miss you, mom, but I won't tell you where I am. Investigators confirmed that it was Abby's handwriting and even that her DNA was on the letter. But there was something about the tone that was off. Her mom knew it read more like a school assignment than a message from her terrified teenager. That mom, Zenya. Her hands were shaking as she read that letter over and over again, searching for any kind of hidden clue, some sign that her daughter was alive or maybe close by or still fighting for her freedom. But that letter did not have a plea for help. No mention of where she was. No mention of who had her. For detectives, that was the most chilling part of all of this. It meant that Abby more than likely had not written this letter freely. Behind closed doors, the FBI debated what to do. They held the letter from the public for nearly a month because they were really worried that releasing any of it could Actually put Abby in more danger if her abductor saw that on the news. So when they finally did make it public that there even was a letter, it gave the entire town at least some hope. Hope, once again, proof that maybe she was still out there somewhere. But for her family, that letter only deepened the mystery. If Abby was alive, why couldn't she come home? Meanwhile, Abby was trapped inside a metal storage container behind the man's trailer. A windowless box that was barely big enough to stand up inside. To anybody driving by, that box just looked like a small tool shed. You know, gray metal walls, padlock doors, no windows. But inside, it was worse than anything anyone could ever imagine. There was no light. There was no way for Abby to tell nighttime from daytime. There was a bucket in the corner to serve as a toilet. Abby was fed once per day, maybe sometimes twice. Mostly just ramen noodles or crackers. And Abby was kept restrained. Her hands were cuffed, and sometimes her ankles were too. When Abby tried to scream, her kidnapper punished her. At one point, the man put a dog shock collar around Abby's neck and held the remote up in front of her face. The perp told her, if you scream, I'll press this. And then he pressed it anyway, sending her into abject pain. Abby said that the jolt of the electricity sent her to the floor. And from that moment on, she barely spoke above a whisper. The kidnapper made Abby call him master. He told her that he was going to kill her if she ever tried to escape or if she looked him in the face. So Abby did the only thing that she could do. She started playing the long game. Abby listened when her kidnapper talked. Abby complimented him. Abby asked him about his life, showed interest. She made herself human to this monster. Somebody maybe he'd think twice about killing. And over time, Abby's plan worked. And the kidnappers anger and violence started to fade. He let her take a shower. He let her brush her hair. He let her read books. Sometimes he even let her help him inside his trailer. And that is when Abby started to notice a couple of things. Things inside that trailer like stacks of counterfeit bills, printing equipment, and ink cartridges. The kidnapper made Abby cut and sort the stacks of counterfeit money. It was terrifying. But she did it. Because every moment that she stayed alive was Abby's small victory. And if I can tell you something, I once went through something called terrorist training for foreign correspondents who were going into war theaters where we could get kidnapped. And we were taught all the things that we needed to do to stay Alive. And we were also taught about the mental game. And if there's one thing I remember the most about that training, it was small victories. Every single day. Find a small victory, even if it's finding a bug that you can watch walk along the floor to rescue you from your boredom, count it as a small victory, you got something. The small victories, these teachers told us, would mentally get us through an ordeal because without them, it would seem hopeless. Every day would seem pointless, and fear would, would take over. So there's Abby at now 15, because she spent her birthday in captivity with enough wisdom to make small victories matter, to find those small victories. And she did it. The man eventually started showing her news clips about her own disappearance and played the Attorney General's press conferences. Abby watched. Abby saw her mother on the screen begging for her safe return. And that is something that caused Abby to cry. She said in fact, it was the first time that she'd cried since being taken. So imagine the fear that a young teenager has to be in that she's so paralyzed she cannot even cry until she sees her own mother begging for her safe return on tv. Still, Abby did not lose the plot, right? Abby knew the mission. She was playing the long game. She knew what she had to do. She did not stop trying to build this monster's trust. She told the man that he wasn't a bad person, that everybody makes mistakes, that if he let her go, she'd never tell anybody. And slowly, unbelievably, this kidnapper started to believe her. And that's when she knew that she'd gotten through to him. The man started talking more about his own childhood, about his anger issues, about the arrests that he'd been through. Abby spoke gently. She asked questions and she pretended to understand this kidnapper and what he was going through. And let me tell you something. Over time, this kid, this, this 15 year old girl, this strategy that she had come upon herself, it worked. It worked. This man started to soften. And most importantly, he let his guard slip. He starts bringing her into the trailer to cook and start doing chores. And one day, he handed her a cookbook. And wouldn't you know it, inside the COVID of that cookbook was information that was a game changer. It was his name. His name was written in pen. She did not know this man's name until she opened that cookbook and saw it written right there. Nathaniel Kibby. That was the name right there. That was when she finally knew her kidnapper's name. By March 2014, Nathaniel Kibby was starting to Unravel at this point. He'd now been arrested for shoving a woman in a road rage incident and was now paranoid that the police were watching his every move. And you know, he did have a child kidnapped and in restraints in his home. So, yeah, he was getting nervous. And remember all that counterfeit money all around the trailer? That fake cash would eventually become the crack that blew everything open. In this case, those bills would eventually end up in circulation. And a woman named Lauren Munday, that's M u n D a y. Lauren Monday tried to spend one of those bills. A50. It was counterfeit. She tried to use it while shopping at a Walmart and Lauren Monday was arrested because of it. And promptly, Lauren Monday told the police officers where she got it and who had made it. And then Lauren Monday called Mr. Kibby and said, whatever you are making in your basement, you better clean it up right now. And that is when panic set in in earnest for Nathaniel Kibby. He began destroying all of the evidence. But the counterfeit was only part of his problem, right? Because Abby. Abby was another problem and arguably a far more serious one. He had kidnapped a little girl on her way home from school and held her and raped her repeatedly in his trailer. He'd assaulted her, abused her. He'd held her in a metal container for months on end. And maybe that was all starting to sink in because this panic about the counterfeit began to become panic about the girl. So his panic then turned into plotting. It was just after dusk. Now, on July 20. Remember, she was kidnapped in October. This is July, nine months later. So July 20, 2014, Nathaniel Kibbe told Abby, get in the car. Well, that was pretty scary, right? Abby had no idea what this meant. The summer air was thick. Abby had no idea where they were driving. She sat in the passenger seat, silent, too terrified to ask any questions. Kibby didn't say much either. He just stared straight ahead and drove. For nine months, Abby had dreamt about a moment that she might possibly be able to break free. Was this the chance that she was going to get? Or was she in a car on a road headed to a dark and unimaginable fate? Wasn't long before Nathaniel Kibby's car pulled off that main road onto a narrower passage lined with trees. Was the same kind of passage that she used to walk every day after school. What the hell was her kidnapper planning? Where was he taking her? Why was it so desolate? Was he about to finally get rid of her? Was Nathaniel Kibby about to kill her and erase all Evidence of the many months of sadistic crimes and torture that he'd committed against her. Would he make it quick and painless? Or would he make her suffer? Would anyone ever find her body out here? Or would her disappearance from nine months ago forever remain a mystery? Would she be left dead out there forever, never to be found? The mystery never to be solved about what happened to Abby Hernandez. As every scenario ran through Abby's head, her survival and instincts also kicked in. Could she make a break for it? Could she run through those woods? Would she be faster than Nathaniel Kibby? Did he have a gun? And that's when Nathaniel Kibby put the car in park. This was the moment of truth. With only a split second to make her move. But suddenly Kibby turned towards her and said something she could not but believe. You can go, he said. You can go. Abby sat in that passenger seat, frozen for a moment, too afraid to move. Afraid that this was some kind of a trick. But then Abby opened the door and stepped out of the car. And as quickly as he had said the words, Kibby peeled out and drove off. Leaving Abby there alone in those woods. But for the first time in 277 days. Free. Abby Hernandez was free. 15 year old Abby Hernandez was free. So she started walking. First slowly and confused, but then faster and faster. Until she began to recognize houses nearby. And then the fences looked familiar. And then the smell of the pines and kicked in. And she started to realize she was getting near to her own street. And by the time she reached her mother's front door, the tears were streaming down Abby's face. A security camera above the porch caught all of this. Caught the knock, it caught the pause. It caught the door swinging open. And that's when Xenia saw her. Saw her daughter. And Zhenya gasped and then screamed. She collapsed into her daughter's arms. Ab was finally home. Abby was alive. And Abby was finally home. Maybe Abby was home. But freedom is not what most people think it is for a young girl who has spent nine months as a prisoner of a monster. Tortured, molested, abused for nine months as a prisoner for a full week. Abby was still too afraid to tell the investigators the name of the man who had done all of this to her. Who had taken her on her way home from school, who had raped her on day one. Used a stun gun on her, put a shock collar on her, kept her in a metal box for weeks and months on end with no light and barely any food and a bucket for a toilet. This is how a 15 year old girl was kept. And she was still too afraid to say his name. Too afraid that Nathaniel Kibby would kill her family if she revealed who he was. But she did provide police with a description of her kidnapper. And soon, police released a sketch to the public. And then on July 27, more than nine months after Abby had been taken, she decided to tell her mother who her kidnapper was. She said, mom, it's Nathaniel Kibbe. That's his name. Nathaniel Kibby is the man who did this. It was not long before police surrounded Kibby's trailer and arrested him. And believe it or not, without a fight, inside that trailer, they found the storage container. They found the metal box where Abby had been held. They found the restraints that he had put on Abby. They found the counterfeit printing setup. They found everything that Abby had described in detail. Kibby was charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, and criminal threatening. Kibby faced more than 180 counts in all. 180. Two years later, 2016, I'm assuming that the prosecutors have been mounting an unbelievable case against him. 180 charges, all of this evidence, and a child who was smart enough to know what had happened and how to get out of it, and smart enough to remember what she needed to tell the police. But two years later, KB pleaded guilty to seven of the major charges. I know that sounds awful. 180 charges, and he only pleads to seven. What's that? But don't forget that even one of those major charges can be a life in prison, Right? So seven is no small feat. This was a deal, though, and this is the most important part. This is a deal that spares Abby, a child, from having to testify in open court and relive months and months of rape and imprisonment and torture and assault. It keeps her out of a courtroom. It keeps her from having to go through this. And he, by the way, he gets the sense that I know any jury would have given him sentenced to between 45 and 90 years in prison. I personally still don't think it's enough. 45. 45 years? Are you kidding me? Doubtful. He's getting out in 45. Doubtful. Don't forget, 45 means you serve 45 till you get the opportunity for parole. And we know it doesn't go so well for everybody, right? Read up on Menendez. Just because you get an opportunity for parole doesn't mean the parole board's going to look at you and say, yeah, we think you're good. Yeah, we think you've served for this crime. And Abby Gets to say something. Abby and her family get to say something in those parole hearings. And if Abby and her family say, jesus, please don't let him out, I am terrified every day I live. Do not let him out. Highly unlikely they let him out. In 2018, Abby sat down with ABC's 20 20. And when she finally spoke publicly, Abby was calm and composed, but brutally honest about what it took to stay alive. Take a listen.
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An ordinary walk home from school became a nine month nightmare for 14 year old Abby Hernandez on October 9, 2013. Blisters from her new boots are making it tough to walk. So when a stranger offers her a ride, she gets in the car.
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You just seem like your average person.
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But after a short ride, a shock, the driver pulls a gun.
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He said, if you try to scream or try to escape or make any effort to escape, there will be consequences.
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He handcuffs her, breaks her cell phone with his bare hands and drives her to a rural wooded area. Somehow, through it all, Abby knows what she has to do.
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I remember thinking to myself, okay, I got to work with this guy. Said, I don't judge you for this. If you let me go, I won't tell anybody about this. I say, you actually seem really smart.
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You're trying to stroke his ego.
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Exactly.
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What she recalls next is unimaginable. Bound, sexually assaulted, locked in a soundproof shipping container. You're 14 years old and you're being tortured.
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Yep. I just really wanted to live, though I did not want to die. And I remember praying to God and I remember I never said amen in my mind. I never wanted to end my prayers because I didn't want God to leave me.
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She endures the next nine months through prayer and gains her captor's trust by never disagreeing or angering him. The two forming a complicated bond. They would talk together, and she says she even agreed to help him make counterfeit money.
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Part of how I gained his trust, I guess, was, you know, I went along with whatever he wanted to do.
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In fact, he was so afraid police were about to arrest him on a counterfeiting investigation. He let Abby go on a desolate road.
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There were no cars coming either way. He said, get out.
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Just like that.
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Just like that. That was it. I remember looking up and laughing, just being so happy. I never thought it would happen to me. But I'm free and I just walked home.
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This never before seen footage of Abby returning home, caught by the family's security camera.
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I remember when I came up to my doorstep, I could hear my mom talking on the phone. I could hear her. V opened the door and I said, mom. And I remember she said, abby. And then I remember she ran out and she said, abby. And then she ran to me and we just hugged each other for, like, the longest time. And I just felt. I felt so happy.
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Abby Hernandez was gone for 277 days. For nine months, she lived inside a metal box in the woods, enduring things no child, no adult. Adult should ever have to go through. And yet, Abby Hernandez survived. She followed her instincts. She made a plan. She saw the long game, and she stuck to it. Abby Hernandez persevered. Like so few of these victims before her, Abby came home from this nightmare. And today, she is using her story to give hope to others and to be an inspiration to fellow survivors. Her story is proof that even in the darkest and most terrifying circumstances, the human will to survive can overcome our greatest and most terrifying fears. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.