Hannah Anderson a victim, even with calls, letters, officials say

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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 Kate Mather and Tony Perry

Aug. 16, 2013 5:33 PM PT

Although search warrants in the Hannah Anderson case revealed extensive communication between the 16-year-old and the man who allegedly kidnapped her after killing her mother and brother, San Diego County sheriff’s officials maintained Friday that they still considered the teen a victim.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said the department’s investigation was ongoing and declined to comment on the specifics of the search warrants released this week.

But she reiterated previous comments from Sheriff Bill Gore, who said Hannah “was not a willing participant.”

PHOTOS: Search for missing teen

“As Sheriff Gore said earlier in the week, Hannah is a victim in every sense of the word,” Caldwell said in an email. “Our follow-up investigation has not changed that sentence.”

The multistate search for the Lakeside teen began Aug. 4, when the bodies of her mother and 8-year-old brother were found in James DiMaggio’s burning home in eastern San Diego County. Hannah and DiMaggio were found six days later, in a remote stretch of Idaho backcountry about 75 miles north of Boise.

Hannah was rescued; authorities said DiMaggio was shot and killed by FBI agents.

The search warrants provided some insight into the investigation, including the communication between Hannah and DiMaggio. Letters from Hannah were among the items seized from his home, the documents showed, and investigators said the teen and DiMaggio “called each other approximately 13 times” before their cellphones were shut off about 4 p.m. Aug. 4.

The documents did not specify during what time period the calls occurred. They also did not detail what the letters -- along with a handwritten note that was seized from DiMaggio’s property -- said.

Investigators also collected duct tape and handcuff boxes from DiMaggio’s home, along with a Yosemite camping printout, cut electrical cords, model rocket containers and two used condoms, the documents said.

Computers, papers, photos and a journal were among the items seized from the Andersons’ Lakeside apartment, additional warrants showed.

Authorities allege DiMaggio set up a trap by asking the family to come to his home so he could say goodbye before he moved to Texas.

Christina Anderson’s body was found in a standalone garage, with blood near her head and a crowbar nearby, the warrants said. Her son’s body was later found burned in the home. Both had been “tortured and killed,” the documents noted.

The family’s “medium brown dog” was also found shot to death under a sleeping bag, the warrants said.

Investigators believe the fires were set separately, possibly with timing devices and accelerant, arson specialists said in seeking one of the search warrants. The one fire could not have migrated to the other location, they said.

Investigators later found incendiary devices and “arson wire” on the property, the documents revealed.

DiMaggio was so close a friend to the Anderson family that the children called him “Uncle Jim,” authorities said. One of the warrants noted he and Hannah had been on “multiple day trips,” most recently visiting Malibu and Hollywood.

Hannah, who was reunited with her father after her rescue, attended a fundraiser held on her behalf Thursday at a Lakeside restaurant. She did not speak to reporters as she walked inside, but her father said she “sends her love” and was “doing good day by day.”

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Letters from Hannah Anderson, handcuff boxes found at DiMaggio’s home