UPDATE: Abigail Hernandez, Missing For 9 Months FOUND SAFE! 7/28/14~Nathaniel E. Kibby arrested and charged w/kidnapping Abigail.

Oct 15, 2013




NORTH CONWAY, N.H. - Police and family members continue searching for Abigail Hernandez, a North Conway, N.H., girl who went missing October 9. Her mother made an emotional plea Saturday,  the girl's 15th birthday, asking the public for help.

The teen was last seen leaving Kennett High School around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Police say she made it home but when her mother returned later, Abigail was gone.

Zenya Hernandez, Abigail's mother, said on Saturday, "I want to say please come home. We miss you so badly. We want you back with us."


Local, state and federal agents have searched for Abigail by land, water and air. Police have meticulously combed four square miles on land, scoured parts of the Saco River and paddled over Pudding Pond.

The medical examiner was called twice to the scene on Saturday but neither time was related to Abigail's disappearance: One was for a hiker who died Saturday and another was after the discovery of human bone fragments from several years ago, police said.

Zenya Hernandez asked Abigail's friends to come forward with any information that could help return her safely, including whether there were recent changes in her behavior. She was mindful of the importance of the day: Abigail's 15th birthday.

"We love you and we miss you and happy birthday, Abby," she said.

According to CBS Boston, the FBI tracked Abigail's cell phone activity around the time she went missing. The Union Leader reports the final call on the teen's phone was made near Cranmore Mountain Resort, about two miles from her home.

Officials reportedly said the call was made four hours after the last sighting.


Police are asking the public to remain vigilant. They've handed out posters with photos of the missing girl and have been stopping traffic to spread the word. Billboards carry Abigail's image and the number to call to report tips: 1-800-CALL-FBI.

The FBI is involved and enlisted agents from as far away as Virginia to assist in the search.


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July 21, 2014

A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for nine months has been found and reunited with her family — but with authorities releasing no details on where she's been.
Abigail Hernandez was safely reunited with her family in North Conway, N.H., Sunday evening after vanishing while walking home from school on Oct. 9, authorities announced Monday.
"Today we are the happiest people on earth," Attorney General Joseph Foster quoted Abigail's mother, Zenya Hernandez, as saying.

As far as where Abigail has been all this time, Foster declined to say pending the results of authorities' ongoing investigation.
Associate Attorney General Jane Young said the idea that Abigail was ever alone, however, is incomprehensible.

"This was a 14-year-old who went missing for nine months. She did not do this on her own," Young told WMUR, citing Abigail's age when she first went missing. "This is still a child. This child did not have the ability to survive on her own."
Two months after her disappearance, police did reveal that her mother received a letter in the mail written by Abigail and postmarked just a week after she vanished.

Authorities would not say what the letter said but confirmed that the teen wrote it.
FBI Special Agent In Charge Kieran Ramsey said at the time there was a possibility that the teen had run away, but she may have also been coerced into staying away from home.

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YES!!!!! I read this yesterday!!! So Happy!!

I'm glad she made it home safely. I'm curious if she was pregnant and had the child somewhere else because of the 9 month time frame. But at least she's home with her family again.

By Zachary T. Sampson  | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT   JULY 28, 2014

Nathaniel E. Kibby (left) was was arrested and charged with kidnapping Abigail Hernandez.

A 34-year-old man was arrested shortly after noon today and charged with kidnapping Abigail Hernandez, the New Hampshire teen who was missing for nine months before being returned to her family in Conway last week.

Nathaniel E. Kibby, 34, was taken into custody at his home in Gorham, N.H., the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said in a statement. He is expected to be arraigned in Conway Tuesday afternoon.

“Over the course of the past week, law enforcement officers have worked around the clock to ascertain the facts and circumstances surrounding Abigail’s disappearance and return,” the attorney general’s office said. “Abigail Hernandez provided the police with details of her kidnapping sufficient to warrant today’s arrest.”

Authorities asked anyone with information about Kibby and activity at his residence since October 9, 2013, the day Hernandez was taken, to contact New Hampshire State Police at 603-271-3636 or the Conway police at 603-356-5715. No information about how Hernandez came to be reunited with her family was immediately released.

Earlier today, Hernandez said in a statement that she was thankful “beyond words” for the people who helped search for her during the nine months she was missing after her mysterious disappearance on the way home from her New Hampshire high school.

“I wish that I could personally thank everyone who looked for me. My gratitude is beyond words,” she said. “It’s an incredible feeling to be home and I believe in my heart that your hopes and prayers played a major role in my release. Thank you all for the welcome home.”

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earlier:
N.H. teen who vanished last year in deteriorated health, family says

Despite trauma, girl working with authorities

By Evan Allen and Nicholas Jacques | GLOBE STAFF AND GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 26, 2014

The New Hampshire teenager who vanished for nine months and reappeared on Sunday faces medical issues and has lost a considerable amount of weight, the family of Abigail Hernandez said Friday night.

“The last few days have been extremely busy while law enforcement and medical concerns have had to be addressed,” Hernandez’s family said in a statement. “Right now, Abby is resting, extremely tired and in deteriorated health, and has lost a lot of weight. She is working to build her strength back and we hope soon she will be back on solid foods.”

Amanda Smith, a family friend, has spent time with Hernandez every day since she came home.

“Abby is very thin and weak,” she said. “We continue to work towards getting her to eat.”

Hernandez, a Conway, N.H., teen, has been working with authorities to help them understand how she disappeared and where she has been, but officials say that she is traumatized and they do not yet have the full story.

“Our biggest challenge is, we’re dealing with incomplete information,” said Kieran Ramsey, assistant special agent in charge of the Boston Division of the FBI. “The victim in this case is a 15-year-old girl. It’s not as cut and dried as people think that somebody can exactly recount what happened, when, and where.”

Hernandez was 14 when she disappeared on the afternoon of Oct. 9. On Thursday, authorities released a sketch of a man in his mid-40s they say drove her away from North-South Road in Conway between 2:20 and 3 p.m., based on a description Hernandez provided, and on Friday a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire attorney general said they were following about 20 leads.

Hernandez described the man as slightly overweight and a little taller than 5-feet-4, with a large build, darkish skin, dark brown eyes, and black stubble on his face.

Authorities have stopped short of calling the man a suspect, though Ramsey said that investigators do have a “description of his involvement.” They are not releasing any more information about him, Ramsey said, until they locate and talk to him.

“Our biggest concern is, let’s find out who this is and make sure we get an interview with this person,” said Ramsey.

Investigators do not know if the man is from New Hampshire, said Ramsey, nor do they know if Hernandez remained in New Hampshire during her nine-month absence.

“That’s one of the disturbing factors of this,” he said. “This is a 15-year-old girl, 14 at the time, who literally just vanished for nine months. We need to account for that.”

Ramsey said the case has been unusual from the beginning.

“Early on, there were solid indications of an abduction,” he said. “A 14-year-old girl goes missing. Her social media and phone activity goes dark. No one sees or hears from her. Then, at some point, we get that letter to her mom. That’s very unusual. Then you fast-forward, and nine months later, she reappears.”

The letter, which arrived two months after Hernandez disappeared, was a critical lead, but authorities did not release its contents. Ramsey said that was partly because they feared being flooded with false leads or people pretending to be Hernandez.

Since Hernandez’s return, authorities have advised the public to “remain vigilant,” but have not said that there is any threat to public safety.

“If she was taken against her will or enticed away, we have the potential that somebody could do it again,” said Ramsey. “We haven’t substantiated that yet. That’s why we haven’t raised the alarm.”

Earlier this week, authorities released pictures of clothing the teenager was wearing when she reappeared Sunday and asked for information from anyone who saw her between 10 and 10:30 p.m. They are reviewing surveillance video from around the family home.

For the people who love Hernandez, the questions about where she was are secondary to their joy at having her back.

“Happiest thing ever, to see her with her mom,” said Paul Kirsch, 48, of Madison, who helps run the website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which has been endorsed by Hernandez’s mother, Zenya, and father, Ruben. When Kirsch first saw her after her return, he said, he was filled with “relief, total sadness, and total happiness.”

Kirsch, who has known Zenya Hernandez for years, said her daughter will need to take some time to recover from “some health issues.”

“She was pretty tired; her mom was pretty tired,” he said. “I think, more than anything, they were so ecstatic to see each other, but you could definitely tell she had been through some stuff.”

Kirsch declined to discuss what Hernandez has said about her disappearance or her return.

In the few conversations he has had with Hernandez, he said, he has avoided the topic. Hernandez, he said, is overwhelmed by the love and support from the community during the nine months she was gone.

The Hernandez family offered thanks to those who supported them during Abigail’s disappearance in the statement Friday night.

“The extent of our gratitude can hardly be expressed in words and we are beyond overjoyed about Abby’s return,” the family said.

Kirsch said he never doubted that Hernandez would come home.

“You don’t think about any other options, other than she’s going to come back,” he said. “You don’t know if it’s going to be a month or going to be years, but you never stop believing.”

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Must See!!

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By Jeremy C. Fox | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 13, 2014

The family of New Hampshire teenager Abigail Hernandez has released the first details of her nine-month disappearance, saying that she “was violently abducted by a stranger.”

In the statement posted Tuesday afternoon on a website set up during the search for Hernandez, Michael Coyne, an attorney representing the teenager and her mother, Zenya Hernandez, said it was “miraculous” that she survived her long months of captivity.

“For many months, she suffered numerous acts of unspeakable violence,” Coyne wrote on behalf of the Hernandez family. “Through her faith, fortitude and resilience, she is alive today and home with her family.”

Coyne, a professor and dean-elect of the Massachusetts School of Law, according to the institution’s website, could not be reached Tuesday night.

“Abby needs and wants some time and space to physically and emotionally heal,” the statement said. “It is going to be a long process in pursuit of justice for Abby and for Abby to get physically and emotionally stronger. We do not intend to have this case tried in the press.

“As the justice system moves forward, and the evidence is revealed, questions about this horrific event will be answered.”

Kieran Ramsey, assistant special agent in charge for the FBI’s Boston division, which covers New Hampshire, would not comment on the allegations in the statement, saying that law enforcement officials would not speak until a criminal complaint is unsealed.

New Hampshire Associate Attorney General Jane Young, lead prosecutor in the case, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Nathaniel E. Kibby, 34, of Gorham, N.H., pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of kidnapping Hernandez, who disappeared Oct. 9 and returned home last month. He is being held on $1 million cash bail.

Last week, Justice Pamela D. Albee, of the Third Circuit District Division court in Conway, N.H., ordered state officials not to remove Kibby’s mobile home and a storage container from a trailer park where he lived in Gorham. Prosecutors had sought to haul away the mobile home and container and place them in storage. They believe Kibby held Hernandez on his property, according to Albee’s ruling, but it was not clear if they think she was kept inside the structures or was at the trailer park for her entire nine-month disappearance.

Public defenders appointed to represent Kibby had asked the judge not to allow the trailer and container to be moved until they have had an opportunity to thoroughly investigate both. Prosecutors have released few details of Hernandez’s disappearance, and have not specified any other crimes they believe Kibby committed.

Family friend Paul Kirsch, who has also acted as a spokesman, declined to comment Tuesday night.

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