ARREST MADE: Abigail Hernandez, 15, Missing/Returned Safe - New Hampshire

[Duchess]

I'm back to thinking she was where she wanted to be at the time.

[HairOfTheDog]

ARRAIGNMENT & PRESS CONFERENCE NOTES

Arraignment:
Kibby's court-appointed attorney was frustrated -- I don't blame him. The Attorney General's office has sealed both the arrest and search warrants. It's one thing for the public not to be able to see them, but Kibby's counsel had no access and has no idea of the probable cause behind his client's arrest.

The judge said, essentially, that she had signed off on the warrants and that the probable cause hearing will be scheduled to occur within 10 days, so Kibby and his defense will get more access soon.

Kibby was ordered to be held on bail of $1,000,000 cash.

Search In-process:
The news break between the Arraignment Hearing and Press Conference showed FBI and local LE searching Kibby's property up and down. News reports indicate particular attention is being paid to an orange storage container on the property where his mobile home resides. Speculation is circulating that is where he kept Abby.

Attorney General (AG) Office and FBI Press Conference:
AG Foster, FBI Agent Ramsey, and Asst AG Jane Young all credited the public for keeping the story alive and keeping Abby's name and photo out there.

They also credited Abby, a child, for having the strength to get through the 9 months of whatever she endured (Young says they still don't know everything and are investigating).

In response to a reporter's question, Young said that there is currently only evidence to support one arrest in the case, but if it comes to light that other individuals were involved, they too will be pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[Duchess]

I saw the defense attorney's frustration and him not being able to view the arrest warrant & search warrant is one of the strangest things I've seen. I've always been under the impression that one's attorney would be entitled to those things.

[FAHQTOO]

He looks like another actor but I cant quite put my finger on it.

The guy in the Happy Gilmore Movie. I'm too lazy to look him up.

[Duchess]

News reports indicate particular attention is being paid to an orange storage container on the property where his mobile home resides. Speculation is circulating that is where he kept Abby.

Here's the container -

It's very curious to me that they conducted at least one 3 hr. interview with Abigail and they say they still don't know if she was taken by force.

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks for the photo, Duchess.

If Abigail was in fact kept in that storage container for 9 months, against her will, it had to be a nightmare and it's rather a miracle that she was not killed.

I don't know what to think about the case at this point. Kibby is charged with one count of felony kidnapping (so far). That carries a max sentence of seven years. The charge is that he knowingly confined Abigail Hernandez with intent to harm her.

But, so far, LE has released no details regarding how she was harmed or whether she knew or interacted with Kibby before she went missing. Investigators either haven't gotten those details from Abby, or they haven't yet validated what she's told them, or they just don't wanna show their hands at this time.

I think the probable cause hearing will be much more enlightening than was the Arraignment (though there won't likely be as many details and witnesses as we saw at Ross Cooper's probable cause hearing -- that one was far outside the norm).

The probable cause hearing for Nathaniel Kibby is scheduled for August 12^th. That's when the state will need to lay some of its cards on the table to convince the judge that there exists sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial. The defense gets to counter state arguments and witnesses at the probable cause hearing as well.

[RJs-Ex]

I'm back to thinking she was where she wanted to be at the time.

That's exactly what I think. She left willingly, the "relationship" with this guy fizzled out, and she went back home.

The problem is he's 34 and she's a minor, and his dumb ass should know better.

[Duchess]

If that's the case, I'd like to see those charges lowered.

[cannongal]

How stupid is it to go into court, and sit in the front row all dolled up? If she wants to portray herself as an innocent victim, she should have left the make up & tight clothing at home....

Here she is, in all of her "Weak" and Frail" glory:

[Duchess]

Whoa!

[Duchess]

She doesn't look traumatized in the least.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Maybe she isn't, but I doubt it. If she was grabbed and kept as is purported one would expect trauma. Maybe she is stronger than folks thought. Normal? No, I don't think so.
If as is suspected she left on her own and then came back then I can easily see her doing what she is doing. But what would have been the point of running off and no contact for 9 months?
lot of pieces not adding up at this point and the police are being pretty tight fisted with whatever evidence there is.

[RJs-Ex]

Maybe she isn't, but I doubt it. If she was grabbed and kept as is purported one would expect trauma. Maybe she is stronger than folks thought. Normal? No, I don't think so.
If as is suspected she left on her own and then came back then I can easily see her doing what she is doing. But what would have been the point of running off and no contact for 9 months?
lot of pieces not adding up at this point and the police are being pretty tight fisted with whatever evidence there is.

If she'd made contact and was found out, she would've been forced (by her parents/police) to return home. I think she only returned home now b/c they "broke up" and she had nowhere else to go.

[Maggot]

If this becomes a movie I'm going to try like crazy to be an extra in it.

[Cheyne]

Apparently Kibby was arrested twice in the 9 months that Abigail was missing, and the police came to his home to take his guns so he wouldn't be violating his bail conditions!

More recently, he faced a $350 fine for being found in possession of marijuana on Oct. 22, 2013, in North Conway, according to court records. That was less than two weeks after Hernandez disappeared.

Kibby also faced assault and trespassing charges in connection with an altercation in March. The incident came after a February car accident in Redstone, N.H.

Eric Ray, the other man involved in the accident, said Kibby had gone to his house after he served Kibby with small claims papers at Kibby’s job in Conway. He said Kibby either threatened or hit Tammy Shackford, Ray’s girlfriend, causing her to slip and bruise her elbow.

Ray said he saw Kibby at a court proceeding last week, and “he was just very, very arrogant, smirking and smiling.”

After that incident, Kibby was ordered not to possess any firearms as part of his bail conditions. Court records show he called Gorham police to his home March 4 to seize several guns, so as not to violate his bail conditions.

Police referred all questions to the attorney general, whose office declined to comment on the visit.

Kibby later protested the bail conditions in a court filing, saying his firearms were “of immense equitable value” and that he was not a threat because he lived by an “objectivist libertarian moral code.”

Read more

This just gets weirder. The Gorham police were called to Kibby's house to seize his guns and didn't have a clue that Abigail was there? Is the storage container double insulated and soundproofed? From the picture that Duchess posted-it doesn't even look to have any type of ventilation. JMO-There is no way a human being could live through the summer in a metal container with no vents, fans or some type of temp control.

Where the Hell was Abigail, really?

[Cheyne]

How stupid is it to go into court, and sit in the front row all dolled up? If she wants to portray herself as an innocent victim, she should have left the make up & tight clothing at home....

Here she is, in all of her "Weak" and Frail" glory:

I don't have a problem with the make-up, as most teenage girls think they cannot leave home without it. Flipping the bird is a little weird though. Most kids do that when they are feeling defiant. Is that bird directed at the press, the public, LE or Kibby?

I will say she doesn't look malnourished, at least not how I think of the term. Her hair is still long and shiny-if she had been malnourished for the last 9 months it would look dull and flat and may have thinned and broken off.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Maybe she was just irritated at the media whores. Everyone knows they are not in the slightest concerned with anyones wellbeing, just to be the one to get the shot or the story.

[cannongal]

Maybe she was just irritated at the media whores. Everyone knows they are not in the slightest concerned with anyones wellbeing, just to be the one to get the shot or the story.

She's definitely irritated at the media. She's being crucified in the court of public opinion, specifically on Wmur. I've noticed that most of the statements that Zenya (mom) has put out, have been in response to comments on the news stories.

[cannongal]

I don't have a problem with the make-up, as most teenage girls think they cannot leave home without it. Flipping the bird is a little weird though. Most kids do that when they are feeling defiant. Is that bird directed at the press, the public, LE or Kibby?

I will say she doesn't look malnourished, at least not how I think of the term. Her hair is still long and shiny-if she had been malnourished for the last 9 months it would look dull and flat and may have thinned and broken off.

I believe it was directed at the press/paparazzi.

I think she looks perfectly normal, health wise, although her face has aged quite a bit.

I'm really glad that she's back home, but the family needs to put out more information at some point, or the rumors are going to keep flying. I'm still leaning towards the theory that she went with Kibby willingly, and only returned because the relationship fizzled, and Abby had no where else to go.

[Cheyne]

Abigail has spoken out to her local newspaper, thanking them for running a second page timeline of the days of her disappearance.

In her first public words since returning home July 20 after a mysterious nine-month disappearance, Abigail "Abby" Hernandez says, "I'm taking it a little bit at a time, but I'm feeling a lot better every day."

Making a short visit Thursday to the offices of her hometown newspaper, the 15-year-old from North Conway, New Hampshire, thanked the editorial staff of the Conway Daily Sun for running a daily Page 2 box that kept count of the days since, according to authorities, she was abducted.

Read More

Abigail confirms she saw the newspaper while abducted:

During the months that searchers were looking for her, Hernandez periodically saw the newspaper and its tally of days since she went missing, alerting her that she'd not been forgotten, her mother, Zenya Hernandez, told the paper.

If Abigail was in the storage container, she was at least given reading material and a light with which to read by. This case just gets stranger by the day.