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