(CNN) -- After an agonizing week of waiting, hoping and praying, Brett Anderson reunited with his 16-year-old daughter, Hannah, on Sunday, according to a source close to the situation. 
 
 Hannah was rescued in the Idaho wilderness after an FBI agent shot and killed the family friend suspected of killing her mother and brother, burning his own house down and kidnapping the girl. 
 
 James DiMaggio's death and Hannah's rescue late Saturday afternoon ended a frantic, weeklong manhunt. The girl did not appear to have significant physical injuries, authorities said. 
 
 "It's now healing time," the girl's father said in a text message to CNN. 
 
 "They didn't fit" 
 
 Hannah went missing after cheerleading practice in San Diego County, California, on August 3. 
 
 The next day, the bodies of her mother, Christina Anderson, and 8-year-old brother, Ethan, were found about 45 miles east in DiMaggio's burned house in Boulevard. 
 
 That horror spurred a manhunt, which zeroed in on central Idaho after two critical clues: the discovery of DiMaggio's blue Nissan Versa outside the city of Cascade and a sighting of the pair by horseback riders. 
 
 One of the horseback riders on Sunday described multiple "red flags" that were raised during their brief interaction with the pair, including their brand-new camping equipment and the pajama-like bottoms Hannah was wearing. 
 
 Mark John recalled the interaction as "just like a square peg going into a round hole. They didn't fit." 
 
 Another rider, Mike Young, said it looked like Hannah "had a scared look on her face," adding about DiMaggio: "I just had a gut feeling about him." 
 
 Unaware of the Amber Alert, however, the horseback riders continued on, and only after seeing a news report on the pair upon returning home did the group put the puzzle pieces together. 
 
 "When I seen that picture on the screen, I told my wife, I said, 'That is the girl that was up on that mountain,'" John recalled. 
 
 Hundreds of law enforcement agents scoured 300 square miles of rough terrain, hampered by the smoke from nearby wildfires. 
 
 Key moments in the manhunt 
 
 Late Saturday afternoon, they spotted the pair's campsite near Morehead Lake, Idaho. But the topography was so steep, helicopters had to drop authorities off far away from the camp. 
 
 Hostage rescue teams had to hike more than two hours to get to the scene, local sheriffs' departments said. 
 
 They moved in carefully so they wouldn't alert DiMaggio that they were coming. 
 
 "Once the teams set up, they waited until DiMaggio and Hannah separated and moved in," the Valley and Ada county sheriffs' offices said. 
 
 Authorities ushered Hannah to an area where a helicopter could whisk her away. 
 
 At some point, a "confrontation" ensued between authorities and DiMaggio, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said. The confrontation ended when an FBI tactical agent shot and killed the murder and kidnapping suspect. 
 
 "Obviously we would have liked for Mr. DiMaggio to surrender and face justice in the court of law," Gore said. "But that's not going to be the case." 
 
 'Hannah is safe' 
 
 Hannah didn't appear to have significant physical injuries,but was immediately taken to a hospital, the sheriff's spokeswoman said. 
 
 "Hannah is safe, and that was our first priority from the very beginning," Valley County, Idaho, Sheriff Patti Bolen said. 
 
 In his text to CNN, Brett Anderson expressed a range of emotions upon hearing of his daughter's rescue soon after his wife and son's death. 
 
 "I am nervous excited saddened 4 my wife and son and worried what my daughter has been through," he wrote. 
 
 Father of missing teen pleads for daughter's release 
 
 Witness: DiMaggio had crush 
 
 A friend of Hannah Anderson detailed the relationship she observed between DiMaggio and the teen. 
 
 Marissa Chavez told CNN that she was in a car with Hannah and DiMaggio, 40, a few months ago when he told Hannah he had a crush on her. 
 
 He followed it up by saying if he was her age, he would date Hannah, Chavez said. 
 
 Hannah was unnerved by the comments, but did not tell her mother because she did not want to ruin the close relationship that her parents had with DiMaggio, Chavez said. 
 
 But Hannah did not want to be alone with DiMaggio after that, Chavez said. 
 
 "I don't think she would have gone willingly with him at all," she said. 
 
 In an earlier episode, Chavez recalled a trip that DiMaggio and Hannah took to Hollywood. The trip was supposed to be for one week, but Hannah told Chavez that they came back after two days because DiMaggio was upset that she wasn't paying enough attention to him. 
 
 Search intensified after car spotted 
 
 DiMaggio's car was found after John reported he had a brief conversation with two campers in the Idaho wilderness on Wednesday. 
 
 Why more Amber alerts will be waking you up 
 
 DiMaggio's car was found unoccupied Friday -- hidden by brush, with its license plate removed -- spurring authorities to intensify their search in that area. 
 
 Ultimately, DiMaggio was spotted and killed not far from where he left his car, said Andrea Dearden, spokeswoman for Idaho's Ada County sheriff's office. 
 
 Father of missing teen pleads for daughter's release 
 
 From anguish to elation 
 
 Grief over the deaths of Hannah's mother and brother gave way to euphoria after the teen was found alive. 
 
 "We're very excited," Sara Britt, Hannah and Ethan's grandmother, said Sunday. "Just ecstatic. Jubilation. We couldn't ask for anything more. This is the outcome we wanted." 
 
 But the outcome was also bittersweet for Britt and her husband, Ralph, who lost their daughter Christina and grandson Ethan in the ordeal. 
 
 Asked whether she had any sense that DiMaggio might have been capable of the alleged crimes, Sara Britt said never. 
 
 "Even the way it turned out -- I mean he loved little E, and he loved my daughter, and for him to do such a horrific act, it's just not fathomable. I can't understand it because he loved them too," she said. 
 
 Ralph Britt said he wants Christina to be remembered "as a daughter and a mother of two great kids. That's it." 
 
 CNN's Gregg Canes, Miguel Marquez, AnneClaire Stapleton, Mariano Castillo and Alicia Eakin contributed to this report. 

 A group of people, who encountered missing teen Hannah Anderson and her alleged kidnapper James DiMaggio in the Idaho wilderness, recall their strange meeting with the two. 
 
 Teenager Hannah Anderson appeared frightened and hid her face when she and kidnapping suspect James Lee DiMaggio were spotted in the Idaho backcountry three days before authorities rescued her and killed him. 
 
 Two pistol-packing couples were traveling in the wilderness on horseback when they encountered the 16-year-old girl and the 40-year-old man, who is suspected of killing her mother and brother outside San Diego a week ago. 
 
 “She kinda had a scared look on her face. I just had a gut feeling about him,” Mike Young, who owns a ranch in Sweet, Idaho, said at a Sunday afternoon press conference. 
 
 “They weren’t friendly, and they didn’t talk,” said Mark John, a rancher and ex-sheriff. 
 
 After a manhunt that went nearly a week and began in California, a teen girl is safe after a harrowing alleged kidnapping that ended with gunfire in Idaho's wilderness. With Hannah Anderson now recovering, authorities say she will be reunited with her father. NBC's Joe Fryer reports. 
 
 The pair were first seen on a trail — and then later at the lake, where one of the horseback riders cautioned Hannah about dipping her bare feet in the fish-filled water. 
 
 "Looks like we're all in trouble now," the teen said cryptically to herself as Young, John and their wives headed away from the lake and back to the trail, according to John. 
 
 That was Wednesday morning, and it wasn’t until the Youngs and Johns got home Thursday night that they learned an Amber Alert had been issued for Hannah and DiMaggio and called law enforcement. 
 
 The sighting — which one of the riders described as "one chance in a trillion" — led authorities to DiMaggio’s car on Friday and to his campsite on Saturday. He was killed during a rescue attempt, and Hannah was reunited with her father Sunday, according to NBC Los Angeles. 
 
 Her relatives said they were waiting to learn the details of Hannah's six-day ordeal. 
 
 “We don’t know what she saw or heard. Hannah is the only person who knows what happened that night,” grandfather Ralph Britt said on TODAY. 
 
 Officials suspect that DiMaggio set fire to his own house last Sunday, killing Hannah's 8-year-old brother, Ethan, and their mother, Christina Anderson, 44. 
 
 They suspect he then kidnapped Hannah, setting off a search that expanded to Canada and Mexico and triggered Amber Alerts in several states. 
 
 The Youngs and the Johns were unaware of the manhunt when they decided to go fishing last week, setting up camp in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. 
 
 Mike and Mary Young were the first to see Hannah and DiMaggio, and they said several things struck them as strange. 
 
 The pair had set up a two-person tent on a ridge that had no water access and was unprotected. DiMaggio said he was headed for Salmon River, but he was going in the wrong direction. The teen was wearing what looked like pajama pants, not suited for the rugged terrain. 
 
 "She was trying to turn her face away," Mike Young said. 
 
 When the riders first came upon the duo, Hannah and DiMaggio were around 10 feet apart, but he quickly closed the gap and put his arm around her waist. 
 
 "She did appear frightened, but I thought it was fear of the horses," Mary Young said. 
 
 The Youngs met up with the Johns and headed for the lake, where Hannah and DiMaggio suddenly appeared. The couples tried to make small talk but got little information about what they were doing in the area. 
 
 "Last year it was her turn to pick a place, and she wanted to go to Los Angeles and Hollywood," DiMaggio said, referring to a previous road trip with Hannah. "That's why I picked this place." 
 
 The riders said that Hannah did not give them any signal she needed help and they thought DiMaggio might be her father. Despite the red flags, they didn't detect any danger or see any weapons. 
 
 All four were carrying guns. 
 
 "He might have got one of us, but we woulda got him," Mark John said. 
 
 He said when he saw the Amber Alert on TV the next night, he instantly recognized Hannah and called a friend with the Idaho State Police. 
 
 DiMaggio’s car, a Nissan Versa, was found covered with brush and without license plates the next day. With air support and on horseback, investigators scoured the isolated area and figured out where he was holed up. 
 
 The rescue was "very challenging,” Ada County, Idaho, sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said Sunday. 
 
 She told TODAY that agents were forced to land a two-and-a-half-hour hike away from where the pair's campsite had been spotted in order to secure the girl’s safety. 
 
 She declined to discuss details of the operation or whether DiMaggio had fired at agents, saying that a review team would investigate the suspect's death. 
 
 “Hannah is safe, and that was our first priority from the very beginning,” said Valley County Sheriff Patty Bolen at a press conference Saturday. 
 
 Hannah's father, Brett Anderson, was "elated" his daughter was found alive, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore said. 
 
 When law-enforcement told him Hannah was safe, he called the Britts and told them to come over. They made the long drive not knowing whether they would get the best or worst news. 
 
 "He said Hannah was safe and Jim was dead — then hugs, joy. We were so happy," Ralph Britt said. 
 
 Sheriff's officials told NBC San Diego that Christina Anderson, recently separated from her husband, had a “close platonic relationship” with DiMaggio. He had an “unusual infatuation” with Hannah, they said. 
 
 Ralph Britt said the family had known DiMaggio for years and never had any inkling that he could pose a threat. 
 
 "It was just a complete shock. He was Uncle Jim," he said. "We’ve known him for years. … Let it serve as a warning, that’s all we can say." 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 
 Anderson family / NBC News Christina Anderson and her son Ethan, both murdered in their San Diego home last Sunday, seen in this family photograph released to NBC News. 
 
 This story was originally published on
– The horseback riders who spotted missing teen Hannah Anderson and her abductor, James DiMaggio, are telling the story of their "one chance in a trillion" discovery, NBC News reports. When they encountered Hannah in Idaho backcountry—days before she was rescued—she looked out of place in pajama pants, say Mike and Mary Young, 62 and 61, one of two couples on horseback. Their companion Mark John, a former sheriff, says Hannah and DiMaggio "were like a square peg in a round hole—they didn’t fit," NBC Los Angeles reports. The couples' chat with the two was uncharacteristically short: "In the backcountry, you exchange pleasantries. These people did not want to talk," John said. Hannah turned away from him, though he heard her say, "Looks like we’re all in trouble now." John later recognized Hannah on the news. "I told my wife, 'That was the girl we seen up there on the mountain.'" Now, Hannah has been reunited with her father, Brett. "It's now healing time," he texted CNN.