This is Deborah Roberts. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Each week, we reach back into our archives and bring you a story we found unforgettable. Only a true psychopath could do this.

A pool of blood coming from his head. Somebody had been paid to kill me.

Why would you want your husband killed? Take a listen. Coming up.

He said, I can blow your... Excuse my language, but I can blow your f brains out. Then I saw a gun.

The 14-year-old girl who simply vanished walking home from school.

Please come home. We miss you so badly. I think about you all the time. People just don't disappear off the face of the Earth.

It fit the definition of kidnap. So how did they miss the madman hiding in plain sight?

I felt this stammering pain in my leg. I thought, Oh, my God, I've been shot.

The girl who survived nine months in captivity in a cargo container, Shackle.

I just really wanted to live.

The mind games he played.

He called me Master. But she had some mind games of her own. Okay, I got to work with this guy.

The bizarre twist ending that no one saw coming.

She says, I know the name, but I can't tell you because he's going to come and kill us. This is it. I was like, Oh, my God. He's everywhere.

I'm John Quineones, a high school freshman, kidnapped and surviving by matching her wits against a devious captor. That captor right under the nose of law enforcement, scheming to keep his darkest secret hidden from them, and an unwitting third person who would finally break the case wide open. As Deborah Roberts first reported in 2018, for nine months, the mystery of what happened to Abby Hernandez haunted the residence of her buccolic New Hampshire town. Now, Abby herself is here to tell her story. North Conway, New Hampshire, borders the White Mountain National Forest, a popular tourist spot for hikers and skiers. There are stunning vistas from Cathedral Ledge and quaint-covered bridges. But for locals, the spectacular scenery is just part of the appeal.

Conway is a quintessential small town, America.

There's very little crime. In New Hampshire, it's one of the safest states in the country. Xania Hernández, a divorced nurse, enjoyed a happy life here raising two daughters, Sarah and Abigail, known as Abby.

Fantastic place to raise a family. Very close-knit community.

That community, a picture-perfect backdrop to a seemingly still a childhood.

Abby always has been very kind, always loved animals. Very cheerful, happy child.

Girly girl, little tough.

A little bit of a tomboy. She's very athletic, a fantastic skier. We hiked a lot together.

Miranda Cloutier and Abby have been best friends since seventh grade. How would you describe her? Very funny.

Always in a really positive mood.

She has this really nice personality of being able to talk to anybody. So she became friends with anybody she met. As a new high school freshman, Abby studies German robotics. She loves her boyfriend, Jimmy, and classic rock, especially Tom Petty. It was a good life. A good life until October ninth, 2013, when 14-year-old Abby doesn't come home from school. At what point did you start to think, This is strange.

Well, right away, I was like, She should be somewhere.

She probably is at school with her friends. Were you texting her?

I texted her. Yeah, nothing.

No response. Now, what are you thinking?

It was worried, but I was like, Okay, I'll go to school. So I get to school. And then the Librarian says, I saw her leave. That's when I got very worried.

Has she ever not shown up at home before? No, never.

My thinking was okay. What if she had an injury, broke her leg, appendecitis, who knows? Got hit by a car. I called the hospital at that time. They said, No, they have not seen her. At that point, getting frantic, actually.

Are you thinking at this point that maybe she ran away?

No, it didn't make sense.

Especially because Abby's 15th birthday is just three days away.

She was very enthusiastic about it. We were planning a whole big party to have friends over to do fun things.

By seven o'clock that night, Xenya is frantic and files a missing person's report at the Conway Police Station. The next day, the community is roiled and rattled when the story hits the local news. We are also following new developments in the search for a missing teenager from Conway tonight. And what's your first thought?

I was shocked that she was missing.

Did it occur to you that maybe she ran away?

No, I got to tell you, she faced problems. She didn't run away from them.

Miranda remembers the last time she saw Abby. They were taking selfies at school.

We wanted to be silly together. That was the last known picture of her, was the picture her and I took together in science class.

Fbi agents went door to door Thursday night in an apartment complex just off Route 16. The search ramped up incredibly fast.

The Conway police started. The attorney general's office got involved.

The FBI, state police basically created a drag net in the North Conway area looking for Abby Hernandez. The story leads the evening news. Town residents were out all day searching. The 14-year-old was last seen leaving Kenneth High. Now, this is also the first time we have heard from Abby's mother since she disappeared. She wished her daughter a happy birthday. Three days after her disappearance, it's Abby's birthday. But instead of a celebration, there's a vigil. Happy birthday to you. And Xenya has a message for her daughter.

This is so badly. Then Sarah and I think about you all the time. We want you back with us, please. And we love you. We miss you.

Investigators say day four of the Search for Abby turned up few clues. There are nightly press conferences. We continue today to search for to be. We are now at over 300 tips and leads that we are investigating.

Search teams today expanded into some different areas. As we have said over the course of the past five days, this is a missing person investigation. It was important to get the story in the media because we had the belief that someone must have seen something.

Investigators are desperate for information. All they know is that Abby was last seen walking home from school while her boyfriend, Jimmy, is on the school bus texting her. She sent him a heart at 2:53 PM. 14 minutes later, at 3:07, her cell signal disappears about a mile from Abby's house. Something happened between when she sent that text message and when her cell went dark. We looked very significantly at her communications with her boyfriend. We picked apart the relationship they had. Did you begin looking at the family, close friends? Absolutely. We gave them a critical look. What were you learning about Abby? She was very family-oriented, close with her mom. We just didn't see anything that was suggestive to us that something she had done had caused her disappearance. Classic teenage girl. That's what she appeared to be. But a classic teenage girl doesn't didn't just vanish on her way home from school. I think the things that really started to cause us concern were when we looked at the video of her leaving high school. It didn't appear as though she had belongings for a significant period of time away from home. Please stay strong.

When we come back after weeks without leads, clues, or any word from Abby, a stunning development. This letter in Zaneya's mailbox.

The letter from nowhere, anywhere.

What it says and who it's from, next. One month has passed since Abby Hernandez vanished. And with no credible leads or sightings, her story is no longer front-page news. How are you holding it together?

I wasn't really holding it together. One of the things about tragedies like that is that it surprises the sun gets up in the morning and life goes on. I did fall into despair at the time.

Abby's heartsick mom, Xenya Hernández, drives around town hoping for any leads to her daughter's whereabouts.

Just drove in. That So that was soul-sucking. That was soul-wrenching. Didn't know where to go, but you have no idea where to drive, right? So I suspected everyone. I suspected everyone. And that's a horrible thing.

So consumed with the ongoing search, she ignores routine daily tasks. She hasn't picked up her mail in weeks, which is understandable and unfortunate, because unbeknownst to Xenya, the US Postal Service has already delivered to her mailbox the first big break in the case.

There's like 20 envelopes from Wale Wishers. And there there's another envelope. It appeared to be a letter from Abby.

Did it say, Dear Mom?

Yeah.

I mean, you must have just been beside herself.

I can't believe it, and I'm happy beyond believe. And I'm also confused about some of the language.

And what did she say?

Dear Mom, I miss you and love you more than you can imagine. I'm sorry I did this. I've seen the newspaper and TV reports. And to answer your questions, yes, I'm alive. I miss you, Mom, but I won't tell you where I am.

It's really cryptic, isn't it?

It is. It's her, but it's not her.

The letter was sent 13 days after Abby disappeared and brings renewed hope to investigators.

We were able to confirm her DNA profile on the letter, but how she came to write that letter, nobody was sure.

What did you make of this? It sounded like the goal of the letter was to say, I'm okay, now leave me alone. That was a real curveball. A curveball that investigators fear could put Abby in even more jeopardy if made public.

We had a lot of agonizing conversations.

Should we reveal this letter?

If the victim had somehow been able to sneak a letter out, if she was in fact kidnapped, if her captor knew that, she was at greater risk.

So they wait another month. But as winter approaches, investigators get past their cold feet. We believe that it was, in fact, written by Abby. The fact that she had the ability to send a letter, does that indicate to you that she's maybe all right? Is this a runaway case, an abduction?

We are still classifying this as a missing person case.

Were you concerned at all about this letter now turning the tide publicly and people's sympathy maybe shifting in a different direction? Sure. One of the things that we obviously can't control is what that court of public opinion is. I think people have formed very ardent opinions as to what they think happened. While authorities remain skeptical about Abby's letter, the public takes it at face value, causing a rush to judgment. The talk on social media, Abby's a runaway, not a victim.

Sounds like Abby's a punk teenager who ran away. Doesn't sound like she's in any danger.

She should be forced to pay back the state. This whole story has been fishy from the very beginning. A torrent of rumors and innuendo swirls through Abby's high school, says her friend Miranda.

It was definitely a hot topic for gossip.

What was the talk in the hallways?

Being in high school, most people want to assume, Oh, she was pregnant. That that must be why that she ran away. Did that bother It did bother me. Her and I were very close, so I knew that she definitely was not pregnant.

When you start to hear people doubting the story and doubting what's happened.

Devastating. Because for us, that meant that perhaps they're not going to look.

Reporters, they would say, If it's a runaway, we can't cover it.

It's not news.

But investigators give no credence to that town gossip. They've cleared Abby's boyfriend, and though they have no suspects, they are convinced that Abby is in danger.

People just don't disappear off the face of the Earth, especially a 14-year-old girl. She didn't drive. We knew that there was money at home that she didn't take. She had only the clothes on her back. No matter where she was, it fit the definition of kidnapping.

So just where is Abby Hernandez and why? The answers lie in the White Mountains, in a tiny town with a big secret. Speaking out for the very first time, Abby tells us how she got there. When we come back. We're just weeks into this year, and the news is already nonstop. Two overseas wars, a presidential election already testing the democratic process, a former President in court. It can feel impossible to keep up with, but we can help. I'm Brad Milkey, the host of Start Here, the Daily Podcast from ABC News. Every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand. So kickstart your morning. Start smart with Start Here and ABC News, because staying informed shouldn't feel like a chore. A chilling new true crime podcast on Gilgro Beach. The perfect place to dump a body. Inside the search for a serial killer. Her last phone call was to 911. Disturbing clues. Body count, body count, body count. Greenmore really scared me. Very ritualistic behavior. Stunning setbacks. They were as as we were.

There was a lot of speculation.

And shocking twists.

We were anxious to have this over with.

Their cases went unsolved. That'll leave you breathless. Until today. Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach, a new podcast available now. Since Abby Hernandez went missing, many months have passed. Her 15th birthday cake untouched.

I still have a piece of it. Still do actually have a piece of a cake. I'm going to freeze them.

The case is now as cold as a New Hampshire River in winter. The new year comes and goes.

That was devastating.

What her mom doesn't know is that her worst nightmare and investigators' worst fears are true. Abby has been taken. And now the reality of Abby's whereabouts, the ordeals she endured, is being told publicly for the very first time. Thankthank you so much for doing this.by Abby herself.

I can't believe I'm alive.

Recalling that fateful October afternoon when instead of taking the bus, she decided to walk home from school. Walked at home other times? Yeah. Never a problem.

Never a problem, no.

But this time is different. Her new boots, an early birthday gift, have rubbed blisters on her feet. So when a car pulls over offering a ride-Just like that. Abby accepts. Yeah. What led you to get in with him?

I blisters on my feet. He seemed like a nice guy.

Were you not worried about stranger danger or anything like that?

Yeah. I mean, I think that's common sense. But Conway is such a friendly town.

Did he look scary at all?

No, not really. He just seemed like your average person from Conway.

Still, she's careful not to give the stranger her address, so she asks him to drop her at a nearby restaurant. But the driver says he needs to make a stop at Home Depot. The man pulls into a spot at the far end of the parking lot. Are you beginning to feel that you're in danger?

Yes, I definitely got a gut feeling that something's wrong. So I said, You know what? I actually live really close to here. I think I can walk. I unbuckled my seatbelt. He straightened his legs and he was digging for something. Then I saw a gun, and he took it and he pointed it to my thigh.

And you're this 14-year-old girl. What are you thinking?

I was like, Oh, my God. Is this really happening? He said, Now I can blow your brains out. I can slitch your from your throat right open. He said, If you try to scream or try to escape or make any effort to escape, there will be consequences.

She says he whips off his plain baseball cap and shoves it on her head, sliding the brim over her face, then covers her with a jacket.

He told me to put my hands behind my back.He.

Handcuffed you?Yeah. You must have been panicked.

Yeah. I remember just adrenaline. I've never felt that much adrenaline ever. He told me, Bear with me. I'm at a hard time in my life. But I remember thinking to myself, I got to work with this guy. I got to do something. I said, I don't judge you for this. If you let me go, I won't tell anybody. I said, You actually seem really smart.

You're trying to stroke his ego.

Exactly. I asked, Where are we going? And he said, Somewhere I feel a little more comfortable. And I asked him, Are you going to rate me? And he asked me, How old are you? I said, I'm 14.

Were you thinking at all about possibly opening the door, trying to jump out?

That was my big thing that I was trying to figure out how to do. My hands were behind my back. He was holding something to my leg, so I was just really afraid to do anything, to move because he could sense it.

The driver, now capped her, catches her peering out from under the cab.

I felt this stammering pain in my leg, and I thought, Oh, my God, I've been shot. What was it? I realized, Oh, it's not a gun to my leg. It's a stun gun.

He saw you trying to look out the window.

Yeah. He said, Keep your head down.

And more terrifying.

I knew my phone obviously had a GPS on it. So that was my hope. He grabbed my phone and he held it in both hands, and he started to try to break it while driving. He said, The cops can track it. I remember hearing the squeezing, popping sound of glass and wires.

Abby says she knew the area well enough to know the man was driving well out of Conway and north into the mountains, taking the back roads.

Later on, I realized he was avoiding traffic lights because traffic lights have cameras. I was praying to God in my mind. So I was like, maybe if I started singing Amazing Grace, maybe God will come help me. So he said, Oh, you want music? And he took an iPod, and I remember it was Paint It Black by, I think, Rolling Stone.

She says after the long drive to a rural wooded area seemingly in the middle of nowhere, her kidnapper leads her from the car with her head down to what appears to be a tool shed into a long dark room where she notices a green carpet and a flag.

I remember seeing a Don't Tread on Me flag hanging on the wall, the yellow flag with the snake on it, and there were a bunch of tools. It looked almost like a workshop.

What she recalls next is unimaginable. Abby says inside that room, she's gagged and blindfolded. So he puts tape across your eyes to blindfold you. Yeah.

And then he put a T-shirt over my head and then a motorcycle helmet over that.

Both her hands and feet bound. And then she's sexually assaulted. This is torture.

Yeah, it is.

You're 14 years old, and you're being tortured.

Yeah, I just really wanted to live, though. I did not want to die. I remember praying to God, and I remember I never said Amen in my mind. I never wanted to end my prayers because I didn't want God to leave me.

The search for Abby continues again tomorrow morning.

He eventually told me that I was on the news. Everybody was looking for me. He said, I'm going to let you see it. He held his phone around me, and he let me watch the press conference where my mom was looking for me. That's when I really wanted to cry. Can we want you back with us, please? I think maybe that's when I did cry for the first time there.

And nobody knows where you are. Nobody knows what you're going through. Right.

I remember her saying, We're looking for you. Please come home.

Hours give way to days. That's when Abby's abductor decides she should write a letter to her mother.

He told me, Try to make it sound like you ran away a little bit. Try to convince them you're okay, because I think he wanted them to stop looking for me so much.

But she realizes this could be her only chance to get a message to the outside world. So she keenly uses her fingernail to carve words into that letter.

He said, Help. He was kidnapped.

A brilliant and bold strategy until it backfires.

He said, I found your messages, and I just felt my heart sink. I was like, Oh, my God, he's going to kill me. This is it.

Her captor makes her pay He held his gun gun to my feet, and it was really horrible and probably the most pain I've ever experienced. But, broadly enough, he gives her another chance.

This time, he made me say, Dear Mom, I'm sorry I did this. I just feel so bad that I got in the car.

You were 14. You were a child. Yeah.

It's what I tried to tell myself.

When we come back, who is this madman holding Abby for nine months? Did you learn his name?

He said, I can't tell you.

She doesn't know, but police just might.

I thought this guy has either done this before or he's a cop gone mad.

Next. Hey, I'm Andy Mitchell, a New York Times bestselling author. And I'm Sabrina Kohlberg, a morning television producer. We're moms of toddlers and best friends of 20 years. And we both love to talk about being parents, yes, but also pop culture.

So we're combining our two interests by talking to celebrities, writers, and fellow scholars of TV and movies.

Cinema, really. About what we all can learn from the fictional moms we love to watch. From ABC Audio and Good Morning, America, pop Culture Moms is out now wherever you listen to podcasts. Now streaming on Hulu. You're supposed to feel safe when you're off to college.

Kids aren't supposed to die in college.

Kids aren't supposed to die at all. Happening in college towns across America. She was murdered in such a brutal way. I screamed so loud.

All hell broke loose.

My heart just dropped. The unthinkable.

There's no easy way for a police officer to tell you that your daughter has been murdered. No, she's not dead.

Death in the dorms, too. Powerful emotional all-new episodes. Now streaming on Hulu. Abby Hernandez has been kidnapped while walking home from school. She doesn't know her captor's identity or exactly where he's hiding her. But it turns out Abby is just 30 miles from home, and police don't realize it yet, but her abductor is someone they already know. Once again, here's Deborah Roberts. Follow this steep scenic road, and eventually you'll reach the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. The endless view, a stark reminder for investigators that Abby Hernandez is the needle in a New Hampshire haystack. And just below the clouds is the Hamlet of Goram. Goram is like one of those towns everyone likes to go to because it's quiet and peaceful. The last time anyone counted, there were 2,626 residents here. But only one of them lives at 4 Brookside Drive, in a modest mobile unit where he proudly waves the red, white, and blue. At the front door, the homeowner would appreciate you removing your shoes before entering. Once inside, more proof that a proud American lives here with old furniture accented with old glory. He even sweats to the stars and stripes in his home gym.

There's a framed copy of the US Constitution, and clearly, he's a believer in the Second Amendment with guns everywhere. He had very strong beliefs about the Constitution and its origins and its meaning. His name His name is Nate Kibby, and his right to bear arms fits perfectly with his ability to make them. The 33-year-old Kibby works as a machinist at a gun shop, and even as far back as high school, had a fondness for guns. We learned Nate Kibby was a bully in high school. We learned that he was just that quintessential weirdo that you were scared of. People who end up in Nate's state as an adult start usually in childhood. Former FBI agent and ABC news consultant, Brad Garrett. They tend not to fit in. They tend to develop grudges and revenge against other people. They tend to be socially isolated. And so As a result, as they move through life, those things really only exacerbate. He was involved in a number of conflicts that involved the police. They involved oftentimes weapons and to some degree, violence. The violence that he exhibited was almost always associated with manipulative behavior. Eventually, Nate Kibby would move to Gorham and seemingly become a hardworking member of society, although still not without his quirks.

Neighbors in this mobile home park community where Kibby lived knew that he was weird. They knew that he was disgruntled. Some of them were afraid of him, and they tried to really steer clear of During the time that Abby Hernandez is missing, Kibby is involved in a simple traffic accident that escalates into an assault charge. As a condition of his bail, the court says Kibby must turn over his pride and joy: his gun collection. We knew he's probably going to argue everything you're going to say, and he's going to have some, I know my constitutional rights, and argue that point. But this time, the confrontational Kibby turns congenial. He calls the Goran Police Department himself and is eager to turn over his cash. It's a crafty move. This is the first time for myself that anyone has contacted us ahead of the paperwork getting to us. So that was odd. As the patrol car arrives on Brookside Drive, Officer Benjamin notices Mr. Kibby has done all the heavy lifting, bringing the guns curbside. It was like one of those welcome home parties where everyone's waiting at the curb to greet you. He had all his guns lined up like dominoes in a row.

One of the things that antisocial personalities love doing more than anything else is conning people, is getting over on them. So he knows why the police are coming. He knows what they think of him. And so he's going to put on a mask, a mask of socially appropriate, friendly friendly, congenial. Sure, I've got these guns. Yes, I got in trouble. Please come in and take them. I'll help them. I'll lay them out for you. From the road, Officer Benjamin spots another oddity, a 40-foot cargo container, the kind normally use to transport products all over the world.

We didn't have any reason to get closer, and he made sure of that.

While the hunt for Abby continues all across the state, police will never get as close as they are at this very moment it because what they don't know, what they could not have known, is that they are standing just a few feet away from the 15-year-old who's been bound and gagged inside that cargo container. It's a $3,000 steel box with multiple rooms, electricity and space heaters, all soundproof. Police leave never realizing Abby's inside, and she remains there for months with neighbors seeing nothing, hearing nothing of Abby's endless suffering. Did you have any idea how long you had been held captive? Did you have any idea of the days and months? No. So they all just blended together?

I didn't know if it was day or night.

Throughout her ordeal, two possible outcomes run through her mind.

I thought, Oh, my God, I'm going to die tonight or I'm going to escape somehow.

Did the rapes stop? No.

No.

That happened throughout your captivity? Yeah. Many Many of the details of Abby's captivity are too disturbing for television, but she tells them in a manner that's remarkably matter of fact. Though she never treated Abby, psychologist Rebecca Bailey says it's not uncommon. She seems very matter of fact, almost, as she's talking about it. I think she's had the ability to move beyond all of that pain, and in a way, split out a piece of herself. That part, that person that was being wounded and hurt and tortured all those days. There's not one way that a survivor looks like, which we often think that they should. They should act a certain way, be a certain way. It's not true. Meanwhile, back in Conway, friends haven't forgotten about Abby and post this video to keep her name in the public eye.

Dear Abby, I cannot tell you enough how much you are missed.

Little do they know, Nate Kibby is roaming around their safe town. Every day, he leaves his mobile home, driving 34 miles to his machinist job in Conway, one that requires him to drive past the Conway Police Department on his way to and from work. In Goram, Abby has a job, too, to survive.

How I got water was the two strung into the corner of my mouth. Whenever I wanted water, it would flip the switch with my thumb, and water would drip in my mouth.

What did you worry about most?

I worried about my family a lot. I worried if I would ever be free again. I looked back on my freedom, and it was something that I really wanted to experience again, and I really longed for.

To prevent the captive girl from screaming, Hibby uses a multi-prong approach.

He played heavy metal music, really loud, and I was gagged and everything.

Does the torture ease up? Does it get worse?

He said, I'm thinking of finding something a little more humane for you to keep you quiet. He said, I'm thinking of a shock collar. They're like dogs wear.

A shock collar.

I remember he put it on me and he told me, Okay, try and scream. And I just slowly started to raise my voice and then it shocked me. So he's like, Okay, now you know what it feels like.

Did you ever learn his name? Did he say anything about who he was?

He told me, Call me Master.

But the more time Kibby and Abby spend together locked behind his fiendish facade, the more paranoid he becomes. There was at least one moment of panic.

He said, You know too much. He said, So I need to move you. We need to move. We can't stay here. He put me in the trunk of a car, and we drove for a really long time. And how I used to keep track of time, I would sing American Pie in my head because I knew that song was around eight minutes long. So I told myself, Okay, after I sing this in my head, eight minutes have gone by.

The ride seems endless. And as the teenager tries in vain to keep track of how far they've traveled, the car suddenly stops. Wherever they are, they have finally arrived.

He carried me over his shoulder into a room, and he dumped me on a mattress. He made a room for me, which is where I lived for months.

Little does Abby know, Kibby has driven in circles and brought her right back to the same cargo container. But in a never before seen room. The door, he tells her, is wired to keep would be rescuers at bay.

I noticed on the door there were screws and then wires. He told me that he tripped the door so that if for any reason it was busted open, the room would catch on fire.

The explosives are fake, but the changing dynamic between the two is about to get real. The predator slowly becoming unmasked.

One time he fell asleep with me. I was facing the door, and I woke up, I wasn't wearing a blindfold. So I remember rolling over and I saw his face, and I quickly sat up and I covered my eyes because I was afraid he would kill me now because he said I needed to forget what his face looked like.

As bizarre as it may seem, inside these cramped quarters, a bond begins to form. It's always bonding to the bad guy of that ability to figure out how they can keep them at bay so they won't go off and become more violent.

Being there for nine months, I eventually became weirdly comfortable.

And he does, too. Abby says the machinist confesses everything from his sideline marijuana business to his disdain for police and more.

I remember when he tied me up, he said, Do you want to know how I know how to do this? And I just said, How? And he said, It's because it's what they did to us.

They did to us?

We would talk. He told me about experiences in juvenile prison and actual prison, about how they abuse them there.

This had happened to him? Yeah. While in high school, Kibby was reportedly incarcerated for 42 days. Most of that time in a psych ward of the state prison because he was deemed to be a threat to himself. Abby's a good listener, making sure never to disagree with her captor and lending a hand with his projects.

He said, I'm thinking of making making counterfeit money because he said, Morally, they owe me, basically. So he said, Let's make some fake money. And part of how I gained his trust, I guess, was I went along with whatever he wanted to do.

If I were going to write a textbook about how victims should deal with abductions, the first chapter would be about Abby. Kibby's home is filled with books, and he shares his passion for reading with Abby. It will be a rare slip-up for the maniac turned mentor.

He gave me a cookbook because you know how he was like, You need to cook for your man when you get one. And he always told me, he said, You're the closest thing I'll ever have to a daughter. I guess he looked at me like he wanted to teach me stuff. So anyway, he had a cookbook, and I would just read the cookbook. But there was a name written in block letters, and the name was Nate Kibby.

Abby Hernandez has uncovered what no investigator has, a name.

I asked him, I said, Who's Nate Kibby? He looked a little disappointed, and he just breathed, and he said, How do you know my name?

That's not the only secret about to be exposed. When we come back, Abby gets an assist from another woman who was once herself in the clutches of Nate Kibby and lived to tell about it. He seemed like he needed motherly love. Stay with us. Abby Hernández as his freedom will be indirectly tied to a woman she doesn't even know. Her name is Lauren Mundey, who had the misfortune of meeting Nate Kibby first online and later at a hotel.

I just felt from him like he needed somebody to talk to, and that's all he wanted to do.

Lauren says they only met once, Kibby introducing himself as Jay. He said he's done bad things.

Said, We all have done bad things in life.

The two spend a few hours together. He rubbed my head and played with my hair and rubbed my face until I fell asleep. Lauren says Kibi agrees to pay for the hotel and leaves behind three $50 bills in the room. She will later use one of those bills at a nearby Walmart.

The cashier grabbed it and she said, Yeah, just give me one minute.

I said, Okay, no problem. Seconds later, Lauren's in legal hot water because the bill is counterfeit. I called him immediately, and I swore at him. I said, You, you mother. You could have at least told me. How dare you play with my freedom.

I told him, Whatever you're making in your damn basement, you better clean it up right now because they are coming for your ass.

Fearing Monday's threat will lead police to his doorstep. Kibby takes action immediately.

He said, I need to get you out of here in case the police come to my house. So that night, he gave me back my clothes that I got kidnapped in.

Odly, the ride home will include a last meal of sorts.

He took me to Derry Queen. We parked there. I wore a ball cap so that nobody recognized my face from posters in the news and stuff.

The drama Abby thought never would end finally does on a desolate road about a mile from her home.

There were no cars coming either way. He said, Get out. So I got out, and then he yelled, Wait, give me my hat back. Give me my hat back. I took the hat off. I threw it in the car, slam the door, and he drove off.

Just like that?

Just like that. That was it. I remember looking up and laughing, just being so happy. Like, Oh, my God, this actually happened. I'm a free person. I never thought it would happen to me, but I'm free, and I just walked home.

This never before seen footage of Abby returning home caught on the family's security camera.

I remember when I came up to my doorstep, I could hear my mom talking on the phone. I could hear her voice. I opened the door and I said, Mom? I remember she said, Abby? And then I remember she ran out. It was almost like, it was a shock. I had this shatter, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. That was such a beautiful moment. I remember her just the look on her face. I remember seeing her, and she looked different. She really did. I could see stress, the months of stress in her face, and it killed me a little bit, but I was just so relieved to see her.

Back in Gauram, All Nate Kibby can do is sit and wait. Before letting Abby go, he's provided her with a fake story to explain her disappearance to police, a story that conveniently does not include him. For a while, his plan works. Her captor her told her that he would kill police if they came to get him, that he would kill her family. He made all kinds of threats.

She says, I know the name, but I can't tell you because he's going to come and kill us. He's everywhere. He knows I'm telling you this now. I was like, No, no, no. I said, he doesn't. We're in a public place. She's like, Yeah, he's going to come and shoot us.

But a week later, Abby's finally able to break free from her tormenter once and for all. What does she say? What does she say about his name?

She's Nathaniel Kibby. He lives in Gorham, New Hampshire.

A SWAT team races to the Gorham mobile home, and Kibby, who by now has reclaimed all his guns after that assault charge was dropped, is armed to the teeth. I heard the radio communication say that he had a pistol in his waistband, and I really felt like the next communication was going to be we were going to hear that there were shots fired. And it was maybe 2-3 minutes after that that I heard the radio communication come across that the subject was in custody. Nate Kibby behaved like Nate Kibby always behaved. He was never physically confrontational with the police. He was violent in situations where he had the upper hand and the victim was compromised. A dramatic day in a New Hampshire courtroom. A young woman, face to face with a 34-year-old man under arrest and now charged with kidnapping her. At Kibby's arraignment, Abby's courage is in full view as she stares down her former captor. But there will be no trial. Months Months later, Nate Kibby pleads guilty to a range of charges, including kidnapping and sex assault. Well, initially, Nathaniel Kibby faced 183 charges, but with a plea deal with the state, pled guilty to seven of those charges.

Now, Kibby will spend 45 to 90 years behind prison bars. But there's one thing that anchors the Deputy Attorney General. Despite the stiff sentence, despite all the facts coming to light, some in the local community still refuse to believe Abby's story to this day.

What this investigation revealed is that every painstaking detail that the victim provided was in fact true, no doubt. Everything supported by evidence. Hundreds of pieces of evidence, physical evidence, purchase records, statements of other individuals. Every day, I'm just glad that she got away.

She was one who got away.

And it's not a cold case file of another innocent child.

Five years after that horrible ordeal, Abby has found a new reason to embrace life. At age 19, she and her new boyfriend welcomed their first child, a boy, into the world. The proud mom wants everyone to know her painful past will not define her.

Just don't lose hope. I feel like hope, even when you feel like you've lost everything, this hope is something that nobody can take away from you. And just keep that, and it'll keep you going.

This is Deborah Roberts. Join us next time for another edition of the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll tune in on Friday nights at 9:00 for all new broadcast episodes of 2020 on ABC. Thanks for listening.