Live to Tell: Kidnap on Highway 1

What if someone wants you dead - but you live to tell?

A family returning from vacation in Mexico is ambushed and kidnapped at gunpoint as they approach the U.S. border. Now, they recount their terrifying brush with death, and their improbable escape to safety.

We were headed home from a family vacation in Mexico. Family trips to Mexico have always been wonderful. We're been going for as long as I can remember.

Chris Hall: Divinia and Tyler were asleep in the back seat. For some reason, Tyler always sits behind his mom and Divinia always sits behind me. It's- they've done it their whole life, I don't know why.

We were on the toll road. You could see the lights of San Diego. A police car turned on their lights - the red and blue lights and the siren - and I looked back. I said, "Crap Deb. We're getting pulled over."

Debra Hall: I heard sirens at the same time I felt the truck kind of jerk over to the side and I asked him, "Were you speeding? What have you done?" He said, "No I wasn't speeding."

At that point we were probably a mile and half as the crow flies from the border. We were so close to being home.

We've been pulled over by police before. It's never really been a big deal. So he pulled over. The policeman walked up to the window. He didn't even get a chance to really talk to him -

Chris: And he put a gun straight to my forehead right here. Told me to get back in the truck.

Debra: At that same exact second, another car came around and blocked us in. It happened so incredibly fast.

Divinia: So at that point there was nowhere we could go. They really trapped us in.

Chris: I looked in the mirror and could see probably eight, 10 guys.

Debra: There were eight to 10 gunmen.

Divinia: There's men surrounding our truck.

Chris: They're all dressed the same in a, kind of a military type.

Debra: Very precise in their movements. All the other guys except for that first one had their faces covered. They just had this portion of their eyes showing.

Divinia: They all had guns with silencers on 'em… They told us to put our heads down and shut up… I remember my brother saying, "Oh God, no, please no."

Divinia Hall: After being told for I don't know how many times that you're gonna die, like- there's not a lot of other options to think.

Debra Hall: In the truck, Chris had a radio that is specifically made for off-road racing. Right before they were opening the door, I grabbed the mic and I said, "Is anyone out there? We need help." No one came back on the race radio.

ChrisHall : There was nobody to turn to, nobody to call, nowhere to go.

Debra: Once they realized that the race radio was there, they ripped it off the mount. They ripped out the wires.

Divinia: When all this was happening, a guy climbed into the truck on my brother's side.

Debra: There were guys in the back seat with the kids with guns on them as well.
I tried to reach back behind me and touch them and pat their legs or rub their legs. And I just kept telling them, "I love you" and "It's gonna be OK. The whole time I'm doing this, there's this guy with a gun in my side yelling at me to shut up and keep my head down.

TWO WEEKS EARLIER

Chris: This took place in November 2007. We went down for the Baja 1000. It was Tyler's- it was gonna be his 16th birthday.

Debra: Chris and Tyler were working as part of a pit crew for the Baja 1000.
Tyler started racing motorcycles when he was five. He's very adventurous.

Divinia: Ever since my dad would take him, he would jump in a car; help out where he could with changing tires, or handing a driver a water bottle… anything he could do to spend the day in the dirt.

Debra: As a family, we traveled to Mexico a lot.

Chris: We would just go and have fun. It was just - you didn't have a care. You just - you went down and relaxed on the beach. It was always warm.

Debra: Cabo San Lucas is the very south tip of the Baja peninsula - it's amazing.
The day before we came back, we had stopped along a little spit of beach coming up the peninsula and probably 35 people met up with us on this deserted beach. And we all barbequed and drank beers on the beach and camped out overnight… and that was probably the most perfect day we've ever had down there.

Divinia: It was awesome.

TURNING POINT

Divinia: We got up really early in the morning to drive home. At first we were caravanning on the way home. And those caravans get a little broken up.

Chris: We were pulling a big travel trailer, so we weren't driving nearly as fast as anybody else.

Divinia: The plan was to stop in another city and sleep.

Debra: I'm using the cell phone and calling the hotel and confirming, "Yes we're gonna check in late, we still want that room, please hold the room." "No problem Mrs. Hall, keep coming, we've got your room." When we get there the room's gone. I really think that was the turning point.

Chris: I was tired. I was like, "You know what? We're not that far from home. We're just gonna keep going home."

Debra: Just go forward five hours and sleep in our own bed. At the time it seemed like an OK idea.

LET OUR KIDS GO

Divinia: My Dad said "Please take it all. Leave us here. Just - whatever you want, take it. Leave us here." And the guy took his gun and put it to my Dad's forehead, and said, "Shut up."

I was so afraid that I was gonna watch my Dad get shot. Right there in front of me - six inches from where I was standing.

Debra: I could hear Chris breathing really heavily, like in through his nose and kind of shuttering out through his mouth. I could hear Tyler breathing really, really heavily… and I never heard a peep out of Divinia.

Chris: Debra had to sit up and pretend like everything was OK. I remember her crying and - and hold - trying to reach back and hold Tyler's hand.

Debra: Chris is the even-keeled one in our family. He kind of sets the tone for things… if he's- he turned white-grey - he looked like he was gonna be sick. And if he's scared, I'm scared.

Chris: We begged 'em, "Just please let our kids go. Let the kids go." We - Debra and I didn't care what happened to us.

Debra: These are my babies. My - they don't need this. Just let them walk away. We're out in the middle of nowhere. My kids are not gonna hurt you. They're not gonna call anyone. Just let them go. And they didn't care.

Chris: They just laughed at us and said "Shut up about your kids."

Debra: I think the gunmen were nervous once they discovered it was an entire family in the truck, and that scared me in itself because the dynamics have changed; they're nervous too.

Chris: And then he started driving and the cars followed us.

Debra: And then they made a right-hand turn off the toll road… but not an exit or anything - and then drove up into the hills.

Divinia: They said they were gonna shoot us. That we were gonna die.

Debra Hall: When we were traveling, it was in November of 2007. We weren't aware of any issues that were happening across the border that would make us question traveling on the road at night, or traveling on the road alone.

BATTLEFIELD

Lt. Dave Myers, San Diego Sheriff's Department: I don't see it as the Hall's fault at all. These criminals took advantage of the family.

Being pulled over late at night in Mexico when you're been traveling all day by a group that's dressed as law enforcement, it's very intimidating. The groups think that you do have money, or you do have vehicles. You know, at that point it becomes very serious and very life-threatening.

The violence in Mexico has increased dramatically in the last two years. There's a battle going on. In San Diego, we had probably 200 murders last year. In Tijuana, which is next to San Diego, we're talking about 1,000 murders.

We're seeing targeted executions- criminal organizations are melting human bodies in acid and they're hanging them from bridge abutments for everybody to see. Drug cartels in Mexico are getting into kidnapping for ransom. And they're executing anybody who stands in their way. If you're kidnapped you could expect to get executed.

Divinia Hall: They drove us on to a dirt road up into the mountains above Tijuana. I don't know exactly where I was because they made us keep our heads down, and they stopped.

Debra: They kept asking us "Who are you? What's your name? What do you do for a living? Where's the race car? Where's all the money?"

Divinia: My dad told 'em, "I'm just a truck driver. There's no race car. I'm just a truck driver." I think these people wanted money. I think they thought we were somebody who we weren't.

Debra: They were going through the trailer just ransacking everything.

Divinia: They dug for money and cell phones.

Debra: I told them, you know, "This is all the cash we have on us. This is our name. We're not anyone. I mean, we're just somebody's family."

Divinia: I remember them rubbing down my legs to check my pockets in my pants. I remember somebody grabbing at my neck looking for any jewelry.

Chris Hall: I was absolutely worried about them being raped.
I don't think I've ever felt that helpless in my life.

Debra: You've got eight to 10 guys with guns. I just did not want them touching my daughter. I was scared to death of that.

Divinia: It was creepy. I didn't want them near me and I know my dad didn't like the fact that they were running, you know, grabbing at my legs and my neck and stuff, trying to look for things. And I couldn't imagine having to watch his daughter have that happen.

Chris: My only thought was to tell her I'm so sorry and try to protect her as best I could.

Divinia: My mom kept asking these guys to please just leave my babies here. And take what they want. Just leave the kids alone. And they were mocking her. She would say, "Please, just leave my babies here." And they would be, like, "Oh, please, please, just leave my babies here." It was cruel.

Debra: As a parent in that situation, I felt like the most horrible person there is because there wasn't anything I could do to help the kids.

Divinia: Tyler was shaking and crying. He was very, very upset. He had a gun pointed in his side the entire time we were there. I just kept trying to hold his hand, tell him that I love him. I mean I tried to tell him it's gonna be OK. But how do you tell somebody it's gonna be OK when they have a gun in their side?

Chris: Once they realized there was no race car in the trailer [they] left the trailer there and took us further up in the mountains.

PITCH BLACK

Divinia: When we got to the top of the mountain they stopped again.

Debra: Where they took us [was] really dark. Like pitch black, not be able to see your hand in front of your face pitch black out.

Divinia: These men pulled my dad and I out of the driver side. And my dad instantly just wrapped his arms around me and he hugged me, and he told me he was sorry and that he loved me. And they pulled my mom and my brother out of the passenger side.

Debra: He's still breathing really heavily. And I looked over and they were putting him into a ditch on his knees, pointed away from me. And there were two men with guns, one on each side and Tyler in the middle. And I thought, "Oh my God, they're gonna shoot my baby. This is it." And I just didn't want to see that happen. (Debra starts crying) I have to stop for a second. (Debra walks off camera.)

PREMONITION

Debra Hall: Our friend George had driven down with Chris and Tyler. The second day we were in Cabo, George said when he woke up that he had a bad dream. He dreamt that there were guns and somebody was killed. And he just couldn't shake this bad feeling.

He said, "I - I just need to leave." In retrospect, I think George had this dream - it was a premonition. We should've all left.

When the hotel gave away our rooms that was a sign. I mean we had two signs and we ignored them both and now look what happened.

EXECUTION STYLE

Debra: When they put Tyler in the ditch, I was physically ill. One of the gunmen placed me in the same ditch about eight feet from him. And he kinda shoved me down into the dirt. And I crawled over to where Tyler was. And the guy yelled something at me and told me to stop. I'm like, "You know what? No! You're throwing us in a ditch. If he's gonna kill us in a ditch, I'm not gonna be eight feet from my baby."

They threw a sleeping bag over Tyler and [me]. And I thought, "They're gonna shoot us. This is it. They're putting a sleeping bag on us so that when they shoot us, they don't get blood on them.

Divinia Hall: Because of how big my dad's truck was, we couldn't see my mom and my brother… So we rounded the back of the truck and my brother was laying face down and so was my mom. And both of their bodies were covered with a sleeping bag. And right then and there, I - I thought they were dead.

Debra: The last thing that I remember seeing before they threw the sleeping bag over Tyler and I is Tyler's head. …I crawled over and I just put my hand over his head and kind of held his head. And I was whispering him to - that I loved him and I was so very sorry that we got us into this. And he was like, "It's OK, Mom. It's OK. I love you. It's OK."

Divinia: They forced my dad and [me] down on the ground with my mom and my brother.

Chris Hall: Divinia and I got over there as close to them as we could. As Divinia got down in the ditch, I got down and tried to get on top of her as best I could to cover her body with (Chris fighting back tears) with my body.

Divinia: I could hear my brother crying and I could feel him shaking. We all just lay there, and they threw a pillow on the back of my dad and [my] head.

At that point, I really thought this was it. Execution-style to the back of the head, all of us laying here. We were gonna die. I told my brother that I loved him. I told my mom and dad that I loved them.

It was kind of like, just wait for it. You know - is this gonna hurt? Am I gonna know what just happened? // But it - it never came.

Chris: It seemed like a long time and nothing had happened. And it - it seemed like it got real quiet.

Divinia: And we lay there and the truck drove away. And we lay there, and they were gone. They were just gone. And after probably 10 minutes of lying there, my dad got brave enough to stick his head up and look around and realized there was nobody around.

Chris: Debra kept saying "Keep your head down. Keep your head down." And I looked around and everybody was gone. And the truck was gone. The four of us gave each other a big hug and - and I remember Debra and I telling the kids, " We're sorry, we're gonna get you outta here."

Debra: Tyler was sick and we all were just so cold from being out exposed to that cold fog and air for so long. So we wrapped the sleeping bags around Tyler and Chris just said," C'mon, we're walking. We're getting out of here."

Chris: I said, "We gotta sit and listen for the ocean."

I knew as long as we could find the ocean we could find our way to help and find our way home. And we started walking. Deb said, "There's a house. I see a light." And she wanted to start walking towards the house. And I didn't think it was a good idea.

Divinia: And somebody came out and they went back in and they came back out and fired two rounds in our direction. Now we're getting shot at.

Divinia Hall: We ducked and hit the ground when the guns were fired - just trying to get as low as possible to get out of any potential line of fire.

Debra Hall: God's supposed to take care of you and give you only what you can handle. And now we've got some other yahoo shooting at us? It was crazy.

Divinia: If you don't prepare yourself for the worst, how are you gonna get through it when it comes? You're not necessarily always safe when you think you are.

SIX YEARS BEFORE THE KIDNAPPING

Divinia: In 2001, my freshman year of high school, there was a school shooting.

Reporter: "Just getting reports of shots fired at Santana High School in Santee. We've heard that three students…"

John Schardt, Divinia's schoolmate: It sounded like fireworks just going off. Pop, pop, pop!

Divinia: I walked into class and I instantly started hearing popping noises.

Student 1: And someone said "somebody's got a gun." I heard some shots.

Police Radio: "It sounds like a shooting at Santana High School…

Student 2: We heard the shots, and I saw some kid lying on the ground.

Debra: She was in the ninth grade when they had the shooting at the high school. Fourteen…

John Schardt: I was really close to where the gunman was. [I] grabbed my camera… started taking pictures.

Divinia: I happened to be in a cooking class. You could hear screaming and just chaos.

John Schardt: You had a whole quad full of people. You know, he fired; he killed a person in the restroom. He shot someone in the back who ran and collapsed and died in my teacher's arms.

Divinia: People were running into the classroom saying, "He's got a gun, there's somebody with a gun." And it - the next hallway over from where I was, another freshman was coming out of the bathroom just shooting, no real target, just shooting. The SWAT team came into the classroom. It was a team of three or four men. They had us one-by-one go out of the classroom.

John Schardt: The Sheriff's SWAT team waited. And at that point, they began the negotiations, essentially.

Divinia: The shooter was Andy Williams. He was a fellow freshman. He was a kid that said he was bullied.

Debra: I didn't know she was OK until I actually saw her. I was never so glad to see her in my life. And she was - she was shaking. She was really scared.

Divinia: It was just instant crying and hugging and just so happy to see them. I mean he took two lives and he permanently mentally wounded a lot of people.

Debra: At 14, experiencing something like that, it was really hard on her; it made her age. It took away her innocence. She was naive before that, just typical blond kid running around enjoying life. And after that she was more reserved, and not as go-lucky at all. It changed her.

Chris: Debra and I both think that Divinia grew up that day. She went from a little girl that, you know, was innocent to - [it] seemed like she grew into an adult right then and there.

Divinia: I think the school shooting forced me to grow up a lot faster than most teenagers grow up…

GOOD SAMARITAN

Chris Hall: We heard some dogs barking and Deb said, "There's dogs, there's a house, I see a light."

Divinia: I'm in flip flops, my moms in flip flops, everybody's in sandals. It's very slippery; my legs were getting cut up by the brush. We kept falling.

Chris: Tyler absolutely stood up and shared the burden. He definitely looked after and watched out for his mom and sister as best he could.

We crossed the toll road… not realizing it was the toll road. Got into this housing area and we yelled for help, and we rang bells and we banged on doors and nobody would help us.

Maria: It was around 3:00 in the morning and my doorbell was ringing. So I got up. And I went to the window.
When I opened the curtain, I saw four people standing there: father, mother and the two children, teenagers. And they looked very scared.

Something told me I should open the door, and I opened the door.

Debra: And she came out and she said, "Get in here right now." And she pulled us in… She took us into her home. She was a lifesaver, literally; an amazing woman.

She gave me her jacket. She said, "What can I do for you?" I said "Can we use your bathroom?" And we're all just "Do you have water?" and she gave us her water. And she said "You can use my bathroom." She said, "It doesn't flush, but I'll carry the buckets of water to flush the toilet for you."

Divinia: We were all sick to our stomachs just from anxiety and nerves and adrenaline.

Maria: I noticed they had some scratches on their knees and some on their arms. So I offered to clean them up and give them some medicine. I offered to call the police so they could get some more help.

Debra: She said that she was going to call the police. And we all said, "No. Don't call the police. The police are who had us. Don't call the police."

She said, "No, no, this isn't - I'm gonna call. I know the men in my department. It's gonna be OK."

And she called the police department in her little Colonia. And two men came in a pickup truck. And they put Divinia and I in front with the driver and put Chris and Tyler in the back with the other policeman. And we did not wanna be separated.

Divinia: And my mom told the woman, "If you don't hear from us in a few hours, please call my dad," my grandpa, and the woman said, "You'll be fine. They're gonna take you home. These police are gonna take you home." And she wrote down their names, their truck number, their license plate number, every detail about them.

And when they were driving us to the border, they were going a way that I've never been to the border, and that, I think, that made my mom and I both very nervous. And then, the officer that was driving, he shook his head and he looked down and said, "You need to go home. It's not safe for you in here."

And so they rushed us up to the border. And they got out of the car. And both of the officers hugged my entire family. And we thanked them as much as we could. And they said, "Go."

Chris Hall: When we walked up to the first customs agent we told him who we were and what had happened to us…

Debra Hall: We were sweaty, bruised - just a mess.

Chris: … and we said we don't have any ID or anything. We needed a bathroom, we need a phone, we need water. And he said, "There's a bathroom and phone at the McDonald's across the street." He didn't seem to really care.

Debra: The San Diego Police Department has a little satellite trailer thing at the border… We talked to the police. They would only take the stolen purses and wallets report.

And I said, "What about the brand new truck and the 3-month-old camping trailer and, I don't know, being kidnapped at gunpoint by the Mexican police?"

They said, "That's not our issue." We don't care about that. We're here to take the stolen property report.

Divinia Hall: And that was the extent of the police report they could take.

Chris: We left. They let us leave… and we went to the McDonald's like they told us. We didn't know where else to go.

Divinia: And we called my cousin … we called him collect and he came to pick us up.

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

Lt. Myers: The crime that occurred to the family down in Mexico… they reached out to United States law enforcement to assist. It sometimes becomes very difficult for us because we have no authority in Mexico.

Debra: When we were pulled over, in my heart, I honestly believed it was the Mexican police or the Federales.

Divinia: At the time we were under the impression that they were police because they pulled us over like they were the police. And they were very well organized but, truly, we didn't know.

Lt. Myers: There have been several reports of kidnapping cells or what we call the criminal element that do use Mexican law enforcement uniforms, also Mexican military uniforms to further their criminal enterprises.

Divinia: At the time, I had no idea who they were and I still don't know who these people are.

Lt. Myers: The bandits were probably after the expected race car they thought was in the trailer…

Anybody down in Mexico [who] gets accosted by what they think are law enforcement personnel or military personnel and then they are held at gunpoint and placed in a ditch face down and guns held at ''em to their heads - they're extremely lucky to be alive.

Divinia: I never felt it was over 'til I was home - in my own home

Debra: We were just so glad to be home.

Chris: I remember getting home, just being thrilled to be home and happy to be around our dogs, but still worried because they had our driver's licenses, they had our address, and they knew who we were.

Debra: After we got home from Mexico, we had four people sleeping in our bed for a while.

Divinia: Once we did get home, as a family we went to go see a therapist.

Chris: We don't sleep anymore…couple hours here, couple hours there. We don't get a peaceful night's sleep…

Divinia: I'd sleep maybe an hour or two a night… pretty much ran on energy drinks.

Chris: …nightmares all the time.

Debra: I absolutely have nightmares - I honestly think that the men with the guns are in our house and I will wake up screaming and I don't even know its happening.

Chris: Tyler kind of went into his own little… locked himself away kind of thing.

Divinia: Tyler wanted nothing to do with seeing a therapist; didn't like it.

Debra: I would like to talk to Tyler about it…he's not comfortable with it.

Divinia: Tyler hates to discuss anything that happened down in Mexico.

Debra: I think that Tyler is trying the hardest to ignore what happened. If you ignore it, maybe it will just go away.

Divinia: The therapist and my parents both felt I should go on my own based on the fact that this is not my first traumatic experience.

I know exactly what I was wearing and it's been eight years (since the school shooting) and that sticks in my head every day.

I think with any traumatic event your personality changes. I don't know whether mine was for the good or for worse.

Debra: I think that Divinia was able to deal with the Mexico incident much better due to the shooting at Santana. She knows she can be exposed to something that traumatic and come through OK on the other side. I think it's really hard on Chris.

Chris: I felt responsible for bringing them to Mexico and I felt like I put them in this situation.

Even if I'd had one gun, there were still eight to 10 guys with guns. No matter how much I look at this in different directions, the outcome would've been way worse that what it was.

Debra: When he and I do discuss what happened, I say, "Had you been 'Mister I'm Macho Dad,' rescue my family, they probably would have killed you and killed us."

Chris: I guess what I did was right…cause my family's alive and nobody was hurt. But in my mind it sure seems like I could've done something different.

Debra: We're all home and we're all together. We're all safe and I really credit him with that.

FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE KIDNAPPING

Debra: I'm at work. This person is obviously an official with the State Department calling me. He said, "I regret to inform you that we found Chris' body in Tijuana." Your first reaction is to go "Oh, my God."

They were sure it was Chris, because this man had his driver's license in his pocket. I hadn't talked to him in probably two-and-a-half hours. I had to get a hold of Chris and I called him at home.

And he was actually meeting with someone. And he said, "I'm in a meeting. Can I call you right back?" Absolutely. Call me back, don't call me back. I just needed to hear your voice.

I called [the official] back. Leave a message. You have the wrong person. This is not my husband. Please don't call me back.

The next day I get a call from someone else within the State Department. They left me a voice mail and they said, "Mrs. Hall, we're so sorry for your loss. We'd really like to help you make arrangements to get your husband's body back across the border."

I'm like, are your freaking kidding me with this? Don't they talk to each other?

Third day… I get another call from the same person. "Mrs. Hall, we understand that this is a stressful time. Can we help you make arrangements to get him back?" And I was just - by this point, I'm not even frustrated anymore; I'm beyond that. And I called and left her a message. I said, "You know what? I never liked him. Keep him. I don't care what you do with the body." And they never called me back.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Debra: I think things are getting better… it's getting back to normal. I don't know if it'll ever be normal, but it's absolutely getting better.

Divinia: Our experience has brought us together.

Chris: We're all happy and hopefully as time goes on, this'll heal itself.

Divinia: Our parents, being younger parents, are a lot of fun.

Debra: I think as a family we're definitely adventurers. We like to get out and see what there is to see.

Chris: We bought a boat. We all go to the river together…that's our new place to go, I guess.

We just had our 25th anniversary. We took our kids to Hawaii for their first time.

Divinia: We had a lot of fun. I don't think there's ever gonna be anything that takes the place of Mexico just because it's such a different world down there.

Chris: Even Tyler still talks about the happy times… still talks about his favorite burrito shop.

Divinia: There were so many times that were good that completely outweigh the bad.

Chris: I know we've lost Mexico and we won't go back… and we'll leave it at that.

Divinia: It's just gonna have to be something that was once upon a time for us…

Mexican authorities never investigated the Hall kidnapping.

In 2008, more than 1,000 kidnappings were reported in Mexico; at least 65 of those ended in death.

Produced by Chuck Stevenson, Anthony Venditti and Gayane Keshishyan Produced by Chuck Stevenson, Anthony Venditti and Gayane Keshishyan