Chris Hall
Appearances
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Davini and Tyler were asleep in the back seat. For some reason, Tyler always sits behind his mom, and Davini always sits behind me. They've done it their whole life. I don't know why. We were on the toll road headed north. We could see the lights of San Diego.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Once they realized there was no race car on the trailer, left the trailer there and took us further up in the mountains.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
The police car turned on their lights, the red and blue lights and siren, and I looked back and I said, crap, Deb, we're getting pulled over.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Davinia and I got over there as close to them as we could. As Davinia 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 my body.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
It seemed like a long time and nothing had happened. And it seemed like it got real quiet.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Deborah 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 I remember Debra and I telling the kids, we're sorry, we're gonna get you out of here.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We had no cell phone, no nothing, and we had no clue where we were, no sense of north, south, east, or west, no sense of direction because of the fog.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
And I said, we got to 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.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
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.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Just getting reports of shots fired at Santana High School in Santee.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
And he put a gun straight to my forehead right here. Told me to get back in the truck.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
She went from a little girl that was innocent to seemed like she grew up to an adult right then and there.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We heard some dogs barking. And Deb said, there's dogs, there's a house, I see a light.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Tyler absolutely stood up and shared the burden. He definitely looked after and watched out for his mom and his 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.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
When we walked up to the first customs agent, we told him who we were, what had happened to us.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
And we said, we don't have any ID or anything. We need a bathroom. We need a phone. We need water. And said, there's a bathroom and a phone at McDonald's across the street. He didn't seem to really care.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We left. They let us leave. We went to the McDonald's like they told us. We didn't know where else to go.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
I remember getting home, just being thrilled to be home, happy to be around our dogs, but still worried because they had our driver's license, they had our address, they knew who we were.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Sleep? We don't sleep anymore. A couple hours here, a couple hours there. We don't get a peaceful night's sleep.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Tyler kind of went into his own little locked himself away kind of thing.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
I felt responsible for bringing him to Mexico and I felt like I put him in that situation. Even if I had one gun, there were still eight to ten guys with guns. No matter how I look at this in different directions, the outcome would have been way worse than what it was.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
I guess what I did was right because my family's alive and nobody was hurt. but in my mind it sure seems like I could have done something different.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
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.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Even Tyler still talks about the happy times. Still talks about his favorite burrito shop.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
And know we've lost Mexico and we won't go back and just leave it at that.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
This took place in November of 2007. We went down for the Baja 1000. It was Tyler's, it was gonna be his 16th birthday.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We would just go and have fun. You didn't have to care. You went down and relaxed on the beach. It was always warm.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We were pulling big travel trailers so we weren't driving nearly as fast as anybody else.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
I was tired. I was like, you know what? We're not that far from home. We're just going to keep going home.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
Deborah had to sit up and pretend like everything was OK. I remember her crying and trying to reach back and hold Tyler's hand.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
We begged him, just please let our kids go. Just let the kids go. Debra and I didn't care what happened to us.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
I was absolutely worried about them being raped. Don't think I've ever felt that helpless in my life.
48 Hours
Kidnapped on Highway 1
My only thought was to tell her I'm so sorry and to try and protect her as best I could.