In November 2007, Chris and Debra Hall were driving back to California from a family vacation in Mexico. With them, their children, Tyler and Divinia. When they were a few miles from the U.S. border, their truck was hijacked by a group of armed kidnappers and they were driven into the mountains outside Tijuana. Chris, Debra and Divinia all lived to tell the story. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 01/02/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened during the Hall family's trip in Mexico?
When I was a kid, I had a strange fear of being kidnapped. That always scared me. It always freaked me out that there might be somebody that wanted to take me and I'd never see my family again. We were headed home from a family vacation in Mexico. Family trips to Mexico have always been wonderful, and we've been going for as long as I can remember.
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.
Chapter 2: How did the kidnapping unfold?
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.
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 a half as a crow flies from the border. We were so close to being home.
We'd 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.
And he put a gun straight to my forehead right here. Told me to get back in the truck.
At that same exact second, another car came around and blocked us in. It happened so incredibly fast.
So at that point, there was nowhere we could go. They really trapped us in.
I looked in the mirror and could see probably eight, 10 guys.
There were eight to 10 gunmen. There's men surrounding our truck.
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Chapter 3: What was the family's immediate reaction to the kidnapping?
They all had guns with silencers on them. They told us to put our heads down and shut up. I remember my brother saying, oh God no, please no. After being told for I don't know how many times that you're gonna die, there's not a lot of other options to think.
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. And no one came back on the race radio.
There was nobody to turn to, nobody to call, nowhere to go.
Once they realized that the race radio was there, they ripped it off the mount. They ripped out the wires.
When all this was happening, a guy climbed into the truck on my brother's side.
There were guys in the back seat with the kids with guns on them as well.
And another man jumped in the driver's seat.
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 okay. 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.
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.
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Chapter 4: How did the gunmen treat the Hall family?
I was tired. I was like, you know what? We're not that far from home. We're just going to keep going home.
just go forwards five hours and sleep in our own bed. At the time, it seemed like an okay idea.
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.
I could hear Chris breathing really heavily like in through his nose and kind of shuddering out through his mouth. I could hear Tyler breathing really really heavily and I never heard a peep out of Davinia.
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.
It's all right. Chris is the even-keeled one in our family. He kind of sets the tone for things. If he turned white, gray, he looked like he was going to be sick. If he's scared, I'm scared.
We begged him, just please let our kids go. Just let the kids go. Debra and I didn't care what happened to us.
These are my babies. They don't need this. Just let them walk away. We're out in the middle of nowhere. My kids are not going to hurt you. They're not going to call anyone. Just let them go. And they didn't care.
They just laughed at us and said, shut up about your kids.
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Chapter 5: What were the Hall family's thoughts and fears during the ordeal?
Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Their symptoms and history are clues.
You saved her life.
We're doctors and we're detectives.
I kind of love it if I'm being honest.
Solve the puzzle, save the patient.
Watson. All episodes now streaming on Paramount+.
When we were traveling, it was 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.
Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places on earth. Increase in the number of kidnappings for ransom. Drug gangs have killed more than 5,000 people. That's more than the entire.
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've 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. At that point, it becomes very serious and very life-threatening.
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Chapter 6: How did the kidnapping incident conclude?
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 to him 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.
They forced my dad and I down on the ground with my mom and my brother.
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.
I could hear my brother crying and I could feel him shaking. We all just laid there and they threw a pillow on the back of my dad and I's 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 going to 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 never came.
It seemed like a long time and nothing had happened. And it seemed like it got real quiet.
And we laid there and the truck drove away. And we laid there. And they were gone. They were just gone. And after probably 10 minutes of laying there, my dad got brave enough to stick his head up and look around and realized there was nobody around.
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.
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.
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Chapter 7: What broader context contributed to the danger in Mexico?
I was really close to where the gunman was. Grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.
I happened to be in a cooking class. You could hear screaming and just chaos.
Everybody was running around. Who is he? I don't know.
You have 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.
And he is still shooting. He's still shooting. He's still shooting. OK.
People were running into the classroom saying, he's got a gun. There's somebody with a gun. 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.
Okay, where's the shooter? He was in the boys' bathroom. We know that there is one suspect in custody.
The shooter was Andy Williams. He was a fellow freshman. It was a kid that said he was bullied.
I didn't know she was okay until I actually saw her. I was never so glad to see her in my life. She was shaking.
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