# Survival

An episode of [Nightmares](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1657802345), 11 Mar 2026, 23 min.

Audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70401935/n060.mp3

In October 2013, fourteen-year-old Abby Hernandez vanished on her walk home from school in rural New Hampshire. Months passed, searches faded, and a letter arrived that changed how the public understood her disappearance. When Abby finally came home, the truth forced a reckoning with certainty, judgment, and what survival actually looks like when escape is not possible. Get commercial free access to over a decade of Sword and Scale's true crime podcasts at http://swordandscale.com

## Transcript

[0:13] Speaker 1: Zenya Hernandez knows. She wears her worry on her face.
[0:17] Speaker 1: As the State police parts to allow her through the
[0:21] Speaker 1: last four days have been the toughest of her life.
[0:26] Speaker 1: She walks up to the microphones. It takes a moment
[0:29] Speaker 1: for her eyes to adjust to the spotlights. When her
[0:32] Speaker 1: vision adapts, the sea of reporters comes into view. She
[0:37] Speaker 1: doesn't recognize any of them. They've come all the way
[0:41] Speaker 1: from Boston. She stumbles over her words as she starts
[0:45] Speaker 1: to speak. She stands frozen for just a moment, thinking
[0:49] Speaker 1: about how everyone knows why she's here, but no one
[0:53] Speaker 1: can imagine the pain. She starts to speak again, Abby,
[1:00] Speaker 1: Please come home. We miss you so badly. Sarah and
[1:05] Speaker 1: I think about you all the time and we want
[1:07] Speaker 1: you back with us. Please, we love you, We miss you.
[1:13] Speaker 1: She can barely speak without bursting into tears. Her face furrows,
[1:18] Speaker 1: but she tries to sound happy.
[1:21] Speaker 2: And happy birthday, Abby.
[1:45] Speaker 3: Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares True Crime for Bedtime
[1:51] Speaker 3: or Nightmare Beginnings. Now days earlier, a detective at the
[2:16] Speaker 3: Conway Police Department sits down at his desk. He takes
[2:20] Speaker 3: a sip of coffee and opens a case file.
[2:23] Speaker 1: It's thin. He reads the first line. Abigail Hernandez, fourteen
[2:29] Speaker 1: years old, freshman at Kennett High School, never came home
[2:34] Speaker 1: from school on Wednesday, October ninth. The detective grabs his
[2:39] Speaker 1: mouse and his computer clicks on with a whirr. He
[2:43] Speaker 1: double clicks an icon on his desktop and a video
[2:46] Speaker 1: starts to play. He sees Abby for the first time.
[2:51] Speaker 1: He watches as she walks down the hallway of the
[2:54] Speaker 1: high school. He takes note of her striped sweater, black jeans,
[2:59] Speaker 1: black boots, and backpack hanging off to one shoulder. The
[3:03] Speaker 1: detective leans back in his chair and watches the clip again.
[3:08] Speaker 1: Nothing about her stands out. Nothing looks panicked or rushed,
[3:14] Speaker 1: nothing looks planned. The detective stops the video and turns
[3:19] Speaker 1: his attention back to the case file. Abby is fourteen,
[3:24] Speaker 1: can't drive and doesn't have a car even if she could.
[3:28] Speaker 1: She's left a stash of money behind, and her backpack
[3:31] Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's holding much. He flips a few
[3:34] Speaker 1: pages until he lands on Abby's cell phone activity. She
[3:39] Speaker 1: got out of school and started walking back home at
[3:42] Speaker 1: around two forty five pm that day. Her activity shows
[3:46] Speaker 1: she sent a text message to her boyfriend at two
[3:48] Speaker 1: fifty three a single heart emoji. Then, at three oh seven,
[3:55] Speaker 1: fourteen minutes later, her phone becomes inactive. The detective scratches
[4:01] Speaker 1: his head. Fourteen year old girls don't just vanish. That's
[4:05] Speaker 1: when a detail from the file catches his eye. A
[4:09] Speaker 1: sudden flash of sadness rushes over him when he notices
[4:12] Speaker 1: her fifteenth birthday is in just a few days. Weeks pass,
[4:18] Speaker 1: searches ramp up and wind down. Miles of woods and
[4:23] Speaker 1: waterways are searched with no evidence of Abby. Zenya's days
[4:28] Speaker 1: blur together. The small responsibilities that once filled her days
[4:32] Speaker 1: feel pointless now Abby's absence has robbed her of any
[4:37] Speaker 1: sense of contentment. As she walks to the mailbox, she
[4:42] Speaker 1: doesn't remember the last time she checked it. She pulls
[4:45] Speaker 1: her keys out of her pocket, finds the right one,
[4:48] Speaker 1: and inserts it into the lock. When she opens the door,
[4:53] Speaker 1: a flood of letters pour out. She watches them as
[4:56] Speaker 1: they cascade to the floor. She doesn't recognize any of
[5:03] Speaker 1: the names that probably well wishes, she thinks. She bends
[5:08] Speaker 1: down to pick them up, leaving her keys dangling in
[5:11] Speaker 1: the lock. She gathers them and tucks them into the
[5:14] Speaker 1: crook of her arm as she reaches for the one
[5:17] Speaker 1: still in the box. That's when she sees it, a
[5:22] Speaker 1: letter that stands out. All the other letters hit the
[5:25] Speaker 1: floor with a collective thud. As she frantically rips into
[5:28] Speaker 1: this letter, Tears well into her eyes and her hand
[5:33] Speaker 1: covers her mouth as she reads the first line, Dear Mom,
[5:38] Speaker 1: I miss you and love you so much more than
[5:40] Speaker 1: you could imagine. I'm sorry I did this. Zenya's eyes
[5:46] Speaker 1: fly over the handwritten letter. I really miss you, Mom,
[5:51] Speaker 1: but I won't tell you where I am. She was
[5:54] Speaker 1: starting to think she would never hear from Abby again.
[5:58] Speaker 1: I've come to realize that, along with love and courage,
[6:02] Speaker 1: hope can speak louder than fear. Zenya's tears start rolling
[6:07] Speaker 1: down her cheeks. I had a dream where I came
[6:10] Speaker 1: home and gave you the biggest hug ever. I pray
[6:14] Speaker 1: to God that my dreams will come true. Love Abby.
[6:53] Speaker 1: Nine months later, Abby stares at her feet on the
[6:57] Speaker 1: passenger floorboard. She doesn't to look up. She feels the
[7:03] Speaker 1: unevenness of the pavement beneath the tires. She hears the
[7:07] Speaker 1: wind rushing past outside. Then she feels the car start
[7:11] Speaker 1: to slow. She doesn't say anything. The car slows and
[7:17] Speaker 1: slows until it lurches to a stop. The driver reaches
[7:21] Speaker 1: over Abby and flings the door open. Get out, the
[7:26] Speaker 1: driver says. Abby puts one foot on the ground, then
[7:30] Speaker 1: the other. She stands up and feels the cool night
[7:33] Speaker 1: air on her skin. She breathes in deeply. The fresh
[7:38] Speaker 1: air fills her lungs. Wait. The driver shouts, give me
[7:43] Speaker 1: my hat. Abby removes the ball cap from her head
[7:47] Speaker 1: and tosses it into the car. The door slams shut
[7:51] Speaker 1: as the car speeds away. Abby can't believe it. She's free.
[7:57] Speaker 1: She looks up to the moon in the night sky
[7:59] Speaker 1: and laughs for the first time in months. She looks around,
[8:04] Speaker 1: not sure where she is, but picks a direction and
[8:07] Speaker 1: starts walking. A little while later, Abby sees a familiar sight,
[8:12] Speaker 1: her house. She walks down the lonely street. No one
[8:16] Speaker 1: is around. The search for her is long over. She
[8:21] Speaker 1: slowly approaches her front door. The porch light is on.
[8:25] Speaker 1: It's an odd feeling returning home after so long. As
[8:29] Speaker 1: she gets close, she hears her mother's voice on the
[8:32] Speaker 1: phone inside. Her hand shakes as she nervously reaches for
[8:36] Speaker 1: the doorknob and turns it. She swings the door open
[8:40] Speaker 1: and says one word, mom Abby. Zenya replies. It takes
[8:47] Speaker 1: a moment for the gravity of the situation to sink in.
[8:51] Speaker 1: Then Abby hears her mother scream and drop the phone.
[8:55] Speaker 1: She runs around the corner and Abbey sees her for
[8:57] Speaker 1: the first time in nine months. Abbey runs to her
[9:01] Speaker 1: mother and falls into her arms. They hug each other
[9:05] Speaker 1: and don't let go. When Abbey disappeared, the community of
[9:10] Speaker 1: Conway rallied together. Friends, family and students all joined search teams.
[9:17] Speaker 1: Volunteers passed out missing fliers. Everyone felt the heartbreaking assume
[9:23] Speaker 1: the worst. Abbey's disappearance made the national news back then.
[9:28] Speaker 1: Now the news of her return was just as widespread.
[9:32] Speaker 1: The court of public opinion wasn't fair to Abbey. They
[9:36] Speaker 1: saw a teenager return after nine months missing, and she
[9:39] Speaker 1: was totally fine. She walked in her front door uninjured,
[9:44] Speaker 1: as if she never left. In the weeks to follow,
[9:47] Speaker 1: Abby started to talk. It took her some time to
[9:51] Speaker 1: feel comfortable enough to share what had happened to her.
[9:54] Speaker 1: She didn't describe what had been done to her, not
[9:57] Speaker 1: yet anyway, but she did say who was responsible. She
[10:03] Speaker 1: said that while in captivity, her captor handed her a book.
[10:08] Speaker 1: On the inside, written in ink was a name. That
[10:13] Speaker 1: name was Nathaniel Kibbi. The police moved quickly but carefully.
[10:20] Speaker 1: They verified what Abby told them. They tracked Kibbi down,
[10:25] Speaker 1: and when Abby was shown a lineup, she didn't hesitate.
[10:29] Speaker 1: Seeing him again broke what little distance she had managed
[10:32] Speaker 1: to build. She burst into tears and identified him. Immediately
[10:38] Speaker 1: after that, there was no avoiding what happened next. Abby
[10:42] Speaker 1: had to sit down with the investigators and tell them
[10:44] Speaker 1: exactly what happened. So she sits down with detectives. She
[10:51] Speaker 1: crosses her arms, unsure of how this is going to go.
[10:55] Speaker 1: She listens as they ask her to start at the beginning.
[10:58] Speaker 1: A quiet hush fallen over the room. As she starts
[11:01] Speaker 1: to recall that day, Abby leaves school and decides to
[11:06] Speaker 1: walk home. She walks home all the time, but this
[11:10] Speaker 1: day she's wearing an early birthday present, her new boots.
[11:16] Speaker 1: After a while, blisters start to form. Abby winces walking
[11:20] Speaker 1: as painful, and she regrets not taking the bus. Just then,
[11:25] Speaker 1: a pale blue pickup pulls alongside her with the windows down.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Her head swings around to see the driver. He asks
[11:33] Speaker 1: if she wants to ride. She looks at the man.
[11:37] Speaker 1: He looks like an average person from Conway. A slight
[11:41] Speaker 1: shift in her feet reminds her of the pain in
[11:44] Speaker 1: her heel, and she agrees to ride. She hops in
[11:48] Speaker 1: the truck and shuts the door. Even though she accepted
[11:52] Speaker 1: the ride, she's still a bit cautious, asking him to
[11:55] Speaker 1: drop her near her home rather than giving him the address.
[12:00] Speaker 1: The truck rumbles down the road and he asks if
[12:03] Speaker 1: he can make a stop first. As he pulls into
[12:05] Speaker 1: a local business, Abby suddenly feels a surge of nervousness.
[12:09] Speaker 1: Then she sees the gun. The man tells her that
[12:14] Speaker 1: if she screams or tries to escape, he'll kill her.
[12:18] Speaker 1: She stays silent. He puts a ball cap on her
[12:22] Speaker 1: head and pulls it down low. He handcuffs her hands
[12:26] Speaker 1: behind her back. He covers her body with a jacket
[12:30] Speaker 1: and pulls onto the road. He instructs her to stare
[12:34] Speaker 1: at the floor. Abby takes a deep breath and attempts
[12:37] Speaker 1: to appeal to his sympathy. She says she won't judge him,
[12:42] Speaker 1: and if he just lets her go, she won't tell anyone.
[12:46] Speaker 1: He doesn't respond. Abby swallows hard and whispers a question,
[12:52] Speaker 1: Are you going to rate me? He grumbles and asks
[12:56] Speaker 1: how old are you? She whispers again, I'm fourteen. Silence
[13:03] Speaker 1: fills the cab of the truck, and she starts to
[13:07] Speaker 1: peek from under the ball cap to see where they're going,
[13:10] Speaker 1: when she feels an intense, burning pain in her leg.
[13:15] Speaker 1: At first, she thinks she's been shot, but then realizes
[13:18] Speaker 1: she was taste. Abbey feels the adrenaline pump into her
[13:22] Speaker 1: body more than she's ever felt before. She doesn't try
[13:27] Speaker 1: to peek again. Instead, she starts singing, maybe he'll change
[13:32] Speaker 1: his mind, she thinks. She slowly starts reciting the words
[13:36] Speaker 1: to Amazing Grace. Oh, the man says, with a hint
[13:40] Speaker 1: of glee, you want music. Abby hears the dial on
[13:45] Speaker 1: the radio click and pain at black by the rolling
[13:48] Speaker 1: Stones starts to rise. In the truck, she feels the
[13:54] Speaker 1: road beneath the car changed from pavement to gravel to dirt.
[13:59] Speaker 1: She really he's taking back roads. After a long drive,
[14:04] Speaker 1: they arrive at their destination. It's dark now. Abby can't
[14:09] Speaker 1: see past the headlights. The man leads her to a
[14:13] Speaker 1: storage shed, opens the door and takes her inside. She
[14:18] Speaker 1: quickly tries to take in her surroundings without letting on
[14:21] Speaker 1: what she's doing. The shed is large, bigger than her bedroom.
[14:27] Speaker 1: It's filled with tools, workbenches, and a don't tread on
[14:31] Speaker 1: me flak is hanging. He gags her and chains her
[14:36] Speaker 1: hands and feet. He places a blindfold over her eyes,
[14:41] Speaker 1: then an old t shirt, then a motorcycle helmet. When
[14:45] Speaker 1: he's confident she can't escape, he rapes her. Abbey prays
[14:50] Speaker 1: to God for salvation, but she never says amen. She
[14:56] Speaker 1: never finishes her prayer so that God stays with her,
[15:00] Speaker 1: so that she isn't alone. A few days later, Kibby
[15:04] Speaker 1: shows her the news footage of her mother pleading for
[15:07] Speaker 1: her to come home. Abby's never felt such sadness. She
[15:13] Speaker 1: watches her mother speak through tears, stumbling over words. Tears
[15:18] Speaker 1: well up, and her throat tightens as she starts to
[15:21] Speaker 1: cry for the first time since this started. Kibby made
[15:25] Speaker 1: her write a letter home. He instructed Abby to make
[15:29] Speaker 1: it appear she had run away. She could tell he
[15:33] Speaker 1: only wanted them to stop looking for her. She writes
[15:36] Speaker 1: the letter as he's instructed, but she tries to add
[15:40] Speaker 1: a secret message with her finger nail. She made tiny
[15:45] Speaker 1: indentations on the paper, spelling out the words help and kidnapped.
[15:53] Speaker 1: But Kibby found the messages and punished her. He tied
[15:58] Speaker 1: her down and tazed the bottom of her feet. Abby
[16:02] Speaker 1: tried not to yell, but the pain was the worst
[16:04] Speaker 1: she'd ever felt. Eventually, all she could do was scream.
[16:10] Speaker 1: The months that followed brought much more suffering for Abby.
[16:14] Speaker 1: She described what amounted to pure torture.
[16:18] Speaker 2: To keep her.
[16:19] Speaker 1: Quiet when he was gone, he put a dog's shock
[16:22] Speaker 1: collar around her neck. If she even raised her voice
[16:26] Speaker 1: just a little, she would be shocked. To keep her
[16:30] Speaker 1: from escaping, he booby trapped the door to explode if
[16:34] Speaker 1: it was opened by anyone other than him. But Abby
[16:37] Speaker 1: held on to hope and was determined to survive, no
[16:40] Speaker 1: matter how unlikely it seemed. Abby looks up after recounting
[16:45] Speaker 1: much of her story. The detectives stare across from her.
[16:51] Speaker 1: She slowly scans each of their faces, some with expressions
[16:54] Speaker 1: of disgust, others with pity. One detective leans forward and
[16:59] Speaker 1: looks her in the eye. He asks, how did you
[17:03] Speaker 1: get away? Abby stares back for a moment, then replies,
[17:09] Speaker 1: I didn't. She starts to explain that survival was all
[17:13] Speaker 1: that mattered, so she adopted a strategy. She never contradicted
[17:18] Speaker 1: or argued with him. She always did what she was asked,
[17:23] Speaker 1: and it worked. Over time, she gained a little more freedom,
[17:28] Speaker 1: helping him with projects in the shed, but more importantly,
[17:31] Speaker 1: she earned his trust. She lived like this for months,
[17:35] Speaker 1: only seeing the outside during the brief moments the door
[17:38] Speaker 1: was open. Then one day, Kibbi came into the shed
[17:42] Speaker 1: in a panic. She'd never seen him act this way before.
[17:47] Speaker 1: He was on edge, saying the cops were on to him,
[17:51] Speaker 1: not for kidnapping her, but for counterfeiting money.
[17:55] Speaker 3: It was only a.
[17:55] Speaker 1: Matter of time before they came to search the property.
[17:59] Speaker 1: Abby started shaking anxiously, not knowing what that meant for her,
[18:04] Speaker 1: but Kibby put his ball cap on her head and
[18:07] Speaker 1: loaded her onto his truck once again. The next thing
[18:11] Speaker 1: she knew, he was pushing her out on the side
[18:14] Speaker 1: of the road, and she was free. The initial search
[18:49] Speaker 1: for Abby was massive. Everyone felt the loss, but when
[18:55] Speaker 1: the letter arrived, those feelings shifted. People stopped asking where
[19:01] Speaker 1: Abby was and started asking why she left. Some were angry,
[19:07] Speaker 1: others were certain. They said she'd run away. They said
[19:13] Speaker 1: she should be charged. They said she should repay the
[19:17] Speaker 1: state for the costs of the search, but the police
[19:21] Speaker 1: never believed that story. The letter held too many contradictions.
[19:27] Speaker 1: Who refuses to say where they are but dreams of
[19:30] Speaker 1: coming home? The answer if your rational human being is nobody.
[19:36] Speaker 1: Who claims to be safe yet leaves everyone searching indefinitely
[19:41] Speaker 1: again nobody. When the truth finally became publicly certainty disappeared
[19:49] Speaker 1: almost overnight, Abby went from spoiled teenage runaway to something else,
[19:54] Speaker 1: entirely a survivor. Nathaniel Kibby was charged with kidnapping, aggravated
[20:02] Speaker 1: felonious sexual assault, criminal restraint, use of a deadly weapon
[20:06] Speaker 1: during the commission of a felony, in additional related offenses
[20:10] Speaker 1: tied to her confinement. Prosecutors faced a decision. They could
[20:15] Speaker 1: take the case to trial and force Abby to relive
[20:17] Speaker 1: everything in a courtroom under cross examination, sitting just feet
[20:21] Speaker 1: away from the man who took nine months of her
[20:24] Speaker 1: life away from her, or they could guarantee he would
[20:28] Speaker 1: never walk free without asking her to testify. Guess which
[20:32] Speaker 1: one they chose. They offered Kibbi a plea deal. The
[20:36] Speaker 1: defense agreed, acknowledging overwhelming evidence Kibby pleaded guilty and was
[20:41] Speaker 1: sentenced to forty five to ninety years in prison. For
[20:46] Speaker 1: the thirty five year old Kibbi, it was effectively a
[20:49] Speaker 1: life sentence. There would be no trial, no spectacle, no
[20:54] Speaker 1: public retelling, and for Abby that mattered after all that
[21:00] Speaker 1: she'd been through, because surviving wasn't the end of the story.
[21:06] Speaker 1: Living afterwards was. Abbi went on to become a hairdresser
[21:12] Speaker 1: and a mother. She lives a private life in Maine
[21:16] Speaker 1: with her young son. Years later, Abby chose to tell
[21:20] Speaker 1: her story on her own terms, serving as an executive
[21:24] Speaker 1: producer on the lifetime film Girl in the Shed. The
[21:29] Speaker 1: kidnapping of Abby Hernandez and after everything that was taken
[21:35] Speaker 1: from her, Abby chose something simple, no flash, no attention,
[21:41] Speaker 1: no scrutiny, just a life that belongs only to her.
[22:14] Speaker 1: If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining plus at
[22:19] Speaker 1: Sword and Scale dot com slash plus, But if you can't,
[22:24] Speaker 1: consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform.
[22:30] Speaker 1: Sweet Dreams and Goodnight

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