Police: Calif. Girl Kidnapped in 1991 Found

[Fuzzy Bob]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Missing US girl found 18 years on

Missing US girl found 18 years on



Police explain the woman's discovery

A US woman found after being abducted as a girl in 1991 gave birth to two children fathered by her alleged kidnapper - the first when she was 14. Jaycee Dugard and her daughters, 11 and 15, were kept in a "hidden backyard within a backyard", police say.
Alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, are being held in custody in California.
DNA tests are being done to establish Ms Dugard's identity, but meanwhile she has been reunited with her mother.
"She was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said.
Ms Dugard disappeared in 1991, aged 11, apparently taken by two people who bundled her into a car.



Mr Kollar said that since the kidnapping she had lived with the couple, isolated from view at a property in Antioch near San Francisco, 170 miles (273m) from her home in South Lake Tahoe.
"The tents and outbuildings in the backyard were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact."
She and the children spent "most of their lives" there, he said, adding that they had never been to school or seen a doctor.
Their identities were revealed after Mr Garrido was spotted by police at the University of California Berkeley campus with the two young children.
He raised suspicions because as a registered sex offender he was not allowed to be with young children.
Mr Garrido has a conviction for rape and was paroled in 1999, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He was called in by his parole officer for questioning, and brought the two children and a young woman he called Allissa with him.
During questioning he revealed that Allissa was actually Ms Dugard. She also confirmed her identity to police.



At the Antioch property, there was also a vehicle hidden in the backyard which matched the vehicle originally described at the time of the abduction, Mr Kollar said.
The backyard area had electricity from extension cords and a rudimentary outhouse and shower, "as if you were camping," he said.
Although Mr Garrido was previously visited by a parole officer, there was nothing odd noted about the backyard.
The area occupied by Ms Dugard and her children was concealed by shrubs, rubbish bins and a tarpaulin, he said.
"It's a pretty spectacular story just to find someone like that. Someone we assumed was dead," said Bill Clark, a senior prosecutor in El Dorado County.
Jimmie Lee, a local police spokesman, said Mr Garrido was also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.
Under suspicion
As news spread of Ms Dugard's apparent re-appearance, her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News in the US that her family was now convinced she was coming back to them.
"I had personally given up hope," he said, saying that he just wanted to find the people responsible.
Mr Probyn was watching on 10 June 1991, as the young girl was apparently taken away by two unidentified people.
The incident occurred as she was walking from her home to a school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe.



Her stepfather - who initially came under suspicion in her disappearance and is now estranged from Ms Dugard's mother - has described how a stranger drove up and grabbed Ms Dugard, bundling her into a grey car even as she tried to resist by kicking and screaming.
Mr Probyn believed a man and woman were in the vehicle. Despite several false reports of sightings in the intervening years, Ms Dugard was never seen again.
"She sounds like she's okay," he said.
"She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."
"To have this happen where we get her back alive, and where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

[ItsRobsLife]

Just heard this on the radio and can only think humans truly are sick.

[crippen]

How on earth does the wife get involved too? She must have been under enormous strain all those years.

[majid]

Mind blowing in it's horror.

[malice]

Why do such things to another human?

[majid]

It pleasured him.

[bretby]

The sad thing is that this perverted piece of sh*t probably would have got away with it for longer only for the fact that he was spotted out walking with the kids.

Questions to be asked are why did his parole officer not search his house and grounds properly when he visited him? and for a man who is a convicted rapist why are searches of their residences not carried out as a matter of course?

What`s the betting that he is another nutter who thinks that he has a divine right from God to do these things?

[Texpat]

Mr Garrido has a conviction for rape and was paroled in 1999, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The girl was abducted in '91. Did he do jail time for the rape -- paroled infers he did. Something doesn't make sense. Was he convicted before or after the abduction?

[majid]

Before.

[ItsRobsLife]

If so then the wife is just as guilty.

[majid]

Or another variation of victim. We shall see.

[Rural Surin]

Weird.

[majid]

Frighteningly so.

[friscofrankie]

The girl was abducted in '91. Did he do jail time for the rape -- paroled infers he did. Something doesn't make sense. Was he convicted before or after the abduction?

Before.

Convicted before then paroled in '99 the girl was snatched in 91... How'd that Happen? I'd surmise the kid was snatched before his conviction, he did time and got paroled. one would wonder how the girl wasn;t discovered at teh time of his arrest? Did his wife keep the kid locked up for him while he was away?

This is Some Sick shit, woldn;t be too quick labeling the wife much of a "victim" either. I'm just real damned curious about teh timeline here. Good to see the girl survived and will return to her family. But I really want to know how this went on for 18 years and no one tumbled. Hell, I lived in Antioch in the late 70s I couldn;t even get away with growing pot in my backyard for 6 months!

[Texpat]

The "children" were born in '94 and '98. I think the reporter has some facts wrong.

[malice]

^^Funky tabbacky grows better in the bathroom, humidity better.

[tuktukdriver]

Is Garrido an Austrian name?

[crippen]

Jaycee Lee Dugard's life will dramatically change as counsellors, police and her family desperately try to piece together her life in a backyard almost two decades since she was kidnapped.

By Andrew Hough
Published: 11:52AM BST 28 Aug 2009


Jaycee Lee Dugard set to become the centre of a fierce media bidding war as news organisations offer millions of pounds for her first interview.
Amid a world-wide media frenzy since she was found on Thursday alive with convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, 58, police hope the 29 year-old will be able to provide answers to dozens of unanswered questions.
Among the questions authorities’ likely want answered include: How was she treated? Were her captors abusive towards her? Did she try and escape? Did they threaten her? Why didn’t she try and contact authorities?


Miss Dugard, who disappeared aged 11, will also be subject to extensive psychological testing and counselling to help her over overcome her time in her captors’ backyard.
Since news broke, her case has stunned America as it was one of California’s oldest and most notorious unsolved crimes.
As a result she will become the centre of a fierce media bidding war as news organisations from around the globe offer millions of pounds for her remarkable story.
She had been held in a “garden prison” at Garrido’s home in Antioch, California - where he lived with his wife Nancy, 54 – since she was snatched from her school bus stop in 1991.
It had been completely hidden away from the outside world and she was only found after a chance encounter between police and Garrido, a registered sex offender and religious fanatic who is said to have fathered her two daughters, aged 11 and 15.
Police said that when she was found she was in good health but “living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll”.
Criminal psychologist Dr David Holmes, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said Miss Duggard will likely recover but “to some degree”.
“You never get 100 per cent recovery but you will get improvement,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Now this girl is not as damaged they say in other previous cases… which will stand her in good stead in the future.”
He said while he was speculating, it appeared that she had suffered from the so-called Stockholm syndrome, where sympathises with her captors.
He said Garrido’s “very deluded behaviour would throw up some sort of smokescreen for people observing him as a suspicious character”.
“You have got certain excuses upfront – yes he is a bit strange, he talks religion, obviously (he) is not quite on the planet, he seems ok – is far more of a smokescreen than someone who… creates far more suspicion,” he said.
He said the case appeared bizarre because of Garrido’s wife’s involvement.
“A lot of this is very, very odd in terms that this is a couple operating (the kidnapping) and this distinguishes it from what is going on (elsewhere),” he said.
“It also makes it extremely difficult to catch.
“And in the light of our moving into more careful, cautious checking on such individuals how many more such cases are we going to uncover?” . note "a registered sex offender and religious fanatic" . .view-source:[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/jaycee-lee-dugard/6104291/Jaycee-Lee-Dugard-What-next-for-the-girl-kept-captive-for-nearly-two-decades.html]- Telegraph[/urlhttp://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01470/dugard_1470914c.jpg . http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01470/garrido_1470881c.jpg .

[majid]

I think he had done previous time behind a sex crime.

Then, while on probation, he snatched the kid.

He was eventually discharged from probation into the loving arms of his wives and loverly blond chillen.

[somtamslap]

Her stepfather - who initially came under suspicion in her disappearance and is now estranged from Ms Dugard's mother - has described how a stranger drove up and grabbed Ms Dugard, bundling her into a grey car even as she tried to resist by kicking and screaming.

The stepfather was there at the time of the abduction?? Erm...what? Adrenalin would've kicked in and he'd have outrun the car.

[majid]

bullshit. get real.

[majid]

the human capacity for insane, freaky and fuked up behavior is inestimable.

and thank god. were it not so we would all be bored as shit.

[malice]

55555

[crippen]

The Times: Man who kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 'heard the voice of God'

[majid]

lets avoid playing the he's crazy card (as in mentally ill) on this. he is crazy like cold calculating a fox.