Jaycee Dugard found 18 years later!!
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| Thu, 08-27-2009 - 4:07pm |
I live near SLT. Her pictures are still around, because her family never stopped looking for her. I remember that her dad had to chase after the kidnappers on his bike, because his car was up on a jack......he couldn't catch up, he was always held suspect by some....how heartbreaking that must have been for him.
Now it appears she has been found. A happy ending, in that she is alive, but what has been lost to her and her family can never be returned.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_kidnapped_girl_found
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Police say a convicted sex offender and his wife have been arrested in the kidnapping of an 11-year-old in 1991 who recently walked into a Northern California police station.
Police say 58-year-old Phillip Garrido and his 54-year-old wife Nancy Garrido were arrested in the kidnapping case Wednesday. The Megan's Law database says Phillip Garrido has a conviction for rape by force or fear.
The woman came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and said she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, a blond, ponytailed girl when she was abducted as she headed to a school bus stop 18 years ago.
The woman was in good health. It was not immediately clear when she had surfaced at the station.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sheriff's officials said Thursday they believe a woman who walked into a police station had been kidnapped as an 11-year-old in 1991 outside her South Lake Tahoe home. Two people were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
The woman came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and said she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, a blond, ponytailed girl when she was abducted as she headed to a school bus stop 18 years ago, said sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department.
"We're 99 percent sure it's her," Lovell said. He said DNA tests were being conducted. The woman was in good health. It was not immediately clear when she had surfaced at the station.
Lovell said Concord police did an investigation after the woman surfaced, and he received a call Wednesday from investigators who had tentatively identified her as Dugard.
Her family has been contacted and they are in the process of arranging a meeting, said Lovell, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991. "We are very confident at this point in time that it is her."
Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, said FBI and El Dorado sheriff's deputies arrested two suspects Wednesday night. They were being held in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez.
Lee said the two were being held for investigation of several charges, including kidnapping, but he could not elaborate.
Law enforcement sources said authorities were also searching a home in Antioch.
Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said the news was like winning the lottery.
"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.
Witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her while her stepfather was watching on June 10, 1991, the Sheriff's Department said in a news release Thursday.
In media reports at the time, the girl's stepfather said he heard Jaycee scream then jumped on a bicycle and frantically pedaled after the car in a failed effort to follow it up a hill. He then turned around and screamed at neighbors to call 911.
The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.
Probyn said his wife, Terry, had spoken with Dugard by phone on Wednesday. He said the mother and their 19-year-old daughter were flying from their Southern California home to meet with Dugard in Northern California.
Investigators first visited with his wife about three weeks ago, he said.
Probyn said he endured years of suspicion from FBI agents who believed he may have been involved in the abduction. He eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive.
"Then you pray that you get her body back so there is an ending," Probyn said.
Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since she was abducted and new leads had surfaced over time.
"You bet it's a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping," he said.
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Missing US girl bore two children
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.
Videos at link.......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8226165.stm
Jaycee Lee Dugard and her daughters, 11 and 15, were kept in a "hidden backyard within a backyard", police say.
"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.
Jaycee's alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido: "I'm in a very serious situation"
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 (273km) 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 police spotted Mr Garrido as he handed out religious literature 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.
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.
In a telephone interview from prison with the KCRA-TV station, Mr Garrido said he had not admitted to abduction and that the birth of the first child 15 years ago had changed his life.
"If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backward and in the end you're going to find the most powerful, heart-warming story," he said.
"I tell you here's the story of what took place at this house and you're going to be absolutely impressed.
"It's a disgusting thing that took place with me in the beginning. But I turned my life completely around," he said.
Some of those who had had contact with Mr Garrido over recent years said he had developed increasingly strong religious beliefs.
Tim Allen, who did business with Mr Garrido's printing firm, told Associated Press that Mr Garrido gave the impression he was planning to establish a church. "He rambled. It made no sense," Mr Allen said.
'Given up hope'
Police said they had found a vehicle hidden in the backyard of the Antioch property that matched the vehicle described at the time of the abduction.
What kind of woman helps her husband do this?
Sick, sick.
What I find disturbing is that a neighbor woman had wondered why there were children living in tents in their backyard at one point and thought it strange. She didn't notify anyone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8226329.stm
Garrido 'has forensic awareness'
Criminal psychologist Dr David Holmes has examined the telephone interview given by alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido from prison to the KCRA-TV station in California.
Chance to save Jaycee earlier 'missed'
Video at link.......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8227908.stm
US police have admitted that they "missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure" to the case of abducted girl Jaycee Lee Dugard.
Sheriff Warren E Rupf said an emergency phone call on 30 November 2006 reported that people - including young children - were living in tents in the grounds to the rear of the house where Jaycee was hidden, and that Phillip Garrido was "psychotic and had a sexual addiction", but police failed to search the area.
The Sheriff apologised to the victims and described the police action as "not acceptable".
Second check on Garrido missed Jaycee
Video at link.......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8228013.stm
US police have revealed that agencies missed a second opportunity to find Jaycee Lee Dugard when a 'compliance check' was made on Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, in 2008.
Sheriff Warren Rupf said representatives of a number of groups were involved in the visit, but that no search of the property was conducted and Mr Garrido was found to be "compliant" with the law.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido denied 28 separate charges in court on Friday.
Every time I read more news about this case, I feel sick in the stomach. I just can't believe that stinking degenerate and his piece of work wife have outwitted the authorities all these years.
A woman who has had children puts them before herself. She probably felt that her life and the lives of her children were threatened, and thus never revealed her true identity. Plus, after living more than half her life as Allissa, it must have been unimaginable to foresee a life as Ms Dugard. She made the best of a bad situation, which shows strength of character.
The fact that she came forward now is the real mystery to me. Why now? What made her to walk into that police station? I believe she sought a better life for herself and realized that her children need education, socialization, etc. to be the best that they can be. If this is the case, I applaud her for it.
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