Kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard

The kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard occurred on June 10, 1991, when she was 11 years old. Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop within sight of her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, United States. She was missing for over 18 years. On August 26, 2009, Dugard, her daughters, and Phillip Craig Garrido appeared in the office of her alleged kidnapper's parole officer in California. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home.

Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, of Antioch, California were arrested for kidnapping and other charges; they are being held in jail awaiting trial. Law enforcement officers believe Dugard was kept in a concealed area behind Garrido's house in Antioch for 18 years. During this time Dugard bore two daughters who were aged 12 and 15 at the time of her reappearance.

Background of suspects
Phillip Craig Garrido was born in Contra Costa County, California on April 5, 1951. He grew up in Brentwood, California, where he graduated from Liberty High School in 1969. His father, Manuel Garrido, who continues to reside in Brentwood, said his son was a "good boy" as a child, but radically changed after a serious motorcycle accident as a teenager, and later turned to drug use. The Sacramento Bee and the Associated Press have reported that the elder Garrido has begun demanding money in exchange for speaking with reporters; both organizations have refused.

In 1972, Garrido was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, but the case did not go to trial after the girl declined to testify. In 1973, Garrido married high-school classmate Christine Murphy, who said Garrido was abusive. Murphy alleges that Garrido kidnapped her when she tried to leave their relationship.

In 1976, Garrido kidnapped Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe, California. He took her to a Reno, Nevada warehouse where he sexually assaulted her. When a police officer noticed a suspicious car parked outside at unusually late hours, he came up to investigate. Callaway then emerged and asked for help. Garrido was promptly arrested. He was charged and convicted of crimes in both federal and state courts. In a 1976 court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Garrido was diagnosed as a "sexual deviant and chronic drug abuser." The psychiatrist recommended that a neurological examination be conducted because Garrido's chronic drug use could be "responsible in part" for his "mixed" or "multiple" sexual deviation. Garrido was then evaluated by a neurologist. The diagnostic impression was: "normal neurological examination." In court, Garrido testified that he masturbated in his car by the side of grammar schools and high schools while watching young females. Garrido was convicted on March 9, 1977 and began serving a 50-year federal sentence on June 30, 1977, at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.

At Leavenworth, Garrido met Nancy Bocanegra, who was visiting another prisoner, her uncle. On October 5, 1981, Garrido and Bocanegra were married at Leavenworth. On January 22, 1988, Garrido was released from Leavenworth to Nevada State Prison, where he served seven months of a five-years-to-life Nevada sentence. He was transferred to federal parole authorities in Antioch, California on August 26, 1988. In Antioch, the Garridos lived in the home of his elderly mother, who suffered from dementia. As a parolee, he was monitored, later wore a GPS-enabled ankle bracelet, and was regularly visited by police.

Abduction and search effort
In September 1990, Jaycee Dugard and her family moved from the Orange County city of Garden Grove to South Lake Tahoe. At the time of the abduction, Dugard was in fifth grade attending Meyers Elementary School near South Lake Tahoe.

On June 10, 1991 Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, witnessed the abduction from within sight of their home. He saw two people in a gray sedan (possibly a Mercury Monarch or Mercury Zephyr) make a U-turn at the school bus stop where Dugard was waiting, and a woman forced Dugard into the car. Probyn then gave chase on a bicycle, but he was unable to overtake the vehicle. Some of Dugard's classmates were also witnesses to the abduction. Initial suspects included Probyn and Ken Slayton, Dugard's biological father. Probyn took and passed several lie-detector tests, and Slayton was also quickly cleared of the crime.

Within hours of Dugard's disappearance, local and national media converged upon South Lake Tahoe to cover the story. Within days, dozens of local volunteers assisted in the search effort, which involved nearly every resource within the community. Within weeks, tens of thousands of fliers and posters were mailed to businesses throughout the United States. Since Dugard's favorite color was pink, the entire town was blanketed in pink ribbons as a constant reminder of her disappearance and a demonstrated support for the family throughout the community.

Dugard's mother, Terry Probyn, founded a group called Jaycee's Hope, which directed the volunteer and fundraising effort. Cassette tapes of the song Jaycee Lee along with T-shirts, sweatshirts and buttons were sold to raise money for poster materials, postage, printing and related expenses. Child Quest International and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were also involved in the effort. A reward was offered, which was displayed on the posters and fliers. The kidnapping case also attracted nationwide attention and was featured many times on the television show America's Most Wanted.

The ensuing months and years were a continuous effort of child safety awareness, fundraising events and candlelight vigils marking Dugard's disappearance and keeping her story before the public.

Captivity
The Garridos' home on Walnut Avenue is in an unincorporated area in northeast Antioch. A neighbor of the Garridos said he recalls, as a child, meeting Dugard through a fence in the Garridos' yard soon after the kidnapping. He said that she had identified herself by the name "Jaycee" and that's when he asked her if she lived there or was just visiting, she answered that she lived there. At that point Philip Garrido came out and took her back indoors. The Garridos later built a privacy fence around the property, which already had several large trees in the yard.

From April to August 1993, Phillip Garrido was returned to federal prison for parole violation.

Jaycee Lee Dugard bore two daughters to Phillip Garrido, who were born in August 1994 and November 1997. During their time together as a family, Dugard presented herself to everyone as the daughter of the Garridos and that the younger girls were her little sisters. Her two daughters also told others she was their older sister. Most US media sources have declined to name the children, although names have been given in foreign media coverage of the case.

Garrido operated a print shop. In the few years before his arrest he began to talk more about religion, though he had been described by others as quiet, mild mannered, intelligent and mature. Dugard acted as the graphics artist for the print shop. Ben Daughdrill, a customer of Garrido's printing business, claimed he met and spoke by telephone with Dugard and that Dugard did excellent art work. During this time, Dugard had access to the business phone and an email account. One customer of the printing business indicated she never hinted to him about her childhood abduction or true identity.

While in Antioch, Garrido also kept an Internet blog associated with what he called "Gods Desire Church." In the blog Garrido said he had the power to control sound with his mind. Garrido asked several people, including customers, to sign testimonials confirming that they witnessed his ability to "control sound with my mind" and a device he developed "for others to witness this phenomena."

Law enforcement officers believe that at the time they became involved in 2009, Dugard's living quarters were in a secondary backyard behind Phillip Garrido's house. The private area of the yard included sheds (one of which was soundproofed and used as a recording studio in which Garrido recorded himself singing religious-themed and romantic country songs), two tents, and what has been described as a camping-style shower and toilet. The area was surrounded by tall trees and a 6 ft high fence. An entrance to the secondary backyard was covered by a tarpaulin. Privacy in the yard was enhanced by tents and outbuildings, as well as an old car similar to the one used in the abduction. Law enforcement officers visited the residence at least twice in recent years, but did not give the backyard more than a quick inspection. When police investigated, they found the backyard to be crowded with typical childhood possessions, including books and toys, amongst the tents and sheds. Electricity was supplied by extension cords. Jaycee Dugard was seen in the house and sometimes answered the front door. While the family kept to themselves, the girls were sometimes seen playing in the backyard or as passengers in Garrido's car. Garrido claims to have home-schooled the two girls.

Both Jaycee's aunt, Tina Dugard, and former business associate Cheyvonne Molino, have made public statements that in their opinion, despite the unlawful behavior of Phillip Garrido, there is no manner in the upbringing of Jaycee's children to suggest in any way that the children are deprived, or significantly deficient in ways that cannot be addressed promptly and efficaciously through typical remedial education. Molino asserted that she had been able to see them occasionally over many years and that they dressed normally, that their behavior away from and with their father was quite social and relaxed, and that during that extended time they appeared to be thriving.

Missed opportunities to rescue Dugard
Police failed to make the connection that Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, the same location as Garrido's 1976 kidnapping of Katherine Callaway Hall.

On April 22, 1992, less than a year after her kidnapping, a male caller reported to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department that he saw a girl who closely resembled Dugard staring intently at a missing child flyer of herself in a gas station in Oakley, California, less than two miles from the Garridos' home. The caller, who left no name, reported seeing her leave in a large yellow van, which matches the description of an old yellow Dodge van that was recovered from the Garrido property in 2009. The license plate was not reported and the sighting was investigated only cursorily.

In June 2002, the fire department responded to a report of a juvenile with a shoulder injury that occurred in a swimming pool at Garrido's home. This information was not relayed to the parole office, which had no record of either a juvenile or a swimming pool at Garrido's address.

In 2006 one of Garrido's neighbors called 9-1-1 to inform them there were tents in the backyard with children living there and that Garrido was "psychotic" with sexual addictions. A deputy sheriff spoke with Garrido at the front of the house for about thirty minutes and left after telling him there would be a code violation if people were living outside on the property. After Dugard was found in August 2009 the local police issued an apology.

On November 4, 2009, the California Office of the Inspector General issued a report which enumerated various lapses by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation which contributed to Dugard's continued captivity. The central finding was that Garrido was incorrectly classified as needing only low-level supervision and all other lapses were derived from it. In his report, the inspector general detailed an instance in which a parole agent encountered a 12 year old girl at the home of Phillip Garrido, but accepted Garrido's "explanation that she was his brother's daughter and [the agent] did nothing to verify it."

Reappearance
On August 24, 2009, Garrido visited the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and left a four-page essay containing his ideas about religion and sexuality, suggesting he had discovered a solution to problem behaviors like his own past crimes. The essay described how he had cured his own criminal sexual behaviors and how that information could be used to assist in curing other sexual predators by "controlling human impulses that drive humans to commit dysfunctional acts." On the same day, Phillip Garrido went to a University of California, Berkeley police office seeking permission to hold a special Christian event on campus as a part of his "God's Desire" program. He spoke with U.C. Berkeley special events manager Lisa Campbell. Campbell perceived his behavior as odd and asked him to make an appointment for the next day, which he did, leaving his name in the process. The next morning, August 25, Campbell notified campus police officer Ally Jacobs about the meeting later that morning with Garrido, and her concerns. Jacobs ran a background check and learned that Garrido was on parole for rape, and decided to sit in on the meeting. Garrido arrived with two girls, whom he introduced as his daughters. At the meeting, Jacobs felt that the girls' behavior was unusual, and phoned the parole office to relay her concerns. As no one was in, she left a report of the meeting on voicemail.

After hearing Jacobs' recorded message, two parole agents drove to Garrido's house later that day. Upon arrival, they handcuffed him and searched the house, only finding his wife Nancy and his elderly mother at home. Then the parole agents drove Garrido back to the parole office. En route, Garrido said that the two girls who had accompanied him to UC Berkeley "were the daughters of a relative, and he had permission from their parents to take them to the university." Although the parole office had barred Garrido from being around minors a month before, the agents overlooked this violation. After reviewing his file with a supervisor, they drove him home and ordered him to report back to the office again the next day to further discuss his visit to UC Berkeley and follow up on their concerns about the two girls.

Garrido arrived at the parole office on August 26 with his wife, Nancy, the two girls and Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was introduced as "Alyssa." When they arrived, his parole officer was on the phone with Jacobs to obtain a more detailed description of her interaction with Garrido and the two girls. Jacobs informed the officer that the girls were calling Garrido "Daddy," but the parole officer believed that Garrido had no children. The parole officer then decided to separate Garrido from the women and girls to obtain an identification.

Dugard, maintaining her false identity as "Alyssa," stated that she was the girls' mother. When the parole officer said that she looked too young to be the mother and asked her age, "Alyssa said that she was 29 years old, laughingly explaining that she often gets that comment and that people believe she is the girls' sister," the report states. As the questioning continued, Dugard and Nancy Garrido became agitated and wanted to know why they were being questioned. When the parole officer explained that he was investigating Garrido's visit to the UC campus with the two girls, Dugard said that she knew Garrido had taken the girls to the campus and that she also knew he was a paroled sex offender who had kidnapped and raped a woman. "She added that Garrido was a changed man and a great person who was good to her kids. Alyssa subsequently stated that she didn't want to provide any additional information and that she might need a lawyer."

The parole agent then asked Garrido in another room to explain the relationship between himself and "Alyssa" and the two girls. Garrido said that all three were his nieces, the daughters of his brother in Oakley. "Garrido stated that the parents were divorced, the girls were living with them and other people, and he did not know his brother's address or phone number," the report states. The parole officer returned to the women and insisted on seeing identification from "Alyssa," but Dugard replied that she "had learned a long time ago not to carry or give any personal information to anyone." She also said she needed a lawyer. At this point, the parole officer called in Concord police.

The report continues: "As they waited for the officer to arrive, Alyssa said she was sorry that she had lied. She explained that she was from Minnesota and had been hiding for five years from an abusive husband. She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information." Two Concord police officers continued the questioning of Dugard, who maintained her false identity and the story she had told to the parole agent. In the other room, a Concord police sergeant questioned Garrido, who finally admitted that he was the father of the two girls. When the parole agent resumed his questioning of Garrido, the latter admitted to kidnapping and raping "Alyssa." Under further questioning, Dugard revealed her true identity and confirmed that she had been kidnapped and raped by Garrido.

Garrido and his wife were then put under arrest. An FBI agent put Dugard on the telephone with her mother, Terry Probyn. Dugard retained custody of her children and was soon reunited with her mother.

Reunion and afterward
In the days following Dugard's return, Carl Probyn, Jaycee's stepfather, confirmed that Jaycee and her daughters were in good health and intelligent, their reunion was going well, and they were proceeding slowly. He said his stepdaughter had developed a significant emotional bond with Phillip Garrido, and the girls cried when they learned of their father's arrest. According to Jaycee Dugard's aunt, Tina Dugard, about the two girls: "They are clever, articulate, curious girls who have a bright future ahead of them." Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Dugard's reappearance is an important event for families of other long-term missing children, because it shows that there is hope even in long-term cases. Elizabeth Smart has stressed the importance of focusing on the future with a positive attitude as an effective approach to accepting what has happened. Shawn Hornbeck also commented on the case.

Three weeks after her release, Jaycee Dugard made a request to gain control of the pets that were raised in the home where she was held captive. On October 14, 2009, People magazine published on its cover the first verified photo of Jaycee Dugard as an adult. Jaycee's mother, Terry Probyn has lined up publisher Broadway Books for the 2010 publication of a book detailing the girls' decades-long absence and return.

On July 1, 2010 the California state assembly passed A.B. 1714, appropriating $20 million to settle claims brought against the state by Jaycee Dugard, her mother, and her daughters. The bill was approved by the governor on July 9.

Police investigations
Following the arrest, police extensively searched the Garrido house for evidence of other crimes. Because Phillip Garrido had access to his neighbor's house, it was also searched for evidence. Police also searched the homes and business of one of Phillip Garrido's printing business clients. Between September 15, 2009 and September 22, 2009, police agencies from Hayward, California and Dublin, California conducted searches of the Garridos' property investigating missing girls from those communities. The results of the search turned up no clues in the disappearances of the girls.

Garrido's statements
On August 27, 2009, KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, interviewed Garrido in his jail cell by telephone. During the interview Garrido said, "In the end, this is going to be a powerful, heartwarming story", because, in his version of events,

"My life has been straightened out." [...] "Wait till you hear the story of what took place at this house. You're going to be absolutely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around."

Garrido repeatedly told the reporter how he "filed documents" with the FBI on Monday, August 24, 2009, which, when they were published, would cause people to "fall over backwards" and that he could not reveal more because he "had to protect law enforcement" and "what happened" [...] was "something that humans have not understood well." In the interview Garrido denied he had ever harmed Dugard's two daughters. He said their births changed his life and "they slept in my arms every single night since birth. I never touched them." On August 28, 2009, FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler confirmed that Garrido had indeed left the documents with the agency, as he had claimed, but declined to discuss further details. FBI did release documents that Garrido filed with them. The document was titled 'Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed'. The document is about stopping schizophrenics from turning violent and controlling sounds with the human mind.

Legal proceedings
On August 28, 2009, Garrido and his wife pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment. A bail review/pre-preliminary hearing was held September 14, 2009, at the El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville, California. At the hearing, Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister set bail for Phillip Garrido at $30 million. However, there is a no-bail parole hold on Garrido. The judge kept Nancy Garrido in custody on a no-bail hold. Nancy Garrido could request bail at a later date. At the September 14th hearing, Judge Phimister also granted a request from Phillip Garrido's attorney to have a psychologist or psychiatrist appointed to conduct a confidential evaluation of Garrido. This examination is to be used by the defense to assist in case preparation. Additional mental health examinations could be ordered at subsequent phases in the proceedings. On October 29, 2009, a short hearing was held to set a date for the next pre-preliminary hearing when issues such as discovery were to be discussed. This hearing occurred on December 11, 2009. Katie Callaway Hall, whom Phillip Garrido raped in 1976, appeared in the courtroom in both the October and December hearings. She did not speak in either proceeding.

On Thursday, November 5, 2009, Judge Phimister ordered Nancy Garrido's defense attorney, Gilbert Maines, to be removed from the case. According to a posting on the court's website, the decision occurred in review of "confidential evidence" that has not been disclosed to the public, and details of the proceedings were kept sealed. The decision was immediately stayed until November 30, 2009. On Thursday, November 12, 2009, Judge Phimister appointed Stephen A. Tapson as interim counsel for Nancy Garrido. Gilbert Maines appealed the decision and was given a favorable ruling by the California Third District Court of Appeal on December 15, 2009. On December 22, 2009, the same court gave the Eldorado Superior Court until January, 2010 to respond to the ruling. Both Gilbert Maines and Stephen Tapson appeared at the discovery hearing on December 11, 2009. A hearing was held on January 21, 2010. At that hearing, Maines was removed from the case and Tapson was appointed defense counsel for Nancy Garrido. In addition, bail in the amount of $20 million was set for Nancy Garrido.