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US abductee emerges after 18 years
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - – A woman kidnapped when she was only 11 has been reunited with her family after an 18-year ordeal during which she was kept in a hidden backyard and had two children with her abductor.
Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, was found after she accompanied Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender and rapist, to a meeting with his parole officer.
Garrido, 58, is believed to have snatched Dugard off the streets of South Lake Tahoe, California in 1991 and fathered her two girls, now aged 11 and 15. He and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy, were in police custody after being charged with kidnapping Dugard to commit rape.
The pair were arrested on Wednesday by the FBI, Captain Daniel Terry of the Contra Costa County sheriff's office told AFP.
A search of their home in the town of Antioch, California close to San Francisco "revealed a hidden backyard within a backyard," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar told reporters., noting it contained tents, sheds and outhouses "where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives."
Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 by two occupants in a car right before the eyes of her horrified stepfather Carl Probyn, who gave chase on a bicycle but failed to stop the abduction.
"I had personally given up hope," a tearful Probyn told ABC News. "I had just hoped for a recovery" and to find those responsible, he added.
But early Thursday, Probyn, his wife Terry and another daughter flew from Riverside, California to San Francisco for a reunion.
Jaycee, the undersheriff said, "is in good health, but living in a backyard for 18 years does take its toll."
She and her two children, who have not been named, reportedly lived in a series of sheds -- including a soundproofed one that could only be opened from the outside -- and tents in the yard belonging to Garrido, who was on a federal parole for a 1971 rape and kidnapping.
"None of the children have ever been to school, they have never been to a doctor," Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound."
The makeshift shelters, he explained "were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact."
Police found a car hidden in the yard that matched the description originally given of the vehicle driven by Dugard's kidnappers.
Garrido's older brother said he was shocked by the suspect's alleged two-decade kidnap, but pointed to a troubled past of drug abuse, sexual compulsion and his marriage in prison.
"It just seems so bizarre, but I can believe it," 65-year-old Ron Garrido told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I know my brother, and I can believe he did that... He's a fruitcake."
He called Nancy Garrido a "robot" who was completely under her husband's control and would do anything he asked.
Dugard's journey to freedom began on Tuesday, when police at the University of California, Berkeley spotted Phillip Garrido acting suspiciously on campus as he tried to hand out religious literature, Kollar said.
He was then called in by his parole officer for a follow-up visit on Wednesday.
He showed up for the grilling with the two children, his wife and Dugard, whom he had renamed Allissa.
The parole officer, who had previously visited Garrido's home, had never seen "Allissa" and the two girls, "and thought that the individuals were suspicious," Kollar said.
The Concord, California police department then conducted interviews with the woman identified as Allissa and discovered that she was in fact Dugard.
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - – A woman kidnapped when she was only 11 has been reunited with her family after an 18-year ordeal during which she was kept in a hidden backyard and had two children with her abductor.
Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, was found after she accompanied Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender and rapist, to a meeting with his parole officer.
Garrido, 58, is believed to have snatched Dugard off the streets of South Lake Tahoe, California in 1991 and fathered her two girls, now aged 11 and 15. He and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy, were in police custody after being charged with kidnapping Dugard to commit rape.
The pair were arrested on Wednesday by the FBI, Captain Daniel Terry of the Contra Costa County sheriff's office told AFP.
A search of their home in the town of Antioch, California close to San Francisco "revealed a hidden backyard within a backyard," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar told reporters., noting it contained tents, sheds and outhouses "where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives."
Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 by two occupants in a car right before the eyes of her horrified stepfather Carl Probyn, who gave chase on a bicycle but failed to stop the abduction.
"I had personally given up hope," a tearful Probyn told ABC News. "I had just hoped for a recovery" and to find those responsible, he added.
But early Thursday, Probyn, his wife Terry and another daughter flew from Riverside, California to San Francisco for a reunion.
Jaycee, the undersheriff said, "is in good health, but living in a backyard for 18 years does take its toll."
She and her two children, who have not been named, reportedly lived in a series of sheds -- including a soundproofed one that could only be opened from the outside -- and tents in the yard belonging to Garrido, who was on a federal parole for a 1971 rape and kidnapping.
"None of the children have ever been to school, they have never been to a doctor," Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound."
The makeshift shelters, he explained "were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact."
Police found a car hidden in the yard that matched the description originally given of the vehicle driven by Dugard's kidnappers.
Garrido's older brother said he was shocked by the suspect's alleged two-decade kidnap, but pointed to a troubled past of drug abuse, sexual compulsion and his marriage in prison.
"It just seems so bizarre, but I can believe it," 65-year-old Ron Garrido told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I know my brother, and I can believe he did that... He's a fruitcake."
He called Nancy Garrido a "robot" who was completely under her husband's control and would do anything he asked.
Dugard's journey to freedom began on Tuesday, when police at the University of California, Berkeley spotted Phillip Garrido acting suspiciously on campus as he tried to hand out religious literature, Kollar said.
He was then called in by his parole officer for a follow-up visit on Wednesday.
He showed up for the grilling with the two children, his wife and Dugard, whom he had renamed Allissa.
The parole officer, who had previously visited Garrido's home, had never seen "Allissa" and the two girls, "and thought that the individuals were suspicious," Kollar said.
The Concord, California police department then conducted interviews with the woman identified as Allissa and discovered that she was in fact Dugard.
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