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Kidnap Victim Turns Up After 18 Years

California Girl Was Reported Missing at Age 11

By JULIET WILLIAMS

posted: 59 MINUTES AGO

comments: 446

filed under: Crime News, National News

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Aug. 27) -- A woman who was snatched from a bus stop as an 11-year-old child in 1991 turned up at a California police station after 18 mysterious years, and a convicted sex offender and his wife were arrested in the kidnapping.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was reunited with her mother, who was overjoyed to learn the daughter she feared dead was actually alive and well.

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Missing Children Cases

Jaycee Dugard: The 11-year-old was kidnapped while walking to a bus stop near her South Lake Tahoe, Calif., home in 1991. On Wednesday, she walked into a police station in Concord, Calif., just outside San Francisco. Two people are in custody, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The above photograph shows Dugard before she was kidnapped.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

It was not immediately clear how Dugard spent the 18 years since she was abducted as a blond, ponytailed child outside her South Lake Tahoe home.

Police said she recently walked into a Northern California police station with Phillip Garrido, 58, one of her alleged captors. He and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, were arrested for investigation of kidnapping and conspiracy on Wednesday, police said.

Phillip Garrido is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, said Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department.

Phillip Garrido has a conviction for rape by force or fear and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1999, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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Dugard was in good health when she came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and revealed her name.

"We're 99 percent sure it's her," said sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991. DNA tests were being conducted.

California corrections officials said they called in Phillip Garrido for questioning Wednesday after receiving a report that he was seen with two small children at the University of California, Berkeley.

Two children and two adult women accompanied him to the station.

"The diligent questioning and follow-up by the parolee's agent of record led to Garrido revealing his kidnapping of the adult female," the department said in a statement. "It was further revealed by Garrido that she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, and that the children were his."

It was not immediately clear who was the mother of the children.

FBI spokesman Joe Schadler said the woman was reunited with her mother Thursday morning. He declined to provide details.

The suspects were being held in El Dorado County in lieu of $1 million bail each.

A house in the city of Antioch was cordoned off with police tape as it was searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

Neighbor Helen Boyer, 78, described the Garridos as nice and friendly and said they cared for Phillip Garrido's elderly mother.

"If I needed something, they would be the first I would call on," Boyer said.

Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, 60, said he was overwhelmed by the news that Dugard was alive. He said for years he had done everything he could to help find her, especially because he knew suspicion had fallen on him.

"It broke my marriage up. I've gone through hell, I mean I'm a suspect up until yesterday," he told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, Calif. "I'm the last person to see her."

Witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her while her stepfather watched on June 10, 1991.

Probyn said he saw someone reach out and grab her before the car sped away.

"As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver's door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy. I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!" he recalled.

Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home.

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 eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive. He said he was struggling to understand why Dugard didn't come forward earlier.

"I have a million questions, but I'm just delighted," he said.

Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since the abduction and new leads had surfaced over time.

"You bet it's a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping," he said.

Associated Press Writers Paul Elias and Terry Collins in San Francisco, Gillian Flaccus in Orange, Calif., and Brooke Donald in Antioch, Calif., contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-27 13:49:53

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Dedawhtgclg

06:34 PMAug 27 2009

david axalerod will let them go also. he love the criminal type people. if his name is spelled wrong who care, not me

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Ronb247bin

06:34 PMAug 27 2009

slice there head off

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Gina V Gotti1

06:33 PMAug 27 2009

shes 29 what took her sooooooooooooooooooooo looooooooooooooooooong 2 come 4ward ???? thers somethin missin from this story . y did she show face now an not sooner ???? im very happy she is alive ..... but could this b a movie down the road in the makins ? talk shows ? book rights ? somethin seems shady about this story !!!!!

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Flutterby9322

06:33 PMAug 27 2009

Jorgebrito2 you probably don't even have kids. Some places don't have ISDs don't have buses where city buses are available AND the article said the step-father was there & saw her get grabbed. You can't keep an 11 y/o attatched to your hip.

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PebleJim

06:33 PMAug 27 2009

Relocate them to Locabee Scotland, they have an empty prison cell there .

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Bravolada59

06:33 PMAug 27 2009

To swingbaddda; She is 29 but she was not the one to come forward. The couple arrested came in to the police station on something unrelated to the kidnapping and had the girl with them. A policeman happened to recognize her. At least this is what I heard on the news. But you don't know what went on in her mind. alot of kidnap victims are brainwashed into thinking their family no longer loves them and that the torture they indure is deserved. Stokholm syndrome.

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Readurghts

06:32 PMAug 27 2009

This is AWESOME NEWS! I am so happy this girl, now woman is alive. I hope that she can actually move forward and LIVE HER LIFE! I can't believe this is like 30 mins from my house! I heard about this years ago. And, I never thought she would be found alive. What a great day for her and her family!! Good luck!

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Kensdelrey

06:31 PMAug 27 2009

I would bet there is a scam going on here.

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PubliusMax

06:30 PMAug 27 2009

"Goodeatz707 06:22 PMAug 27 2009 Goth Girl has "more intelligence in her 'middel' leg " , according to her. Spelling all Goth Girl's. Check your middle leg, GG."----Goth girl was just quoting somebody else. The guy who thinks that he has an intelligent "middel leg" was nqis or something like that.

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Flutterby9322

06:28 PMAug 27 2009

People writing things like "why didn't she call home?" and saying things about loving the abuse have no idea what you're talking about. Taking an adult and brainwashing them takes very little time. An 11 yr old child doesnt stand a chance, and the brainwashing isn't going to go away just because she turned 21. And those saying "oh it wouldnt happen to me." are fooling yourselves.

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