Kidnapped woman hidden in CA backyard for 18 years Published - Aug 28 2009 08:34AM EDT
By JULIET WILLIAMS and SAMANTHA YOUNG - Associated Press Writers
A girl snatched on her way to school was hidden for nearly two decades behind a series of fences, sheds and tents, even giving birth to her suspected abductor's children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from her childhood home.
Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991, was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday.
Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those girls, now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home.
"None of the children have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound."
Even a parole agent who visited 58-year-old Phillip Garrido's home didn't have an inkling about the hidden compound, Kollar said. Garrido is a registered sex offender on federal parole for rape and kidnapping convictions.
"The way the house is set up, the way the backyard is set up, you could walk through the backyard, walk through the house, and never know," Kollar said.
"He's had her for 18 years. Now, it's our turn. I have no compassion for this guy," he said Friday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America."
But neighbors said there were clues even before a parole agent on Wednesday noticed Dugard, now 29, who accompanied Garrido, his wife and the children to a parole office.
Neighbor Diane Doty said she could see the tents and often heard children playing in the backyard, the corner of which abuts her own backyard. She said she even suspected the children lived in the tents, but her husband said she should leave the family alone.
"I asked my husband, 'Why is he living in tents?'" she said. "And he said, 'Maybe that is how they like to live.'" ...........................>>>>.................>>>>................http://www.rr.com/news/topic/a.....ackyard_for_18_years
Garrido has a long rap sheet dating back to the 1970s.
He was convicted of kidnapping a 25-year-old woman whom he snatched from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot, handcuffed, tied down and held in a mini-warehouse in Reno, according to a November 1976 story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
He also has a conviction for rape by force or fear stemming from the same incident, and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1988, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Well, for better or worse we don't have vigilante justice here.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
He also has a conviction for rape by force or fear stemming from the same incident, and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1988, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Looks like our justice system goofed on this one, huh? SCUMBAG!!!! > > >
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Well, for better or worse we don't have vigilante justice here.
and if it were your daughter????
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Shall he and his wife never live another day in freedom. Incarceration for the remainder of his life is too good for him.
Why does our justice system allow repeat offenders of violent felonies to walk amongst us? Sentences must be extended and plea bargaining disallowed for criminals who commit such heinous crimes.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Authorities acknowledged that they blew a chance three years ago to rescue Dugard from the backyard labyrinth of sheds, tents and outbuildings that were concealed from the outside world.
A neighbor called 911 in November 2006 and described Garrido as a psychotic sex addict who was living with children and had people staying in tents in his backyard.
The investigating officer spent a half-hour interviewing Garrido on his front porch but did not enter the house or search the backyard, Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said. The deputy, who did not know Garrido was a registered sex offender even though the sheriff's department had the information, warned Garrido that the tents could be a code violation before leaving.
"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation," Rupf acknowledged. "I cannot change the course of events but we are beating ourselves up over this and continue to do so."
"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two."
It was not the only missed opportunity.
As a parolee, Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement, met with his parole agent several times each month and was subject to routine surprise home visits and random drug and alcohol tests, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle said.
The last unannounced visit by a team of local police agencies was conducted in July 2008. Paramedics also were summoned to the house five times since 1999, presumably to help Garrido's 88-year-old mother, who had dementia.
"There was never any indication to my knowledge that there was any sign of children living there," Hinkle said.
As it turns out, Dugard and her two children were living there as prisoners, authorities say. The heavily wooded compound was arranged so that people could not view what was happening, and one of the buildings was sound-proofed and could only be opened from the outside.
Neighbors knew there were children living there. Damon Robinson has lived next door to the Garridos for more than three years and his then-girlfriend in 2006 told him she saw tents in the backyard and children.
"I told her to call police. I told her to call right away," he said.
Police review open cases for links to girl’s kidnapping BY PAUL ELIAS The Associated Press
ANTIOCH, Calif. — Police on Saturday searched the home of a California couple charged with kidnapping a little girl 18 years ago, looking for evidence linking them to other open cases in the area, including the unsolved murders of prostitutes. The investigations are “preliminary,” said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department, east of San Francisco Bay. He declined to discuss what cases were being reviewed. Police in Pittsburg are investigating whether Phillip Garrido, whose home is in nearby Antioch, is linked to several unsolved murders of prostitutes in the early 1990s. Antioch police are also looking into unsolved cases but declined further details. About a dozen agents scoured the modest house and the acre of land it sat on Saturday afternoon as the temperature soared into triple digits. Residents on the once-quiet street complained about the media circus that has engulfed their working class neighborhood since the arrest of Phillip and Nancy Garrido on Wednesday. Television trucks were parked on both sides of the street and about a dozen journalists paced in front of the home, which was cordoned with yellow, crime-scene tape. Phillip and Nancy Garrido are in jail, suspected of abducting Jaycee Lee Dugard 18 years ago and subjecting her to nearly a lifetime of torment in a squalid backyard compound. They pleaded not guilty Friday to a total of 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment. Authorities say Dugard, the little girl abducted in 1991 who is now 29, has had two daughters with Garrido. Neighbors in Antioch had complained to law enforcement that a psychotic sex addict was in their midst, alarmed that Phillip Garrido was housing young girls in backyard tents. A deputy showed up to investigate but never went beyond the front porch. Probation officers showed up at the home, too, but had no inkling that his back yard was actually a labyrinth of tents, sheds and buildings that were Dugard’s prison. They didn’t even know he had children on the premises. Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement, the result of earlier sex-crime convictions in Nevada. Outrage came as the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department acknowledged it missed an opportunity to arrest Garrido in 2006 after the neighbor’s complaint about children living in the yard. “I cannot change the course of events but we are beating ourselves up over this and continue to do so,” Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said Friday. “We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two.” Garrido came under suspicion in the unsolved murders of several prostitutes in the 1990s, raising the prospect he was a serial killer as well. Several of the women’s bodies — the exact number is not known — were dumped near an industrial park where Garrido worked during the 1990s. .......................>>>>.......................>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00301&AppName=1
The problem lies in the incarceration and what society thinks is 'soft' crimes and not $$ effective.....
so let me say AGAIN....background checks and precognition don't exist for protection.....THE PROTECTION IS IN THE LAW, PROCECUTION, INCARCERATION, DEATH THEREOF......the problem is the Heffners and Flints of the world cant see past their d#$%s............and have more than enough money for 'the parties'.....they remain as the Charles Mansons in the world of sex... and they have 'friends' in high places....IE: Spitzer/Clinton etc etc.........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
The justice system is in for a run for their money on this one. This waco abducted this girl in 1991. Which means he was insane since 1991. And our great justice system released him from prison in what....1988? So basically, if they try to claim insanity, than our justice system and the judge that presided over this case can and should be held liable for releasing an 'insane sex offender' into society.
Exactly how many of these cases do we have to hear and read about before they change our penal codes for sex offenders?
I say...put them all on alcatraz(sp?) and let them all 'love' each other!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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