Chance to find kidnap victim missed

Aug 28 2009

Police missed an opportunity to free Jaycee Lee Dugard in 2006 when they were called to the home where she was allegedly held for 18 years but failed to find her, a spokesman said.

Sheriff Warren Rupf said officers were called to the home of convicted rapist Phillip Garrido three years ago after reports people were living in his back garden.

He added: "On November 30, 2006, we missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation."

He went on: "A caller to our 911 dispatch offered that there were tents in the neighbour's backyard, that people were living in them, and that there were young children.

"The caller also said that Garrido was psychotic and had a sexual addiction."

He said officers went to Garrido's home but did not go inside and said they found no evidence "of criminal behaviour".

He apologised for what he described as "not an acceptable outcome".

He added: "We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two."

Mr Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, are being detained on suspicion of kidnapping.

The kidnapped woman is believed to have borne two children - now aged 11 and 15 - by her captor in a chilling echo of the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while she was imprisoned in his cellar.