Missing woman found 18 years later

Aug 28 2009

A woman who went missing aged 11 and was reunited with her family 18 years later allegedly had two children with her abductor.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was snatched by two people in a car from a bus stop outside her home in 1991.

Police said they are "99% certain" the person who walked into Concord police station in California almost two decades later is Jaycee.

Speaking at a press conference, a spokesman for the El Dorado Sheriff's Department said two people were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and other offences. They were named as Phillip Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 54.

In a chilling echo of the Josef Fritzl case - the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while she was imprisoned in his cellar - Jaycee is believed to have had two children with her alleged kidnapper.

The spokesman said Jaycee was allegedly kept in a shed in the backyard of the Garrido's house where her children - aged 11 and 15 - were born and brought up.

The woman and the children appeared to be in good health, but police added that "living in a backyard for 18 years had taken its toll" on Jaycee. The children have never been to school and have never been to a doctor.

Jaycee was snatched by two people in a car from a bus stop outside her home in 1991.

Phillip Garrido is being held on suspicion of kidnapping, rape by force and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. It also emerged that Mr Garrido has previous convictions for rape and kidnap in Nevada in 1971.

Mr Garrido was called in for questioning on Wednesday following a report that he had been seen with two small children. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said diligent questioning and follow-up by Mr Garrido's parole officer had led to him revealing his part in Jaycee's kidnapping.