Missing for 18 years

Jaycee Lee Dugard - An age enhanced photo - placing her at about age twenty

Jaycee Lee Dugard - as she was at eleven years - around the time of her kidnap

A US woman found after being abducted as a girl in 1991 gave birth to two children fathered by her alleged kidnapper, police say. Jaycee Lee Dugard and the children, aged 11 and 15, were kept in a "hidden backyard within a backyard". Alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, are being held in custody in California.

DNA tests are being done to establish Ms Dugard's identity, but meanwhile she has been reunited with her mother. Ms Dugard disappeared in 1991, aged 11, from outside her Lake Tahoe home, apparently taken by two people.

Phillip Garrido allegedly fathered two children with Ms Dugard. El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said she had lived with the couple, isolated from view at a property in Antioch near San Francisco since the kidnapping. "The tents and outbuildings in the backyard were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact."
The three spent "most of their lives" there, he said, adding that they had never been to school or seen a doctor.

Their identities were revealed after Mr Garrido was spotted by police at the University of California Berkeley campus with the two young children. He raised suspicions because as a registered sex offender he was not allowed to be with young children. Phillip Garrido has a conviction for rape and was paroled in

1999, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

He was called in by his parole officer for questioning, and brought the two children and a young woman he called Allissa with him. During questioning he revealed that Allissa was actually Ms Dugard. She also confirmed her identity to police.

There have been few clues as to Jaycee Lee's whereabouts in 18 years . At the Antioch property, there was also a vehicle hidden in the backyard which matched the vehicle originally described at the time of the abduction, Mr Kollar said.
"It's a pretty spectacular story just to find someone like that. Someone we assumed was dead," said Bill Clark, a senior prosecutor in El Dorado County.
Jimmie Lee, a local police spokesman, said Mr Garrido was also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.

As news spread of Ms Dugard's apparent re-appearance, her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News that her family was now convinced she was coming back to them.
"I had personally given up hope," he said, saying that he just wanted to find the people responsible. Mr Probyn was watching on 10 June 1991, as the young girl was apparently taken away by two unidentified people. The incident occurred as she was walking from her home to a school bus stop in the southern Lake Tahoe town of Meyers.

Her stepfather - who initially came under suspicion after her disappearance and is now estranged from Ms Dugard's mother - has described how a stranger drove up and grabbed Ms Dugard, bundling her into a grey car even as she tried to resist by kicking and screaming. Mr Probyn believed a man and woman were in the vehicle. Despite several false reports of sightings in the intervening years, Ms Dugard was never seen again.

"She sounds like she's okay",said Probyn.
"She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."
"To have this happen, where we get her back alive, where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

I have heard of a half a dozen cases like this, where a young girl (usually pre-adolescent) is kidnapped and kept imprisoned as a sex slave for years. I think the most recent one ocurred in Austria. However in that case I believe the abductor was the victim's own father. I think the situation is more prevelant than we think. You can't protect your children every moment of their lives without restricting , even imprisoning them yourself, but how do we stop these predators?

I think one of the keys here is that if your child is not with you then he/she should be in the company of others and make sure they are people you can trust.These predators home in on kids who are left alone even for a moment.

Children are a gift.We are entrusted with their care and well being. You can't be too cautious.