Guest Author - Vance Rowe

Jaycee Lee Dugard was just eleven years old when she was kidnapped from her bus stop almost twenty years ago. She was kidnapped by a convicted sex offender whom was on parole as well. Jaycee was kept in a shed in a backyard of Phillip and Nancy Garrido. The shed was equipped with a basic toilet and shower and extension cords provided electricity. The shed was hidden by a fence, shrubbery and a tarp and when parole officers visited the home over the years, they had no reason to believe that anything was amiss.

Jaycee Lee Dugard also gave birth to two children, both girls, whom were fathered by Garrido. Jaycee gave birth to the first daughter at age fourteen. The children were also kept in the shed with their mother. The girls, now eleven and fourteen, had never once been to see a doctor in their lives. Jaycee’s mother and step father were very excited to see her. Especially the step father as he was a suspect in the case for all of these years and it even caused problems with the marriage and they eventually divorced. The step father was a suspect because he witnessed the kidnapping but it is unknown why he didn’t or couldn’t stop it the kidnapping.

The case broke when Phillip Garrido, a self professed minister, was acting suspiciously around the children as he was attempting to hand out religious literature at the University of California at Berkeley. This was on Tuesday, August 25, 2009. When he was questioned by police, they ran a background check on Garrido and found that he was on lifetime parole as a sex offender and they contacted his parole officer. Garrido was ordered to come in and see his parole officer on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 and he appeared with the two children and Jaycee. He introduced Jaycee as his wife and she went along with the charade. However, after extensive questioning, Garrido admitted to kidnapping Jaycee. The kidnapping was even once profiled on the television show, America's Most Wanted.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido are being investigated with a host of charges to include kidnapping of a minor under the age of fourteen and rape. Jaycee and her daughters were considered healthy or as healthy as they could be for being isolated from the world and never seeing a doctor or even going to school. It is a very happy ending to a rather horrific case that is almost twenty years old.