Advertisement

  • Kidnapped US girl resurfaces after 18 years as sex slave


    San Francisco: A woman who was snatched as an 11-year-old from a bus stop was reunited Thursday with her family after spending 18 years as the captive of a convicted rapist who fathered her two children, police said.

    This undated file photo obtained August 27, 2009 from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shows Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had been missing since she was kidnapped 18 years ago at age 11, and who walked into a California police station in good health and identified herself, police said. Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, came into the Concord, California, police station on August 26, 2009 and said she was the missing girl, police officials said. "We are ninety-nine percent sure that it is her, based on conversations the mother had with the daughter this morning," Lieutenant Les Lovell of the El Dorado County Sheriff's office said. He said a man and a woman had been arrested with the help of the FBI and taken into custody by the Concord Police Department.

    Throughout her capture, Jaycee Dugard, was held in a shed and other outbuildings hidden on the property of Phillip Garrido, 58, in a rural area of Antioch, California, some 80 km northeast of San Francisco.

    Garrido and his wife Nancy, 54, were each being held on $1-million bail on a number of charges including kidnapping, rape and conspiracy.

    "None of the children have ever been to school. They've never been to a doctor," a police representative told a press conference. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will."

    The two police mugshots released on August 27, 2009 by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office in California shows Phillip and Nancy Garrido who were arrested in the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, who was kidnapped 18 years ago when she was just 11, and who walked into a California police station in good health and identified herself, police said August 27, 2009. Dugard had been kept in a hidden backyard behind her captor's home and had two children with her abductor, police said. Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender who has served prison time for kidnapping and rape.

    Police discovered Dugard Wednesday when they questioned Garrido after reported suspicious activity involving him and two children at the University of California, Berkeley.

    Dugard was reunited with her family Thursday. Her stepfather, Carl Probyn, who was with her when she was abducted in June 1991, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the family was overjoyed at her appearance.

    "She sounds normal. She told my wife she remembers everything," Probyn said.

    "I gave up hope for 18 years, just went into recovery mode," he said. "I thought it would be nice just to recover her and capture the people and find out why they did this. Now, I just won the lotto. It's just unbelievable. This is going to be a great day today."

    Source: DPA/IANS

0 comments:

Leave a Reply

Custom Search

Featured Offers

Coming Soon

Make Friends Online

Coming Soon

Followers