JAYCEE DUGARD

Missing: 6/10/91 Age: 11

Recovered: 8/24/09

 

On June 10, 1991 Jaycee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop within site of her home in South Lake Tahoe, California.  Carl Probyn, Jaycee’s stepfather, who witnessed this horrifying scene from his yard, proceded to chase down the abductors on a bicycle, but failed to catch up to them.  Within hours of Jaycee’s abduction, local and national newscasters were notified.

Phillip Craig Garrido, a convicted criminal prior to Jaycee’s abduction, and his wife Nancy Bocanegra held Jaycee Dugard captive for eighteen years before she was found. During this time,  Dugard was raped multiple times a day eventually giving birth to two girls by Garrido in 1994 and 1997. Law enforcement officers believe that Dugard and her two girls were kept in a concealed part of Garrido’s backyard.

Over the course of eighteen years, police missed many opportunities to free Dugard. Just a year after her abduction, an unknown call came in to Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department with suspicion that a girl seen in a yellow van was missing Jaycee Dugard. The department failed to follow up on the lead. In 2006, Garrido’s neighbor made a 9-1-1 call. The neighbor accused Garrido of being a psychotic, sex addict due to the noise coming from his backyard. It was not until August 24, 2009 when Garrido and Jacyee’s daughters went seeking permission from the University of California at Berkley to pass out pamphlet for his “God’s Desire” program. Lisa Campbell, U.C. Berkley’s event manager, notice oddity from the children. She then called the police who later took Garrido and daughters to the police station where soon following Jaycee arrived posing under the name Alyssa. After lying to the police multiple times of her identity, “Alyssa” confessed the truth of her identity.