Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
On June 10, 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California. The incident happened in broad daylight, and authorities soon found that a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, was responsible for the abduction. Subsequently, they discovered that his wife, Nancy, assisted him in the kidnapping of Dugard.
People Magazine reported that Jaycee’s stepfather witnessed the kidnapping and tried to follow the car on his motorcycle. However, he couldn’t save her and called 911. The abductors reportedly took Jaycee Dugard to their home in Antioch, California. Citing Dugard’s memoir A Stolen Life, People Magazine revealed that Phillip sexually assaulted her on several occasions. Moreover, he would tell her to dress up in a certain way to fulfill “his personal fantasies.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the frequency of sexual abuse lowered when Jaycee Dugard gave birth to her first daughter in 1994. She was in captivity for 18 years, along with his daughters, and was eventually rescued in 2009 when authorities arrested Phillip and Nancy Garrido. CBS News reported that the duo pleaded guilty to abducting Jaycee Gudard. They pleaded guilty to other charges as well, except child pornography. The court sentenced Phillip Garrido to 431 years in prison, while Nancy was sentenced to 36 years, per CNN.
Where are Dugard and her daughters now?
Following her rescue, Jaycee Dugard and her daughters started living with her biological mother in northern California. She retained custody of her daughters. Moreover, ABC News reported that Dugard learned to drive and traveled to Belize for a vacation. In 2011, she wrote her first book, A Stolen Life: A Memoir, which described her years in captivity. The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller. Then, in 2016, she wrote another book titled Freedom: My Book of Firsts, where she learned what freedom meant to her.
Although Jaycee Dugard and her daughters returned to living a normal life, authorities had to work hard to rescue them. In August 2009, Phillip Garrido took Dugard and her daughters to the Berkeley campus of the University of California. People Magazine reported that a campus officer found Phillip suspicious and requested him to return the next day. However, before returning, the campus officer did thorough research on Phillip and learned about his criminal history.
Phillip returned to the campus with his daughters, and after seeing the conditions of the girls, a campus police officer contacted the convicted sex offender’s parole officer to find the truth. On August 26, 2009, Phillip, Nancy, Jaycee, and her two daughters visited the parole officer. After some rounds of questioning, Phillip eventually confessed to the crimes and revealed that he had abducted Jaycee Dugard. He also admitted to having sexually abused the victim, per People Magazine.
Dugard denied having Stockholm Syndrome
After her rescue, many people alleged that Jaycee Dugard had positive feelings toward Phillip Garrido because she never tried to escape. However, Dugard denied those claims and noted that the well-being of her daughters stopped her from escaping the captivity. In her testimony, she said, “I couldn’t leave. I had the girls.”
During a 2016 interview with ABC News, Dugard reiterated that she always wanted to be free. She said, “It’s degrading having my family believe that I was in love with this captor and wanted to stay with him.”
Following her rescue, Jaycee Dugard also founded The JAYC Foundation, which helps families in dealing with traumatic events.
