Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped in California in 1991. Dugard reappeared after 18 years and got in touch with the police in Concord in northern California. Photo: EPA
Miss Dugard was abducted near her home in South Lake Tahoe on June 10, 1991 by two people in a gray sedan.
Her parents have spoken to the young woman over the phone and say they are convinced she is the daughter they believed they would never see again.
"I had personally given up hope," her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News. "I had just hoped for a recovery [of a body]... I've actually won the lotto."
He added: "She sounds like she's okay. She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."
Her mother Terry Probyn and 19-year-old half-sister Shayna were flying from their home in southern California to be reunited with the woman who California authorities say is their long-lost relative.
Although the details of Miss Dugard's re-emergence are not yet clear, it is understood that Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 55, are now in custody. Police were also said to be searching a home in Antioch, a suburb of San Francisco.
Mr Garrido, a registered sex offender with a prior conviction for rape, was being held on suspicion of kidnapping, rape, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, sexual penetration and kidnapping, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Nancy Garrido was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and kidnapping, the newspaper said.
Miss Dugard, who would now be 29, was seized by a man and a woman on the morning of June 10, 1991 as she walked to her school bus stop in her home town of South Lake Tahoe, California.
Mr Probyn heard his stepdaughter scream and saw her being forced into a grey car, but was unable to prevent the kidnapping, which became one of the most notious unsolved crimes in the US.
There were a number of reported sightings of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in nearby towns in the years after her disappearance, but the trace ran cold and her family had resigned themselves to never seeing her again, although the case was never closed.
Rumours surfaced that she had been kidnapped by religious cult members or known child abusers, although police could find no firm leads.
Authorities were due disclose more information about Dugard's remarkable re-emergence – and how she has spent the last 18 years – in a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
But her case is already being compared to that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl held for more than eight years in a dungeon below the home of her abusive captor. Kampusch only secured her own freedom by escaping from her windowless cell in August 2006, after which her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil committed suicide.
Mr Probyn, who was initially a suspect in the case and was forced to take repeated lie detector tests, said that his wife, from whom he is estranged, initially believed the phone call she received from the FBI telling her the news was a hoax.
"To have this happen, where she walks into a police station, is really a miracle to get her back," Mr Probyn said. "And she sounds like she is doing okay. I don't know if she is married. I don't know if a cult took her, or if a couple who didn't have kids took her. I'll find out today all these answers."
Miss Dugard was abducted near her home in South Lake Tahoe on June 10, 1991 by two people in a gray sedan.
Her parents have spoken to the young woman over the phone and say they are convinced she is the daughter they believed they would never see again.
"I had personally given up hope," her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News. "I had just hoped for a recovery [of a body]... I've actually won the lotto."
He added: "She sounds like she's okay. She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."
Her mother Terry Probyn and 19-year-old half-sister Shayna were flying from their home in southern California to be reunited with the woman who California authorities say is their long-lost relative.
Although the details of Miss Dugard's re-emergence are not yet clear, it is understood that Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 55, are now in custody. Police were also said to be searching a home in Antioch, a suburb of San Francisco.
Mr Garrido, a registered sex offender with a prior conviction for rape, was being held on suspicion of kidnapping, rape, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, sexual penetration and kidnapping, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Nancy Garrido was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and kidnapping, the newspaper said.
Miss Dugard, who would now be 29, was seized by a man and a woman on the morning of June 10, 1991 as she walked to her school bus stop in her home town of South Lake Tahoe, California.
Mr Probyn heard his stepdaughter scream and saw her being forced into a grey car, but was unable to prevent the kidnapping, which became one of the most notious unsolved crimes in the US.
There were a number of reported sightings of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in nearby towns in the years after her disappearance, but the trace ran cold and her family had resigned themselves to never seeing her again, although the case was never closed.
Rumours surfaced that she had been kidnapped by religious cult members or known child abusers, although police could find no firm leads.
Authorities were due disclose more information about Dugard's remarkable re-emergence – and how she has spent the last 18 years – in a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
But her case is already being compared to that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl held for more than eight years in a dungeon below the home of her abusive captor. Kampusch only secured her own freedom by escaping from her windowless cell in August 2006, after which her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil committed suicide.
Mr Probyn, who was initially a suspect in the case and was forced to take repeated lie detector tests, said that his wife, from whom he is estranged, initially believed the phone call she received from the FBI telling her the news was a hoax.
"To have this happen, where she walks into a police station, is really a miracle to get her back," Mr Probyn said. "And she sounds like she is doing okay. I don't know if she is married. I don't know if a cult took her, or if a couple who didn't have kids took her. I'll find out today all these answers."
0 comments:
Post a Comment