Arial view of the Garrido compound
Jaycee Dugard, age 11
No doubt the parents of Jaycee Dugard had resigned themselves to the fact that they’d never know what happened to the 11-year old girl. Her stepfather Carl Probyn had witnessed the abduction of his stepdaughter, pulled into a stranger’s vehicle while she was waiting for her school bus in South Lake Tahoe. For all those years, the number one suspect in Jaycee’s disappearance was her stepfather, the last person to have seen her.
On August 26, Phillip Garrido reported to his parole officer at the request of UC Berkeley campus police. Garrido’s mistake: going onto UC Berkeley’s campus and passing our religious materials without receiving clearance. Garrido had two young girls with him, aged 11 and 15, and it was the behavior of the girls that alerted campus police that something was just not right. The girls were unable or unwilling to make eye contact with the officer who questioned Garrido. Campus police contacted Garrido’s parole agent, who summoned Garrido to his office. Accompanying Garrido to the parole agent was his wife Nancy, the two young girls and a young adult female that police had never seen on Garrido’s property. The young woman said her name was Allissa. The parole agent contacted Concord police in an effort to identify the young woman and the two girls.
Eventually the young woman was identified as Jaycee, the two girls as Garrido’s daughters. Some time after that, now 29-year old Jaycee was identified as being the mother of the two girls, and Garrido was indeed their father.
Do the math.
Phillip Craig Garrido was a registered sex offender who managed to just keep below the authorities’ radar. As recently as last July the two-acre Garrido property was searched his home as a condition of his parole. There was no sign that children lived on the property nor was there any sign of Jaycee and the two younger girls. The authorities had no idea there was a secret compound at the back of the property, where the three females were imprisoned apart from the world.
Two years ago a neighbor reported the “living compound” behind the Garrido residence, but because the police did not have a search warrant, they were not allowed to search the property. There was no follow-up to the complaint.
Last year Garrido was accused of stealing the life savings of Dilbert "Jack" Medieros of nearly $18,000—so Garrido could start a church. The complaint was investigated but due to insufficient evidence, charges were dropped.
Garrido is certainly a bit of a nutcase. He maintained his own blog of religious ramblings and was the inventor of a “divine machine” that was able to transmit “unearthly voices.”
This case is one of those that might have been avoided had Garrido actually served all of the time he was given as part of pervious convictions. He served time in federal and Nevada state prisons from 1977 to 1988 for a kidnapping and sexual assault committed in 1976. He was sentenced to 50 years, initially entering the federal prison system in 1977, transferred to Nevada state custody in January of 1988 and ultimately paroled to California in August 1988.
Do some more math. That 50 year sentence must have been the victim of new math. In corrections jargon, 11 years equals 50 years.
Earlier today (August 28), a search warrant was obtained by Pittsburgh, California police, who will search the Garrido property for evidence in the unsolved slayings of prostitutes in the 1990s.
Garrido’s own brother Ron doesn’t put this crime past his brother at all. Although he’s shocked to know that his brother kidnapped Jaycee all those years ago, his brother’s history of LSD use, sexual compulsions, kidnapping and past prison time lead him to believe the accusations against his younger brother are utterly true.
Jaycee and her daughters are now getting re-acquainted (or acquainted) with her mother Terry and her now 19-year old stepsister Shayna.
Garrido has already been blabbing his defense. Obviously he feels he did nothing wrong in stealing an 11-year old child, keeping her from her family, locking her up in his backyard. Oh well, I guess he was a decent God-fearing man and all, waiting until Jaycee was 13 or 14 to impregnate her.
Garrido’s statement: “Wait until you hear the story of what took place at this house. You are going to be completely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning. But I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there.
“You’re going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim—you wait. If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story.”
I for one can’t wait until Jaycee and her two daughters are ready to share this “powerful heart-warming story.” Please read the “transcript” link below—this guy is positively Manson-esque. Forty years later, they are still out there!
Philip and Nancy Garrido each face 27 felony counts including kidnapping a person younger than age 14, kidnapping for sexual purposes, forcible rape, and forcible lewd acts on a child. If convicted, each faces life in prison.
Phillip Garrido will be a very popular guy in prison … crimes against children don’t exactly move an inmate to the head of the line as far as the prison hierarchy is concerned. Child molesters aren’t exactly admired by other inmates. I don't expect Nancy to fare much better unless she and her attorneys manage to convince a jury she was a victim as well.
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