USA: A woman raped and held captive for 18 years

Jaycee Dugard

SAN FRANCISCO - Jaycee Dugard, the young woman abducted in California at the age of 11, was found Thursday after being sequestered for 18 years and had two children, now aged respectively 15 and 11, from her abductor, who in an interview broadcast Friday described his relationship with his victim as touching.

•     Jaycee Dugard, now aged 29, was abducted on June 10, 1991 in South Lake Tahoe, about 200 miles northeast of San Francisco, under the eyes of her stepfather.
  
      Thursday, County Deputy Sheriff Fred Kollar, has supplied details of the nightmare endured by the young American, saying "she was in good health." According to the preliminary results of the investigation, she lived sequestered in the garden of the house of her abductor, in Antioch, 70 miles east of San Francisco.
  
      "In the garden behind the house, there were shelters, tents and small buildings, where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives," said Kollar at a Press conference.
  
      According to local newspaper Sacramento Bee, the two girls were aged 15 and 11, which means that Jaycee would have had her eldest daugther at the age of 14.
  
      "None of the children were in school or to the doctor. They were kept in complete isolation," said Kollar.
  
      In an interview after his arrest by the local station KCRA-TV, the alleged abductor, Phillip Garrido described his relationship with his victim as "touching".
  
      "If you husk our story, you'll fall backwards and you'll see that our relationship (with Jaycee Dugard) is very touching," said the suspect. He also gave details about his lifestyle with the three captives.
  
      "I had these two little girls (with Jaycee Dugard) - they fell asleep in my arms every night since birth. I have never kissed, we must go slowly," he said by telephone to KCRA.
  
      Phillip Garrido was arrested Wednesday by the FBI with his wife Nancy.
  
      Garrido, who was on parole, was convicted of kidnapping and rape, committed in 1971. He appears in the file of U.S. sex offenders.
  
      The outcome of the kidnapping came after the police checked Tuesday Garrido on the campus of the University of California (Berkeley), holding his suspicious behaviour, "said Kollar.
  
      Garrido was then summoned Wednesday by the officer in charge of his supervision order. There he is presented together with two children, his wife and his victim; he had for the occasion, presented under the name of Allissa.
  
      The officer, who had already gone to the home of Garrido had never seen "Allissa" and the two girls. "He thought that these individuals were suspects," said Kollar.
  
      In the process, he warned the police, who questioned "Allissa", revealing the whole affair.
  
      This new case of sequestration reflects two facts of various global impact occurred in Austria.
  
      In 2006, Natascha Kampusch, kidnapped March 2, 1998 at the age of ten, had escaped, unharmed.
  
      In March the trial of Josef Fritzl has been in the news. Accused of having imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years in a cellar dungeon in his house, making him seven children, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
  
      
  Ennaharonline / M. O.