Jaycee Dugard was 11 years old when she was abducted on June 10, 1991, while walking to school in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Eighteen years passed before she was found and reunited with her family.
She was adopted by Philip and Nancy Garrido, who raised her in their backyard, which was lined with tents and sheds.
Jaycee Dugard was 11 years old when she was kidnapped on her way to school in 1991. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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“I just wanted to go home,” she said in her testimony to The New York Times. “I told him many times, ‘I don’t know why you’re doing this. If you’re holding me for ransom, my family doesn’t have that much money.'”
During her captivity, she was repeatedly raped by Philip, became pregnant twice, and gave birth to two daughters.
Below are more details about Dugard’s kidnapping and her life today.
- When was Jaycee Dugard discovered?
- Where are Philip and Nancy Garrido now?
- Did Jaycee Dugard try to keep her daughters alive?
- What is Jaycee Dugard doing now?
1. When was Jaycee Dugard discovered?
Dugard was discovered in 2009 after 18 years in captivity.
She found out about this after Phillips took her two daughters to the UC Berkeley campus to get an event permit.
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Campus police noticed his behavior was odd and ran a background check on him, discovering he had previously been convicted of sex crimes, according to the Crime Museum.
Philip’s parole officer called him in for an interview, where he was accompanied by Nancy, their two daughters, and Jaycee, who went by the name Alyssa.
It was 18 years after she was abducted that Jaycee Dugard was finally found and reunited with her family. (Kim Komenich/Getty Images)
After Phillip admitted to kidnapping and raping Jaycee, she revealed her true identity.
After her story came to light, theories emerged that she had developed Stockholm syndrome during her captivity, a term that describes forming an attachment to one’s captor, abductor, or abuser, according to Psychology Today.
Dugard denied these theories, continued to use a false name and said the reason he didn’t try to flee was for his daughters’ safety.
“I couldn’t leave because my daughters were there,” she said in her testimony, according to The New York Times. Jaycee has also vehemently denied ever suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
“It’s humiliating that my family believes I was in love with this perpetrator and wanted to be with him,” she told ABC News in 2016. “It makes me sick because that’s so far from the truth. It’s really disgusting. I adapted to my situation and survived. There’s no other way to put it.”
“He always had a hold on me. I never forgot it. Never,” she told the outlet.
2. Where are Philip and Nancy Garrido now?
Philip and Nancy Garrido pleaded guilty in April 2011 to kidnapping, sexual assault, false imprisonment, lewd acts with a minor and child pornography. They are currently serving prison sentences.
According to The New York Times, Philip was sentenced to 431 years in prison. It is unclear where Philip is currently serving his sentence.
His wife, Nancy, was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison, according to sources. She is serving her sentence at the California Prison for Women in Chino, California, and is eligible for parole in 2029.
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3. Did Jaycee Dugard keep her daughters alive?
Dugard retained custody of her two daughters, born during her captivity after Philip raped her.
Her first child was born in 1994 when she was 14 years old, and she later gave birth to her second daughter in 1997 when she was 17 years old.
“The last time he had sex with me was when she became pregnant,” Dugard said in her testimony, according to The New York Times.
Jaycee has previously said that two of her daughters are in college, but she has kept her entire family largely private. In her book, “Freedom: My Book of Firsts,” she says she’s proud of her daughters and who they’ve become, but she keeps what she says about herself to a minimum.
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4. What is Jaycee Dugard doing now?
Dugard currently lives a private life with her daughters.
Although she and her family have yet to be seen in public, she published a book in 2011 called “A Stolen Life” detailing her story.
In 2016, Dugard published Freedom: My Book of Firsts.
Currently, Jaycee Dugard is the author of two books and founder of the JAYC Foundation. (Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic)
Dugard is also the founder and president of the JAYC Foundation, an organization that was inspired by a harrowing experience he experienced himself.
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According to their website, their mission is “to serve families and individuals who have experienced serious crisis, challenge or conflict due to major life disruptions; to spread a message of hope, growth and resilience through education and animal assistance programs; and to facilitate collaboration among various organizations to provide ‘protected spaces’ where families can heal.”
