Jaycee Dugard kidnapped 18 years ago So Lake Tahoe, CA FOUND ALIVE / 2 arrested

[trimmonthelake]

No matter what, he violated the terms of his parole.

He will be going away. Personally, he should be taking a dirt nap.

I think so too.   

[trimmonthelake]

Hi Monkeys I just got caught up here. This man sounds like that creepy Fritzl guy in Austria that kept his own daughter in the basement. Sorry for the interruption, I will go back and lurk. 

Why are you lurking?   

[Edward]

No matter what, he violated the terms of his parole.

He will be going away. Personally, he should be taking a dirt nap.

He had three known parole violations after he got out prior to today.

the people of California should be OUTRAGED!  Hell, I am and I don't live in CA!  Is rape and kidnapping of children becoming so common place that it no longer incites outrage!?!?!?! 

Everyone in California has been convinced to let the professionals handle everything..
The professionals know absolutely nothing..
 California has produced a generation of spineless jellyfish.. and when I look around the United States I see ALL Americans have become spineless jellyfish..
Proof of that is Joran, still has legs..No matter what country he lives in..
Gary Hilton enjoys himself in jail and the people that used him to make movies are still out of jail..Yet many families are missing loved ones that he murdered..
We are living in a strange time in history that is for sure..
They used to hang horse thieves.. We are seeing far worse crimes today and this docile generation of stand still Americans are doing nothing..Nothing is a big word and reaches a lot of places in society.
My mom and her whole family is from Texas and they believe in justice.

[Edward]

Hi Monkeys I just got caught up here. This man sounds like that creepy Fritzl guy in Austria that kept his own daughter in the basement. Sorry for the interruption, I will go back and lurk. 

Why are you lurking?   

Looks more like you are riding your monkey bike around the attic.

[SunnyinTX]

No matter what, he violated the terms of his parole.

He will be going away. Personally, he should be taking a dirt nap.

He had three known parole violations after he got out prior to today.

the people of California should be OUTRAGED!  Hell, I am and I don't live in CA!  Is rape and kidnapping of children becoming so common place that it no longer incites outrage!?!?!?! 

Everyone in California has been convinced to let the professionals handle everything..
The professionals know absolutely nothing..
 California has produced a generation of spineless jellyfish.. and when I look around the United States I see ALL Americans have become spineless jellyfish..
Proof of that is Joran, still has legs..No matter what country he lives in..
Gary Hilton enjoys himself in jail and the people that used him to make movies are still out of jail..Yet many families are missing loved ones that he murdered..
We are living in a strange time in history that is for sure..
They used to hang horse thieves.. We are seeing far worse crimes today and this docile generation of stand still Americans are doing nothing..Nothing is a big word and reaches a lot of places in society.
My mom and her whole family is from Texas and they believe in justice.

No, Edward, not ALL AMERICANS have become spineless jellyfish.  Look at SM.....I can't think of one of us who I would put in that category!  But I will admit that many have become immune to the horrors that happen daily.  We are too politically correct. The criminals have more rights that the victims. People are fearful of getting involved.  Having lived in Texas for many years I have to agree. 

[tupelohoney]

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=65912&catid=2

Suspect in Jaycee Dugard Abduction has a Blog   


He calls it "Voices Revealed" and you can click here to read it.   http://voicesrevealed.blogspot.com/

[Northern Rose]

Jaycee Dugard Press Conference: Phillip Garrido and wife, Nancy Garrido in custody video

Today, at 6:00 p.m. ET, the El Dorado Sheriff’s Department held a live press conference to discuss the return of Jaycee Dugard. You may view the Jaycee Dugard Press Conference in the video player below. Jaycee was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido when she was 11 years old. Since that fateful day, on June 10, 1991, Jaycee Dugard lived in a secret backyard area. Police have described her living arrangement as a ‘backyard within a backyard.’ There, she was held as a sex slave and bore two children with Phillip Garrido. Meanwhile, Garrido maintained a reputation as a highly eccentric, religious man who held ‘tent revivals’ from his backyard. Neighbors found him to be strange, while many expressed their shock; they acknowledged that his behavior had always been odd. For instance, the bars on his windows, and the two girls who never left the home: that is, never left their backyard dwellings.

Defense attorneys have stated that they wouldn’t touch this case with a ten-foot pole, specifically since Garrido has fathered the children, and if verified and proved through DNA testing, there will be no defense for Garrido. The children are all the evidence any prosecutor will need to seal his or her case. Additionally, Phillip Garrido’s wife, Nancy Garrido stood by her husband the entire time.

Today, authorities have searched the home on 1554 Walnut Ave in Antioch, California uncovering clues that will seal their case against Phillip and Nancy Garrido and help reveal the past that Jaycee Lee Dugard experienced.

One question that hangs over this case like a foreboding shadow is that Phillip Garrido was a sex offender. Not only was he a sex offender, but he was a registered one. Authorities knew where he was, knew where his home was, and had been to his home on several occasions. At no time, did they ever find anything out of the ordinary, such as a kidnapped child giving birth to two children who were continually in the presence of a registered sex offender.

Jaycee Lee Dugard has a long road ahead of her. She will need a tremendous amount of love, patience, support, and counseling to get past the ordeal she has endured. Her story is remarkably similar to that of Elizabeth Smart’s. Both girls were similar in physical appearance, kidnapped by men who operated under religious delusions, and both men had women supporting them in their abuse of young girls. However, Elizabeth Smart was freed from her captive long before Jaycee Lee Dugard was. At this point, it is imperative that the media and the public holds back any judgment on Jaycee, and recognizes that she is a victim. She was 11 years old when she was kidnapped. There is no time or place to ask why she didn’t come home sooner. Let’s just rejoice that she and her children are finally free, and pray for her complete healing and restoration to begin.

http://www.examiner.com/x-12837-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m8d27-Jaycee-Dugard-Press-Conference-Phillip-Garrido-and-wife-Nancy-Garrido-in-custody

[Northern Rose]

Reporter Reflects on Disappearance and Discovery of Jaycee Dugard

Editors note: Shannon Brinias was a reporter for KOLO at the time Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped. She is now the 11pm anchor for KKTV in Colorado Springs, CO.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - I just finished watching the news conference held at the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office announcing the amazing news that Jaycee Dugard has been found. With all that they said, I found my mind racing back toward that time and my memories of covering her kidnapping. I also find myself imagining the horrors Jaycee must have faced in the years since. We may never know what she has gone through. But this case, this conclusion, has taught me, a television journalist for the past 23 years, that one can never make assumptions about anything.

In 1991, I was one of the reporters assigned by my boss at KOLO to cover this family’s frightening ordeal. Jaycee’s stepfather, Carl, described for me exactly how he had seen his 11-year-old stepdaughter go up the slight hill to where the school bus stop was, and then, the van with a man and a woman coming alongside Jaycee, and the woman grabbing and pulling her inside. He stood in the spot where he’d been, describing it for me, and telling how he’d given chase on a bicycle, only to see them speed away.

During this time period when I worked at KOLO (from 1988-1992), we had unfortunately covered other child disappearances. Those had tragic outcomes, with the poor children’s’ bodies being discovered much later. I believe the murders have remained unsolved. In a child disappearance, law enforcers will tell you that the longer the child is missing, the greater the odds that there will not be a positive outcome in the end. Jaycee’s case had become stuck in my head, as something I thought about whenever I visited South Tahoe, something I’d thought about when other kidnapped children had surfaced after being missing for years on end.

In the days afterward the kidnapping, I interviewed Jaycee’s parents repeatedly. I was always struck by how fiercely this family held onto their hope that their daughter was going to be found alive. Jaycee’s mom, Terry, especially clung to the faith that she would see her daughter again, and that she would be okay. I heard her optimism come through again and again in her conversations with the volunteers and relatives who came to help in the search efforts. At the time, I thought, “She must still be in shock.” How can anyone continue to carry that hope, even as the days, months, and then years, passed? (I left Reno & KOLO about 16 months after Jaycee’s disappearance)

Terry steadfastly supported her husband, Carl, who was the last to see Jaycee. At the time, Carl had to fend off questions, and suspicion by some, that he knew more than he was saying. I would talk to him, though, and his descriptions never varied, and neither did his demeanor. He seemed like a stand-up guy, who was torn apart by this tragedy that had befallen the family on his watch.

I was also struck by how the community of South Lake Tahoe came together to support this hurting family. Volunteers, from all walks of life, came to the home to distribute flyers, to tie pink ribbons; anything that they thought might help in the search for this young girl. But her disappearance had also changed the neighborhood, and parents were on edge. You’d still see bikes in driveways, kids out playing ball, but parents were more visible, keeping watch on these most vulnerable members of their community.

Years passed, and no word of any sighting of Jaycee. Until now.

Today, while preparing to go to work at KOLO’s sister station, KKTV in Colorado Springs, where I anchor the evening news, I glanced at the headlines online. There, a picture that made my heart stop a bit. It was a picture of Jaycee’s flyer, the flyer I never forgot. And next to it, words saying Jaycee had been found, alive, in California just a few hours’ drive from where she’d disappeared. Tears started welling up in my eyes. I’m sure other reporters who covered this kidnapping back then had similar reactions.

I couldn’t believe that this case, which I’d long feared would end in a tragic discovery, had instead ended with the surprise surfacing of the victim, Jaycee, now grown into a woman with two children of her own. But what of her life for the past 18 years? It likely is beyond our imagination.

I thought about her mother, Terry, who’d refused to give up faith and hope, and what she and the entire family must be going through. I hope and pray for strength for the family as they reunite—it will not be easy to overcome the vast divides between the paths their lives have taken.

During the news conference, Undersheriff Fred Kollar talked about how Jaycee and her two children, allegedly fathered by her abuser, had been kept hidden in a secret backyard enclosure, their only shelter, two sheds and two tents. One of those sheds could only be unlocked from the outside. Within the same secret backyard, Kollar said there was the van which was the same one Carl Probyn had seen speed off with his stepdaughter. All these years, Jaycee lived alongside the evidence and memory of her traumatic kidnapping. What sense can Jaycee, or her family, make of the ordeal they’ve had to endure?

In all my years as a reporter, I’ve witnessed some amazing events, and events of great tragedy. Though I’m not there to personally report on this latest development, I think this will be the story that stays with me the longest, the one that has taught me about a family’s perseverance being rewarded.


Original Press Conference with Jaycee's Mom
<a href="http://ww2.KOLOTV.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=362892;hostDomain=ww2.KOLOTV.com;playerWidth=300;playerHeight=259;isShowIcon=true;clipId=4079284;playerType=MINI_EMBEDDEDscript" target="_blank">http://ww2.KOLOTV.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=362892;hostDomain=ww2.KOLOTV.com;playerWidth=300;playerHeight=259;isShowIcon=true;clipId=4079284;playerType=MINI_EMBEDDEDscript</a>

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/55515587.html

[Northern Rose]

Jaycee Lee Dugard Press Conference

Police announced today that Jaycee Lee Dugard’s kidnapper, Philip Garrido, was a convicted sex offender.  Apparently Garrido and his wife snatched Jaycee at a Lake Tahoe bus stop years ago.  The case presents a fascinating PR problem for local authorities, and for the State of California, who are going to have to explain how the parole officer assigned to Garrido failed to notice that he had children living in his home.  Further investigation would have revealed that Jaycee was not Garrido’s biological child, which would clearly violate his parole.

Assume for a moment that Garrido and his wife were really good at covering their tracks – sex offender registries are pretty popular these days, and one might think that neighbors couldn’t possibly have not known that these people suddenly acquired an extra child.

That said, the State is going to have to explain how Garrido slipped through the crack.  We’re kind of at a loss for a solution to this one, its awfully hard to spin, but here’s my best shot: The Governor or the Attorney General needs to initiate an investigation, not to assign blame, but rather to figure out what went wrong.  The only way to get ahead of the curve here is to admit the mistake and try to show a willingness to take a look at the systemic failure that created the problem.

http://losangelespublicrelations.com/jaycee-lee-dugard-press-conference/362

[Northern Rose]

Girl grew up locked away in backyard shed

CNN) -- From the time she was an 11-year-old, blue-eyed, freckle-faced blonde until she was a 28-year-old woman with two children, Jaycee Dugard was kept locked away in a shed by a couple police say abducted her.

She was more than 160 miles from home, and her family had no idea where she was.

Nobody else knew she was there except the couple that snatched her off the street in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991, and took her straight to the soundproof shed, police said.

Dugard's pocket of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's backyard in Antioch, California, was so overgrown no one even knew it existed.

The details about Dugard's time in captivity emerged Thursday after one of Northern California's most enduring mysteries was solved and the Garridos were arrested and accused of her kidnapping.

Anyone who came across the couple's backyard, littered with garbage cans and a dishwasher, would assume that it ended at a six-foot fence.

"You could walk through the backyard and never know there was another set of living circumstances," said Fred Kollar, undersheriff of El Dorado County. "There was nothing that would cause you to question it. You can't see it from either adjoining property. It was presumably well arranged."

But tucked away beyond the tangle of bushes, high grass and trees was a blue tarp that concealed the only world Dugard had known since her abduction.

The 10-foot-by-10-foot shed was equipped with a makeshift bathroom and shower, along with electricity supplied by an extension cord. Kollar compared the primitive conditions to camping.

Dugard lived for several years by herself in the shed, flanked by two tents. The shed was was locked from the outside.

She grew up and had her captor's children inside the shed, and raised them there. "None of them have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will."

The children, both girls, are now 15 and 11.
"They are all in good health," Kollar said in response to a question about how Dugard and her children are doing. "But living in a backyard for the last 18 years does take its toll."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/27/california.kidnap.shed/

[no rose colored glasses]

Dear God I can't even begin to imagine the toll that Jaycee and her two children have had to endure.

[Edward]

She grew up and had her captor's children inside the shed, and raised them there. "None of them have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound


OMG... That worthless man has probably attacked these children also.

I can only think of a few things that would be fair for these 2..
  Just a few..

[Northern Rose]

Police: Kidnap suspect fathered victim's kids

(08-27) 17:24 PDT ANTIOCH -- A woman kidnapped as an 11-year-old girl nearly two decades ago near her South Lake Tahoe home was kept prisoner in a squalid backyard compound outside Antioch and had at least two children with one of her alleged abductors, authorities said today.

Jaycee Dugard, now 29, turned up alive Wednesday, 18 years after she was snatched off the street as she walked to a school bus stop.

Arrested in the case were Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and his wife, Nancy Garrido, 55, authorities said. Both were being held on $1 million bail.

Phillip Garrido was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, sexual penetration and conspiracy. His wife was booked on suspicion of conspiracy and kidnapping.

Neighbors in an unincorporated, semi-rural area outside Antioch described Phillip Garrido as a strange man. They and other acquaintances said he conducted religious revivals in a tent, claimed to hear the voices of angels and said he had developed a device through which he could control sound with his mind.

Dugard apparently was kept for much of the time in a shed, authorities said. She and her daughters were also housed in tents and outbuildings in a part of the Garridos' back yard not easily visible from outside the property on Walnut Drive, authorities said.

The daughters were 15 and 11, said El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar, whose agency is leading the investigation because Dugard was snatched from his county. Garrido fathered both girls, he said.

One of the sheds where the girls were living could only be opened from the outside, he said, and rudimentary toilets and electrical hookups were set up nearby.

That Dugard was found in such living conditions was appalling, he said, but more important was the fact that she was found at all.

"We're very happy to be in front of you under these circumstances - Jaycee Dugard was found alive in Antioch," Kollar declared at a news conference at the El Dorado County fairgrounds in Placerville.

He said the girls were now with Dugard in an undisclosed location.

The Garridos were arrested Wednesday after Phillip Garrido came to a state parole office in Concord, accompanied by his wife, a woman - who turned out to be Dugard - and Dugard's two daughters, officials said.

Garrido, a registered sex offender, was asked to come in because UC Berkeley police Officer Allison Jacobs had become suspicious after questioning him about handing out his religious materials on campus without getting clearance first, authorities said.

"Diligent questioning" and further investigation by state authorities and Concord police revealed that the woman was Dugard, state officials said.

Officials said Garrido served time in Nevada for a 1971 kidnapping and rape conviction and was paroled in June 1999. It was not immediately clear where Dugard may have been while Garrido was in custody.

Federal records also show that Garrido has a separate kidnapping conviction in 1980.

Dugard's mother and stepfather, who had given up ever seeing their daughter again, were joyful at the news she was alive.

"I gave up hope for 18 years, just went into recovery mode," said her stepfather, Carl Probyn, a wallpaper contractor. "I thought it would be nice just to recover her and capture the people and find out why they did this.

"Now, I just won the lotto. It's just unbelievable."

Probyn, 60, who now lives in Orange (Orange County), said his wife, Terry, called him at about 4 p.m. Wednesday with the news.

"She basically said, 'Are you sitting down?' I said, 'Yes.' And she said, 'They found Jaycee - she's alive.' "

The two, who are separated, cried for about two minutes on the phone.

Terry Probyn was able to speak on the phone with her daughter. "She sounds normal. She told my wife she remembers everything," Carl Probyn said.

Dugard was last seen June 10, 1991, as she was walking to a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe. The blond, blue-eyed 11-year-old, wearing a pink top and pink pants, was going to catch the bus to her school near South Lake Tahoe. She never made it.

As Carl Probyn watched from the family's driveway on a hill about two blocks away, a two-tone gray sedan pulled up and someone yanked the girl into the car and sped off. Even though officers responded within minutes, no trace of the car or girl was ever found.

Neighbors of the Garridos on Walnut Avenue - and even some of his own family - considered Phillip Garrido an oddball, saying he believed he could talk to God.

With its security bars on the windows and doors, the Garridos' gray, one-story home stands out from the others in the semi-rural neighborhood.

Erika Pratt, 25, who lived next door two years ago, said she was continuously "freaked out" by Garrido's behavior, and that when she popped her head over the fence she saw his secret compound. She saw tents, sheds and pit bull dogs, and water hoses leading from her house next door to the compound.

"He told us to come on over and hear him talk about God, but he was really weird," Pratt said. "He had little girls and women living in that back yard, and they all looked kind of the same. They never talked, and they kept to themselves."

Pratt said people came and went from the property, but the core group consisted of two girls about 4 years old, one girl about 11, another girl about 15 and a young woman about 25. They were all blonde, she said.
Pratt added that she called police to investigate, but after officers went to Garrido's door, "they told me they couldn't go inside because they didn't have a warrant. So they just told him they'd keep an eye on him."

Haydee Perry, 35, who lives next door, said that when Phillip Garrido helped her jump-start her car a month ago, he had a pre-adolescent girl clinging to him in a manner that struck her as strange.

The girl told Perry that Garrido was her father and that she had older sisters, including one who was 28 - which is one year younger than Jaycee Dugard is believed to be now.

"She stayed close to him at all times," Perry said of the girl. "It wasn't normal behavior. She had a blank stare on her face. Now it seems like a cry out for help."

Perry said Garrido told her he homeschooled girls in his house and that they didn't cuss or watch TV.

"I just thought he was weird," Perry said. "You have children and they're never outside, and you have bars on your windows."

A Web site containing statements apparently from Garrido and others indicates that he gave a demonstration in Pittsburg last month to prove "the Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world."

Garrido also had a printing business, some acquaintances said. Tiffany Tran, who runs Furniture Gallery in Brentwood, said she had seen and done business with "Phil the printer" for six years, as recently as last week.

She recalled Garrido as being "a little different" and said he constantly talked about religion and showed her a device through which he claimed could control sound with his mind.

"Some people have a story behind their smile, some don't - he did," Tran said. "He was happy-go-lucky, but you knew there was a story behind it."

She said he was very religious and talked about how God had been his salvation.

"He loved God. He said God was amazing," Tran said. "He talked about how much God had changed him, that he had been corrupted with womanizing and with this and that."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BA4N19EJ35.DTL

[Northern Rose]

but the core group consisted of two girls about 4 years old, one girl about 11, another girl about 15 and a young woman about 25. They were all blonde, she said.



Who and where are the 4 year olds?  The 11, 15 and 25 (29 really) year old were found today...but where are the 4 year olds?

[Northern Rose]

Bizarre Details Emerge In Kidnapping Case

CBS) - A kidnapping in northern California has come to a bizarre end after almost two decades.

Jaycee Lee Dugard hadn’t been seen or heard from in 18 long years. So, when she accompanied convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, his wife Nancy, and two children, to his parole meeting in Concord, California, authorities got suspicious.

During questioning, they discovered Jaycee, now 29 and called “Allissa," was the 11-year-old girl kidnapped back in 1991 near her home in South Lake Tahoe.

El Dorado Undersheriff Fred Kollar says Phillip Garrido had fathered the two children with Jaycee.

"None of the children had ever gone to school," he said. "They’d never been to a doctor. They were kept in complete isolation."

The two girls are 15 and 11, which means Jaycee got pregnant at age 13.

Authorities say the three lived in a secret area behind the Garrido’s home.

"The hidden backyard had sheds, tents, outbuildings where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their time," Kollar said.

Neighbors say they never saw Jaycee or the girls.

Jaycee’s stepfather, Carl Probyn, who saw the abduction, says he, too, is in shock and worries about her state of mind.

"Right now, thinking that she’s basically a 29-year-old in a, 11-year-old mentally," he said.

Police arrested both Phillip and Nancy Garrido on suspicion of kidnapping. He’s also held on suspicion of rape and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.

Jaycee has had a supervised reunion with her mother and sister.

http://www.wibw.com/crime/headlines/55525897.html

[cookie]

I wonder why he was at UC Berkley?

I wonder how the police officer knew he was an RSO? 

And I've been wondering both of these two questions.

And didn't one of the previous articles say e got out of prison in 1999?  If so, sisn't they check his residence before putting him in jail..they would have found this girl then?  Also ..while he was in jail..did this girl just stay with his wife?

I am not getting all of this...did Jaycee stay with the woman as Gypsy asked?? I need the time line all written out for me I guess...how long was this guy in jail after he took Jaycee? I have read the articles but I think that to me, some are confusing...like the father, stepfather, mother....at first I thought that the bio parents had split up because of this, but then, the step dad was the one who saw it happen..I have since figured that one out...what about the bio dad?
what a horrible life this girl and her children have had!

[Northern Rose]

I wonder why he was at UC Berkley?

I wonder how the police officer knew he was an RSO? 

And I've been wondering both of these two questions.

And didn't one of the previous articles say e got out of prison in 1999?  If so, sisn't they check his residence before putting him in jail..they would have found this girl then?  Also ..while he was in jail..did this girl just stay with his wife?

I am not getting all of this...did Jaycee stay with the woman as Gypsy asked?? I need the time line all written out for me I guess...how long was this guy in jail after he took Jaycee? I have read the articles but I think that to me, some are confusing...like the father, stepfather, mother....at first I thought that the bio parents had split up because of this, but then, the step dad was the one who saw it happen..I have since figured that one out...what about the bio dad?
what a horrible life this girl and her children have had!

No one knows right now. The assumption is the wife kept her locked up as she had been for the previous  years.

Mom was a single mom when step-dad married her.  Not heard a word from bio dad.

[MyView]

I normally just lurk and read, but this case has me so engrossed. There are so many un-answered questions that hopefully will be answered in the next few days.

[Northern Rose]

Kidnap suspect avoided cops' prying eyes

Phillip Garrido had several contacts with the law in recent years, but until this week he kept authorities from finding the backyard compound near Antioch where he allegedly held Jaycee Lee Dugard captive.

Garrido's luck held in July of last year, when a multiagency task force in Contra Costa County searched his home as part of a sexual offender compliance check, officials said. He had a string of offenses dating back to 1971 and was a registered sex offender on parole in California.

Authorities found only evidence that Garrido, 58, his wife, Nancy, 55, and his mother were living in the home on Walnut Drive, said Sgt. Diane Aguinaga of the Antioch police.

The team looked in the back, but saw only a screened-in porch and a back fence, she said.

Behind that fence, authorities now believe, was a hidden backyard with sheds and outbuildings. There, Garrido was housing Dugard and two daughters she allegedly had by him, officials said.

"There were zero signs of kids living there," Aguinaga said. "Only him, his wife and mom."

Electrical cords turned out to be leading to the hidden compound, and there was what authorities described as a rudimentary outhouse and shower.

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said barriers had been built to "inhibit outside viewing and prevent the victims from contact with the outside world."

The walls were even soundproofed.

Police, however, had been told about the backyard lair before, according to a former neighbor.

Erika Pratt said that two years ago, she called police after seeing what looked like a living compound with tents and sheds.

Sheriff's deputies came to ask questions, Pratt said, but told her that because they didn't have a warrant, they couldn't search the house. "I always wished someone could do something about it," Pratt said. "It was like he was charging people to live there."

Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee confirmed that his agency had dealt with Garrido before but was not able to provide details.

"We need to investigate it further to determine what that contact was," Lee said.

At the time of the sex offender task force's check last year, Garrido was already the subject of a criminal probe that began in 2008 and had nothing to do with sex crimes.

Aguinaga said Garrido was suspected of bilking an elderly neighbor out of his life savings. A complaint was lodged on the man's behalf when he moved to Friendship Residential Care in Antioch, Aguinaga said.

The elder care home relayed allegations that from late 2007 to March 2008, Garrido swindled Dilbert "Jack" Medieros, now 79, of nearly $18,000. In the end, prosecutors cited insufficient evidence in declining to file charges this past April.

Garrido explained to police that Medieros had given him money to help start a church. He also told investigators that he had known Medieros for years and took him places such as the zoo.

"He said Jack never wanted him to pay him back," Aguinaga said. "He said he did not ask for the money. Jack gave it to him anyway."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BA0Q19EMR7.DTL

[Northern Rose]

I normally just lurk and read, but this case has me so engrossed. There are so many un-answered questions that hopefully will be answered in the next few days.

Please jump in Myview.  I am stunned that they checked his house in July of last year and found nothing.  Now we also find out he stole the life savings of a senior as well.