Police search of Garrido home extended to house next door

POLICE have extended their search to a property next door to the Garridos’ home.

Neighbours identified Damon Robinson as the resident.

Mr Robinson has said he lived there for more than three years and it was his then-girlfriend in 2006 who called police after she saw tents and children in the backyard.

More details have emerged of the ramshackle compound where Jaycee Lee Dugard was imprisoned, raped and shut off from society for almost two decades after being kidnapped aged 11. The scene of her 18-year ordeal was a collection of outbuildings, sheds and tents concealed from view behind a six-foot (1.8-metre) fence, overgrown trees and tarpaulins at the back of the Californian home belonging to Phillip Garrido.

While hidden from the outside world, prosecutors say she was raped and had two children by Garrido, a 58-year-old convicted sex offender.

Photographs revealed Ms Dugard, now aged 29, and her two daughters were forced to live in squalid conditions with mattresses, small chairs and piles of books and toys strewn across what looks like a dilapidated campsite. Hanging in branches near one of the tents are wind chimes and a “welcome” sign.

Garrido, who was arrested last week with his 55-year-old wife, Nancy, was named by police as a “person of interest” in an investigation into the unsolved murders of a number of prostitutes in the 1990s. Several of the women’s bodies were dumped near an industrial park where Garrido worked during the 1990s.

As forensic experts searched his home for evidence of the killings, details of missed chances by authorities were exposed:

* Authorities missed several chances to search his house after neighbours had complained to police that a psychotic sex addict was in their midst and was housing young girls in backyard tents three years ago. A deputy who showed up to investigate never went beyond the front porch, while probation officers also had no inkling that his backyard was actually a labyrinth of tents, sheds and buildings. They did not even know he had children on the premises.

* Officers were able to detect Garrido’s movements. He had been electronically-tagged as a result of his sex-crime convictions that sent him to prison for a 50-year stint, only to get paroled after 10 years.

Dan DeMaranville, who investigated him in the 1970s rape case in Nevada, said: “The guy was a sick puppy, and should have been neutered before he was paroled.”

Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E Rupf said officers had “missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation”.

According to her relatives, Ms Dugard felt guilty about her relationship with Garrido and declared “Hi, mom, I have babies” in an emotional reunion with her family this week.

Ms Dugard remained with her two children, 11 and 15, and family, according to reports.

Her stepfather Carl Probyn, who was there when she was snatched from a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, said: “Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy. She really feels it’s almost like a marriage.”

Garrido and his wife denied dozens of charges including kidnap, rape and false imprisonment when they appeared at El Dorado Superior Court on Friday.

The accused pair remained largely silent as 29 charges were laid before them. Both were denied bail.

The Garridos were arrested on Wednesday after Mr Garrido – who was convicted of rape and kidnap in Nevada in 1971 – admitted the kidnapping under close questioning by a parole officer. He had been called in after been seen with two children at the University of California, Berkeley.

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said the children have never been to school and never been to the doctor.