Agents missed chance to rescue kidnapped girl

A REPORT by the California attorney general’s office says parole agents spoke to the woman who was held captive by a convicted rapist for 18 years and fathered his two children, but never bothered to follow it up.

The revelation about how parole agents missed another opportunity to rescue Jaycee Dugard is contained in a report obtained by The Associated Press under the California Public Records Act.

Dugard, now 30, says parole agents spoke with her during her captivity and with the older of the two daughters she bore to Phillip Garrido. Garrido has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and raping Dugard, who was 11 when she disappeared.

The document was prepared by the attorney general’s office and sent to politicians in advance of their vote last week to settle with the Dugard family for $20 million (€15.8m).

Dugard and her daughters, aged 15 and 12, claimed state parole agents failed to properly supervise Garrido starting in 1999 and did not follow up on reports and observations that might have led to their rescue.

They were found last August, after living for nearly two decades in a compound in the back garden of Garrido’s house in the eastern San Francisco Bay area city of Antioch.

Previous reports from the state corrections department and an independent inspector general said parole agents had discovered one of the girls Garrido had fathered with Dugard, but accepted his explanation that she was a niece.

That contact was made in 2008 when the girl was 12.

Those reports made no mention of any contact between parole agents and Dugard while she was being held captive.

Inspector general spokeswoman Laura Hill declined to comment on the attorney general’s internal report to politicians.

The report from the state attorney general’s office gives a stark outline of the reasons the state agreed to settle the family’s claim with such a large sum.

In part, it says the claim is supported by a number of allegations, including “that agents saw and spoke to Ms Dugard and her eldest daughter but failed to investigate their identities or their relationship to Garrido”.