Police missed chance to find US kidnap victim in 2006

Police missed an opportunity to free Jaycee Lee Dugard in 2006 when they were called to the home where she was allegedly held for 18 years but failed to find her, a spokesman said tonight.

Sheriff Warren Rupf said officers were called to the home of convicted rapist Phillip Garrido three years ago after reports people were living in his back garden.

He added: “On November 30, 2006, we missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation.

“A caller to our 911 dispatch offered that there were tents in the neighbour’s backyard, that people were living in them, and that there were young children.

“The caller also said that Garrido was psychotic and had a sexual addiction.”

He said officers went to Garrido’s home but did not go inside and said they found no evidence “of criminal behaviour”.

He apologised for what he described as “not an acceptable outcome”.

He added: “We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two.”

Mr Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, are being detained on suspicion of kidnapping.

The kidnapped woman is believed to have borne two children – now aged 11 and 15 - by her captor in a chilling echo of the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while she was imprisoned in his cellar.

Mr Garrido is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department said.

In a rambling phone interview with a local TV station from his jail, the alleged abductor said people would be “surprised” when the full story came out.

He said: “When this takes place you are going to be really surprised about what happened. It is a powerful, heart-warming story.

“(Over the) last several years, I have completely turned my life around. You are going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim.

“If you take this a step at a time you are going to fall over backwards and in the end you are going to find the most powerful, heart-warming story.”

A spokesman at the Sheriff’s Department said Jaycee was apparently kept in a shed in the concealed area of the garden of the Garridos’ house where her children were born and brought up.

She has now been reunited with her mother, although officers admitted it “would be a long and ongoing process”.

Speaking about her initial reunion with other family members, Ms Dugard’s stepfather said that everyone was “doing great”.

In an interview with CBS, Carl Probyn, 60, added: “She looks very young, she looks healthy.

He said that his wife told him Jaycee felt “really guilty for bonding with this guy”, adding: “She has a real guilt trip.”

Mr Probyn, the last person to see her in 1991 and a former suspect in the case, said he was overwhelmed when he heard she had reappeared alive and well.

Describing the moment leading up to the abduction, the stepfather said: “As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver’s door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy. I rode back down and yelled at my neighbour, 911!”

The case attracted national attention and was featured on the television programme 'America’s Most Wanted'.

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 being seen with two children at the University of California, Berkeley.

In a statement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said: “The diligent questioning and follow-up by the parolee’s agent of record led to Garrido revealing his kidnapping of the adult female.

“It was further revealed by Garrido that she was Jaycee Lee Dugard and that the children were his.”

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

He said: “The Garridos were taken into custody and an investigation led to their residence in Antioch. Two minors turned out to be children of Jaycee and the male suspect, Garrido. They, along with Nancy Garrido, were living together at the residence in Antioch since the original kidnapping.”

The undersheriff described the compound where the family was imprisoned as a “series of sheds” with electricity and a “rudimentary shower”.

He said: “A search of the residence revealed a hidden backyard with sheds, tents and outbuildings where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives.

“There was a vehicle hidden in the backyard that matched the vehicle originally described at the time of the abduction.

“The tents and outbuildings at the backyard were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and isolate the victims from outside contact.”

He said one shed was soundproofed and could only be opened from the outside.

The house in Antioch remained cordoned off today as it was searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department.