Man and wife plead not guilty to kidnap charges

A couple accused of snatching an 11-year-old child and keeping her imprisoned for 18 years today pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges including kidnap, rape and false imprisonment.

Phillip Garrido, 58 – who is accused of fathering two children with the captive - and his wife Nancy Garrido, 55, are alleged to have abducted Jaycee Lee Dugard from outside her Californian home in 1991 and held her in a secret back garden compound for almost two decades.

As they appeared in court today, forensic experts searched the couple’s property for evidence relating to the unsolved murders of a number of prostitutes.

The pair said little as the 29 charges were laid before them at El Dorado Superior Court today. Mrs Garrido cried and put her head in her hands during the session.

They were both held without bail at the end of the court appearance.

Throughout the day, further details began to emerge about the kidnapping of Dugard and the alleged ordeal she endured for 18 years.

The 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.

In a rambling phone interview with a local TV station from his jail, Mr Garrido, a convicted sex offender, described the years he spent with Dugard as a “heart-warming story”.

He said: “(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.

It also emerged today that 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.

Sheriff Warren Rupf said officers were called to the Garrido home 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.”

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

Forensic experts are looking for evidence relating to the murders of a number of prostitutes.

Several of the bodies in the unsolved killings were dumped near an industrial park where Mr Garrido worked during the 1990s.