Kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard

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The abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard and her eighteen-year captivity, which ended on August 27, 2009, is a high-profile criminal case in the United States . The child kidnapped victim was sexually abused and gave birth to two daughters in captivity.

Kidnapping and imprisonment

The Kidnapper Phillip Garrido (2009)

Jaycee Dugard was abducted on June 10, 1991 at the age of 11 and subsequently held for over 18 years. Before that, she lived with her mother, her then one-year-old half-sister and stepfather in South Lake Tahoe, California . On the day of the kidnapping, she was dragged into a car by a couple on the way to school. Her stepfather watched from a distance and alerted the police. Extensive search measures in the following period, including by means of a well-known American television program, were unsuccessful. At times the stepfather, who was the last to see the child, himself came under suspicion.

The kidnapper Phillip Garrido is a convicted sex offender who in 1977 for abduction with rape sentenced to eleven years later on parole was dismissed. After the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, Garrido kept his victim imprisoned on his property in Antioch, some 70 kilometers east of San Francisco . Apparently, this mostly happened in the back yard of his house. Sheds and tents were set up there.

Garrido's wife Nancy Garrido, who was arrested with her husband, is considered directly involved. When Phillip Garrido was sentenced to four months in prison for violating parole in 1993 , Jaycee Dugard remained incarcerated.

Garrido impregnated his victim between the ages of 13 and 17; the two children thus conceived were 11 and 15 years old at the time of liberation. Phillip Garrido created the image for the two of them that their actual mother, Jaycee Dugard, was their sister, while his wife, Nancy, was supposed to take on the role of mother. To what extent he actually succeeded in this is unknown.

During her imprisonment, Dugard developed a very strong dependency on her kidnapper and for this reason did not use some opportunities to make strangers aware of her fate. According to media reports, she most recently worked at the Garrido print shop, where she had regular contact with customers. However, Garrido always wanted to make her believe that the world was a dangerous place where bad things would happen to her and her two daughters.

In 2011 Dugard published a book about her abduction and imprisonment under the title A Stolen Life (Eng. Title: A Stolen Life ).

Liberation and criticism of the police

On August 27, 2009, the now 29-year-old Dugard and the two children were accidentally released because the police became aware of Garrido when he was getting permission for a religious event on the Berkeley University campus, accompanied by two underage girls wanted to. It was later revealed that the children were his daughters, born of the rapes.

Law enforcement agencies faced critical questions that indicated possible omissions. Garrido wore an electronic ankle cuff as a parole that recorded his movements and met a probation officer several times a month. The police were empowered to conduct unannounced house inspections at any time. Shortly after the discovery, it was also revealed that the police had received a tip from the neighborhood in 2006 that children were living in tents in Garrido's garden. The hint was not followed up with the necessary emphasis.

compensation

In June 2010, both Houses of Parliament in the state of California voted in favor of the California Department of Justice's recommended payout of $ 20 million to Dugard and the two children fathered by her kidnapper. The parliamentarians rated the Dugard case as "incomparable and tragic".

Criminal proceedings

A court in the El Dorado district brought charges against 58-year-old Garrido and his 54-year-old wife Nancy. The couple are accused of kidnapping, rape and deprivation of liberty , among other things . Both initially pleaded not guilty . However, on April 29, 2011, both pleaded guilty . On June 2, 2011, Philip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison; his wife Nancy to 36 years in prison.

Similar cases

The case shows parallels with other spectacular kidnapping cases, in which underage victims - and in some cases their children conceived as a result of the crime - were locked up for years (see above all the kidnapping of Steven Stayner , the kidnapping of Colleen Stan , the kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch and the Criminal case of Amstetten ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Spillius: “Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping: police focus on 'monster' Nancy Garrido” , in: The Daily Telegraph , August 31, 2009
  2. ↑ Alex Spillius, "Jaycee Lee Dugard's daughters Angel and Starlite did not know their mother had been kidnapped," in: The Daily Telegraph , August 30, 2009
  3. ↑ "Questions Arise Over How Kidnapper Went Undetected" , Fox News , August 30, 2009; "Investigators could have ended Dugard's abduction earlier," in: Spiegel Online , August 29, 2009
  4. ^ "Dugard kidnapping victim receives millions in compensation" , in: Spiegel Online , July 1, 2010
  5. ↑ Dugard's kidnappers plead guilty in: Spiegel Online , April 29, 2011
  6. ^ Nancy and Philip Garrido sentenced for Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping in: cbsnews.com, June 2, 2011