US kidnap survivor 'doing great'

Page last updated at 14:55 GMT, Friday, 28 August 2009 15:55 UK by the BBC News

A woman freed in California 18 years after being kidnapped at the age of 11 is said to have had a happy reunion with her mother.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was found living in her alleged kidnapper's home in a suburb of San Francisco after her abduction 200 miles (322km) away.

She and the two children he allegedly fathered with her are "doing great", stepfather Carl Probyn said.

Mr Probyn said his ex-wife had been struck by how young Jaycee looked.

He and Jaycee's mother divorced after the abduction and he told US media how he had endured years of "hell", under suspicion of having played a part in his stepdaughter's kidnapping.

Jaycee Dugard was forced into a car on her way to school in front of his eyes. He had tried in vain to give chase on a bicycle.

Ms Dugard's alleged abductor and his wife have both been arrested as police search their home in Antioch, El Dorado County.

Phillip Garrido, 58, is being held on suspicion of various kidnapping and sex charges. He is already a convicted rapist and kidnapper.

His wife Nancy, 54, was allegedly with him during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe and has also been arrested.

'Guilt over bonding'

Jaycee Dugard, her two daughters, her sister, her mother and another relative were at the reunion on Thursday, Mr Probyn said.

"I think they're pretty happy," he added.

In interviews on NBC, ABC and CBS on Friday morning, Mr Probyn said the most surprising thing to his wife had been that Jaycee still looked very young.

Ms Dugard also felt guilty for bonding with her captor and her family felt troubled by learning the facts of how she had been forced to live for 18 years, Mr Probyn added.

DNA tests are being taken to confirm Ms Dugard's identity as the police investigation progresses.

Police have removed a car from the suspects' home in Antioch.

They said they had found a vehicle which matched a description of the car originally described at the time of the abduction.

'A disgusting thing'

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar described finding a makeshift compound in the backyard consisting of sheds, tents and outbuildings.

Phillip Garrido
Phillip Garrido allegedly fathered two children with Ms Dugard, police say

The true identity of the backyard's inhabitants only emerged after Garrido was called in along with his "family" for a parole office hearing on Wednesday.

Diane Doty, a neighbour, has said she often heard children playing in the backyard.

"I asked my husband, 'Why is he [Garrido] living in tents?'" she said on Thursday.

"And he said, 'Maybe that is how they like to live.'"

The alleged abductor has himself told a US TV channel that Ms Dugard's ordeal was a "heart-warming" story.

"It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around," Garrido told KCRA television from El Dorado County jail.

Court records show that Garrido was convicted of kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old woman in South Lake Tahoe in 1976.