Kidnap Suspect: 'Wait Until You Hear The Story'
Phillip Craig Garrido Accused Of Kidnapping, Raping and Twice Impregnating Jaycee Lee Dugard
Sacramento -- A sex offender accused of fathering two children with a girl he kidnapped in 1991 claims his life "has been straightened out" and implored people to wait until they hear the whole story of what happened at a Bay Area home over the past 18 years.
Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, is accused of taking Jaycee Lee Dugard from her home in the El Dorado County community of Meyers when she was 11 years old.
Dugard and the children, now 11 and 15, lived in an isolated backyard compound of tents, outbuildings and a shed behind Garrido's home on Walnut Avenue in Antioch, authorities said.
"None of the children have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will."
In a telephone interview with KCRA 3, Garrido urged people to wait for more details about what took place at the house."You are going to be completely impressed," he said. "It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning. But I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there." Garrido also claimed that he left important documents with an agent at the FBI office in San Francisco.
Jaycee Lee Dugard
The case broke after Garrido was spotted Tuesday with two children as he tried to enter the University of California, Berkeley, campus to hand out religious literature. The officers said he was acting suspiciously toward the children. They questioned him and did a background check, determining he was a parolee, and informed his parole officer.
Garrido was ordered to appear for a parole meeting and arrived Wednesday with Dugard, his wife and two children. During questioning, corrections officials said he admitted kidnapping Dugard. It was not known if he had a lawyer.Garrido and his wife, 55-year-old Nancy Garrido, were booked into the Contra Costa County jail in Martinez late Wednesday night, according to jail records.
Phillip Garrido was booked on charges including kidnapping, conspiracy, rape and committing lewd acts with a minor, according to the records. Nancy Garrido is accused of kidnapping and conspiracy. Both are being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
'This Strange Religious Stuff'
Phillip Garrido has a business called God's Desire, based out of his home in Antioch. He referred to God's Desire as a church in a telephone interview.
"What's kept me busy the last several years is I've completely turned my life around," Garrido told KCRA 3. "And you're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim -- you wait. If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story."
People who knew Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido
"In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him," said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburgh, who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido's printing business for the last decade.
Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen's showroom with two "cute little blond girls" in tow, he said.
During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said. "He rambled. It made no sense," he said. Garrido would talk about holding events at UC Berkeley and mentioned the names of important people as if he knew them. Allen said he had no inkling of Garrido's criminal record.
"We never thought anything bad about the guy," Allen said. "He was just kind of nutty."Garrido was paroled from a Nevada state prison on June 8, 1999. He served time in federal custody in Nevada for sexual assault.
Family, Community Rejoices As Dugard Turns Up Safe
Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, who now lives in Southern California, said Thursday that Dugard's mother, Terry Probyn, called him Wednesday afternoon and told him the FBI had contacted her to say they may have found her daughter.
"I'm running around the house like I've had six cups of coffee," Probyn said Thursday morning.At the time of the abduction, Dugard's family reported that a vehicle occupied by two people drove up to the girl and abducted her in view of her stepfather.
The girl was seen walking to a bus stop. As she walked, a gray, two-tone, late-model sedan was seen making a U-turn on the street.The car approached the child and a woman described as about 30 years old with long, dark hair pulled her inside, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A man was also seen in the car.
"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," Probyn recalled. "I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!"
Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home. Probyn eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive. He said he was struggling to understand why Dugard didn't come forward earlier.
"I don't know if she was brainwashed, I don't know if she was walking around on the street, I don't know if she was locked up under key for 18 years, I have no idea."
The mother and daughter met Thursday morning at an area hotel. Dugard retains custody of her children, authorities said. A DNA test is being conducted to confirm her identity. At the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, employees huddled around television sets and computers to watch the news conference. Their tears of joy that Jaycee was alive became tears of horror and anger when details of her abduction and long captivity were recounted by police.
"Oh my God," murmured Superintendent James Tarwater. Resident Angie Keil said the Lake Tahoe community rallied around the family, holding candlelight vigils, and in the early days organizing searches. "Jaycee has always been in our minds, all these years," she said, her eyes moist with tears.
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http://www.kcra.com/news/20591281/detail.html
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