Google image of backyard compound where Jaycee Dugard and her daughters were enslaved by the Garridos for 18 years. (graphic courtesy of MercuryNews.com)
The unfolding of the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping/multiple rape story in the past couple of days has an eerie nightmarish quality about it, and I’ve had to force myself to read beyond the headlines. Trying to imagine what Jaycee endured during the 18 years of her abduction fills me with outrage equaled only by the story of the Somali girl a few months ago who, after three adult men raped her, was stoned to death for adultery – as I recall, she was about the same age as Jaycee at the time of her death.
Jaycee was only 11 when the two fiends Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy abducted her at a bus stop on her way to school. Rather than using her for his depraved purposes and then abandoning her in Somali style, Garrido – aided and abetted by his wife – enslaved the child for his sexual pleasure all those years.
Dugard was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday. Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those girls, now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home.
"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."
Never been to a doctor? My mind freezes in the attempt to grasp what Jaycee’s two experiences of childbirth were like in those circumstances.
One can only ask how will the now 29-year-old Jaycee and her daughters ever find their way to healing and wholeness after the deprivation and abuse they’ve suffered?”
Still stunned by Jaycee’s horrific ordeal, I search in vain for words of wisdom to conclude this post.
Maybe later.
Shock and outrage about sums it up.
ReplyDeleteI am speechless.
SYD
Hi SYD,
ReplyDeleteWhat else can one say? I am still stunned.
I agree. I have yet to read the details of this story, it is just too brutal.
ReplyDeletehey jaycee, here's an idea, climb the freaking fence, idiot
ReplyDeleteIt suprises me that for as much as specialists claim to know about human behavior, we deny ourselves the ability to sniff out these haneous crimes via profiling and a little investigation. The police failed in pursuing an investigation of the compound and they failed to get a search warrant. How many more missing children out there are also suffering from these sorts of acts that the most normal person out there might be doing? It is high time we start going door to door on suspected crazy rural backwoods redneck homes.
ReplyDeleteOne obvious question is, how could Garrido afford this large compound and pay for all the food necessary to feed his "family" of five? Based on news reports, Garrido appears to be an obviously disturbed individual. How could he hold down a job.
ReplyDeleteBecky,
ReplyDeleteMore details keep coming, and it doesn't get any better. What's most frightening to me at this point is that such reprehensible crimes continue in our supposedly highly developed, civilized country. One can grasp the chaos in Somalia and understand how such acts can occur in a nation where there is no rule of law. But this is America!!
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your criticism of the lapses of law enforcement officials in this case. But I strongly object to your recommendation of 'profiling' in conducting investigations, which usually has to do with racism or other forms of discrimination. Did you mean something else in your use of the term?
I also question your apparent assumption that only so-called rednecks engage in these heinous crimes - that's simply not true. Sexual predators come from every level of society, even the church hierarchy.
johnrj08,
ReplyDeleteEvidently Garrido was self-employed as a printer. A couple of his customers have reported consulting with him at his home on printing jobs.
dirtyham,
ReplyDeleteYour comment reveals more about you than anyone else. I'm appalled by your ignorance and lack of insight and compassion.
right on Virginia
ReplyDeleteYou know most of these so called “police/ parole officers” always have a chip on their shoulders, and even when they fail to do their jobs they appear arrogant like saying “what are you going to do”, let’s face it she who save herself, she was not save by the authorities. Does anyone believe that the authorities were investigating her disappearance? The car used in her kidnapping was in the backyard, the lazy ass cops didn’t even bother to go through the backyard when the information indicated that kids were living back there, they didn’t check local schools to see if the kids were going to school or even asked to see the kids, no report to child protective services, boy how lazy can you be and still pick up your public service check, not to mention the parole officers who failed to visit and find out where this freak was living and what he was doing, amazing, simply amazing.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. You make good points, and you seem as outraged as I am by this whole sorry episode. But we probably should remember that Garrido is a very sick man who needs to be confined for his own protection as well as the protection of others.