by John Glatt
Braving temperatures in the nineties, investigators spent the day searching the two backyards. Later they removed three truckloads of trash, weeds and debris for closer examination. They also tore down a carport and a shed in the Garrido backyard to see what was underneath.
When the search wound up for the day in the late afternoon, Lieutenant Orrey came out for an impromptu press conference. And what she would say would hit the front pages of newspapers across America the next day.
“We have located what appears to be bones on both properties,” she declared, adding that they were already on their way to a police laboratory for analysis.
She said the joint task force now planned to completely clear out the Garridos’ back garden, bringing in state-of-the-art radar equipment, for an even more intense subterranean search.
On Thursday, the third day of the search, investigators brought in a six-dog team of cadaver dogs, specially trained to sniff out human remains. Ten more truckloads of debris were removed from the Garrido property, as Hayward and Dublin police investigators dismantled sheds and tents in the backyard, before moving inside the Garrido house for the first time.
That morning Sharon Murch returned and was given a tour of the Garrido backyard. On her way out she told a reporter that she had seen Phillip Garrido’s soundproofed shed, and wondered what atrocities he must have committed in there.
“Until someone shows me search positive that my daughter is not alive,” she said, “I’m just going to continue to believe she is.”
Later, at an afternoon press conference, Sergeant J. D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said one of the cadaver dogs had picked up a scent, which was later confirmed by a second dog. But he refused to elaborate where on the property that had occured.
On Friday the searchers returned, pulling up a huge concrete slab in the backyard and removing more truckloads of debris. The police also brought in a professional archaeologist to run radar equipment in a grid pattern around the backyard. And he picked up signs of soil that may have been disturbed by a previous digging.
“We’re removing concrete slabs that inhibited dogs and machinery to get a look at that area,” said Lieutenant Kurt von Savoye. “[We] removed sheds that the dogs and machinery couldn’t go to before.”
Then the search was put on hold until Monday, so investigators could take the weekend off and be fresh to resume on Monday.
While Phillip Garrido’s property was being torn apart for clues, the National Enquirer published what it claimed was the first photograph of the grown-up Jaycee Dugard. In what was billed as “a world exclusive” was the photograph of the blonde model on Garrido’s old Printing For Less business cards.
The magazine reportedly paid Garrido client Wayne Thompson five thousand dollars for the card.
“Phil gave me the card and said the photo on it was his daughter,” the barber told the Enquirer. “I know it was her because I met her.”
Later, family spokesman Erika Price Schulte told People magazine that the Enquirer’s picture was definitely not Jaycee.
“Not even close,” she said.
Jaycee Lee Dugard and her daughters were all pining for their pets, now being cared for by Contra Costa Animal Control. Lieutenant Nancy Anderson said Jaycee had been in touch through a third party, requesting their five cats, two dogs, three cockatiels, pigeon and mouse be returned to them.
“We’re just hoping we can arrange to get them back to Jaycee and the kids,” said Lieutenant Anderson, “as soon as possible.”
On Sunday, Carl Probyn attended a fundraising benefit concert for Jaycee at a casino in Stateline, launching a blistering attack on law enforcement for not finding her sooner.
Comparing the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department to the “Keystone Kops,” Probyn said its officers should feel guilty about accepting paychecks.
“It’s just mind-boggling,” he said. “It makes me sick to think what Jaycee went through.”
A reporter then asked Probyn why he had not yet seen Jaycee, almost a month after her discovery. He replied that he was in no hurry.
“I know she’s safe,” he said. “I know she’s alive.”
Jimmy Lee of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said the department had already taken responsibility for its mistakes with Phillip Garrido.
“We understand how he feels,” said Lee. “Sheriff has . . . taken the blame for what had happened.”
On Monday morning the search resumed with a fresh new team of police dogs, especially trained to locate bones. Over the weekend the Garrido backyard had been doused with thirty-six hundred gallons of water, making it easier for the dogs to detect human remains. And before long they located more bone fragments.
On the other side of the backyard, the archaeologist ran his ground-penetrating radar machine, and a septic tank was also inspected.
At the end of the day, Lieutenant Chris Orrey said nothing major had been found, describing the newly found bones as “very, very old,” and probably animal.
“Thus far in the operation,” she told reporters, “we have not found a piece of physical evidence that tells us conclusively that Phillip Garrido is involved in the Michaela Garecht abduction.”
At eleven o’clock the next morning, the weeklong search officially finished, as searchers began gathering up their tools and taking down tents. Later that afternoon, Lieutenant Orrey confirmed the search was over, with no evidence found to link the Garridos to the two missing girls.
“We will walk away from these properties knowing that we left no stone unturned,” she told reporters. “We will never have to wonder if we could have or should have, because we know that we did.”
Lieutenant Orrey said investigators would continue to examine several “items of interest” removed from the backyard, vowing that the investigation into Michaela’s disappearance would continue.
On Wednesday, September 23, Jaycee Dugard’s family announced they would now be represented by Sacramento lawyer McGregor Scott, who had come on board pro bono, as he was so moved by her story. Then Scott released a statement from Terry Probyn.
“All of us are doing very well under the circumstances,” she said. “We especially appreciate everyone recognizing that what we need most right now is to be allowed to become a family again, within a zone of privacy and security. We hope that our story focuses attention on all of the children still missing, and on their need to be found. We must keep looking for them. As Jaycee shows, miracles can happen.
“Jaycee, her daughters and I are grateful for everyone’s generosity, kindness and good wishes these past few weeks. Thank you.”
A few hours later, high-profile attorney Gloria Allred called a press conference in her Los Angeles office, announcing she was now representing Jaycee’s natural father, Kenneth Slayton. Allred, who appeared with Slayton, his wife and two daughters, told reporters that her client wanted a private meeting with his daughter or a family representative, as well as a paternity test. Allred warned that if the family refused, her client might take legal action.
Then the emotional sixty-four-year-old Vietnam vet, who had brought two photos of himself and Terry during their affair, read out a prepared statement, begging to be reunited with his daughter and two granddaughters.
“Our hearts are open,” he said, “and we long to be a loving, supportive family to her and the children.”
Allred then told reporters of Slayton’s brief affair with Terry Dugard, whom he knew by her middle name of “Susan.” It had happened during a camping vacation in August 1979, and she had become pregnant.
“Ken and Susan lost contact,” Allred explained, “and about one year later, a friend told Ken that Susan had given birth to the baby, and that the baby looked like Ken.”
Allred said her client wanted nothing from Jaycee, except to love her.
After the press conference, Dugard family representative McGregor Scott was asked about Jaycee taking a paternity test.
“The concept o
f a paternity test is not even on our radar,” he replied, adding that Jaycee and her daughters were instead focusing on a “long list of very real and definite issues.”
Scott had now met with the family twice, and was working to get Angel and Starlit birth certificates, as well as establishing a trust fund and a possible book contract for Jaycee.
On Thursday, Scott did the rounds of the network morning shows, saying Jaycee was cooperating with law enforcement and receiving counseling with her daughters. They had also visited a dentist for the first time.
“They are very much functioning,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America. “They are very much a family. Watching the dynamic between the sisters [Angel and Starlit] and their grandmother . . . was just a very, very encouraging scene to observe.”
Later, Scott told NBC’s Today show that Jaycee still had mixed feelings for the Garridos, although she fully understood they had done some “bad and terrible things” to her.
In a further interview with CBS News, Scott said Jaycee would almost certainly testify at the Garridos’ upcoming trial, baring the “very, very sordid tale.”
“Jaycee will, in all likelihood,” he said, “be a witness for the prosecution. She’s aware of that and understands that.”
On Tuesday, September 29, Phillip Garrido wrote a letter to KCRA-TV news anchor Walt Gray, complaining Jaycee and her daughters’ civil rights had been violated. The handwritten letter, written in pencil, had been mailed to Gray from an El Dorado County jail, where Garrido was still being held.
To whom it may concern my first contact: Walt Gray
J.C. Dugard’s free speach [sic] rights are being violated, also she has been repeatedly denied access to have an attorney present during questioning. Over & over she clearly expressed this request from the beginning to the conclusion of questioning.
Her civil rights have been clearly violated. Please consider this request to contact her at your earliest possible date.
Take this to a privet [sic] attorney who will look this matter over for her best interest.
Her two children were witnessing the same treatment for them as well.
Contact J.C. by attorney mail only. Protect her and the children’s rights, use wise judgment in this matter please!
Thank you.
On Wednesday, after receiving Phillip Garrido’s letter, Walt Gray visited the El Dorado County jail to see Garrido and have him explain the letter. But Garrido refused to see him without his attorney, Susan Gellman, present.
When Gellman saw her client’s letter, she said she had already warned him not to contact the media, and would do so again, in even stronger terms.
“There are some very sensitive issues in this case,” Gellman told Gray, “and those need to be explored, and those are going to take some time. We are really very early in the case, and at this point, it’s just not a good idea for anybody to speak with him.”
Since Phillip and Nancy Garrido’s arrest, 1554 Walnut Avenue had become a tourist attraction. Throughout the day, cars would pull up alongside the boarded-up house so people could pose for photographs outside it. And angry neighbors had called the police numerous times to clear out the ghouls.
“We have had a lot of people coming through the neighborhood with all this hoopla,” complained neighbor Betty Upingco. “They’re hanging signs on his house like ‘No Mercy for Molesters!’ What point is that?”
46
“I’M SO HAPPY TO BE BACK”
On Tuesday, October 13, Oprah Winfrey devoted a show to the Jaycee Lee Dugard story. But instead of bagging the first-ever interview with Jaycee, Oprah had to make do with the two Berkeley campus police heroes, Allyson Jacobs and Lisa Campbell.
The Dugard family had recently signed with high-profile agent Frank Weimann of The Literary Group to globally market books by Terry and Jaycee, as well as the first photographs of Jaycee and her family. Also involved in putting the package together was David Schumacher, a Los Angeles–based tabloid reporter, photographer and private eye who was once married to Tamara Rotolo, the mother of Prince Albert of Monaco’s acknowledged illegitimate baby Jazmin Grace. Schumacher is well known in Fleet Street for his high-profile scoops over the years, including tracking down Divine Brown, the prostitute at the center of the Hugh Grant scandal.
The Literary Group soon signed lucrative deals with People magazine for North America, Hello! for England, and the top-selling French publication Paris Match for France.
The previous week, Schumacher spent time on the secret ranch, photographing Jaycee with her mother and sister Shayna and the horses that had become such an important part of their therapy.
The powerful photographs of the twenty-nine-year-old Jaycee were unmistakably her. Although her hair is now brown, her radiant iconic smile remains unchanged. Only one picture shows Jaycee with her daughters, but Angel and Starlit face away from the camera, to protect their identities.
Neither Jaycee nor her mother were interviewed for any of the three magazine photo layouts, which all used separate sets of photographs. But the People article said Terry had started writing a book about her experiences.
Then in a carefully orchestrated media strategy, at precisely 7:30 A.M. on Wednesday, October 14, a selection of the first photographs of Jaycee were posted on the People website. Simultaneously, Dugard family spokeswoman Erika Price Shulte appeared on all three network morning shows, along with several top People executives.
First off was NBC’s Today show, where Ann Curry asked why Jaycee and her family had finally agreed to the photographs.
“First of all her reunification,” said Schulte. “This joyous reunion with her family is going very, very well and they really want to share that joy with the world.”
Schulte said the family understood the “intense interest” in the “ordeal” Jaycee had come through.
“This is her way,” she said, “of thanking everyone for their support and really letting them know that she’s doing okay.”
Curry then asked if Jaycee was prepared to testify against the Garridos when it eventually came to trial.
“She’s well aware that for that prosecution to move forward,” said Schulte, “she needs to cooperate and she’s fully prepared to do that. She is cooperating fully and they are very pleased with that cooperation.”
Then People managing editor Larry Hackett was interviewed by Matt Lauer.
“We’ve covered this story literally from the very beginning,” said Hackett. “We were there in 1991 when Jaycee went missing. Since she’s been found we’ve been in contact with the family, and all those around the family, to talk about this.”
Lauer then asked why a People magazine staff photographer had not taken the photographs.
“They wanted to have control of their own lives,” he explained. “Obviously there are people around them who’d love to have this photograph. They thought, ‘We want to control this situation. Let’s do it now.’ ”
Lauer then asked if Jaycee and the family had been paid for the photographs.
“We have bought photographs in the past,” Hackett replied cryptically, “like all news organizations. I won’t get into the details, but we’re very comfortable with the situation and that’s the way we did it.”
That night Shayna Probyn posted a message on Facebook, with a happy mood.
“For all of you asking,” she wrote, “yes the picture on people magazine is really Jaycee. She is so beautiful. I’m really proud of her!”
The following day, the People magazine cover, showing a smiling Jaycee accompanied by the quote “I’m Happy to Be Back,” was on front pages of newspapers throughout the world. And it went on to become one of People’s biggest-selling editions of the year, with sales of two million.
Two days after People magazine hit the newsstands, Phillip Garrido’s defense attorney, Susan Gellman, filed a motion in El Dorado Superior Court, asking the prosecution to detail exactly what kind of evidence it had against her client. The six-page request deman
ded a list of the witnesses the prosecution intended to call at trial, as well as witness statements, police reports, photographs and records of samples of bodily fluids, hair and other items taken during the investigation.
In late October, Carl Probyn was finally reunited with Jaycee, the first time he had seen her since witnessing her abduction in 1991. In a secret meeting at the secluded ranch, Carl also met Jaycee’s daughters Angel and Starlit.
“Jaycee is the one who is helping us all through this ordeal,” Probyn told the National Enquirer. “She was an amazing little girl, and now she’s an amazing young woman and mother.”
On Thursday, October 29, Katie Callaway Hall and her husband Jim drove five hundred miles to Placerville, California, to attend an 8:30 A.M. routine hearing at El Dorado Superior Court. They arrived early to get a front row seat, as Katie was determined to get a good view of Phillip Garrido, making certain he saw her too. Also waiting in the public gallery was Ken Slayton, who came with his attorney, Gloria Allred.
Tension mounted with the hearing being delayed for forty-five minutes, as attorneys from both sides met Judge Phimister in his chambers. Finally, at 9:15 A.M., the judge called the court to order, instructing the bailiffs to bring in the two defendants.
As Phillip and Nancy Garrido entered the courtroom in shackles, Katie glared at the man who had been her living nightmare for so many years.
“The same old fears came back,” said Katie. “I almost broke down. I was surprised. I did not expect to feel so emotional.”
The hearing was over in just two minutes, after Judge Phimister postponed it until December 11, when other concerns raised before him in chambers would then be discussed.
The Garridos were then led out of court and taken back to jail.