by Robert Scott
At that point, Alyssa said to Santos, “I’m sorry I lied to you.” And then she added that she was from Minnesota and that she was hiding from an abusive husband. Alyssa declared that she had been on the run for five years and was terrified of being found by her ex-husband. Then she patted Santos’s shoulder and said, “You can see why I learned a long time ago never to give out my personal information.”
Santos reassured her again that none of the information she gave him would be made public, but Alyssa said she couldn’t take that chance. Soon thereafter, Officer Mike Von Savoye arrived from the Concord Police Department and Santos briefed him on the situation. Officer Von Savoye tried getting information from Alyssa, but she was just as uncooperative with him as she had been with Santos. Even when another CPD officer came on scene, Officer Kaiser, Alyssa was just as adamant in her refusal to give personal information.
Meanwhile, Starlit was becoming more and more insistent that she needed to use a restroom. The parole officer finally agreed to let her use the restroom in the parole office complex, and Alyssa was separated once again from Nancy Garrido and the two girls. To Officer Kaiser’s requests for information, Alyssa gave the story of being on the run from an abusive ex-husband. Not long thereafter, Phil Garrido was allowed into the room. Santos noted, “It appeared that Alyssa kept looking to him for answers. Garrido stated that she should get a lawyer.”
At that point, Santos escorted Phil out of the room once more, back to his office. There Santos asked, “Why is she protecting you?”
“What do you mean?” Phil asked with surprise.
“She’s trying to protect you from something.”
To this, Phil only replied, “She needs a lawyer.”
By now, the whole complex was filling up with policemen. CPD sergeant Hoffman arrived in Santos’s office and said to Phil, “Tell us what the female’s name is.” Santos left the room to see if Alyssa had given out any more information to Officer Kaiser or Officer Savage. Shortly thereafter, while still in Santos’s office, Sergeant Hoffman spoke to Santos and told him some very startling news. Phil Garrido had just admitted to Hoffman that he was the father of Angel and Starlit.
Santos’s mind was practically spinning at this point. He returned to his own office and asked Phil, “Why have you made us go through all of this?”
Phil mumbled something to the effect that he wasn’t sure why he had done so.
Santos asked Phil, “Did you do it because you didn’t want Nancy to know?”
Phil immediately responded, “Oh, no! She knows and she forgave me a long time ago.”
Santos countered, “This doesn’t make any sense! There has to be another reason!”
Phil continued to evade answering Santos’s questions, but Santos was persistent. Finally Phil said that if they brought Alyssa back into the room, he would tell Santos all about the confusion and double-talk. Santos replied, “I’ll only let you do that if you first tell me what you’re going to say to her. I don’t want you dropping a bomb on her!” Then Santos asked Phil if Alyssa knew where her parents were located. Phil answered that she knew they lived somewhere in Los Angeles.
Santos’s later reports would be confusing as to when certain events exactly happened. Part of that may have stemmed from the confusing nature of the varied stories he was getting from Phil, Nancy, and Alyssa. Whatever the exact timing, at some point, Phil Garrido spoke these words to Santos: “A long, long time ago, I kidnapped and raped Alyssa.”
Santos exited the room with this information and gave it to Sergeant Hoffman. In the next moment, it wasn’t Phillip Garrido who dropped a bombshell. It was Alyssa. After all the intransigence and double-talk, Alyssa indicted that she was Jaycee Dugard.
It was if a ghost had suddenly appeared in the room. Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard had been kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California, on June 10, 1991. She had remained missing for eighteen years, and most people believed she was long dead. When Alyssa indicted that she was Jaycee Dugard, she set off seismic waves that were about to circle the entire planet.
CHAPTER 3
VANISHED
On May 3, 1980, Terry Dugard had a daughter whom she named Jaycee Lee. Terry was a single mother, and for the first ten years of Jaycee’s life, the household belonged to only her and her mom. Then Terry met a forty-year-old man named Carl Probyn, and they were married. The new family moved into a house in a suburb of Los Angeles.
In 1989, a baby girl was born to the Probyns and they named her Shayna. The next summer, the entire family made what turned out to be a fateful trip to Lake Tahoe. Carl and Terry loved the area so much, they decided to move there. Pulling up stakes from Southern California, the Probyn family moved into a house on Washoan Boulevard, in the small town of Meyers, adjacent to the city of South Lake Tahoe. At 6,300 feet, Meyers was a vast change from the urban landscape they had been used to. Just south of the street, uninhabited forests stretched clear up to ten-thousand-foot Mount Freel, the highest peak in the region.
Jaycee Lee Dugard ( Jaycee always using her mother’s maiden name) initially had some problems with the new blended family. Jaycee was hesitant at first to accept her new stepfather into her life, because she had spent so many years alone with her mother. In fact, Jaycee never knew who her biological father was.
Once the move was made to Lake Tahoe, however, things seemed to be getting a lot better, as far as Jaycee accepting the new dynamics of her family. Carl later said of the move, “Things got a million percent better.”
Jaycee was a quiet, shy girl, so she had a hard time making new friends at school. One girl at Meyers Elementary School who knew Jaycee was Nicole Sipes. Sipes later said, “She was a new kid. She was kind of soft-spoken and kept to herself a little bit.”
But Meyers Elementary School principal Karen Gillis related that Jaycee was liked by the other students, even though she was shy. And Jaycee eventually joined the Girl Scouts and played on a soccer team.
Terry was a good mom and showered both of her daughters with love and affection. And as time went on, Jaycee began to accept, more and more, her life in Tahoe, with a new blended family, new friends, and a new school. In fact, Jaycee was so fond of school, she hated to see the school year end in June 1991. One thing Jaycee did look forward to in the summer was her hope that she would be able to work with horses during the school break. The Tahoe area was a wonderland of forests, meadows, mountains, and lakes, and the whole family, including Jaycee, loved the area. The prospect that she could work with horses over the summer months was more than just a pipe dream. There were several stables not far from where the Probyns lived.
On the evening of Sunday, June 9, 1991, Terry later related that Jaycee was still feeling some of the effects of the blended family life, and she said to Terry, “You never talk to me anymore, Mom!”
Terry recalled, “So we sat down and talked. Jaycee let me know that she wanted a dog and a set of fourteen-dollar markers for drawing.” Terry made no promises about the dog, but she did promise to buy Jaycee the markers, as well as a new bathing suit. Then Terry added, “I gave her a big hug and a big kiss and scooted her off to bed.”
Monday morning, June 10, 1991, seemed like any other Monday morning in the Probyn household, except for one thing. On that morning, Terry vowed that she would make it to work on time for a change. Terry always had problems of being late on Monday mornings to her job at a local printing shop, and she wanted to break that habit. Terry recalled, “That morning, I walked out the door without kissing Jaycee good-bye. I broke my routine.”
After Terry left for work, Jaycee started up the road, at around 8:05 A.M., to the school bus stop on the Pioneer Trail. She was a real trouper, and had walked that route even in the depths of winter when the snow along the Tahoe roads could reach immense heights. It was a cool breezy June morning now, with just a hint of the coming summer. As Jaycee walked along Washoan Boulevard, the only sounds were the birds in the trees.
Carl was at work in his garage, and he h
appened to look down the road and noticed an older gray sedan slowly drive by Jaycee. Then according to Carl, “It drove up toward the house and then made an awkward U-turn back toward Jaycee.”
Carl looked on in stunned surprise as the sedan, without any warning, pulled right in front of Jaycee and blocked her path. Then the passenger door opened and a dark-haired woman jumped out. In total disbelief, Carl watched as the woman grabbed Jaycee and pulled the screaming girl into the car.
Carl related, “I immediately jumped on my bike. I didn’t have my car keys on me. I pedaled up hill as fast as I could toward the car.” The car began to take off and Carl followed, pedaling for all he was worth. According to Carl, the hill was steep and the car was soon moving out of sight. Knowing that he would never catch it, Carl raced back home and called 911.
Within two minutes of the abduction, Carl was giving the dispatcher a description about the kidnapping and the car. Carl said that the woman who snatched Jaycee had long dark hair and a dark complexion. He thought she might have been of Middle Eastern ethnicity. It was an older model, two-tone sedan, and dark gray in color, with lighter gray trim. And as far as Jaycee Lee went, Carl said that she was eleven years old, weighed eighty pounds, and stood four feet six inches tall. She had blue eyes and long blond hair, tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing pink stretch pants, a white blouse, a pink sweater, a shiny pink windbreaker, and tennis shoes. She had been carrying a blue denim book bag.
Apparently, the first responder was a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer who was the closest law enforcement officer in the area. Within a very short time, there were South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) cars on the scene and El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office (EDSO) vehicles as well. They fanned out looking for the two-tone gray sedan. Soon thereafter, more CHP officers were sent out, scouring the area for the sedan and the kidnapped girl. U.S. Forest Service personnel joined the hunt, as did a police helicopter. Even casino security guards across the state line in Nevada began searching the casino parking lots for the gray sedan.
There was a huge dragnet of officers all over the area within an hour of the kidnapping. This was unusual, compared to a lot of child abduction cases, where a child could go missing for hours or even days without anyone being sure that she was more than just a runaway. Often valuable time was lost before it could be ascertained that the child had been kidnapped and had not simply run away from home. With Jaycee Lee Dugard, none of that precious time was wasted with false assumptions.
Around 9:15 A.M., a police officer showed up at the place where Terry Probyn worked. Terry said later, “My first reaction when I saw the officer was that I had a parking ticket or something to do with the IRS. Then he said to me, ‘Ma’am, we have reason to believe your daughter has been kidnapped.’ I basically lost my heart.”
Because ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends were always on the top of the list for child abductions, Terry was asked about this situation. Terry told an officer that she didn’t even know where Jaycee Lee’s biological father lived now or how to get in touch with him. She thought he might be living in Southern California. When Jaycee’s father was finally contacted, it came as a complete surprise to him. He said later that he didn’t even know he had a daughter with Terry. Before long, it became apparent to law enforcement officers that this man had nothing to do with Jaycee’s abduction. A police spokesperson soon said, “This appears to be a legitimate kidnapping. However, we have not received a ransom demand. There has been an airplane and helicopter out there in the search. We’ve got everybody in the world out there looking for her.”
It may not have been everybody in the world, but there were plenty of law enforcement personnel out looking for Jaycee, her kidnappers, and the vehicle they had been driving. Before long, there were also plenty of citizen volunteers in the area keeping an eye out for the car as well. Local radio stations KOWL, KRLT, and KTHO ran numerous announcements about the kidnapping and the details about the girl, the car, and the dark-haired woman kidnapper.
A kidnap hotline was set up by the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office and posters of the missing girl began running off copy machines at an incredible rate. So were copies of a sketch of the kidnappers’ vehicle and a rendering of the dark-haired woman. She was depicted in frontal view and in profile. She had shoulder-length hair, dark-colored eyes, and dark eyebrows. Some locals described her as “witchy-looking,” and others wondered if she was a meth user. The sketch showed a woman with sunken cheeks, a common side effect of meth use.
Because Lake Tahoe was a tourist destination, a lot of visitors took posters with them before they returned home. Trish Williams, of Child Quest International, noted, “The visitors will be going back home and they’ll be taking these pictures with them. The more widespread this information becomes, the better. There’s a lot the public can do.” Within two days of the abduction, there was also a $5,000 reward on the El Dorado County Secret Witness Tip Line for information leading to the arrest of the kidnapping suspects.
Although Williams spoke as if the kidnappers had secreted Jaycee out of the Tahoe Basin, the local sheriff’s office was not so sure about that. Their main focus was still on the assumption that the kidnappers were locals, holed up somewhere in the area. It could be in a home, apartment, cabin, motor home, or even in a tent out in the woods somewhere. The city of South Lake Tahoe might have been urban, but the surrounding area was mountainous and heavily forested. There were a thousand and one places the kidnappers and Jaycee could be hidden, and not even a helicopter crew could spot them. A spokesman for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said of the situation, “We believe the kidnappers are still in the Tahoe Basin. That’s our best shot. We haven’t had a sighting elsewhere.”
The kidnapping, of course, had sent a chill through the area, especially for parents whose children went to Meyers Elementary School. One of the Probyns’ neighbors told a reporter, “The kids are always walking up here to the bus stop. I did see one on Monday morning, with blond hair and a white blouse. Had I known, I would have come out of the house.”
Debra Walker, whose daughter sometimes walked to and from the school bus stop with Jaycee Lee, said, “There’s a lot of kids who come to that bus stop. And there’s usually two cars filled with parents that watch the children there.” Whether or not there were any parents in cars watching that day, Walker didn’t know. But she added, “Even if there were, I don’t think it would have mattered. The kidnapping happened so quickly, I don’t think it would have mattered.”
Two days after Jaycee’s abduction, Terry Probyn held a press conference attended by print reporters and television reporters. Clutching her young daughter, Shayna, and a stuffed pink bunny, Terry made an emotional plea to the kidnappers. “Please don’t hurt her! She’s a good girl. Just drop her off. No questions asked. You may like her, but we love her, too. And it’s time for her to come home to her family! Her sissy’s been asking for her.”
Then Terry spoke directly to the cameras and to Jaycee. “If you’re watching out there, you know I love you!”
One reporter asked Terry what she hoped for from the community. Terry answered, “Pray for my daughter.”
The El Dorado County sheriff, who was also at the press conference, was asked why he thought Jaycee had been targeted. Sheriff Don McDonald replied that he didn’t know, and surmised that the kidnapping might have been a random act. The kidnappers may have seen Jaycee walking down Washoan Boulevard and merely acted on impulse. Detective Jim Watson let it be known that there were canine units and horse units out searching the woods of the area.
Even then, there was a segment of media hysteria, which would be so present years later concerning Jaycee. One journalist who was there was a man named Mike Taugher, and he witnessed some disturbing behavior by certain reporters. Mike recalled, much later, for the Bay Area News Group, “At one point, a well-dressed woman at the back of the swarm of reporters yelled, ‘What are you hiding in that house?’” Apparently, she was angry because law enforc
ement would not let her camera crew into the Probyn home. Taugher wrote, I figured later she must have worked for a television tabloid show. All I knew at the time was that she was scum, and she looked like well-paid scum.
By now, the reward for Jaycee had grown by a multiplier of six to $30,000. One wealthy couple from Marin County, California, had put up $10,000 of their own money to the reward fund. They weren’t even related to Terry Probyn or Jaycee, nor had they ever known them. They had simply been touched by the Probyn family’s plight and concern for the missing girl.
Law enforcement was receiving tips and possible sightings at the rate of one per every five minutes, and reports came in from as far away as Minneapolis, Minnesota, about the missing girl. Three days after the kidnapping, police scrambled in Vacaville, California, which was about one hundred miles west of Lake Tahoe, when a vehicle matching the kidnappers’ sedan was spotted. It turned out to be a false alarm.
Even more promising was a report in South Lake Tahoe. A vehicle matching the police drawing was spotted in town, and pink pants were lying on the floorboard of the vehicle. The pink pants were said to be very similar to those that Jaycee had been wearing when last seen. Undersheriff James “Jim” Roth, however, later said, “The pants did not match the victim. It was a big zero.”
There were lots of “big zeroes” as one reported sighting after another, which looked so promising for a while, were checked out and then dismissed. One very good lead came in about an incident involving a dark-haired woman who had acted strangely during the week before Jaycee’s kidnapping. A mother had spotted the woman interacting with her young blond-haired daughter at a local motel. The dark-haired woman fled away in a pickup truck with gardening tools in the back when spotted. This had all happened in South Lake Tahoe seven days before Jaycee Lee was taken. In fact, it had occurred not that far away from Washoan Boulevard, where Jaycee lived.