by Robert Scott
On the six-month anniversary of Jaycee’s kidnapping, there was a candlelight vigil in South Lake Tahoe. This was attended by Carl and Terry Probyn, friends of the family, and many people who had worked on the case. America’s Most Wanted was back for the occasion and did an update on the case. But even with this new exposure, no concrete leads came in about the kidnapping.
As time went on, leads and tips began to diminish. Reporter Mike Taugher, who worked in the Tahoe area, recalled, however, that journalists still contacted the Probyns and that their calls were always returned by Terry and Carl. One day, Taugher followed a photographer and Terry into Jaycee’s room. While in there, Terry became very emotional and buried her face in one of Jaycee’s stuffed animals. Taugher wrote later, The pain I saw was unspeakable. Whoever stole the daughter also ripped the mother’s heart out. Carl, Jaycee’s stepfather, was wracked. He told me one of the things that haunted him: If only he had the car keys in his pocket he would not have had to chase the car uphill on a bike.
Taugher also ruminated on what many others thought: Tahoe was a basin, with few roads leading out of it. Why couldn’t law enforcement have sealed off the exit roads in time? In years to come, was some lone hiker going to stumble across Jaycee’s remains out in the forest?
Christmas, 1991, was especially painful for Carl and Terry Probyn. Terry told a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, “I can’t bring myself to have Christmas, not knowing where she is. But I still believe she’s alive. It’s the people showing up to help that helps me focus.”
Carl added, “If she got hit by a car, it would tear your heart out, but there would be an ending. But there is no ending here.”
Eight months passed, then ten. Before it seemed possible, Jaycee had been missing for an entire year. On June 10, 1992, there was a candlelight vigil held in South Lake Tahoe to remember Jaycee Lee Dugard. Carl, Terry, and Shayna attended the vigil. Terry told a Sacramento news station, “I’m scared. I’m scared that it’s going to go on forever and ever, and we’re never going to have an ending. We are living our worst nightmare.”
Carl related, “It’s like being tortured every day. You know she’s gone. I don’t know what they’re doing to her, but we’re being tortured every day, not knowing what’s happening to her.”
By 1993, the Probyns were willing to try any avenue to keep Jaycee’s story alive. They appeared on The Geraldo Rivera Show, and Geraldo asked Terry what stresses had been placed on their marriage by Jaycee’s disappearance. Terry replied, “It could destroy us if we let it. The whole focus for us is to stay together. When Jaycee comes home, she’s going to need that family life. She can’t afford for us to be split up.”
The marriage, however, was fracturing under the terrible strain. Even though they worked together in 1995 on a video about Jaycee’s kidnapping, their ordeal was becoming unbearable. In the spring of 1995, Carl and Terry separated, although they remained on good terms and did not get a divorce. Carl moved out of the house and got his own place. Later, he said to a reporter, “This (abduction) broke up our marriage. We had a great marriage. We never argued.” But they could also not come to grips with Jaycee’s abduction. There was always the painful thought that she was out there somewhere and needed them.
More years passed, and in 1997, reporter Mike Taugher got a call from Carl Probyn. Carl told him that one of the local alternative newspapers was going to run a story on Carl, pointing to him as having been somehow involved in Jaycee’s kidnapping. Taugher, who was about to move to Colorado with his wife, told Carl that he couldn’t help him much at present. Carl asked Taugher if he could sue the alternative newspaper, and Taugher thought that he could, if he could prove negligence or gross recklessness.
Carl then asked Taugher if he knew a good lawyer in the area, and Taugher said that he didn’t. Before long, the thing that Carl had worried about came true—the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office began digging in the yard of the house that the Probyns had owned on Washoan Boulevard. The investigators also dug under the front porch. The agency wouldn’t comment what they were looking for, but the rumor was, of course, that they were looking for Jaycee’s body buried on the property. Lieutenant Fred Kollar told a reporter, “Sometimes you want to have someone else come back and look at the case.” In other words, new detectives with new perspectives.
Asked about this latest incident, Carl told a South Lake Tahoe Tribune journalist, “There is about one percent of Tahoe who think we had something to do with the kidnapping. And this just gives fuel for the fire.” The most persistent rumor about Carl was that he had been involved, and “sold” Jaycee into prostitution to pay off a drug debt. Not one bit of evidence ever backed up that rumor.
Then, in late 1997, an incident happened in Lake Tahoe that brought the kidnapping story of Jaycee Lee Dugard back full force. On December 2, 1997, a man and a woman in a van abducted twenty-two-year-old Vanessa Samson off a quiet street in Pleasanton, California. They did it in broad daylight on a workday morning in what was considered to be a safe neighborhood. For the next full day, the abductors—James Daveggio, thirty-seven, and Michelle Michaud, thirty-nine—took turns sexually abusing Vanessa in their van. While one drove, the other continually molested Vanessa on the way to Sacramento and then on to South Lake Tahoe. Daveggio and Michaud got a motel room in South Lake Tahoe, not far from where Jaycee Lee Dugard had once lived. For more hours, they sexually molested Vanessa Samson in the motel room.
When they were done with her, they secreted Vanessa out of the room into the van, and then they drove south on Highway 89. Once they were in the remote Hope Valley, both Daveggio and Michaud strangled the unfortunate young woman to death with a rope. Daveggio and Michaud pulled on the rope around Vanessa’s neck at the same time, so that they were equal in the killing. Then they simply deposited her body into a small snow-covered creek known as Crater Wash.
Instead of fleeing the area, the murderous pair stayed for the night across the border in Stateline, Nevada. If not for a passing motorist in Hope Valley, who had exited his vehicle to urinate, Vanessa Samson’s remains might not have been found until the following spring, if at all.
Because of a lot of clues pointing their way, both Daveggio and Michaud were arrested by the FBI in Stateline on December 3, 1997. One of the arresting FBI agents was Chris Campion, who joined the Jaycee Dugard case after 1991. Campion, like others, began to wonder if Daveggio and Michaud were responsible for Jaycee’s kidnapping.
The South Lake Tahoe Tribune soon ran an article with the headline DUGARD LINK INVESTIGATED. There were several reasons for this. One was the daring daylight abduction of Vanessa Samson off a “safe” street. Another reason was the striking resemblance of Michelle Michaud to the dark-haired woman depicted in the sketch of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s abductor. Michaud, who was a meth user, had the same type of sunken cheeks as depicted in the sketch. And Michaud’s resemblance was so eerily similar, if Michaud’s photo was laid side by side with the sketch, the images were uncannily alike in so many details.
Sergeant Jim Watson, of EDSO, told a reporter that the pair was being looked at in conjunction with the Jaycee Dugard case. Terry Probyn was bombarded with questions by reporters from all over the area, who asked what she thought about this latest incident. Terry said, “I agree, and so does Carl, that they (Michelle Michaud and the sketch) are similar in looks, but that doesn’t mean it’s her.” What made this situation so frightening to the Probyns was the fact that details of how Daveggio and Michaud had abused Vanessa sexually and then murdered her were starting to come out. If Jaycee had fallen into the hands of this pair in 1991, it could only be imagined what her fate had been.
One year passed, and then another, without any solid clues as to what had happened to Jaycee. And then in March 2000, another incident that was frightening to both Terry and Carl occurred in the Lake Tahoe area once again. On March 19, nine-year-old Krystal Steadman was coaxed into an apartment by nineteen-year-old T.J. Soria. She was coaxed there so that T.J.s’ fathe
r, forty-year-old Thomas Soria, could rape the girl. After the rape, Krystal was murdered, and T.J. disposed of her body along a stretch of Highway 50, which led to Carson City.
It wasn’t long before the trail led back to the Sorias, and father and son were arrested. During an interview with Fran Soria, Thomas’s wife and T.J.’s mother, an FBI agent got around to the Jaycee Lee Dugard case. Fran had no idea what her husband and son had been up to, and the line of questioning scared her. In fact, Fran was no longer living with Thomas or T.J. in the Lake Tahoe area when she was questioned:
Agent: I have a really hard question. And it’s one that’s been eating at me. On June 10, 1991, a little blond-haired girl was abducted in South Lake Tahoe. Her name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. She was on her way to a bus stop on the Pioneer Trail.
Fran: I remember the story.
Agent: The victim in this case (Krystal Steadman) physically in appearance is very similar to her and I don’t know if Tom could have been a part of Jaycee’s abduction and I wanted to ask you. And that’s why I’ve been asking a lot of questions about Tahoe.
Fran: Yeah.
Agent: And I told you I wouldn’t hit you with any thing. And T.J. with his hair down might look like a composite—well, there were two passengers in a gray vehicle. And you said you had a Mercury Bobcat at the time. When did he (Thomas) get rid of it?
Fran: It was totaled in a wreck in 1980.
Agent: Then you said you had a Cutlass. How late did you have the Cutlass?
Fran: I couldn’t tell you.
Agent: In ’91, did you have the car?
Fran: I’m trying to remember.
Agent: Since you remember the story, do you remember the artist’s conception of the . . .
Fran: To tell you the truth, I don’t remember. There was something about a man and woman.
Agent: Well, they’re not entirely sure of the car description. And they’re not entirely sure if the woman was a woman. Nothing to scare you.
I’m not thinking about you, but the artist conception of the woman is very similar to you.
Fran: Oh, well, that’s nice. Thanks for telling me.
Agent: Well, with T.J.’s hair . . .
Fran: (Suddenly realizes the implication and gasps) So now I’m a suspect!
Agent: No, not at all. I wasn’t telling you this because you’re a suspect. I’m just trying to explore the possibility whether Tom could have done this. I mean, there’s things here that raise my antenna a couple of notches. But nothing that says this is a done deal. Was Tom taking trips to Tahoe without you? (In 1991)
Fran: I’m not sure. I remember them going to Reno once by themselves.
Agent: Did T.J. wear his hair long?
Fran: Yeah, he was always wearing his hair long.
Agent: When did the trips take place mostly to Tahoe? In winter or summer?
Fran: Winter.
Agent: What about summer? Would they not go at all?
Fran: I remember a few.
Agent: Around June, July, August?
Fran: Yeah, I remember around T.J.’s birthday.
Agent: Have you always worn your hair long like that?
Fran: Yes. I don’t like short hair.
In the end, it was a false alarm about the Sorias, especially Fran. She had nothing to do with Jaycee Lee Dugard’s case or that of Krystal Steadman. And as time went on, it was proven that Thomas and T.J. Soria had nothing to do with Jaycee as well. Terry and Carl Probyn could be glad of that. When all the facts about Tom and T.J. Soria came out, it was proven just how brutally Krystal Steadman had been raped and murdered.
On June 10, 2001, the ten-year anniversary of Jaycee’s abduction arrived. The South Lake Tahoe Soroptimist Club staged a parade for Jaycee named the “Jaycee Lee Dugard Pink Ribbon Parade.” Everyone in the area was invited. Hundreds of adults and children showed up, wearing pink ribbons and carrying pink balloons in honor of Jaycee. They marched down a single lane on Highway 50 to a park where Terry Probyn spoke to the gathering.
Terry said that it seemed impossible ten years had passed since her daughter was kidnapped. “It is still as overwhelming as the day it happened,” she said. “The person that did this, please give the gift of resolving this. I’m asking that you share, that you find it in your soul to give a gift. It’s like a puzzle, but you never know when you’re going to get to finish the puzzle. Someone out there has the piece. We need it. You need it.”
Terry also took time during the ceremony to remember Krystal Steadman and her family. Like Jaycee, Krystal had gone to Meyers Elementary School. At the gathering, Terry read a letter from Krystal’s sister. The letter stated in part: Please, always keep the lines of communication open with friends and family. Cherish each moment we spend with each other. You never think it’s going to happen to you, but it does. Take all the pictures you can as often as you can.
In the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, the Jaycee Lee Dugard case over the years was handed down from one team of detectives to another. It was almost like a father handing down a prized possession to a son. All of the detectives treated the case with respect and diligence. They all wanted to give Terry Probyn an answer concerning what had happened to Jaycee. Of course, by this time, none of the detectives held out any hope that Jaycee was still alive. What they imagined was that they would find her remains somewhere. Or, in exchange for some hoped-for leniency on a different case, a criminal behind bars would talk about what he had done to Jaycee.
By now, the detectives had followed leads to every state in the Union and to foreign countries as well. Every year, there would be a new phone call from someone who said he saw a young woman who looked a lot like the way Jaycee might look when she grew older. In many interviews the young woman couldn’t remember her childhood and wondered if she had been kidnapped or somehow taken from her own parents. Many of these young women had a strong resemblance of how Jaycee could look as she aged. But one of the EDSO detectives on this quest related, “We would go meet this person, but in fifteen minutes or less, we would know it wasn’t Jaycee. There were certain things we knew about Jaycee that this person didn’t know. We always came up empty-handed.”
The detective also related that there was another scenario that played out over and over again. “Someone would contact us about how in June 1991, they knew someone who claimed they had a boyfriend or a relative who had kidnapped a blond young girl from Lake Tahoe. That person had then taken the girl to an isolated area, raped the girl, and killed her after a period of time.” None of these scenarios ever led to finding any traces of Jaycee’s remains or anything connected to her.
One of these stories had been very compelling and had to be checked out thoroughly. It concerned a woman who told the detectives she had a friend who lived on the Indian reservation near Carson City. This may have been the Washoe Indian Reservation. At any rate, this person said that an acquaintance of hers had gotten drunk and bragged about abducting Jaycee in Lake Tahoe and taking her to Nevada. There he had raped her repeatedly and then killed her after three days. The informant said that she didn’t know if the story was true or not, and had not gone to the police when she first heard about it. She didn’t want her friend to get into trouble. Finally the informant’s conscience got the better of her, and she told an EDSO detective about it. Like all of the other leads, nothing was found concerning Jaycee. It was just one more dead end.
And so it went, year after year, rumors and tips and leads coming from Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and even Great Britain. None of them panned out. All the Probyns had left now of Jaycee were photos, stuffed animals, and memories. Soon the pink ribbons, pink balloons, and marchers were only one more memory. Ten years turned into twelve; fifteen into eighteen. Jaycee Lee Dugard seemed just as lost as ever.
And then out of nowhere, seeming to defy all belief, a young woman, who called herself Alyssa, walked into a parole office in Concord, California, on August 26, 2009. After hours of interviews, she spoke the words that were seemingl
y impossible: “I’m Jaycee Dugard.”
CHAPTER 5
NEWS THAT CIRCLED THE PLANET
The very first news about the reemergence of Jaycee Lee Dugard started out as a trickle on San Francisco Bay Area news stations. Before long, however, the news became a worldwide torrent. In the very first reportings, it was simply stated that Jaycee Dugard was miraculously alive. On August 26, 2009, the Contra Costa Times ran a very short article about the discovery. It was, in fact, only three paragraphs long, with an old photo of Jaycee Dugard when she was eleven years old. The article stated, The eyes of the world turned to a rural street near Antioch on August 26 with the news that Jaycee Dugard was discovered alive and well, 18 years after her abduction at age 11. Then came that additional stunner: Authorities said convicted rapist Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, had held Dugard and later her two daughters—fathered by Garrido—in a hidden backyard warren of tents and sheds. The article went on to report that a press conference on the UC Berkeley campus would soon take place. At the press conference, Lisa Campbell and Ally Jacobs would speak about what had led them to suspect something was wrong when Phillip Garrido came to UC with two young girls on August 24.
News radio station KCBS also started broadcasting very brief details about what had occurred in Concord, and the incredible news that Jaycee Lee Dugard had been found alive. Other newspaper articles from the area were just as brief and cryptic, leaving many wondering who Phillip and Nancy Garrido were. Their names didn’t mean anything. Over the years, neither Phillip nor Nancy had ever been suspects in Jaycee Dugard’s disappearance.
The few journalists who were initially working on the story were soon joined by an avalanche of reporters, news trucks, satellite trucks, and camera crews. The reporters jammed into the UC news conference where UCPD captain Margaret Bennett told them, “We are very proud of the work that Lisa and Ally did on this case. From their bios, you know that both of these individuals are very smart and experienced. We have a lot of interaction between students and the surrounding community at UC. We do get outsiders on our campus, and that’s one of the reasons this department is here.