Shattered Innocence

by Robert Scott

  It was not long after this encounter that Phil built an eight-foot-high board fence that blocked the view from outside the property. McQuaid said he never saw the young blond girl after that. However, in the summer of 2009, McQuaid spotted two young blond girls riding in Phil Garrido’s car. Patrick said he took note of them because by that time he knew that Phil was a registered sex offender. And these girls looked so much like the young girl he had seen in the Garrido yard in the early 1990s. Obviously the young girl he had seen then was Jaycee.

  Heather McQuaid-Glace also had recollections about Phil Garrido. She told a New York Times reporter that she realized in later years that people in the neighborhood knew that Phil was a registered sex offender. They even saw two young blond girls over at the house, but nothing raised their suspicions because they figured law enforcement must know about the two girls. Heather said, “We never heard screaming. We never heard anyone crying for help.”

  Betty Unpingco’s husband, Frank, also weighed in on this subject and told a journalist, “I knew Phil was a child molester, but I didn’t bother him and he didn’t bother me.” In fact, most neighbors on Walnut Avenue followed Frank’s example. They didn’t bother Phil, and he didn’t have much interaction with them. If Phil didn’t have much interaction in that neighborhood, Nancy Garrido had almost none at all. Very few people on Walnut Avenue ever saw her outside of the house or her yard. Even a mail carrier who routinely delivered mail on Walnut Avenue said that she had only seen Nancy Garrido very few times. And she couldn’t recall ever having heard the woman speak to her.

  News agencies were sending their correspondents out in all directions by this point: Berkeley for a news conference, Walnut Avenue to the Garrido compound, South Lake Tahoe for reaction there, Southern California to speak with Jaycee’s stepdad, Carl Probyn, and then on to Placerville, California. It was there that Phil and Nancy Garrido were due to be arraigned at the El Dorado County Superior Court.

  Outside the courtroom, satellite trucks converged on the parking lot, as others had done on Walnut Avenue. In the courtroom gallery, journalists were packed shoulder to shoulder, with every available space taken up by news cameras. The arraignment was being presided over by Judge Douglas Phimister.

  After a long breathless wait, suddenly there they were in the flesh—the subject of so much speculation and attention—Phil and Nancy Garrido. Ushered in by bailiffs, the Garridos wore orange jumpsuits and their wrists were shackled. Nancy looked embarrassed and forlorn, often sobbing and trying to cover her face with her long hair. Phil merely gazed off into space and sat quietly once he was in the courtroom. There were six felony counts concerning forcible rape, seven counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, with room open for more future counts.

  Susan Gellman, a local attorney, was appointed as Phil Garrido’s lawyer. Gellman had received her law degree from Temple University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts. She began practicing law in Florida in 1989. Later, she moved to California and became a public defender in El Dorado County. Gilbert Maines was appointed as Nancy’s lawyer. Both Garridos entered pleas of not guilty through their lawyers. Deputy District Attorney William “Bill” Clark asked for no bail, and Judge Phimister made a preliminary order of no bail for Phil and Nancy.

  After the very brief hearing, DDA Clark and District Attorney Vern Pierson answered questions from a mob of reporters at the entrance of the courthouse. One question was about Nancy Garrido’s role in all of this and the charges against her. Clark said, “She’s legally charged with rape based on the theory she participated in it. We don’t have to prove she physically did a rape. All we have to prove is that she aided and abetted with knowledge of the crime.”

  A reporter wanted to know how he felt about the general reaction in El Dorado County and especially about Terry Probyn and the incredible news that Jaycee Lee was alive. Clark responded, “People feel good about it, but there’s another side of it. Jaycee has lived a whole other life. Terry Probyn was the mother of an eleven-year-old and never got her back. Now Terry has grandkids.”

  A question to El Dorado County sheriff Fred Kollar, who was standing nearby, was why had Jaycee Lee never tried to escape. Had she been brainwashed or a victim of the Stockholm syndrome? Kollar said, “All I know is there were no known attempts by her to outreach to anybody. It’s way too early to conjecture on her part. She was in good health, but living in a backyard for eighteen years takes its toll.”

  It was also revealed that Jaycee and her daughters were now somewhere in the East San Francisco Bay Area with Terry Probyn in a hotel room. Just where they were was an intensely guarded secret.

  Gilbert Maines had a few things to say about Nancy Garrido to the reporters. Maines related that when he was first introduced to her, she appeared to be in tears. Maines added, “She said to me, ‘Thank you for being here.’”

  One of the areas most interested in the unfolding story was of course the Lake Tahoe region where Jaycee Lee had been abducted on June 10, 1991. The fact that Jaycee was alive seemed almost like a miracle to the people of the area. At the Lake Tahoe Unified School District headquarters, employees huddled around television sets as the news broke about Jaycee. As the details were reported, Superintendent James Tarwater said out loud, “Oh, my God!”

  Tarwater told a reporter for the Washington Post, “I think about all the students I’ve had and watched grow during the last eighteen years. You think of the potential that Jaycee had.”

  The principal of Meyers Elementary School, which Jaycee had attended, also spoke with the reporter. Karen Gillis-Tinlin said that when Jaycee Lee was kidnapped, Karen’s four-year-old son said that he and a friend had come up with a way to find the missing girl. Of course, it was just a child’s dream. But it showed that even four-year-olds were not immune to the story about the missing girl. Now the seemingly impossible had happened, and Jaycee was found alive.

  Gillis-Tinlin related, “It affected all the children. There was an underlying fear because it could happen to anyone. A little garden was planted in Jaycee’s memory near the multipurpose room. A plaque was placed there in her honor. She was always with us. All through the years, I would be contacted by new officers on Jaycee Lee’s file. It never got dropped. It wasn’t always at the forefront, but it was an ongoing case.”

  Gillis-Tinlin spoke to a reporter from the Los Angeles Times and said, “Jaycee never got to go to prom, to have that sweet first kiss, to have the opportunity to go to college. She has missed all that.”

  The Los Angeles Times reporter also spoke with Meghan Doris, who was one of Jaycee’s classmates from 1991. Meghan stated, “I just wonder what Jaycee would have done. Would she have gone to college, or settled down and had kids?”

  On this same theme, Laurie Ault, a mother of two, and friend of Terry Probyn, added, “I’m absolutely thrilled that she’s been found, but you wonder about what long-term impact it will have on her, physically and mentally. She comes from a pretty strong family, so I’m hopeful.”

  Sue Prichette, who was a retired schoolteacher in Lake Tahoe, told a reporter, “I used to drive by that bus stop all the time. I’m absolutely ecstatic that she’s been found.”

  Sue Bush had been Jaycee’s fifth-grade teacher at the time Jaycee had been abducted. Bush related to a local journalist, “We’re all happy she’s back. But it’s a life ruined. I hope in a few weeks, months, whatever it takes, I’ll actually be able to talk to Jaycee and Terry. Terry never gave up hope.”

  Bush told a reporter for the Tahoe Daily Tribune, “I’m still in shock. I’m so glad she’s okay. She was just a little sweetie in class. What happened to her scared the kids, and it scared them badly. The kids needed to talk about it. We tied a pink ribbon to her chair, and kept her desk the way she left it. What an incredible scary thing to have happen in a small town.”

  Just as they had done with many individuals from Walnut Avenue, national television news organizations wanted interviews of people
from Lake Tahoe as well. CBS’s Early Show contacted Sue Bush and interviewed her live on air. Bush said, “Jaycee was absolutely delightful. She was always happy. She had a smile on her face. Sparkly eyes. Well-liked by all the kids in the room.”

  Host Julie Chen asked Bush, “What do you remember about that horrible day that she was kidnapped, and how did you learn about the kidnapping?”

  Bush replied, “Well, you know, I actually learned about it after I arrived. I was at school already. I tended to go in early. And somewhere between eight and nine A.M., I got the call to come down to the office, and that’s when I found out about Jaycee. And I just want to let you and everybody and Jaycee know that the entire community, her family, her friends, her classmates, her teacher, never ever forgot her or gave up the hope that she would come back someday.”

  Another area where journalists congregated was in Southern California, where Carl Probyn now lived. Carl told the Bay Area News Group about how he first learned the incredible news. Carl reiterated that he got a phone call from Terry, from whom he was now separated, and Terry told him, “They found Jaycee! She’s alive!” Carl added, “We cried for about two minutes. Then Terry said that Jaycee remembered everything.”

  Carl let it be known that he had given up hope that Jaycee would be found alive and related, “I gave up hope for eighteen years, and just went into a recovery mode. I thought it would be nice just to recover her [remains] and capture the people and find out why they did this. Now I feel like I’ve just won the Lotto. It’s just incredible!”

  Carl recounted the events of eighteen years before and what had occurred on Washoan Boulevard where he had seen Jaycee Lee being shoved into a car. And also about his futile bike ride to try and rescue Jaycee. Carl said, “After eighteen years, you never think she’d be alive.”

  Carl told a reporter for the Fox Broadcasting station in Reno, “All of this broke up my marriage. I’ve gone through hell. I mean, I was a suspect up until yesterday.” And as far as what had occurred to Jaycee in those eighteen intervening years, Carl said, “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 eighteen years. I have no idea.”

  Carl Probyn went on every national news show imaginable. He said on CBS’s Early Show that Terry had told him, “Jaycee feels really guilty for bonding with this guy (Phil Garrido).”

  Carl next went on NBC’s Today Show and related, “She didn’t try to get away. If she had been really spunky and fought and tried to escape, maybe she would have been killed.”

  Then it was on to ABC’s Good Morning America. Carl told them, “My wife says that Jaycee looks good. She looks almost like when she was kidnapped. She looks very young. She doesn’t look twenty-nine at all.”

  Carl later told an AP reporter about Jaycee’s feelings toward Phil Garrido when he learned more of the circumstances about the confinement. Carl said, “Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy. She really feels it’s almost like a marriage.” Carl also said that Jaycee was a mellow, easygoing girl, who never got mad at anyone. And Carl related that was probably the reason Jaycee wasn’t killed. Carl added, “She probably wouldn’t climb a wall to escape. Her half sister, Shayna, would have climbed that wall every day, and probably not survived.”

  And the whole dynamics of the “bond” between Jaycee Lee Dugard and Phil and Nancy Garrido became a hot topic amongst journalists and news stations. Phil Garrido, after all, was the father of Jaycee’s two daughters, Angel and Starlit, whom Jaycee adored. And CBS News posed the question, “Did Nancy Garrido deliver Jaycee Dugard’s children?” CBS News noted that Nancy Garrido was a licensed nursing assistant in California between 1989 and 1995. Jaycee Lee’s children had never been to a doctor. If Nancy hadn’t help deliver those girls, then who had?

  Nancy Garrido’s attorney, Gilbert Maines, spoke about her for a news segment on Good Morning America. Maines said that Nancy was powerless to free Jaycee Lee because she was so far under Phil Garrido’s control. Maines declared, “If she’s being controlled, he doesn’t have to be there physically. If she’s being controlled, she’s being controlled. I guess I would say she’s a victim.”

  Maines added about his meeting with Nancy Garrido, “She was distraught. She was frightened. She seemed a little lost. She seemed to be like a ship without a rudder, but she understood why she was there.”

  This was important. If Nancy Garrido did not understand why she was jailed, she could not help in her defense. And in that case, she would have to be declared mentally incompetent and sent to a mental hospital before she could be tried.

  One of Nancy’s main problems now, of course, was the fact that Phil had been sent back to prison for six weeks in 1993 for violating his parole. During that time, Nancy did not help Jaycee escape. In fact, it could be postulated that she had kept Jaycee in confinement on Phil’s instructions. Asked why Nancy didn’t know that she was involved in criminal activity and free Jaycee at that point, Maines answered, “They acted like a family. It’s sad, and there’s a lot of collateral damage in this case. But she misses the girls very much. She loves them.”

  Maines added that Phil’s mind control over Nancy was highlighted by an incident on August 26, 2009, when she, Phil, Jaycee, and the girls were at the parole office in Concord. A police officer had asked if they could search her home, and Nancy answered, “Whatever Phil wants. If Phillip says it’s okay, it’s okay.” Maines said about all of this, “Phillip’s brother apparently described her as a robot who did whatever Phillip wanted.”

  If things were going to be complicated in adjusting to a new life for Jaycee, how much more would that be true for Angel and Starlit? They had never known anything except that backyard compound. Writing for the Contra Costa Times, Suzanne Bohan asked various experts about this. Dr. Christian Ludke told her, “Most of all, trauma victims need appreciation.” Dr. Ludke had worked with other kidnapping victims, hostages, and victims of bank robberies. The victims needed support from society to let them know they were not responsible for the things that had occurred to them. Ludke added, “They need quietness and distance from their painful experience, so that they can start their healing process.”

  Dr. Ludke said that for victims of those crimes, “They need rest and quiet more than the usual ‘talking therapy.’ Ludke related, “All studies of recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder show that talking is not very healing.” If a person talked about the perpetrator and the situation, the incident stayed alive in the victim’s mind. Ludke backed up his claims by showing a group of victims in Germany who had talked about the incident as opposed to some who had not. The people who had spoken about it, even in therapy, recovered less quickly than the ones who had not.

  UC San Francisco professor Dr. Mardi Horowitz agreed that for most psychiatrists the things that Jaycee and her daughters had endured was unfamiliar territory. Horowitz said, “There’s a big difference between simple post-traumatic stress disorders and complex syndromes.” Until a victim was willing and ready to talk about the experience, it could do more harm to bring it up than to just leave it alone for the time being. And it was important for the victim to be around stable people in a nonstressful new environment.

  Dr. Ludke had briefly counseled the father of an Austrian girl, Natascha Kampusch, whose kidnapping bore some resemblance to that of Jaycee Lee Dugard. Natascha had been held captive and sexually abused for eight years. She had been kept in the abductor’s cellar. Natascha escaped one day while in his car when he was stuck in traffic. The man committed suicide hours later.

  The one difference Dr. Ludke noted with Natascha was that she didn’t have strong family support after her freedom, the way Jaycee did. Natascha had a tense relationship with her mother, and no longer spoke with her father. She was also thrust into the limelight after her freedom. Soon she was doing on-air interviews, and even hosted a television talk show. Donations poured in, until some started criticizing her for all the media atten
tion and writing a book about her ordeal. Ultimately, all of this traumatized Natascha once again, and she became a recluse. From being a celebrity, Natascha retreated into a self-imposed reclusiveness.

  Dr. Ludke foresaw better results for Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had strong family support, especially with her mom, Terry, stepdad, Carl, and half sister, Shayna, who all loved her. And Ludke noted with approval that law enforcement was doing everything it could to keep the throngs of journalists in the dark as to where Jaycee and her daughters were now located.

  Dr. Ludke even saw hope for Jacyee’s daughters. “What they need most is time, love, and tenderness. The best therapist in the world for a child and adolescent is their own mother.”

  CHAPTER 22

  PHIL’S INTERVIEW

  As if all of the other news wasn’t enough, it was soon learned that Phil Garrido had given an exclusive interview from his jail cell to a reporter from Sacramento television news station KCRA. The interviewer, Walt Gray, began by saying, “So how are you doing? Can you tell me what happened? Are you doing okay?”

  Phil replied, “Yes, I’m doing fine. In the end, this is going to be a powerful heartwarming story. One in which you’re going to be really impressed. It’s going to make world news. The first thing I would like to tell you, and the only thing I would like to tell you right now, of . . . Just because for some reason I didn’t get to speak with you today and I asked to speak with you is this . . . contact, or go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, fifteenth floor, in San Francisco, and ask for a copy of the documents that I left with them three days ago. This is for you, the mass media, that is left in your hands. There is something powerful in them. Once you get these documents, they have a (indecipherable word) in them. They have powerful witnesses concerning my situation. I would like to stop right there, so then we can sit across from each other and then you’ll have that in your hands. Because what you’re going to have in your hands will make world news immediately.”