by Robert Scott
Maines also noted that Nancy had waited patiently for seven years, from the time she and Phil were married, to the time he was released and they could finally live together. Even during that long period, she seemed to be under his spell. So much under his spell, in fact, that in 1993, even when he was sent back to prison for a parole violation, she still obeyed his orders to keep Jaycee in the hidden compound.
CHAPTER 28
MIND CONTROL
As to the possible “mind control defense” for Nancy Garrido, Alan Scheflin, professor of law and psychiatry at Santa Clara Law School, and author of The Mind Manipulators, stressed how hard it was to convince a jury in that regard. Scheflin told a reporter, “The courts are very reluctant to open up to the idea of a mind-control defense. It certainly is, to say the least, a last-ditch defense.”
Bay Area television station KTVU also took up this issue of “mental state,” not only concerning Nancy Garrido, but Phil Garrido as well. KTVU reported that in the days before the arrest, there were already cracks appearing in Phil Garrido’s elaborately constructed façade.
The report went on to tell of the most glaring of these “cracks” in his façade. He had taken Angel and Starlit to UC Berkeley with him, and he had actually gone with them to see a parole officer in Concord on the day he was arrested, instead of going on the run. The report noted, Whether rooted in bravado, mental illness or both, his actions in the years, days and hours before his secret life was exposed raise questions about whether he subconsciously wanted to be caught. The report went on to state that in the days ahead, Phil’s behavior would become increasingly relevant as prosecutors prepared their case and law enforcement agencies looked at possible connections to other unsolved crimes in their jurisdictions.
Ken Lanning, a consultant and former FBI agent, weighed in on this topic, as well, and said that it wasn’t unusual for sex offenders to have their defenses eventually break down. Lanning related, “Some try to justify their deeds by arguing that their victims cared for them or somehow benefited from the abuse. Deep down, this guy knows he kidnapped this girl eighteen years ago, but he is not thinking of this every day. He probably wanted to convince himself that he had changed. ‘I was bad at one time and this is the proof that I am a different person now.’ His need to validate that belief system is a far more likely explanation than that he was crying for help.”
And Phil’s document about schizophrenia obviously raised questions about his mental state and possibility of increasing mental illness. Michael McGrath, a forensic psychiatrist in Rochester, New York, told the media, “These things he is writing would lead one to question his sanity or at least his grasp on reality. Going and proselytizing it in a public place, needing to get a permit and then he brings the two kids and blurts out his criminal record—it’s very possible on some level, unconsciously, he wanted to put an end to it and didn’t know how to do it.”
And then an issue was brought up that had pertained to the Elizabeth Smart case in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart had been kidnapped by a religious zealot, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Nine months later, these two were caught, and Elizabeth was released to freedom. However, since then, the Mitchells had not been brought to trial because they were deemed to be too mentally incompetent to participate in their defense. Under United States law, a defendant must be competent enough to understand what is going on in the courtroom and be able to assist their attorney. Brian Mitchell did not reach this standard of competency until the autumn of 2010. He was not found guilty of the crime until December 2010.
At the end of the news report about Phil Garrido and Jaycee Dugard, Ken Lanning added another insightful comment: “None of the actions by Jaycee Dugard should be second-guessed about why she didn’t run away. If you are alive after eighteen years, you did the right thing. I don’t care what you did, it was the right thing.”
Things moved from the realm of speculation to reality in the El Dorado County Superior Court on September 14, 2009, in another hearing. Phil Garrido entered the courtroom with a bandage on his nose and a newly grown gray beard. Phil had a vacant stare on his face; while Nancy once again looked embarrassed and avoided eye contact with the gathered media. She tried hiding her face with her hair as still cameras clicked incessantly in the courtroom and film cameras whirred. Neither Phil nor Nancy looked at each other except for one brief glance at the beginning of the hearing.
In a brief court hearing, Susan Gellman, Phil’s attorney, asked Judge Douglas Phimister for a psychiatric evaluation of her client. This was granted by the judge. Nancy Garrido’s attorney, Gilbert Maines, reserved the right to request an evaluation at a later date for Nancy. Asked how they were pleading, both Phil and Nancy pleaded not guilty to all twenty-nine charges. And both waived their rights to a speedy trial.
Susan Gellman brought up the fact that several law enforcement agencies wanted to speak with Phil about unsolved cases in their jurisdictions. Gellman stated to the judge, “He does not consent to be questioned for any purpose.”
Then the issue of bail amounts on Phil and Nancy Garrido came up. Phil’s bail was set at $30 million and Nancy received no bail. This was somewhat unexpected, except for the fact that she might have been the one who actually snatched Jaycee Lee off a street as Jaycee walked to the bus stop. It was, of course, very unlikely that Phil was going to be able to raise such a huge bail amount.
Once the proceedings were over, there was the usual crush of media outside the courtroom, badgering DA Vern Pierson with dozens of questions. Pierson said that more charges might be leveled against the Garridos as time went on. And then Pierson stated that Jaycee Dugard would likely have to take the witness stand when it was time for a trial.
As far as Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family went at present, Pierson exhorted the media to respect their privacy. He said the family needed a time of quiet so that they could heal. With scorn, Pierson declared, “I’ve heard comments referring to this family as a piece of property to be had. I think they need to be left alone! If you look at this family, they have a lot to deal with right now. Basic human decency mandates honoring the family’s request for privacy.”
Asked if he had ever prosecuted a case like the present one, Pierson responded, “I don’t think anyone has handled a case quite like this one.”
DDA Trish Kelliher had one more interesting thing to add that had not come up before. She let it be known that a stun gun was used to subdue Jaycee Lee Dugard on the day she was kidnapped. This information must have come from Jaycee herself.
Lieutenant Pamela “Pam” Lane, of the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office, who had control over the county jail, told reporters that both Phil and Nancy Garrido were receiving three meals a day and could shower every other day. They couldn’t watch television, but they had access to newspapers and magazines. They were, of course, in a high-security area because of death threats.
And the issue of threats also came up as a topic with Vern Pierson. He said he had recently learned that a parole agent and his family had received threats because of the missed opportunities concerning Jaycee. Pierson said, “There’s probably some very legitimate criticism in terms of this historically. But after a tip, Parole Agent Eddie Santos successfully broke through an elaborate well-planned cover story that was eighteen years in the making.” Pierson told people to leave Santos and his family alone.
Gilbert Maines was fairly closemouthed about Nancy Garrido after the court hearing except to say, “She is very closed down right now.” And Susan Gellman, when asked about the bandage on Phil Garrido’s nose and whether he’d had some minor surgery, replied, “I think so.” Both attorneys noted that they were seeking to meet with their clients in a room rather than behind a wall of glass as they were doing at present. Other than that, Maines and Gellman said very little.
There was always information and misinformation bubbling to the surface on such a big case. One bit of misinformation was reported by Britain’s Daily Mirror. It ra
n an article stating, Dugard will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show in December, and she will receive $1 million for the appearance. Soon thereafter, a spokesperson for Oprah Winfrey’s show denied this contention, and said, “We don’t pay for interviews.”
Things seemed to be settling down into a more quiet routine by now. But all of that was about to change in an instant. Law enforcement revealed that a bone recovered from the Garrido property was a human bone. And two police agencies were interested about kidnapped children in the Bay Area. A second tidal wave of reporters, satellite trucks, police vehicles, and investigators was about to descend on Walnut Avenue. And this wave, in some respects, was even larger than the first.
CHAPTER 29
THE SECOND WAVE
Jimmy Lee, who was a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, informed the media from time to time on new developments on Walnut Avenue. One small item in the newspapers coming from Lee cropped up earlier about a bone fragment that had been discovered. In an e-mail to the media, Lee cautioned that it might be a very old bone. “The bone is human, but it is not uncommon to find Native American remains in Contra Costa County.” Lee also said that the bone fragment was being tested at a Bay Area facility to make sure that it was human and to try to judge how old it was.
The interesting thing about this bone was that it had been found on next-door neighbor Damon Robinson’s property. But Lee let it be known that for a period of time that house had been vacant and Phil Garrido had been the “caretaker” there. This story died down for a few days until September 16, when it was learned that more human bones had been discovered on Damon Robinson’s property and on the Garridos’ property as well. The media blitz that had come and gone from Walnut Avenue went into its second stage.
Once again, reporters poured in, news vehicles lined the street, satellite trucks sent up their antennas and dishes, and helicopters buzzed overhead. And more than that, a swarm of law enforcement officers descended on the Garrido house and property. Soon law enforcement alone had brought in ventilation units, a large generator, a Bobcat tractor, tents, Porta-Potties, and large mobile home–type command vehicles. The street began to look more like an RV campground than a regular street.
Three truckloads of debris, weeds, and small items were trucked out of the yard on the first day of renewed work. Other items of evidentiary value were carted off to large vans and trailers parked along the street. And to make matters even more interesting to the press, it became apparent that the Hayward Police Department (HPD) was looking for clues to see if Phil Garrido had snatched Michaela Garecht, of Hayward, on November 19, 1988. And the Dublin Police Department (DPD) was also there to try and find out if Garrido had been responsible for the disappearance of thirteen-year-old Ilene Misheloff, of Dublin, in 1989. It was a major operation. Sixty investigators from five agencies were scouring the yard and house for clues. And as time went on, more bones kept turning up in the yards.
As far back as September 2, the San Jose Mercury News gave a hint about what was coming. In an article they reported, Police see similarities between Dugard, Garecht cases. With long blond hair, blue eyes and a friendly big-toothed grin, Michaela could pass for Dugard’s sister.
Of Michaela, her mother, Sharon, later said, “She was my first child, the desire of my heart for over five years before she was born, finally conceived only with the assistance of prescription fertility pills. She was the first person to curl her little tiny hand around my fingers, and around my heart, the first one to call me Mommy. Beautiful beyond measure, tenderhearted and compassionate, she was a living light in the world.”
On November 19, 1988, Michaela and her friend Trina wanted to go to the Rainbow Market to buy some candy and sodas. Michaela had been there before in the company of teenage girls, but not with someone who was just her age. Even though the market was only two blocks away, Sharon did not want her to go with eleven-year-old Trina. But Michaela begged and begged, and finally Sharon let the girls go. The girls jumped on their scooters and headed to the Rainbow Market. Sharon watched them go, and then went back to her kitchen to wash the breakfast dishes.
Michaela and Trina left their scooters by the side door of the market and then went inside where they bought candy, sodas, and beef jerky. They left the market with their purchases and began walking home, when they suddenly realized they had left their scooters by the side of the market. The girls returned and discovered that one of the scooters had been moved next to a parked vehicle about three spaces down from the market door. Michaela spotted it and began to walk over to retrieve it.
As Trina watched, a man suddenly jumped out of the car and threw Michaela, screaming, into the car. The man jumped into the driver’s seat, peeled out of the parking space, and took off at a high rate of speed on Mission Boulevard.
Within moments, Trina ran into the store for help. The police were called, and Trina phoned her father, who then drove over to Michaela’s house. Michaela’s father, Rod, was working on his car in the driveway when he got the news. Within seconds, he ran into the house and declared to Sharon, “Somebody snatched Michaela up at the market!”
Sharon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. In a daze, she phoned 911. She was stunned to learn that the dispatcher already knew Michaela’s name. The dispatcher asked Sharon a few questions and told her to wait at her house. Sharon said later, “I hung up the phone and began waiting, began a lifetime of waiting.”
As the investigation would go for Jaycee Lee Dugard three years later, there were hundreds of tips, numerous possible sightings, and nothing that led to Michaela Garecht’s whereabouts. For many years, Sharon gave up hope that Michaela could still be alive. And then one day, around 2007, Sharon received a tip about a young woman who lived in another state. The woman, who pronounced her name as Ma-kay-la, the same way Michaela Garecht did, had amnesia about her younger years. In the end, it turned out that the young woman was not Michaela Garecht, but it gave Sharon new hope that Michaela might still be alive. As Sharon later said, “Many kids who run away (or are kidnapped) end up feeling so ashamed of the way they have been living that they are afraid to go home. They are afraid they will no longer be loved because of who they have become.”
And then on August 26, 2009, came the astonishing news that Jaycee Lee Dugard had been found alive. Sharon related that her first thoughts were that Michaela would be found in the same secret compound where Jaycee and her girls had been found. Sharon agreed with many in law enforcement that the mode of abduction and the vehicle used in Michaela’s case were very similar to the mode and vehicle in Jaycee’s case.
As it turned out, Michaela was not found alive in the secret compound on Walnut Avenue. And when human bones started turning up in the Garridos’ backyard and neighboring yard, Sharon had to brace herself for a more grim possibility in Michaela’s case.
As more and more bones turned up, HPD lieutenant Christine “Chris” Orrey told reporters, “We need to send the bones to a lab for testing to determine if they are human or an animal, and if they are possibly connected to the cases of the missing girls.” (She meant Michaela Garecht and Ilene Misheloff.) “We’re trying to be cautious. Finding them is the first step of the process, now we have to find out what they might mean. We haven’t found anything that breaks our case, but there’s certainly some stuff worth taking a look at.”
One thing that made the Garrido angle so compelling was the fact that Phil Garrido at the time of Michaela’s disappearance was in a halfway house in Oakland, not far from the crime scene in Hayward. Of that matter, Orrey said, “The fact both kidnappings happened in broad daylight, the similarity of the car, the area, the fact he was released from prison a few months before Michaela was taken, it’s all compelling evidence. And if you look at the picture of Jaycee and Michaela, they could be sisters. We’re looking for any physical evidence that ties Phillip or Nancy Garrido to Michaela’s case.”
Then Orrey said that in the pursuit of their search, they had come across pho
tos of Jaycee and her girls amidst all the clutter and debris in the Garrido home. Those photos had been taken and were being safeguarded by authorities.
Sharon, Michaela Garecht’s mom, was, of course, transfixed by the search transpiring on Walnut Avenue. She told a reporter, “I have a little fantasy about how the search will go. There will be some kind of false room, and Michaela will be inside. Ever since I heard the description of Jaycee reuniting with her family, I’ve just had such a longing for that to happen.”
Lieutenant Orrey added at a later press conference, “We’ve made a lot of progress, but we haven’t found anything earth-shattering at this point. Each agency has its own focus, and we’re looking for specific things. Officers are looking for particular items that El Dorado County and Pittsburg authorities involved in the Jaycee Dugard case may not have been interested in during their searches. Those items include a pair of pearl-colored earrings that resemble feathers, a white T-shirt with Metro across the front, denim pants, flesh-colored nylons, and black shoes. That’s what Michaela was wearing when she vanished.
“We are also looking for disturbed soil that could indicate a grave site. We are going to bring in a magnetometer, which could locate fillings from teeth, as well as ground-penetrating radar. It’s probably the most intensive search Hayward has been involved in. We are considering dismantling the interior of the Garridos’ home. If we feel that’s important to do a thorough search, then we’ll pursue that. We are very interested in what is under the flooring, under the ground, so that is a possibility. The FBI, Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and Alameda County Crime Lab are all aiding in the searches and examinations. Our aim is to methodically, systematically, and very thoroughly search the property with our own case in mind.”