Suspect in Calif. Kidnapping Turns Herself In

Good Samaritan saves 8-year-old after dramatic truck chase

(NEWSER) - An quick-witted California driver put himself in harm's way to help an 8-year-old girl escape from her kidnapper. Victor Perez gave chase in his pickup when he spotted a vehicle identified in a statewide Amber Alert after the girl had been snatched from outside her Fresno home the previous evening. The unemployed construction worker, not knowing whether the driver was armed, tried to cut the vehicle off several times. The driver pushed the girl out and fled after Perez forced him to stop, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

Stockholm syndrome turned victim into abductor's defender

(NEWSER) - Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard lied to a suspicious parole officer in a desperate bid to protect her abductor when she was discovered, according to just-released report of her questioning. Jaycee, kidnapped when she was 11 in her northern California town, called herself Alyssa and presented herself as Phillip Garrido's wife. She laughingly explained that she was often mistaken as someone young enough to be the sister of her daughters, fathered by Garrido. More»

(NEWSER) - Phillip Garrido picked out Jaycee Dugan as his next kidnap victim on a "child shopping" trip when he spotted the "cute" 11-year-old in a store with friends, his wife has told investigators. "That's the one I want," he told his wife, Nancy, but he decided to wait to snatch Jaycee when she was alone, reports the Telegraph, citing law enforcement sources. "Let's come back later and get her," said Garrido. The couple apparently tailed Jaycee to her home and grabbed her at a school bus stop the following day. More»

Jaycee's accused 'deviant' kidnapper not barred from kids after attack on woman

(NEWSER) - Phillip Garrido was a "multiple sexual deviant" who took LSD daily, masturbated compulsively and stalked schoolgirls, according to court records after his 1976 arrest for kidnap and rape. Jaycee Dugard's accused abductor indulged in "sexual fantasies" watching "young females," he admitted in testimony obtained by the New York Daily News. "I have done it by the side of schools, grammar schools and high schools, in my car," said Garrido. More»

Antidepressant made him do it, lawyers will now argue

(NEWSER) - A former southern California police detective charged with kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old waitress at gunpoint will be allowed to use a "Zoloft defense," a judge has ruled. Lawyers for Anthony Nicholas Orban aim to prove he's not guilty because he was mentally "unconscious" and "totally unaware of his actions" during the attack due to the influence of the antidepressant, reports the Los Angeles Times. More»