Jaycee Bonded With Kidnappers, Not Always Hidden

By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2009 8:22 AM CDT
Jaycee Bonded With Kidnappers, Not Always Hidden
The backyard of a home in Antioch, Calif., where authorities say kidnapped victim Jaycee Lee Dugard lived is seen Friday, Aug. 28, 2009.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Jaycee Dugard, though kidnapped at just 11 and raped a month later, bonded with her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, and came to see him as her husband, the San Jose Mercury News reports. "Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy," her stepfather, Carl Probyn, said yesterday. "She really feels it's almost like a marriage." At her reunion with her mother, her first words were, "Hi, Mom, I have babies," her stepfather said.

Jaycee apparently never told her two children she was kidnapped, and she and the two girls were not always hidden from outsiders. She was introduced to business associates as Garrido's daughter Alissa, who did graphic design on his printing jobs, the New York Times reports. She communicated regularly with at least one client by phone and email, and never hinted at her real identity. Another business associate said she had seen the girls, called Starlite and Angel, at a birthday party at a community center.
(More Jaycee Lee Dugard stories.)

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