SACRAMENTO — She was only 11 when they took her in 1991, a 4-foot, 6-inch fifth-grader walking to school in El Dorado County in a pink windbreaker and pink stretch pants.
For 18 years, police say, the convicted rapist and his wife kept Jaycee Lee Dugard hidden in their Antioch, Calif., backyard, living in a tent or shed away from the legions of law officers searching for her. Over the years, authorities say, her abductor -- 58-year-old Phillip Craig Garrido -- impregnated her twice, and she gave birth to two girls, now 15 and 11.
This is the horrifying ordeal law enforcement officials described today after revealing that Dugard, now 29, had been found safe after all these years and reunited with her mother this morning.
"She was in good health, but living in a backyard for 18 years does take its toll," said El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar.
The apparent end to a case that sparked national headlines began with a suspicious campus police officer at University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday. Authorities said the officer spotted Garrido with two young children on campus, where Garrido apparently had gone to distribute religious-themed literature, a frequent hobby of his. Upon questioning, the officer discovered Garrido was a parolee and contacted his parole agent.
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