I'm sure that by now you've read about Jaycee Dugard, 29, who was reunited with her family yesterday after being held captive for 18 years by Phil Garrido, 58, and his wife. During this time, Ms. Dugard had 2 daughters by Garrido, and the motivation for this part of the story is clear. Garrido's wife couldn't have kids of her own, so Garrido decided to rape Ms. Dugard into pregnancy. He even went so far as to take the two kids out in public, perhaps passing them off as his wife's kids, to maintain his deception.
And like the nutcases in the Elizabeth Smart case a few years ago, Garrido was on a pseudo-religious bent, claiming that God spoke to him in a box. I know someone who'll have a field day with that piece of bulloney. The bottom line is that Garrido is insane, to the point where he hasn't confessed to abducting Ms. Dugard off a school bus stop in 1991. America's Most Wanted did a feature piece back then, and you can be sure they'll have an update by the time they start running new episodes again next month. Ms. Dugard has retained custody of her two children, and in all probability, Garrido has forfeited his rights with his arrest. After all, the oldest child was born when her mother was still a minor!
Garrido is a registered sex offender, but I wouldn't be surprised that his lawyers will try to get him off on an insanity defense. However, since he developed his religious delusions within the last couple of years, I don't think that'll work. It's an open & shut case. He kidnapped Jaycee Dugard when she was 11, she had her first child at 14, her 2nd at 18, and neither child has ever been to school. Garrido wouldn't allow it, since it would have likely ended this case a lot sooner than it did. I don't know about the prospect of homeschooling, but that might be the only way the kids would've learned anything at all.
There are still a number of kidnap victims still unaccounted for across the country. Some, like Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, might actually have been hidden in plain sight all along. If Phil Garrido really believed that God was speaking to him, that box should've contained a Bible. No, I think he began creating that delusion because he knew inevitably his charade would come to an end, and he didn't want to lose his extended family.
Watch. In about a month or three, we'll be reading about how someone decided this case should be made into a movie, and it'll be either on CBS or NBC or Lifetime. Television executives always see money in cases like this, grist for the mill to feed a generation bred on the curiosity of scandal. I'd prefer it not to happen. Let Jaycee have her life back. That's all that's really needed.
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