The man accused of kidnapping Jacyee Lee Dugard and holding her prisoner for 18 years drugged and raped a 14-year-old girl in 1972 and police believe there is a “good chance” that he claimed other victims who are yet to come forward.
The details of Philip Garrido’s previous sexual offending emerged as Jaycee’s family released new photographs of her before her abduction at the age of 11 and said that she was adjusting well to her new life since being reunited with them last week.
Garrido, a 58-year-old religious zealot known to his neighbours in Antioch, California, as “Creepy Phil”, is accused of snatching the 11-year-old from outside her home in South Lake Tahoe and holding her captive in a backyard prison.
Lieutenant Leonard Orman of the Antioch police said that Mr Garrido first came to the attention of authorities 37 years ago when he was charged with raping a schoolgirl. The case was later dropped for reasons that are no longer clear from police records.
Mr Orman said that Mr Garrido and another man had met the 14-year-old victim and a friend at a public library in Antioch. The pair were enticed into a vehicle and given barbiturates before the victim ended up at a motel with Mr Garrido.
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After being given more drugs, the victim “awoke, found herself there, and was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted,” Mr Orman said.
Asked if he believed Mr Garrido may have claimed other victims, the officer replied: “Other victims? I think there’s a good chance of that, yes.”
The 1972 case came only four years before an incident in Nevada where Mr Garrido kidnapped a casino worker in Reno, Nevada, before subjecting her to a terrifying sexual assault at a soundproofed storage unit.
He later served 11 years for the crime but was paroled in August 1988 despite receiving a 50-year jail term. Three years after his release he allegedly kidnapped Jacyee Dugard.
Jaycee’s aunt, Tina Dugard, said that the 29-year-old and the two daughters she fathered with Mr Garrido have spent the past week “reconnecting” with family at a secluded location.
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“The smile on my sister’s face is as wide as the sea,” Ms Dugard said of Jaycee’s mother, Terry Probyn. “Jaycee remembers all of us. She is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister who was just a baby when Jaycee was taken.
“Not only have we laughed and cried together but we’ve spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other’s company.”
Ms Dugard also praised the way Jaycee had educated the two daughters she had with Mr Garrido, who are now aged 15 and 11.
“Jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had. And we are so proud of her,” she said.
In an earlier interview published in the Orange County Register newspaper yesterday, Tina Dugard said Jaycee and her children were “happy”.
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“There’s a sense of comfort and optimism, a sense of happiness. Jaycee and her girls are happy,” she said. “People probably want to think that it’s been this horrible, scary thing for all of us (but) the horrible, scary thing happened 18 years ago, and continued to happen for the last 18 years.”
And Ms Dugard said that Jaycee had recognised her immediately. “She absolutely knew who I was,” she said. “She remembered me right away. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I went forward and cried and hugged her and held her as tight as I possibly could. It was surreal, and it was fabulous.”