Focus in kidnap case shifts to Garrido wife

As Dugard’s step-grandmother told how Jaycee Lee, now 29, who had been missing for 18 years, was “doing good”, attention switched from Garrido to the role allegedly played by his wife. According to the charge sheet against her, Nancy Garrido is accused along with her husband of kidnapping Dugard “for sexual purposes”. Prosecutors accuse Nancy Garrido of “forcible rape”, committing a “forcible lewd act upon a child” and of “false imprisonment by violence”. In total, Nancy Garrido faces 16 charges dating from 10 June 1991 —the day Dugard was abducted— to 26 August 2009, the day she re-appeared in public.

The allegations raise questions about the relationship between the Garridos, who were married while Phillip was serving a prison term for kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old woman in California.

Garrido had admitted to being the father of Dugard’s two children, now aged 11 and 15, but on Friday he and his wife denied all charges brought against them in relation to the now notorious kidnapping.

Dugard’s step-grandmother, Wilma Probyn, told People magazine in the US that she had spoken to the missing woman’s mother, Terry, on Saturday night. “She said Jaycee was doing good, that she’s got a lot of guilt, that she bonded with this guy. But after I’ve heard all these things, I think that is the only reason she is alive, because she did bond with him,” Probyn said.

Questions have been raised as to why Garrido, who in 1977 was sentenced to 50 years for the kidnap and rape conviction, was granted parole in 1988. Politicians and law enforcement officials expressed surprise at the relatively short length of time Garrido had served considering the severity of his sentence.