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guys welcome back to my channel so today we are doing another episode of found which if you didn't catch my first episode of this series found is going to be a series where we're focusing on people who were in situations of captivity and were found or discovered and set free now since i talk so much about missing people i really wanted something a little more positive something to give you guys inspiration and hope
and i have such a good story for that today today we're going to be talking about an incredible woman who has inspired me in so many ways and is one of the main reasons that i started my where is series and that is jc lee dugard she has an incredible story i first found out about her at
after listening actually to her book a few years back, twice, I listened to it twice because it is such an inspirational story. This is Jaycee, beautiful little girl. She was 11 years old at the time of her kidnapping and her kidnapping occurred on June 10th, 1991 in South Lake Tahoe, California. She had a stepfather
Carl, a mother, Terry, and a little sister named Shauna. The parents had moved to South Lake Tahoe nine months before her abduction. They thought it would be safer there than Orange County, California, where they had lived before. It was just a normal school day. Her mom was at work. Jacey was in fifth grade at the time, and her biggest concern was an upcoming field trip and whether or not she could shave. She was going to ask her mom to shave. I mean, these are normal childhood thoughts.
had no idea what was coming and this was a really safe area actually. They actually moved there because it was a safer area than where they previously lived. That day
That day, Jaycee was walking to the bus stop. It was a warm, sunny day, beautiful, normal day in California. It was June 10th, 1991. And as she was halfway up the hill to her bus stop, a car pulled up next to her and she thought it was someone asking for directions, but before she could say anything, she fell to the ground paralyzed. She had been tased by a man named Phillip Garrido. She was unconscious. She had wet her pants.
There was a car that came down the hill, circled in front of the house, went back up the hill, and when it got to Jace, the car cut off her path, the driver jumped out, grabbed Jacey,
I have not seen her since. And her stepfather actually saw this. He hopped on a bike and chased after the car, but they got away fast enough that he didn't even see a license plate. I wish I would have my keys in my pocket. It catches you totally off guard. They had the advantage. They had the car and, you know. And this man was not alone. He was actually with his wife, Nancy Garrido, and she actually found Jaycee and helped him kidnap her as a gift for him. And just like that,
JC was gone when JC woke up. She was telling them my parents can't afford a ransom she was obviously terrified and the
The journey ahead to freedom for her was a very, very rough road. Her mom was seriously heartbroken. Terry and her were so close. The Garridos brought her all the way back to their house in Cantor Costa County. And remember, JC is 11 years old. First day, Philip handcuffed her, brought her in the shower with him, and raped her. And this was the start of a pattern of him doing this all the time. He believed he had a...
sex addiction and that something was telling him to sleep with little girls. And Phillip and Nancy had this whole bizarre setup in their backyard. And it was like a bunch of shacks and tarps and sheds and just like weird structures in their backyard. They had like quite a bit of
And that's where they first put Jaycee. After that happened, they put a blanket over her and brought her out into the backyard into a shed. And that would become Jaycee's new home. They put her in a really tiny shed and the shed was soundproof. So she couldn't even scream for help. Not only that, but Philip told her that if she did try to run, that he had attacked dogs in the backyard that would kill her. He kidnapped her to be his sex slave in his backyard. He would tell her,
I am doing this to you and you are saving other little girls by me doing this to you because I don't have to do it to them. And he literally locked her up in the shed with a bucket as a bathroom. Like she had nothing, no companionship, barely spent any time even with them. She was just alone a lot. And there's a lot of details in JC's book about what day-to-day life was like in captivity.
But basically she was constantly bribed with fast food, McDonald's, french fries, milkshakes, things like that, which is not an uncommon way to bribe kids or make them feel comfortable or get them to somehow trust you as a captor. At first, she had no form of entertainment and nothing to do. Eventually, he gave her a TV, but wouldn't allow her to watch the news because he was worried that she would see coverage of her disappearance.
After the car sped off, Carl called 911. Within the hour, police officers were at Carl and Terry's home. Police started searching the neighborhood, looking for the two-tone gray car. Neighbors were called upon to see if there were other witnesses. Descriptions of the car and the female passenger were distributed throughout the community.
Pictures of Jaycee were placed in storefronts and Carl and Terry embarked on what turned out to be an endless campaign to find their daughter. This is Jaycee's room. Pretty much the way it was. I've added a few things, some of her things that she had stuffed in the drawer that I thought needed to be brought out. And I definitely like to be in here. Brings back memories, good memories of all the good times that we had. And then that puts me...
It puts me close to Jace. Coming in and being next to her, even though she's not here, she's still in my heart. And in the meantime, Terry Proban was doing everything she could to find her daughter. I mean, this woman did not give up. She even had friends quit their jobs to help her. She even had friends quit their jobs to help her with the search. They had so many volunteers for the search. Tons of people were looking for her.
for her. Put up tons of posters and flyers all around the country actually. They sent them to businesses all around the country. Since her favorite color was pink and she disappeared in an all pink outfit, her hometown put pink ribbons all around as a constant reminder of her disappearance. Terri also founded a group called Jaycee's Hope, which directed all the search efforts and volunteer work. - Lifts my spirit real high. I'm overwhelmed. This is, and then I can ask for help.
This is going to bring her home. I know it. They sold cassette tapes of the song, J.C. Lee. J.C. Lee Degard's family has maintained a high profile since her disappearance, passing out hundreds of thousands of flyers, canvassing several states in search of their missing daughter. Victoria Campbell continues team coverage with a look at the family's latest effort, a song in J.C.'s honor. J.C. Lee.
And whenever I sing it, sometimes it's hard to get through it. It really is because it's a very sad situation. I want Jacey to hear it, and I want the abductors that took Jacey to hear it and know that she's in everybody's heart. Jacey's mother, Terry, speaks a part on the song, and it still brings tears. You're my thoughts, you're my prayers, and we won't rest until you're home, until you're safe.
The song, simply entitled "J.C. Lee," will be sent to every radio station in northern Nevada. It's all part of a vast effort to find J.C. Lee Dugard. Both singer and songwriter say they wanted to do their part. Her mother is still pleading with everyone to keep on searching for her. She is coming home. That gives me a lot of hope, a lot of optimism. Somebody's, you know, feeding me dreams for a reason.
for Jaycee, about a month and a half after Philip first took her, he moved her to a different room, a much larger room. She was extremely scared and confused. In her book, she talks a lot about how she held out hope because of her mother. And her and her mother had this whole thing with the moon. Jaycee and her would debate whether or not the full moon or the crescent moon was better. And so she would feel like she was connecting to her mom every time she would look at the moon because she knew her mom
was looking at the same moon. And what's so interesting is that Terry was doing the same thing. Like, that bond was so there, and they really were keeping each other strong and keeping each other motivated and inspired to get out of this situation and to save her daughter. We would debate whether the full moon or the crescent moon was the better moon. I always liked the full moon, and she liked the crescent. Obviously,
not a nice guy. He's also crazy. He believed in different kinds of angels and all types of weird religion, and he would listen to voices in the wall. Like, this guy was so off his rocker, and so was his wife. I mean, she was, like, condoning this, and he would do these, like, drug binges where he would take a bunch of drugs, he used speed, and he would dress her up in different outfits and do all these different weird scenarios, and then obviously would rape
would rape her and this happened all the time. And then what was so weird is that after Philip would do this, he would cry and apologize and say what a horrible man he is.
- But he would also say that God told him to do it. Angels told him, demon angels. His wife would also apologize to her and say, "Oh, this is so sad. I can't believe he did this. I can't believe he took you when she was the one helping him." In fact, they found footage of her filming Philip in a park. He would stand in a park, play guitar, and she would film and zoom in on kids in the background as like potential people to take. - Can you record? - Mm-hmm. - Okay, now see the zoom lens?
Oh no, did you push that? Yeah, is it gone far enough? Maybe you can pop it on your knee. That's why I bought this. I thought you got me real good. Yes, I can see you really good after some more time went on. JC I guess started getting stronger. She said she cried less, but she was still crying pretty much every day. But they did give her a journal which is interesting because now all
of her days in there are recorded and documented. That was interesting that they would let her write. So she would write all kinds of stuff and they also gave her kittens to bribe her. I think they figured it would give her something to do. They gave her several cats and they would tell her the cats were like super expensive, like $200. So she felt so grateful that they gave her these cats. I feel like if I was ever captive, I'd feel so much better if I had my cat Lily with me or any of my pets because you don't feel alone.
But sadly, the cats kept disappearing strangely. JC always figured that Phillip killed them. And then on April 3rd of 1994, so keep in mind she's been gone a couple years at this point, she was 13 years old. Phillip and Nancy were having dinner with her. They were watching TV and they told her that they think she is pregnant. At this point, she was already four months pregnant with her first child at age 13.
She didn't even understand the connection between sex and babies. I mean, she had no education on this. She was in the fifth grade. That's right around the time you start learning that kind of stuff. Obviously they weren't going to take her to a doctor to get checked out or even let her give birth in any type of hospital. She was going to give birth right in that room. And Phillip said he was going to do it. He was going to watch birthing videos and figure out how to deliver a baby. The only preparation she had was TV shows about pregnancy.
Then a few months later, August 18th of 1994, JC is 14 years old. She started having contractions and what was crazy is she was locked in the room. She had no way to communicate with them. They didn't give her like a walkie talkie or any way to communicate with them. She hadn't seen anyone that whole day and she started realizing, okay, I'm about to give birth. No one's here. I'm by myself. I'm in excruciating pain.
and who knows where Phillip is. Eventually they came in and they delivered her baby and it wasn't without complications either. The baby had a cord wrapped around her neck. Phillip reached in like a doctor would and took it off her neck and then she came out. And JC actually was thrilled even though
Half the DNA of this baby is her captor, her kidnapper. She still felt so happy to have someone who was related to her that was her baby. It was a way to connect with her mother even. And not only that, she had something to do. She wasn't alone. She had something to give her hope.
her hope. So honestly, even though it sounds so traumatic, having a baby in captivity for Jaycee I think was one of the best things for her mental health. It gave her so many reasons to live. She actually had another child a few years later and she taught them in the backyard. She set up a little school and tried to teach them even though she was only educated until fifth grade. At this point they had forced her to go by a different name. She chose the name Alyssa. And even worse, the mom
Nancy was so insecure and jealous of JC. Like she wanted to be there getting raped by her husband and
But Nancy was jealous of her being the mother of the kids. And Philip said, from now on, the girls are going to grow up thinking that Nancy is their mom and you are their sister and you're not allowed to tell them otherwise. So that's also very devastating to JC. What's interesting about the JC Lee Dugard case is she had several times where she could have gotten out, not by her choice. She had several encounters with people
could have helped her. First, she met a neighbor boy through another yard and he asked her who she was, where she lived, and she said she lived there. So the boy never thought anything of it. As time went on in the 2000s, Philip decided to start a printing business and he actually hired Jacey, well didn't hire her, pay her, but he made her do some of the work. But I think this was also kind of good for her in a weird way because it gave her something to focus on.
crazy is she even talked to at least one customer on the phone and never said anything and
And what's really interesting about Jaycee is she was very mentally controlled by Philip, but she never had Stockholm syndrome. And I know a ton of people are going to comment about Stockholm syndrome, but Stockholm syndrome is very different than Jaycee's situation. She was terrified of leaving because she'd been manipulated and brainwashed. She did not love Philip. She did not want to stay with them. She did not enjoy life. She always knew he was a bad guy and she wanted to get away from him. And she actually gets very offended when people refer to her
Actions at Stockholm Center because she was in this from such a young age that it was scary to even think about leaving JC had access to an email account and to the phone and never reached out for help from anybody It would only be a few clicks and she could possibly have connected with her mother or called the police
the police or something like that and she never did. She was worried that the computer would track everything she did and Philip would punish her. By 2009 investigators believe that JC was moved again to a backyard in the back of the backyard, like a second backyard. So he really went to all lengths to hide them because now he doesn't just have JC, he has two girls. What's so frustrating about this story is the lack of help from the
the police. Phillip was on probation. At one point while JC was captive, he actually went back to jail and two officers visited their home, came into their home, looked outside, but didn't check the backyard. Didn't check the whole thing. And one of those times JC was in the house because eventually when they realized she wasn't going to try to run away, they were really way easier on her. They didn't handcuff her.
So she was just in their house and she actually talked to the parole officer. She like had a conversation and this guy didn't think anything was weird about it. - This door right here. - That's where we sleep. - You want to turn the light on?
What does a parole agent do for his parolee? - Ma'am, you can come in office and once the judge says it. - The other day. - Right at an appropriate time. - The other day. - Right now I'm doing a search and I really, if you stay in this front row, and I don't have to place you in restraints, 'cause right now I'm searching the house. So you can sit up here in the front row until we're finished.
It is so weird too because eventually neighbors saw her, like multiple neighbors knew of her
didn't know exactly who she was, but figured she, you know, she's not trying to leave, so she must live there. She would even answer the door for people and talk to neighbors, but would never tell them who she was or ask to leave. And she always went by Alyssa. She was just doing what she had to do to survive. Law enforcement had a record of Philip Garrido kidnapping someone in 1979.
The fact that they did not look into him or connect the two was baffling. In April of 1992, a man saw Jaycee in a gas station looking intently at a picture of herself on the wall, a missing child poster of her.
and he called to report it to the police. And one time in 2006, a woman actually called the police and reported strange tents in the burritos' backyard and children who seemed to be living in the backyard. And the police never did anything. This guy was a sex offender, a kidnapper, and on parole, and they didn't even check. And then finally, on August 24th of 2009, Jacey and her two daughters, and Nancy and Phillip,
went to the UC Berkeley campus so that he could run around screaming about his religion on the campus and basically harass people and
act like a freak. We've all seen them before, right? He believed he was hearing things. He was a chosen one by God. I mean, this guy was so bonkers. And two Berkeley police officers noticed him and noticed the girls that were standing with him. And of course, JC wasn't acting like she was kidnapped. She was not mouthing help to anyone. She wasn't planning on going anywhere. This was her life pretty much now. These two female police officers on the campus felt like something was
And this is totally women's intuition. They both had a strange feeling about the girls. They thought they were acting kind of off. And even though they never gave any signals to make them think something was wrong, this is so important because even if they were wrong, it is important to tell people this is how the bystander effect happens. If you see something and you get a strange feeling and something feels off, you gotta report it. Even if you're wrong, it's okay to be wrong.
Because if these women hadn't done anything, Jaycee could be still in captivity today. Hi, this is Jaycee Dugard. Just ask yourself to care. If you see something that looks wrong or amiss, speak out.
You might be wrong, but you might just save someone's life. - They talked to Philip for a while, trying to convince him that they were interested in his religion. They asked for his name. Once they finally got his name, they looked it up and they found out that he was a sex offender. So all of them were brought into the police station. At first, Jaycee wasn't cooperating. She wouldn't tell them her real name. She just said, "My name's Alyssa."
They could tell though that she wasn't related to them. And once they saw his record, they were like, oh my God, this girl's most likely been kidnapped. After a while, she said, okay, I'll tell you my real name, but I'm afraid to say it out loud. Can I have a piece of paper? And she wrote down J.C. Lee Dugard. Obviously the police freaked out. I mean, at this point, J.C. had been in captivity for 18 years. Her daughters were 11 and 15. Once they figured out who she was, they asked her if she wanted to call her mom. And of course she said yes.
I can't even imagine, it gives me chills even thinking about it, what her mom would have been feeling. They're like, "You can see your mom." And I'm like, "I can see my mom?" It was like a question to them, you know? "I can?" You're at the office, the phone rings. Unbelievable. And then it was disbelief. I thought, "No, you're joking. Don't do this to me. This is not funny." And I remember you shouting.
Oh, yeah. We found her! My daughter! And I was crying, you know, when you're crying and you can't speak. I just said, come quick.
I remember saying, "Come, come, come." And I remember telling you, "I'm coming, baby. I'm coming." She was at work when she got the call that Jaycee was there, and she had to wait for her mom to get there. So they obviously arrested Phillip and Nancy, and Jaycee was reunited with her mother. It's just such an incredible story.
I love stories of survival. I love stories of people who go through the toughest of circumstances and still remain strong. Jaycee is still a very strong individual. She's writing books and she's raising two daughters now. She's getting therapy and doing really well and now she's been out for
almost 10 years. J.C. was also rewarded $20 million by the state of California because of the parole officers who failed to find three captive women in this house. And as for Philip and Nancy, they will be in jail the rest of their lives. The serial sex offender who held J.C. Dugard hostage for nearly two decades has been ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Philip Garrido appeared in a Northern California courtroom on Thursday where he was sentenced to 431 years in prison.
as part of a plea deal. But she issued a bold statement through her mother telling Garrido, "I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your presence." She went on to say, "I hated every second of every day of 18 years because of you and the sexual perversion you forced on me." Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape. - As for Jaycee, she is still doing amazing things, working with her foundation.
I'm so thankful for the team of people that have supported me throughout these last few years. I am so grateful to all of you. I can't say they have been easy, but anything in worth life and life worth doing is sometimes hard, like speaking. And, you know, she's going to be okay. And I also encourage you to read the book to find out more information because that is a best source. It's from JC herself.
That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.
