1554 Walnut Ave, Antioch, CA 94509
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Author: Jewls Krueger
On the morning of June 10, 1991, 11 year old Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop near her home in the South Lake Tahoe area of California by a married couple named Phillip and Nancy Garrido. For the next 18 years, Jaycee was held captive in a hidden cluster of tents and sheds in the backyard of the Garridos' home in Antioch, California, where she gave birth to two daughters fathered by her kidnapper.
She was finally rescued on August 26, 2009. The case shocked the country, raised serious questions about California's parole system, and led to widespread reforms in how sex offenders are monitored.
Jaycee Lee Dugard was born on May 3, 1980. She lived with her mother Terry Probyn and her stepfather Carl Probyn in the Meyers area south of South Lake Tahoe, California.
Phillip Garrido had a long criminal history. In 1976, at age 25, he had abducted 25 year old Katherine Callaway (later Hall) from Lake Tahoe, California and driven her across state lines to Reno, Nevada, where he raped her for eight hours inside a storage warehouse. Garrido was convicted in federal court in 1977 of kidnapping and sentenced to 50 years in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was separately convicted in Nevada state court of rape and given a five years to life sentence. Despite the lengthy sentence, he was paroled from federal prison in 1988 after serving less than 11 years.
During his prison sentence Garrido had married Nancy Bocanegra, a niece of one of his fellow inmates. After his release, Phillip and Nancy moved into a home owned by Phillip's mother at 1554 Walnut Avenue in an unincorporated section of Contra Costa County just outside Antioch, California, a working class community in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area.
On the morning of June 10, 1991, Jaycee was walking from her home to the school bus stop on Washoan Boulevard when a gray sedan pulled up alongside her. Nancy Garrido attacked Jaycee with a stun gun and pulled her into the car, while Phillip Garrido drove. Jaycee's stepfather Carl Probyn witnessed the abduction, jumped on his bicycle, and chased the car but could not catch up.
The Garridos drove Jaycee directly to their home in Antioch and hid her in a compound of tents and sheds behind the main house.
Phillip Garrido was on lifetime federal parole at the time of the kidnapping, and continued to report regularly to his parole officer for the next 18 years. Parole officers visited the Walnut Avenue home periodically but never searched the backyard.
Over time, the Garridos expanded the captivity area at the back of the property into a hidden compound of tents, sheds, and lean tos behind a six foot wall, largely invisible from the front of the property and from neighboring homes. Jaycee gave birth to two daughters during her captivity, both fathered by Phillip Garrido. The girls grew up in the backyard compound and were never enrolled in school.
Further Reading
The case finally broke on August 24, 2009, when Phillip Garrido, accompanied by his two daughters, then teenagers, visited the campus of the University of California, Berkeley to request a permit for a religious event. Lisa Campbell, the manager of UCPD's special events unit, found his behavior unsettling and asked UC Berkeley campus police officer Allison "Ally" Jacobs to join the meeting. Jacobs ran a background check, discovered Garrido's status as a federal parolee with a violent sexual offense history, and contacted his parole agent.
Garrido's parole agent ordered him to appear at a parole office in Concord, California on August 26, 2009, and to bring his entire family. Phillip, Nancy, Jaycee, and the two girls all arrived as instructed. After several hours of questioning, Jaycee revealed her real identity, and Phillip Garrido confessed to the kidnapping. Jaycee, who had not used her real name in 18 years, was reunited with her mother shortly after.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido's mugshots -Public Domain
Phillip and Nancy Garrido were charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual assault. On April 28, 2011, both pleaded guilty. On June 2, 2011, Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison, and Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life. Phillip is currently incarcerated in the Protective Housing Unit at Corcoran State Prison, and Nancy is incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
The state of California paid Jaycee Dugard a $20 million settlement in 2010 to acknowledge the failures of state and federal parole supervision in her case. Jaycee used a portion of the settlement to found the JAYC Foundation, which stands for "Just Ask Yourself to Care," and which supports families recovering from abduction and trauma. She has published two best selling memoirs, "A Stolen Life" in 2011 and "Freedom: My Book of Firsts" in 2016.
The Garrido home at 1554 Walnut Avenue sits in an unincorporated section of Contra Costa County just outside Antioch, California. The home and surrounding property were condemned by Contra Costa County building inspectors on August 31, 2009 as unsafe to occupy, less than a week after Jaycee's rescue. Inspectors documented hazardous wiring, piles of garbage, and the deteriorating tents and sheds in the backyard compound where Jaycee and her daughters had been forced to live. The address still appears in county property records today.
The location sits on a quiet residential street and is visible from the public road, but it remains private property. Please be respectful of the surrounding neighbors, stay on public roads at all times, and do not enter the property under any circumstances.
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