Ivor Markman
Jaycee Lee Dugard Kidnapping
REENACTMENT: Actors recreate the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard for the popular American TV series, America's Most Wanted, shortly after the abduction in June, 1991.
FIRST MEETING: The first time I photographed Terry Probyn, (striped top) mother of Jaycee Lee Dugard, was the morning after the kidnapping. She was busy with friends putting up missing posters. I remember how she was walking around in a kind of a daze and did not seem to be registering.
HAVE YOU SEEN HER?: An El Dorado County sheriff holds a photograph of Jaycee at a roadblock in South Lake Tahoe. Jaycee was found 18 years later.
MISSING POSTER: Terry Probyn ties a pink ribbon to the stake holding a missing poster in South Lake Tahoe.
EMOTIONAL MOMENT: Terry Probyn wipes back tears after putting up a missing poster in Lincoln Highway (US 50)in South Lake Tahoe after her daughter was kidnapped a few days earlier.
ROADBLOCK: FBI agents question motorists in South Lake Tahoe at a roadblock shortly after Jaycee was kidnapped while on her way to catch the school bus in June, 1991.
PINK RIBBONS: Terry Probyn, Jaycee's mother, ties pink ribbons to a tree in Lincoln Highway, South Lake Tahoe, to keep the awareness of the kidnapping in the public eye.
By Ivor Markman
As 11 year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, dressed in her favourite pink outfit, walked to the school bus stop on June 10, 1991, she was kidnapped in front of her home in Myers, near South Lake Tahoe, California, by Phillip Garrido, 58, a convicted prisoner who had been released after serving only 11 years of a 50 year jail sentence for the rape and kidnap of 25 year-old Katherine Callaway in 1976 and his wife Nancy.
Four years previously he was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl near Antioch.
I was working at the time for the Tahoe Daily Tribune when the news editor came rushing up to me one morning and said he had received a call about a kidnapping a few miles away.
Together with a reporter I jumped in my car and raced to the scene where we found her step-father, Carl Probyn, in a terribly agitated condition talking to the police.
Probyn said he was watching Jaycee as she walked up the road towards the school bus stop.
As he stood in the garage he saw a medium sized grey Mercury Monarch motor vehicle do a U-turn and stop next to her.
Eighteen years later, after she was found, Jaycee said she thought the driver wanted to ask directions so she approached the driver’s window.
The next thing Carl saw was his step-daughter being pulled into the vehicle which then drove off at high speed.
At that stage he was unaware Garrido had used a stun gun on Jaycee and had knocked her unconscious.
Probyn told the investigating officers he had seen the kidnapping and in a desperate attempt to rescue Jaycee, had jumped on a bicycle and tried to follow the speeding car but of course he stood no chance of catching up with the kidnappers.
It was such a crazy and irrational thing to do that it drew suspicions from the FBI and Carl was initially regarded as a suspect but both he and Jaycee’s biological father, Ken Slayton, passed several lie detector tests and were cleared.
Some of her classmates who had been waiting at the bus stop also witnessed the kidnaping.
The kidnappers then drove back to their home in Antioch in Contra Costa County where they lived.
During the three hour drive the kidnappers stripped Jaycee of her clothing and covered her head with a blanket when they took her from the car.
This kidnapping was obviously carefully planned as they had prepared a small soundproof room at their house.
Garrido then raped her for the first time and left her naked in the room, which was then bolted closed.
He warned her that he had attack Doberman Pinschers outside her room which were trained to attack should she try to escape.
Police, FBI, California Highway Patrol, were called in and family and friends all searched desperately for Jaycee, but in vain.
Within days thousands of posters had been sent out all over the nation and a campaign called "Keeping Hope Alive" was started to find Jaycee.
Because pink was her favourite colour, sympathizers and friends wore pink ribbons and pink ribbons were tied trees as a constant reminder of the search.
Jaycee Lee's mother, Terry Probyn, worked closely with the authorities, the media, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Child Quest International and her friends in the search.
She turned her house into a centre where posters were folded and mailed; she conducted interviews with the media and was broadcast on America’s Most Wanted.
It was to be on August 25, 2009, 18 years later, before Jaycee was finally found.
POSTERS OF FRIENDSHIP: School friends hold up home made missing posters at the South Lake Tahoe school which Jaycee attended.
COMFORT: Terry Probyn hugs her daughter's best friend during one of the many awareness functions after Jaycee's abduction. The friend is wearing pink earings in the shape of a tied ribbon.
Jaycee's identity was only discovered after Garrido was ordered to bring his "daughters" to a parole meeting on August 25, 2009.
During the initial few weeks I often covered the event and photographed the different news aspects of this sad affair.
Jaycee had been raped by Garrido and had two daughters by him while in captivity, bearing the first baby when she was just 14 years old.
I remember one of the officers saying at the time that the step-father had probably made some sort of sexual approaches to her and after she rebuffed him and threatened to tell her mother, he had killed her and hidden the body.
Irresponsible statements such as this speculation paid a part on Carl and after a few years he and Terry divorced.
It was only after Jaycee was found that his version of what happened was proven to be true but Carl had, in the meanwhile, paid the price.
These photographs document the drama of the first few weeks before I left South Lake Tahoe.
Dugard eventually received $20 million from the state for police negligence during her captivity when it was found police had missed saving her on two occasions, in November 2006 and July 2008.
The Garridos initially pleaded not guilty, but this was later changed to guilty.
Phillip Garrido was jailed for 431 years and his wife, Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years.
RIBBONS ON A FENCE: School friends of Terry Probyn tie pink ribbons to a fence at the school in South Lake Tahoe.
SPECIAL TASK FORCE: Members of the FBI set up a special task force office at the El Dorado County Sheriffs office in South Lake Tahoe. Teams of agents investigated the kidnapping.
HELPING FRIENDS: Terry Probyn, mother of Jaycee Lee Dugard, watches as friends and volunteers address envelopes in which to post missing posters all around the United States.
TV INTERVIEW: A film crew from America's Most Wanted film an interview with Terry and Carl Probyn shortly after Jaycee's abduction on June 10, 1991. Police at first suspected Carl of having a hand in the abduction but he passed a lie detection test with flying colours.
PAINFUL WATCHING: Terry Probyn watches in her home as the segment from America's Most Wanted goes out on air on June 14, 1991.
HOPE CAKE: Terry Probyn, mother of kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard, fights back tears before cutting a cake to mark a month after Jaycee Lee's kidnapping. On her left is Jaycee's best friend.
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL: Terry Probyn holds a candle during a candle vigil for Jaycee in South Lake Tahoe . Holding her youngest daughter Shayna is her husband Carl, Jaycee's stepfather. To their left is Jaycee's best friend. Little did anyone suspect it was to be a heartbreaking 18 years before Jaycee was to be seen again.
