Phillip Garrido has a troubled history, his father says; kidnap victim's stepfather says, 'Everything is OK now' [Updated]

The father of Phillip Garrido, suspected of kidnapping an 11-year-old South Lake Tahoe girl 18 years ago, said today his son had a long history of drug use and mental problems.

"They are treating him like he knew what he was doing, but he didn’t know what he was doing," Manuel Garrido, 88, said in a telephone interview from his home in Brentwood in Northern California. "The man is out of it. He is a sick man. He should be treated that way. He should be punished but he should be treated like a crazy person."

Garrido, a 58-year-old registered sex offender, and his wife, Nancy, were arrested Wednesday in the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard and are suspected of holding her captive in the backyard of their Antioch home ever since. Garrido is believed to have fathered two daughters with Dugard, who is now 29. The girls are 11 and 15.     

Manuel Garrido said it had been more than five years since he last saw his son. He said Phillip was a sweet kid, friendly and always making jokes.

Phillip played electric guitar and had a band, and was always willing to help his parents around the house, Garrido said. "Everyone loved him."

He said Phillip started getting into trouble in high school and began using LSD.

Garrido said he tried to talk to his son and get him on the right path, but by the time Phillip graduated from high school it was too late.

"After he got the LSD pills, he was gone,” Garrido said. “It ruined his life. He did a lot of crazy things after that."

Dugard disappeared on June 10, 1991, as she walked from her family’s South Lake Tahoe home to a bus stop.

Despite a massive search and being featured on the “America’s Most Wanted” television program, Jaycee was not found. Investigators were unable to identify a suspect.

Authorities got their break in the case Tuesday when Phillip Garrido was seen with two small children near UC Berkeley. After an encounter with campus police, he was reported to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Scott Kernan, the department's undersecretary of adult operations.

On Wednesday, Garrido was taken in for questioning at the department’s parole office in Concord, near Berkeley, Kernan said. He was accompanied by two children and two women, later identified as Dugard and his wife.

After being questioned by parole officers, Garrido revealed that he had kidnapped a female, now an adult, who was later identified as Dugard, authorities said.

Garrido had been convicted of rape and kidnapping in 1971 in Nevada, was incarcerated in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan. He was later paroled to California.

In a rambling, sometimes incoherent phone interview with Sacramento TV station KCRA on Thursday, Garrido said he had not admitted to a kidnapping, and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

“I tell you here’s the story of what took place at this house and you’re going to be absolutely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place from the end to the beginning. But I turned my life completely around,” he said.

[Updated, 11:30 a.m.: Carl Probyn, Dugard's stepfather, said it was painful for him to hear about the conditions his stepdaughter had lived through in the last 18 years from his wife, Terry, who reunited with Dugard on Wednesday.
 
But Probyn said he was heartened to hear from his wife that Dugard remembered a lot about her life before she was abducted at age 11.
 
Probyn said his wife didn't talk much about Dugard's mental state. "She's probably still mentally 11 years old," he said. "She's gone through so much. Her education stopped at fifth grade. It's a delicate situation."
 
Probyn learned from his wife that Dugard "feels guilty about bonding with" one of her kidnappers, Phillip Garrido.
 
"I think he had total control," Probyn said. "Maybe she felt guilty because she didn't fight him off. Maybe she realized after reuniting with her mom that she should have done something differently. She felt really bad, which is OK. Everything is OK now."
 
Dugard is with her two children, her mother, and her half-sister, Shayna, who was 1 when the kidnapping occurred.

Probyn said the family plans to stay in Northern California for a few days before bringing Dugard to Riverside, where Terry Probyn lives.

He said he hasn't talked to his stepdaughter yet but is looking forward to seeing her.]

My-Thuan Tran

Comments

[Sandy]

All I want to hear is from this sweet young lady who was kidnapped. IF this idiot truly believes we care about his "new discovery of himself" or whatever he thinks he needs to explain. He is weird, evil, crazy and I wouldn't believe for one minute what he has to say.
I pray the 2 daughter's being so to speak underground, can find a normal life sometime, somewhere down the road.
God Bless all 3 of them. Hopefull the mom and stepfather might be able to get some issues resolved between them also.

[cally]

Why didn't you ask him if he knew his grandchildren that his son created with his kidnap/rape victim? Also, who was this guy's parole officer(s). Who ever it is needs to be charged with something--- neglect of duty and fired ASAP

[Tony]

This couple should be locked away for the rest of their lives no if ands or buts about it.

[Manuel]

With that last quote from Garrido, one can only imagine just how "disgusting" this whole ordeal was. I hope that Garrido does get a fair trial and if he is mentally ill, that he gets the proper rehabilitative treatment. If he is mentally ill, I think that it would be a mistake to just lock him up in a regular prison because if and when he gets out, he'll just go back to the same crimes just like he did one time before.

[Karen]

It reminds me a bit of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Utah some years ago. The kidnapper is certifiably mad. Fortunately it didn't last as long and there were no children but the devastation took quite a while for the girl to get over.

[Trippin' Dude]

Guys like this are completely insane, the only hope for them is either complete confinement or at the end of a rope. The shame is the trauma it would induce in the victim, who must themselves be rehabilitated before carrying out the appropriate sentence against the abuser.

[couplewords]

I wouldn't blame it on the LSD or Timothy Leary would have been doing the same thing! I'd be more interested in what Manuel did as a parent.

[BaitSlinger]

" He said Phillip was a sweet kid, friendly and always making jokes. "

How is it that when these slimballs get caught. people near them (family or friends) always say the crimal was a good person or kid. If this is a sign of a "good person or kid" I was taught wrong by my elders. To think this piece of human garbage's wife was in on all this is just plain shocking. I hope the law prevails in this case and Phillip Garrido and his wife get a long sentence and no parole....just my humble thoughts.

[MC]

Come one, dad. You knew what your son was doing. Fess up.

[Barry O'Brien]

Sick? This is a man who hears messages from God (praise Jesus). Let's see...all the Republicans and their fanatical right-wing supporters and Geo. Bush hear messages from the Almighty how can we call this man sick?

[hayesatty]

As I understand the news accounts, Garrido has been on federal parole and a registered sex offender the entire time Jaycee has been missing - that is, 18 years. Did he have a parole officer? Did the officer ever visit his home? Did law enforcement ever try to question a federal parolee for rape and kidnapping living in the area of the abduction? Did any of his neighbors ever question why a registered sex offender in their midst had a compound of tents and sheds in his backyard and children playing his front yard? And to think Jaycee's step father, Carl Probyn, was under suspicion while law enforcement had Garrido not only under its nose, but in its grip the whole time. Once this case sorts out, there should be a reckoning as to how it was handled by authorities.

[aaron]

Yea dad,your son is crazy like a smart fox. Should he be treated? heck no, there is no rehabilition that can help him, he will always be sick and ready to harm. Yea hes gone alright, he needs to be gone straight into the dealth penalty. Society should not have to pay with its taxes to maintain his life in jail. He is a horrendous criminal and is a primary example why Californians need a new approach on how to handle criminal like him; a six month fast track dealth penalty, on the seventh month he should be executed, hes gone, and taxpayers save millions and millions of dollars in inceration maintaince cost.

[abc123]

If we're going to attribute a bunch of labels to this guy in a vain attempt at understanding his insanity, let is also be known that he was a rabid Christian fundamentalist. When he was caught on the UC Berkeley campus, he was distributing Christian literature.

I'm sure that was just a simple oversight...

[Andy]

The alert Berkeley officer deserves recognition for breaking this case, but how did the previous probation officer never spot any signs of the abduction? Don't they do random checks?

[Desire]

I truly believe that Mr. Garrido deserve death...what he had done to that little girl is sick and out of range....me being 20 yrs old and some what experience a situation like this hurts......i hope the Girl finds a way to get over this by some therapy...i happy for her and her family this is a true blessing

[tnhll]

It seems beyond credulity: Neighbors living beside this man didn't notice something strange? Has anybody sought an explanation to this question?

[SmartAssProducts.com]

VERY well said, hayesatty. You've summed up my thoughts and questions exactly.

So aside from the issue of culpability, my biggest concern is for Jaycee and her two children. Doing the math...Jaycee was only FOURTEEN when she had the first baby. I can't imagine the horror of that--everything from [what I'm assuming to be] rape to childbirth at 14. Just unthinkable. And to be a prisoner for 18 years, isolated from normal society, friends, schools, etc., is also unimaginably awful. Ditto for the two girls.

Unfortunately, there's NOTHING that can make up for this tragic situation. No prison sentence will undo the damage, or replace the lost years, etc. I truly hope that Jaycee and the girls get the counseling they're going to need and that they're somehow able to move on with their lives.

[lagirl]

hayesatty - you are so right. this is stunning.

[Pat Blue]

I would hardly call 170 miles away to be in the area of the abduction. And, the neighbors didn't want to be involved so they simply ignored the situation. If they hadn't done this then Jaycee would have been home sooner. Parole officers are overburdoned and can't just make full inspections of every inch of a parollee's home on every visit unless they have cause. No complaints from the neighbors means no cause. Let's put some of the blame where it belongs. Everyone needs to be aware of what is happening in their neighborhoods and they need to step up to the plate and contact the appropriate authorities when they have suspicions or concerns.

[JR]

And how about the wife, Nancy Garrido?? Didn't she wonder where two babies/children came from? She should be criminally charged.

[Donna]

Convicted kidnappers should be sentenced to life imprisonment without possiblity of parole. Look at all the lives that were severely damaged by this monster of a man.

[me and me]

I hope her kids come with her when she goes back with her family.

Her troubles are not over. This kind of thing will hurt for a long time, if not forever.

Glad her family got her back alive.

[Aaron]

Wow, I am tired of people saying someone was sick, or insane in matters like
this, rules of even justifiable homicide, let me ask you this, if a guy
kills 5 people then has to go to a public restroom, he'll likely go into the
men's restroom, right, he knows it's wrong to go in the other door without
arousing suspicion of acting "out of the ordinary" or to appear not being
rational, why he's not insane, he knows the rules and reason? Logical,
rational, when someone like this crosses the line, commit a crime, steal
someone's child for 18 years, impregnante a captive, come on, funny farm? I
don't think so.

[Chris]

The parole officers should be involved. It's inexcusable they didn't notice the state of the backyard. They didn't do their job, period. As for this monster, if you're not for the death penalty now...you're hopeless. He ruined lives. He doesn't deserve another breath. As well, the wife who must really be a piece of work.

[Chris]

They turned Carl Probyn's life upside down when it happened. Now that they found the perpitrator watch the ACLU come to his rescue and make sure he is given a fair trial. We are becoming the worst society in human history when we can't protect our children.