Jaycee Dugard Tells Why She Could Not Escape Garrido Abduction
Jaycee Dugard has said she could not dream of escaping her abduction ordeal because she was so badly manipulated.
Dugard was kidnapped at the age of 11 and kept in captivity for 18 years where she was repeatedly raped, handcuffed, and gave birth to two girls.
Dugard, now 31, explained why she could not escape the ordeal to ABC News during an interview Sunday, “I've asked myself that question many times. I know there was no leaving. The mind manipulation plus the physical abuse I suffered in the beginning, there was no leaving.”
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Jaycee and her two daughters were rescued in northern California in 2009, when Phillip Garrido, her kidnapper stirred suspicion while on campus at a northern California university.
Dugard now lives with her mother and the two children Garrido fathered while Dugard was held as a teenager. She was kidnapped in 1991.
During Sunday's interview, Jaycee told ABC how she survived the ordeal of being initially raped with the threat of a stun gun until it and the use of handcuffs were no longer needed to keep her from leaving.
"There's a switch that I had to shut off," she said. "I mean, I can't imagine being beaten to death, you know? And you can't imagine being kidnapped and raped, you know? So, it's just, you just do what you have to do to survive."
The ABC interview with Diane Sawyer on Sunday captured almost 15 million viewers. Dugard used the interview to tell of her life with Garrido and his wife Nancy, saying he would tell her the outside world was dangerous, filled with pedophiles and rapists.
Dugard also wemt on to share how after the birth of her daughters she felt like she “wasn't alone anymore.”
Garrido was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and multiple counts of sexual assault. Nancy, his wife, was sentenced to 36 years.
Dugard's family, through a state victim’s compensation fund, received a $20 million settlement. During the interview with Sawyer, Dugard said that she was not full of rage toward Garrido: "I refuse to let him have that. He can't have me."
Dugard has a memoir coming out on Tuesday titled A Stolen Life. In her memoir, she shares how though it was painful to think about her mother, she never forgot about her and that on her mother's birthday each year, she allowed herself to think of her.
She has written a full account of the 18-year ordeal in her book to show others how to survive tragedy.
Jaycee's mother, Terry Probyn, said to Dugard during the interview with Sawyer, "You never left me."
