True Crime with Kendall Rae - FOUND: Jaycee Lee Dugard – A Stolen Life

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

On June 10, 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was walking to her school bus stop when she was abducted by convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, and subsequently held captive for the next 18 years. Shop my charity merch! https://milehighermerch.com/  All profits from this charity merch will be donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org/  Donate to NCMEC: https://give.missingkids.org/campaign... Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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Hey 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 gonna 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 wearer series. And that is J.C. Lee Doohgard. She has an incredible story. I first found out about her 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 Jayce, beautiful little girl. She was 11 years old at the time of her kidnapping. And her kidnapping occurred on June 10, 1991 in South Lake Tahoe, California. She has stepfather Carl, a mother, Terry, and a little sister named Shada. 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. Casey was in fifth grade at the time and her biggest

concern was an upcoming field trip and whether or not she could shape. She was going to ask her mom to shape. 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, Jasey 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 Tazed by a man named Philip Gerito. She was unconscious. She had wet her pants There was a car that came down the hill

Stirring 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 Jace and 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 kept 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 Grito,

and she actually found JC, and helped him kidnap her as a gift for him. And just like that, JC was gone. When JC woke up, she was telling that my parents can't afford a ransom. She was obviously terrified. And 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 gritos brought her all the way back to their house in Cantor Coast, a county. And remember, JC is 11 years old. First day, Phil 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 Phil 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 land. And that's where they first put JC after that happened. They put a blanket over her and brought her out into

the backyard into a shed. And now we become JC's new home. They put her in a really tiny shed and brought her out into the backyard into a shed and now we become JC'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 Phil told her that if she did try to run that he had attack 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 Jase's book about what day-to-day life was like in captivity. But basically, she was constantly brought 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 captain. And for us, she had no form of entertainment, nothing to do, eventually he gave her a TV. But when the liar watched the news because he was worried that she would see coverage of her disappearance.

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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 JC were placed in storefronts, and Carl and Terry embarked on what turned out to be an endless campaign to find

their daughter. This is JC's room. Pretty much the way it was. I've added a few things, some of her This is J.C.'s room. Pretty much the way it was. I've added a few things, some of her things that she had stepped in the drawer that I thought needed to be brought out. And I definitely like to be in here. It brings back memories, good memories, while the good times that we had. And then that puts me close to J.S.

Coming in and being next to her, even though she's not here, she's still in there. And in the meantime, Terry Proman 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.

But a tons of posters and flowers 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 for disappearance. Terry also founded a group called J.C.'s Hope, which directed all the search efforts and volunteer work. Looks my spirit. Pearl high. I'm overwhelmed.

This is more than I can ask. I'm going to go to my family. They sold cassette tapes of the song. J C Lee, Missy Leeda guard's family has maintained a high profile sensor disappearance passing out hundreds of thousands of flyers, canvassing several states in search of their missing daughter. Petroja Campbell, a Dini's team coverage with a look at the

family's latest effort, a song in JC's honor. JC Lee. JC 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 JC to hear it, and I want the abductors that took JC to hear it, and know that she's in everybody's heart. JC, JC, JC.

JC's mother Terry speaks apart on the song, and it still brings tears. The song simply entitled JC Lee will be sent to every radio station in northern Nevada. It's all part of a vast effort to find JC 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.

So meanwhile, for JC, about a month and a half after felt 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. Jayce 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 her 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 is the better moon. I always like the full moon and she liked the crescent. Obviously, Philip, 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 donning this and he would do these like drug benches where he would take a bunch of drugs, used speed and he would dress her up in different outfits and do all these different weird scenarios and then obviously 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 that 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 film 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 report? Okay, now see the zoom name.

Oh, you can zoom in. Oh no, where did you push that? Yeah Is it gone far enough? Maybe you could pop it on your knee. That's why I bucked this. I thought Got you real good? Yes. I can see you're really good. After some more time on, um, Jayce, I guess started getting stronger. She said she cried less, but she's 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 tell her the cats were like super expensive like $200 So she felt so grateful that they gave her several cats and they tell her the cats were 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. Jay-Z always figured that Philip 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 that. 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 Philips 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. A few months later, August 18th of 1994, J.C. is 14 years old. She started having interactions and what was crazy is she was locked in the room. She had no way to communicate with them. They didn't even have a walkie talk She had no way to communicate with them. They didn't even have a walkie talk here any way to communicate with them. She hadn't seen anyone that whole day and she started realizing, okay, I'm about to get birth. No one's here, I'm by myself. I'm in excruciating pain.

And who knows where Philip 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. Chilks 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 captain, her kidnapper. He 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. So honestly, even though it sounds so traumatic,

having a baby in captivity for Daisy, 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 till 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 Jaycee. Like she wanted to be there getting raped by her husband 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 help mother wise so that's also very devastating to to JC. It'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 who could have helped her. First she met a neighbor boy through another guard 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 Jaycee, who had been hired. He didn't 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.

because it gave her something to focus on. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, First Franklin Financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral.

First Franklin Financial Corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS and the 141654, not available in North Carolina. Now what's crazy is she even talked to at least one customer on the phone and never said anything. And what's really interesting about Jasey 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 Jasey's situation. She was terrified of leaving because she'd been manipulated and brainwashed. She did not love Phillips, 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 as Stockholm syndrome 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 into 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 call the police or something like that and she never did. She was worried that the computer would track everything she did and filled with Punisher. By 2009, investigators believe that Jasee was moved again

to a backyard and 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 Jasee, he has two girls. What's so frustrating about this story is the lack of help from the police. Phil was on probation. At one point, while Jason 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, Jason was in the house, because eventually when they realized she wasn't gonna 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 had like had a conversation and this guy didn't think anything was weird about it. I'm gonna store right here. That's how we sleep.

You're gonna turn right on. Sure. What does a parole agent do for his parolee? Right now I'm going to search and I really have if you stay in this front row and I don't have the place you're in strength, it's right now I'm searching the house so you can see that here in the front row until we're finished. Doing everything I know it. Go on for roll. You know the way. I never had to do it.

I never had to do it. You can't talk further because it's coming to the hot. Come let it off. We won't be in there between 8 or 5. It's like, all right both guys both of you guys should come like this. Are you sure you don't let me in this time? Last time you refused for me to be a witness in there. It is so weird, too, because eventually neighbors

saw her by 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 her leave. But she always went by a list of, she was just doing what she had to do to survive.

Unforcement had record of Philip Gerrito kidnapping someone in 1979. The fact that they did not look into him or connected the two was badly. In April of 1992, a man saw JC in a gas station, looking intently at a picture of herself on the wall, a missing child poster of her. And he called the reported to the police.

And one time in 2006, a woman actually called the police and reported strange tense in the Gritos backyard and children who seemed to be living in the backyard. And the police never did anything. This guy was a sex offender, a kidnap or an on parole, and they didn't even check. And then finally, on August 24th of 2009, JC and her two daughters and Nancy in Philip

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 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 them. And of course, Jaycee was an act 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 weird.

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 me 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, J.C. could be still in captivity today. Hi, this is J.C. DoGard. Just ask yourself to care. If you see something that looks wrong or miss, 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 found a guy's 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. JC wasn't cooperating. She wouldn't tell them her real name. She just said my name's Alissa.

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 JC Lee, do guard. And obviously the police freaked out. I mean, at this point, JC had been in captivity for 18 years. Her daughters were 11 and 15. Once I figured out. I mean, at this point, Jasey had been in captivity for 18 years. Her daughters were 11 and 15. Once I 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. Oh, yeah. My daughter. And I was crying, you know, when you're crying, you can't speak.

Oh, I just said, come quick. I remember saying, come, come quick. And I remember telling you, I'm coming, they're coming. Just at work when she got the call that Jasey was there. And she had to wait for her mom to get there. So they obviously arrested Phil Pnanzi. And Jasey 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. JC 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. JC 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 JC DuGard hostage for nearly two decades has been ordered to

spend the rest of his life behind bars. Philip Gerido appeared in a northern California courtroom on Thursday where he was sentenced to 431 years in prison. It's part of a plea deal, but she issued a bold

statement through her mother telling Gerido, I chose not to be here today because I refused 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 Gerrito was sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape. As for J.C., she is still doing amazing things working with her foundation. I am 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 gonna be okay and I also encourage you to read the book to

find out more information because that is a best source is from Jason herself. That is gonna 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 wanna 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. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First-ranked financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS, and the 141654, not available

in North Carolina.