JAYCEE LEE DUGARD
Case Type: Non Family Abduction
DOB: May 3, 1980
Sex: Female
Missing Date: Jun 10, 1991
EL DORADO COUNTY, CA – The stepfather of Jaycee Dugard, the South Lake Tahoe 11-year-old girl abducted from in 1991, told News10 Wednesday night that family members believe authorities have found the now 29-year-old Jaycee, alive.
“It’s an absolute miracle if it is her…can you imagine this after 18 years?,” Probyn said in a telephone interview.
The amazing news of Dugard’s return came after a Concord police officer confirmed to News10 that local agencies were investigating the claims of a woman who allegedly walked into a Contra Costa County law enforcement office Wednesday and said she was kidnapped 18 years ago.
An FBI agent leaving Concord Police headquarters Wednesday night said the Bureau was involved in the case, but would not comment on any details of the investigation.
“There will be a press conference tomorrow,” the unidentified agent told reporters. “We’re working it.”
The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department is planning to hold a news conference Thursday at 3 p.m. to discuss the case. News10.net will provide a stream of the news conference live.
Probyn, a contractor who now lives in the southern California community of Orange, said Jaycee’s mother Terry received a call at her job with the Riverside School District from the FBI Wednesday afternoon.
Probyn said the agent on the phone identified himself and said, “We’ve got Jaycee.” Terry then had a phone conversation with the woman authorities believed to be her long-lost daughter, a conversation that left Terry “positive” that Jaycee was home, Probyn said.
He said his wife thought Jaycee sounded normal and not like she was mistreated over the last 18 years. Terry said that “(Jaycee) remembered a lot,” according to Probyn, who was in “complete shock that (Jaycee) is alive.”
Terry Probyn told Carl that the FBI didn’t get into where Jaycee was or who she was with for the past 18 years, but said “she was with some people and…they are in custody.” Probyn said he had no idea about the identity of those “people.”
“I told my wife I want those responsible to be taken down, no deals at all,” Probyn said.
Dugard was just 11 years old when she was last seen just 150 yards away from her home as she walked to her bus stop in South Lake Tahoe around 8:05 a.m. on June 10, 1991.
Carl Probyn said from inside his home, he saw a man and a woman in a two-tone gray, late-model sedan make a U-turn on Washeon Boulevard, then saw the woman in the car grab Jaycee and pull her inside.
Investigators at the time believed Dugard may have been taken across state lines into Nevada after her abduction. Despite at least one alleged sighting immediately following her disappearance, Dugard was not seen again — until Wednesday.
Of the past two decades since Jaycee’s disappearance, Probyn said, “It’s like having heart surgery and not being sewn up. Your heart just aches.”
Carl Probyn said the stress, pain and trauma of Jaycee’s abduction destroyed the Probyns’ marriage. The pair are separated, but Probyn said they remain friends, living 40 miles apart.
Probyn said Terry and the couple’s 19-year-old daughter Shayna were flying to northern California Thursday morning to reunite with Jaycee.
Along Washeon Boulevard Wednesday night, South Lake Tahoe residents who heard about the developments in the case were hopeful these latest events would bring closure to 18 years of unanswered questions.
“I remember my sister was in (Jaycee’s) class in the fifth grade when it happened,” said resident Sara Esposito. “I’m just blown away.”
David Watkins, who bought Jaycee Dugard’s family home on Washeon in 1998, said the spectre of Jaycee’s disappearance still lingers in the neighborhood.
“You hear about it every year. Someone says something…’What happened to her? What’s going on with her?,'” Watkins said. “Maybe it’ll put an end to everything finally.”
source: news10.net