Associated Press wrote:Sheriff: Kidnap victim found alive 18 years later
Jaycee Lee Dugard was 11 when she was abducted near South Lake Tahoe
FBI via EPA
An undated screenshot shows an FBI flyer for Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped in California in 1991. Dugard reappeared after 18 years and got in touch with the police in Concord in northern California.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A woman who was 11 years old when she was abducted in 1991 on her way to school in South Lake Tahoe has been located alive and in good health, sheriff's officials said Thursday.
The woman walked into a San Francisco Bay area police station and said she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, a blond, ponytailed girl when she was abducted as she headed to a school bus stop 18 years ago, said sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department.
"We're 99 percent sure it's her," Lovell said. He said DNA tests were being conducted. The woman appeared healthy. It was not immediately clear when she had surfaced at the station.
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Lovell said police in Concord did an investigation after the woman surfaced, and he received a call Wednesday from investigators who had tentatively identified her as Dugard.
Her family has been contacted and they are in the process of arranging a meeting, said Lovell, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991. "We are very confident at this point in time that it is her."
It was not immediately clear what motivated the woman to come forward now; Thursday would be Dugard's 29th birthday.
Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, said FBI and El Dorado sheriff's deputies arrested two suspects Wednesday night in connection with the case. They were being held in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez.
Lee said the two were being held for investigation of several charges, including kidnapping, but he could not elaborate.
Law-enforcement sources said authorities were also searching a home in Antioch.
Elated relatives
Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said his wife, Terry, had spoken with Dugard by phone on Wednesday. He said the mother and their 19-year-old daughter were flying from their Southern California home to meet with Dugard in Northern California.
"To have this happen where we get her back alive, and where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told The Sacramento Bee.
Dugard disappeared on June 10, 1991. At the time of the abduction, witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her in view of her stepfather.
The girl was walking to a bus stop when a gray, two-tone, late-model sedan approached and a woman described as about 30 years old with long, dark hair pulled her inside, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A man was also seen in the car.
In media reports at the time, the girl's stepfather said he heard Jaycee scream. He jumped on a bicycle and frantically pedaled after the car in a failed effort to follow it up a hill. He then turned around and screamed at neighbors to call police.
The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.
Despite a massive search, nationwide publicity and one of the largest police investigations in the region, the girl was never seen again.
Put 'through the wringer'
Carl Probyn, the last person to see Jaycee on the day she disappeared, took four lie-detector tests and endured suspicion of involvement in the abduction for nearly two decades.
"The FBI put me through the wringer, being questioned and having people say the stepdad did something," he told The Sacramento Bee. "I have been kind of the villain these past 18 years."
He eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive. "Then you pray that you get her body back so there is an ending," Probyn said.
Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since the girl was abducted and new leads had surfaced over time.
"You bet it's a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping," he said.
I'm with Lovell on this one: this is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping. Even if it is really Dugard, so many questions need answering.
