Cops expand search in CA kidnapping

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Neighbors say Phillip Garrido, who along with his wife is charged with kidnapping Kaycee Lee Dugard, once served as a caretaker at the adjoining property, which sits behind a white house with a chain-link fence.

Also Sunday, investigators armed with rakes, shovels and chain saws and also continued combing Garrido's property, where authorities say he and his wife, Nancy, kept Dugard in a scruffy compound of tents and sheds, hidden by trees and tall fences.

Police had cordoned off the second property with crime scene tape Saturday. A Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman planned to make a statement later Sunday clarifying why they were looking at the second property.

Damon Robinson, who lives there now, said Garrido served as caretaker before he moved in in 2006. That year, Robinson's then-girlfriend called police after she saw tents and children in the backyard. The responding deputy did not uncover the compound.

A neighbor has also said Phillip Garrido would feed an elderly neighbor who once lived there.

Dugard was 11 when she was plucked off a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991 by a couple in a car. She was missing until last week, when Phillip Garrido visited the University of California at Berkeley and raised the suspicion of authorities there.

Garrido wanted to hold a religious event on campus, but the events coordinator and a campus police officer thought he behaved strangely and took note of the robotic behavior of his daughters, 11 and 15. When the officer learned Garrido was a registered sex offender with a rape conviction in Nevada three decades ago, she alerted his parole officer.

At a meeting with the parole officer, Garrido brought his wife, Dugard and the two little girls, whom he fathered with Dugard.

Authorities say he confessed to the kidnapping and was arrested along with his wife. Dugard, now 29, was reunited with her family.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido pleaded not guilty Friday to charges including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.

Police in the nearby city of Pittsburg are investigating whether Phillip Garrido is linked to the unsolved murders of several prostitutes in the early 1990s. Antioch police are also looking into unsolved cases but declined further details.


MORE NEW YORK AND TRI-STATE AREA NEWS

USEFUL LINKS:
SEND TIP OR PHOTO  || REPORT TYPO ||  GET WIDGET

 EYEWITNESS TWITTER ||  FIND US ON FACEBOOK

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.