California, August 28: A WOMAN who had been missing since she was kidnapped 18 years ago at age 11 was kept as a sex slave by a married couple, reports from the US say.
Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, walked into the Concord, California police station yesterday and said she was the missing girl, last seen in 1991, police officials said.
Police said she was in a good condition despite her apparent ordeal. It was not clear how she escaped her alleged captors.
Contra Costa Country Sheriff’s Captain Daniel Terry told ABC News that police were holding a couple he named as Phillip and Nancy Garrido in connection with the case.
Fox News in the US reported Dugard bore several children to Garrido. It said she was kept in a backyard shed.
The Associated Press reported Garrido was arrested after questioning at a police station. It said he had arrived at the station with two young girls who he said were his daughters.
Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender who has served prison time for kidnapping and rape, the sheriff’s office said. The couple are in police custody charged with kidnapping to commit rape, and bail has been set at $US1 million.
Dugard was 11 years old when she was last seen by her stepfather Carl Probyn outside her home in South Lake Tahoe climbing into a car with two occupants.
“I had personally given up hope,” Mr Probyn told ABC News. “I had just hoped for a recovery” and to find the people responsible.
DNA tests were being carried out on the woman, but authorities have said they are “99 per cent sure” it is the kidnapped girl.
Mr Probyn told the news network that his wife had spoken to Dugard, who told her she now has two children of her own. He did not provide any further details.
“Since the date of occurrence the investigation has been ongoing and today’s events could bring it to resolution,” the El Dorado county sheriff’s office said.
Dugard and Mr Probyn are trying to arrange a reunion, Fox reported. The Associated Press reported she and her mother had already been able to meet.
—Agencies