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Highland Students Hear Jaycee Dugard
published May 5, 2016Highland Students Hear Jaycee Dugard
Several HCC students accompanied Sociology Instructor Robert Brainerd to a program at the Child Abuse Conference at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph on Wednesday, April 20th. The students were Mackenzie Brewer (Wathena), Crystal Chairez (Topeka), Bree Hawkins (Wathena), Stephanie Martin (Effingham), and Megan Mueller (Highland). Kidnapping and child-abduction victim Jaycee Dugard was the keynote speaker. After the presentation, the HCC students were given the rare opportunity to talk with Dugard privately.
Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped outside of her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, on June 10, 1991, at age 11. Her captor, convicted rapist Phillip Garrido, raped Dugard repeatedly, fed her countless lies, and impregnated her twice -- she gave birth to two children without medical assistance.
Dugard spent 18 years in captivity, living in a backyard shack at the home of Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido. During her 18 years in captivity with the Garridos, Dugard wrote in a journal frequently, documenting deep depression, fear, loneliness, and feelings of being "unloved."
On August 26, 2009, Phillip and Nancy Garrido were arrested after two off duty police officers became suspicious. Two days later, the Garridos were charged with 29 felony counts, including rape and false imprisonment. More than 18 years after she was abducted, on August 26, 2009, Jaycee Dugard was reunited with her mother, Terry.
In July 2011, Jaycee Dugard published a harrowing memoir, A Stolen Life, about her years spent with the Garridos. In March 2012, in an interview with Diane Sawyer, she spoke about her recent activity, discussing her happiness to be back with her family and her struggle with "learning" how to be free.
Jaycee Dugard now operates The JAYC Foundation, Inc. The mission is of her Foundation is to be of service to families that have suffered a familial or non-familial abduction or other trauma and to encourage the collaboration of various entities to provide “Protected Spaces ".
