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A US woman who turned up 18 years after she was kidnapped as a young girl had been kept in a hidden backyard behind her captor’s home and had two children with her abductor.
Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, appeared at a police station in Concord, California, on Wednesday and identified herself as the missing woman, police officials said.
At a press conference, the El Dorado Sherrif’s Department said conversations with the woman confirmed that she was Ms Dugard, who was kidnapped at age 11.
“Subsequent interviews provided information that only the victim and the kidnappers could know,” the department’s, Fred Kollar, said.
Police officials identified a couple taken into custody in connection with Ms Dugard’s kidnap as Phillip and Nancy Garrido.
Mr Kollar said that a search of the Garridos’ home “revealed a hidden backyard within the backyard” that included “sheds, tents and outbuildings”. He said that two children taken into police care when the Garridos were arrested “turned out to be the children of Jaycee, and Phillip Garrido”.
The children are believed to be aged 11 and 15.
Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender who has served prison time for kidnapping and rape, Contra Costa county Sherrif Daniel Terry told ABC News, adding the couple were being investigated for kidnapping to commit rape.
Sheriff Terry said the pair were being held on bail of $US1 million ($A1.19 million).
Ms Dugard was 11 years old on June 10, 1991 when she was last seen by her stepfather Carl Probyn outside her home in South Lake Tahoe being kidnapped by two occupants in a car.
Mr Probyn, who is now 60, gave chase on a bicycle but was too far away to stop the abduction.
He said he had been a suspect in the case – until Wednesday.
“I had personally given up hope,” Mr Probyn told ABC News.
Mr Probyn, his wife and another daughter have flown from Riverside, California to San Francisco to meet Dugard.
