The Secret Sits

Jaycee Dugard: Part 1: The Taking

September 15, 2022 John W. Dodson Season 2 Episode 26
The Secret Sits
Jaycee Dugard: Part 1: The Taking
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Show Notes Transcript

On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard, an 11-year-old girl, was abducted from a street while walking to a school bus stop in Meyers, California, United States.  Jaycee remained missing for over eighteen years until 2009.  Join us as we explore Jaycee's years in captivity and her eventual escape.  We are extremely proud of this series; we hope you enjoy.

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https://thejaycfoundation.org/about-us/

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[Underscore Music]

Carl watched as his stepdaughter walked toward the bus stop, it was like any other day, until a gray car made a sudden U-Turn on the road and then Carl watched as his stepdaughter was forced into the car and it sped away, Carl grabbed a bicycle from the yard and gave chase, but no matter his effort, it would be impossible for him to overtake the vehicle as it sped away. 

[Theme Music Start]

Welcome to The Secret Sits, I’m your host John Dodson.  Join us every Thursday as we uncover the Secrets behind the world’s most fascinating true crime cases.  You can find all episodes of The Secret Sits for free on Apple Podcast, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.  And if you like what you are hearing, reach out to us on Instagram and Facebook @The Secret Sits Podcast or on Twitter @SecretSitsPod. Now, on with our story.

[Theme Music Play Out]

[Under Score Music]

 

The crack of dawn seems especially early to young people, who would rather sleep in than go to school.  Jaycee, stirred from her slumber, it was Monday morning, she had to get up to get ready for school, but not quite yet, there was still some time before the alarm went off to summon the young 11-year-old girl into her day.  Jaycee could hear her mother moving around the house, getting herself ready for her day.  Jaycee stayed there in her bed, slipping between the twilight feeling of sleep and being half awake, she was focused on being awake when her mother came into her room to giver her a good-bye kiss, she knew this was going to happen because she had reminded her mom the night before, “mom, don’t forget to give me a kiss good-bye in the morning” Jaycee had told her mother, but as the young girl lay there in her bed she heard the distinct sound of the home’s front door closing, I guess Jaycee’s mother, Terry Probyn had forgotten this last minute request from her daughter.  Jaycee took this disappointment in stride and thought to herself, that is ok, I will just give her a big hug and a kiss tonight, and she told herself to remind her mother that she had forgotten.  Jaycee stayed there in her bed for a little while longer, until her alarm finally blared through her room, signaling her time to rise for the day, but just like most of us, Jaycee hit that snooze button and laid there for an extra 5 minutes before hopping out of bed and greeting her day.  Jaycee got herself ready for school, the last thing she was looking for was her new ring she had just purchased at the craft fair, the day prior.   She did not have any luck locating the ring so she settled for a ring her mother had bought her 4 years earlier for her 7th birthday, before she had met her new step-father, Carl.  Jaycee did not care much for Carl, partly because he did not act like he cared much for her, Jaycee felt like Carl was always mad at her, he always thought Jaycee messed everything up.  

Jaycee told herself that she needed to hurry up or she would miss the school bus, and that would upset Carl because then he would have to drive her, so she put on the silver butterfly ring, it was small and delicate, it did not fit her finger properly anymore, so she wore it on her pinky finger, the butterfly shape matched Jaycee’s birthmark on her arm, which is also in the shape of a butterfly.  Jaycee, now dawned a pair of pink stretch pants and her favorite kitty cat shirt, on top of this she sports a pink wind breaker, to stave off the cool air, it was Monday, June 10th, 1991.  Jaycee walked out of her bedroom and walked across the hall to take a peek in her new baby sister’s room, this is where Jaycee had spent her time the night before, with her mom, folding laundry and attempting to convince her that she deserved a new puppy, but Jaycee’s mom just kept repeating the word NO over and over.  A house just down the street had new puppies and Jaycee would go over there every chance she got to pet the puppies through the fence.

As she is making her final preparations to leave the house, Jaycee experienced a small bout of nausea and she briefly thought about telling her new step-dad that she was sick and could not go to school, but she decided to save herself the argument with Carl and just go to school anyway.  She went to the kitchen to make her breakfast and lunch, breakfast would be instant oatmeal, but what flavor, Jaycee decides on peaches and cream, as she throws the oatmeal in the microwave, she notices that the clock says 6:30, she knows the bus will be here soon so she better get a move on it, she still needs to walk up the hill to the bus stop.  She scarfs down the hot oats as quickly as she can without burning her mouth, Jaycee is thankful that Carl is not in the kitchen to witness this feeding frenzy, he already complained about Jaycee’s table manners at every meal, one time he even made the girl eat her dinner sitting in the bathroom so she could stare at herself in the mirror as she ate.  Jaycee throws her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her bag, along with an apple and a juice box, she walked back down the hall to see if her baby sister Shayna is awake yet, she is not, so no good-bye to baby sister today either.  Jaycee heads outside, she has to get up the hill to the bus stop, as she walks out onto the deck, Jaycee sees her cat, Monkey, Monkey is a black Manx, so he has not tail.  Monkey was primarily an outside cat, but most of the time he would come inside to sleep with Jaycee overnight.

Jaycee is really pressed for time now so she walks down her front stairs and makes her way down the long front walkway of there new home in Meyers, California.  The family had only lived in this house since September of last year, before this they had lived in Orange County, but after a break-in at their apartment, the couple decided to move their family to a smaller, safer town.  So, here they were.

Typically, as Jaycee made her way up the hill to the school bus stop, a neighborhood dog named Ninja would join her, but on this morning, Ninja did not show up.  Jaycee did not see her step-dad Carl anywhere in the house that morning so she assumed he was outside doing God knows what and she blindly yelled a good by to Carl as she made her way up the hill.  One week of school is left and then summer vacation and Jaycee was very excited because she was going to work on a dude ranch this summer with her good friend Shawnee, Shawnee was very experienced with horses and she had even taken Jaycee on a trail ride before, one day Jaycee hoped she could ride as well as Shawnee.  Jaycee was also in the Girl Scouts, this was not her idea as Jaycee was painfully shy, and she could not even bring herself to talk when the girls went door to door selling cookies. 

The thing most on Jaycee’s mind this morning was a school trip coming up this week to a water park, Jaycee really, really wanted to go, but her body had just began changing and she was overly self-conscious, she had begun growing hair in her armpits and some on her legs, she wanted to talk to her mom about it, but she was unsure how to bring up the topic, she had to build up the courage to have this talk soon though, the trip was almost here, and she did not want to miss out.

All the time that these thoughts ran around Jaycee’s mind, she was still walking up the hill on this chilly June morning.  As Jaycee reaches the portion of the road where she must switch sides of the road she begins crossing the road, daydreaming about the approaching summer, her feet fall on the gravely shoulder of the road, there are bushes now on the girl’s left, as she continues walking, now on this side of the road, she can hear a car approaching, no other cars had passed by her yet this morning, and this car’s sound cut through the quiet morning air as it got closer and closer to where Jaycee was walking.  The girl was still absent mindedly walking, when the car pulled up beside her, a man leaned his head out of the car window and asked Jaycee if she could help him with some directions, Jaycee was a little taken aback and what was happening did not quite register, but there was no time for anything to register, really, because while Jaycee stood there listening to the man’s question, but before she could even respond, his hand shot out of the window, Jaycee heard a crackling sound and she suddenly felt paralyzed, she had not even seen the Taser in the man’s hand.  Jaycee could hardly feel the hard cold ground as she landed on her bottom, but her fear propelled her and she began scooting her body backwards, away from the car and into the bushes which lined the street, she was just trying to get as far away from the man as she could, she needed the cover of the bushes, but as she began pushing herself into the bushes another electrical jolt hit her and she was suddenly being lifted from the ground by her limbs, which have suddenly stopped cooperating with the brain.  Jaycee realized that she had peed her pants, out of fear or from the Taser riddling her body with electricity, she could not be sure, but she was not embarrassed and she began screaming, No, no, no.  The person throws the young girl into the floorboards of the backseat and Jaycee’s mind feels all fuzzy.  All Jaycee can think of is her baby sister Shayna, kissing her mother good bye, she wanted to go back home, all she wanted was a do-over for this morning.  A blanket is thrown on top of the girl and then she feels a weight pressing down on her and she can not move.  The car is now moving again and she can hear muffled voices, but she can not tell what they are saying.  It is super-hot under the blanket and Jaycee’s mouth is very parched, she needed some water, and then she lost consciousness.  When Jaycee wakes up the car has stopped moving, the blanket is still on top of the girl, but the additional weight has been lifted, a car door opens and then closes and then the blanket is finally pulled back from Jaycee’s face.  She can now see the man who had taken her, along with a woman, the man offers her a drink, which she takes, suddenly the man begins laughing out loud and he says that he cannot believe they got away with it, Jaycee just wants to go home, who are these people and what do they want with her?

Jaycee falls back asleep and when she awakes her head feels all spinney, she now notices that the car has stopped again.  The man tells the other person in the car that they are home now, he then whispers something else, which Jaycee cannot hear.  The man tells Jaycee to remain quiet and calm or she will upset his very aggressive dogs, the man proceeds to cover the small scared girl in a blanket and he then walks her into the house.  After entering the house the man uncovers Jaycee and she finally gets a good look at the man who has taken her from her life and her family.  The man is tall, at least he seems tall to a scared 11-year-old girl, he has light blue eyes and brown hair which has thinned on the top, his skin is a bronze color and his nose is a bit too long for his face.  Jaycee thought he looked like any other normal guy, but he was far from normal, and she already knew this.  The man shows Jaycee the stun gun he had used to subdue her and he tells the girl that he will use it on her again if she were to try and escape.  As Jaycee is sitting on the sofa in the unkempt living room, she begins to notice copious amounts of cat hair coating the couch, as she looks around her surroundings she notices a cat sitting on the washing machine, it looks like a Himalayan Persian which was a calico color, Jaycee asks the man if she can pet the cat, he tells her that she can if the cat willingly comes to her.  One of the cats made its way over to the girl and she pets its long soft hair, this is now the only thing that feels real to this stolen girl.

The man tells Jaycee to follow him, which she does, what else could she do, she did not have anywhere to run, nowhere to hide, she did not even know where she was.  The pair arrive in the bathroom of the house, after they both walk into the room, the man turns and shuts the door and then he locks it, Jaycee can hear that the shower was already on and then the man turns to her and tells her to take off her clothes.  No, Jaycee told the man, but the man responded by telling the girl that if she did not take her clothes off herself, he would have to do it for her.  Stunned, Jaycee just stood there and the man proceeded to remove all of her clothing, he then removed his own clothing and Jaycee looked at anything in the room, other than this crazy man before her.  The man asks her if she has ever seen a naked man, to which she replies no.  After forcing her to touch his private parts, he tells her to get into the shower and to begin washing up and he gets into the shower with her.  While in the shower the man proceeds to shave all of the hair which had begun developing on the small girl and while standing in the shower, silent tears begin to stream down her face, mixing with the water pouring over her from the shower head.  After exiting the shower and being wrapped in a towel, her silent tears turned into audible sobs and the man seems taken aback from this reaction, he tells her not to worry, he was not going to do anything more to her, tonight.

The man leads the girl, now wrapped only in her bath towel, down a small flight of stairs and out to the downstairs porch.  He once again covers her head with the same blanket from the car, all of her stuff is now gone, her backpack, shoes and her cloths; she is only left with her small butterfly ring, which she assumes the man has yet to notice.  Now covered in a blanket and walking blindly outside, like a ghost who forgot to cut out the eye holes in its sheet.  She can feel the cool concreate under her feet and then this gives way to cool damp grass, the man guides her by holding the back of her neck, she can hear a train going by somewhere close, this is the first mental note Jaycee makes about her location.  Suddenly, there are sticks and sharp rocks for her to step on which really hurt her feet, then cold concreate again.  Jaycee hears a gate being pushed open and then closed once they walked past it, they continue walking and as they do, Jaycee begins questioning where the other person from the car went, then the man tells her to step up, as she lifts her leg and places it back down, she can now feel carpet under her foot and she hears a door close behind her.  The man removes the blanket from her head and she can see she is in a small room with a pile of blankets on the floor.  The man tells Jaycee that he is going to leave her there, but because he does not trust her yet, he needs to put some handcuffs on her, she tells the man that she will not try to get away, but he tells her he has to, the cuffs he produces have faux fur covering them, he tells Jaycee that they will be more comfortable than regular handcuffs.  He then puts the small girl’s hands behind her back and cuffs her, he then lays her down on her side and leaves the room.  As the man leaves, she can hear the lock being placed on the outside of the door and then Jaycee laid handcuffed on the ground and cried herself to sleep.  

The next morning Jaycee is awake and the small room is beginning to quickly heat up with the morning sun, it grew so hot that she was already sweating from the ambient heat in the room, then she can hear the rattle of the lock on the outside of the door and the young girl knew her mysterious captor was returning.  The man brought her fast food to eat, he would remove the cuffs for her to be able to eat, which was a relief, and this made Jaycee actually look forward to when the man would show up.  The man would attempt to entertain his captive by doing silly voices and bad accents, this man was Jaycee’s only form of human contact and apart from the shower incident, the man had not even attempted to touch the girl again, at least not for the first week and a half.

The man returns to the room and Jaycee can hear as he walks in, the door opens and the man has brought a milkshake for her.  He bends down and tells the girl that today is going to be a little different, today, she can have the milkshake, but she cannot have food until after. After what, Jaycee thinks to herself and all of the sudden, she is not very hungry anymore.  This was the first time that the man would rape the young 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard, she did not understand what was happening, she did not understand what sex even was, and she certainly did not know what rape was, that word was not even in her vocabulary yet, but it happened and it made her bleed, the man left her a bucket of water and a wash cloth to clean herself up as he waited in the next room.

This would be the life Jaycee would grow to know, this man would visit her and if he did not rape her on his visit he would treat her kindly. Jaycee eventually grew to enjoy the man’s company, perhaps this was the young girl’s naiveté, or it was just her loneliness, but she was locked in this room for days on end and the man was her only contact with the outside world, all she could do at this point was survive and endure.

After some time the man told Jaycee that he would get her a kitten, by this time she was no longer required to wear the handcuffs and she could move around her room freely, but she was bored, there was nothing to do all day in this room.  The man had installed an air-conditioning unit, so it would not get so hot in the room.  Jaycee began to notice that she could hear things quite clearly with no other distractions from the ordinary world.  She could even hear when the man approached her room from the outside, she could tell he was there even before he began unlocking the door.  After the man has left Jaycee alone again she attempts to muster up the courage to explore the rooms attached to hers, she quietly opened the door to the next room, it looked very dark and creepy, there were no windows, as her eyes adjusted to the pitch blackness she can begin to make things out in the room, there was a drum set and a microphone stand and a set of huge speakers.

Jaycee had no interest in knowing her capture’s name, she figured, if she knew his name that meant he would never let her go, but as much as she did not want to know, as time wore on she would come to know the man’s name was Phillip.  It made sense to Jaycee that the music equipment was there, she knew Phillip was a musician and he had occasionally brought his acoustic guitar to her room and he had sung her some songs.  Phillip told her that he was a very talented musician and one day he would be famous, she did not care, she just wanted to go home.

While Jaycee’s courage was at an all-time high and she continued to explore her place of confinement, she thought, what if I pushed on the big door that led outside?  What if it opened?  Phillip had told her that the Dobermans were still outside and they would consider her an intruder because they do not know her, she did not want to get attacked by the dogs, she pushed on the door, but it did not move.

Phillip brought an old black and white TV to Jaycee’s room, it did not get very good reception and during the day it was kind of useless, but at night she could pick up some infomercials or QVC, which was better than nothing.  Jaycee began to recognize Phillip’s pattern of movement, he usually came to see her early in the mornings and then later in the evening after the sun had set.  This evening when Phillip arrived he unlocked the door and then told the girl to close her eyes, she does as she is told and when he tells her to open her eyes, there he stood holding a new kitten.  Jaycee was so happy, the kitten was grey with stripes like a tiger running down its back, and she decided to name her Tigger, after the persistently happy tiger from Winnie the Pooh.  Phillip provides a litter box and some food and water for the cat, he then tells Jaycee that he has to take Nancy to work.  Jaycee did not know who Nancy was, she eventually found out that Nancy was Phillip’s wife, she had been the other person in the car with him on the day when she was taken, a day that seems so long ago, already.  Phillip left and Jaycee began to wonder if she would ever get to meet Nancy, she wanted to meet her, she was so lonely she wanted to meet anyone, she hoped that maybe one day, Nancy would stop by and visit her too.

As Jaycee sat in her room playing with her new kitten she began wondering if she had already missed her class trip to the water park, she wondered if it was fun and she wondered what her friend Shawnee was doing right now.  

A small room is no place to raise a kitten, there is nothing to enrich the cat and so it acts out, Tigger began to urinate all around the room and the smell of cat urine clung to the air, when Phillip came to visit, he could not stand the smell, so he decided that Tigger had to go.  Phillip came to take the cat away and, somehow Jaycee understood, this was not a proper environment for a baby cat, but she was sad just the same.  Phillip told her that he would take the kitten to his aunt’s house, she loved cats and would take care of it, she shouldn’t cry.

Jaycee spent a lot of her time sleeping, when she was asleep she could be anywhere she wanted to be and anywhere was better than here.  In the middle of the night the lock on the outside of the door began to rattle, the sound woke her up from her dream, this was much later than Phillip normally came by, Jaycee hoped that he was not here for sex and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, pretending to still be asleep, but she could feel the man as he crouched down beside her, he placed his hand on her shoulder and shook her awake, “It’s time to wake up, we are going next door.” Phillip said and then he put a blanket over her head.  

Jaycee had been completely nude while in this one room, she was not sure how many days she had been here yet, she had not figured out an accurate way to keep track of the days yet.  But one day Phillip showed up with a flower printed one piece jump suite and a pair of underwear, this became the girl’s new favorite thing, cloths.

Phillip led her out of the door into the night air, this was her first time out of this room since she had arrived, they only took about 10 steps before Phillip said, we are here.  Phillip removed the blanket and Jaycee saw where they had arrived, this was a new room, it had three windows, one on each side wall and one window next to the door.  The back wall had no window, but there was an A/C unit there, Jaycee notices that there are bars on the outsides of the windows and then Phillip moved to cover the windows up with towels, just like in her old room.  In the center of the room there is a blue couch, it acts like a divider making the room feel as if it is two rooms, there is a TV on a stand and a small refrigerator with some storage space just under it.  In the corner there is a bucket toilet, Jaycee was scared of this new space, at least in her old room she knew the routine, she knew what to expect, here everything was strange and new and frightening all over again.

Phillip proceeds to tell Jaycee that he was going to go on a run, she did not understand what the man was talking about, because she knew he did not mean that he was putting on tennis shoes and running outside, Phillip then proceeded to explain to her that a run was when he would do as much crank as he possibly could and that it would allow him to stay awake and fulfill all of his fantasies and that it was her job to help him fulfill those fantasies.  As he began doing his drugs he made the 11-year-old clean herself with the bucket of water and then he dressed her up in tight fitting cloths and made her put on makeup.  Phillip begins smoking his crank and offers some to Jaycee, she said no, she thinks drugs are gross.  Phillip then rolls a blunt and continues on his bender, Jaycee went through a lot on this night and she just kept thinking, once he is done he will become nice Phillip again, the Phillip who makes her laugh and brings her fast food to eat.  Phillip finishes his rampage of drugs and rape and when he is done, he takes his young helpless victim back to the studio building to sleep.

The building Jaycee was being housed in was referred to as the studio and the other building, where Phillip would take Jaycee for his runs was called Next Door.  After a few of these drug filled sessions, Phillip decided to allow Jaycee to stay permanently in Next Door.  The girl really appreciated this, here she had a good TV and she could watch whatever she wanted.  Phillip has also begun calling the girl Snoopy, when she asked where the nickname came from, he told her it was because she asked a lot of questions all of the time, and he could tell she had been snooping through his things since she was moved into Next Door.

Here in the Next Door, Jaycee can look out of the window, even though they are still covered in towels, there is not much to see outside besides plants, but she can see the studio building, it is a small brown shed with lots of wires running to it, Jaycee likes the Next Door much better.

The next time Phillip shows up to see Jaycee he tells her that he had brought someone to meet her, and standing just behind the man is a short woman who he introduces as his wife, Nancy.  Phillip informs Jaycee that Nancy will be bringing her, her meals now and that she needs to be patient with Nancy because she is still a bit jealous of the girl.

Jaycee typically slept on the pull out bed, the blue couch in the middle of the room was a sleeper sofa, but sometimes Phillip and Nancy would sleep in the room with Jaycee and when they did, they took the hide-a-way bed and Jaycee slept on a pallet on the floor.  The couple had gotten a Nintendo for Jaycee which she loved, because it gave her something to do.  One day Nancy came to visit her and she brought her a stuffed teddy bear, she told Jaycee that she had been looking for the perfect one for a while, she handed the girl the soft and squishy purple bear and Jaycee named him Nurple Bear.  As Nancy spent more time with their captive, she told Jaycee more about herself, for example, she told her that she worked in a convalescent home taking care of old people and that she had a favorite patient, an old Italian man named Mr. Giovetti.

And this is how life progressed for Jaycee, she had now been held in captivity for a little over a year and Phillip and Nancy would quite often come to spend time with Jaycee in the Next Door, they brought fast food and they would rent movies.  Jaycee specifically remembers watching A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and really liking them.  Jaycee has now endured over a year held in captivity, with no running water and Phillip raping her anytime he felt like it.  Jaycee sometimes enjoyed Nancy’s company, but the woman had terrible mood swings, probably brought on by her jealousy of Jaycee, her husband’s new young play thing. And he had no plans of getting rid of this girl any time soon.

Join us next week as Jaycee enters her second year in captivity.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the Secret Sits in the middle and knows.