Eleven Year Old Girl Abducted, Raped and Confined for 18 Years

The world is a  is very unsafe place for children, more especially, the girl child. The case of Dugard, the 11 year old girl who was abducted from a school bus stop near her home then confined for 18 years brings back to the news, the case of Joseph Fritzl, the Austrian father who confined, raped and fathered 6 children with his own daughter within a period of 24 years in the backyard of his house! The Garrido case is most disheartening because, the police were tipped off about it but chose not to act in a thorough and professional way. They responded to the tip off three years ago and even visited Garrido’s home but did not do a search, even when they knew Garrido had a criminal record and was a parolee.

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The story goes that in 1991, Garrido in the company of his wife Nancy, abducted Dugard, then an 11 year old girl and kept her in his back yard, while literally using her as a sex slave. Over the 18 years, he raped her and fathered 2 children now aged 11 and 15 years respectively, who were equally kept hidden and isolated from the outside world.

This matter came to light when Philip Garrido was spotted recently with two beautiful kids as he distributed some religious literature in California . He had become obsessed with some Christian religion called God’s Desire, which he was trying to popularize. The arrest of Garrido and his wife Nancy brings and end to the 18-year long ordeal of Dugard who is today enjoying freedom for the first time in 18 years. She has re-united with her family and the tears of joy are rolling as the reunion goes on.

Dugard’s mother and her stepfather separated in the years following the abduction. Her mother in particular had completely lost any hope of ever seeing her daughter again. Just like the case of Joseph Fritzl, I keep wondering what happens to such captives that make them never consider any attempts to escape! Human beings are usually unpredictable, but to stay in such a confinement for 18 years without trying to run away or call the police makes me believe the victim must have either resigned herself to the situation or simply got terribly intimidated.

I hope the American government gives support to the 29-year-old Dugard and her two awesome girls, to pick up their lives again from the long trauma they have been through. At the same time, let this be a lesson to the US Police Department to be more thorough in their investigations whenever confronted with cases like this next time.

My biggest outrage in this case goes to the Parole Officer-he left a well known criminal on the loose upon society. Had he been more stringent with his monitoring roles, may be Dugard would have been rescued alot earlier than now!