Nancy Garrido: The Jaycee Dugard Kidnapping Case

Nancy Garrido is a convicted kidnapper and sex offender who, with her husband Phillip Garrido, abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and helped hold her captive for 18 years in a hidden compound behind their home in Antioch, California. In 2011 she pleaded guilty to kidnapping and aiding and abetting rape and was sentenced to 36 years to life in state prison.¹ She is incarcerated at the California Institution for Women and will not be eligible for parole until August 2029.²

Who She Is and How She Met Phillip Garrido

Born Nancy Bocanegra in Texas, she grew up in a family of five or six children and lived in Colorado as a young woman.³ She met Phillip Garrido while visiting an incarcerated uncle at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Phillip was there serving a 50-year federal sentence for the 1976 kidnapping and rape of a woman in Reno, Nevada.⁴ Nancy married him at Leavenworth in 1981. It was her first marriage and his second.⁵

When Phillip was paroled in 1988, the couple settled in Antioch, California, at his mother’s home. Nancy earned a California nurse aide certification in 1989 and worked in nursing homes; from December 1994 to March 1998, she was a full-time nursing and physical therapy aide at Contra Costa ARC, a nonprofit serving adults with developmental disabilities.⁵ Stanford criminologist Joan Petersilia later noted that Nancy moved in with Phillip knowing he was a registered sex offender on parole and subject to drug testing.⁶

The 1991 Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard

On June 10, 1991, Phillip and Nancy Garrido abducted Jaycee Lee Dugard, then 11 years old, as she walked toward a school bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California.⁷ Phillip was on federal parole at the time.⁸ At sentencing, Judge Douglas Phimister said the couple had “gone shopping” for a young girl that day and that Phillip used a Taser to subdue her.⁹ Nancy later confessed to police that she helped her husband grab Dugard from the street and take her to their Antioch home.¹⁰

Her Role During the 18 Years of Captivity

Dugard was hidden in a compound of tents, sheds, and outbuildings in the Garridos’ backyard, screened behind tall fences, trees, and tarps and wired for electricity by extension cords. The soundproofed sheds could only be opened from the outside. El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said the setup was “as if you were camping.”¹¹¹²

Over those years Phillip Garrido repeatedly raped Dugard and fathered two daughters with her — the first born in August 1994, when Dugard was 14, and the second in November 1997. Neither child was ever sent to school or taken to a doctor.¹³¹¹ Prosecutors said Nancy was “fully involved” in imprisoning Dugard and was a key figure in maintaining the captivity for nearly two decades.¹ In her own police statement, Nancy said she was “aware of” the sexual activity but denied taking part.¹⁰

Sole Captor in 1993

From roughly April to August 1993, Phillip Garrido was back in custody for failing a parole drug test. For those five months Nancy was Dugard’s only captor. Dugard, then 13, remained imprisoned, and Nancy made no attempt to release her or contact authorities.¹⁴ Prosecutors and outside experts pointed to that period as evidence Nancy acted independently and not merely under her husband’s physical control.¹⁵

Videos of Luring Children

Footage seized from the Garridos’ home and dated May 1993 showed Nancy coaxing young girls into a van, asking them to perform poses such as the splits while a hidden camera recorded. When one child noticed a light on the camera, Nancy told her she did not know anything about it.¹⁶ In her police interrogation, Nancy admitted making between 10 and 20 such recordings for Phillip’s “gratification.”¹⁷

Arrest, Guilty Plea, and Sentence

The case broke in August 2009 after two University of California, Berkeley campus police officers noticed Phillip Garrido behaving strangely on campus with two young girls and alerted his parole agent, Edward Santos Jr. Ordered to report to the Concord parole office, Phillip arrived on August 25, 2009, with Nancy, Dugard, and the two girls. Under hours of questioning, Phillip eventually confessed that he had kidnapped and raped Dugard “a long, long time ago” when she was a child. Both Garridos were arrested the next day and held on $1 million bail each.¹⁸¹²

Two days after their arrest, prosecutors charged the Garridos with 29 felony counts, including kidnapping for sexual purposes, forcible rape, forcible lewd acts on a child, and false imprisonment by violence. Nancy initially pleaded not guilty.¹⁹ Both defendants gave full confessions in late 2010 and early 2011 as their attorneys pushed for a plea deal. According to Nancy’s attorney Stephen Tapson, prosecutors initially offered terms amounting to 242 years for Nancy and 440 years for Phillip.¹⁰

On April 28, 2011, Nancy pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of aiding and abetting rape; the remaining charges were dropped on the condition that Phillip plead guilty to nearly the full indictment. Both waived their right to appeal.⁷⁹ Tapson said Nancy accepted the deal to spare Dugard and her daughters from having to testify.²⁰

Sentencing took place June 2, 2011, in El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville. Dugard did not attend; her mother, Terry Probyn, read her victim statement. Addressing Nancy, Dugard said, “There is no God in the universe that would condone your actions,” and told both defendants, “Both of you can save your apologies and empty words.”⁹ Judge Phimister said the Garridos had effectively “reinvented slavery.” Phillip received 431 years to life. Nancy received 36 years to life, with the possibility of parole.²¹ Through her lawyer, Nancy read a brief statement: “Words are not enough, and what I did was evil, and every time I look in the mirror, it reminds me of how evil I was.”²²

Was She a Victim or a Willing Accomplice?

Whether Nancy Garrido was a willing partner or a woman under Phillip’s psychological control was disputed throughout the case. Her first attorney, Gilbert Maines, argued she was being “controlled” by her husband and compared her situation to the Patty Hearst kidnapping, saying Phillip’s hold on her persisted even when he was jailed.¹⁵ Phillip’s brother, Ron Garrido, described Nancy as behaving like “a robot” who would “do anything he asked.”²³

Prosecutors and outside experts rejected that framing. Stanford’s Joan Petersilia said Nancy’s own history undercut a victim defense: she married Phillip while he was imprisoned for kidnapping and rape, moved in with him as a registered sex offender on parole, and kept sole control of Dugard during his 1993 incarceration. Petersilia concluded that Nancy “cannot argue ignorance.”⁶ Ernie Allen, then president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he did not “cut her a lot of slack” and said she should be judged on what she did.¹⁵ A neighbor, Cheyvonne Molino, called Nancy “the real monster,” saying, “She is a woman and should never have let this happen.”²³

Where Nancy Garrido Is Now

Nancy Garrido is serving her 36-year-to-life sentence at the California Institution for Women. Her first parole eligibility date is August 2029.² Phillip Garrido is serving 431 years to life in state prison, effectively a life sentence with no possibility of release.²¹

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BBC News. Garridos Sentenced for Jaycee Dugard Kidnapping
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Yahoo News. Jaycee Dugard Kidnappers: Where Are Phillip and Nancy Garrido
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Blue Ridge Now. Few Clues to Puzzle Suspect
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NBC News. Phillip Garrido Criminal History
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Mercury News. Garrido’s Wife Accused of Abducting and Raping Jaycee Dugard Worked as Nursing Aide
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Stanford Law School. Nancy Garrido: Victim or Monster
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BBC News. Garridos Plead Guilty in Dugard Case
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Prison Legal News. California OIG Special Report Re Parolee Garrido
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NBC News. Garridos Sentenced in Dugard Kidnapping
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The Guardian. Nancy Garrido Full Confession
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NBC Bay Area. Neighbors Wondered Why Are They Living in Tents
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ABC News. Jaycee Lee Dugard Found
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KCRA. Judge Issues Birth Certificates for Dugard’s Kids
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ABC News. Garrido 1993 Parole Violation
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ABC News. Nancy Garrido Culpability Analysis
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NBC News. Nancy Garrido Luring Video Released
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SFGate. Disturbing Nancy Garrido Video Released
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KCRA. Parole Agent in Jaycee Lee Dugard Kidnapping Case
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The Guardian. Nancy Garrido Charged in Dugard Kidnapping
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Mountain Democrat. Phillip and Nancy Garrido Plead Guilty
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El Dorado County District Attorney. Jaycee Lee Dugard Case
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6ABC. Garridos Sentenced in Dugard Kidnapping
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CBS News. Nancy Garrido: The Real Monster