Nancy Garrido‘s attorney says that she misses and loves her daughters. She is, of course, referring to kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard‘s biological daughters, fathered by her accused captor and rapist Phillip Garrido — Nancy’s husband. Make no mistake about it, prosecutors have given Nancy Garrido equal billing when it comes to the criminal counts, hitting her with the same 29 charges her husband is facing — which could mean life behind bars.
Nancy is accused of forcible rape, committing a forcible lewd act upon a child, and false imprisonment by violence. These charges date from the day then 11-year-old Jaycee went missing in 1991. The police also believe it was Nancy who actually physically abducted Jaycee. Nancy was not a victim. I suspect she was, in fact, a willing participant.
Nancy met Phillip while he was serving time in Leavenworth penitentiary for the 1976 rape and abduction of Katie Calloway Hall. They communicated through letters, and then married in a ceremony while he was still in prison. This is a woman who, with full knowledge of his sadistic and violent past, still wanted to marry him.
Nancy Garrido is much more of a sociopathic monster than a mother who should be missing her children. Her “children” were born out of her violence. She and her husband allegedly inflicted this torture upon Jaycee and her daughters simply to satisfy their twisted and bizarre lifestyle. Her “girls” were lied to about the identity of their mother, who was actually Jaycee. They were raised in an environment of violence and trauma, washed in Phillip and Nancy’s sexual compulsions and mental illness.
The police are particularly interested in the five-month period in 1993 when Phillip went to prison on a parole violation, because it was shortly after he returned home that Jaycee became pregnant with her first child. When I heard that, it made me think how resilient Jaycee was because she was forced to keep this secret from her children to keep them safe. I suspect that part of the abduction and fantasy for Nancy may have been for Jaycee to have children for her. I suspect that Nancy either did not want to carry children, or that she was unable to get pregnant. She was 35 years of age when Jaycee was abducted, and nearly 40 when the first child was born.
I believe both Phillip and Nancy Garrido should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The police do not believe that Phillip could have kept up this charade without the participation and assistance of Nancy Garrido. In a strange way, it is only now that Nancy Garrido understands the devastating loss of a child. Jaycee Dugard‘s mother had to live with that intense pain every single minute of every single day for the last 18 years.