It’s been a long and agonizing search for family and police as they tried to locate a young 11 year old girl that got kidnapped back in 1991. Her name is Jaycee Lee Dugard and her story is much like the movie of the week, but in this case it’s a true story.

The young Jaycee was on her way to a bus stop back in 1991 when a car made a U-turn and came back to grab the frightened little girl. Two people were inside the car and Jaycee’s stepfather saw the whole thing unfolding. He quickly chased after the car, but soon saw it vanish from his view. After contacting authorities and getting a massive search underway, the hunt for Jaycee Lee Dugard had begun.

It didn’t take long for Jaycee’s teacher at school to know she was missing and the announcement was soon made official at school. There really was no need for the announcement since some of the children had witnessed her abduction too and the buzz was already spreading like wildfire at Jaycee’s school.

You can still go on the Internet now and see all the websites that show Jaycee missing and many of them have not been updated yet. This is because the 11 year old girl has now been found and her status can now be changed to “found”. It was just this week when she entered a California Police Station and told them who she was. I’m sure many on staff that day didn’t even know who Jaycee Dugard was but it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out who she was.

Jaycee went missing from Lake Tahoe, California and its been 18 years since anyone from her family has seen her. She is now 29 years old and has 2 girls of her own that are ages 15 and 11 years old. It appears the same man that took her 18 years ago is also the father of her two children. Over the years Jaycee has built a bond with her kidnapper; even though he is a married man and his wife also took part in the kidnapping. Both of them have been arrested now and both gave non-guilty pleas to the judge in California. It seems that Jaycee’s bond might be the reason this case has went unsolved for so many years now.

Jaycee’s two girls were with their father on the Cal Berkley College Campus and were speaking religious messages. An alert security guard on campus that was the campus police took notice and this is what led to the eventual kidnapping case to be solved. Jaycee has spoken to her mother and stepfather and apparently her first words to her mother was “I have babies now”. For the most part Jaycee is healthy and seems in good spirits as this 18 year old mystery is coming to a close. They are still lots of unanswered questions and it should be interesting to see what details come out over the coming weeks and months from the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case.

She was living behind the house out in another structure before she turned herself in to authorities. Neighbors have reported seeing children living in tents in the backyard and police were called to the home back in 2006. The guy that kidnapped Jaycee was even on parole and had a parole officer that would visit the house. The officer claims that there was no signs of children living at the house and never thought twice about their visits to the home.

The whole story has a familiar sound to it; when you think about kidnapping a young girl and a religious guy getting away with it for so long. The early parts of this story on Jaycee Dugard sound a lot like the Elizabeth Smartstory that had a happy ending too or at least as happy as it could have turned out. Elizabeth Smart was found with a guy preaching religion and her capture lasted for several months before she was rescued by an alert police officer in California. Elizabeth’s story seems to pale in comparison when you think about being gone for 18 years and the fact that Jaycee has raised a 15 year old daughter and an 11 year old daughter during her captive years. I’m sure this story has caught the attention of the Smart Family and they are keeping up with Jaycee’s case and reflecting how it is so much like their daughter that got took from her home while sleeping one night in Colorado.

I guess we will have to wait for more details to surface in this case and I’m sure the family wants as much privacy as they can from the media right now. I would think this story will make its way to Hollywood and we will get to see a movie on the Jaycee Dugard story one day. I think this is one bright thing Jaycee and her daughters can look forward to and the money that comes from any movie or book deals should be enough to help get Jaycee’s daughters a good education and a big head start on forgetting their past. If Jaycee had some feelings for her kidnapper; then those feelings are probably even stronger for the 2 girls and everyone will have their eyes on the California judicial system to see what punishment gets handed down in this case.