Hidden Compound Of Horrors Discovered In Backyard

A young woman, abducted from a South Lake Tahoe bus stop as 11-year-old, spent nearly two decades imprisoned in a hidden, tarp-draped compound in a backyard where she was allegedly repeatedly rape and kept in total isolation, authorities said.

The couple who abducted Jaycee Lee Dugard -- Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 55 – were set to make their first court appearance Friday where more details of the case were expected to be revealed.

They were both being held on $1 million bail and have been charged with a litany of crimes. Phillip Garrido has been charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, rape and committing lewd acts with a minor.

Meanwhile, Nancy Garrido was being held for kidnapping and conspiracy.

While authorities were releasing information about the horrifying life Jaycee Lee Dugard has endured, Phillip Garrido was spinning a different story from his jail cell.

“In the end this is going to be a powerful heartwarming – one that you’re just going to really impressed,” he said in a jailhouse interview.

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar detailed the horrors Dugard endured at a Wednesday news conference,

He said Dugard went by the name "Allissa" and had two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido, Kollar said. She is now 29 years old; her daughters are 11 and 15.

The three lived in a series of tents and sheds set up in a "secret" area of the backyard that was hidden by a 6-foot fence covered with a tarp.

Two of the outbuildings had electricity supplied by an extension cord, and one shed was soundproof and could only be opened from the outside. The backyard contained a rudimentary outhouse and shower, Kollar said.

Dugard's daughters have apparently never been to school and never visited a doctor, Kollar said.

"They were in complete isolation," Kollar said.

Cheyvonne Molino, owner of JM Enterprises, a Pittsburg auto dismantling yard, said Phillip Garrido had brought his daughters to a sweet sixteen party Molino held for her own daughter on Tuesday.

Molino said she has known Garrido for about 10 years through her business, which she owns with her husband, and that he regularly printed business cards for them.

He had never mentioned a wife or daughters, she said.

"We were kind of shocked when he said, 'Is it OK if my daughter comes to your daughter's birthday party?'" Molino said.

She said the two girls appeared to be about 11 and 13 years old. "He came, he brought his girls, they stayed for a little bit," she said. At one point, according to Molino, Garrido said something to the effect of, "This isn't what they're used to, so we're going to go ahead and go."

Molino said Garrido would often stop by JM Enterprises, on Willow Pass Road, with bottles of water for customers and employees. He would hand out the water and tell people about a church he was starting.

Garrido wouldn't press people on religion; he would just tell them to enjoy the water and would say "Jesus loves you," Molino said.

Molino said the girls had been by the store and had told an employee they were home schooled and that there was a church in their basement.

The case of missing Jaycee Dugard began to crack open on Tuesday, when a police officer at the University of California at Berkeley saw Garrido on campus with the two girls and found their interaction strange, Kollar said.

He said Garrido was trying to pass out religious literature on the campus.

The police officer checked Garrido's background and found that he was on federal parole.

On Wednesday, Garrido's parole officer had him come to his Concord office, and Garrido showed up with Nancy Garrido, "Allissa" and the two girls.

"Allissa" turned out to be Jaycee Dugard, Kollar said.

The El Dorado County District Attorney's office expects to file charges against the Garridos by noon Friday.

Dugard's mother flew up to the Bay Area rom Southern California and was reunited with her daughter in Contra Costa County.

In the wake of the arrests, neighbors of the Garridos were grappling with the news that their neighbors had been arrested for Dugard's kidnapping. The couple's gray, one-story home has been cordoned off with police tape.

Betty Unpingco has lived on the street for 10 years and said the Garridos moved in after she did. "We're all shocked, scared that it can happen just a few doors down," she said.

She said she saw Phillip Garrido more than his wife, and that she didn't know him well but that she had once bought business cards from him.

Angela Crabaugh, whose son lives across the street from the Garridos, described Phillip Garrido as a religious fanatic who was trying to form his own church.

"I just always thought he was very bizarre," she said.

Garrido published a blog, http://voicesrevealed.blogspot.com, in which he claimed to be able to control sound with his mind. In a post earlier this month, he wrote that he had "the ability to speak in the tongue of angels" and had hosted a demonstration of this ability at JM Enterprises.