Abduction Of Jaycee Lee Dugard

Jaycee Lee Dugard and her daughters, 11 and 15, were kept in a "hidden backyard within a backyard", police say.

After almost two decades, a young woman walked into a San Francisco Bay police station on Wednesday and identified herself as Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had been abducted from South Lake Tahoe 18 years ago. The young woman was abducted by a registered sex offender while she was walking to school, according to reports on CNN.

After interviews and DNA tests it is thought that Ms Dugard's story has been confirmed, bringing an extraordinary end to a missing person case that in 1991 attracted the same kind of media frenzy that the disappearance of Madeleine McCann generated two years ago.

During her 18 year abduction, Ms. Dugard had two children with the sex offender, without medical assistance. Her children were not allowed to go to school and were kept in isolation in a backyard compound in Antioch, California. Phillip and Nancy Garridow were taken into custody in connection with the abduction of 11 year old Jaycee Dugard in 1991.

It is amazing story, both encouraging and sad. Encouraging, because this missing child finally came home. Sad, because of what she must have endured over the past 18 years.

"After 18 years, you do give up hope - this is a miracle," Carl Probyn, 60, the girl's stepfather, said in an interview with a local TV station, KTVU.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido have been charged with kidnapping to commit rape, and bail has been set at $1 million. Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender who has served prison time for kidnapping and rape.

It was every parent's worst nightmare. On June 10, 1991, Mr Probyn was standing in his driveway on a cool spring morning, sipping his coffee and seeing Jaycee off to school. When in an instant, he saw a grey car pull up beside the bus stop where his stepdaughter was waiting on her way to school. Then someone reached out, grabbed her and sped off.

On the FBI's "wanted" poster - still active on the agency's web page yesterday - the suspects were described as a man and a woman. The victim had a distinctive pink jacket and pink trousers and there were several witnesses but in spite of a large search operation Jaycee could not be found and no arrests were ever made.

Despite the amount of time passed and the slim chance that Jaycee would be found, the authorities never gave up. As recently as 2002 a police raided a suspect's home in connection with the crime. No evidence was found.

As one would suspect, the Probyns' marriage suffered after Jaycee's abduction and they eventually separated. Mr Probyn now lives in Orange County while the girl's mother, Terry Probyn, lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside. The couple have another daughter, Shayna, who is 19.

Mr Probyn told local reporters yesterday that he had received a telephone call from his daughter about 4pm on Wednesday.

"Mom has something to say to you," she said. "Are you sitting down?"

Then his wife came on the line and said, through tears: "They found Jaycee. She's alive."

According to Mr Probyn his wife was told the news by an FBI agent who called her at work. At first she thought that it was a prank call. Then the agent put Jaycee on the phone.

"My wife talked with her and is convinced she is Jaycee," Mr Probyn said. "Jaycee remembers everything."

Because Mr Probyn was the last person to see Jaycee before her disappearance he immediately fell under police suspicion during the investigation. He took four lie-dectector tests and remained a suspect in the case for nearly two decades.

"The FBI put me through the wringer, being questioned and having people say 'The stepdad did something'," he told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. "I have been kind of the villain these past 18 years. (But) I've never spent a day in my life in jail. My last speeding ticket was in 1977."

He eventually gave up all hope of finding her alive but prayed that her body would be recovered, "so there's an ending", he said. "To have this happen where we get her back alive, and where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win."

Although he has yet to speak to his stepdaughter, Mr Probyn said that from what his wife told him, "she is doing OK".

One can only imagine what lies ahead for this family, we hope that they have the strength and the faith to survive and help others to avoid the same tragedy.