Jaycee Lee Dugard: Police missed opportunity to find her reminiscent of Jessica Lunsford

Jaycee Lee Dugard and Jessica Lunsford: Did police drop the ball?

The Jaycee Lee Dugard case has taken America by storm. However, some news that was released today is sure to set people reeling. According to reports, a neighbor had called 911 on November 30, 2006 and reported that a woman and her children were living in tents in the backyard of Phillip Garrido’s home. Garrido, a registered sex offender will be charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard. Authorities responded to the call but never entered the backyard. Had they done so, they would have discovered Jaycee along with her two children, now age 11 and 15.

Since Jaycee Dugard had been held captive for 18 years, had not attended school, and has not seen a doctor, one can only assume the horrors she experienced. Is it possible that she had been impregnated by her rapist on multiple occasions and only the two girls survived? Is it possible that this deranged lunatic had no need for sons, what if Jaycee had given birth to boys? The psychological damage committed on Jaycee and her two daughters is unfathomable, and the horrors that she has experienced are more than likely unthinkable. Our prayers are with Jaycee and her family as she begins the healing process.

At the same time that this case unfolds, I am reminded of the Jessica Lunsford case. A registered sex offender had been living in a home, in close proximity to a young child. He kidnapped that child and held her in his trailer, sexually abusing and torturing her. Police went to the trailer and checked it to ensure that Jessica Lunsford wasn’t there: she was. Her rapist and killer, John Couey had kept her in a closet while police came to the trailer. Not finding Jessica, they left. Couey confessed to raping Jessica, who was nine years old the night he kidnapped her, then raped her again the morning he left for work. He had left her in the closet while he was gone. For three days, Jessica Lunsford was in that home; police came and left, without ever looking in a closet. Couey finally murdered Jessica by placing her in a garbage bag and burying her alive in front of the trailer where police had walked the ground, looking for her. Mark Lunsford had considered suing the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for wrongful death and negligence. He later dropped the suit. His complaint was that Jessica was in the home while they investigated and ignored the barking signals of police dogs that picked up Jessica’s scent in direction of the trailer. When it comes to missing children, shouldn’t every step be taken to look in every corner, every closet, and every backyard shed?

Jaycee Lee Dugard was held for 18 years in the shed belonging to a sexual offender. No one checked the backyard; no one looked over the fence, and when the police were called, and they didn’t thoroughly investigate. Mark Lunsford dropped his case against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Citrus County officials. In both cases, there was probable cause for police to search, thoroughly, the residence of Phillip Garrido and John Couey. Neither home was properly searched, and in Jessica Lunsford’s case, her life was lost, it is quite possible that she might have been saved.