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Jaycee Lee Duggard
Similarities in the kidnapping cases of Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Lee Dugard are plentiful. Of course, the best similarity is that both were found alive, after some had given up on that possibility.
Elizabeth Smart's story is ingrained into the minds of every person that lived in Utah, and other states, when she was kidnapped in 2002 at the age of 14. Nine months later, she was found--walking along State Street with her kidnappers, Wanda Barzee and Brian David Mitchell. She appeared on Oprah last year to talk about her return, and how she was able to heal from the horrible ordeal.
[My mom told me,] 'They already took nine months of your life away. Don't give them anymore.' So I just didn't think about being sad, because I was so happy to be home, and when my mom said that to me, I thought about it and tried to carry that out the rest of my life because I think that really is true
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Of course, being gone nine months is a lot different than being gone 18 years. Elizabeth was able to slip back into her old life, remember the way life used to be, return to school, and, for the most part, be a normal kid. Jaycee's childhood and young adulthood have been taken from her, and she won't ever get them back. She also now has two daughters, the offspring of her kidnapper, abuser, and captor. Will she be able to use the same method as Elizabeth?
Shawn Hornbeck, who was also kidnapped in 2002 when he was 11 years old, was returned to his mother four years later. Shawn's mom offered up this advice to the Jaycee's family after learning of her being reunited with her family: "Sit back. Listen. Don't ask the questions. I know they've got so many questions but in time the answers will come."
More articles on Jaycee: Jaycee Lee Dugard, a single mom impregnated by her kidnapper, Jaycee Lee Dugard Found
Elizabeth Smart/Photo by Alex Wong, Getty Images
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Comments
Despite the similarities between all these cases where a child goes missing and comes back years later, the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard has no precedent. No child taken by a stranger has been missing for as long and has fathered children with their captor. This has no precedent whatsoever. When more horrifying details emerge, we will realize to what extent this case is different.
Notice how much alike Elizabeth and Jaycee look? No wonder people thought the same people kidnapped her.
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