13 years later: Those responsible for finding Jaycee Lee Dugard speak in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There are two dates long-time South Lake Tahoe locals will always remember - June 10, 1991 and August 26, 2009. The day when 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped as she walked to her school bus stop on Washoan Blvd., and the other date the day news that she had been found spread quickly through the community.

When Jaycee was kidnapped, the town was in shock. Not only did the community start looking, but there was also a big law enforcement response, descending on South Lake Tahoe to search for clues in the abduction. Hours turned into weeks, then months turned into years.

The two people who are credited with rescuing Jaycee and her two daughters along with the FBI agent who dedicated years of his life looking for her were together in South Lake Tahoe recently. It was the first time all three had spoken together about the amazing recovery of Jaycee from the hands of convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy.

Chris Campion, the FBI agent assigned to the South Shore at the time had been in Sacramento on June 9, helping with a large drug bust. As soon as he heard about Jaycee, Campion and 30 other agents rushed up US50 and over Echo Summit. It was Campion, retired UC Berkley Police Officer Ally Jacobs, and retired parole agent Ed Santos who spoke to a group in South Lake Tahoe during the California Crime Prevention Officers Association (CCPOA) convention at Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort.

There was nothing normal about this case if there is such a thing as "normal" in a kidnapping, and the resolution was unprecedented and will be the topic of case studies and discussions for years to come.

Jaycee was one of an average of 115 stereotypical kidnappings a year in the U.S., and those searching for her wanted a quick and happy ending. That happy reunion with her family would come 18 years later.

Chris Campion

"This doesn't happen here," Campion told the gathered officers. After the initial search proved cold, he started going through regional cases of abductors, sexual predators, and serial killers (yes, we've had those - Coddington, Joseph Michael Nissensohn). There were some similarities to cases that were still to come - Polly Klaas, Krystal Steadman, Elizabeth Smart, Christina Williams, and Vanessa Samson. He even looked at John Thomas Jamelske, the serial rapist-kidnapper who, from 1988 to his apprehension in 2003, kidnapped a series of girls and women and held them captive in a concrete bunker beneath the yard of his home in New York. One of the girls was from Nevada.

There was even a Folsom Prison inmate who said he kidnapped her.

"The case never went cold," said Campion. "We were always working on it."

Ally Jacobs

On August 24, 2009, Phillip Garrido and two young girls went into the U.C. Berkeley (Cal) special events office to get a permit to be on campus. Lisa Campbell, the event staff, didn't feel comfortable with Garrido but got his name and asked him to make an appointment for the following day. When he leaves, Lisa calls Ally and expresses her concern over the "crazy" man who said he could talk to God with a special machine and had two girls with him. He had flyers on him about this machine. Lisa tells Garrido to return the following day at 2 p.m.

(Chris described the machine as looking like a garbage can)

Ally probes her about her concerns and does a background check on Garrido and finds a lengthy criminal history.

On August 25, 2009, at 2:05 p.m., Garrido returns with the two girls. He was dirty and had rotten teeth and Ally said he was never clear on why he wanted to be on campus. She said he had all the signs of meth abuse and wouldn't stop talking.

"He said, 'I've done some bad things in my life'," Ally said of the meeting. She said the girls were not phased when he told Ally he'd raped women.

Those comments caused Ally to focus on the girls. She said they were clean, and well kept, and she started to ask them questions. Ally said the 11-year-old's responses weren't normal and they made the police officer uncomfortable.

Ally's intuition told her something was not right. The questions are running through her mind at the time and she decides to contact Garrido's parole officer, Ed Santos. She leaves him a message.

Ed Santos

He started work early on August 25, having parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon. Little did he know when he started his shift that he'd miss that conference, and the one the following day for his other child.

Ed connected with Ally and they spoke about her concerns. The first comment, that Garrido came in with two girls, was the first clue something wasn't right as Garrido wasn't supposed to have contact with kids due to terms of his probation, and as far as he knew his parolee had no children.

This concern led Ed to Garrido's house in Antioch, Calif. to find out who the girls were, something he could do since the felon was on probation for a previous rape in Reno. In 1976, Garrido kidnapped 25-year-old Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe. He took her to a Reno, Nev. warehouse, where he raped her for five and a half hours. She was found by a Reno Police Officer doing rounds when she ran out of a storage unit. Garrido came out of that unit, shirtless, with jeans on, and barefoot and he was taken to jail. Garrido was sentenced to 50 years in prison at Leavenworth, served 11 years, then transferred to Nevada State Prison, where he served seven months of a five-years-to-life and was released in 1988. He then moved to his elderly mother's house in Antioch with his wife and he was placed on parole, was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor, and was subject to visits by his parole agent.

Ed did not get Garrido's case until 2008. He had home visits with Garrido 26 times in that year, whereas his predecessors had about 28 visits during the previous 10 years. Garrido tested positive for meth during one of those visits and went to jail for violation of probation, leaving Nancy at home with Jaycee and her daughters for several weeks. To a normal eye, the Garrido backyard looked like any other yard with a back fence. Little did anyone know at the time was the compound built behind the fence - it wasn't the backyard of a neighbor, it was home to Jaycee and her two daughters.

Ed and another agent arrived at Garrido's house at 6 p.m. Garrido answered the door in jeans, no shirt, and no shoes (remember Reno?) and was drilled on who the two girls were. He had told Ally they were his kids, and told Ed they were a friend's kids who had dropped them off at the Garrido house for the day.

Ed heard some noise from the side of the house and went inside and searched. He did not see any children. Ed started to take Garrido to jail, but parole conditions can be tricky and there was no reason at the time to arrest him. Ed wanted something to hold him on. Ed told Garrido to go to his office in Concord, Calif. the following day at 8 a.m. with the girls and their parents. Ed was prepared to call Child Protective Services (CPS) if the parents did not come in.

At 8 a.m. on August 26, Garrido comes into the office with the two girls and Jaycee. That caught Ed by surprise. At first, she told Ed she was the mom. Following years of control from the Garridos, Jaycee pulled Ed aside and told him she and the girls were hiding from an abusive husband in Utah.

Parole agents cannot detain without cause so Ed called the Concord Police Department. They showed up one hour later.

After two hours of questioning from Ed, Garrido told police he was the dad. Garrido says "a long, long time ago I kidnapped her and raped her," Ed recalls.

"All hell then broke loose," said Ed.

The Aftermath

As everything was going down in Concord, Chris was talking on the phone to FBI agents in Cleveland, Ohio who helped with the Ulysses Roberson case from 1986. Roberson killed his son Alexander Olive here in Tahoe and they went ti trial later in 2009. He gets off the phone, finding he missed the call that Jaycee had been found.

"You knew all these years she was alive, and I apologize," Chris said he told Jaycee's mom Terry Probyn on the phone as he rushed to Concord.

There was not a dry eye in the room when Terry and Jaycee were reunited, said Chris. He knew right away the family had to go into hiding, so he got them protection as the media descended upon the home, the college, and the parole offices in Concord.

Chris said their concern was providing for Jaycee, her mother, and the girls. Health and wellness checks, counseling, a secure residence, personal security, legal and public relations referrals, and privacy were to come first.

But, they were together, something that didn't seem possible for 18 years. All because the stars lined up that day.

Ally used her intuition. It told her something was not right.

Ed called her back, which wasn't always common with his profession, said Ally.

Had Ally and Ed not gone above and beyond. Had they not relied on their guts and training, the outcome could have been much different.

"She was meant to be found that day," said Ally.

Even with their stellar work, neither Ally nor Ed was treated well after Jaycee was found. Ed received death threats and needed round-the-clock security and his kids had to be escorted to school. He even got a threat 90 days later, asking Ed what he'd do if his kids went missing.

Ally got injured on the job and after two unsuccessful surgeries, she was medically retired. She went back to college, earning a Master's Degree in Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California, Irvine. Her thesis was about not ignoring intuition in police work. She went on a speaking circuit, sharing her story about 20 times including a stop on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She survived breast cancer, and now teaches criminal justice and owns Starry Nite, a paint-and-sip studio, finally able to tap into her creative side. Last week in South Lake Tahoe was the first time she'd spoken about the case in 7-8 years. (On a side note, the year before Jaycee was found, Ally's son was one of the first viral YouTube sensations, known as the 'cookies kid'. She didn't want the public to connect the two and make life even crazier).

Ally has never met Jaycee.

People still come up to her, give her a hug, and cry. After she spoke at CCPOA, a woman came up to her with tears in her eyes. When she speaks in public she tells others in law enforcement to not ignore that little voice in their head.

Ed stayed with the parole office but was never allowed to talk about his experience in public, being told it would be bad publicity. "Law enforcement was my life," says Ed, not wanting to jeopardize his career, his pension. He wanted to share what he knew as people will make up what they don't know, or are not told - the reasons he felt that led to his treatment after Jaycee and the girls were found.

Changes to the way Parole operates have come about after the Jaycee case.

South Lake Tahoe was Ed's first time to publicly talk about the case now that he is retired from service. "There were a lot of details nobody knew," said Ed. He now owns a polygraph business.

Ally wrote a book not about the case, but about her life. She has never shared it and was for herself. Ed said he started to write one and got some things on paper to get off his mind.

"Now that I can speak I don't need a book," said Ed.

The two responsible for finding Jaycee came to South Lake Tahoe as a favor to Chris, who has since retired from the FBI. He still calls the South Shore home.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who is now 42, lives in an undisclosed location. She has written two successful books, A Stolen Life and My Book of Firsts, works with therapy horses, and is still requested at speaking engagements. Her daughters are now 22 and 26.

Phillip Garrido is serving a sentence of 431 years to life at Corcoran State Prison in the Protective Housing Unit where he was once alongside another notorious criminal, Charles Manson. He is now 72-years-old. Nancy Garrido, now 67, was sentenced to 36 years to life and is in prison in Chino.