Phillip Craig Garrido was already known as an oddball who said he could channel the voice of God through a makeshift box, but on Thursday, the eccentricity took on an aura of horror.
The registered sex offender who had served two stints in jail already has just been found to have kidnapped an eleven year old girl and held her captive in a compound in the backyard of this house for 18 years, fathering two children while he lived in the main house with his wife and mother. Midway through the article we get a paragraph about his claim to hear the voice of God:
The neighbors and other acquaintances said Garrido conducted religious revivals in a tent, claimed to hear the voices of angels and God, and said he had developed a device through which he could control sound with his mind. He propounded this all in a business he called "God's Desire."
This reminds me of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz.
Berkowitz subsequently claimed that he was commanded to kill by a demon who possessed his neighbor's dog.
I am very glad Phillip Garrido didn't kill the Jaycee Lee Dugard. I would like to know more about people who commit criminal acts and also claim to hear the voices.
On another note, the information in the news article would seem to indicate that there may still be two little girls missing. Erika Pratt, 25, who stayed next door to the Garrido house two years ago and observed the people in the hidden compound
said people came and went from the property, but the core group consisted of two girls about 4 years old, one girl about 11, another girl about 15 and a young woman about 25. They were all blond, she said.
However, the police report that the only people found at the compound at the time of the arrest were Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, and her 11 and 15 year old daughters. So, where are the two little girls? That is the untold story here.
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Clearly, this is a man who needs to be removed from mainstream society. I have to wonder too, about his housemates and how they could live in such close proximity to the family locked up in their shed.
It seems the wife was fully aware of what was going on. I am wondering if she may even have been the sole person responsible for keeping Jaycee in captivity when her husband was in prison for a while, as the SF Chronicle story has this bit:
"Officials said Garrido served time in Nevada on kidnapping and rape convictions in the 1970s, '80s and '90s and was paroled after one stint in 1988 and another in June 1999. It was not immediately clear where Dugard may have been while Garrido was in custody."
I think this girl may have developed "Stockholm syndrome" - think that is what it is called, when the victim develops an attachment to their abuser. It is much more common than you'd expect, after all, who else can the abused child be close to other than this person who rules her life. It is entirely common for other adults to turn a blind eye, even in "ordinary" abuse cases happening within families.
I think this girl may have developed "Stockholm syndrome" - think that is what it is called, when the victim develops an attachment to their abuser. It is much more common than you'd expect, after all, who else can the abused child be close to other than this person who rules her life. It is entirely common for other adults to turn a blind eye, even in "ordinary" abuse cases happening within families.
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