I’m from Antioch, California. Jaycee Lee Dugard was held captive in my town in the back of a house in a shack for 18 years. Not only did this happen in my town, but my relatives were neighbors to her captors for years and they used to try to get my relatives children (very young at the time, age 10 or so) to talk to them. I have a friend who was also neighbors with her captors and they have odd stories of being their neighbor as well but that’s an entire other story. Not only is this devastating, but it stills shocks me today and absolutely terrifies me. I often visit South Lake Tahoe for vacation with my family and have since I was a year old. Now that I’m older, I think about her and her abduction every time I’m in South Lake Tahoe, and of course, my hometown.

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped outside of her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, on June 10, 1991, at age 11. Her captor, convicted rapist Phillip Garrido, raped Jaycee repeatedly, fed her countless lies and impregnated her twice (she gave birth to daughters at ages 14 and 17). Renamed "Allissa," Jaycee spent 18 years in captivity, living in a backyard shack at the home of Garrido and his wife, Nancy. After Garrido's visit to the UC Berkeley campus prompted police investigation, the Garridos were arrested and Jaycee was reunited with her mother, Terry Probyn, on August 26, 2009.