Jaycee Shielded Kidnapper From Cops

Stockholm syndrome turned victim into abductor's defender
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2009 5:00 AM CST
Jaycee Shielded Kidnapper From Cops
Jaycee Dugard cuts up for camera shortly before she was kidnapped at the age of 11.   (AP Photo/Dugard family)

Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard lied to a suspicious parole officer in a desperate bid to protect her abductor when she was discovered, according to just-released report of her questioning. Jaycee, kidnapped when she was 11 in her northern California town, called herself Alyssa and presented herself as Phillip Garrido's wife. She laughingly explained that she was often mistaken as someone young enough to be the sister of her daughters, fathered by Garrido.

She became angry under repeated questioning and insisted Garrido was a "great person" and "good" father, despite his previous arrests for rape and kidnapping. She then switched her story, first explaining that she was an abused wife on the run, then finally admitting her real identity as the girl missing for 18 years. The exchange is a chilling revelation of the likely effects of Stockholm syndrome, notes the San Francisco Chronicle.
(More Jaycee Lee Dugard stories.)

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