For kidnap victims such as Jaycee Lee Dugard, recovery is rare. A full portion of her life — her entire teens and 20s — was poisoned by her abduction at 11 and the 18 years of brutal captivity and deprivation that followed. So uncommon are situations like hers that mental- health experts have few examples to guide them.
They can turn to the case of Natascha Kampusch of Vienna, kidnapped at 10 on her way to school in 1998 and held for 8 1/2 years before escaping. After an apparent recovery that included her own television talk show and celebrity dating, she retreated into her apartment and rarely leaves it now.
Or they can look to Elisabeth Fritzl of Amstetten, Austria, dragged into a dungeon by her father at 18 and held for 24 years as she gave birth to seven children. Despite extensive rehabilitation, media reports indicate she is not doing well.
Even psychologists and psychiatrists skilled at confronting the worst of human nature find it hard to fathom how Du gard can put the pieces back together and live some semblance of a normal existence.
Things could be worse for Dugard’s two daughters, who were born into captivity in a ramshackle northern California compound and have known only lives of deprivation. They have never attended school or visited a doctor, and their father — alleged captor Phillip Garrido — is behind bars in El Dorado County jail facing charges of rape, kidnapping and a host of other criminal offenses.
Priorities for recovery
For all three victims, adjusting to freedom will be a long and arduous process.
Dugard’s top priority should be to get reacquainted with her mother — although not too fast — and begin intensive psychological and psychiatric treatment, experts said.
She is at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder. But if proper steps are taken early, the chances of her developing that, and other problems such as depression, can be minimized.
Still, the psychological scars from her experience probably will affect her day-to-day life and might make it impossible for her to ever live on her own, hold down a job or form lasting romantic relationships.
“The adjustment to the outside world is going to be very brutal,” said psychologist Naftali Berill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science. “How do you undo years of abuse, years of being held captive?”
2 properties searched
On Sunday, the search for evidence in Dugard’s case and others continued. Armed with rakes, shovels and chain saws, about 20 officers combed the backyard of the couple charged with kidnapping and raping Dugard and used cadaver dogs to search an adjoining property where neighbors say one of the suspects once served as a caretaker.
“We do consider it a crime scene,” said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department.
Lee would not elaborate on what kind of evidence investigators were seeking or the nature of the possible crimes involving the second property. Garrido, the man charged with holding Dugard in captivity for 18 years in his backyard, had access to the neighboring land when the house that sits on it was vacant three years ago.
“It looks like Garrido lived on the property in a shed,” Lee said.
Damon Robinson, who moved into the vacant house in 2006, and another neighbor say Garrido served as caretaker of the home before Robinson took occupancy. That same year, Robinson’s then- girlfriend called police after she saw tents and children in the backyard, but the responding deputy did not uncover the backyard compound.
A third neighbor, Janice Deitrich, 66, said Garrido visited and helped to feed an elderly neighbor who lived in the house before Robinson.
Police in Pittsburg, near where the Garridos lived, have said they are investigating whether Garrido might be linked to several unsolved murders of prostitutes in the 1990s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
