EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Missing Girl's Brother Says Cops Looking To Link Jaycee Dugard Kidnapper To New Case
Sep. 16 2009, Published 6:22 a.m. ET
The twin brother of missing Ilene Misheloff opens up to RadarOnline.com exclusively about his family’s ongoing search to find his sister and how they are working with police about the possible involvement of Phillip Garrido. Investigators are probing possible links in the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and the disappearance of Misheloff who went missing close to her school in Dublin, California in 1989 when she was 13.
See the chilling photos of Garrido’s backyward makeshift prison
“The police have spoken to my parents Mike and Maddi about the case but we want them to comment on the investigation. There are similarities and we have never given-up hope of finding Ilene who went missing over 20 years ago now,” Brian Miselhoff, 34, said.
Police are also looking into the abduction of Michaela Garecht in 1988 who disappeared from Hayward, California, when she was 9.
An FBI profiler peeks into the deranged kidnapper’s mind
“We are delighted that Jaycee has been re-united with her family because it is unimaginably painful experience to go through what we and many others have endured,” he added. “For me the Garrido’s are the most horrible people imaginable and I don’t know what I would say to them if we ever came face to face - but I hope they are helping the investigators if they know anything about Ilene and the other girl Michaela Garecht who went missing around the same time.”
An ex-friend describes Garrido's downward spiral
Misheloff admits that he has struggled to come to terms with the loss of his twin sister and that he thinks about her each day. The single payroll officer still has fond memories of his twin and admits that it has been very hard for him to move-on with his life since that fateful day in 1989.
“Ilene and I would argue and fight a lot when we were growing-up but she was the closest friend I had,” he revealed. “She would never have done anything to hurt anybody but was very driven too and her great passion was ice-skating. It’s been so difficult for my family since she went missing and especially for my parents who have been married for 38 years.”
A seemingly human bone is found near Garrido's home
Being twins magnifies that pain: “I think about my sister a lot and especially being a twin birthdays are really hard because you think of what she is missing-out on.
Garecht was snatched close to a grocery store after she and a friend went there on their scooters. Her mother Sharon Murch spoke at a news conference outside the Garrido’s home in Antioch, California, where they reportedly held Dugard in their backyard for 18 years.
“I know if Jaycee Dugard can be found alive and come home after 18 years then my daughter can be found alive and can come home,” she said.
“I have heard that neighbors reported to the police several years ago that there were girls living in the backyard at the Garrido house, and they didn’t say there were three girls living in the backyard – they said there were five. And the age ranges they gave could’ve included Jaycee and her girls among the younger ones, and perhaps the older one that they saw might have been Michaela.”