Cops: Mothers' Instincts Led To Break In Jaycee Dugard Kidnap Case
Aug. 29 2009, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Jaycee Lee Dugard might still be the clutches of her kidnapper were it not for two female UC Berkeley cops kicking into "mother mode" when they met with Phillip Garrido and the two girls he fathered with his victim.
Lisa Campbell is the campus police officer widely credited with the initial break in the 18-year-old cold case. She became suspicious of Garrido when he appeared on the university's grounds wanting to distribute religious flyers.
"He was clearly unstable," Campbell told reporters at a press conference. Worse, the two girls with him - ages 15 and 11 -- whom Garrido identified as his daughters, looked terribly wrong as they stared vacantly into space.
Campbell made up an excuse to get them back for an additional permit interview the next day and had fellow UCBPD officer, Ally Jacobs, do a background check on Garrido. Jacobs discovered he was a convicted sex offender and joined Campbell for the follow up meeting with Garrido on August 25.
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The moment she saw them, Jacobs knew she was facing a crime. "I'm a mother, so police mode turned into mother mode."
Both girls were so pale as to be almost gray, Jacobs said. They stared into space and their behavior was robotic. Even as Garrido owned up to his 1970s conviction for rape and kidnapping, the girls "sat there with no emotion."
Garrido and his wife Nancy were arrested August 26 and have since been charged with 29 counts of rape and kidnapping. After 18 years of confinement in Garrido's backyard Jaycee, along with her two daughters, is now back with her family.