Kidnapped California Kid To Release Memoir

Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe bus stop as a child, and virtually imprisoned for 18 years before being rescued in 2009, is about to release a memoir detailing her emotional and harrowing experience.

"A Stolen Life," published by Simon & Schuster, is set for release this July and promises to be a best seller.   Readers will, for the first time, get a first-hand account from the young woman who not only lived a life of solitude for 18 years at the hands of her captors, but who also bore and raised 2 children throughout the ordeal.

To refresh memories, Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted from a bus stop and forced into a gray sedan on the California/Nevada border in 1991.  Her stepfather would witness the event and give chase on a bicycle to no avail.  After months of relentless searching, the case would go cold until 2009, despite several missed opportunities and clues.

That's when alleged kidnapper and ex-con, Phillip Garrido visited the University of California, Berkeley police office and asked permission to hold a special Christian event on the campus.  After this initial contact, the coordinator thought the man's behavior to be odd, told him to schedule an appointment for the next day, and reported the meeting to a campus police officer, who ran a background check on Garrido. 

After learning of his record, the officer sat in on the following day's meeting.  Garrido brought two young girls with him to that meeting, that he introduced as his daughters.  The officer found the girls' behavior to be odd and relayed the meeting to Garrido's parole office.  They arrived at his home the same afternoon, searched it, and an 18 year-old mystery began nearing its conclusion. 

Phillip Garrido and his wife and accomplice, Nancy were charged with 29 counts of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, and sexual assault.   

Jaycee, by all accounts and despite the tragedy that she and her children were forced to endure, is doing well and looking forward to getting her story out there.

Wow!  Can you imagine...?