Jaycee Dugard

 

Jaycee Dugard was abducted by a stranger when she was 11 years old in June of 1991. She was discovered alive 18 years later at age 29 in 2009. Her abductor forced her to assume a new identity. She chose the name Alyssa for herself, because she was a fan of the actress Alyssa Milano. She gave birth to two daughters at age 14 and then 17, both fathered by her captor. She is now living peacefully and free with her mother and daughters. 

Here is her interview with Diane Sawyer.   Jaycee wrote her first book, “A Stolen Life” shortly before this interview aired. I read it a couple years ago. Her captor brainwashed her in so many ways. I remember reading how the captor and his wife took her out in public for the first time, when she was about 18. She’d been locked up in their backyard sheds for seven years at that point and was so brainwashed by them that she didn’t try to escape when out in public. She did look around at all the people around her and wonder if they recognized her from her missing person flyers. None of them did. She was only 11 in those pictures. She’d not only grown up but had given birth twice at that point. It made me wonder if I’ve ever walked past someone or interacted with someone in public who was a missing person. There’s no way to know. The missing person themselves has to be courageous enough to break out, and the way these captors treat them mentally, that’s often impossible.