Magazine Shows Face of Kidnap Victim Jaycee Dugard

“I`m so happy to be back with my family."

Jaycee Dugard, who was freed from 18 years in captivity in northern California by a sex offender in August, has shown her face on the cover of People magazine.

Showing her smiling face, People said she looks so happy that it is difficult to see hints of her nightmarish past. The report said she rides horses, cooks, and is thinking of writing a book on her experience.

Dugard is living with her mother and two daughters, aged 15 and 11, fathered by her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, while undergoing psychological treatment. She said she is adapting to daily life alarmingly fast, and that she chose to release her photo to publicize her happy life after the end of her long ordeal.

Dugard was kidnapped by Garrido while waiting for the school bus near South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991 when she was 11. At the time, her stepfather witnessed her abduction and unsuccessfully chased the kidnapper.

In August this year, Garrido, 58, was checked by police at the University of California, Berkeley, for suspicious behavior. Police soon found him to be a sex offender on parole, an incident that eventually showed that he and his wife kidnapped Dugard and kept hostage.

The Garrido couple was arrested on the charges of kidnapping, habitual sexual assault, and illegal detention.

A police investigation said Dugard bore two daughters after being repeatedly raped by Garrido, and was living in a makeshift facility at his backyard. She and her daughters lived in the hellish place without adequate sunshine and in seclusion due to a high fence.

Dugard’s children never went to the hospital or school. After the shocking story broke, criticism mounted over the indifference of neighbors and a flurry of psychological analyses asked why the victim and her two daughters did not escape for 18 years.

lightee@donga.com