Jaycee walks free after 18 years as a sex slave

Miraculous news that a little girl kidnapped 18 years ago was found alive gave way on Thursday to the horrifying details of how police say she has lived all those years: kept by a convicted rapist in his backyard as a sex slave and forced to bear two of his children.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 in 1991 when she was snatched from her school bus stop, was locked away from the outside world behind a series of fences, sheds and tents in the back of a suburban home.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her for years and fathered two children with her, the first when Dugard was about 14.

Those children, both girls now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound, El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said.

Dugard, now 29, was discovered on Wednesday after a chance encounter between police and Phillip Garrido, the man believed to have kidnapped Dugard and fathered her children.

Garrido, a registered sex offender and convicted rapist, was in police custody on Thursday along with his wife Nancy.

Phillip Garrido, 58, was being held for investigation of various kidnapping and sex charges.

Authorities said Nancy Garrido, 54, was with her husband during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe, California.

Dugard was reunited with her family on Thursday, but the family was also learning that their smiling, blue-eyed, blonde ponytailed little girl had spent most of her life in captivity.

``She was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll,'' Kollar said.

The backyard compound had electricity from extension cords and a rudimentary outhouse and shower, ``as if you were camping'', Kollar said.

Garrido's compound was located in Antioch, a city of 100,000 about 270 kilometres from Dugard's family's home.

None of the children have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor ... They were kept in complete isolation in this compound

The house was cordoned off with police tape on Thursday as it was searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

Police also found a car hidden in the backyard that matched the description originally given of the vehicle driven by Dugard's kidnappers.

``The tents and outhouses in the backyard were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact,'' Kollar said.

``None of the children had ever gone to school. They (had) never been to a doctor,'' he said.

The long-dormant kidnap case began to unravel on August 25, when police at the University of California, Berkeley, spotted Garrido trying to access the campus, Kollar said.

``This alert Berkeley police officer took note of Mr Garrido and two young women who were in his custody. Police officers looked into Mr Garrido's background and found that he was on federal parole,'' Kollar said.

Garrido was convicted in 1971 of charges involving rape and kidnapping and was on lifetime parole.

Police then contacted the state parole office, which called Garrido in for a follow-up parole visit.

Garrido arrived for the parole meeting on Wednesday with Dugard, who identified herself as ``Allissa,'' along with Nancy Garrido and two children.

``The parole agent had never seen these individuals, Allissa and the two young children, during his visits at the house and thought that the individuals were suspicious,'' Kollar said.

The agent contacted police, who interviewed the woman identified as Allissa and discovered that she was in fact Dugard.

Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 by two occupants in a car in view of her stepfather Carl Probyn, who gave chase on a bicycle but failed to stop the abduction.

Probyn, who was a longtime suspect in the case, said he was overwhelmed by the news after doing everything he could to help find her.

``It broke my marriage up. I've gone through hell, I mean I'm a suspect up until yesterday,'' a tearful Probyn, 60, told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, California, on Thursday.

Probyn, his wife Terry and another daughter flew out from Riverside, California, to meet Dugard on Thursday morning.

In addition to kidnapping allegations, court records showed both Garridos were being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and kidnapping someone under 14 with intent to rape.

Phillip Garrido also faces allegations of sexual penetration.

Authorities said they do not know if Garrido also abused his daughters, but they are investigating.