On June 10, 1991, an eleven-year-old girl in the sleepy town of South Lake Tahoe, California, was on her way to the bus stop when she disappeared. Her stepfather stood in front of their house and saw a car cut in front of her. He saw a woman reach out of the passenger door and pull his stepdaughter into the car. He pedaled on his bicycle after the car but had no chance of catching it. Jaycee Dugard would not be heard of again for 18 years.
    Flash to August 25, 2009. A man named Phillip Garrido, along with two girls, aged 11 and 15, show up at the University of California, Berkeley, to hand out fliers about Garrido’s fledgling religion. The campus police are concerned by the demeanor of the girls and run a background check on Garrido. They find that he is on parole for a sex offense and is not supposed to have any children. This leads to a search of the Garrido household. Authorities find a backyard tent complex complete with showers and living quarters. Garrido, his wife, and Jaycee appear at a meeting with Garrido’s parole officer, and Jaycee is separated from the abductors. The Garrido’s are shortly arrested and plead not guilty to the kidnapping and sexual assault.
    During those eighteen years of captivity, Jaycee, allegedly, was repeatedly raped. At the age of fourteen she gave birth to her first daughter, Starlet, in the backyard, soundproof complex Garrido had assembled. She had another daughter, Angel, four years later in the same place. Both of the daughters spent almost their entire lives in the tents assembled in Garrido’s back yard. They were not taken to school; the only education available came from Jaycee, whom they believed to be their sister.
    Jaycee, now 29, was returned to her family in late August and is spending time with her mother and sister, according to remarks from her Aunt Tina made to the media. After such a long and frightening ordeal, it is tempting to ask, “Why didn’t she try to escape?” At some point during those long years, there had to have been some chance to run. Yet, Dugard’s family tells the media that Jaycee never attempted to flee. In fact, they say she admitted guilt for feeling attached to Garrido and his wife. For the answer, one would have to look into psychology.
    Many psychologists speculate that Jaycee was affected be what is called a Stockholm Syndrome. The Stockholm Syndrome is named after an incident of attempted bank robbery in 1973. On August 23, two men wielding machine guns walked into a bank in Stockholm, Sweden and fired several blasts. Thus began a five-day hostage situation that ended curiously. Three women and one man were strapped with dynamite and held captive in a bank vault for 131 hours. After the victims were rescued, they displayed an odd connection towards the criminals. One of the women actually became engaged to her former captor. Another set up a legal defense fund to pay for the criminals’ lawsuit.
    This strange phenomenon can best be explained through the idea of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is “the unpleasant state of mind in which two conflicting thoughts coexist in the mind” explains Mr. Swope, the AP Psychology teacher at Northwest High School. In these cases, one thought will eventually outweigh the other and become the dominate thought. In Jaycee’s situation, the fear of a captor is battling with need for survival. Even though she fears the man that kidnapped her, she must depend upon him for food and shelter. Eventually her dependence overshadows the fear and emotional connection occurs.
    Jaycee Dugard is now at home with her family, starting a long road of recovery with her daughters. An ongoing search of the Garrido property is showing signs of human remains, including a bone fragment and a common spot of interest for two cadaver dogs. The site is undergoing what many experts are calling an archaeological-type dig to uncover any more mysteries.