Saturday, August 29, 2009

"this 18-year nightmare did not have to be for Dugard"

http://ncane.com/uzbq


But it became increasingly clear Friday that this 18-year nightmare did not have to be for Dugard, with new details surfacing that authorities blew numerous chances to catch her alleged captor.

Neighbors complained to law enforcement that a psychotic sex addict was in their midst, alarmed that Phillip Garrido was housing young girls in backyard tents. A deputy showed up to investigate, but never went beyond the front porch.

Probation officers showed up at the home, too, but had no inkling that his back yard was actually a labyrinth of tents, sheds and buildings that were Dugard's prison.
They did not even know he had children on the premises.

Garrido also wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his every movement, the result of his sex-crime convictions that sent him away to Leavenworth for a 50-year stint, only to get paroled after 10 years.

"Why is he out and about?" said Dan DeMaranville, who investigated Garrido in the 1970s rape case in Nevada. "If he's on lifetime parole, where was his parole officer? The guy was a sick puppy, and should have been neutered before he was paroled."

The outrage came as a sheriff's department acknowledged that it missed an opportunity to arrest Garrido in 2006 after the neighbor complaint about children in the yard.

"We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation," Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said. "I cannot change the course of events but we are beating ourselves up over this and continue to do so."

"We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two."

Duh!
I sure hope there is a new sheriff in town soon!

1 comment:

Paul said...

You know most of these so called “police/ parole officers” always have a chip on their shoulders, and even when they fail at their jobs they appear arrogant like saying “what are you going to do”, let’s face it, she saved herself, she was not saved by the authorities. Does anyone believe that the authorities were still investigating her disappearance? The car used in her kidnapping was in the backyard, the lazy ass cops didn’t even bother to go through the backyard when the information indicated that kids were living back there, they didn’t check local schools to see if the kids were going to school or even asked to see the kids, no report to child protective services, boy how lazy can you be and still pick up your public service check, not to mention the parole officers who failed to visit and find out where this freak was living and what he was doing. I guess she was taken in 1991, and in 1993 (only two years later) after violating probation he spent for 4 months in federal prison (California have yet to release any details of that violation or explain why he was again released into the community). Nevada officials said they were never notified of Garrido's parole violation, which would have allowed the state to revoke his parole. Had California parole inspected his home in 1993, we would not be here now asking questions, we would be saying our system works, now I am not sure of anything. Because now I wonder how many more of these freaks are in our country doing the same thing under the noses of our so called authorities.

Yes, I agree he should have served all the time for his first offense, but don’t let our authorities off the hook. I can only say if you have a neighbor that fits this profile, call and call again to try to ensure that this does not happen again. Simply amazing.