Jaycee Dugard: 35 Years Later, Where Her Daughters Are

June 10, 1991

Jaycee Lee Dugard was 11 years old and walking to her school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, California, when a car pulled up, a stun gun was deployed, and she was pulled inside. She did not come home that evening. She would not come home for 18 years.

Today, June 10, 2026, is the 35th anniversary of that morning.

What Happened in the Years She Was Gone

Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender, and his wife Nancy held Dugard captive in a network of tents and sheds behind their home in Antioch, California. During those 18 years, Phillip Garrido repeatedly assaulted her. Dugard gave birth to two daughters - the first when she was 14, the second when she was 17.

The case broke open in August 2009, when Phillip Garrido brought his two daughters to the UC Berkeley campus to obtain a permit for a religious event. A campus police officer found his behavior suspicious and ran a background check that revealed his sex offender status. His parole officer was contacted. At a subsequent meeting, Garrido arrived with Nancy, the two girls, and a woman going by the name Alissa - who was Jaycee Dugard, now 29 years old, using an identity the Garridos had given her.

Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison. Nancy Garrido received 36 years to life. Both remain incarcerated.

Jaycee Since 2009

Dugard reunited with her mother, Terry Probyn, and has spent the years since working deliberately to build a life outside the story the world knows about her. She published a memoir, ‘A Stolen Life,’ in 2011, followed by ‘Freedom: My Book of Firsts’ in 2016. She founded the JAYC Foundation, an organization that supports families affected by abduction and related trauma.

In her first public appearance since her rescue - accepting the Inspiration Award at Diane von Furstenberg’s DVF Awards - she said something she had been unable to say for 18 years: ‘My name is Jaycee Dugard.’ She described the experience of simply being able to say her own name as something that ‘feels good.’

People magazine, which has covered her journey since recovery, recently published a piece asking where Dugard and her daughters are today - a question that comes with a deliberate and consistent answer from her.

Where Her Daughters Are

Angel, born in 1994, is now 31 or 32. Starlit, born in 1997, is approximately 28. Neither has sought public life. According to People and other reporting, Dugard made a deliberate decision early on to give her daughters identities separate from the circumstances of their births - away from the name of their biological father and from the story that defines how the world knows their mother.

Both daughters attended college, according to statements Dugard has made in her books. Beyond that, the family has chosen privacy.

In her writings, Dugard has described her daughters with pride - their curiosity, their capability, their independence. She has also been clear that she carried the weight of ‘victim’ deliberately, so they would not have to.

What Remains of the Case

Phillip Garrido, now in his 70s, is serving a sentence that amounts to the rest of his life. Nancy Garrido, also in her 70s, remains imprisoned. Neither has had any public presence outside of incarceration.

The JAYC Foundation continues to operate, focused on recovery and family support for survivors. Dugard has described her advocacy work as the direction her life has taken - turning experience into something useful for others in circumstances she understands from the inside.

Thirty-Five Years

The South Lake Tahoe sidewalk where Jaycee Dugard was taken on a June morning in 1991 is still there. So is she. So are her daughters. The 35th anniversary falls on the same day each year - a date that marks an absence that lasted nearly two decades, and a return that has now lasted longer than the captivity.

As People noted in its recent update, there is a very deliberate reason there are no recent photos of the daughters and no social media accounts. In a time when nearly everyone is seeking visibility, Jaycee Dugard’s daughters have chosen privacy - and their mother made sure they had the chance to make that choice.

References: Where are Jaycee Dugard daughters today | Jaycee Dugard kidnapping story