Nick Ut
Imprisoned since she was 11 by Phillip Garrido, Jaycee Dugard never told her two children by her kidnapper that she had been abducted by their father. "Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy," her stepfather, Carl Probyn, told the San Jose Mercury News on Friday. "She really feels it's almost like a marriage." Upon being reunited with her mother earlier this week, Jaycee's first words were reportedly "Hi, Mom, I have babies." Probyn said that Dugard regretted not escaping earlier. "She is feeling guilt for having bonded with this guy the way she did," Probyn said. "He had her for 18 years, we had her for 11.'' Meanwhile, authorities are looking into how police missed a series of opportunities to discover Dugard during visits to Garrido's home. Garrido, a registered sex offender, was released from prison after only 11 years in 1988 on kidnapping and rape charges that had earned him separate sentences of 50 years and life in prison. It is not yet clear why he was released in the first place, the Associated Press reports.