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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 52 - September 22, 2009 Media source says Jaycee Dugard's daughters were not molested...According to media reports, kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard has told investigators that Phillip Garrido did not sexually molest the two daughters he fathered with Dugard. Mercury News story here 
In their Sunday column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross quote an unnamed law enforcement source as saying rape and kidnap suspect Garrido "didn't touch her kids."
It was the behavior of the girls, ages 15 and 11, that first tipped off University of California, Berkeley, police that something was amiss. The girls accompanied Garrido to the campus security office where he was inquiring about a permit to pass out literature. Dugard, 29, gave birth to the girls in her teens, and both Garrido and his wife Nancy have been charged with rape. According to Matier and Ross, Dugard also told authorities that Phillip Garrido hadn't approached her sexually "in years." For more on this story see vol7_iss48, vol7_iss49, vol7_iss50, and vol7_iss51. Meanwhile, the public got a first look inside the filthy lair where kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard may have spent 18 years, imprisoned in squalid conditions by her suspected abductors Phillip and Nancy Garrido. NY Daily News story here 
Contra Costa County building inspectors released several images of the interior of the Garridos' Antioch, California home, revealing rooms piled high with overturned furniture, clothing, garbage and dirty dishes.
Local police said they have so far removed three truckloads of trash and anticipate there is enough refuse on the property to fill eight to 15 more. However, searchers picking through the property have not found any links to the 1980s disappearance of two East Bay girls and could halt their efforts today, authorities said Monday. San Francisco Chronicle story here An exhaustive search of the home and yard on Walnut Avenue has not uncovered anything that could connect - or rule out - the Garridos to the abductions of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht of Hayward in 1988 and 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff of Dublin in 1989, said Hayward police Lieutenant Chris Orrey. So far, investigators have found what they believe to be "very, very old" animal bones on the property as well as on land next door that was once under Phillip Garrido's care, Orrey said. Investigators began digging Monday in areas where search dogs trained to detect human remains had shown interest, and where ground-penetrating radar had detected anomalies, Orrey said. Investigators have sifted through dirt in hopes of finding the source of the anomalies, which could be anything from remains to tree roots. The digging will continue today, but barring any significant finds, the search may end then, Orrey said. Also, CNN tells the story of Phillip Garrido's mysterious black box. CNN News story here "He feels he can speak to you and me and everyone else using this box," said Garrido's friend and former business client, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 
A few days before his arrest, Garrido delivered some documents touting the device to the FBI.
The black box is simple, with a handle, a metal switch and jacks for plugging in headphones. But it provides some insight into the mind of 58-year-old Garrido. Garrido told his friend and customers of his printing business that the box allowed him to communicate without speaking. Garrido so believed in the power of his invention that he wanted to have the device patented, so he solicited the help of a private investigator last year. Idaho teacher caught in bushes with her 13-year-old student... Meridian Police say a southwestern Idaho middle school teacher was caught in some bushes with a 13-year-old boy Thursday night. KBCI News story here 
Lieutenant Bob Stowe with Meridian Police says the 37-year-old teacher at Meridian Middle School, Ashley Jo Beach, has been having a sexual relationship with the 13-year-old for several months - beginning in April of this year.
Beach was arrested for lewd conduct with a child under 16. Officers received a call of suspicious circumstances around 9:30 p.m. Thursday night in the area of Cherry Lane and Vineyards, which is a few blocks away from the school. When they arrived they found Beach and the boy lying down between the bushes and a fence, partially concealed from view. The officers questioned both of them but found several inconsistencies in their explanations of why they were there. Police say the relationship began in April and lasted until Thursday night. Some of the alleged sexual contact occurred at school, it was learned in court Friday. According to the middle school's website, Beach taught math and science. Eric Exline, Meridian School District spokesman, says when the announcement was made at the school, it was like a "bomb had dropped" and that teachers were shocked to hear the news. It's also been learned in court that Beach and the boy allegedly sent nude photographs of their genitals to each other. Beach's bond has been set at $300,000. She also has a no contact order with any children under the age of 18 except her three children. In other news... 
A Florida woman murdered along with her five children endured regular abuse from her husband but seemed overwhelmed by trying to raise the kids herself and wanted him around as a father figure, Department of Children and Families records show. Fox News story here Police in Haiti on Monday detained Mesac Damas, wanted for questioning in the killings of his wife, Guerline Damas, and the couple's three boys and two girls in their Naples, Florida apartment. A relative said detectives told them their throats had been slit. Collier County Sheriff's deputies have called Mesac Damas a person of interest in the slayings. The 33-year-old boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami International Airport on Friday, a day before police found the bodies. Just days earlier, a Department of Children and Families caseworker assigned to the family had made an unannounced visit to the apartment and noted in a report that the children, ages 11 months to 9 years, seemed healthy and safe.
The pastor of a church in a Riverside County strip mall was sentenced to life in state prison for abusing her five adopted daughters, who were beaten daily, fed spoiled food and hidden in a garage. Mercury News story here Jessica Banks, 65, of Moreno Valley was sentenced to 36 years and 8 months in prison along with two consecutive terms of 15 years to life, said Michael Jeandron, a spokesman for the county district attorney's office. Superior Court Judge Richard Hanscom in Riverside described it as the worst abuse case he had seen. Banks was arrested in June 2005, about a month after one of the sisters, a bruised and emaciated 6-year-old, was found curled up on the pavement in front of a tax business at the strip mall. The mall also housed Word of Life Apostolic Church, where Banks was pastor and the children attended school. Authorities say the girls, who ranged in age from 4 to 11 at the time, were forced to wear two layers of diapers and long dark dresses and lived in a hidden room in Banks' unheated garage. Banks kicked and beat them daily with cords, sticks, high-heeled shoes, extension cords and belts, fed them spoiled food, made them take sleeping pills and sexually abused two of them with paint sticks, prosecutors claimed. A jury deliberated fewer than five hours before convicting her in July of 16 felonies, including willful harm or injury to a child, child endangerment, and sexual penetration by force or fear. Banks became the girls' foster parent in 2000 after they were found to have been abused by their family. She legally adopted them in 2004. The girls are now with foster families.
An 18-year-old student armed with an ax and Molotov cocktails wounded nine pupils at his high school in southern Germany, then was shot and arrested by police, authorities said. CBS News story here The teenager entered the Carolinum High School in the Bavarian town of Ansbach and threw two of the explosive devices, but they caused no major fires, fire service official Horst Settler said. Police could not confirm media reports that the attacker had lobbed Molotov cocktails into a classroom. Udo Dreher, head of police officers at the scene, said they responded to an 8:35 a.m. (0635 GMT) call that an attacker had set off two Molotov cocktails at the high school. Upon arriving at the scene, police opened fire and wounded the attacker, who was then arrested, Dreher said. All 700 students at the school were safely evacuated said Nuremberg police spokeswoman Elke Schoenwald. Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the 18-year-old male student at the school is being held on suspicion of attempted murder.
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