Girls Other Than Jaycee in Garrido Yard?

Police Scour It for Signs of Two Other Long-Ago Kidnap Victims; Mom of One Says Neighbors Spotted Five Girls Living There

(CBS/AP)  The search for clues into the disappearances of two girls in the 1980s has led authorities to a now-familiar address: the Northern California home of the couple charged with kidnapping an 11-year-old and holding her captive in their backyard for 18 years.

Police searched Phillip and Nancy Garrido's property and a site next door Tuesday for any possible links tying them to the abductions of Michaela Garecht in 1988 in Hayward and Ilene Misheloff in 1989 in Dublin.

The similarities between those cases and the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, for which the Garridos are charged, prompted the search and gave hope to family members who have not stopped looking for their children for the past two decades.

"I know that if Jaycee Dugard can be found alive and come home after 18 years, then my daughter can be found alive and come home," Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch, said at a news conference in front of the Garridos' Antioch home.

On "The Early Show" Wednesday, Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch Murch, said the search "fills me with hope. When I first heard that Jaycee was alive, my first thought was, 'Michaela has to be with her.'

"Since that time, I have heard that the neighbors reported to the police several years ago that there were girls living in the backyard at the Garrido house, and they didn't say there were three girls living in the backyard. They said there were five. And the age ranges they gave could've included Jaycee and her girls among the younger ones, and perhaps the older one that they saw might have been Michaela. But there are other girls that were back there, and we don't know who they were."

Special Section: Jaycee Lee Dugard

Dugard was reunited with her family Aug. 27, a day after the Garridos were arrested on charges they kidnapped, raped and hid her in a squalid backyard encampment of tents and sheds. Police say Phillip Garrido fathered Dugard's two daughters, now 11 and 15.

The Garridos have pleaded not guilty.

An attempt to leave a message for Phillip Garrido's attorney at his office after business hours Tuesday was not successful. Nancy Garrido's lawyer, meanwhile, posted a statement on his blog about Tuesday's search. Gilbert Maines said he and Phillip Garrido's attorney had planned an inspection of the property, and he was surprised when he found police and media there. He said he had no knowledge of the search. The posting also said Maines would not comment further.

Since the arrest, several law enforcement agencies in the San Francisco Bay area have re-examined old kidnapping cases and other unsolved crimes looking for anything that may link the Garridos, and specifically Phillip, to their investigations.

Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, had demonstrated a propensity to go after young girls, according to court papers.

Hayward police said Tuesday they went to the Garridos' home because they noticed several similarities between Michaela's abduction and Dugard's.

Lt. Christine Orrey said a sketch of a man suspected of taking Michaela resembles photographs of Phillip Garrido at the time of the abduction.

The nature of the abductions was also similar. Dugard was snatched outside her South Lake Tahoe, Calif. home in broad daylight as her stepfather watched in horror. Michaela was taken outside a market where she was buying candy with a friend. The girls, both blond, also looked alike.

There were also similarities with the getaway vehicle used in Michaela's kidnapping and a car found on the Garrido property, Orrey said.

Dublin authorities also noted similarities between a vehicle found on the Garridos' property and one that a witness reported seeing Ilene getting into on the day of her disappearance. They said a previous rape conviction for Phillip Garrido also raised concern.

"We know that based on the Dugard investigation as well as Mr. Garrido's history, people who commit these offenses tend to be predatory and tend to have multiple victims," said Dublin police Lt. Kurt von Savoye.

Both departments said Garrido had opportunity. He was out of prison at the times of the two abductions, and the communities are not far from Antioch.

Authorities said the search would take days.

Police were looking for clothes, DNA evidence, remains and any other evidence of the abductions.

Neither the Hayward or Dublin police departments have interviewed Dugard, but they are working with agencies who have. They have both been in touch with family members of the girls. Ilene's family was out of state for a family emergency, von Savoye said.

By the end of Tuesday's search, Orrey said they hadn't found anything "earth-shattering" but have gathered some items that may warrant a second look.

That didn't discourage Murch, who made an emotional appeal to her daughter during a news conference Tuesday in front of the Garridos' Antioch home, saying, "Michaela, if you're out there somewhere within the sound of my voice, I just want you to know that we love you, we miss you."

She said she's never stopped looking for her daughter and Dugard's case only encouraged her that the family could eventually find peace.

"I have to have hope that she's still alive somewhere," she said.

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Family Web site for Michaela Garecht
MySpace page for her
Twitter page for her

[sam-kiley]

bonjour
interessant tout ça, qu'est ce qui se cache encore derriére "le pot aux roses" je veux dire que cachent encore les garridos, seul l'avenir nous le dira..au revoir

[MalloryDavis]

HUH?

[awise1]

The home is owned by his mother, I read today a stun gun was used on Jaycee when she was initially kidnapped is that true??? I can't begin to imagine the horrors that child endured...

HELL is to good for the Garrido's in my opinion.

[sjbj2322]

There's no telling what all these two did over the course of so many years. In the end the only consolation that many of these people may be able to take is that over the course of many more years to come they won't be able to do it again. On another note, I would love to know if the Garrido's owned the home they lived in. If so, I PRAY with all my heart that title is transferred to Jaycee so that it may be sold and the money go to her rather than to the state or heaven forbid the Garrido's attorneys. Jaycee will need a lot of help - emotionally and financially. At the very least she should have the consolation of not having to confront financial problems so she's free to deal with everything else.

[tmittelstaed]

I would hope that the home is torn down, otherwise it will become a very ugly tourist trap. I can just imagine "pay $5 to see the yard that Jaycee was kept prisoner in"

It would be best if the city or county could take title to the place, raze it to the ground, and put in a park.

[mnbrant]

Yeah they do look alike. Geeze this is a big story. I wish the guy would be man enough to let the families know where the bodies of all the people he has killed before the trial.