Jaycee Stepdad: "What a Miracle This Was"

"Unbelievable" was how the man long suspected in the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl described the resolution of the nearly-two-decade-old mystery, when Jaycee Lee Dugard was found to be alive, living in the backyard of a convicted rapist and sex offender.

"It was a total surprise," Carl Probyn, Jaycee's stepfather, said of the stunning news that the girl whose kidnapping he witnessed 18 years ago had been found alive.

Probyn, 60, said he received a call from his wife (from whom he is now separated) saying she had news from the sheriff, "basically that they had found Jaycee, and then she paused for a few seconds and said, 'She's alive.'

"So we basically cried for five minutes, just lost it," Probyn told CBS "Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez.

Jaycee's kidnappers. Phillip and Nancy Garrido, were arrested in what El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said was a stranger abduction - "They literally snatched her off the streets - in which she was taken to a home in Antioch, Calif., and kept in a backyard prison compound, hidden from neighbors.

More on the Jaycee Lee Dugard case from CBSNews.com:

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Video: Ed Smart on Captive Girl
Video: Police On 1991 Kidnapping

"It's an unusual set of circumstances, presumably well-arranged," said Koller.

Philip Garrido was a convicted rapist and registered sex offender, and police said he forced Jaycee to bear two children ... the first when she was just 14. None of the children had been to school, or had ever seen a doctor.

The case broke after Garrido was spotted Tuesday with two children as he tried to enter the University of California, Berkeley, campus to hand out religious literature. Officers said he was acting suspiciously toward the children. They questioned him and did a background check, determined that he was a parolee and informed his parole officer.

Garrido was ordered to appear for a parole meeting and arrived Wednesday with Dugard, who identified herself as "Allissa," his wife, and two children. During questioning, corrections officials said he admitted to kidnapping Dugard.

"What a miracle this was after 18 years," Probyn said. "I had no idea after this long that we'd find her alive. I mean, this is definitely a one-of-a-kind situation. And then she's healthy and, you know, just unbelievable."

Probyn said he talked to his wife after her reunion with Jaycee last night. "She said Jaycee looks like, almost like when she was kidnapped. She looks very young, she looks very healthy. She told me that Jaycee feels really guilty for bonding with this guy. She has a real guilt trip."

Probyn said what disturbed him was the conditions of her captivity. "The way she was kept in the backyard. I was hoping for a better scenario where maybe a couple took her because they couldn't have their own children or something - that she, you know, had been in school, she had been raised by a couple. I wasn't expecting this ending, you know, being with this sex offender."

Probyn said that he is anxious now about what is ahead for Jaycee and her two children. "You know, the girls haven't been in school, they've never been to a doctor, a dentist. It's like, it's just unreal, you know?"

Rodriguez asked if he would embrace as part of his family the two children Jaycee bore her captor.

"You bet," he replied.

Probyn, who told the Associated Press that he was "a suspect until yesterday" in the case, told Rodriguez that he holds no resentment for investigators who focused the spotlight on him, despite having witnessed Jaycee's kidnapping and described the getaway vehicle.

"They're just doing their job. I mean, what are you going to do? I mean, you just have to deal with it. I'm glad they were doing their job. I am."

Police said Garrido, a convicted sex offender, snatched Jaycee from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991. Probyn chased the vehicle down the street but could not catch up with it.

"I told them, it was a man and a woman," Probyn said. "I said it was an '85 Ford Monarch, gray four-door, and it turns out they had the car in the backyard. I'm surprised I got it right. I was curious for years, like, How close was I? Did I help the case, you know? Did I get the car right? And it turned out I got everything right. It's kind of a surprise."

"Does part of you feel vindicated this morning?" Rodriguez asked.

"A little bit. I really wasn't worried about that part. I knew I was innocent. I was fighting to get her back. It wasn't a priority what people thought, if I was guilty or not guilty. I had to make a living, work, go on with my life. I really wasn't worried about other people. I knew the FBI would put me through the wringer, and that was okay."

Probyn, who now lives in Orange, Calif., told the AP that he's "gone through hell" since the abduction, and that the stress on his wife from losing Jaycee ended their marriage.

"You know, it wasn't between us," he told Rodriguez. "We never had a fight. We never had no problems. We're the best of friends right now. Just losing Jaycee, it changed her life. Jaycee and Terri were like twins, they were joined at the hip. When she lost Jaycee, it just destroyed her.

"People can't believe how it destroys your life, having somebody disappear and not knowing where they're at, whether they're alive, you know, what the situation is. It's just terrible."

When asked what he wanted for the two suspects, Probyn said he hadn't really thought much about it. "Naturally I want them to pay the total price. I want the woman to, you know, not do a plea bargain.

"Actually, I got everything, you know? It's like, I'm getting answers to my questions, got them back, they're healthy, and these people are captured. They've confessed. As long as it took, 18 years to solve this, it all ended real quickly, and everything is done."