Tahoe Girl Missing For 18 Years May Be Alive

(CBS13)

Photo: Jaycee Lee Dugard

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (CBS13) A possible break in the 1991 kidnapping case of an 11-year-old girl from South Lake Tahoe. A woman showed up in Contra Costa County yesterday, claiming to be Jaycee Lee Dugard, who has been missing for 18 years.

Photos: Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive
Photos: Inside Jaycee's Terror Tent

This morning, Dugard's mother, Terry Probyn is flying to Northern California from her home in Southern California to meet with the woman who claims to be her missing daughter.

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CBS13 spoke with Dugard's stepfather Carl Probyn late Wednesday, who says the FBI facilitated a phone call between the woman in Concord and Dugard's mother Terry who now lives in Riverside County. According to Carl Probyn, this woman walked into a Bay Area police station identifying herself as Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11-years-old at the time of her disappearance.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department has announced they will hold a press conference Thursday to discuss the high-profile kidnapping case from 1991.

Dugard was kidnapped the morning of June 10, 1991, while walking from her home to the school bus stop on Washoan Blvd. in Meyers. Her stepfather said he watched a stranger pull up and yank Jaycee Lee into a two-toned gray sedan as she kicked and screamed. Probyn believed a man and woman were in the vehicle. Although there were several false sightings, Dugard was never seen again.

CBS13's Kurtis Ming investigated the cold case in 2003 when there was renewed hope Dugard may have been alive. There were several similarities to the Elizabeth Smart case out of Utah. Smart and Dugard resemble one another. Both girls were abducted in the month of June, 11 years apart. One of Smart's alleged captors, Wanda Barzee resembled the female captor in the composite sketch in Dugard's case. Dugard was kidnapped near Highway 50 which leads to Salt Lake City.

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Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom on June 5, 2002 at the age of 14. She was found alive nine months later about 18 miles from her home.

Smart's alleged captors, Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee have yet to go before a jury in the disappearance after being found incompetent to stand trial. Mitchell reportedly thought God told him Smart should be his second wife.

In May of 2003, shortly after Smart was reunited with her family, Dugard's mother Terry Probyn, neighbors, and investigators took a look at the possibility the cases were connected.

Photos: Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive
Photos: Inside Jaycee's Terror Tent

Probyn told Kurtis she was praying her daughter was still alive, and questioned whether Dugard could've been kidnapped by religious cult members. Although El Dorado County Detectives reached out to the Salt Lake City investigators in the Smart case, the Dugard case remained cold.

Photos: Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive
Photos: Inside Jaycee's Terror Tent

Story Contributed by CBS 13 Reporter Kurtis Ming

(CBS13)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Four time Emmy Award Winner Kurtis Ming is CBS 13's Consumer Investigative Reporter. Since joining CBS 13 in 2003, he's held the position of general assignment reporter and weekend anchor before starting up the "Call Kurtis" program, which has helped viewers get back more than a million dollars since 2006.

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