Nancy Garrido's Letters To Prison Pen Pal Surface
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS 5) — For the first time ever, the public gets a look inside the mind of a Bay Area woman accused of the 1991 kidnapping, rape and imprisonment of Jaycee Dugard as letters from Nancy Garrido to a prison pen pal, a woman who she befriended at the El Dorado County Jail, have surfaced.
At first glace, you might never know these were words from a prisoner with a friendship that started in the county jail and continues with Garrido's pen pal, identified simply as Kathryn, serving a sentence in state prison.
Garrido's love for her husband Phillip Garrido, also charged with Dugard's kidnapping and rape, and God were a constant theme throughout her letters.
"Phillip sends me Bible studies that I truly enjoy and bring me closer to our God," writes Mrs. Garrido.
But, it was clear that she knows her and her husband will never reunite.
"We have a great future in God's Kingdom, Phil and I don't have one in this world, but Kathryn, we Phil and I keep our eyes fixed in God's Kingdom, there is where our future will be together," Garrido wrote.
She knows the only time she would ever get to see her husband is in court, where they often exchange glances. But despite her realization of the rest of their lives apart, she seemed hopeful, at times happy, sharing details of her time behind bars.
"Thank you for the card you made me, it's so beautiful. I'm not writing nothing in it. I'll send it to him. He'll love it. By the way, my birthday was 7/18. Turned the big 55. Hee Hee! I feel like 30. Honestly, I continue to exercise in my cell," she wrote.
There are times when Mrs. Garrido's words might come back to haunt her in court.
"You'll love Phillip as well, because we're two peas in a pod," she wrote.
She later wrote, "If Phil and I had the Living God in our life 18 years ago we wouldn't be in this mess."
The words come from a woman who clearly understands how she and her husband's last two decades, the period during which they are accused of holding Dugard captive, will change their lives as they know them forever -- joining her pen pal Kathryn in state prison.
"I'm happy to hear I'll be okay dokey there in Chowchilla. We adapt to any given situation, it's difficult at first, Kathryn. Our God give me so much strength to endure my journey," Mrs. Garrido wrote.
But Nancy Garrido's journey is far from over, and so are her words from jail.
Her attorney Stephen Tapson told CBS: "There are two cycles in the life of Nancy and Phillip Garrido and Jaycee Dugard. After the birth of the two children they found God, and then it became a very bizarre relationship that was loving."
Tapson refers to two children that Dugard gave birth to while allegedly being held in a compound in the Garridos' Antioch backyard. Authorities said Mr. Garrido fathered both of Dugard's daughters.
Saturday, Tapson confirmed the authenticity of his client's letters with The Associated Press. He insisted the jailhouse letters his client sent to a friend won't hurt her defense.
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