Yesterday’s posting described some of the evidence that Jaycee Lee Dugard is suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. After I published the article more news came out supporting the proposition.

Phillip Craig Garrido, along with his wife Nancy, is charged with kidnapping Dugard 18 years ago. It is alleged that they kept Dugard and her two children, who he allegedly fathered, in their back yard in Antioch, California. Garrido owned a specialty printing company. According to some of his clients Dugard was the creative force behind the business. The clients were told that Dugard was Garrido’s daughter. She met with the clients. She spoke to them on the phone and she drafted their products and made changes in the products at their direction.

In none of the conversations with the clients did she tell them that she had been kidnapped or that she was not Garrido’s daughter. At no point did she suggest that she was being kept against her will or that she wanted to escape.

It is clear that Dugard had numerous opportunities to escape and to send messages to the authorities for help. But she did not take them. Presumably she could have asked any of the clients for help or she could have passed them a note asking them to call the police. She was kept in the back yard of Garrido’s house. She could have climber over the fence with her two daughters. After all a news photographer climbed over the fence to get into the yard and take pictures. But until last week there is no record that she tried to escape.

Dugard was eleven years old when she was kidnapped. While she never went to school after she was kidnapped, to work in a printing shop you must be quite literate and to handle the graphics portion of the work you must be quite talented. Someone had to teach her and it was probably Garrido who taught her. This meant that they worked closely together. This reinforces the Stockholm Syndrome. Victims often feel dependent on their oppressors. In addition to food, and housing Dugard was apparently dependent upon Garrido for education and training.

But working in Garrido’s business raises other questions. One of the characteristics of the Stockholm Syndrome is that the victim is isolated. Dugard interacted with clients and worked on projects with the clients. This questions how strictly she was isolated from others. It seems that isolation is more important in the early stages of the kidnapping. Once the victim feels totally dependent on the abductor the need for isolation may not be so great. In fact when she was discover by the UC police she was on the UC campus with Garrido and her children. They were interacting with others on the campus, handing out religious pamphlets.

Another characteristic of the Stockholm Syndrome is that the victim feels “love” towards the abductor. Once these feelings of love develop it may no longer be necessary to keep the person isolated. She apparently felt sufficiently in love with Garrido that she had no desired to report him to the authorities. She may have even enjoyed her life with the Garridos and her work in the print shop.

The good news is that Dugard is literate and she had job skills. This should help her become integrated into the community.

One thing for sure. It should be an interesting trial.