Allison Jacobs and Lisa Campbell: Women Who Solved Dugard Case

by Amy Judd | October 13, 2009 at 12:01 pm

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By now everyone is familiar with the Jacyee Dugard case; the girl who was abducted and held for 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido for use as a sex slave, but the story behind how Jaycee was found and finally returned to her family has never been told by the women who cracked the case.

Without the work of police officer Allison Jacobs and police specialist Lisa Campbell, many say Jacyee would still be missing, and the two women are going to be on Oprah today to tell their story.

Both women are employees at the University of Berkeley and it was on August 24 2009 that Phillip Garrido walked in to Lisa's office to ask about an event he wanted to host on campus that Lisa had an uneasy feeling about the man across from her. She looked behind him, and there were two girls standing outside the office door.

"I said, 'Whose children are these?' He says, 'They're mine.' I said: "Hi, girls. How are you? Come on in,'" she says. "They were pretty girls, but they just weren't animated. They weren't interactive. It was a nonverbal communication. It was just as though they were props."

Lisa invited Garrido back the next day to talk to him about his even and see the girls. She told Allison about what she had seen and how she had an uneasy feeling about it.

'Ally, this guy is in my office. He's got these two young girls. Something's not right,'" she says. "At that point, she went to do her criminal background [check] on him."

Allison says that his background check revealed that he was on parole for rape and was a sex offender.

Both women attended the meeting with Garrido that afternoon and Allison talked to him while Lisa looked at the children.

"I'm looking at the 11-year-old, who is staring at me unlike any other stare I've ever had at me by a child in my life," she says. "You can usually tell what their eyes are saying, and they're very animated with their eyes. … I'm not getting any kind of read from her at all."

Phillip Garrido left with the two girls, but Allison called his parole officer to ask about him.

"When I got to the point of his two girls, his two daughters, he says, 'He doesn't have any daughters,'" Allison says. "My heart just fell down into my stomach. Here I am thinking: 'Did we just let someone go who kidnapped these kids? What did I do wrong?'"

It was soon after this phone call that police officers followed up and found Jaycee had been living with the Garrido's for 18 years.

Lisa says to listen to your inner voice when you have a feeling about something. She says don't be afraid to question or to take that extra step. People should also develop a better sense of community and help each other out so that everyone can be involved; knowing what is happening is important says the two women.

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