Aug 31, 2009 1:13 pm US/Pacific
Search Of Jaycee Dugard's Tent Compound
ANTIOCH (CBS 5 / CBS News) ―
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Tarps, tents and a wooden structure are seen in the backyard of alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido in Antioch.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Police resumed searching Monday for any links to unsolved crimes at the home of an Antioch man charged with kidnapping a little girl and hiding her in his backyard for 18 years.
The "Welcome" sign hanging on a tree branch is a touch of irony, considering the setting: Hidden from view, squalid, rustic (save for electrical cords allowing for lights), and - given the story behind the secret backyard compound - terribly bleak.
The first views of the inside of Phillip and Nancy Garrido's Antioch backyard tent compound, in which Jaycee Lee Dugard is alleged to have been held captive for nearly two decades, show touches of normalcy - shelves and boxes of paperback books, including one titled "Self Esteem: A Family Affair"; an aquarium; cat figurines - amidst turmoil.
Photo-Graphic: Look Inside The Secret Backyard Compound
Eye On Blogs: More Creepy Photos, Case Details Emerge
The pictures show small chests of drawers and plastic storage containers inside a drooping tent. One large tent with rugs on the ground contains a bed piled high with more boxes and strewn with clothes.
A wicker basket and a small clothes rack imply some order, but many of the pictures show clothes, boxes and other detritus strewn about.
And in the midst of the mess, a young girl's touch: An "Aladdin" ironing board, a hair brush, cosmetics.
The Garridos were arrested last Wednesday for allegedly abducting Dugard in 1991. They pleaded not guilty Friday to a total of 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.
As police on Monday continued their search of the home and property at 1554 Walnut Avenue, they have not provided many details about what they are seeking. But police in nearby Pittsburg have said they are investigating whether Phillip Garrido was involved in the murders of prostitutes.
The investigations are "preliminary," said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, declining to say what other past cases were being reviewed.
Police have spent days searching the Garridos' backyard, where Dugard is alleged to have lived in tents and shacks with her two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido.
One officer could be seen over the weekend scanning the backyard with a metal detector while another dug a hole. A third used a chainsaw to clear branches, as investigators shuffled in and out of the property.
Officers from the Pittsburg Police Department, Antioch Police Department and the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department were on hand.
Over the weekend, authorities also roped off a next-door neighbor's home and property at 1540 Walnut Avenue, calling it a "crime scene." Lee said authorities knew that Garrido "was using that property."
Neighbors identified the next door house as belonging to Damon Robinson, who has lived there for more than three years.
Robinson said that Phillip Garrido was the caretaker of the house until he moved there in 2006.
Robinson told CBS 5 that he thinks, before he moved in 3 years ago, that Garrido kept the girls there, because he noticed odd things in the house, such as doors that could only be locked from the outside, and a mattress on the living room floor.
Robinson is one of the few neighbors who saw the now-29-year-old Dugard and her daughters (now ages 11 and 15) peeking over the fence in recent years.
He said his girlfriend called the sheriff's department two years ago to report the known sex offender had children in his yard. The responding officer failed to discover the encampment where authorities said Dugard was kept captive.
Garrido managed to avoid detection over several years and some close calls.
After his release from prison on an earlier kidnapping charge, Garrido met with his parole agent several times each month and was subject to routine surprise home visits and random drug and alcohol tests, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle said. The last unannounced visit by a team of local police agencies was conducted in July 2008.
"There was never any indication to my knowledge that there was any sign of children living there," Hinkle said.
The heavily wooded Antioch compound was arranged so that people could not view what was happening, and one of the buildings was soundproofed.
Dugard, now 29, was reunited with her mother, sister and another relative Thursday. She is said to be in good health, but feeling guilty about developing a bond with Garrido, said her stepfather Carl Probyn. Her two children remain with her.
"Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy. She really feels it's almost like a marriage," said Probyn, who was there when little Jaycee was snatched from a bus stop in 1991 and has been in contact with her mother since they found out the girl was alive.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Photo/Graphic: Inside Look At The Secret Backyard Compound
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