Second Memoir By Bay Area Kidnap Victim Jaycee Dugard Due Out In July

A woman who was kidnapped and held by captors for 18 years has written a memoir coming out in July detailing how she has adjusted to life after her captivity, according to her publisher.

“My Book of Firsts” is the second memoir written by Jaycee Dugard, whose first book, “A Stolen Life,” became an international bestseller in 2011. Her previous memoir described her abduction and captivity.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido kidnapped Dugard at the age of 11 at a school bus stop outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991. They kept her in the backyard of their home near Antioch for 18 years. While she was held captive by the couple, Dugard was repeatedly raped and gave birth to two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido.

Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender, was arrested in 2009 after he went to University of California at Berkeley’s campus with two young girls, later identified as Dugard’s daughters, and sought a permit for a religious event he wanted to hold on campus.

Campus police thought Garrido’s interactions with the girls were suspicious and learned from a background check that he was a registered sex offender on parole for kidnapping and rape.

Police called Garrido’s parole officer, who had him come to the parole office in Concord, where he was accompanied by his wife Nancy, the two young girls and a woman who turned out to be Dugard. In 2011, the couple pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape and sexual assault charges. Phillip Garrido was sentenced in El Dorado County Superior Court to 431 years in prison and Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Dugard went on to write a book about those events that sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S., according to her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Five years after the release of that book, her publisher is releasing her second memoir, which provides an account of her first experiences after years in captivity. It’s expected to be in stores in hardcover or available as an e-book on July 12.

Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in a statement that the strength Dugard exhibits in her writing “has been an inspiration to millions.”

“Her story is a remarkable example of resilience and spirit,” Karp said. “Readers of this book will gain a new appreciation of how joyful freedom can be.”

--Bay City News