RIVERSIDE, Calif., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The aunt of Jaycee Lee Dugard says her niece is happy after being reunited with her family after 18 years in captivity in California.
Meanwhile, The Sacramento Bee reported Thursday authorities say Phillip Garrido may have attacked at least two other victims. The newspaper said he was arrested after allegedly drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl at an Antioch motel in 1972. He also was suspected of trying to kidnap a young woman near South Lake Tahoe in 1976, an hour before he abducted and raped a 25-year-old woman in Reno.
Tina Dugard said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the Orange County (Calif.) Register that her niece appears optimistic despite having forced to bear two daughters while allegedly held prisoner by Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy.
"There's a sense of comfort and optimism, a sense of happiness … . Jaycee and her girls are happy," Tina Dugard said.
She said despite the horrors suffered by her niece in Antioch, Calif., their family appears to have started moving on.
"People probably want to think that it's been this horrible, scary thing for all of us," she told the Register.
"(But) the horrible, scary thing happened 18 years ago, and continued to happen for the last 18 years. The darkness and despair (has lifted.)"
Tina Dugard also spoke with reporters Thursday, saying her niece, who was 11 when she was kidnapped, remembers her family members despite her time away.
"We spent time sharing memories and stories and getting to know each other again. Jaycee remembers all of us," she said.
Both Garrido and his 54-year-old wife have pleaded innocent to charges they kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and held her until last month.
