A life ruined

[Onkel Neal]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/28/california.missing.girl/index.html

A woman who was kidnapped at age 11 and then spent 18 years living in her abductor's backyard began the long process of reuniting with her family on Friday.

Dugard lived for the next 18 years in a shed and other outbuildings behind her abductor's house, where she gave birth to two girls that he fathered; the girls are now aged 11 and 15, police said.

Investigators arrested Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender, on charges of kidnapping and abusing her after police discovered Dugard on Wednesday.

It's really hard for me to imagine how this must have been for this little girl. In a news report on TV, neighbors described the man who imprisoned her as a "weirdo". No doubt. The shame is that weirdos are not scrutinized more closely.