Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard broke her silence on Wednesday as the first photograph of her as an adult emerged following her release after 18 years as the prisoner of her abductor.
Dugard was at the center of a worldwide media frenzy in August when she was found alive nearly two decades after she was snatched outside her home by convicted rapist Phillip Garrido in South Lake Tahoe in 1991.
Now 29, Dugard has spent the past two months in seclusion with her mother, Terry Probyn, 50, and the two daughters Angel, 15, and Starlit, 11, who were fathered by her alleged kidnapper Garrido.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In a photo for the cover of People magazine’s latest issue due out today, a smiling Dugard appears above the headline: “I’m so happy to be back.”
The photo of a beaming Dugard bears a strong resemblance to the more familiar image of the 11-year-old abducted schoolgirl that once adorned missing posters. Dugard’s formerly blond hair is now chestnut brown, but her smile and blue eyes remain the same.
In a brief story accompanying the photo, People reported that Dugard has begun a slow process of recovery and has spent her time riding horses, cooking meals and is considering working on a book.
“I’m so happy to be back with my family,” Dugard was quoted as saying.
Terry Probyn’s stepmother Joan Curry meanwhile revealed: “They live a surprisingly normal life, considering the circumstances.”
A spokeswoman for the family, Erika Schulte, told ABC television’s Good Morning America that Dugard had broken her silence to show the world she was recovering from her ordeal.
“She has such a deep appreciation for this new life that she’s embarking on,” Schulte said. “She did want to thank everyone and really let everyone see how happy she is and how much she’s enjoying this and how happy she is to be home.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
RSS