'Mellow' Jaycee Knew How to Survive: Stepdad

Higher-strung little sister might have been killed by kidnappers, he believes
By Mat Probasco,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 6, 2009 6:03 AM CDT
'Mellow' Jaycee Knew How to Survive: Stepdad
In this 1991 photo, Jaycee Dugar's mom Terry Probyn fights back tears after posting a missing poster near her home in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.   (AP Photo/Ivor Markman)

Jaycee Dugard survived 18 years of captivity because she was able to bond with her kidnappers, stepfather Carl Probyn tells the San Jose Mercury News. "She was just a real mellow girl. That kept her alive," he said. If Jaycee's younger half-sister had been the one abducted "she'd be dead because she'd be climbing that fence every day."

Jaycee "did what she had to do to survive," added Probyn, who witnessed the 1991 kidnapping. Probyn didn't have his car keys when Jaycee was snatched from a bus stop close to her California home, so Probyn gave chase on a bicycle, but couldn't keep up with the speeding car carrying his stepdaughter.
(More Jaycee Lee Dugard stories.)

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