Jaycee Dugard says Ohio women show 'we should never give up hope'

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The attic of Ariel Castro’s home is torn open by an excavator, exposing personal items inside. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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A sheriff’s deputy stands guard as the house of convicted kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro is torn down in Cleveland. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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The rubble of Ariel Castro’s home is loaded into a dump truck to be hauled away. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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A demolition crew removes the remains of Ariel Castro’s home after it was torn down in Cleveland. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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Neighbors Jessica Rodriguez and Caitlin Coyne, both 19, walk last month past the house where Ariel Castro kept three women captive for a decade. The house was torn down Wednesday. (Andrew Welsh-Huggins / Associated Press)

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A model of Ariel Castro’s house was used in court. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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At his sentencing on Aug. 1, Ariel Castro told Judge Michael J. Russo, “I’m not a monster, I’m sick.... I’m a happy person inside.” Castro was found hanged in his prison cell a few weeks into a life sentence without parole. (Angelo Merendino / Getty Images)

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Michelle Knight makes a statement in court before Ariel Castro was sentenced on Aug. 1. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Cuyahoga County sheriff’s booking photo of Ariel Castro. (AFP / Getty Images)

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Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal Court alongside defense attorney Kathleen DeMetz. Castro is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in connection with the disappearance of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The fourth kidnapping count applies to Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was born in captivity. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Ariel Castro, left of lectern, is arraigned in Cleveland Municipal Court in front of judge Lauren Moore. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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A police officer walks past the house in Cleveland where Ariel Castro allegedly held captive Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. (Matt Sullivan / Getty Images)

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The upper-floor window of Ariel Castro’s house in Cleveland is covered. (David Duprey / Associated Press)

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Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs up as she is escorted toward her home in Cleveland. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Felix DeJesus pumps his fist after bringing home his daughter, Gina. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Gina DeJesus’s mother, Nancy, talks to the media after her daughter arrived at her family’s home. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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Gina DeJesus’ father, Felix, back to camera, hugs family members outside their home during his daughter’s homecoming. (Matt Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A car carrying Amanda Berry arrives at her sister’s house in Cleveland, Ohio. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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Beth Serrano, sister of Amanda Berry, reads a statement to the media outside her Cleveland home after the arrival of Berry. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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John Berry holds a photo of his daughter Amanda, who was 16 when she was abducted. She was the first of the women to escape Monday. (Patrick Murphy-Racey / Associated Press)

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A tree bears a poster seeking information on Amanda Berry. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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Friends and relatives stand in front of the family home of Gina DeJesus in Cleveland, Ohio. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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FBI forensic personnel remove evidence from the Cleveland house where three women allegedly were held captive for a decade. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man carries the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer with news of the missing women’s rescue as neighbors gather along Seymour Avenue near the house where the women had been held for the last decade. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

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Well-wishers put up a welcome home sign at Gina DeJesus’ home in Cleveland. (David Maxwell / EPA)

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Charles Ramsey, who lives near the home where three missing women were rescued in Cleveland, speaks to reporters. (Scott Shaw / Associated Press)

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Ricardo DeJesus talks about his sister Gina at the family’s home in Cleveland. Police said Gina DeJesus and two other women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found Monday. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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The home in Cleveland where three women were found alive about 10 years after they disappeared as teenagers. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

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Felix DeJesus, father of Gina DeJesus, holds up an enlarged photograph of his then-14-year-old daughter next to a display in his living room shortly after she disappeared in March 2004. (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

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An FBI evidence team removes items from the Cleveland house where three women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found. (Mark Duncan / Associated Press)

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Police officers stand outside a home where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were found. (Scott Shaw / Associated Press)

By Kate Mather

May 7, 2013 12:06 PM PT

Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe as a girl and held captive for 18 years, said the Ohio women found after apparently being held for a decade “need the opportunity to heal and connect back into the world.”

Dugard said in a statement that the apparent abuduction and imprisonment of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight “isn’t who they are. It is only what happened to them.”

“The human spirit is incredibly resilient,” Dugard said. “More than ever this reaffirms we should never give up hope.”

PHOTOS: Three missing women found in Cleveland

An 11-year-old Dugard was on her way to school in 1991 when convicted rapist Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, shocked her with a stun gun, pulled her into their car and drove to Antioch. There, the girl was kept in a labyrinth of sheds, tents and tarps, and raped hundreds of times. She gave birth to two daughters.

In 2009, Garrido took the two girls to UC Berkeley to pass out fliers. A campus policewoman spotted the trio and thought their interactions were suspicious, sparking an investigation that ultimately led to Dugard’s rescue.

Two years later, the Garridos pleaded guilty to multiple charges of kidnapping and sexual assault. Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison. Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life and cannot be paroled until she is in her 70s.

PHOTOS: Long-term abductions

Monday’s discovery in Ohio recalled memories of the abduction of Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen kidnapped from her home in 2002 and discovered alive nine months later.

Ohio authorities say the three women -- Berry, DeJesus and Knight -- and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter were rescued Monday from a Cleveland home after Berry broke through a screen door and got the attention of neighbors.

The women were abducted separately about 10 years ago, and police believe they had been held captive since.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the case, police said.

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Twitter: @katemather | Google+
kate.mather@latimes.com