Editing Phillip Garrido (section)

===Holding Dugard captive===
Immediately after he kidnapped her, Garrido forced Dugard into a shower with him. The first time he raped her, she was still in handcuffs, which she wore during her first week in captivity. During that period, Dugard's only human contact was Garrido, who sometimes brought her fast food and told her amusing stories. He provided a bucket for her to use to relieve herself. At one point, he provided her with a television, but she could not watch the news and was unaware of the publicized search for her. Almost a month and a half after her kidnapping, by Dugard's recollection, Garrido moved her to a larger room next door, where she was handcuffed to a bed. He explained that the "demon angels" let him take her and that she would help him with his sexual problems because society had ignored him. He went on methamphetamine binges he called "runs", during which he would dress Dugard up and spend time with her while cutting out figures from pornographic magazines. He made her listen for the voices he said he could hear from the walls. Garrido also often professed the belief that he was a chosen servant of God. These binges would end with him sobbing and apologizing to Dugard alternating with threats to sell her to people who would put her in a cage.

Seven months into her captivity, Garrido introduced Dugard to his wife, Nancy, who brought the child a stuffed animal and chocolate milk, and engaged in the same tearful apologies to her. Though Dugard craved the woman's approval at the time, in retrospect she has stated that she was manipulated by Nancy, who alternated between motherly concern and coldness and cruelty, expressing her jealousy of Dugard, whom she regarded as the one to blame for her predicament. Dugard characterized Nancy, who worked as a nursing home aide, as "evil" and "twisted". When Garrido was returned to prison for failing a drug test, Nancy replaced her husband as Dugard's jailer. The Garridos manipulated Dugard further by presenting her, on two occasions, with kittens that would later "mysteriously vanish". When they discovered that she was signing her real name in a journal that she kept about the kittens, she was forced to tear out the page with her name on it, the last time she would be permitted to say or write her name until years later. She was never allowed to see a doctor or dentist.

Thirty-four months into her captivity, the Garridos began to allow Dugard freedom from her handcuffs for periods of time, though they kept her locked in the bolted room. On April 3, 1994, Easter Sunday, they gave her cooked food for the first time. They informed her that they believed that she was pregnant. Jaycee—thirteen years old and four-and-a-half months pregnant—had learned of the link between sex and pregnancy from television. Dugard watched programs on childbirth, in preparation for the birth of her first daughter, which occurred on August 18, 1994. Her second daughter was born on November 13, 1997. Dugard took care of her daughters using information learned from television, working to protect them from Garrido, who continued his enraged rants and lectures.

Neighbor Patrick McQuaid said that he recalls, as a child, meeting Dugard through a fence in the Garridos' yard soon after the kidnapping. He said that she had identified herself by the name "Jaycee" and that when he asked her if she lived there or was just visiting, she answered that she lived there. At that point, Garrido came out and took her back indoors. He eventually built an eight-foot-tall fence around the backyard and set up a tent for Dugard, the first time that she was allowed to walk outside since her kidnapping. She coped with her continued captivity by planting flowers in a garden and home-schooling her daughters. At one point, Garrido informed Dugard that to pacify his wife, she and her daughters were to address Nancy as their mother, and that she was to teach her daughters that she was their older sister. When Dugard and her daughters were eventually allowed to come into contact with other people, they continued this fiction.

Garrido operated a print shop where Dugard acted as the graphic artist. Ben Daughdrill, a customer of Garrido's printing business, claimed that he met and spoke by telephone with Dugard and that she did excellent work. During this time, Dugard had access to the business phone and an email account. Another customer indicated that she never hinted to him about her childhood abduction or her true identity.

Garrido kept a blog associated with what he called "God's Desire Church". In the blog, he claimed that he had the power to control sound with his mind. Garrido asked several people, including customers, to sign testimonials confirming that they witnessed his ability to "control sound with my mind" and a device he developed "for others to witness this phenomena [sic]".

Law enforcement officers believe that in 2009, Dugard's living quarters were in a secondary backyard behind Garrido's house. The private area of the yard included sheds (one of which was soundproofed and used as a recording studio in which Garrido recorded himself singing religious-themed and romantic country songs), two homemade tents, and what has been described as a camping-style shower and toilet. The area was surrounded by tall trees and a 6-foot (1.8 m) high fence. An entrance to the secondary backyard was covered by trees and a tarpaulin. Privacy was enhanced by tents and outbuildings, and also housed a car that matched the description of the one used in the abduction. Electricity was supplied by extension cords. Law enforcement officers visited the residence at least twice, but did not ask to inspect the back yard, and did not detect the presence of Dugard or her children in the areas of the property that they did inspect. Witnesses interviewed stated Dugard was seen in the house, and sometimes answered the front door to talk to people, but never stated there was a problem or attempted to leave. While the family kept to themselves, the girls were sometimes seen playing in the backyard or as passengers in Garrido's car.