Jaycee Lee Dugard: did Phillip Garrido trail a Google Street View camera van? - TelegraphJaycee Lee Dugard: did Phillip Garrido trail a Google Street View camera van?
Phillip Garrido, the man charged with the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard, may have followed a Google Street View van after noticing it photographing his street, it has been claimed.
Images of of the house in Antioch, California, where Jaycee Lee Dugard spent the 18 years since her abduction show a rusty grey or silver van parked in the driveway.
But photographs taken further along Walnut Avenue appear to show the vehicle emerging from the driveway, with a blurry figure at the streering wheel, and driving along the street behind the Google van.
It has prompted speculaton that Garrido, whose secret compound of tents and sheds was visible on Google Earth satellite pictures, noticed the camera van pass by recording images of the street and decided to trail it.
The mystery van, which can be seen by searching for 1554 Walnut Avenue, Antioch, was first noticed by a contributor to the website Boing Boing who posted it online.
Commentary on the site poses the question: "Is it possible he saw the Google van with all the gear on top, freaked out about being surveilled, and followed it for a while with interest and fear?"
Police are investigating whether a fragment of bone found at the property is human, amid fears they could be dealing with a serial killer.
Police are searching for traces of three missing schoolgirls who vanished around the time of Jaycee's abduction within 40 miles of Garrido's home.
The house and garden are now being searched by police accompanied by "death dogs" capable of sniffing out decomposing bodies while others wearing masks have used chainsaws and shovels to dig up parts of the garden.
They are also searching a property next door which Garrido looked after as a caretaker until 2006.
Attention in the investigation is also focusing on the role of Garrido's wife, Nancy, who faces the same 29 charges, including rape and kidnap, as her husband.
It has been suggested that she may have played a central role in Miss Dugard's abduction in 1991.
Reports at the time highlighted how a woman's hand pulled the 11 year-old into a car near her home in South Lake Tahoe, while a man drove.