Police missed 2006 tip on kidnapped California girl

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police apologized on Friday for failing to follow up an anonymous tip in 2006 that could have led them to a kidnapped California girl who spent 18 years hidden in the back yard of a convicted rapist.

Eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped from her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991, and an investigation this week revealed that she had spent most of the past two decades living in squalid tents and sheds in the backyard of her accused abductor, 58-year-old Phillip Garrido.

Dugard, now 29, was found this week after Garrido's parole officer became suspicious, leading to a search of his home near the Bay Area suburb of Antioch, about 100 miles from where she was abducted.

Contra Costa Sheriff Warren Rupf apologized for not following up adequately after a neighbor of Garrido called police in 2006 and said he was a "psychotic" with sexual addictions.

When an officer went to the home to follow up, he spoke with Garrido in the front yard, warning him there were restrictions against living outside in a residential neighborhood, Rupf said.

"He did not enter, nor request to enter the backyard," Rupf told reporters, adding that the officer did not know that Garrido was a registered sex offender, even though he is listed as such on a public database.

"This is not an acceptable outcome," Rupf added. "Organizationally we should have been more inquisitive or curious and turned over a rock or two."

Garrido, 58, who served time in prison for rape and kidnapping in the early 1970s, is accused of snatching Dugard off the street while she was walking to a bus stop in 1991.

He and his wife, 55-year-old Nancy, are in custody and due to make their first appearance in court on Friday.

Authorities say Garrido kept Dugard and the two daughters he fathered with her in the backyard of the home he shared with his wife. The yard was surrounded by tarps and tall trees, making it difficult for outsiders to see inside, they say.

Dugard was found this week after she showed up with Garrido for a meeting with his parole officer.

The appearance of Dugard and her 11- and 15-year-old daughters, all of whom the parole officer had never before met, caused suspicion and Dugard was arrested soon thereafter.

Suspicions first arose the day before, when Garrido was seen on the campus of University of California at Berkeley passing out leaflets with the two children.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Mohammad Zargham)