California suspects probed over missing girls

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Authorities on Tuesday returned to the Northern California home where kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard was held for 18 years, searching the grounds for evidence that could link her suspected abductors to two girls missing since the late 1980s.

Investigators from two nearby towns said they were looking for anything that could tie Phillip and Nancy Garrido, the married couple charged with snatching 11-year-old Dugard from a street near her home in 1991, to the kidnappings of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht or 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff.

Dugard, who is now 29, surfaced last month after convicted rapist and registered sex offender Phillip Garrido, 58, aroused the suspicion of police at a college campus while proselytizing and was questioned by his parole officer.

The couple is accused of holding Dugard for nearly two decades in a squalid collection of tents and sheds behind their home near Antioch, east of San Francisco, where prosecutors say Phillip Garrido raped her and fathered her two children.

Both Phillip and Nancy Garrido, 54, have pleaded innocent to 29 criminal counts that include kidnapping for sexual purposes, forcible lewd acts and rape.

Police say Garecht, who was grabbed in front of the Rainbow Market in the town of Hayward on November 18, 1988, bore a striking resemblance to Dugard and that a sketch of the suspect had been likened to Phillip Garrido.

Misheloff vanished on January 30, 1989, and a car found on the Garrido property appears to fit the description of a sedan she was seen getting into on the day she disappeared, police said.

"Our aim is to very methodically, systematically search the property with our cases in mind," Hayward Police Lieutenant Christine Orrey told reporters, adding: "This is one of the strongest leads we have pursued so far."

Forensic scientists have already concluded that a sliver of bone found on a property neighboring the Garridos' home was probably human, although further tests are required to establish that it is modern and not Native American remains, which are commonly found in the area.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)