Jaycee Lee Dugard speaks out for the first time about her 18 year kidnapping

Recent best selling novel, "Room," written by Emma Donague, has an eerie similarity to the tragic story of Jaycee Dugard.

In the novel, 5-year-old Jack narrates his assumed-to-be normal life inside a microcosm which he knows as "Room." Certain words and observances depict what really goes on, including the sexual abuse and torture his 26-year-old mother experiences by Old Nick, the man that abducted her seven years prior. Following his brave escape, he lead police to his mother by writing it on a piece of paper. Throughout the book, we see the heart wrenching and explicit trials and tribulations this young boy faces.

When Jaycee Dugard was 11 years old, she was abducted at the Meyers Elementary School bus stop in Lake Tahoe, Calif., by convicted sex offender, Phillip Craig Garrido.

11-year-old Jaycee before her abduction

Immediately after her abduction, search efforts expanded to tens of thousands of people. People were making signs, posting fliers, and searching local grounds for any trace of young Jaycee. In addition, she was featured numerous times on America's Most Wanted.

With no positive leads, people started losing hope...

Meanwhile, Dugard was alive and being help captive in a backyard under the discretion of Phillip and Nancy Garrido.

In the 18 years of her captivity, she was handcuffed, raped, imprisoned, and unable to utter her name to anyone. She bore two daughters by Phillip Garrido, both in the backyard, with no medical assistance. Regardless of the pain and torture of the birth, at the tender age of 14, after her first child, she says "I was [no longer] alone, and I knew I would never let anything happen to her."

She finally had something she had control over. She had someone to love.


Jaycee's daughters with blurred faces

Both daughters, now 13 and 17, have not yet been exposed to the public.

In August of 2009, 29-year-old Jaycee was rescued, thanks to events coordinator, Lisa Campbell, reporting the odd behavior of Phillip Garrido after he inquired about holding a special Christian event on the University of California, Berkeley campus as a part of his "God's Desire" program.

This was Jaycee's home for 18 years and birthplace of her children

Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape in the Dugard case. Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to similar charges, according to MSNBC.

Questions are now being asked in regards to the authorities, and why she wasn't discovered before, after 60 visits to the Garrido household.

Dugard just released an explicit book about her experience, called A Stolen Life, which sold 175,000 copies in the first day.

Jaycee, today.

Watch her first interview with Diane Sawyer here: http://youtu.be/hIvctbfcBx8