A Stolen Life: A Memoir

This summary section includes Chapter 24: “Discovery and Reunion,” Chapter 25: “First for Me,” Chapter 26: “Milestones,” Chapter 27: “The Difficult Parts of Life.”

As Phillip gets more deeply enmeshed in his philosophy about bad angels, he drops off his manifesto at an FBI office. He then goes to the Berkeley University campus to try to book a speaking engagement. He has brought along Jaycee’s two daughters, aged 15 and 11, because he believes people will be more likely to listen to his theory about evil angels if he has children with him. His odd behavior prompts two Berkeley policemen to have him arrested on August 25, 2009, because he is a convicted sex offender who is not supposed to have contact with children. After Phillip is taken into custody, the family is in turmoil. Neither Nancy nor Jaycee knows what to do without Phillip there to tell them. Strangely enough, he is released without being charged, which feeds his delusion that he is under special divine protection.

The next morning, Phillip decides that he is tired of government harassment and orders the entire family to accompany him to the parole office in San Francisco. Acting under his orders, Jaycee claims that the two girls are her daughters. This leads to many more questions. She is terrified when she is separated from her children and interrogated. Before the interview is over, she is told that Phillip has confessed to her abduction.

A sympathetic female officer asks her to write her real name. Jaycee says, “It was like breaking an evil spell. In that moment, I felt free but also exhausted and completely alive all at the same time. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. I wrote down my name for the first time in eighteen years” (150).

After the entire story is pieced together, the police call Jaycee’s mother. Jaycee is initially fearful that her mother won’t want her back. Her doubts melt when her mother arrives, and the two experience a tearful reunion. Her mother says that she never gave up hope that they would be reunited. Jaycee is also relieved to learn that her mother has split up with her judgmental stepfather.

Several months after Jaycee’s story finally breaks in the news, she finds herself in the public spotlight, but she wants to protect her daughters’ privacy. When she decides to take them on a camping trip to see a meteor shower, reporters snap their pictures. This disaster causes Jaycee to second-guess her ability to make decisions. She says, “Another emotion I felt during that ordeal was doubt in myself. I felt I could no longer be trusted to make sound decisions. I felt that because I had made the decision and it turned out to be the wrong choice, then all my future choices would be no good, too” (157). Fortunately, Jaycee finds a competent therapist who successfully helps her to work through her self-doubt.

Looking back on her captivity, Jaycee can’t recall any major events except 9/11. She didn’t get to celebrate milestones like a 16th birthday party, a first date, graduating high school, or learning to drive a car. After her release, her stepsister teachers her how to drive. Jaycee says, “To me my car is much more than just a car; to me it represents my newfound freedom. I can now take my girls places and go where I want to go anytime” (164).

Now that Jaycee has become a public figure, she finds herself forced into hiding once again. If she wants to attend a school function for her children, there is bound to be publicity, and she wants to protect her daughters and their privacy. She compares this experience of being forced into hiding to her years in captivity: “Inside, I fight a war about being the person I want to be and tempering that with who I need to be to keep my kids safe. When will the battle end?” (165).