A Real-Life Room: 25 Years Since the Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard

[Alex Murphy]

The inspiration behind Emma Donoghue's bestseller was the case of Josef Fritzl, particularly his (grand)son Felix who was 5 when he, his mother Elisabeth (Fritzl's daughter) and his surviving siblings (one having died when it was only a few days old) were freed. But the novel also bears many similarities to the story of Jaycee Dugard who was 11 years old when she was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy on June 10, 1991, and held captive for 18 years.