In 2006, suspected kidnapper and convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido lived in a shed in the neighboring yard in Antioch, Calif., that police are searching today, a spokesman for the Antioch Police Department said this afternoon in a press conference there.
"That is why primarily we are taking a close look at that property," said spokesman Jimmy Lee with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office during the short press conference which began at 1:17 p.m. in Antioch.
The officer went on to note that the property was vacant in 2006 when Garrido was using it, and the current property owner, Damon Robinson, gave police consent to search there.
"Damon Robinson is not a suspect, nor a person of interest and he has been cooperative with law enforcement," said Lee. "And on that same note, there are no other suspect leads in this case."
Garrido and his wife Nancy Garrido are in custody in the El Dorado County Jail in connection with the alleged 1991 kidnapping and 18-year imprisonment of a South Lake Tahoe girl abducted when she was 11 years old.
Since their arrest Tuesday, police have been searching the Antioch home that Garrido shared with his wife and mother, and where he allegedly kept Jaycee Lee Dugard and the two children he father with her, captive in a secret backyard.
Police are now searching Garrido's home and the property next door for evidence that might link Garrido to a series of up to 10 prostitute murders that happened in the late 1990s.
Lee confirmed that cadaver dogs were brought in to aid in the search.
When asked what they were searching for, Lee said it was too early in the investigation to say.
"It's too early to say what we looking for, I mean anything that may be linked to some open cases that we have at this point. We're going thoroughly through both backyards and its just too early to say what we might come up with," he said. "We're going to take a very detailed look at the backyard."