A hand-painted 'Welcome' sign leads the way to a rundown world of tattered tents and outbuildings amid overgrown trees and bushes.
Police are now investigating evidence that Jaycee was 'brainwashed' by the religious fanatic who snatched her when she was 11.
Prison camp: A child's deckchair stands with two adult chairs in a dusty yard beside a collection of pot plants. Empty cans, a vase and an old saucepan lie discarded in front of a decrepit tent. Inside the tent is evidence of a cat lover - a row of books about cats, several cat toys and a 1,000-piece jigsaw entitled Cats
The 29-year-old's stepfather also claims that she had developed a powerful emotional bond with her abductor, Phillip Garrido. Carl Probyn said: 'Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy. She feels it's almost like a marriage.'
No place like home: A hand-made 'Welcome' sign hangs from a tree at the rear of secret backyard where Jaycee Dugard and her daughters lived in sheds, tents and outbuildings. The innocence of the scene is underlined by three decorations, apparently a bell, a butterfly and a dove, under the sign. The trees and shrubs helped to conceal the backyard from neighbours
Experts have pointed out that although the makeshift compound where Jaycee and the two daughters allegedly fathered by Garrido lived included an 8ft by 4ft steel cage, it appeared unused. And Jaycee and the girls, aged 15 and 11, were allowed to play in the garden, in view of neighbours.Her captor claimed to be a minister of a 'church' he called God's Desire and indoctrinated her with self-published religious tracts.
Jaycee never appealed for help, despite his repeated assaults. She is still undergoing extensive medical and psychological tests at a secret location in Northern California, where she is staying with her mother, Terry, and a half-sister under FBI protection.
One of America's leading hostage experts, retired FBI agent Clint Van Zandt, said: 'The relationship that can develop between hostages and kidnap victims and their captors is now known as "the Stockholm Syndrome", a type of emotional bonding that is in reality a survival strategy for victims of emotional and physical abuse.'
Chilling: One of the most ominous sights in the earth-floored compound is an 8ft by 4ft wire cage, half draped with a tarpaulin. It is not clear what use the cage might have been put to. Next to it is a crudely built hut with white sliding doors with two black metal clasps which suggest that it could be opened only from the outside. The hut was largely empty
'There were moments in the 18 years when she could have called attention to who she was.
'She hadn't forgotten her real identity. In fact, she remembers a remarkable amount about her old life. But from what we know so far about Mr Garrido, it seems he played mind games with her.
'It sounds simplistic, but the real prison was her brain.'
Chaos: The scene inside one of the dingy sheds. On the left is a microwave oven, catfood in a plastic container and two hanging vegetable baskets. The rest of the area seems to have been used as an office. There are three old swivel chairs and a reading lamp on a small table strewn with papers. The floor and shelves are covered in files, boxes and bric-a-brac
Jaycee may also have been forced to take part in orgies in the backyard where she was held, the News of the World reports.A neighbour said he saw men lining up in Garrido's garden, before entering the tents 'one by one'.
Mike Rogers, 49, told the newspaper that he once peered through the garden fence during an 'excessively loud' party next door.
'What I saw was not normal,' he said. 'Eight to 10 men, mostly Mexican, would gather in a line in his garden drinking beer, yelling and screaming and swearing.
'They normally had a bonfire and I saw them entering the tent one by one. On a number of occasions I saw them bobbing up and down through the window and I thought, 'My God, there is something sexual going on in there'.
Toys and games: Two fluffy Furbies, an electronic toy from the Nineties, sit on a pile of computer discs next to a computer joy stick. The toys were robots which could speak. Many toys were scattered around the site, including Barbie dolls with limbs and heads missing. There were several threadbare teddy bears but little evidence of teenage culture such as pop posters
'I just hope that sicko wasn't pimping out Jaycee or those children. The thought makes me sick.'
But, despite being disturbed by what he had seen, Mr Rogers said he didn't think he had enough evidence to call police.
'I'd told my brother about the parties and he agreed that unless they got really out of control I should keep out of it,' he said.
Self help: This book has a particularly ironic title, given the circumstances of its discovery. The author, Jean Illsley Clarke, is an American expert in family relationships. Self-Esteem: A Family Affair, which came out in 1998, sought to help parents increase the confidence and happiness of their children by the subtle use of encouragement
Jaycee's stepfather Mr Probyn, who is being briefed regularly on the case, has disclosed that she is racked by 'guilt' because she 'bonded' with Garrido.Her formal education ceased when Garrido allegedly snatched her in 1991 and Mr Probyn said he has been informed that her 'emotional age' is still that of an 11-year-old.
'She didn't try to get away,' he told The Mail on Sunday. 'It probably kept her alive. If she had been really spunky and fought and tried to escape, maybe she would have been killed.'
Poignant playthings: A teddy bear lies abandoned on a trampoline in the parched area that acted as a playground. Just visible in the background is a yellow slide and a set of swings. Behind that can be glimpsed the wall of an empty swimming pool
Meanwhile Garrido's first victim, Katherine Callaway of Las Vegas, Nevada, who was kidnapped, raped repeatedly and held as a sex slave by Garrido in 1976, said: 'He's a monster.'Callaway was a 25-year-old casino worker when Garrido hitched a ride in her car. He made her drive to a warehouse in Reno that had been prepared as a 'sex palace'.
Police now believe Katherine's abduction was, essentially, a 'trial run' for the kidnapping of Jaycee in South Lake Tahoe, California, years later.
Just as he built a labyrinthine backyard prison for Jaycee, Garrido created a makeshift cell for Katherine in the warehouse. It contained a movie projector, sex toys, a spotlight, wine and pornographic magazines.
At his trial, there was testimony that he used handcuffs to restrain her and that he used LSD, cocaine and cannabis.
Retired Reno police detective Dan DeMaranville, who worked on the case, said: 'I asked him after he confessed why he did it and he said it was the only way he could get sexual satisfaction.'
However, investigators have found no evidence that Jaycee - who was less than half Callway's age - was physically restrained.
Make-up for a captive: A stained flower-patterned box which might hold make-up or jewellery sits on a table in one hut. Three plastic boxes of cheap make-up and a hair brush lie on the table. A number of girls' hairbands have been wound around the brush handle
Tales of escape: Fantasy novel Shadow Bridge lies on a worn bedside cabinet. The 2008 book features an orphaned female puppeteer who travels through a mythical land of bridges, meeting strange characters. Also visible is another fantasy novel, A Game Of Thrones
A few years after Jaycee was kidnapped, her desperate grandmother visited a psychic. 'I wanted to find out if she was still alive,' said Wilma Probyn, 83.'I didn't want to give up hope, but it was agonising to keep holding on. We had pretty much given up hope. The psychic said that Jaycee was alive, in Northern California with a couple, living happily and being looked after and going to school.
'It turns out she was alive but not happy. She didn't go to school and wasn't allowed to see a doctor.
'She was kept caged in an old shed for 18 years without contact with anybody, raped, and she's got two children by that creep, a sexual predator.
'We've always been hoping for the day when she'd be found but when I found out how she'd lived for the last 18 years, I wasn't happy. It's a shock.
'I'm delighted to have Jaycee back, but I'm saddened by how she was treated, living in squalor like that.
'Jaycee's 29 now but she's been cut off from the world since she was 11. We don't know if she'll ever be able to recover from this.'
Tales of horror: The main author among these battered paperbacks is Dean Koontz, whose novels often feature sociopathic monsters. Crime novels by Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson and romances by Danielle Steel are also visible