An 11-year-old girl abducted in broad daylight managed to hide one tiny butterfly ring, a secret token of her identity she kept for the next 18 years. This episode is a profound study of human resilience, the catastrophic consequences of institutional blindness, and the will it took for a young girl to build a life for her own children inside a backyard prison.

Drawing on inspector general reports, police records, and Jaycee Dugard's own memoirs, we unpack how a life was stolen and the systems that let it happen.

• The June 1991 stun-gun abduction in Meyers, California by Phillip and Nancy Garrido, witnessed by her stepfather, and the massive but misdirected search.
• The hidden backyard compound of soundproofed sheds in Antioch, and Phillip Garrido's prior kidnapping conviction and federal parole.
• The role of Nancy G ...