The ABC News Special that examined the whole Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case was so much more than the victim’s first person account of the 18 year ordeal. Diane Sawyer put Jaycee’s story together. But it was Chris Cuomo’s Investigation into accountability of the CA systems on not pursuing leads to solve her crime that had real impact. Chris documented years of federal and state agencies not being aggressive. There may not be a more sensational kidnapping case where the perp fathered two daughters by the victim.

ABC News also made the story effective television by detailing how the parole Officers visited the home some 60 times and didn’t get curious enough to see who lived in the back yard. ABC showed home video shot by the wife of a walk-thru to support this. They also built an animated graphic to illustrate by “dots” how many times the kidnapper was in the back yard makeshift home v. his own house. His leg brace signaled his whereabouts and he had been sentenced in another sex crime to the house.