Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Chelsea King Missing: John Albert Gardner, Sex Offender, Arrested as a Suspect
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 3:18 pm
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| Chelsea King went jogging in a San Diego park. Her car is still there, but she's disappeared. |
That's the last time anyone saw her.
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| John Albert Gardner has been arrested as a suspect in Chelsea's abduction. He's also suspected in the disappearance of another girl a year ago. |
Police have arrested a sex offender as a suspect in the case. Detectives found evidence linking Chelsea's disappearance to 30-year-old John Albert Gardner, who has a previous conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. They aren't saying what that evidence is, but he was being questioned by police last night.
They also believe Gardner may be responsible for a December attack on a woman jogger in the same park. He may be linked as well to the abduction of Amber DeBois. The 14-year-old left for school in Escondido, California in February of last year and hasn't been seen since.
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| Gardner is also a suspect in the disappearance of 14-year-old Amber DuBois, who vanished while walking to school a year ago |
Divers and police are using sonar to search the 4-square-mile lake for her body, but it's not looking good. Sex offender John Albert Gardner's DNA was found on the underwear, and Chelsea hasn't been seen since last Thursday.
Gardner was reportedly living with his mother near the park. Though he's been arrested, he isn't talking to detectives.
UPDATE II: A jogger who was attacked in the same park in December has identified John Gardner as the pervert.
Candice Moncayo, who attends college in Colorado Springs, was home visiting in December when she decided to jog on a trail near Lake Hodges. That's when she was suddenly tackled by a man and thrown off the trail.
Candice was able to elbow her attacker in the nose, which gave her enough time to run away and call police. At the time, she identified the assailant as a white man who fit the description of Gardner.
After he was pegged as a suspect in Chelsea's disappearance, Candice positively ID'd him as the man who attacked her on the trail. Her sister says police also took DNA evidence from Candice's elbow at the time of the assault.
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| Chelsea King was a straight-A student and member of the school cross-country team |
In that case, Gardner was convicted of luring a 13-year-old neighbor girl to his mom's house in Rancho Bernado on the premise of watching a movie. That's when Gardner repeatedly punched her in the face and molested her.
Dr. Matthew Carroll, a shrink who interviewed him during the case, said he lacked remorse and was "an extremely poor candidate for any sexual offender treatment." He recommended a 30-year sentence, warning that Gardner "would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community."
Instead, prosecutors accepted a plea of six years so the girl wouldn't have to testify. Gardner did five years and was released from probation in 2008.
UPDATE IV: Though it hasn't been positively identified, police believe they've found Chelsea's body.
She was buried in a shallow grave about 10 feet from Lake Hodges in a heavily wooded area. The grave was about a half-mile from where her black BMW was discovered after she went missing last Thursday.
The sheriff declined to elaborate on the state of the body or whether Chelsea was clothed. But since they found her underwear earlier, we can only imagine she suffered a tragic ending.
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| This shot from KFMB-TV shows the vandalism on the garage door of John Gardner's mom's condo |
He faces the death penalty if convicted, but the wealthy residents of Poway have been rocked by the killing. Thousands of people were involved in the search, and they just can't understand how a straight-A student could be murdered in the middle of the afternoon in a park.
Poway, according to the LA Times, has some of the best schools in the country. It's a place filled with gated communities and home to San Diego's wealthiest athletes.
But while residents can't take revenge on Gardner, they are taking it out on his mother. His mom's garage door was vandalized with the words "Chelseas blood is on you. Move out" spray-painted in big red letters.
You can understand the anger, but even good parents can have shitty kids. Police say Gardner's mom and stepdad have fled the city.
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| Amber was last seen walking with a man about 200 yards from her high school |
Police aren't saying what led them to the body or if it's linked to the Gardner case, but all signs point in that direction. Amber went missing in Escondido, California as she walked to school in February of 2009. Gardner was registered as a sex offender in Escondido from 2008 to 2010.
Amber was last seen walking to school with a man the day she disappeared. Though the last sighting of her was roughly 200 yards Escondido High, she never made it to school and wasn't caught on any security cameras.
Gardner's already been charged with Chelsea's murder and the attempted rape of a college student in January. He's pleaded not guilty.
UPDATE VII: Chelsea King would still be alive if California parole officials didn't keep giving her killer a pass.
At least that's the simple way of looking at it. In the years before he was accused of killing Chelsea, attempting to rape another woman, and possibly killing Amber Dubois, John Gardner racked up seven parole violations that could have sent him back to prison. Each time he was given a pass.
His most serious offense came in 2007, when he was caught living within a half-mile of a school. But his parole officer declined to send him back to prison.
He was also flagged for missing a meeting with his parole officer and for suspicion of smoking weed. There were four other violations for letting the batteries on his GPS bracelet run low.
In each case, his parole officer deemed them too minor to send him back to prison. He was released from parole in 2008.
Had Gardner been sent back to the slam, he could have been evaluated for commitment to a mental hospital and deemed a violent predator. That designation would have forced him to wear electronic tracking for the rest of his life.
So what do you think, dear reader? California's in the midst of a massive budget crisis from excess spending combined with voter initiatives to lower taxes. It can't afford to send everyone to prison for minor infractions.
Then again, Gardner's file should have contained the 2000 report from a shrink designating him an unrepentant pervert. If you were the parole officer -- given the realities of the job -- what would you have done?
Tags: California
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