CHELSEA KING - 17 yo - Poway/Rancho Bernardo CA

February 26, 2010 (4 a.m.)Sheriff Bill Gore has activated more than
100 Search and Rescue volunteers and deputies to locate missing Poway
teen Chelsea King. King was reported missing by her family late
Thursday after she did not return home from a run in the north Rancho
Bernardo area.


She is an avid long-distance runner and routinely takes long runs in
rural areas. She parked her car after school at the Rancho Bernardo
Community Center on West Bernardo Drive and did not return to her
locked car


Chelsea is described as follows:
Sex: Female
Race: Caucasian
Height: 5’ 5”
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue

Anyone with information is requested to contact:
San Diego Sheriff’s Department: 565-5200
Crime Stoppers: (619) 531-1500 or (619)531-1547

TomTerrific0420 wrote:February 26, 2010 (4 a.m.)Sheriff Bill Gore has activated more than
100 Search and Rescue volunteers and deputies to locate missing Poway
teen Chelsea King. King was reported missing by her family late
Thursday after she did not return home from a run in the north Rancho
Bernardo area.


She is an avid long-distance runner and routinely takes long runs in
rural areas. She parked her car after school at the Rancho Bernardo
Community Center on West Bernardo Drive and did not return to her
locked car


Chelsea is described as follows:
Sex: Female
Race: Caucasian
Height: 5’ 5”
Weight: 115 pounds
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue

Anyone with information is requested to contact:
San Diego Sheriff’s Department: 565-5200
Crime Stoppers: (619) 531-1500 or (619)531-1547

I am 25 and am scared to death to go running... this is why. I pray for her family...

SAN DIEGO — As volunteers and law
enforcement officers continued to search for a missing 17-year-old
Poway girl who disappeared from a Rancho Bernardo park Thursday, the
teen’s distraught parents asked people to pray for her and to help
bring her home.

Dozens of people, assisted with dogs, all-terrain vehicles and
helicopters, searched overnight near Lake Hodges for Chelsea King, who
went missing Thursday when she went for a run.

The Poway High School senior planned on going running at Rancho
Bernardo Community Park on West Bernardo Drive near Aguamiel Road on
Thursday and was reported missing by her family when she failed to
return home.

“We’ve been missing our daughter since six o’clock last night,” said
Chelsea’s father, Brent King, who praised the sheriff’s and police
departments’ exhaustive search efforts. “We are praying for Chelsea to
come home and find us.”

“Anybody out there, if you know anything about her, please just help
us bring her home,” her mother, Kelly King, said through tears. “She’s
such a good girl.”

Sheriff Bill Gore said his department was treating Chelsea’s
disappearance as a missing-persons case, not a crime, and was following
every lead and interviewing any witness.

He said search teams, which have come from as far away as Riverside,
San Bernardino and Santa Barbara counties, were retracing steps taken
during the night in the fog in hopes of uncovering something new.

“We’re doing all the logical steps and searching the logical area to
make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Gore said. “Hopefully we will have
some positive results as the day goes on.”

Gore said Chelsea’s runs averaged four to six miles, so the search
is focusing on those distances between the community park and the lake.

The search area was bustling with police and volunteers Friday
morning, including some with specially trained dogs. Helicopters flew
overhead continuously and some hovered low, allowing searchers the
chance to give the ground a close inspection.

Shortly before noon, two inflatable boats from the Del Mar
lifeguards were towed to the search area. A sheriff’s spokeswoman said
a search of Lake Hodges was planned.

Volunteers were given stacks of fliers to distribute to businesses and residents in the area to see if anyone had seen the girl.

Chelsea is “a happy girl going for a run and didn’t come back,” said Stephanie Dorian, who is Chelsea’s cousin.

“She’s a typical all-American gal. She’s very easygoing, successful
with what she does. She’s a straight-A student and avid runner,” she
said.

Dorian said the family is “devastated” but doing the best they can.

Deputies used cell towers to determine that Chelsea’s cell phone was
near the park. Her phone was found inside her locked car Thursday night.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Parker, the search coordinator, said nothing useful has been found so far. “Nothing at all,” he said.

Parker said the group is searching an area larger than 20 square
miles. Rancho Bernardo Community Park lies on the southern shore of
Lake Hodges. It is laced with trails that weave through brush-covered
hills and link the community park and the lake.

“Any time a child goes missing it is a serious issue.” said Linda
Farmer, a Poway school employee who planned to hand out fliers. Farmer
said her daughter and Chelsea are the same age.

Chelsea has blond hair, blue eyes, is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 115 pounds.

She is a member of the Poway High School cross country running team and plays French horn in the San Diego Youth Symphony.

Principal Scott Fisher spoke to students Friday morning at the
beginning of the school day via the intercom system about their missing
classmate. Counselors have been available all day for students, said
school district spokeswoman Sharon Raffer.

Chelsea was known to run all over Poway. City Manager Penny Riley
said City Hall employees have seen her running on many occasions. “What
a beautiful girl she is,” Riley said.

Poway High School Principal Scott Fisher’s voice floated over the
school’s intercom system just before the final bell rang yesterday
afternoon.

“Stay together. Stay strong,” he told students and teachers. “Keep
in mind we are a family here. This is a tough time … when we need each
other.”

Poway High senior Chelsea King, a standout student, cross-country
runner, musician and singer, disappeared after school Thursday when she
apparently went for a run alone in Rancho Bernardo Community Park near
Lake Hodges.



Volunteers and law enforcement officers searched the area from
Thursday night through last night without finding a trace of the
17-year-old.

Last night, at least 200 people came to the high school for a vigil.
Teens hugged each other as they arrived and told stories of Chelsea.
The principal wanted to keep the event within the school community and
asked the media for privacy.

Before the vigil, friends described a happy, bright girl.

Melissa Fernandez, 17, said Chelsea is a bundle of energy “loved by everyone.”

McKenzie Lamont, 18, said Chelsea is driven, with a goal of attending the University of Washington.

Her distraught parents, Brent and Kelly King, appealed at the park yesterday for everyone’s prayers and vigilance.

“We’ve been missing our daughter since 6 o’clock last night,” said
Chelsea’s father, who praised the exhaustive search efforts. “We are
praying for Chelsea to come home and find us.”

“Anybody out there, if you know anything about her, please just help
us bring her home,” her mother said through tears. “She’s such a good
girl.”

Chelsea had planned on running at the park, on West Bernardo Drive
near Aguamiel Road, on Thursday afternoon. Her family reported her
missing when she failed to return home.

Her car was found in the parking lot at the park, with her cell
phone locked inside. The car was hauled to the sheriff’s lab last
night, though Sheriff Bill Gore said nothing indicated that anything
violent had happened inside.

Gore said yesterday that his department was treating Chelsea’s
disappearance as a missing-persons case and was following every lead
and interviewing any witness.

He said about 150 searchers from as far away as Riverside, San
Bernardino and Santa Barbara counties were combing a large area between
the park and Lake Hodges. Del Mar lifeguards scoured the shoreline, and
sheriff’s dive team members worked the water.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jan Caldwell said at a briefing that,
as of 9:30 last night, about 75 search-and-rescue personnel had scoured
an area of three to four miles with no new developments.

She would not comment on radio traffic reports that a shoe and a pedometer had been found in the area.

She said the search would continue through a predicted rainstorm.

Chelsea’s cross-country coach, Dan Schaitel, said the team would
often run the trails at the park for practice, usually along the north
side of the lake.

“It’s a beautiful run. The children are well-versed, especially the girls, to never go on a run by themselves,” Schaitel said.

Chelsea has blond hair, blue eyes, is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 115 pounds.

“She’s a typical All-American gal,” said Stephanie Dorian, 44,
Chelsea’s cousin. “She’s very easygoing, successful with what she does.
She’s a straight-A student and avid runner.”

Dorian said the family is devastated but doing the best they can.

Schaitel described Chelsea as smart, personable and empathetic.

One of her close friends, Katie Chang, 17, said Chelsea is
brilliant, independent, funny — “she brings laughter to every
classroom” — and a leader. They are in Advanced Placement classes
together and are peer counselors who help students with their troubles
and concerns. “Now the peer counselors are grieving,” she said.

Katie and Zoe Helstrom, also 17 and Chelsea’s close friend, were at
Poway High last night spelling out “CK” in ribbon. Zoe said hundreds of
students wrote notes and prayers yesterday on large posters set up on
campus, wishing for her safe return.

“Chelsea: You are OK. I know you are. Stay strong, we’ll find you soon,” one note said.

Gore said Chelsea’s runs averaged four to six miles, so the search is focusing on those distances around the park and lake.

The search area bustled with police and volunteers yesterday,
including some with specially trained dogs. Helicopters flew overhead
continuously and some hovered low, allowing searchers a closer
inspection.

During the afternoon, Carrie McGonigle — the mother of 15-year-old
Amber Dubois, who went missing a year ago in Escondido while walking to
school — came by the search scene to offer support and help.

Rancho Bernardo Community Park lies on the southern shore of Lake
Hodges. It is laced with trails that weave through brush-covered hills
and link the park and the lake. Much of the area burned in the 2007
wildfires, so the brush is not nearly as thick as it was before then.

By the end of the day, posters had appeared throughout the area, and
e-mail blasts by various groups flooded residents in the greater Poway
area.

“Anytime a child goes missing, it is a serious issue,” said Linda
Farmer, a Poway school employee who planned to hand out fliers. Farmer
said her daughter and Chelsea are the same age.

The FBI is now involved in a missing girl case in
Poway, looking into the possibility that Chelsea King may have been
abducted. Investigators have taken Chelsea’s computer and cell phone
into custody, according to Sheriff Bill Gore.
Friends, neighbors and family members joined search and rescue teams from San
Diego, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties as well as San Diego police
to search a web of running trails just south of Lake Hodges Friday
looking for the Poway High School student who has been missing since
Thursday afternoon.
“We have dive teams that are looking along the shore lines of Lake Hodges,”
Gore said at a 5 p.m. press conference. “Obviously we're concerned
otherwise we wouldn't have all these resources out here looking for
her. But I'm still optimistic.”
King, 17, went for a run about 2 p.m. Thursday at Rancho Bernardo Community
Park. When it got dark and her parents hadn't heard from her, they
became worried and called police.
“Anybody out there, if you know anything, please
just help us bring her home. She’s such a good girl, she needs to come
home,” Kelly King said.
Deputies were able to track the long-distance runner’s cell phone and find her
black BMW at the park. Her cell phone was found inside the car along
with her school clothes, which leads investigators to think she was in
running clothes when she disappeared.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. Search and Rescue team, San Diego
police search dogs and rescue teams from Riverside and Santa Barbara
spent Friday searching a 20 square mile area south of Lake Hodges and
north of the Rancho Bernardo Glassman Recreation Center where Chelsea
started her run.
A reverse 911 was also put in place to get the word out to the surrounding area.
“We still have not located her and we’re just praying for Chelsea to get
home and find us,” her father Brent King told reporters at a news
conference Friday morning.
Hundreds of friends were searching for the missing teen overnight,
but officials said their scent could complicate the search.
Instead, they have set up a base camp at the Rancho Bernardo Glassman
Recreation Center and are making flyers, which they plan to distribute
as far south as Tijuana and as far north as Los Angeles.
“All the volunteers that are out there now and they’ve been
out there all night, thank you,” Chelsea’s mother said.
Friends say Chelsea is a college-bound senior at Poway high school and well
liked by everyone. They're stunned by her disappearance.
"I'm incredibly worried. I mean she's like my best friend I can't even
describe what I feel," Mckenzie Lamont said. "She's responsible, she
never gets into trouble. This is just out of her character."
Chelsea had run cross-country for Poway High and friends say it wasn't uncommon
for her to run for hours at a time. She was also a peer counselor and
played the French horn. Lamont says when she didn't show up for
symphony Thursday night -- they got worried.
"I think everyone's still in their shock phase. This doesn't feel real to
anyone yet," Chelsea's friend Susan Rudiger said. "We're just trying to
keep our negative thoughts inside right now and really just try to stay
positive in a time like this."
“She must be an amazing person because there are a lot of friends and family
that are standing here,” Caldwell said. “That’s a testimony to the kind
of girl that she is.”
Chelsea is described as having strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes; she’s about 5
foot 5 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. If you have any information
regarding her whereabouts, please contact investigators.
“Anything you can do, look at her picture, look for her, please keep your eyes
and ears open and pray for her,” her father pleaded.
Meanwhile, the mother of missing Escondido teenager, Amber Dubois, has been to the
search scene to lend her support. She said its tough and she knows
exactly what this family is going through.

RANCHO BERNARDO ---- The parents of 17-year-old Poway High
School student Chelsea King, who went missing Thursday afternoon,
made an emotional plea for her safe return Saturday.

"What we are going on is hope," said a teary-eyed Kelly King,
Chelsea's mother.

Chelsea hasn't been seen since she left the school Thursday
afternoon for a run on the trails around Lake Hodges at Rancho
Bernardo Community Park.

Her father, Brent King, said he has faith his only daughter will
be found.

"We think we can bring her back," he said. "We need to go find
her."

Speaking to reporters, Brent King issued a message to his
daughter.

"Be strong, baby," he said. "Come home."

He then climbed onto the back of a pickup truck and told several
hundred volunteer searchers he appreciated their efforts and
support.

"She wants to be found," he said. "She didnt go missing by
choice."

San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jan Caldwell
said rainy weather that moved into the area overnight and continued
Saturday morning was not hampering the search effort.

"We are moving heaven and earth to find this little girl," she
said.

Sheriff's officials, who are handling the disappearance as a
missing person's case, conducted a private briefing with Chelsea's
family Saturday morning "so they know everything there is to know,"
Caldwell said.

As the case begins to look more like a possible abduction, a
volunteer group based in Texas, the Laura Recovery Center, has set
up the Chelsea King Search Center at 11858 Bernardo Plaza
Drive.

The Laura Recovery Center describes itself as a group that works
to "prevent abductions and runaways and to recover missing children
by fostering a triangle of trust among law enforcement, community
and missing child's family."

Hundreds of volunteer searchers, limited to those age 18 and
above with valid identification, were dispatched to sites around
North County on Saturday. The effort was coordinated with the
sheriff's department.

Volunteers stood in line waiting to be assigned a search
location.

One of Chelsea's classmates, Poway High senior Shelley Tibbs,
said she is anxious to find her friend.

"We all just want her back," Tibbs said. "She has a bright smile
and it's crazy to think this could happen. But once you do, you
think, 'What can I do to help?'

"She'd be out here looking for us."

A neighbor of the Kings said her own daughter runs the same
trails where Chelsea was last seen.

"I want to do anything to help," she said.

Volunteer Lorn Reynolds, who was leading one of 31 teams of 15
searchers, told volunteers to identify any potential evidence with
a bright orange tie.

"Anything that looks questionable or man-made," he said.
"Anything that could link somebody's presence here is a start."

Todd Quinn, an Oceanside resident who heard about the search on
Facebook, told volunteers to look out for disturbed vegetation or
pieces of trash that were less than a week old.

"We need to rule out this area," he said of the group's assigned
location. "As soon as we can we'll be helping the efforts of the
whole search."

Bob Walcutt, executive director of the Laura Recovery Center,
said the effort will continue on Sunday.

"We'll be back in business tomorrow if we don't find her today,"
he said.

Volunteers can begin registering at 9 a.m. and throughout the
afternoon on Sunday at the Rancho Bernardo United Fire Recover
Center, 11858 Rancho Bernardo Court in Rancho Bernardo.

Those interested in volunteering with the group can call
858-485-8502.

The Deputy Sheriff's Association of San Diego County announced
Saturday it is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to
Chelsea's whereabouts.

The 2,100-member group is headquartered near Poway High School
and Chelsea's disappearance has touched its members, said
spokeswoman Paola Avila.

Association President Ernie Carrillo said the girl's
disappearance "really hits home for us."

"Not only because our deputies are out there right now searching
for her, but because she is a member of our community," he said in
a prepared statement.

The hiking trails where Chelsea disappeared have been closed to
the public since the search effort began.

Chelsea, a straight-A student at Poway High School who played
the French horn in the San Diego Youth Symphony, liked to run in
the area after school, according to friends and family.

She routinely ran four to six miles along the web of trails on
the southern shores of Lake Hodges.

People distributed fliers with Chelsea's picture in the region
on Friday, including in Escondido, where the one-year anniversary
of another missing teen, Amber Dubois, was observed on Feb. 13.
Amber was last seen as she walked to Escondido High School.

At Poway High School on Friday, Lucas Newby, 16, said he barely
knew his classmate but felt compelled to help by distributing
fliers all morning. The teen said it was the third in a string of
traumatic events for the school in the past year.

In December, 17-year-old Veronica Aguirre, a senior at the
school, was killed when she lost control of a vehicle she was
driving on Mountain Meadow Road in rural Escondido.

Another student, Clayton Blackburn, who would have been a
sophomore this year, died in his sleep last summer.

"It's been rough," Newby said. "We've had a rough year."

Seventeen-year-old Sean Golightly said he had taken several
classes with Chelsea and described her as a happy student.

Chelsea parked her car, a black BMW, in the community center
parking lot on West Bernardo Drive after school Thursday in
preparation for a run, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said. She
did not return to her locked car, Caldwell said.

Chelsea is white, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 115 pounds, with
blonde hair and blue eyes. She is scheduled to graduate from Poway
High School this spring.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Sheriff's
Department at 858-565-5200.

I found this article about a young woman who was attacked and robbed in the same area in December. Could be a connection.


Female Jogger Attacked in Rancho Bernardo

Contributor: Courtney Dwyer Email: courtney.dwyer@sandiego6.com Last Update: 12/28/2009 11:44 pm

SAN DIEGO - A female jogger was attacked Sunday by a would-be robber in San Diego's Rancho Bernardo neighborhood.

The
woman was jogging by herself in the Westwood subdivision near Poblado
Road when the attack took place around 10:30 Sunday morning. It
happened on a hiking trail north of 10400 Pablado Rd.

"I heard
this helicopter and it kept circling overhead and it was getting lower
and it was a Police helicopter. After about 10 minutes, he finally
came on the loud speaker and basically said we're looking for someone,
a lady has been attacked in the canyon," says Steve Smith, a resident
who lives near the trail.

The unidentified victim, who is in her
mid-20s says the attacker said hello as she was passing and then
grabbed her, tackled her to the ground and demanded money.

The victim got away after she elbowed the attacker in the face. Police think he may have a broken nose.

The
suspect is described as a white male in his mid-20s, 5'11", 230 pounds
with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a blue and white
sweater and jeans.

The woman escaped with minor injuries but
neighbors remain concerned. "It upsets me because it happened in my
neighborhood. I won't say that I would normally be out there at 10:30
in the morning, but I wish I would have been out there about that
time," says Phil Sowers, a resident who uses the trail a few times a
week.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact San Diego Police.

Oh here you go. LE are already onto it


Possible Link to Chelsea King and Another Jogger Investigated


RANCHO BERNARDO - The search for a Poway teenager who is missing
near Lake Hodges continued in Saturday's rain, as authorities
investigated whether her disappearance was related to a female jogger's
assault near the the park last December.There is still no sign
of missing 17-year-old Chelsea King. More than one-thousand volunteers
braved the rain and mud to help out Saturday.Eighteen-year-old
Poway High Senior Brandon Fantasia is focused. He walked in the
pouring rain through dangerous hills filled with deceptive trees that
sometimes appeared to be something that they weren't, all to find
fellow Poway High Senior Chelsea King.Fantasia said, "I know Chelsea. She was a good friend of mine. And we all our missing her in Poway." Brandon
along with seven other volunteers searched everything in their
sight. "Just anything to show us a sign. Anything to show us she
might be there or she could've been there just anything at all," he
said.Now there is a Chelsea King Search Center where the heart of the volunteer effort is organized.More than a thousand showed up Saturday to help find the Poway High straight "A" student and symphony musician. Fiona
Obericck knows all about search efforts. She led up the search for
7-year old Danielle Van Dam in 2002. The Sabre Springs girl who was
abducted from her home. Obericck understands how much law
enforcement needs the help. "They just don't have the feet and the
eyes on the ground. This is a nice way to reinforce areas that law
enforcement just can't do," she said.

http://www.sandiego6.com/mostpopular/story/Chelsea-King-missing-Poway-Rancho-Bernardo-jogging/zTLAKar0XUGyf78trbfHvg.cspx

A massive search for Poway teenager Chelsea King continued last
night in what San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore called an
unprecedented law enforcement response to a missing-person case, as
more than a thousand volunteers offered a staggering show of support.

Search-and-rescue volunteers and divers from throughout Southern
California will be out again this morning scouring Lake Hodges for
evidence that might lead to the 17-year-old, who went missing Thursday
afternoon from Rancho Bernardo Community Park. More than 50
investigators are expected to be involved.



Meanwhile, Brent and Kelly King, Chelsea’s parents, said they were
overwhelmed both by the circumstances and the outpouring of community
concern.

At a midday news conference yesterday, Brent King urged everyone to stay strong.

“I just want to thank every single person who is showing up here to
help us find our daughter,” he said. “It’s a reflection of what kind of
person she is and what kind of a community we live in. She’s the kind
of kid that everybody loves, and it shows.”

After an intensive hunt through the hills and trails around the
park, which borders the southern shores of Lake Hodges, search teams
yesterday concentrated on the lake and the creeks that feed into it.

Gore said the focus changed after an unsuccessful sweep of the
ground, combined with helicopter searches using infrared equipment.

“We have not with our searches found Chelsea in the open areas,” Gore said.

As of late last night, more than 100 searchers were still in the area.

Chelsea, a Poway High School senior and an avid runner, drove to the
park after school Thursday to go for a run. Her parents reported her
missing when she didn’t come home by 6 p.m. The teen’s locked car was
found in the park’s parking lot Thursday evening.

Gore said he met with Chelsea’s parents yesterday morning to brief them on the investigation.

“This is obviously very tough for them,” Gore said. “It’s the unknown that’s so stressful and traumatic in something like this.”

In a business park on Bernardo Plaza Court, about two miles from the
park, hundreds of volunteers packed the Chelsea King Search Center
yesterday. Hundreds more were turned away as lines wrapped around the
center and traffic clogged nearby streets.

The volunteers just wanted to help in some way.

In addition to thanking community members, the Kings expressed appreciation to law enforcement for all its efforts.

“We’re going to find her,” Brent King said.

“Our daughter is the kind of kid that has such a forward view of
life. In her bathroom, she has all sorts of sayings that she has put up
to remind her who she is and what she wants to be.

“I pulled one off her bathroom wall this morning. It’s from Virgil.
It says, ‘They can because they think they can.’ We think we can bring
her back. We need to go find her. Please continue to do what you’re
doing.”

Gore said many items have been found since the search began, but he
declined to be specific or say whether anything spotted in the brush or
water might be useful.

The Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, which assists searches for
children nationwide, helped organize the volunteer effort. Yesterday,
hundreds of people fanned out to nearby communities to knock on doors,
distribute fliers and search open areas beyond where law enforcement is
concentrating.

Among the volunteers was Maurice Dubois, whose daughter, Amber,
disappeared more than a year ago while walking to school in Escondido.
She was 14 at the time.

All over the Poway, Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Peñasquitos area,
Chelsea’s photo has been posted in business windows, and her
disappearance is the main topic of conversation.

Gore said the investigation into Chelsea’s disappearance is not
limited to search-and-rescue efforts. Many avenues are being explored
and many scenarios are still viewed as possible, he said.

One such avenue is a possible connection between Chelsea’s case and
an attack on a female jogger in the same area Dec. 27. That victim was
tackled by a man on a jogging path but escaped after hitting her
attacker in the face with her elbow.

Gore said authorities are exploring any possible connection with the
Amber Dubois case and are checking numerous reports of suspicious
people seen in the park in recent weeks.

He said interviews with Chelsea’s friends, family and teachers reveal nothing in her background that is suspicious.

“We’d all like to have her as our daughter,” Gore said.

At the search center yesterday, many people hugged and cried.
Several said they were drawn there because they didn’t know what else
to do.

“This is every parent’s nightmare,” said Gina Storr, whose son is a senior at Poway High and a friend of Chelsea’s.

“Even though I don’t know her parents, I can feel what they’re going
through. This could be any of us. You just want to do whatever you can
and show support, and hopefully we can bring her home safely.”

Authorities have arrested a 30-year-old registered sex offender in
connection with the disappearance of missing California honor student,
Chelsea King, according to local media reports Sunday. A large
search is underway for King, a 17-year-old honor student at Poway High
School in Poway, California, about 25 miles north of San Diego, after
she disappeared Thursday while on an after-school run through Rancho
Bernardo Community Park. The North County Times reported that a
Lake Elsinore resident, John Albert Gardner III, was arrested at 4:20
p.m. outside a restaurant. Gardner has been previously
convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years
according to the California sex offenders registry website. Sheriff
Bill Gore told media at a Sunday evening news conference that physical
evidence found on the southern shore of Lake Hodges in the park linked
Gardner to Chelsea's disappearance. He did not say what the evidence
was. The search for the missing girl will continue overnight, he said. "We're holding out that hope," Gore said when questioned whether Chelsea is believed to be alive. More
than a thousand volunteers had earlier scoured the lake area for signs
of Chelsea, in what San Diego authorities called an
unprecedented response to a missing persons case. Authorities
said Chelsea, a long-distance runner and straight-A student, was last
seen at 2 p.m. Thursday before setting out on a routine several-mile
jog along an extensive trail system around Lake Hodges. Police
found the teenager's BMW sedan parked inside the park's parking lot
with her cell phone inside, local station Fox5SanDiego.com reported. The
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, along with the FBI and law
enforcement from Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties,
launched an all-out search for Chelsea using helicopters, infrared
devices and search dogs to scour the park's rugged terrain. On
Sunday, dive teams reportedly searched Lake Hodges for any sign of
Chelsea, described as 5'5" tall with blonde hair and blue eyes and
weighing 115 pounds. "She's getting ready to graduate from Poway
High School and has tremendous aspirations to change the world," said
family spokeswoman Stephanie Dorian, who called the teen "the most
amazing, wonderful, cherished girl."

A registered sex offender was in jail Monday morning on suspicion of
murder and rape in connection with the disappearance of Poway teenager
Chelsea King, the Sheriff’s Department said.

John Albert Gardner III, 30, who listed his home address in Lake
Elsinore, was arrested in front of a popular Mexican restaurant and bar
called Hernandez Hide-A-Way in the tiny community of Del Dios on the
west shore of Lake Hodges near Escondido at 4:20 p.m. Sunday, San Diego
County Sheriff Bill Gore said Sunday night.



Numerous pieces of physical evidence led investigators to Gardner,
Gore said. He would not elaborate, stating the investigation is ongoing
and that authorities are still trying to find Chelsea, 17, who went to
Rancho Bernardo Comunity Park for a run and never came home.

Her parents said the arrest would not stop them from continuing their search for Chelsea.

“Nothing will change for us until our beautiful daughter, Chelsea
King, comes home,” said Kelly and Brent King in a statement Sunday
night. “We will continue searching for her, and we ask that all of you
do the same until she’s back with us.”


Gore said the hunt for the teenager will continue until she is found
and is being expanded beyond Rancho Bernardo Community Park and the
adjacent Lake Hodges, which search teams have been combing since the
Poway High School senior disappeared Thursday.

Investigators were seen at a townhome on Matinal Road near West
Bernardo Drive in San Diego early Monday morning that is about one mile
south of the nearest entrance to the park were Chelsea went missing.
Public records link an address on that street to Gardner.

San Diego police officers blocked off a section of the street in
either direction from the townhome. Investigators could be seen walking
to and from the residence.

“There are several searches going on around the county,” Gore said. “We are going to refocus some of our search efforts.”

Chelsea’s parents reported their daughter missing about 6 p.m.
Thursday when she failed to come home from a run at the Rancho Bernardo
park. Brent King found his daughter’s locked car in the parking lot at
the park.

A multiagency missing-person search has continued round-the-clock since then.

“Our primary goal in all of this,” Gore said Sunday, “is to find Chelsea King.”

The sheriff also said there was “a strong possibility” Gardner may
be connected to an attack on a lone female jogger in Rancho Bernardo
Community Park the morning of Dec. 27.

He said investigators also were looking into the possibility of a
connection between the cases of Gardner and Amber Dubois, who
disappeared while walking to Escondido High School on Feb. 13, 2009.
Amber was 14 at the time.

“We’re leaving no stone unturned,” Gore said.

Gardner is listed in the state’s Megan’s Law sex offender registry
as having been convicted of committing a lewd or lascivious act upon a
child younger than 14. He was involved in a criminal case in San Diego
Superior Court in 2000, but details were not imediately available.

The address he listed as his home in Lake Elsinore was searched
Sunday and a neighbor said officers were especially interested in a
shed behind the two-story house.

The residence on Matinal Road is about 1,100 feet from Westwood
Elementary School. Since the passage in November 2006 of Proposition
83, known as “Jessica’s Law,” registered sex offenders are prohibited
from living within 2,000 feet of schools or parks. The law is currently
being challenged in California’s courts.

Gardner listed his home address in Lake Elsinore, according to the sex offender registry.

Less than two hours before Gardner’s arrest, Brent King sat down for
his first in-depth interview since his daughter’s disappearance.

Brent King said he came home from the gym about 5:30 p.m. Thursday,
about the same time his wife, Kelly, was returning from the grocery
store.

“My wife asked me if I had heard from Chels. I said, ‘No, I figured
you had.’ Right then, we looked at each other and had a panic,” Brent
King said in an interview.

Chelsea is the kind of daughter who always checks in, her father said. If she was going to be late, she would let them know.

“We quickly called a few of her friends and asked if they had heard
from Chelsea because we hadn’t,” Brent King said. The friends hadn’t
heard from her.

“We then had a mom share with us how to do the AT&T reverse
autophone, which I’d never heard of before, and you can identify where
a phone is based on the AT&T Web site.”

The Web site showed a general geographical location.

“I started searching,” he said. While driving from his northern
Poway home, his wife called and told Brent King she wanted to call 911
and he agreed.

“We just both knew something bad was happening,” he said.

Brent King soon found Chelsea’s BMW parked behind the Rancho
Bernardo Community Center just south of Lake Hodges. He looked inside
and saw her belongings.

“I then looked behind me and I saw a running trail, and in the
deepest part of my heart, I knew she was out there,” the father said.

“So I took off down the trail. I ran down about a mile yelling out
her name as long as I could, several times and in several directions.
By this time it was already dusk and the Sheriff’s Department had
already shown up. So I ran back,” he said.

Looking drawn and choking with emotion at times during the
interview, Brent King said he would share every detail of his life, his
daughter’s life and his family’s life “if it will help bring my
daughter home. Please write up that I thank everybody. Thank everybody
for their support and please ask them to keep bringing it until we have
my daughter home.”

Brent King works in the mortgage banking industry and said he is
between jobs. His wife is a medical assistant for a dermatologist. They
have one other child, a son in the 8th grade, whom the father was
reticent to talk about given the situation.

Chelsea was born at Pomerado Hospital in Poway but the family moved
away before she entered kindergarten. They lived in the Chicago area
for 12 years before he was transferred to San Diego County in 2007 when
Chelsea was in her freshman year. The family lives in a large home in a
gated community in north Poway.

Brent King said his wife is holding up through the terrible uncertainty.

“Kelly is a very, very, very strong Scottish/Irish girl. She will do whatever it takes for her daughter,” he said.

The father wants the world to know his daughter.

“Since the moment that Chelsea graced us, she’s been a light bulb,
just a piece of energy,” he said. “When she comes into a room, you know
she’s there. Whether it’s because she’s got this huge smile and she’s
lighting it up or because she’s stumbling around and making somebody
laugh.”

The straight-A, college-bound student who loves to play the French
horn around the house has “an incredibly witty sense of humor,” Brent
King said. “She dreams such big dreams of not only seeing the world but
healing the world.”

Before learning of Gardner’s arrest, Brent King said he did not want
to speculate about why his daughter is gone. Many have said she was
always going out of her way to help others.

“I have tremendous amounts of worries,” he said. “I can’t categorize
them. I don’t want to speculate but I could absolutely see my daughter
going to someone’s aid. And if the roles were reversed, she would be
here (at the search center) leading the entire campaign.”

“You never want to be in the situation that my daughter is in and that my wife and I and son are in,” the father said.

“But the amount of pain we’re going through is only offset by the
amount of love that we feel over here,” he said, referring to a
volunteer search center in Rancho Bernardo where thousands of
volunteers have shown up to offer help.

Brent King said he’s spoken recently with several parents of
children who have gone missing, including Maurice Dubois and Carrie
McGonigle, parents of Amber Dubois.

Just hours before the arrest , the father said he had a gut feeling.

“I’ve got an incredibly deep relationship with my daughter,” he
said. “We share each other’s words. We have the exact same sense of
humor, the exact same smiles.”

“I know she’s still here. We just have to find her.”

Although he couldn’t share what police have told the family, Brent
King said: “What I can say is the effort is breathless, speechless,
enormous. I can’t think of a resource they aren’t using across every
department. The coordinated effort that is occurring, I’m witness to
it. I’ve seen it.”

KING FAMILY STATEMENT ON ARREST


Nothing
will change for us until our beautiful daughter, Chelsea King, comes
home. We ...will continue searching for her, and we ask that all of you
do the same until she’s back with us. She is an extraordinary daughter
and also someone who is committed to her community. She has huge dreams
and wants to change the world. Hundreds of people are working alongside
us to make sure she has that chance, and we are deeply grateful. She
and our entire family need your help now for Chelsea’s safe return. We
thank law enforcement for pursuing all avenues to bring this situation
to an expedient, positive outcome. We will be posting regular updates
from our family on Facebook page: Chelsea King Search Center.

Kelly & Brent King, and family

A sex offender arrested in the disappearance of California honors
student Chelsea King may have been involved in two other attacks,
including last year's abduction of a 14-year-old girl.
Police said they have evidence linking John Albert Gardner III, 30, to
Thursday's disappearance of the 17-year-old King, who never returned
home after jogging in a park north of San Diego. He was arrested
Sunday.
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said Gardner was not cooperating,
but his publicized mug shot has brought in tips from the public.
"During the search the last three days we have obtained numerous pieces
of physical evidence in the search scene. One of those pieces of
evidence we were able to tie to John Gardner," Gore told "Good Morning
America" today.
"So far we do not know where Chelsea is," the sheriff said. "It is a
step in the right direction. We're confident we have the right man in
custody. Now we've just got to find Chelsea."
King's parents, Brent and Kelly King, said they continue to hope their daughter will come home.
"We're holding up because we want our daughter back home, and
everything we're doing is focused on our daughter," Brent King said.
Police and homicide detectives have been interviewing Gardner since his
arrest. Authorities say there is a strong possibility he is linked to a
December attack on a woman on the same jogging path King used and the
February 2009 disappearance of 14-year-old Amber DuBois, who vanished
on her way to school.
In the December attack, the female jogger was able to fend off her
assailant by hitting him in the face with her elbow and escaping.
Kelly King said she couldn't remember now whether she or her daughter had heard about the December attack.
"I'm sure that I read it, but it's one of those things where you think
thank God the person that was attacked was able to get away," she said.
"You think that could never happen to you."
Chelsea King Missing Since Thursday; Registered Sex Offender Arrested
The search for King, a straight A student and avid runner, has drawn
hundreds of volunteers. Authorities have used every resource available
to find her, including a hi-tech drone aircraft flown by remote control
and helicopters with infrared equipment as well as searches on
horseback and with tracking dogs.
Teams have waded across the park's lake, while an underwater robot was used to take pictures on its bottom.
"You can't say enough," Brent King said. "It is so heartwarming to see
the effort that's been being given. It's what sustains me every single
moment. It's a testament to who my daughter is."
Gardner, of Lake Elsinore, was arrested outside a restaurant in
Escondido. He was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child
under 14 years, according to the California sex offenders registry Web
site.
Chelsea is 5-feet-5 inches tall and 115 pounds, with strawberry blond hair and blue eyes.
She is a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony and a straight-A
student at Poway High School, where she is due to graduate this spring.

The sheriff's department asked that anyone with information about King's whereabouts call 858-565-5200.

A registered sex offender was behind bars
Monday on suspicion of murder and rape in connection with the
disappearance last week of a 17-year-old Poway High senior, who has yet
to be found.

Chelsea King has been missing since Thursday, when she did not return home from a run at Rancho Bernardo Community Park.

John
Albert Gardner III, 30, of Lake Elsinore, was taken into custody Sunday
afternoon near a restaurant bar in south Escondido, San Diego County
Sheriff Bill Gore said.

Physical evidence led authorities to
Gardner, who was questioned by homicide detectives, Gore said. The
evidence has not been described by law enforcement but Chelsea's mother
told news stations Monday morning that her daughter's underwear was
found in the Lake Hodges area.

According to the sheriff's Web
site, Gardner was booked into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of
rape by force and first-degree murder. Nonetheless, Gore told Good
Morning America that law enforcement and volunteers would search for
Chelsea today, hoping to find her alive.

Paul Levikow, spokesman
for the District Attorney's Office, said Gardner was scheduled to be
arraigned in a downtown San Diego courtroom Wednesday afternoon.

Gardner
is a registered sex offender listed on the Megan's law Web site, which
indicates he lives in Lake Elsinore and committed lewd and lascivious
acts on a child under 14 years old. Gore said investigators searched
Gardner's Lake Elsinore home and other addresses prior to arresting him.

One of those addresses searched was a townhouse on Matinal Road near West
Bernardo Drive, where Gardner was staying with his parents, according
to NBC 7/39. The townhouse is about a mile from the park where Chelsea
likes to run.

Gore said there was "a strong possibility" Gardner
may be connected to an attack on a female jogger at the same park on
Dec. 27, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

He said authorities were also investigating whether Gardner was connected to
the disappearance of Amber Dubois, who went missing while walking to
Escondido High School just over a year ago. Dubois, who was 14 at the
time, has not been found.

According to court records, Gardner
pleaded guilty in May 2000 to committing a lewd act on a child and
false imprisonment in connection with a sexual assault on a 13-year-old
girl.

According to the records, Gardner - a former neighbor of
the victim's who was a month shy of his 21st birthday - offered the
girl and her friend a ride to school as they waited for a bus.

The
victim decided to go with the defendant to his townhome to watch a
movie, and while there, he sexually assaulted her, according to the
court records.

Gardner was located at a nearby gas station and arrested. In September 2000, he was sentenced to six years in state prison.

The search for Chelsea was expected to expand Wednesday beyond the Rancho
Bernardo park and nearby Lake Hodges, where search teams have been
looking since she disappeared Thursday.

"There are several searches going on around the county," Gore said. "We are going to refocus some of our search efforts."

Chelsea's parents, Brent and Kelly King, reported her missing Thursday evening
when she did not come home from a run at the park. Brent King found her
car in the parking lot at the park.

Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement personnel have been searching for her since then.
Several agencies pitched in, searching the Lake Hodges area by foot,
air and boat.

Investigators looked for clues on Chelsea's cell phone, which was found in her car, and her home computer.

The Poway High School senior is a straight-A student and a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony.