CHELSEA KING - 17 yo - Poway/Rancho Bernardo CA

Brent and Kelly King knew something was wrong when they discovered their 17-year-old daughter Chelsea wasn't home.They
called her cell phone then her friends. They tried an AT&T Web site
and learned her phone had been left inside her 1994 BMW in Rancho
Bernardo Community Park, a giant, wooded area on the northern edge of
San Diego."Because it was so out of character for Chelsea not to
tell us or call us and say I'm going to be late ... we just had that
feeling," Brent King recalled Monday, four days after the disappearance
of his daughter.Kelly King called 911 as her husband drove to
the park. He found his daughter's belongings inside her car then
spotted a running trail into the woods."I took off and ran down
the trail as far as I could run, calling out for my daughter at the top
of my voice in every direction," he said, explaining his daughter is an
avid runner.A massive search was under way for Chelsea King, as
authorities questioned a registered sex offender arrested Sunday for
investigation of her murder and rape.John Gardner III, 30,
remained in custody without bail after his arrest outside a Mexican
restaurant in suburban Escondido. Steve Walker, a spokesman for the
district attorney's office, said a decision would be made by Wednesday
about filing charges against Gardner.Sheriff Bill Gore said
physical evidence recovered during the search linked Gardner to the
disappearance, but he declined to elaborate.Gore said on ABC's "Good Morning that the interrogation of Gardner had not been productive."We
questioned Mr. Gardner into the evening and so far we still don't know
where Chelsea is," Gore said. "We're confident that we have the right
man in custody. Now we've just got to find Chelsea."About 100
agents searched a rugged, four-square-mile area of the park on Monday.
The FBI's Los Angeles office also brought sonar equipment to search
Lake Hodges and 14 miles of shoreline."The terrain is tricky out
there," said Jan Caldwell, spokeswoman for the San Diego County
Sheriff's Department. "They're going slowly for the safety but also
slowly to make sure they cover every single square inch."Authorities
also searched Gardner's home in Lake Elsinore and his mother's home in
San Diego, Caldwell said. She declined to comment on what, if any
evidence, the searches produced.King's parents said they last
saw Chelsea when she went to bed about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after
playing French horn in a school concert. On the way home, they had
mailed an application for financial aid at Boston University, one of 11
colleges where Chelsea applied.The parents heard Chelsea leave
the house at 6:15 a.m. Thursday for a peer counseling commitment. But
she wasn't home at 5:30 p.m., when Brent King returned from the gym and
his wife got home with groceries.They described their daughter
as a straight-A student who plays French horn for the San Diego Youth
Symphony. At suburban Poway High School, Chelsea runs on the
cross-country team."That was her outlet when she was stressed about a test or needed to just clear her head," Kelly King said.Chelsea
was born in Poway, a well-to-do suburb of homes and office parks
northeast of San Diego. Her family, including her 13-year-old brother,
had followed Brent King to various mortgage banking jobs in the San
Francisco Bay area and suburban Chicago before returning to the San
Diego area.Their home was badly damaged in 2007 wildfires that
ravaged Southern California. Brent, 47, is now between jobs. Kelly, 48,
works as a medical assistant in dermatologist's office.Chelsea
researched 90 colleges, with an eye toward a career that would combine
her interests in writing and environmental protection. She has been
accepted by two schools, the University of Washington and the
University of British Columbia."She is one of the most driven,
personable, caring people that you could ever meet," Brent King said.
"Her goal in life is to brighten everyone's day. That's what she does,
and when she walks into the room, you know she's there."Investigators
also suspect Gardner could be tied to a Dec. 27 assault on a female
jogger from Colorado who fended off her attacker in the same park.Gardner,
a resident of Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles north of Poway, was
required to register as a sex offender because of a conviction for lewd
or lascivious acts with a child under 14, the Megan's Law Web site said.He
was convicted in May 2000 of molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor
and sentenced to six years in prison. A psychiatrist who interviewed
Gardner said he showed no remorse for his actions. according to the
court records obtained by the newspaper."There is no known
treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not
admit to it in any way," Dr. Matthew Carroll said in the documents.At
Poway High School, students and staff members wore blue shirts to
represent the color of the teen's eyes and tied blue ribbons around
campus light poles.Principal Scott Fisher thanked students for
their search efforts, echoing King's parents, who said the massive
effort by law enforcement and volunteers was sustaining their spirits."Without that, it would be really, really unbearable," Brent King said.

The media is learning more about the criminal past of a man in custody
allegedly connected to the disappearance of 17-year-old Chelsea King of
Poway.In 2000, John Gardner pleaded guilty to committing a lewd
act on a child and false imprisonment. The victim in the case was a
13-year-old girl, according to court documents. In
March 2000, the girl and her 14-year-old friend were waiting for a
school bus to take them to Bernardo Heights Middle School. Court
documents said Gardner, a former neighbor of the 13-year-old girl,
offered the girls a ride to school that they accepted.
However, while the 14-year-old girl chose to go to school, the victim
in the case went with Gardner to his Rancho Bernardo home to watch a
movie. According to the documents, Gardner began kissing her and
touching her inappropriately. When she resisted, Gardner struck her in
the face and continued to molest her, trying to remove her clothing.According
to the documents, the girl said Gardner "was suffocating me. He had his
hand on my mouth and I couldn't breathe." The girl was able to run to a
neighbor's home where a woman said the victim was terrified and beaten
so badly the woman was barely able to recognize the girl in court a
month later.In the documents, the district attorney said:
"Defendant picked a very meek, young victim who trusted him and lured
her to a location where she would be particularly vulnerable and then
had his way with her."Even though Gardner pleaded guilty, a psychiatrist who examined him said he took no responsibility whatsoever.The
district attorney said: "Not only has the defendant never expressed one
scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim, he has even gone
so far as to blame the victim's mother and claim she somehow attacked
her own daughter."The psychiatrist said of Gardner: "It is my
opinion that the defendant would be a continued danger to underage
girls in the community."It came out in court that Gardner had
fondled a 14-year-old girl a year earlier. Although the district
attorney did not require him to plead guilty to that charge, the DA
said "the defendant obviously has an unnatural interest in very young
girls. The defendant's actions are extremely predatory and this makes
him very dangerous."Gardner was sentenced to six years in prison. He served five years and was released in September 2005.He
remained on parole until September 2008, and after that was required to
register as a sex offender. He is currently listed on the Megan's Law Web site.

Divers searched the shore of Lake Hodges on Monday
near the location where searchers found a piece of clothing belonging
to missing Poway teenager Chelsea King, according to investigators.
DNA on a piece of King’s clothing found along the southern shore of the
lake led to the arrest Sunday of registered sex offender John Albert
Gardner III, according to law enforcement sources.
Gardner, who was arrested outside the restaurant Hernandez' Hideaway in
Escondido, is not cooperating with sheriff’s investigators. He is in
custody, held without bail, on suspicion of first-degree murder and
rape.
Chelsea King, 17, went for a run after school on Thursday and never returned home.
Her car was found at the Rancho Bernardo Glassman Community Park.
Her cell phone, iPod and school clothes were found inside the car.
Gardner, 30, lives near Lake Elsinore
but had been staying with his mother and stepfather at a home in the
17000 block of Matinal Road in Rancho Bernardo. Investigators searched
that home and carried out items in several bags according to neighbors.
Detectives worked in teams performing line searches at the lake, going through
reeds, snakes and vegetation, along a 14-mile stretch of shoreline,
according to sheriff's department spokesperson Jan Caldwell.
"Our focus is to find Chelsea and to bring her home," said Caldwell saying
that deputies will continue to search as long as the search and rescue
people believe it is the thing to do, "We all have hope."
In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, Chelsea's father
said he was thankful for the arrest of a suspect in the case.
"First off, we're unbelievably grateful that this person is no longer able to
be on the street. And we're unbelievably grateful that we have somebody
that can more than likely lead us to our daughter, ” said Brent King.
“And that's what we're hoping for is that we're led to our daughter,
that's what we're doing."
Chelsea's mother reiterated that their main focus is to find their daughter. “We
need our light back, we need our daughter back, and that's all we care
about right now is getting her home," Kelly King said.
Prosecutors in a prior sexual assault conviction described Gardner
as having “an unnatural interest in very young girls.”
Gardner was charged with four felony counts in March of 2000 after he
approached two girls waiting at a school bus stop and offered them a
ride to school. One of the girls agreed to go to Gardner’s home to
watch movies. Once there, according to court documents, Gardner pulled
her pants and underwear down and hit her repeatedly in the face while
rubbing himself and touching her.
According to court records, Gardner’s 2000 victim said “he had his hand on my
mouth and I couldn’t breathe and I got pretty fuzzy after he hit me and
I’m not sure if I blacked out.” The girl, then 13, got away with one
shoe on and ran into a neighbor’s garage.
Gardner jumped in his car and left the scene.
The crimes occurred about a month before his 21st birthday.
He was charged with three counts of forcible lewd act upon a child and one
count of false Imprisonment by violence, menace, fraud or deceit. On
May 31, two months later, he pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible
lewd act and the single count of false imprisonment.
Gardner faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and 8 months. On September
13, 2000 he was sentenced to six years in state prison, and ordered to
pay a $1200 fine.
In the sentencing summary, prosecutors considered Gardner’s actions
“extremely predatory, and this makes him very dangerous despite his
minor prior record. When combined with his callous attitude and refusal
to admit any wrongdoing, defendant demonstrates that he is an extreme
danger to others and needs to be imprisoned to protect society.”
The court records indicate that the district attorney did not seek the
maximum sentence only because Gardner had no significant record of
prior criminal conduct.
There’s a strong possibility that the suspect may be connected to a separate
attack on a jogger December 27 in the same area, Gore said. When a
reporter asked him if he thought the suspect was connected to the Feb.
2009 disappearance of Amber Dubois, Gore replied, “We’re looking into that.”
"I think there is a good possibility that Gardner may be linked to Amber's
disappearance,” Amber’s mother Carrie McGonigle said Sunday night. “I
pray that he isn't because it would be the worst case scenario for my
daughter. I am praying for Chelsea’s' family."

What should the the sentence be for a fist time offense like his? Life. We know he has abused before but just hadn't been caught. He's probably responsible for many victims. We know these people don't stop just because they spend 5 years in jail. The system is too soft. My heart goes out to Chelsea's parents and the parents of his other victims. He should never have been walking among us.

Chelsea King's
family is holding out dwindling hope that their bright-eyed daughter
will one day return home, but the growing link between the missing San Diego-area teenager and a known child molester has raised questions about why he was allowed on the street.
Suspect John Albert Gardner
is being held on suspicion of murder in the King disappearance.
Authorities say he was arrested after a piece of King's clothing
containing DNA evidence was found near the California shoreline in the
park where she was last seen jogging.
That discovery has focused the search on 14 miles of shoreline
as police continue to probe the area with a hi-tech drone aircraft and
helicopters with infrared equipment.
But it's a search, some say, that never should have happened. Gardner was one of 83,000 registered sex offenders living in California, a state that is overburdened with staffing shortages and budget crises. "The law is good, but it's got to be implemented," Ernie Allen, CEO of
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told "Good
Morning America." The reality is the most dangerous offenders seek
situations where they can be anonymous. Where no one knows they're
there. Where they have easy access to children."
Allen said that changes are both needed and possible, but lawmakers can't use budget constraints as an excuse.
"There is no higher priority than protecting the children and maintaining public safety," he said.
In 2000, Gardner pleaded guilty to committing a forcible lewd act on a
13-year-old girl after she testified that she escaped after he tried to
strangle her. He served five years in prison and was released even
though a psychiatrist told the court that Gardner "would be a continued
danger to underage girls in the community."
Although no arrests have been made, investigators say Gardner
may be linked to two other attacks in the San Diego area; one in
December on a jogger in the same park where King was last seen and the
February 2009 disappearance of Amber DuBois, 14.
Gardner is due in court in the King case Wednesday.
The community where Gardner lived is now outraged to learn that Gardner
often stayed with his mother, who lives near an elementary school.
"He is on the Megan's Law Web site and as long as he lived
lawfully, he could walk where he wanted to walk," San Diego County
Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said.
There are 700,000 registered sex offenders in the United States,
according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Most states rely on sex offenders to register and notify authorities
about their whereabouts, but 100,000 are considered non-compliant.
California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation came
under intense scrutiny last year after 1991 kidnapping victim Jaycee
Dugard resurfaced and was found to have spent 18 years hidden in the
backyard of registered sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy
Garrido.
Dugard, who bore two children believed to have been fathered by
Phillip Garrido, went undetected even though Garrido was a known
violent offender. He was visited by parole officers and even police
after a neighbor called in a tip that he might have someone living in
his backyard.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido have pleaded not guilty to 29 felony charges, including rape and kidnapping.
Dugard, her two daughters and her mother are now suing the state for
"various lapses" by the Department of Corrections. And the Office of
the Inspector General released a scathing report in November finding
numerous failings and missed opportunities by Garrido's parole
officers.
Allen said immediate solutions to failures in tracking known
sex offenders include better risk assessment of each offender as an
individual and more time behind bars.
"Sentencing has to be improved for the most serious offenders and the public needs to be vigilant," he said.
Experts say potential predators, once out of prison, learn how to live
beneath the public's radar and find loopholes in the laws meant to
protect the public.
"There's little doubt that this case may become a kind of
poster case for increased sanctions across the country against sexual
offenders, so they do longer time," Jody Armour of the University of
Southern California Law School said of the King disappearance.
But some people question whether full rehabilitation is ever possible.
"I'm not sure," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said. "But we find that the same people commit the same kinds of crime."

Will Chelsea King, a 17-year-old high school student from San Diego, be found alive?
On Sunday, a massive Chelsea King search effort,
including 1,400 volunteers and 100 law enforcement officers failed to
find the straight-A student from Poway High School.Meanwhile, 75 miles from her home, police arrested John Albert
Gardner, a 30-year-old sex offender, who they believe might be tied to
the case. Police found physical evidence against Gardner,reported San Diego
County Sheriff William Gore.
But so far, Gardner's arrest has not led to King.
"Nothing will change for us until our beautiful daughter, Chelsea
King, comes home," her parents Brent and Kelly King said in a statement
released through a family spokeswoman Sunday night. "We will continue
searching for her, and we ask that all of you do the same until she's
back with us."
King disappeared last Thursday after going for a run near Lake
Hodges at Rancho Bernardo Community Park in San Diego, a popular
regional park full of running trails. Her car, with her cell phone and
iPod inside, were found later that night.
Her BMW was found in the park after she failed to return to her home
in suburban Poway, Calif. on Thursday, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan
Caldwell said.
Gore said the search for King and for further evidence would continue through the night and expand beyond the park.
"There are several searches going on around the county," Gore said. "We are going to refocus some of our search efforts."
That refocusing included deciding what to do with Gardner.
"This investigation is ongoing and specific criminal charges are still being determined," Gore said at a news conference.
Gardner was taken into custody at a restaurant in Escondido shortly
after 4 p.m. Sunday and investigators searched his Riverside County
home.
Investigators also suspect Gardner could be tied to a Dec. 27 assault on a female jogger from Colorado Springs, Gore said.
He was required to register as a sex offender because of a
conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, the
Megan's Law Web site said.
It was not immediately clear whether Gardner has hired an attorney.

The body of 17-year-old high school student Chelsea King was
believed to have been found Tuesday in a shallow grave near a lake not
far from her northern San Diego County home, authorities said.
““There is a strong likelihood we have found Chelsea,” said
Sheriff Bill Gore at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, confirming
the worst fears of the Poway High School senior’s family and friends
who had harbored hopes that she might still be alive.

King, a
straight-A student and cross-country runner, had been missing since
Thursday, when she went out for a run in hilly parkland near Lake
Hodges, located near Escondido.
A convicted sex offender, John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested
Sunday night in connection with King’s disappearance and will be
charged Wednesday, according to the San Diego County district
attorney’s office.King’s disappearance prompted an outpouring of
support in San Diego and beyond, with hundreds of people joining search
efforts and more than 76,000 becoming fans of a Facebook page. Her
parents, Brent and Kelly King, appeared on national news broadcasts
expressing the belief that she was still alive.
Authorities said earlier Tuesday that Gardner had been linked to an
attack in December on a 22-year-old woman in the same park where King
disappeared. Gardner allegedly tackled the woman and demanded money.
She escaped after hitting Gardner in the face, San Diego police said.Gardner
is registered as a sex offender and lives in Lake Elsinore in Riverside
County, but he had been visiting his mother in Rancho Bernardo, just
south of Lake Hodges, officials said.
Gardner served five years in connection with a 2000 attack on a
13-year-old girl, officials said. After getting out of prison, he wore
a global positioning system tracking device until his parole ended in
2008, Gore said.

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.

Solace can be found in that statement. If words on a computer could elaborate or edify the anger and sadness i have in these cases. Lord why our children... Im sorry for questioning, i just cant understand... too young, beautiful and sacred. Help us protect these children until you see fit... Amen.

Nancy Grace 3/2/2010

Chelsea King`s Body Found

Transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1003/02/ng.01.html

SAN DIEGO -- Thousands of people attended a vigil in a San Diego
suburb for a 17-year-old girl whose body is believed to have been found
five days after she went to a park for a jog.

The father of Chelsea King addressed the crowd at St.
Michael's Church in Poway Tuesday night, just hours after authorities
discovered a body in a shallow grave and said it is likely that of the
teen.
Brent King says one of his nicknames for Chelsea is "Angel." Now, he says, "She's my angel forever."
Chelsea King vanished Thursday. Authorities have arrested a
registered sex offender, 30-year-old John Albert Gardner III, for
investigation of rape and murder.

The registered sex offender suspected in the rape and murder of
Poway teenager Chelsea King is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday
afternoon for a hearing that may force prosecutors to reveal what led
to his arrest.

John Albert Gardner III, 30, of Lake Elsinore, could face charges
that include one or more special allegations that would make him
eligible for the death penalty.

The 2:30 p.m. court appearance will be the culmination of a weeklong
ordeal that has gripped the nation and led more than 6,000 volunteers
to look for Chelsea, a 17-year-old Poway High School student. She
disappeared Thursday after going for a jog in the Rancho Bernardo
Community Park.

Authorities discovered a body in a shallow grave Tuesday near Lake
Hodges, about a half-mile from where Chelsea had parked her car. San
Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said there is a “strong likelihood” that
it is Chelsea and that the body would be positively identified on
Wednesday.

Police are also investigating a vandalism incident at the Rancho
Bernardo home of Gardner’s mother and stepfather. Someone using red
spray paint wrote “Chelseas blood is on you” and “move out” on the
garage door of their townhouse on Matinal Road about 5:40 a.m., San
Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick said.

Brent King, Chelsea’s father, struggled to maintain his composure
Tuesday night as he stood before thousands at a somber candlelight
vigil, just hours after authorities told him they believed the body
found near the lake was probably his daughter’s.

“One of the nicknames that I’ve always called my daughter is ‘my
angel,’ ” Brent King told those who gathered at St. Michael Catholic
Church in Poway. “She’s my angel forever.”

He added: “Keep her spirit alive for us.”

A man then yelled from the crowd, “We love you!”

King, with his wife, Kelly, by his side, replied: “We love you, too.”

Gore said investigators discovered the body shortly after 1 p.m.
Tuesday about 10 feet from a tributary that leads to the lake — an area
that had been searched extensively and is about a half-mile from a
parking lot where Chelsea’s car was found six days ago. He said a shoe
had been recovered previously in the general area.

The Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the body was removed from the area later Tuesday.

Gore said the girl’s parents were devastated when he informed them.

“They were holding out hope, as we all were, that we would find
Chelsea alive, and this was our worst fear that we would find her as we
did today,” he said.

Shortly after Gore’s announcement Tuesday, two Poway High students stood outside the school crying and hugging each other.

“I had so much hope for her,” said Leandra Lyons, 15, a sophomore.
“I was just hoping by the end of the week we’d have some good news.”

Nicole Belanger, 16, a sophomore, said she was in shock.

“Just to hear that it’s one of our own people at our own school, it
could have been any of us,” she said. “I’ve just got to take this as
God had a plan for her and took her for some reason.”

Throughout the campus, students wore orange T-shirts, hair ribbons
and yarn bracelets in honor of Chelsea. Some bracelets had sayings
attached that were taken from quotes posted by Chelsea around her
house. The color-coordinated tribute was organized by students via
Facebook, MySpace and text messages forwarded among friends.

At the Chelsea King Search Center in Rancho Bernardo, the day’s events elicited similar emotions.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Dawn Davis, senior case manager for the
Laura Recovery Center, a Texas-based organization that helped
coordinate the local search. “We all hoped and prayed that Chelsea
would come home to her family.”

The center attracted about 1,500 people each day for the past four
days, some from as far away as Oregon. They were sent out in teams of
20 to search ravines, orchards and other places in a 10-mile radius
around Lake Hodges.

The investigation into Gardner widened in recent days as authorities
linked him to a December assault and probed whether he had a role in
last year’s disappearance of an Escondido teenager.

San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins said Gardner has been connected
to a Dec. 27 attack on a female jogger in the same park, but it was not
through DNA evidence. He declined to say how the link was made, but
said they were working with police in Colorado Springs, Colo., where
the jogger lives.

Over the weekend, the San Diego police crime lab had rushed to test
a DNA swab taken from the elbow of the victim of the December attack.
It did not have Gardner’s DNA, only the victim’s, Collins said.

The 22-year-old jogger told officers she had used her bare elbow to knock her assailant in the face, possibly breaking his nose.

“We thought we could get something good on that, but unfortunately not,” Collins said.

The DNA sample was not tested earlier because it was considered an
attempted robbery, which is not as high on the crime lab’s priority
list as other violent crimes, Collins said. As of December, the lab’s
DNA unit was dealing with a backlog of about 500 cases.

Gardner is also under investigation for possible involvement in the
case of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old who disappeared while walking to
Escondido High School on Feb. 13, 2009.

As recently as November 2009, Gardner registered as a sex offender at an Escondido address two miles from the school.

People living at the Rock Springs East condominiums said they were shocked to learn Gardner had lived in their building.

A woman with small children who lived next door to Gardner and
recognized him from photos posted online over the past few days said he
lived with a blond woman and two toddlers.

The former neighbor, who didn’t want to give her name, said
teenagers, both male and female, often came over to play video games at
Gardner’s apartment. She said she could hear the loud games through the
walls.

She and other neighbors said Gardner had moved out about six months ago.

In 2000, Gardner was convicted of a forcible lewd act on a child and
false imprisonment after he took a 13-year-old neighbor girl to his
mother’s home in Rancho Bernardo. The girl accused him of repeatedly
punching her in the face and touching her private parts.

A psychiatrist who interviewed him in that case said he would be a
“continued danger to underage girls” because of the lack of remorse for
his actions.

Prosecutors initially charged Gardner with more-violent sex crimes
that could have resulted in a sentence of more than 30 years because
the terms would have been served consecutively. He was sentenced to six
years in prison as part of a plea agreement and served five years
before he was released in September 2005. He completed probation in
2008.

SAN DIEGO -- Police received a report around 5:40 a.m. Wednesday that
someone had vandalized the townhome of the parents of the man accused
of murdering Poway teenager Chelsea King.

The home owned by John Albert Gardner's mother and stepfather on
Matinal Road in Rancho Bernardo was spray-painted in red with a threat.

The words "Chelseas (sic) blood is on you. Move out, '' were scrawled on the home's garage door.

Resident James Ashker said he understands the strong feelings that led to the vandalism.

"You have such a monster living there and doing what he's done -- there's going to be a lot of anger," Ashker said.

"The words that were put on the garage door were vandalism, but it had
a strong point. The blood is on them and they need to move out -- it is
very true."

Gardiner, a registered sex offender is scheduled to appear in court
Wednesday to answer to charges of raping and murdering King, a Poway
High School senior, who vanished last week during a jogging outing in
northern Rancho Bernardo.

Gardner, 30, was arrested Sunday in connection with the disappearance
of the 17-year-old straight-A student and San Diego Youth Symphony
French horn player.

San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore has said physical evidence led them to Gardner, but declined to elaborate.

Through an attorney, suspect John Albert Gardner III pleaded not
guilty Wednesday afternoon to the rape and murder of Chelsea King and
the attempted rape of another woman.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis says few details about the evidence
linking Gardner to King's disappearance -- or possibly other crimes --
will be released.

"We will not try it in the press. Period," Dumanis said.

The first count was murder with the special allegation that the
murder was committed during the commission or attempted commission of a
rape, which makes the defendant eligible for the death penalty. The
second count, assault with the intent to commit rape, involved a Dec.
27 incident on a second woman jogging nearby in Rancho Bernardo.

Gardner will be held without bail.

A status conference is scheduled for March 9. A preliminary hearing
-- to determine whether there is sufficient cause to believe Gardner
committed the crimes he is accused of -- is scheduled for March 18.

At a news conference following the arraignment, the father of
missing Escondido teenager Amber Dubois said the family was working
with law enforcement officials who were looking into the possibility
that Gardner had also killed Amber in early 2009.

"In our hearts, we don't want to accept that," Maurice Dubois said. "We feel she is still alive."

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Registered sex offender
John Albert Gardner III, the suspect in the rape and murder of Chelsea
King, was contacted by Escondido police at least eight times since
January 2008, far more times than usual, it was reported today.Contacts
with sex offenders are normally made once a year, on or around their
birthday, or when they move, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune,
which reported that Escondido police declined to explain why Gardner,
who used to live in Escondido, was contacted so frequently.Gardner,
30, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to raping and murdering the
17-year-old King, a Poway High senior who went missing Feb. 25 after
she went for an after-school run in the Lake Hodges area. Her body was
found late Tuesday afternoon. Authorities
have said they are investigating whether Gardner, who assaulted a
13-year-old girl in 2000, was connected to several other open cases
involving girls in San Diego and Riverside counties. Those cases
include the disappearance of Amber Dubois, who was 14 when she went
missing just over a year ago while walking to Escondido High School.
The teen has never been found.Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter
told the Union-Tribune he couldn't say whether the unusually high
number of contacts made with Gardner had anything to do with Amber.Gardner
-- who is being held without bail in solitary confinement in a downtown
jail cell -- was ordered back to court Tuesday in the Chelsea King
case, and a preliminary hearing was tentatively scheduled for March 18.