all dead ends. but a tip came in which sent the divers to a park in escondido. two children told their mother they might have seen a body in a bag around the pond. i was watching all the divers in there going through all the muck. i m like nervous, of course, when they re doing this. search and rescue teams drained the pond. searched through reeds and brush surrounding it. and nothing. yet another dead end. i m like, phew. it was such a release, knowing there is no way she could be in there because they were down to the bottom. and so a little spark of hope rose to the surface again. i m absolutely 100% hopeful she s alive. still had john gardner ever run into amber? was he involved? even if no one could prove it. if we ever start to believe that gardner is connected to m amber, it is basically us losing hope. we re going to deny it until we
i know in my heart of hearts john gardeners are in good. breed i dated him for a year and a half. john is the one person whom is made me can feel completely safe in this world. i believe john will become a great man, husband, and father. he was 20 years old, no prior record, and the presumption of the law was a middle term. six years, out after five. and now this. but the second guessing went on hold for a moment. because just now, there is a far bigger issue. what had jon gardner done with chelsea king? why she s still alive? and if so, where? we. as john cardin or sat in the san diego sheriffs lock-up, sergeant dave brown working the chelsea king case took an urgent phone call. investigators from escondido called us. investigators on the amber dubois case in the neighboring town of escondido had a question. was your guy also our guy?
would they come to the escondido police station? walking in there, seeing the medical examiners, all of our investigators were there, the minister, the sheriff s department da s office. you know what you re going to hear next. medical examiner told us that her remains were found, and they positively id d her through dental records. i can t say i was prepared to hear it. after 364 days of searching, we re ready for anything they can tell us. give us an answer. make this stop. what d you do after that, after that meeting, the two of you? cried. for days. the escondido police chief made the announcement the next day. sunday, march 7th, 2010. two teenagers found dead in less than a week. human skeletal remains have been positively identified as being our missing 14-year-old amber. but what he didn t say to amber s parents or to anyone
prompted some serious rethinking a few miles up the road in escondido. amber dubois parents, for example, remembered something about that man. he was a registered sex offender in escondido at the time amber vanished. this was one of the people on your crazy list of going around. yeah, it was. i think there were 148 at that time. yeah, it was one of them. john gardner, it turned out, had been living here in this apartment complex in escondido the time amber disappeared. some of my volunteers waited outside the apartment to look for him, see what he drove or whatever, but they never made contact with him. after his arrest, carrie couldn t see how gardner could be connected to her daughter s disappearance. gardner seems to attack girls that are by themselves, and amber was last seen by two eyewitnesses in front of the school. for him to do that in front of all those kids, it just seemed