complain gardner had been following him in a car. when a cop confronted him he asked why he was following this female. he had responded that this woman had cut him off in traffic. as the cop talked to gardner, something else caught his eye. this known sex offender had a 3-year-old in the car with him. that was of obvious concern to the stopping officer. why is this sex registrant with a 3-year-old child. it turned out it was his girlfriend s child. she verified the story. besides, he was off parole, had no restrictions at all about being around small children. but now, after his arrest for the murder of chelsea king, the amber task force went back and reviewed everything. amber s cell phone records, internet hits, all those leads during a year of searching. looking at all 1,200 tips, seeing if there was anything in there on john gardner. there wasn t. there was no connection at all