by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published 3 March 2010
SAN DIEGO — Criminal charges will be filed Wednesday against a convicted sex offender suspected of murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, authorities tried to confirm that a body found in a lakeside grave was that of the San Diego County student who has been missing for nearly a week.
Chelsea King
District attorney’s spokesman Paul Levikow did not immediately specify the charges planned against John Albert Gardner III, saying the complaint was still being written. The counts will be disclosed at an arraignment later in the day, he said.
The 30-year-old Lake Elsinore man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of murder and rape.
As prosecutors prepared their case, the county medical examiner’s office worked to confirm King’s body had been pulled Tuesday from a shallow grave on the south shore of Lake Hodges.
An investigator was meeting with King’s parents at their Poway home, said Lenore Aldridge, a medical investigator.
It was not clear if fingerprints, dental records or other methods of identification were being used. County Sheriff William Gore said the body was likely King.
Thousands of people joined the search after the teen failed to return from a run near the lake on Thursday.
Mourners held a candlelight vigil Tuesday night for the popular straight-A student at Poway High School.
“What bothers me most is the kids don’t feel safe anymore,” Traci Barkerball, King’s teacher for three years, said between hugs of grieving students. “Their sense of security has been taken away from them.”
Brent King, Chelsea’s father, thanked supporters on the lawn of St. Michael’s Church in Poway, northeast of San Diego. Some people in the audience fought to control their sobs as he spoke.
“One of the nicknames that I’ve always called my daughter is my Angel. She’s my angel forever,” he said. “I want to thank you. Chelsea wants to thank you.”
Someone shouted, “We love you,” and Brent King replied, “We love all of you.”
Gardner was arrested after police said a piece of physical evidence tied him to King. No further details were provided.
Gardner pleaded guilty in May 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor and served five years of a six-year prison term. Prosecutors said he lured the victim to his home with an offer to watch “Patch Adams,” a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams.
The girl was beaten before escaping and running to a neighbor.
Gardner “never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim” despite overwhelming evidence, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
He had faced a maximum of nearly 11 years in prison under terms of a plea agreement, but prosecutors urged six years.
Dr. Matthew Carroll, a psychiatrist who interviewed Gardner, wanted a stiffer punishment, saying in court documents that he was a “continued danger to underage girls in the community.”
Gardner was on parole for three years, until September 2008, state records show.
San Diego police said Gardner also was linked to an assault on a 22-year-old Colorado woman who managed to fend off her attacker on Dec. 27 in Rancho Bernardo Community Park on the northern edge of San Diego, where King’s 1994 BMW was found with her belongings inside.
San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins declined to describe the evidence connecting Gardner to the December assault but said a swab taken from the victim’s elbow did not match Gardner’s DNA.
A poem, dedicated in loving memory of Chelsea King, is shown in its entirety below. This poem was written by Susan Knowles, one of the people who searched for Chelsea early on before she was known to have been murdered:
Our DaughterBeautiful daughter cherished by God,
Destined to touch the world,
Peaceful glow abound your soul,
As you walked in the footsteps,
Of Him who came before you.Angel in your father’s eyes,
Pure joy to all who knew you,
Ever so short your life was lived,
In the hearts of so many you befriended,
Never to be forgotten.Passion within revealed your true spirit,
Sympathy given for those without,
Light among community and home,
Love shown brightly from your azure eyes,
Your heart filled with forgiveness and grace.The world became a better place,
On the day that you were birthed,
So precious your life to us all,
Now the world must mourn its painful loss,
For our daughter has been called home.© 2010 Susan J. Calloway Knowles
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