noaa, to take us off the air tonight. that is our broadcast this friday evening, with our thanks for being here with us. have a good weekend, unless you have other plans, on the behalf of all our colleagues on networks on nbc news, goodnight. goodnight. this is a important message regarding at missing juvenile at risk. amber lee and two boys. >> cute not nothing matters anymore. >> teenager, it disappears. >> come home, please. >> someone had her, it kept us up and nights going, over in our heads what happened in from the school. >> when another gone. >> she is such a good girl, she needs to come home. >> there's a lot of desperation, maybe she is tied up somewhere, maybe she's been held captive.

>> two missing girls, one man, and the secret. >> did you get any sense of this sort of personality we're dealing with? >> psychotic. >> he came up, and he went here, right to the edge. >> two families, two mysteries, two journeys for justice. >> if the lesson can be learned from amber, then i want to get out there. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> on the evening of february 12 2009, in a hillside house north of san diego california. the negotiation was finally complete. the girl had one. >> i made or write a one page letter to me, she made it two pages but repeater self multiple times to make it longer. as like okay. >> she pestered her mother perry, and her mother's

boyfriend at the time, they've. >> kids have their own things that they're in, to amber loved animals. >> she'd been campaigning for hit during her regular and frequent visit his with her father, moe. >> she probably had a name for almost a month, before she got it. >> well michigan a call? it >> will let, it's a french name. >> which made perfect sense to her, because her own surname was very. french dubois. amber do bra. >> she was 14 years old, in the 14 -- it was to be her lucky day. the day she's walked those few familiar blocks from her home in escondido, clutching her mothers -- and receive an exchange a lamb, of all things. she was buying it as part of her high school's future farmers program. and tonight, as she drifted off to sleep, for the last time, every good thing still seem possible. >> come home, please.

>> none of it had happened, then. >> there's not a single day that goes by, that i don't breakdown a cry for hours. >> the extent of the evil hadn't occurred to the sheriff yet. >> all of a sudden there's been a safe zone that's been taken away from. you >> the da, never imagined, she'd say. >> this case rock san diego county. >> but this is before all that. and amber was just going about the business of being 14, and slightly quirky. >> amber was a free spirited kid, she loved reading and writing, and she didn't like the normal things that most kids like. >> she had her own pace, she liked her take her time. it's a come on, come on, she's looking at the flowers in the bugs, just whatever, never in a hurry, ever. she wanted to see the world how she wants to see it. and she did.

>> no interest in boys yet, no girly things either. >> we had to order four closed for school online, because she hated shopping. that would be torture for her. to go to the mall. >> what did other girls think about it? you know they're so clean cash, you know. that age. >> well, she had her click, but it is very small click. one small group of very close friends that were all geeky know it is like her, basically. we all a bunch of hookworms. >> she read the whole harry potter series in two weeks. >> come on. >> she can put it down, i should get a 300-page novel, because i knew she was under the blanket. reading >> probably in those years she read more books and i have in my life. >> she was just beginning high school, she make plans to take extra courses to graduate early. and she vowed never to miss one day of class. >> i'm like, are you sure, you

never won a mix school what is wrong with. you she want to perfect attendance. >> she wants to be an animal behavioral scientist. she wanted to study and mulls in-depth. >> she kept guinea pigs, and fish, and birds, and dogs, and ras. she began writing lessons at three, by nine she owned a horse. we're so when the school offered future farmers of america. of course, she joined. >> they have a huge, huge farm on the campus. and they allow students to purchase a farm animal. >> and that's, the lamb, and a happy walk to school on friday february 13th. >> i remember driving to work, laughing, thinking oh no i'm gonna have to take care of that. lamb >> the whether was drizzly that winter's day, mid fifties, is the middle of the afternoon when dave noticed, well, nothing. an absence >> i was at the house, and went wait a minute? why is an admiral here?

because your mom is still at work. look at my wife she should've been here an hour ago, called her mom. >> wonder where she is that, called her self, and said and recall. me >> they've got in his car and drove to school, i figured maybe she went to pay with the lamb in mid law strike of time. and then he found one of the teachers, and asked if he'd seen amber. >> and mr. rayburn looked to me and said, she didn't show up here today. i was very surprised she wasn't here, this was her last day to pay for her land. >> i said no, no no, i gave her a check before i left the house this morning. and that's when sirens went off. i called kerry and told her -- and carry, at that point, kind of went into panic mode. >> and i said, amber never made it, i knew right then someone had her. i knew it. i was like something terrible has happened. >> coming up, where was amber.

we >> finn for several days, as it goes when we get a little bit more. worried >> police, and the nation, join the search, and a new lead sends a mother on a dangerous mission. across the border. >> we did visor not to go because or be great reason for her to be kidnapped, and hold her. >> when dateline continues. when dateline continues get ready. it's time for the savings event of the year. the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon! at this homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon, there's no telling what we might bundle! homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon!

bundle cars, trucks, colonials, bungalows, and that weird hut your uncle lives in. so strike up the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon band for the deal that started forever ago and will probably never end. homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon. -say it with me. -homeandautobundle-- no one's leaving till you say it right. homeandauto... growing up in a little red house, no one's leaving till you say it right. on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort. amber dubois, 14 years old, was

a young woman of stab list habits. >> i give her till 3:30 to be home, so she kang with her friends. >> dependable, was amber, predictable even. >> she was always home by 3:30, always called. >> and then came friday, february 13th, 2009. when she wasn't home, didn't. call >> today, carrie mechanical discovered she hadn't gone to school at all. >> and she had to check in her

pocket for her lamb, there's no reason issues she's missing that is. school carrie called her ex husband, moe. i started looking all around the school, looking for anything like a backpack. >> look at they do, they printed flyers, called their friends. i probably had 15 people show up right away, and we start going toe to door. >> they were out with a black and white picture, a fax fitter amber, and we handed them a color flier and said here is a better picture of amber. >> as could yuto police come the neighbor, the cleat behind. it worked all night, said then candid bob enten. >> it's now saturday morning, and still no sign of amber. very concerning to. us >> and then, later that day, a break, somebody had seen her near the school. >> describing how she had it putting on, it was really, we

described her as walking hurriedly. she thought she was late to school >> and then, someone else had seem amber near light's fire hydrant with a boy. >> basically they said there is amber, the boys described as tall, 68 inches taller than amber. joey looking, and dark compacted. >> who was that way? was amber with someone? >> she had been missing a day when the phone company called, her cell was active somewhere nearby. >> someone had tried to access voice mail. and, it hit on the same cell phone tower that covers both emperors home and the school. >> so, we sent out a reverse 9-1-1 call. >> this is an important message from the escondido police department, regarding a missile juvenile at risk. the missing juveniles and dubois. >> it's recorded message that we can send out all the homes,

we did it for several mile radius around the self into. brown hair blue eyes, wearing all dark. clothing >> if you see her, heard her, please call. >> as a new spread, the cause may have said she'd been seen that in downtown saturday escondido. but local surveillance cameras pick up. nothing >> and then, sunday the 15th another's cause made said she was spotted walking with a boy. >> the sighting was deemed to be as reliable as can be. it incited hope, but she knew the amber is not a runner. >> i knew it wasn't her, she would not be this close to home and not come home. >> they night the search went on, the fbi joined, in volunteers did too. searching outbuildings, vacant says, we don't know what's going on here, but we do take it. -- >> search and rescue teams

shows mild of brush and choke leaves. places around rocky hills. >> also in this area, it's a place a lot of kids go to party. it's called the caves and then then little rock area, mountainous area. but no sign of amber. this is going on for several days. so, as it goes on we get a little bit more worried. >> what was it like for the two of you, as those days kept going by, there is nowhere nothing? >> life stops, nothing matters anymore. you go sleep, you don't need. it's >> great depression some days, other days you can see some kind of light. >> the police set up a tax force, assigned search teams. volunteers came out. hundreds of. them >> i have three daughters myself, i just cannot imagine with those parents are going through. >> i look around, i see a bunch of flickers of hope that's when i'm seeing. >> someone has them, she's not just hiding for me, or hiding from the house. >> it kept us up and nights,

over and over, of what happened that morning in front of the school. >> if amber was alive, then that was a big hit, where could she be? >> if she left, she left when somebody she knew, so who is that? person >> they told the amber story, on america's most wanted. she was on the cover of people met and magazine. and, what happens? suddenly, sightings coast to coast. hundreds of them. >> there was one girl, who looks so much like amber, that she had to keep carrying her i.d. on her, because law enforcement would suffer so many times, she had to go i'm not amber. she had to show the i.d.. >> they ran down every tip, in every state, 1200 of them. 500 interviews. even though >> the more we investigated, it the more we can up into dead ends. >> and carrie? found her own five a task force of one. when tips send in a sighting in mexico, carrie got into her car

and went to tijuana, another 60 miles of mexicali scour the streets for amber. >> i always let law enforcement know what i'm doing. they'd be light you know dangerous? it is >> we'd advisor not to go, because of somebody down there knew that she had a 40 or 50,000 dollar reward. there be great reason for them to cannot be her and hold her down there. >> i mean, it's for my kid, acetylcholine when i get back. i went down there for five times. >> but, no ember in mexico. so at home in escondido, what did she do? >> she had a list of registered predators, she take a dozen a night. we >> had a call from an apartment complex manager that a female was yelling at individuals in the apartment complex. and when our apartments -- yelling at a registered sex offender, and the sex offender

was complaining department manager, and then her manager had asked her to leave. >> the threat of arrest didn't scare her. >> i've said so why don't get embers face out there more, go ahead. the >> weeks became months, and genie up hope became hard to do. with the volunteers thinned, stopped. coming >> we'd have days where we have hundreds of people. but then it would steadily dropped down to points where there is weeks where we'd have eight people show up. >> four months after amber disappeared the volunteers searched center closed. on february 13th, 2010, they marked the somber anniversary. >> our biggest fear is, going all entire careers, if not our lifetime, and not knowing, what happens to ember to blow. and the likelihood of solving this case was very limited, if at all. >> and then, the search is on this morning for a missing 17

year old, chelsea king. >> it happened again. >> coming up, another mystery. finding your car it was unusual, made us think it's on the gone. wrong >> and, another anguish mother. we just want to bring your home. she is such a good girl. she needs to come home. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. roblem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin that's a trail i want to take. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis has both. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, or unusual bruising. it may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines.

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just over a year since amber dubois vanished. >> another teenager was missing. ten miles away in a silverman san diego. >> i'm like, how can this happen with almost a year in the same not. >> it began in a parking lot neera and local hyping trail. >> we get calls oftentimes about juveniles, girls, runaways. >> to san diego chairs deputies responded to a call from panic parents. >> this one made the hair stand up on democrat's neck. >> 17-year-old chelsea king -- college bound, how come to rent or bernard o park in san diego. around two in the afternoon for a brisk five mile run. broad daylight. well known, well used, safe hiking.

trail and skirted the marshy banks of the long shot a lake. but then, she was late, didn't answer her cell, then returned apparent messages. chelsea's dad call the cell phone provider, which looked up the tower her signal is hitting, and let her dad her phone which was inside her locked car in a parking lot. >> and just, finding her car it was unusual. it was not just somebody a teenager out here with her boyfriend. it made me think that something had gone wrong. we >> it certainly had. >> chelsea king is described as having strawberry blond hair, and now another public might merit began. >> anybody out there who knows anything please just help us bring our home. she is such a good girl. she needs to come home. >> word got around fast. we immediately felt but they were going through. >> i was ready to get in my car and go, i'm gonna help with the search. >> bonnie knew manus was the

san diego county district attorney, and the first to hear the news. >> everybody began thinking november right, from the beginning i think. i think that's what i made everybody so scared. about chelsea. was knowing that this had happened with amber. >> amber, who was, in some ways, so similar. >> beautiful girls, both five five, both like compacted. >> that very thursday afternoon, within hours of chelsea's disappearance, friends fanned out around the park. the neighborhood around. it even total strangers joined in. and just along here perhaps two miles from chelsea's van in car. between a creek bed and a row of houses, as a cold settled in, and it daylight fails. >> one of the people that were coming from the neighborhood to search, came across of pair of underwear and socks that did not appear trampled or discarded, they were right in the center of the walk-in trail. >> could've been anyone's, of course.

but how did they get? here >> they seem to have been freshly there. was there a connection, dave brown a sergeant did san diego -- sent a detective along this trail. >> right along this trail, just a bit further. down parents said that split yes that's the type that she. where >> was there any indication of? dna >> yes, there was a small about blood that was found. >> didn't look good. they >> sent the close to the dna lab for confirmation. and deployed a virtual army. helicopters within the threat tracking, search and rescue teams. hundreds of people. you began beating that if they could surround thousands of acres, and the branch around ronaldo parkland. and it fires it is made their way through the lake and its underwater forest. >> you could see the shoreline over there, and the shoreline over here, it's very very thick. the trees in the middle are hidden by the deep water. >> don parton was the sergeant lead the operation. so you can see a little bit of

the difficulty. for instance, just here. you can if you take just one step, yet to pry the brush and. look and that's the way it was that day, that thursday night. >> we night fell, still no sign of chelsea. where was? she on these miles of trails. in this vast dark area. >> there's a lot of places it where you can hide someone, that's our problem. as you can see, this is a very expensive area. there's a lot of acreage here. >> by friday, the day after chelsea's disappearance. the re-canine units, trucks, four wheeler. >> we had hundreds and hundreds of folks coming from all over southern california. people work for hours an hours an hours. >> county sheriff bill gore man the phone. the real literal -- saying i've got 20 of agents, where do you want. them border patrol, got a call, they were there. >> the fbi canvas some 300 homes around the park, and it's like.

police ran down 600 tips. the areas known sex offenders were tracked down as well. and by that weekend, two days missing. >> we're looking for a five foot five, 115 pound girl. >> thousands came to look for chelsea. amber's parents among them. >> it was huge. i mean, the line of people as a people wide, when around the whole building all the way out to the street. >> this was not like the search for amber. there were no sightings of chelsea. >> this case was pretty specific, we believe she was out and went jogging in that park. and the fact sheeting comeback leads you to believe there is some type of foul play right for the beginning. >> which is why the sheriff call dave brown and his team, of homicide detectives. >> there were certain things about this missing person case that concerned the people that were investigating. one of them was the clothing found. route found really far away, a couple miles from where the cowers found. there's no rational explanation. for it >> no rational

explanation except foul play. and then next day a second discovery. it was a mile from the place with it under and socks were found. near running trail, a shoe, which appear to be the very issue she was right in this photo. >> it was late on the pressure on top, it looks like someone in either thrown it or dropped. it right there. >> the way these things are so far apart from each other, we feared foul play. whether or not she's deceased, or whether or not she's just been held somewhere we can answer that. >> the chance they'd find chelsea alive was growing slim. the chance they'd find her at all, was not much better. now, there are two girls gone. but where? >> coming up, we. it >> was more of a hope that they were somehow connected. chelsea, amber? might there be a leak. >> police are about to get a break. >> when you find out anything you can about this person. a new surge begins, and the clock is ticking.

>> we knew we were gonna close in. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues >> when dateline continues

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happened in the fifth circuit of appeals friday nights. -- at least temporarily. the law was blocked by a federal judge earlier this, week after the doj filed a lawsuit against the state. and the u.s. economy added a meager 194,000 jobs last month, well short of projections. -- the leisure and hospitality sector, once again led the way in job creation. >> now back to dateline. >> there's a lot of desperation, in the back of your mind, you're hoping that someone has her held against her will. >> and so the detectives don't

want to go home. nobody wants to go home, nobody wants to sleep. we've got to find her. >> it was like some nightmarish déjà vu, amber dubois vanished and san diego valley, search turned up near later. >> then a year later in the neighboring town, another teenage girl was gone. another surge going nowhere. where the two connected? that's with the cop who's search for amber wondered. >> it was more of a hope that they were somehow connected, and would help us solve the amber case. >> and so, he watched as search and rescue literally beat the bushes. and probed the treacherous, muddy waters. and detectives ensues merck the neighborhood nearby. >> we find out who our friends are, where she was, talking to anybody and everybody who might have been in the park that. day hoping to find somebody. >> and there are trying to make sense of evidence scattered around the park. chelsea's car was parked here, underwear with a slight state of blood was found on the trail here. as she was found a mile away.

>> in the back of our minds we know it's a matter of time before we get the results from his dna, and that will also prove if those are her items of clothing and shoe. >> then, three days after chelsea disappeared, more clothes surfaced not far from where the first items were found. the made to the first shoe. a sports bra, here in a ditch. >> that's an area that we had searched and didn't find anything of value. >> what did you think when you found that. stuff >> there was an idea that maybe our articles were been randomly thrown are scattered to throw us off of a trail, or throw us off of a lead. >> was chelsea still not? park was she dead or alive? and one more question, had anyone else been attacked in that park? and, sure enough, a student home for the holidays, also a jock or, reported that she'd been attacks well running on a trail near where those items

were found. >> that was december, -- we before chelsea disappeared. what's chilling is it happened just feet in front of hero of. houses could provide it description of her attacker, and when he tried to do. he was white, maybe 25 or 26. stocky, muscular, brown hair with a tight cut. she is running along with tight the path, and this guy tackle there from the side of tinder down. and she, understanding what's coming said you'll have to kill me. he said, that could be arranged. but she knew taekwondo, and she caught him in the nose with her elbow. and he reacted, she wriggled away and ran like the wind out of their. we >> other vin this is offered a vague description of a man they've seen in the park, the day chelsea disappeared. white male, heavy set, they have zero attacker on their? hands was as part of the park here is character.

it is now sunday afternoon, february 28th. chelsea had been missing for three. days >> how do you deal with the parents? i don't have any answers for them. one point they asked for a tour of various items that were found. so show jim brown show the kings where some of chelsea's clothing was found. >> we got to positions where we can pointed out, you know that's where we found this that's where we found that. and that's one of the detective phone rang. the dna came back. the dna on the clothing confirms it was chelsea's. but the test produce something else to. the most important discovery yet. inside that clothing was a second person's dna. and the lab got a hit. >> and it came to a sex registry. >> chelsea's parents were standing beside him. >> did you tell them that? >> no i did not. so to brown gathered his team. which we have is a name at a prison number. but we need to find out everything we can about this. person >> the dna match was to

a convicted sex offender named john gardner. a man who spent five years in prison for a sex assault back in 2000. >> is it a mixed blessing that it comes back to a sex registry. done time in prison. that's with not a positive note. but at least we knew when where it was. and we were gonna close. in >> the search for gardeners began an afternoon. >> we send our recover people to watch the houses that might be where he lives. >> they approach carefully watch from a distance. there is a slim chance, but what if he was holding her. >> saw the cops, panicked. >> in the back of every buddies mind is, maybe she's alive and tied up somewhere. maybe she's been held captive. and we're gonna find her tonight. >> but she wasn't in any of those houses, and neither was he. instead they found gardener in a bar on the north side of the lake, in the very park where

chelsea had been running. hernandez hideaway. this was weird. gardeners clothes were wrecked in muddy, as if he'd been waiting in the lake for some reason. >> they took him to the sheriff's lock-up, sent photographs to the woman who survived that earlier attack in the park. >> and she picked john gardener, instantly. what had this man in the wet and muddy close done with chelsea king. and for that matter did he know anything about the other missing girl, amber dubois? about the other missing girl, amber dubois coming up, the interrogation begins. and police are in for a ride. >> they back in the chair, did a full-on belly, laugh laugh very long period of time. when daylight continues. when daylight continues. we were alone when my husband had the heart attack.

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early, short cropped hair. matched perfectly the description of the suspected attacker, here and rachel bernard o park. now, john gardner, 30-year-olds, was behind bars. >> how did he react to being arrested. >> very unhappy. >> wondering why who's been arrested. believe the ads because asians were false. detectives pat o'brien, mark palmer. confronted garner in an interrogation room. >> we believed and we hope the chelsea crystalize someplace. so we just kept asking him,

where his chelsea? king >> how did he respond to that? >> he denied everything. he denied ever coming in contact with her. he basically said the only information he had was on the television. >> but you're able to say, listen pal, we have your dna. we >> did, we partner with the dna, and he called us liars. >> he was calm one minute, angry minutes. on the verge of cry in the other minute. he thought part of it was humorous to him, and part of it was just defensive, how dare we. even consider him as suspects. >> he actually made it perfectly clear that he hated law enforcement. he said he was treated poorly when he was in department of corrections, and he hated cops for that reason. >> gardner had been arrested here in this bar, called hernandez hideaway, drunk, wet and, muddy. he told this detectives he slipped on some mud, and hopped in the lake to rinse off. >> first thing that comes to

our mind is, why using the lake? hernandez highway is on the north end of lake hodges. with a bits of clothing with a fine on the south end of the lake. >> now we're thinking, has a place chelsea on the north side of the lake, and he's going to retrieve and cyst who she is still there. >> you're looking for clues that he's gonna give you, either verbally or non verbally. >> the questioning was citric limited to this. where was chelsea? >> our sole purpose was to find chelsea king alive and get her some kind of help, so we can go into too much detail about why, and what you are doing. we kept trying to keep him focused and find out where is yet, what did you do with their. >> there are suspected in punch. they kept prodding. >> so scott's got a photograph of chelsea king, when we continually pushed it in front of him. he would glance at it, he wouldn't look at it very long.

but then he'd continue to annoying, denying, denying. scott would keep talking to him, where is she, where is she. and he would go off on some tension. >> did you get any sense of this sort of personality you are dealing with? >> yes. psychotic. had some major anger issues. >> they left the room for a few minutes, watched him on a physio monitor, as gardner looked at a photo of chelsea. >> basically called chelsea a bitch, and it's like the paper away. >> and then it out of the blue in mid interview, gardener surprise them. he brought up a name. the name of a girl who had disappeared more than a year earlier. >> the photo of chelsea is sitting in front of him. at some point he says, you guys are in essence, are trying to figure me for that amber girl's disappearance. >> i asked where he was, he played it all, he wouldn't pronounce her last name

properly. >> and at that point, gardner began laughing hysterically. >> roll back in the chair, did a full-on belly laugh, laughed for an extended period of time. >> at some point you realize, you're not gonna get anything out of the sky. >> we definitely knew, walking out of there, he was guilty. there's nothing we can do at that point. >> nothing but readable the effort to find chelsea. still, chelsea's parents couldn't help but hope, that the restaurant of gardener when a step closer to finding their daughter. >> it gave us hope that chelsea is still there, we just have to find her. so, i'm not gonna think about who he is, what he is. >> there is an incredible amount of rage that boils, but now we're focused on. chelsea >> rage, yes of course. but imagine what about brent koch would've -- about the history of mr. john gardener. >> the man was evaluated ten years previously by a board

certified psychiatrist. who found that he was a danger, and a continuing change or to the public, and apparently that warning was not listened to. i was shocked. >> coming up, who was john gardner really? good friend. john go or sinister offender. >> this was a man who started out being violent. >> two very different pictures come into focus. >> when dateline continues. when dateline continues

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there. unable to do this tiny one else. there we >> who was john garner, we. by the time police had arrested him, police, had amassed some disturbing information. >> he had been a convicted sex offender. the initial crime was serious. he was committed six years for sexual assault in 2000, i believe it. was >> in fact he had served five years of that sentence, for sexually assaulting and beating his 13-year-old neighbor. >> this is where, in march 2000, if he can make him a sex offender. it was daytime and his mother's old house. he invited a 13 year old over to watch videos with her. >> he intensified his attack. she resisted. he began beating her severely. the incident left her so traumatized, her family had to move to different out of

california. but gardner divine it all. he even blame the beating on the victim's mother. >> jennifer grant was a friend of gardeners back then. >> i remember john had come up told us when it happened, and he was going to have to go to court for this. >> they went to high school together in the san bernardino mountains and san diego. >> he told him it was a news, he thought the girl just didn't want to admit to the parents that she was having sex with her boyfriend. because it might have gotten are in trouble. so she was gonna blame the neighbor, being sean. >> sea and their circle of friends all believed him, she says. the john gardner they knew was a good friend. always helpful. >> he confided in her, that he'd been disguised as bipolar. he could display the symptoms of it, really high highways and really low lows. and on one of the occasions that he was in a low, he

started telling me about some things that happened in his childhood that had family member and actually molested him. >> gardner and his mother moved to san diego from the mountains in 1998. according to court records he was working at sporting goods store when he was arrested in 2000. he's about to turn 20. one had wanted to become a math teacher. his arrest put it into those plans. >> gardner always proclaimed his innocence. but agreed to a plea deal. telling his probation officer, three attorneys warned him he'd get reamed if you want to trial. but, before he was sentenced, the court ordered a forensic psychiatry stated valerie gardner, to help determine whether he should receive probation, or how long it should be in prison. >> there is a very serious offense, even though it was the first time. this was a man who had started out been violent. >> forensics like guy choice mark kayla shredded documents

on this case. he was also a colleague of the guy who wrote the evaluation. that guy matthew carroll declined datelines request for an interview. >> it's a rare case where the into individual starts out in their first kalish offense by of assaulting the victim. and so, that was a warning sign tiktok to carry, this was not a typical case. this was a man who is on a very very steep trajectory, for future violence. >> the psychiatrist warning has noted and gardeners permission to report were dire. >> the defendant manifest significant predatory traced towards under age females. defend it would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community. and it would be unlikely that the defendant would be on amenable to treatment. the psychiatrist recommended the maximum sentence allowed by law. >> in my experience, i don't think that i've ever seen a psychiatrist make a louder and

clearer call. >> and the doctor who evaluated gardener, there's apparently so concerned about it, he followed up his report with a phone call. gardeners probation officer, with yet another warning. the defendant does not suffer from a psychotic disorder, he is simply a bad guy who his own nordean it really interested in young girls. such calls are rare, says doctor kalisz. we when psychiatrist we come desperate, we've become a phone. but despite those warnings, the prosecution, probation officer, and judge. all decided that john gardeners get a mid level sentence of six years, rather than ten years, which it would've been the maximum sentence under the plea deal. >> i have reviewed these case, with the glasses of having been a prosecutor, having been a municipal court judge, superior court judges. now the da. >> when we sat down bonnie geo

manaus, was a san diego county da, she was not the da in 2000 when this crime occurred. we were asked to speak to that prosecutor, but we're told mr. manafort answer the questions. >> when it happened in that case was appropriate. >> this was a mid range sentence as opposed to the maximum possible. that was in spite of a psychiatrist report saying this guy is really dangerous. and he always will be dangerous. why would that not have rocketed up to a full ten year sentence? >> first of all, there were two psychiatric reports. one was saying he was a danger. one was saying, that he was treatable and recommended impatient treatment for 90 days and probation. >> this is a guy who's seen him once in five years. but he examined him him just as much as a case tom foreman. our >> he had actually treated him. >> but that report was only one factor in the sentencing decision. there were glowing characterize francis.

>> 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?

>> i sat in my car and have teleconference with them. >> the rest of john gardner set off a small earthquake among the cops searching for amber. >> they've been at very males to us, talk about the case. >> but they kept talking. even as they racked up the search for chelsea around my one of them are now at a park. hope that she was alive. we used to today, march 2nd, day five of the search for chelsea. that day her patterns worked on plans for. vigil asylum is given up. it's just gonna be one more thing that's chelsea when she comes home. she's gonna see. and want to get back 1000 times over. >> if amber's parents hadn't given up that day, neither were they. we -- and they came out to search. >> the strength they display is driving us. we you know? when it looks immunized and say

don't where we're gonna find her. that strength. >> coming up everybody's pager went off we everybody's heart sank. >> the mystery surrounding chelsea would be solved. very soon. >> probably the longest drive i've ever had in my life. >> when dateline continues. we continues we continues we ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems.

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or seven times. we searched this entire area here. >> the shoreline here had particular interest because chelsea's shoe had been found just a few feet from here. >> so the shoe is basically in this area. >> just laying on top of the brush. >> from here, we go north straight to the water. >> that afternoon, downtown, the homicide team was called to a meeting with d.a.dumanis. >> once he was arrested, we knew there would be a prosecution. >> she had few illusions left about finding chelsea alive. >> the circumstances were such that we felt it was a murder case and a potential death penalty case. >> thus the meeting with homicide detectives. >> charge him with murder. we still didn't have a body. >> and then, mid-meeting, that's when it happened. >> the detectives were

presenting the case when everybody's pager went off. and everybody's heart sank. >> it was chelsea. rescue divers had found her body. >> one of the dive personnel was in a boat. beached the boat literally here. him and his partner started walking this way. shortly thereafter, noticed an area a little bit further this way, and that's when chelsea was found. >> it was that small area which had been searched so many times, the place the shoe was found 15 feet from the edge of the water. a shallow grave. a little shrine was created there. a patch of decorated earth. sheriff gore delivered the news. >> that was probably the longest drive i've ever had in my life,

to go to the king house. it was just news that nobody in law enforcement ever wants to deliver. it was just heart wrenching. >> that's the worst day of our lives, ever. and there's no deeper pain that we'll ever feel again. so i -- the depth of despair is endless right now. >> what type of creature would do this? >> not far away, amber dubois' mother, carrie, heard the news too. the reaction was almost physical. >> when chelsea's body was found, i started panicking. i don't want to bury amber. i'd rather have her missing than have to bury her and stuff. it hit we really hard. >> that evening, what was to be a search vigil for chelsea became a memorial instead. thousands came. >> she's my angel forever.

i want to thank you. chelsea wants to thank you. keep her spirit alive for us. >> john albert gardner. >> gardner was in court the next day, charged with murdering chelsea king while committing a rape. he was also charged with assault with intent to commit rape on the student back in december. >> mr. gardner enters a plea of not guilty to both counts. >> amber's father was at the hearing. afterwards, he worried what this meant for his daughter. >> in the back of our head, we are kind of concerned that there is a connection. >> though no one had proved john gardner's guilt, around san diego, he had become infamous, public enemy number one. as people here learned more about that 2000 case, the psychiatrist report, gardner's failure to report where he was staying, the outrage boiled over. >> i think pretty much all of san diego county is completely disgusted with this.

>> during the week before the attack on chelsea, gardner had been staying with his mother a few blocks from the park in which chelsea was murdered. in fact, it was the very same house in which he attacked that 13-year-old back in 2000. but when police had gone around the neighborhood looking for sex offenders, they did not come to this house. no reason to. >> he was actually registered at his grandmother's house in lake elsinore, so gardner wouldn't come up in the search because he was registered in lake elsinore. >> that was 50 miles away. >> the mother never forced john to report it. may have met all the guidelines in a certain amount of days, but people felt threatened, not knowing the sex registrant was living that close to them. >> once the news broke, gardner's mother seemed to be trying her best to hide from the media, the public anger.

anger so strong, someone spray painted these words on her house, holding her, along with her son, accountable for chelsea's death. >> if i was them and i saw that, i'd move out. move out of the area. >> when some of gardner's friends came by to paint over those words, they were driven away. >> get the hell out of here. i can see the sympathy you have for her. i can see it in your eyes. get the hell out of this neighborhood. you don't belong here. >> in the midst of that public shock and anger, detectives in the chelsea case again considered those calls and emails from their fellow cops who had been looking for amber dubois. was there a connection? maybe. >> we realized that john nard gardner was a resident of else conde bow and one of our registered sex offenders in the time amber disappeared. that's when the light bulb went off. come up -- >> i was watching all the divers

going through all the muck, and i'm like nervous, of course, when they're doing this. >> the race to find amber. >> i'm absolutely, 100% hopeful she's alive. >> were detectives getting closer? and was this suspect number one? >> we're looking at all 1,200 tips, seeing if there was anything in there on john gardner. >> when "date line" continues. to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. [ crow squawks ] ♪ they're nice but irritating ♪ ♪ their excitement can get grating ♪ ♪ they're dressed for pastry baking ♪ ♪ the progressive family ♪ ♪ they're helpful but annoying ♪ ♪ they always leave us snoring ♪ ♪ accidents are boring with the progressive family ♪ so, when do you all go home? never. we're here for you 24/7.

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the arrest of john gardner for the murder of chelsea king

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

really unlikely. >> police had also been aware of john gardner, but finding evidence now that he was somehow involved in amber's disappearance was not going to be easy. yes, gardner was a known sex offender who, in fact, lived 2 miles from the school. police here in escondido had regular contact with him, as they do with all sex registrants, but there was no reason then, said captain bob benton, to suspect him. >> in every one of the contacts, mr. gardner was in compliance with his sex registration, and he wasn't in the area where she went missing, where the sightings were, and he was not considered to be high risk. >> not officially at least. though there was, as everybody would discover, much more to learn about that. gardner did have a brush with the law in the spring of 2009 after amberdisappeared. a woman in a parking lot flagged down a police officer to

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

linking him and amber dubois. >> so they looked back to the day she went missing. two witnesses had seen amber in front of the school. one of them said she was with a boy. >> must be somebody that knew her or she knew that she felt comfortable with. again, we were looking for a boy. >> a year later, detectives began thinking back to that particular witness description. >> one of the witnesses had last seen amber walking with a tall, doughy, dark-skinned boy, which somewhat described john gardner. we were thinking, well, it's possible that, based on it being a busy day, lighting is limited, a parent who is just driving up and looking at a boy maybe appears to be younger than he actually was. >> now, police reinterviewed the witnesses and the residents of gardner's apartment complex and his girlfriend.

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

have an answer and we have our daughter home. >> out here among the searchers at this sad little pond, mo dubois could have no idea. farther south in san diego, sergeant brown had already embarked on a very unusual errand. >> you could say it was a unique day. >> but just where he was going he had no idea. >> he just guided us up the street. you know, he explained where we'd probably turn off on a dirt road. we did just that. coming up, a journey down a dirt road. where could this lead? >> this could be an escape attempt. >> come on. >> guy is in jail for murder. he wants to go on a field trip? this may not go well. >> when "dateline" continues.

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the 13-inch crack, which may have come from an anchor strike, hs marine growth on it. now back to "dateline." it happened, even as search and rescue teams were wading through that escondido pond following what might be a lead in amber dubois' disappearance. 20 miles south in downtown san diego, da bonnie dumanis received a mysterious request to meet with gardner's attorney. >> wouldn't discuss what it was. >> gardner had been claiming he had nothing to do with amber's disappearance. this morning, his lawyer offered a deal. and it was huge. gardner would lead detectives to amber, but he'd only do it on one condition. that they couldn't use it against him. >> if we didn't use the fact that he took us there in any --

as evidence in any court proceeding, and that his attorney had to be present and we couldn't question him in any way. >> she took the deal. and sergeant brown's phone rang. >> we got told to go down to the jail, and we were going to go on a field trip with gardner. >> and sergeant brown and his men were told the rules. >> this was not his confession, but he'd show us where it was. >> 30 minutes to prepare, call the squad team for backup. >> why? >> this could be an escape attempt. >> come on. >> the guy is in jail for murder. we have his dna. now he wants to go on a field trip with a couple of detectives? he's a big guy. >> yeah. >> this might not go well. >> so off they went. gardner showing them the way. detectives surreptitiously texting directions to the undercover s.w.a.t. cars around

them. >> we set them up. as we began driving on the freeway, we knew where we'd pick them up, different cars, different on-ramps. >> this is where they drove. through an indian reservation, up a dirt track to the top of a rocky hill. she's in there somewhere, he told them. this is 20 miles from where she disappeared. >> did you have any idea where you were going or get a sense of -- >> no, but if you notice this cliff, goes off the cliff here. to get the bearings, to remember -- >> she'd go out. >> i would grab him and go, if he goes off this cliff, no one is going to believe me he accidentally went off this cliff. >> he looked around, seemed confused. >> he came up, went right here to the edge, and he says, right there. right about here. he's not exactly certain. then he takes a few steps this way, changes his mind. >> what were you thinking as you're looking down at this?

>> well, this isn't going to be a fun walk. also, how did you get there? he tries to go here, and he can't make it. he comes back, resets, and then he says, oh, i think it's this way. honestly, we were frustrated. we don't know -- we still don't know if he is doing this to get out of jail for the day. >> they were still watching for any escape attempt. then gardner found a familiar area. >> then he gets to about here, and then he remembers. then he says, "this is it. this is it." he was, i dare say, excited. >> detectives walked their shackled prisoner down a steep incline. >> so we were just sliding down this. >> i can see why you would. this is very steep. >> pushing their way through the thick brush and trees. until they got to an old, rusted water tank. >> this is the tank. i remember holding him right there, and he is pointing here,

saying it was right about here. he is also unsure of himself. he's like, "i think right there. i think right there." >> then he saw something, a reminder. >> he leaned into me and said, see the shovel mark? there's a distinctive mark that had held in the dirt, like a slice against the mountain right there. it is going to be right there. he said, i had a shovel. that was enough. i pulled him out of here. >> what were you thinking? >> i work in the homicide division. i'm used to it, let's say. but this was surreal, he would bring me here. i know this case. i know this girl. i live in this community. this is on my newspaper. i see her face or her poster on every business and store i go into. so, you know, here i am, and he's walking me to the grave. >> here was a spot where he claimed to have buried amber dubois in february 2009. in a thicket of trees on the hillside, in the middle of nowhere. no houses anywhere. accessible by one dirt road. >> i don't believe anybody would

have ever found this site. >> and then a small army was called, still in secret, to that lonely hill. detectives, a forensic archaeologist, medical examiner. for 12 hours, they sifted meticulously through the dirt to find -- well, it had once been a person. up on the hill, captain benton made the next decision. >> we didn't want to notify the family, not knowing whether it truly was amber or not. >> but the next day, saturday, the medical examiner had made a positive identification. gardner had indeed dead them to amber's remains. more calls to make. >> when we received the calls on saturday night, we immediately get a sinking feeling in our stomach. because we'd been called in many times to have talks. never -- >> never on a saturday. >> at 8:00 p.m. on night.

>> 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

was, call it the official secret, the fact that gardner had led them to the body. why not tell? because now investigators needed to prove gardner's guilt without using a shred of what he had shown or told them. >> escondido police and detectives are following a lead in a case when they made this discovery. >> but, frankly, they were stuck. independent evidence? so far, none. meaning gardner might never be charged with killing amber. unless, unless someone offered an incredible gesture. coming up -- one heartbroken family reaches out to another. paving the way for a stunning moment in court. >> do you admit that? >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues.

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♪♪ there were memorials then. >> i wake up every morning now, and i have to remember how to breathe. >> the searches were over. they tried to figure out how to go on. >> i will channel my rage and commit to spending my life making our society safe from the incurable evil. >> there were thousands at these events. a measure of the upset, the impact of the killings. >> for every single person out there who has ever shed a tear for amber, for chelsea, i beg you to please put one minute of effort, one minute of action into helping protect our children. >> and while that was going on, investigators searched furiously for any evidence that would independently link john gardner to the death of amber dubois. >> what that included was finding every vehicle that he

had at the time that -- or access to at the time that amber disappeared. i believe there was four different vehicles. we had to find where every one of those vehicles were, have them forensically examined. >> the investigation continued. the days ticked from march into april when we sat with amber's parents. remember, they had not been told that gardner led police to amber's remains. or even that gardner was known to be the man who abducted and killed her. we asked them if they were prepared never to know for certain who killed amber or how police found her. it may be that nobody is ever charged. may be that you just have to live the rest of your lives with not knowing. >> i'm more fearful that there might be another predator out there as opposed to more upset of not having the answer. i want to make sure that whoever did this to amber is off the street. that's what scares me the most,

you know? what if they'd never connect this to somebody, and the person who actually did this is still out there and can do it again? >> but it was a different question carrie had on her mind. what happened to amber? she wanted to know, had to know, everything. >> you want to hear whoever did this tell you exactly what happened? >> mm-hmm. >> you do? >> oh, yeah. absolutely. >> i couldn't hear it from the person's mouth, saying, "i did this. i did that." >> i could. >> i couldn't. i couldn't do it without wanting to reach over and cause myself to be in jail for a long time. >> but here on this april afternoon, the question was academic, more likely they would never know. strange, the difference a week can make. it was april 15th, five days after our interview. amber's parents were called to a meeting where they learned for the first time who led authorities to their daughter's remains. >> we knew it was something

significant. we had to go downtown to meet with the district attorney. >> and they were informed of an offer made by john gardner's attorneys. >> his attorneys came forward with an offer to plead guilty to all of the charges with life without possibility of parole and waiving his appellate rights. >> in exchange, gardner's attorney wanted the death penalty off the table, so her dilemma. should she continue to develop her strong death penalty case in the murder of chelsea king? should she wait for the task force to link gardner to amber's death, too, or would that ever happen? >> there was absolutely no link that anyone was able to find between john gardner and amber. >> and so the da was faced with a choice. proceed only in the chelsea king case, or make another deal to get some kind of justice for

amber. you could have won pretty easily a death penalty case in the chelsea king case. why not do that, get the death penalty for that? >> the question was for the family. so the family i talked to was chelsea's family. because we had no case on amber. we talked about the fact that the end result with a life without possibility of parole is he'd die in prison. there would be no appeals. >> so the kings were faced with a decision. would amber's parents ever learn what, in fact, happened to their daughter, and would they see her killer pay for this crime? april 16th, the day after mo and carrie learned about the plea deal. >> this is a special report. >> television stations interrupted their programming. >> scheduled hearing for john gardner. >> there was a lot of news all at once. >> there is john gardner right there. >> the truth of that allegation?

>> yes. >> a stunning admission of guilt. first for chelsea king. >> you're admitting that on february the 25th, 2010, you attacked chelsea king while she was running. you dragged her to a remote area where you raped and strangled her. you then buried her in a shallow grave. do you admit that? >> yes. >> do you also admit the killing was done with premeditation and deliberation? >> yes. >> and the murder took place within an hour of your initial contact with chelsea king. do you admit those facts as well? >> yes. >> then the jogger in december. >> do you admit that on december the 27th, 2009, you attacked candice monkeyo while running, with the intend to assault and rape her? >> yes. >> after 14 months, an end to the mystery of what happened to amber dubois. >> do you admit that on february the 13th, 2009, you took amber

dubois to a remote area where you raped and stabbed her. you then buried her in a shallow grave. do you admit the truth of those facts? >> yes. >> you're also admitting that this murder took place within an hour and a half of your initial contact with amber dubois. do you admit all of those facts as well? >> yes. >> in exchange for a life sentence, gardner admitted all and pleaded guilty. it was a deal made possible because of a choice willinly made by one grieving family in an effort to space more pain for the other. >> the dubois family has been through unthinkable hell the last 14 months. we couldn't imagine the confession of amber's murder never seeing the light of day, leaving an eternal question mark. >> and amber's parents were grateful. >> going the rest of my life without knowing would have been horrible. we would have been always

wondering if he was connected or if there was someone else out there. >> but now that she knew, now she was determined to come face-to-face with her daughter's killer. no matter what it took. >> i want to talk to your son and find out why he murdered my daughter. coming up -- an emotional meeting behind prison doors. >> what did you ask him? >> when "dateline" continues. forty percent of people with type 2 diabetes will develop chronic kidney disease, or ckd. did you know ckd can lead to kidney failure and dialysis? kidney alert! ckd often has no symptoms until it's too late! help protect your kidneys. call your doctor for a uacr test. it shows one of the earliest signs for ckd. visit kidneyalert.com!

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what is your plea? >> guilty. >> it was after john gardner stood in this san diego courtroom and pleaded guilty to the murders of chelsea king and amber dubois. >> probation hearing and sentencing in this department -- >> it was as he waited for the formal sentencing, life in prison that he knew was coming. from the san diego county jail cell, gardner gave an interview to a local tv station and said he'd only talk to the families about what happened to chelsea

and amber. >> as soon as i heard those words, it's all i focused on. >> because carrie, remember, was determined to know what happened to her daughter during the last minutes she was alive. >> i think if you're a parent, you want to know what happened. you want to know how they took your child. if a lesson can be learned from amber, then i want it out there. >> and so early in may, she began trying to arrange a visit. >> went through all the correct legal channels to get to him. they said i'd meet with him after sentencing. >> she had to know now. she told no times were available. carrie had an idea. why not ask gardner to give up a visit with her son? one afternoon, she waited outside the jail as gardner's mother approached. it didn't go well. >> look, i just want to visit your son. >> excuse me. >> don't touch me.

>> step away from her. >> i'm not here to harass you. i want to talk to your son and find out why he murdered my daughter. >> the next day, there was a phone call from the jailer. >> can you be here in a half hour? >> somehow, the time was found for her to talk with gardner. what was it like to walk in there and know you were going to talk to the guy who killed your daughter? >> i was real nervous up until i got there. going in there and talking with him just didn't really have any feelings with me. i had forgiven whoever had done this to amber when i got her remains back, so to me, it was just a person talking. >> he was already sitting behind the partition when she arrived. >> i think maybe i glanced at him once. >> where were you looking? >> just down. just not at him. i really had no desire to look

at him. >> why not? >> i didn't want to get angry or upset or -- i just wanted to stay focused. so for me to stay focused, i just looked down and doodled on paper or whatever. i really wanted to stay in a mindset where i didn't start crying or get upset. >> what did you ask him? >> walk me through your day. >> now, carrie would finally learn what happened to amber in the last hours of her life. >> he started, you know, in the morning, him and his girlfriend got in a fight. >> so he took off in a car to blow off steam, he said. >> then he happened to drive by the street where amber was taken. why she was on that street, i don't know. >> it was not the way amber usually went to school. >> my guess is that she was probably going by her girlfriend's house that lives right around the corner. >> he snatched her here, gardner told carrie. >> he saw amber walking by herself. he turned and cut her off and

told her, "if you don't get in this car, i have a knife and a gun. things will be real bad for you." she got in the car. he didn't have a gun. i don't know if he showed her the knife or not. i'm not sure. but he said, you know, she knew by the look in my eyes that i was serious. there was no questions about it. honestly, i think if she would have tried to run, he might have killed her on the spot. >> did you ask him for more than that? >> yeah. told me which way he drove. he is very detailed about the streets he went on. >> he stopped the conversation repeatedly, said carrie. >> asked me if he -- if i wanted him to continue, you know. got real upset. every time i told him continue, he was like, i don't want to upset you. i was like, you've already taken my daughter. continue. when it got to, you know, the rape part of it, he -- he, you

know, pretty much begged, you know, please, can i stop? can i stop? i was like, continue. he was like, i don't want to. by the time -- by the time i left there, he was pretty much curled over, sweating. you know, just complete crying. he was a mess. >> so he did have some feelings. >> or he is a very good actor. >> so once you got the answers you knew you could get from him, did you say anything else to him? >> no, he asked me, are you going to tell me you hate me, yell and scream? i'm ready to hear that. i said, nope. i hung up the phone and walked out. >> did you walk out the place a different person than when you went in. >> i walked out of that place very happy, just kind of giddy, like, oh, my god, i can breathe. it was such a relief. it really -- it was a great feeling. >> an unexpected reaction? perhaps. though how could anyone know how

it feels to be carrie or to be the parents of chelsea king, here in court on sentencing day. >> look at me. coming up -- >> we found over 100 violations of parole that hadn't been previously discovered by the department. >> one last haunting question. >> are you saying then that the deaths of these two girls would have been prevented? and a revelation from a mother. >> i said, wow, you just showed the whole world what amber and chelsea saw. >> a look into the soul of a killer. when "dateline" continues.

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john gardner was guilty, no doubt about it. he was a predator and a murderer. all that was left to do was sentence him. so case closed? not really. for three months, a steady drip

of news seemed to ask over and over, how did they miss him? gardner, remember, spent five years in prison for sexually molesting and beating a 13-year-old girl back in 2000. he was paroled in 2005. >> it was maddening to us at the time. everything that led up to his being free on the streets, allowing him to stalk our children. >> maddening because there had been fair warning. a psychiatrist a decade earlier warned that he was very dangerous and should receive the maximum ten-year sentence under his plea deal. had that advice being taken, gardner might still have been in prison in 2010. >> there was numerous, numerous times he fell through the cracks. >> like, for example, his parole violations once he was released. the cops found marijuana in his car. for a time, he lived too close to children. the judgment of the parole

department was not to bust him. and then it was discovered gardner wore a gps monitor. his last year on parole, which ended in 2008, four months before amber disappeared. but no one was watching. and -- >> we found over 100 violations of parole that hadn't been previously discovered by the department. we missed some opportunities to, you know, remove him from society. >> dave shaw was the inspector general for the california department of corrections, the agency's watchdog, which after the fact, looked into the gardner case. >> he spent time at -- adjacent to day care centers, school, parks, playgrounds, to the beach, all places he shouldn't have been at. we didn't catch it because we weren't looking. >> nor was anyone watching when gardner drove into the parking lot of a state prison. gardner said it was to drop off a friend, but it is against the law for an ex-con to enter

prison grounds. that, san diego's da told us, was a felony. it would have locked him up for a very long time. >> we would have filed a three strikes case because his 2000 case was two strikes. he'd be facing 25 years to life. >> are you saying then that the deaths of these two girls would have been prevented? >> what we're saying is that had he been incarcerated, it would have been impossible for him to commit these crimes. there were ample opportunities to either revoke his parole or to prosecute him. >> but no one at the time was monitoring gardner's gps. did you find fault with somebody or with some systems? >> we think it was the system that was at fault. we didn't find any particular fault on the part of the parole agents. the agents weren't looking at it because they weren't required to. >> they weren't expected to track gardner's gps monitor because of the way a standardized assessment used at the time classified gardner's

risk potential as medium-low risk. >> the lower risk offenders, it was used only as a crime solving tool. >> matthew cade was the head of the california department of corrections. >> if a crime is reported, we'd go back and look at the tracks and see if we could place the offender at the scene of the crime. >> gardner, a lower risk offender? again, says matthew cade, it was the assessment method itself, limitations, that failed to spot gardner's chance to be dangerous. when he was paroled -- >> this was the most accurate tool in the world, and so we used it. i wish we know then what we know now, but the department just didn't have anything else to use at the time. >> it was based on factors such as age, number of offenses, type of crime. >> i think the public wants us to be able to predict who exactly is going to do what. we'll never be able to do that. low risk doesn't mean no risk.

>> improvements have been made. there's required gps tracking of all sex offender parolees and treatment for the parolees. the treatment includes the use of polygraph tests in an effort to keep track of them, see if they're in danger of reoffending. >> we'll move then to the victim impact statements. >> there is an emotional structure to sentencing days in american courtrooms. wrenching, often deeply angry. >> i pray every night god shows you no mercy. >> this is how it was with john gardner. listening, sometimes attentively, sometimes not, to chelsea's parents. >> you dismantled a family life that was built on love, trust, and faith. but you did not destroy it. look at me. why am i not surprised? >> and to amber's. >> no one can appreciate the

horror that is my life and so they can appreciate the joy that was my amber. >> and then watch what happens when that earlier survivor of a gardner attack -- >> every day i lace up my shoes and relive the moments of terror. the utter conviction that i was going to die. >> watch what happens when she reminds him how she elbowed his nodes to escape. >> finally, to ask him how his nose is. >> was it rage as he turned to his attorney and appeared to say, "she didn't hit me." even adds, "she's saying it for publicity." >> you saw that look of rage. i said, wow, you showed the whole world what amber and chelsea saw before you killed them. >> but all this was formality, really. already the people who must live with the deaths this man left in his wake had struggled with what to do after.

amber's mother became involved in search and rescue. >> building her legacy is going to be the search and rescue team. >> and chelsea's parents took on the system. >> if our laws were smarter and bolder, chelsea might still be here. >> they pushed for a new law named for chelsea and signed by the governor in 2010. imposing stiffer sentences for sex offenders, increased terms of parole, and improved monitoring and assessment of parolees. [ applause ] >> governor schwarzenegger, i thank you for your support and commitment. you've helped us fulfill our dream of doing everything in our power to prevent this tragedy from ever happening to another family again. >> chelsea could have been a college graduate then. amber a college future farmer. instead, all their parents could do was watch authorities lead

the killer away to a life in prison. and try as they could to help stop the next one out there somewhere. i'm natalie morales and this is "dateline." this really was a soap opera. >> unfortunately, it's my life. and it wasn't a soap opera for me. >> it was tv's first blockbuster trial, scandalous and sensational. >> her sexuality. that was the star of the pam smart show. >> this explosion of flashbulbs. >> it's “body heat.” it's “fatal attraction.” >> family smart accused of bewitching a teenage student into murdering her husband. >> did you have sex with him? >> yes. >> i said god forgi