did this to amber is off the street. that's what scares me the most, you know? at if they never connect this to somebody and the person who actually dod 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? >> uh-huh. >> 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 acowademic. more likely they would never know. strange the difference a week n 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 significant because we had talgo downt n to go meet with the district attorney. >> and they were informed of an offer made by john gardner's attorney. >> his attorney came forward with an offer to plead guilty to all of the charges for 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 h velop 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 d.a. dumanis 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 just do that, get the death penalty for that one? >> the question was for the mily. so the family i talked to was chelsea's family because we had no cas on amber, and we talked about the fact that the end result with a life without possibility of parole is he'd die in prison and 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? would they see her killer pay for this cri e? april 16th, the day after mo and carrie learned about the plea deal. >> this is a special news report. >> san diego television stations interrupted their afternoon programs. >> a hearing is scheduled in the courthouse for john gardner. >> there was news, a lot of it, all at once. di

>> let us take you live. there's john gardner right thmaere. >> 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 youeydmit that? >> yes. >> do you also admit that the killing was done with premeditation and deliberation? >> yes. >> and the mder took pla i within an hour of your initial contact with che ea king? you admit those facts, as well? >> yes. >> then the jogger in december. >> do you admit that on december the 27th, 2009, you attacked caokndace mankayo while she was running and unlawfully assaulted her with the intent to rape her? >> yes. >> and after 14 months, an end

to the mystery of what happened to amber dubois. >> you admit that on february the 13th, 2009, you took amber dubois to a remote area of pala where you raped and stabbed her, you then buried her in a shallow grs ave, 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 hose 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 willingly made by one grieving family in an effort to spare more pain for another. >> the dubois family has been through unthinkable hell the past 14 months. we couldn't imagine the confession to 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. >> an emotional meere g behind prison doors. what did you ask him?

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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 is set -- >> 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 would only talk to the families about what happened to chelsea and amber. >> as soon as i heard those words, it was 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. >> so early in may she began trying to arrange a visit. >> i went through all the correct legal channels to try to get it and they kept insisting that i would meet with him after sentencing, and i didn't want to meet with him after sentencing. >> she had to know now. she tried to schedule a visit, was told none was available. so carrie had a bold idea. why not ask gardner's mother to give up one of her visits with her son? and so 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, i'll hit you. >> don't touch me. >> i'm not. get away from her. >> i'm not here to bother 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 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. i just wanted to stay focused and so for me to stay focused, i

just looked down or doodled on paper or whatever. i really wanted to stay in the mind-set where i didn't start crying or get upset. >> so what did you ask him? >> walk me through your day. >> and 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. >> and 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 gun, and it will be real bad for you. she got in the car. he didn't have a gun. but i don't know if he showed

her the knife or not. i'm not sure. but he said she knew by the look in my eyes that i was serious. there was no questions about it. and honestly i think if she would have tried to run, he might have just killed her right there on the spot. >> did you ask him for more than that? >> yeah. he told me which way he drove. he was very detailed about the streets he went on. >> he stopped the conversation repppeatedly, said carrie. >> asked me if he could -- if i wanted him to continue. you know, he got real upset every time i told him to continue and he was like, i don't want to upset you. and i'm 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, please can i stop? can i stop, and i'm like, continue. he's like, i don't want to, and

by the time i left there, he was pretty much curled over, sweating, just, you know, complete crying. he was a mess. >> so he did have some feeling. >> or he's a very good actor. >> so once you got the answers you knew you could get from him, did you say anything else? >> no. he asked me are you going to tell me you hate me? or are you going to yell or scream? i'm ready to hear that. i said, nope. i hung up the phone and walked out. >> did you walk out a different person than when you went in? >> i walked out of that place very happy, very just kind of giddy. and i'm like, oh, my god, i can breathe. it's such a relief. it really was -- it was a great feeling. >> an unexpected reaction? perhaps. though how could anyone know how it feels to be carrie mcgonigle or to be the parents of chelsea king here in court on sentencing

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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 street, 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 been taken, gardner might still have been in prison back in 2010.

>> there's numerous, numerous times that he fell through the cracks. >> like, for example, his parole violations once released. the cops found marijuana in his car. for a time he lived too close to children. but the judgment of the parole department was not to bust him, and then the public discovered that gardner wore a gps monitor his last year on parole, which ended in 2008, just 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, you know, adjacent to daycare centers, to schools, to parks, to

playgrounds, to the beach, all places that he shouldn't have been at, and 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's against the law for an ex-con to enter prison grounds. and that, san diego's d.a. told us, was a felony that 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 and he'd be facing 25 years to life. >> are you saying then that the deaths of these two girls could have been prevented? >> we're saying is had he been incarcerated, it would have been impossible for him to commit these particular crimes. and 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 system? >> we think it was the system that was at fault. we didn't find any particular fault on the part of the parole

agent. the agents just weren't looking at it because they weren't required to. >> listen to this, 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. >> with the lower risk offenders, it was only used as a crime-solving tool. >> matthew cade was the head of the california department of corrections. >> so if a crime is reported, then we go back to the tracks and see if we can place them at the scene of the crime. >> gardner a lower-risk offender? again says matthew cade, it was the assessment method itself, its limitations, that failed to spot gardner's potential to be dangerous. but when gardner was paroled -- >> this was the most accurate tool in the world, and so we used it. i wish we'd known 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 those parolees. the treatment includes the use of polygraph tests in an effort to keep track of parolees to see if they're in danger of re-offending. >> we'll move then to the victim impact statements. >> there's an emotional structure now to sentencing days in american courtrooms. wrenching, often deeply angry. >> i pray that god smoez you no mercy. >> and this is how it was with john gardner.

listening sometimes atentatively to chelsea's parents. >> you dismantled love that was based on love and trust 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 until 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, i relive the moments of terror, the other conviction that i was going to die. >> watch what happens when she reminds him how she elbowed his nose to escape. >> and finally, ask him how his nose is. >> was it rage he was expressing as he turned to his attorney and appeared to say "she didn't hit me" and even adds "she's saying

it for publicity." >> you saw that look of rage. i said, wow, you just showed the whole world what amber and chelsea saw before you killed them. >> but all this was formality really. already the people that have to live with the deaths this man left in his wake have struggled to do what to do after. amber's mother is 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. >> 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 should be a college graduate now and amber a college future farmer. instead, all their parents could do is watch authorities lead the killer away to a life in prison. >> announcer: live from studio 3c in rockefeller center, this is news 4 new york. there was a plane coming right at us. >> aircraft down. a small plane crash lands in an athletic field, narrowly missing homes. the miraculous outcome. a car slams through the front of a fast food restaurant for the second time in months. beyond the bench. football players from a division one college team are slapped

with cuffs. the crimes police say they committed. good evening. i'm sibila vargas. >> i'm david ushery. the pilot deserves a lot of credit. steering the plane into a line of trees, feet from homes and steps from a soccer field where children are usually playing. >> then came the rescue. firefighters jumping into action behind a swim club in new jersey. that is where brynn gingras is live from the emergency call that started it all. >> reporter: we're going to zoom in on this soccer field so you can see the distance. the plane is still here. athletes were beginning to trickle down to the field when the pilot realized he had to make it his landing zone. as you said, he's being call adhere roh add hero, preventing injuries or deaths. >> november 758 dk, we are experiencing engine roughness. >> reporter: above the

recreational area, this once low flying plane concerned those on the ground. >> suddenly turned back toward the pool, and at that point, he was really low and a little wobbly. >> reporter: radio transmissions to laguardia before 5:00 this afternoon confirmed the emergency. dispatchers were flooded with 911 calls from witnesses. >> somebody actually yelled, he doesn't have power. >> didn't have any noise. it wasn't running. >> going to make an emergency landing. >> it kind of turned and that's when it hit. >> reporter: the small coast guard auxiliary plane crashed into a small patch of trees on the edge of a soccer field. it split into pieces. officials say the pilot tried to touch down in the hudson river but fell short. >> if you see where they landed on the very edge of the field, my opinion, they did a good job of averting a tragedy by getting over there.

>> reporter: inside, two pilots, they were alive, in and out of consciousness, sometimes talking. >> the one guy said, it's getting hot in here. getting hot. that's why he was trying to get out. >> reporter: both were rushed to the hospital with critical injuries, hailed heros. >> the pilot avoided hitting people. i think he purposely did that, so i give them a lot of credit. >> reporter: they deserve a lot of credit indeed. what may have helped the two pilots who were trapped in the cockpit is the fact that the ambulance is three blocks away from here. medics were able to get here really quickly. the ntsb is taking over this investigation. i'm brynn gingras, news 4 new york. >> thank you. we've got breaking news tonight from the u.s. open. it involves a drone. a small one crash landed at the