I grew up in a small town in Connecticut. I had a childhood that was magical, the type of childhood that causes me to wonder how it could be that I was so lucky to be living it. I lived in the country, with dozens of neighborhood kids to play with in the afternoons. We had woods to hide in, fields to run in, streams to jump in, and would be off in the neighborhood each afternoon until dark. When you are a kid, you don’t ever think bad things will happen to you. You never have a care in the world. The worst things that could happen would be a skinned knee from falling off a bike, or a fight with a friend over nothing at all, a fight that would be over almost before it started.
Dawn Cave
When I was 14, a girl in one of my classes didn’t show up, and rumors were going around school that she had run away from home after a fight she had with her sister. Days went by and still no Dawn. I use to wonder why she felt she had to run away from home. I had never been real close to Dawn, but she was always one of those people who you wished you could be more like. She was painfully quiet, but quite popular. She was nothing like most of the other popular girls that would tend to me mean to you if you were not in their click. I looked up to her, and wished we were friends. She had a special quality that I wished I had, a quiet grace about her. She seldom spoke – in fact the quietest girl in class.
To everyone’s horror, weeks later, Dawn’s body was found in a field in a field, about a mile from her home. Cause of death, a fractured skull. This reality left me numb. I found it so hard to believe someone so vibrant could be gone. So sweet a young girl. I found it so hard to image that she would never grow up, go to college, get married, have children, and fulfill the dreams we all have when starting out in life, because a monster saw fit to end her life. Although there were almost always kids around when I played, I now thought twice when alone, wondering if there was some monster out there lurking. I was not a easy-go-lucky as I had always been. The innocence of my childhood was shattered, never to be repaired.
Many people believe the man who killed this young classmate of mine was a serial killer. Many believe that he killed four young girls in about a years time in the New Haven area. All killed from blunt trauma to the head. Soon after the four young girls had been killed, a man was arrested and convicted of killing three mentally disabled women. And although the judge in the case sentenced him to life in prison, because he felt he was too dangerous to ever be let out again, 13 years later, this murderer would be allowed day furloughs and weekends leaves where he was allowed freedom amongst unsuspecting people. On one of these weekend, near a cabin he was renting, a 43 year old woman was bludgeoned to death. Although never arrested for this crime, many feel that he may have been responsible for a 5th death in addition to the 3 he was convicted of. He often taunted police, telling them if they had evidence, they would be arresting him. In my opinion, the law failed to protect the innocent people. A life sentence should be a lift sentence. It shouldn’t mean you get weekends off. Prison is suppose to protect us from these bad people always, not just during the weeks. This is unimaginable.
I often think about Dawn. I know that this incident has changed my life in the sense that it causes me to realize that evil can be anywhere, from the heart of the city, to the quiet of the country. We are never safe from evil.
My daughter, at 17 gives me a hard time when I tell her she can’t take walks in our quiet neighborhood after dark, or that she must always hike with someone, and I tell her how nervous I get when she tells me she is going to a secluded country park even though she is going with a friend. I don’t want to mention the death of Dawn, and how no one would have ever thought that would happen, but it did. I do tell her things can happen, and leave it at that. I am thankful that kids these days at least have cell phones, but I am still always nervous until I hear her voice on the phone when she calls me to tell me she is home.
The end of February of this year her life has now been impacted as mine had been so many year ago. I came home late from work to find out from my daughter that a classmate of hers, Chelsea King, had not come home from a jog, and everyone was out looking for her. Asking her how she knew, she said it was all over facebook. She went on to tell me that the police had found her car with phone locked inside, and she was nowhere to be found. She said that helicopters were out looking as well. She told me she had just seen her hours before when she came into her photography class to help out a classmate of hers by being her model for a photo shoot.
One of these photos is now being used on one of many posters circulating southern California. She had gone for a jog in Rancho Bernardo Community Park, and no one has heard from her since. A beautiful setting near Lake Hodges, but in many parts remote in its surroundings. The high school sent emails to all the parents stating that they would have counselors on hand to speak with students. My daughter said she would volunteer this coming weekend to help search the Lake Hodges area, except they would not allow her to as she had to be 18. She asked if I would place flyers in my car windows to help get the word out. Every corner in Poway now has one of many posters made, asking for help in finding Chelsea. Every store has them posted at each and every counter, on the doors coming into and out of the stores. People are stopping shoppers to hand them flyers. So many people have been going to the park to volunteer that they have had to turn away 100’s. Everyone in Poway is holding their breaths, hoping the next thing they hear on the news is that they have found Chelsea and that she is safe at home again. There isn’t a street in Poway where you don’t see blue ribbons tied around trees and street posts. Kids turned away from the search were told to line the streets with the blue ribbons, and they did just that.
Candle light Vigil for Chelsea
They arrested John Albert Gardner III, a convicted child molester, on suspicion of first degree murder and forcible rape. Rumor has it that he had muddy pants on at the time of his arrest. The police say that have evidence linking him to Chelsea. A woman attacked in December, in this same park, ID’d Gardner as the man that attacked her. She was lucky to have gotten away. Trained in martial arts, she said she broke his nose in the process, and the blood on her from his broken nose is DNA evidence. Gardner is not talking, so volunteers show up each day to search the miles of shoreline of Lake Hodges in hopes of finding something. Search warrants were issued for both his parents home her in town, and his residence in Lake Elsinore. They have been working day and night, even in heavy rain, searching for Chelsea. Her body was found in a shallow grave, close to the water’s edge, about a mile from where she had parked her car, 5 days after she went missing. Thousands, including my daughter, attended a candlelight vigil that night, also attended by Chelsea’s parents Brent and Kelly, although I don’t know how they had the strength to attend. On March 6th, after a tip came in from an anonymous caller, the body of 14 year old Amber Dubois was found a little more than a year after she went missing in Escondido, just miles away from where Chelsea was killed. At the time of Amber’s disappearance, Gardner lived about a mile from where she went missing. I doubt they will have evidence to link him to Amber’s murder, but pray that they do.
Chelsea King
Amber Dubois
Poway has been brought to its knees. The high school has had classes, but no work is being done. They have pushed back the grading schedule by a week, as the students are just going through the motions of attending each day. My daughter cries each day, and I just don’t know what to tell her. She is so afraid that people will forget Chelsea, and I tell her that will not be the case, as I remember Dawn, and she has been gone for decades. She lives on in my heart just as Chelsea will in both our hearts.
What would have happened had the people convicted of crimes such as murder, rape and molestation were given longer sentences. In the case of Dawn, where a murderer given a life sentence can be let out for weekend furlough. How could this be. In the case of Gardner, he served only 5 years, and it was said that the doctor on his case stated that he showed no remorse for what he did, and felt he would be a danger if let out of jail. How is it that we have situations were a child is molested, raped, or murdered, and the people convicted of these crimes are let out to commit these crimes again. Everyone in Southern California is now analyzing everything having to do with Gardner’s past conviction, her parole violations, each of which they say should have put him back in jail. What will it take until we rise up and prevent this from happening to any child again. It is one thing when an adult is murdered, but never a child. It seems so much harder for me to bear when a child is battered, or molested, or murdered. It seems that sentences seem to be less for that of a crime against a child, but that should not be the case. Shouldn’t it be that we tell society that any rape/murder of a child means life in prison. Wouldn’t self-preservation of a murderer cause him to think twice if he knew he would never see the light of day if ever caught. Are we not tired of looking over our shoulders to see if we are in danger.
In California, we have Megan’s Law which is that all sex offenders are listed on a website with address and photo. There are currently over 63,000 offenders listed, and an additional 22,000 others not listed on the site, but known to law enforcement personnel only. There are currently 25 listed in Poway, but I must say it seems odd that each listing states that the registrants may have subsequently relocated. Shouldn’t it be mandatory that the police be notified, and shouldn’t the police periodically check the registrants as well.
Tomorrow, Poway High School will have a memorial to Chelsea. So many people are expected to attend that they had to hand out passes to high school students which allow them to enter the stadium prior to everyone else. The sidewalks around the school are totally covered with flowers, and photos of Chelsea are fastened to the fences. Everyone has been asked to wear orange, as it was Chelsea’s favorite color. I have a pass to go, but break into tears each time I think about attending. I don’t know if it is trauma left over from Dawn’s death so many year ago, or the thought of my daughter having to live with the pain of this loss, or just the thought that each and every one of us could lose someone precious in the blink of an eye. I just don’t have the strength to be there, although I will be tying a few more blue ribbons around Poway in the morning, and will be watching the live online streaming tribute, with a box of kleenex by my side. I try to gather the strength to get though the next day without tear. Each day I am sure I will cry less. In orange marker, was a note taped to Chelsea’s bathroom mirror that her father carried with him while they searched for her. It read “They can because they think they can” ~Virgil. That note alone tells me just how remarkable Chelsea was.
The family will be working on passing tougher laws so that no other child has to suffer what Chelsea and Amber did. www.chelseaslight.org.