Chelsea & Amber

Stunning moments inside a San Diego courtroom yesterday when convicted sex offender John Gardner admitted to killing two San Diego teenagers, 14 year old Amber Dubois and 17 year old Chelsea King. These two horrific crimes occurred more than a year apart but they are forever linked. Amber was taken from in front of Escondido High School in February 2009 and while efforts to find her continued for months, the general consensus, at least inside my newsroom, was that she was a runaway. Many more months passed and sadly it seems the public forgot about Amber.

Just weeks ago in March 2010 Poway High teenager Chelsea King was reported missing. Her car was spotted at a Rancho Bernardo parking lot at a community park popular with joggers. Days later her body was found buried in a shallow grave. Within days convicted sex offender John Gardner was arrested and charged with raping and murdering Chelsea. Shockingly after his arrest authorities came across the body of Amber Dubois buried near the Pala Indian reservation. Up until yesterday it was a mystery how authorities suddenly were able to find Amber's body. As it turns out Gardner offered up that information to prosecutors in exchange for them not being able to use it against him in court.

While prosecutors say they had plenty of evidence to convict Gardner for the rape and murder of Chelsea King with special circumstance (making Gardner eligible for the death penalty,) they were unable to come up with any independent evidence linking him to Amber. This put San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in a tough spot. If she were to prosecute Gardner for Chelsea's death seeking the death penalty it would forever leave the Amber case officially unsolved.

In discussing this with Chelsea's parents they decided to offer a plea deal to Gardner. He confesses to the rapes and murders of Chelsea and Amber along with an attempted rape last December in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. Gardner agreed.

I have mixed emotions about this deal. While I've never been a strong proponent of the death penalty, there are times I feel it's adequate. This was one of those times. However, since seeking the death penalty for Chelsea would have meant a lack of closure for Amber's parents, I feel the deal was a proper call.

The Dubois and King families will forever live with the horrors of the deaths of their daughters, but now can move on with their lives. For the Kings it means avoiding a prolonged death penalty case. They will now be able to focus on raising their teenage son and work towards a new law protecting the public from convicted sex offenders. For Amber's parents it means total closure, knowing the monster who killed their daughter will spend the rest of his life in prison.

As a professional journalist these types of stories are the most difficult to cover. Day in and day out we must report the facts detailing these horrific crimes. I've covered way too many of them over the years.... Jahi Turner, Matthew Cecchi, Danielle Van Dam, Laticia Hernandez... and many, many more whose names I've forgotten. But I will never forget the names of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King, two young women who won't get the chance to grow up. Sad times indeed.