Body Of Missing Teen Found By Searchers
POWAY – (KGTV)The body of 17-year-old Chelsea King, who disappeared while jogging in Rancho Bernardo Community Park last Thursday, has been found in Lake Hodges, sources told 10News.
The teen’s body was located at around 2 p.m. A candlelight vigil planned for the teen is still scheduled to happen Tuesday night.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement personnel fanned out over fields, swamps and marshes around Lake Hodges for a sixth straight day Tuesday in a determined effort to find a Poway High School senior who went missing while on one of her regular jogs in the scenic area
Chelsea King, 17, vanished late Thursday afternoon after parking her car at Rancho Bernardo Community Park.
A registered sex offender, John Albert Gardner III, was arrested Sunday in connection with Chelsea’s disappearance. He was booked into county jail on suspicion of rape and murder.
Detectives also have linked Gardner, 30, to another attack late last year on a jogger in the same northern San Diego park where Chelsea was last seen, according to police.
A Colorado woman in town on a family visit was running alone in the area on the morning of Dec. 27 when a man tackled her and demanded money. The victim, who managed to escape after elbowing the assailant in the face, left town before she could work with investigators on a sketch of the assailant, according to SDPD Capt. Jim Collins.
Authorities said they also are investigating whether Gardner might be responsible for the February 2009 disappearance of Escondido High School freshman Amber Dubois, who was 14 when she vanished while walking to campus.
Gardner is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in a downtown San Diego courtroom. Despite the murder charge facing him, authorities have consistently said they’re holding out hope Chelsea will be found alive.
