Search warrants show utility workers may have seen Calif. teen just before she was killed

Utility workers may have seen missing Calif. teen

EL CAJON, Calif. — Utility workers saw a man with a girl in a remote area north of San Diego around the time registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III raped and stabbed a 14-year-old, leaving her dead body nearby.

The details come in a second batch of search warrants unsealed Monday on the investigation into the death of 17-year-old Chelsea King. Gardner has pleaded guilty to murdering Chelsea and Amber Dubois.

Two utility workers came forward after authorities searched for Amber’s remains in the area last month. They said the man and girl they saw Feb. 13, 2009 — the day Amber disappeared — looked like the attacker and victim.

The workers said the man and girl were near a silver Ford Focus, the car Gardner drove at the time.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — An 11-year-old girl told police a man followed her home from school the day before registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III raped and murdered a 17-year-old girl in a nearby park, according to search warrants unsealed Monday.

The documents also indicated that two women joggers encountered Gardner on the afternoon of Feb. 25, the day he attacked and killed Chelsea King when she went for a run in the park.

One woman said she was convinced a man she briefly spoke with about coyotes and snakes was Gardner.

Investigators linked Gardner to King’s murder through semen found on her underwear, according to the search warrants unsealed by Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh in response to a request by The Associated Press and other news organizations.

Deddeh ordered four of 10 search warrants unsealed with minor redactions. Judge Herbert Exarhos said he would unseal the other six warrants later in the day.

King’s body was discovered in a shallow lakeside grave five days after she vanished.

The warrants said authorities seized 11 shovels, three pickaxes and other digging tools from Gardner’s home in Lake Elsinore along with a “Hard Rock Cafe Baghdad” T-shirt and other clothing.

They also found a tool case with black electrical and duct tape in a storage unit in suburban Escondido; black duct tape and a fast-food receipt from Feb. 25 in his girlfriend’s car; and several “Hard Rock Cafe” shirts and a shovel at his mother’s home in San Diego.

Gardner, 31, pleaded guilty April 16 to raping and murdering King and 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who was abducted while walking to school in Escondido in February 2009.

Gardner had served five years of a six-year prison sentence for molesting a 13-year-old San Diego neighbor in 2000.

The newly released search warrants said the 11-year-old girl told San Diego police on Feb. 24 that a man in a black car slowly drove by and parked as she walked home alone from school in the Rancho Bernardo area. The driver made no effort to speak with her.

A woman then pulled up beside the girl, told her the man looked suspicious, and offered to follow her two blocks to her house. The man then made a U-turn and drove away.

The girl told a family member the man has stared at her before pulling forward, and that she had recognized Gardner from a photo published after his arrest in the death of King.

Investigators then asked her to identify the man from among six photos. She picked two of the pictures, and one was Gardner, according to the documents.

One of the women joggers told investigators she spoke with a man in a “Hard Rock Cafe” T-shirt who was drinking beer and smoking a cigarette when she went for an afternoon run on the day King was attacked.

After Gardner’s arrest, she told authorities she was positive he was the man she saw along the running trail.

“The person told her to watch out for the snake and she noticed there was a rattlesnake,” the affidavit reads.

The runner, identified as Cindi Jo Stock, spoke with the man again on her way back.

Another runner, Jacquelyn Maxton, also told authorities she saw Gardner that afternoon in a “Hard Rock Cafe Baghdad” T-shirt.

“She was 100 percent positive the person she saw on the trail was the person she saw on television because his haircut and eyes looked exactly the same,” the affidavit reads.

The affidavits also describe a Dec. 27 attack on another jogger in the area. Gardner pleaded guilty to attempted rape in that case.

The jogger reported saying good morning to a man who returned the greeting then tackled her and began to climb on top of her, pinning her shoulders to the ground.

The woman screamed for help, believing she was going to be raped. The assailant told her to shut up and she responded, “You’re going to have to kill me,” according to the documents.

“That can be arranged,” her assailant said.

The woman escaped after striking the man in the nose with her elbow. The affidavit said she felt the crunch of cartilage.