 It was February 13, 2009, when Amber Dubois set off for school for what would unknowingly be the final time. As she arrived, she was approached by a boy who appeared to be a bit older than her and certainly much larger. The two chatted outside for a few brief moments and then Amber disappeared. Just a year later, in February of 2010, Chelsea King was out jogging on a local hiking trail in Rancho Bernardo Park. She planned on going on a five-mile hike, but at some point along the way, she too disappeared. Investigators would later find pieces of her clothing scattered all around the trail and soon after, detectives came across a crime scene. As a quick side note from today's story, did you know that your personal data is actually being sold online by data brokers right now? I believe we all have the right to keep our data private and protected, and that's where DeleteMe comes in. 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I've been using DeleteMe for several months now and the results couldn't be better. You can join DeleteMe right now using my 20% off discount code TI20 or by clicking the link in the description. That's discount code TI20 or by clicking the link in the description. Give it a try for yourself and let me know how it works out for you. I think you'll be impressed. Thanks to DeleteMe for sponsoring today's video. Today's story involves three victims in total, but we'll specifically be focusing on the two victims that led to the criminal's eventual conviction. Remember, if you guys know of any strange or interesting cases that you'd like me to cover, be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments. I'm always looking for new stories and most of these cases come from you guys. But with that said, let's begin the story of Amber Dubois. Amber Dubois was a very interesting girl. She was just 14 years old in 2009, but she had already made up her mind about what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Like many young girls her age, Amber had a loving interest in animals and wildlife. She'd spent a lot of her life infatuated by farm animals, and she'd always speak to her mother about her dreams of owning a few animals of her own one day. See, Amber was a very academic young girl. While many of the other kids her age were worried about what they were going to do for the summer or where they were going to go shopping or go hang out after school, Amber was extremely focused on getting good grades, taking as many courses as possible than trying to graduate early. And she was well on her way to doing so. Amber had been attending Escondido High School in California, just a short trip away from the heart of San Diego. When it came time to choose her classes for the year, Amber knew that she wanted to become part of the school's future farmers program. This program would allow the younger generation to become acquainted with farm animals and all the ins and outs of living life on a farm and taking care of the animals and livestock. This program was everything Amber had dreamed of, but there was one catch that her mother seemingly didn't see coming. This program would allow Amber to get a head start on her future goals of becoming an animal behavioral scientist, but in order for this to happen, Amber would need access to a lamb, particularly a lamb of her very own. Her mother wasn't interested in letting her buy a lamb. After all, lambs are a lot of work, at least for someone who doesn't really have access to all the necessary supplies and whatnot. And Amber certainly fell into this category. But as the weeks and months passed by, Amber continued to beg and plead with her mother to allow her to buy a baby lamb. Eventually, her mother felt obligated to agree and even offered to pay for the lamb if it meant helping Amber achieve the future that she had always dreamed of. But while she was very hesitant about the idea, Amber's mother wrote to her check for the lamb with Amber becoming ecstatic, securely hiding the check inside of her backpack so that she could go to pick up her new baby after school. This all took place on February 13, 2009, a date that for reasons unexpected, her mother would never forget. Amber left her home that morning with a skip in her step, overwhelmed with excitement by the idea of finally having a lamb of her own. She couldn't wait to get to school and tell both her instructor and her friends about what the future had in store for her. But tragically, she never got the chance to do so. As soon as Amber arrived on the campus of her local high school, a witness spotted her talking to someone who was described as being much taller than Amber. The witness couldn't make out the boy's age but seems to have believed that the person she was speaking to was a student at their high school. To clarify, the witness didn't say this outright but it's just the impression they gave during their interview. They described the boy as being doughy looking, quite tall and dark complexed. After Amber was spotted talking to this person, she would never be seen again. This particular day was a Friday. It had been raining on and off throughout the day but by all means it was a day like any other. That is, until Amber failed to return home that afternoon. One thing to note is that Amber's parents had separated at some point during her childhood, leading her mother to begin dating again. While Amber's mother appears to have been at work on this particular afternoon, her mother's boyfriend had been at home and was anticipating Amber's return from school, but she never came back. Naturally, the boyfriend, named Dave, assumed that Amber had just become caught up in her newly purchased lamb and had lost track of time. But as minutes and hours eventually ticked by, Dave became extremely worried. He decided to drive over to Amber's school and try to find her. No sooner than he arrived, he spotted one of Amber's teachers and asked if she had seen Amber. In a disturbing twist, she replied that Amber hadn't been in class that day. This was particularly odd because not only should Amber have been at school for the entire day, but she'd also never missed a day prior to this. Her mother recalled that Amber was hyper-focused on her school attendance and her studies and she wouldn't miss a Dave's school no matter what. So where had she gone? Dave grew incredibly concerned at this point and called Amber's mother to report what had happened. Soon after, Amber was officially reported missing and the search was on. Hundreds of volunteers caught wind of Amber's disappearance and turned up to help search for her. The search area spanned for miles, but no matter how far or wide the search was, no one managed to find any evidence that would explain where she had gone or who could have been responsible. When police began to dig deeper into her disappearance, they realized that Amber's phone was still active in the area a short time after she had disappeared. There was no mention of what time her phone was specifically turned off for good, but we know that wherever she had gone, it had likely been within a span of just a few miles, as Amber's home and school were both within the proximity of the same cell tower. And there was no indication that she'd been anywhere near another cell tower during the beginning stages of her disappearance. Now it's obviously possible that her phone could have been disabled before she left the area, but police didn't seem to believe that this was a likely scenario, though it's unclear why. When police began looking further into her cell phone data, they quickly learned that Amber's voicemail had been accessed shortly after she had disappeared. This voicemail again pinged off the same cell tower that connected to both Amber's home and her school. Investigators had now begun to feel confident that Amber had been abducted, but the only real evidence they had to go on was the eyewitness account from earlier that morning, describing the unknown male that she'd been speaking with just moments before she vanished. Police, now taking the case far more seriously, began to interview all of the registered offenders in the area as well as Amber's friends and family. A total of 1200 tips were followed up on, and police conducted at least 500 interviews, but none of these interviews produced any leads or additional evidence. The captain of the police force recalled that no matter how much they investigated the case, they only ended up with more dead ends. Just over a year later, things would only get worse. Chelsea King was just 17 years old on February 25, 2010. She was a straight A student at Poeway High School in California. Much like Amber, Chelsea lived just a few miles from the heart of San Diego. Chelsea was also a girl who took her schoolwork very seriously. Outside of her usual classes, she was a member of the school's cross-country team and would spend a couple hours each day training, running, and hiking. One particular trail that she often visited was in the Rancho Bernardo Community Park. The trek would have taken her about five miles from beginning to end, and it was a trail that her family said that she would take time and time again, a trail she knew like the back of her hand. Chelsea had spent her last few months researching more than 100 colleges. Considering she had excellent grades and a remarkable work ethic, she'd been accepted into a few of these schools already, but it seems as though she was trying to decide between the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. But unfortunately, she wouldn't attend either of these schools. That's because after she was out hiking her favorite trail at Rancho Bernardo one day, she wouldn't return home. It was February 25th, 2010, almost exactly a year after the devastating disappearance of Amber Dubois. Chelsea had been following her typical five-mile route, with her parents expecting her home at her usual time. But that time came and went with no signs of Chelsea. Chelsea's family and friends searched all over the park for any sign of her, but there was simply no trace of her. Before long, the police were called in to investigate. The police worked alongside a group of countless volunteers. With their combined efforts, they began to make a bit of progress in Chelsea's case, but it wasn't the progress they had hoped for. Rather than finding evidence that Chelsea was alive and well, all of their discoveries proved the exact opposite. First, volunteers came across one of Chelsea's socks, found about two miles away from where she had parked her car. But then came the most shocking evidence of all. A volunteer came across her undergarments, combined with evidence that Chelsea had met with a terrible fate. A short while later, one of her shoes was found as well, less than a mile away from the two previous discoveries. A police sergeant says that the location of this evidence proved to them that foul play was almost certainly involved. The FBI was called in to investigate soon after, with them interviewing people at at least 300 homes in the surrounding area and following up on at least 600 tips. And again, registered offenders were interviewed, but no one seemed suspicious or gave any indication that they may have had ties to Chelsea's disappearance. But investigators would finally have a breakthrough in the case when they sent in the underwear that they had found for a DNA analysis. When the results came back, they found that the DNA obviously matched Chelsea, but they also found DNA that belonged to a man that was known to the local police far too well, a man named John Gardner. John Gardner was well known to the police near San Diego. That's because back in 2000, he had been convicted in another case involving a minor. In this particular case, the victim made it away with her life, but just barely. He had ambushed a 13 year old girl and taken advantage of her. In a truly chilling twist, the young girl had actually been his neighbor. John had been about 21 years old at the time of his offense. He was sentenced to serve just six years behind bars, being released early on good behavior. The prisons were known to have been incredibly overcrowded at this time and it's likely that this played a part in his early release as well. John was eventually released from parole in 2008, but a later investigation found that during the stint of his parole, he violated it at least seven times, including one time in which he lived too close to a school in 2007. John was also given an inklet to wear during his parole, during which time he was documented as having violated that 168 times, but nothing was done about this. When the GPS data was looked over later on, it was found that he'd spent countless hours in close proximity to several schools. He was also spotted in front of a daycare, as well as visiting prisons, with police believing he may have been delivering contraband to inmates. When police connected John to the case of Chelsea King, everything began to fall into place. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots and understand that John had stalked Chelsea along her jogging route that day, striking when she least expected it. It was reported that he took advantage of Chelsea and also claimed her life, but police never revealed the order in which these events took place. But as investigators were digging up all the details that connected John to Chelsea's disappearance, they began to realize that Chelsea's case had striking similarities to the case of Amber Dubois. Police would eventually track John down to a bar, where they found him to be soaking wet, covered in mud, and clearly drunk. They brought him in for questioning regardless, and it became apparent that he wasn't telling the truth about his knowledge of Chelsea's disappearance. But things got a lot darker when, without being provoked, John brought up Amber's disappearance as well. We have no idea why he would have spoken about Amber, and police say that her name came up at random during their interview. During the process of John's interrogation, it became clear to him that investigators had enough evidence to pin him to the crime. He eventually called in an attorney, and the attorney knew that they had a very solid case against him. It also became clear that prosecutors were going to do their best to secure the death penalty. Throughout this process, John quickly began to realize that, by all means, his life was essentially over. This realization set in even more when he found out that just five days later, on March 2, 2010, a team of FBI investigators had located the remains of Chelsea, buried near Lake Hodges. This was the moment that John knew the jig was up. He had been found out, and there was little he could do to stop his conviction. Unless he got crafty, investigators obviously had enough evidence to pin him to the case of Chelsea King, with the DNA match on Chelsea's clothing being the most crucial piece of this. But the evidence connecting him to the disappearance of Amber Dubois was trivial at best. They believed her case had many similarities to the case of Chelsea, but they had virtually no evidence tying him to her disappearance. Just because he mentioned her name in an interview doesn't prove he was guilty, it just proves he watched local news back in early 2009. But that's when investigators came up with a plan. As mentioned, John was staring down the barrel of capital punishment, but they offered him a plea bargain that he couldn't afford to refuse. If he would lead them to the grave of Amber Dubois, they would agree to stop pursuing capital punishment, and instead simply pursue a life sentence. The only problem with this is that Chelsea's family would need to agree with these terms. Up until this point, Amber's family had been living in utter turmoil, hoping, begging, and praying to learn what had happened to their beloved daughter. The only thing worse than finding out that your loved one passed away is finding out that they're just missing, and you have no idea if they may still be out there begging to be found. After hearing about the heartache that the Dubois family had been forced into, Chelsea's family agreed, without hesitation, to waive the possibility of capital punishment in exchange for a plea deal. Everyone was in agreement, and John decided to open up about what had happened to both Amber and Chelsea. He told police everything, and he led them to an old dirt road, taking them to a rusted-out water tank. Nearby, police found the shallow grave that belonged to Amber. When John explained the details of her final moments and what he had done to her, they confirmed these details after digging up her remains, and it appeared that John had in fact been telling the truth. He was later convicted and given two life sentences, one for each of the girls, as well as an additional 25 years for assault and an additional 24 years for other convictions. Needless to say, John Gardner will never be leaving prison again. But one of the headlines and comments that I continually see in regards to this case is that the system somehow failed these two girls. Now, I'll admit at first, I didn't understand what these people were talking about. After all, the criminal was caught and put away for life two times over. The system worked as well as it ever has. Now, I'm often the first one to criticize law enforcement when they make ridiculous mistakes, but this is a prime example of an investigation firing on all cylinders and putting a killer behind bars. But there is a bigger problem here. If John hadn't been released from prison in the first place, or maybe if he'd at least served a longer, more beneficial sentence, these girls may still be here. After all, the whole point of being put behind bars is to be rehabilitated and learn from your mistakes, but that didn't happen with John. If you remember, John was arrested back in 2000 for what he did to the 13 year old girl. That girl's life was changed forever in the blink of an eye. He took something away from that child that can never be given back and left her with a lifetime of fear and resentment, a lifetime, yet he served just six years behind bars. In response to this outrageous sentence, the family of Chelsea King worked alongside attorneys and law enforcement to instate a new law, now known as Chelsea's law. This law is the first of its kind to allow criminals to be placed behind bars for life, for crimes that didn't involve claiming the life of another person. If John had been given the proper punishment for his crime against the 13 year old girl all those years ago, both Chelsea and Amber would likely still be here. To top this off, if investigators had done something about the 168 violations of parole that John committed, these girls would still be here. If they'd arrested him when he was found stalking a children's day care, these girls would still be here. If they had arrested him for moving to a home that was within walking distance of a school, well, you get the point. The most important thing is that John Gardner is now locked behind bars, where he will remain for the rest of his days, but I can't help but shake the feeling that if police had actually done something about this man years prior, then the King and DuBois families may still be sharing holidays with their beloved daughters. Thanks for tuning into another episode of True Crime Stories. If you want to see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. If you want to help out financially, you can do that by clicking the blue join button below, or by picking up a True Crime Stories mug from TyNauts.com. But with that, my name is Ty Nauts, and I'll catch you guys in the next video.