Help Me Please: The Abduction and Murder of Denise Amber Lee

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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime
podcast where I tell stories of real crimes

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with real victims whose cases are so
shocking that many are left wondering how is

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this even real? I use my
experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined

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with my years as a criminal justice
educator, dig deep into complex cases of

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evil acts, some so evil many
feel they are unspeakable. Warning Unspeakable as

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intended for mature audiences. If you
are easily offended, then I'm not your

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girl. Listening discretion is advised.
Hey, Y'ALLKJ You're back for another episode

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of Unspeakable and we are in a
new season. Did y'all know that this

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is gonna be episode one of season
five? And I cannot even believe we've

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made it five seasons. This has
flown by, and I've had the time

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of my life being able to tell
these stories. And y'all are just building

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my confidence day by day, minute
by minute. And I have some shout

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outs that I want to say hey
to some people. And the A named

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females were out in force this go
round because I've got the Angela's, the

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Ambers, and the Amanda's coming out
of the woodworks to join my Patreon.

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But Angela Harvey all the way from
Denim Springs, Louisiana. How are you

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doing, Angela? I'm so glad
to have you join the team, as

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well as Amber Hunson from Sparks,
Nevada. Hey girl, how are you

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doing? That's a long way away, but I have been there before.

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I usually say I haven't been there, but I have. Thank you so

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much for joining Amber. And then
there's another Amber. Her name is Amber.

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Now I'm gonna say beg no,
but she may say begnaud. I'm

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not sure. But Amber from Scott, Louisiana. This one's for you girl,

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How are you doing. I'm actually
very familiar with Scott because I can

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remember bringing my stepbrother to his mama
whenever we would do tradeouts. If that's

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not too much information, but it
was always in Scott. So hey girl,

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thank you so much for joining,
as well as Amanda Kunjimi. I

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hope I said that right from Monroe, Louisiana. And I also am very

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familiar with Monroe because that's where my
family is from. So Amanda, you

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might be my cousin. We don't
even know. Thank you so much for

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joining my Patreon as well. Then
just one exit over from Baton Rouge,

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Louisiana. I've got Nicole Smith Hey, Nicole and Eleanor Hoskins from Deerfield Beach,

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Florida. Got family in Florida too, grew up in Baton Rouge.

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I'm telling y'all we were just all
friends or cousins. We just don't know

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it yet. We've got Sarah Feldacker
from Eagle Creek, Oregon. Wow,

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Oregon, Jimithy have I mentioned people
in Oregon yet? No? No?

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You sure, pretty sure? I
don't know if I trust you, but

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wow, all the way from organ
that's crazy. Hey, Sarah for me

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and Jimothy, he's pretty sure you're
my only organer, But I don't think

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you're right. Is it organer,
Organian? Organ? I don't know,

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Organite, I don't know. I'm
just making the up. No Orgunian or

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Gunians. What would you call yourself? Sarah, let me know, get

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on my Facebook, let me know
so we can tell the masses. And

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then, certainly, last, but
not least, is Nicole commit from Lowell,

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Indiana. Hi, Nicole, I
mean, I don't know how else

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to say. How touched I am
that y'all would support me in the way

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that you are. I hope you're
enjoying your extra content. And if hey,

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if you want to join, just
go to patreon dot com and you

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can join as well, and I
will interact with you. It is me,

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there's no team, just me,
myself and I responding to your messages.

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Now. I do want to tell
y'all short story real quick, because

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this tickled me. Y'all know it's
me checking my messages right, here's my

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phone. I'm actually showing you right, I'm checking my messages if you're watching.

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But I have a listener. Her
name is Lauren Derys, and she

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sent me a story and I wanted
to share it with you because it tickled

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me. She said, yesterday,
down here in scott at the Piggly Wiggly,

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I was in the parking lot,
falling deep into the video reels,

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waiting for my husband when I heard
muffled screaming coming from somewhere nearby. Now,

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as it is, I'm already a
pretty nosy person, so I stop

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what I'm doing and I roll my
windows down, and I even held my

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breath to hear. Sure enough,
I hear it again, and I mean

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screaming and hollering, and it was
at this minute. I took a deep

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breath and I said out loud,
WWKJD, what would Kelly Jennings do?

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So I got out, and this
is the same parking lot, by the

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way, that Ellie Gooding Goodie was
taken, So if you remember that episode,

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it's the exact same one possibly where
she was last seen, which ironically

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is how I found your podcast.
But anyway, I'm on the hunt.

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I'm walking and weaving in between the
cars, not really hearing or seeing anything,

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and finally I hear it coming from
a little silver keya rio and I'm

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like, well, that's not a
good card a pick if you're going to

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try to hide a body or something, because it's tiny. But I walk

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up slowly, my heart was racing. My phone was in my hand and

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I was ready to dial nine one
one, And in the back seat that's

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where I see a freaking parrot of
some sort. And I died laughing because

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I thank the good Lord and you, Kelly, because I definitely hear and

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take your advice to be aware of
my surroundings and situations. If it truly

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had been someone I could, I
could have just helped. So what would

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kJ do? Is now something i'll
take with me on the daily. Well,

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Lauren, I'm so glad it wasn't
a real person and that it was

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a parrot that that tricked you.
But I thought that was the most precious

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thing, and thank you for sharing
it with me. Means a lot that

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you would have, you know,
thought of me, and I'm glad I

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could inspire you. Now let's jump
into this episode, the first one,

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and this case is actually one that
I'm I'm pretty well versed in because I

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actually teach it to my students in
my class. But I think it's a

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really important one because there's so much
detail to this that the didn't cover when

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this case was big, and so
I wanted to do it myself and give

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y'all a little insight to it.
And this is going to be the case

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of Denise Amber Lee. Now,
Denise was twenty one years old and she

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was married to her high school sweetheart. His name was Nathan Lee, and

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they had two children. And I
remember when I was younger, twenty one

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always sounded old to me, but
it doesn't anymore. This is just a

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young lady, right. But she
was married to Nathan shortly after graduation from

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high school and then almost immediately after
they got married, they had their first

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child. His name was Noah,
and then two years later they had another

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baby boy named Adam. And at
the time of this case, these kids

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were only two years old and six
months old, respectively, so they were

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little twoty tots when this went down, and the two of them when they

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got married did struggle financially, but
they were happy. They really were working

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hard to build a life together,
and they knew what hard work meant.

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But Nathan worked sometimes three jobs to
make ends meet and to make sure that

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Denise could be a stay at home
mom because it meant so much to her

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that she get to raise her two
children. So shortly after welcoming maybe Adam

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into the family, even though money
was really tight, they were able to

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find a great deal on a rental
home that was closer to both of their

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parents. And I know the older
ones of us who have been through this,

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it's always nice to have your parents
close by, especially when you have

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young kids, to be able to
help you out. And the subdivision that

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they moved into was exceptionally quiet.
It was like a newly constructed subdivision and

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most of the houses there hadn't been
sold yet, and this also notably was

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on the start of the housing market
crash in two thousand and eight, so

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people weren't even really milling around the
subdivision looking for homes. Dubai as well.

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It was kind of an isolated kind
of ghost town right then, but

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the family loved it and they loved
that there was peace and quiet surrounding them.

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So on January seventeenth, which is
my brother's birthday, on January seventeenth,

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two thousand and eight, it was
unusually warm and muggy in Northport,

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Florida, and it was eleven nine
am, specifically, when Nathan called Denise

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just to chat and he wanted to
check on the kids, and he was

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on his lunch break and he would
always call whenever he was taking his lunch,

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And during their conversation, Nathan mentioned
to Denise that it would be a

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good idea that she cut off the
AC and maybe opened some windows, because

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they were trying to save money and
they thought that, you know, electricity

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was one of their bigger expenses.
Maybe they could kind of control that and

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not pay as much for the month. So Denise kind of laughed at that,

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and she said, I already thought
of that Nathan, and she had

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already done it earlier, so I
thought that was just really sweet, you

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know that they worked hard to try
to save your little bit of money.

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And at about three pm, Nathan
gets off of work and he called Denise

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to let her know that he was
on his way home. But Denise didn't

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answer the phone. Now, if
this were my household, everyone would go,

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well, that's typical, because I
never seemed to answer my phone,

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and it's always dead, or it's
always needing to charge, or it's always

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on silent. Because when I'm teaching, I turned my phone on silent.

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That's probably not a good thing at
the end of the day, but I

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never forget to turn the ringer on. Formal apologies to my family on the

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air. I'm apologizing because everyone grapes
at me about that. But Denise always

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answered the phone, so Nathan continued
to call her. Matter of fact,

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he called her eight more times during
his twenty five minute drive home because his

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gut just told him that something was
at right, and the longer it took

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for her not to call back,
his concern continued to grow and grow,

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and then when he pulled into his
driveway, that's when he noticed all of

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the windows in the house were closed, even though Denise had told him just

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a little while earlier that she had
opened all of them. So this really

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struck Nathan, and he was upset, you know, to see this.

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Why wasn't she answering the phone.
So upon entering the home, Nathan found

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no sign of Denise anywhere. He
went immediately back and checked the children's room,

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and he found that both of the
boys were sleeping in their room,

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which, who right, that's a
good thing, But he noticed that they

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were sleeping together in a crib,
which Nathan said was totally out of the

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ordinary. Denise had never done that
before. And even more alarming with that

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is that he found Denise's phone,
her keys, and her purse at the

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house. So she had said that
the windows were open, the kids normally

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would not be sleeping together in the
same crib, and all of her important

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items that a woman would take with
her if she were leaving, including her

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children, were still at the house. Also, he noticed that the windows,

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although they were closed, they were
not locked, and it was pretty

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hot in the house at that point
because the ac had never turned back on,

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and Denise was just not the type
of woman that was going to let

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that happen. She would have had
her children comfortable and she certainly would not

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have left them. So Nathan then, almost unbelieving right that she wasn't there,

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conducted another quick search of the house
for her, but there was no

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sign of her, and there also
was no sign of a struggle or forced

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entry, and the children weren't harmed
in any way, so it just none

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of it was making sense. And
that's when there was no sign of Denise,

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he said, I have to call
nine one one. Here's that call,

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NARTH Party Emergency. Yes, I'm
at seventy nine one two of Tour

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Avenue. I just got home to
work and my wife. I can't find

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her. My kids were in the
house, and I don't know where she

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is. I've looked every single police
So Detective Chris Morales of the Northport Police

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Department responded immediately to the home,
and after that nine one one call was

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made. Nathan then immediately called his
father in law named Rick, Denise's dad,

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who was a police sergeant with twenty
five years of service at the Charlotte

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County Sheriff's Office, and Nathan told
Rick that Denise was missing and that he

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had just gotten off a call with
nine to onet one. So Rick,

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immediately realizing, you know, Denise
had only been missing for a couple of

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hours, he was, you know, doing this thing where maybe it wouldn't

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get the attention that it would have
needed to get, because remember, adults

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are allowed to disappear. Maybe she
even though as a family member, you

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know if someone is not going to
do this or not. The police don't

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know that, and people sometimes do
whack things. So you know, if

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she left and decided she wanted to
just go start a new life, she

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was allowed to do that. But
they knew better. Nathan knew better.

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Rick knew better, and he made
it his business. He being Rick,

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her daddy, made it his business
to let them know that this was his

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daughter that was missing and the situation
needed immediate attention. She would never leave

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those children, never in a million
years. Now, Like I just said,

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adults are allowed to disappear, but
leaving the kids behind, that really

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upped the stent that the stank behind
this foul play, because Denise would never

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leave the kids, even if she
wanted to leave Nathan, which she didn't,

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But even if she wanted to,
she still would not have left her

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children. She was an absolutely,
one hundred percent devoted mama to those two

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boys, and she would never leave
those babies and she would have never left

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them in that condition in the home. And this was shaping up to look

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like a random abduction. Had to
have happened. Her car keys were there,

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her house keys were there, her
everything was home. Where would she

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have gone and why would she have
taken no money? And she certainly wouldn't

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have left the boys. So Rick
also reached out to his sheriff and fellow

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officers to let them know that it
was his daughter that was missing, and

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he wanted all hands on deck,
and everyone was more than willing to help

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him. You know, this is
a band of blue. These are your

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brothers, these are your sisters.
And so they jumped up and were like,

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what can we do? How can
we help? So police arrived at

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the home and they started canvassing the
area, speaking to the limited number of

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people in the subdivision who may have
seen something or noticed something strange. There

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was one neighbor, her name was
Jennifer Eckert, and she said that she

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had seen a suspicious vehicle driving around
the neighborhood. Upon more questioning, Jennifer

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stated that earlier in the day,
and she specifically mentioned between one and two

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PM that she was watching television and
from the placement of her chair in her

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house, she had a clear view
of the front street. So as she

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was watching TV, she saw a
green Camaro that she said kept creeping up

211
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and down the road and it was
going really slow. And she noted that

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that car seemed to be a nineties
model and it had a black what they

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call car brawl on the front bumper
of the vehicle, and it was one

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of those leather or vinyl wraps that
you would see to like protect the bumper,

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you know, the paint from like
damage or rocks or whatever. What

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had really drawn her attention to the
car was that it was circling the street,

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but like four or five times more
times than I guess she would expect

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someone who was maybe looking for someone's
house. It was just a lot of

219
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times, and it just really struck
her as odd. So she decided to

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walk outside and investigate a little bit
further. So in her mind, this

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driver was lost, and she thought, well, maybe I can drive,

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you know, point him in the
direction of the driveway that maybe he's trying

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to find and when she made it
outside to her own driveway, that's when

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the car pulled into Denise and Nathan's
driveway. So Jennifer was even able to

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make eye contact with the driver,
but since he seemed to have found the

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home that he was looking for,
she just went back inside and started watching

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TV again. She then said that
it was about fifteen minutes later when she

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00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:54.840
again went back outside and that was
when she noticed the Camaro was leaving the

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house. Now this was suspicion,
right, but then again, the neighbor

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never saw getting into a car.
She didn't see her being forced into a

231
00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.759
car or anything like that. It
was just odd to her and this was

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00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.759
a really good lead to explore,
but again it was nothing overwhelmingly damning.

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00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:14.679
I mean, that car could have
pulled up, spoke, spoken to her,

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00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:21.639
and just left. So armed with
this new information, the police decided

235
00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:25.879
about six forty five pm, this
is about three hours after Nathan had reported

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00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:29.639
Denise missing, that they were going
to issue a BOLO and a bolow is

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00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:34.399
known as a bee on the lookout
alert for the entire county of Charlotte.

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After that BOLO went out, information
was received from the police in the area

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00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:45.039
that reported that a green Camaro was
seen around two point thirty pm in the

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area of Toledo Blade Boulevard and US
Highway forty one, which was near the

241
00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:57.360
Charlotte County Northport line. And this
was a good, you know move in

242
00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:03.119
that the neighbor's story of the car
circling Denise's like a shark, like she

243
00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.039
mentioned, it was just circling and
like it was looking for something, you

244
00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:11.079
know. This pointed to the fact
that that neighbor must have been giving good

245
00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:15.880
info. Denise must have been in
that car, and this fear was realized

246
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:22.559
when at around six fourteen PM,
Denise was somehow able to get a hold

247
00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:26.599
of her of her captor's cell phone, and the local nine one one call

248
00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:30.960
center reported that they received a call
from a girl screaming and crying into the

249
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phone who even identified herself as to
as Denise. And she was clever,

250
00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:42.000
y'all. She wasn't directly talking to
the nine one one operator. So when

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00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.559
the nine one one operator answers the
phone, right, nine one one,

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00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:48.799
what is the address of your emergency? What is your name? Okay name,

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00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:52.519
tell me exactly what happened, you
know, it wasn't necessarily following that

254
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.319
normal uh script that would be followed
in a nine to one one center.

255
00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:03.559
Denise was having a one way conversation
with who was believed to be her kidnapper.

256
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:07.480
But while she was having that conversation, she was pleading for her life.

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She was able though, while pleading
for her life and having this one

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00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:17.960
way conversation, she was able to
answer the operator's questions, including her name,

259
00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:22.400
her address, and the make and
model of her captor's vehicle. She

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00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:26.440
also let the operator know that the
kidnapper was a stranger and she did not

261
00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:30.079
know who he was. I mean, this is just impressive that she would

262
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.079
think on her feet, be able
to take that cell phone, make this

263
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:37.079
phone call, and not be obvious
about what was happening to her. She

264
00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:44.599
did incredible job, an incredible job
of getting this information to the operator.

265
00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.960
And during the call, you can
hear the kidnapper cussing at Denise and he's

266
00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.880
frantically looking for his cell phone.
If she lost the phone, y'all,

267
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:56.200
it would have been huge because that
was her only lifeline that she had to

268
00:18:56.279 --> 00:19:00.839
someone to tell them. Look,
something downdangerous has happened to me. I'm

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00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:03.960
gonna go ahead and play that call
now for you and just be ready because

270
00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:45.559
it is pretty distressing. Hello,
Hello, Hello, a god like Hello,

271
00:19:52.240 --> 00:20:15.400
Hello you like I'm called hello?
You go play your Hello? Help

272
00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:21.400
me? What's the address? What's
the address that you're at? And what

273
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:33.000
I'm working out? Hello? What
is the address that Hello? Ma'am?

274
00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:56.039
Are you? What's your name?
Man? Hello? What's your name?

275
00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.640
Your by? Just want to be
nice kids again? Your name's Vanise?

276
00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:21.279
Thank you? O God? Please
you on? I seventy times? Where

277
00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:36.599
no serious? Please? Where are
you at? Can you talk your on?

278
00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:41.960
I seventy times? I don't know
your phone? There is a fine

279
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:55.680
you just tell me where we are
if you're pretty blindfold if you have none?

280
00:21:55.839 --> 00:22:14.480
But I don't have your phone,
I don't know. Do you know

281
00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:22.599
this guy? I don't know?
Denise? Can you know this guy?

282
00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:26.200
Should I have the phone? My
dad? I'm out here playing up to

283
00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:33.000
pay now to say it up?
I don't know why you see how you

284
00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:57.440
find it? I mean? First, Denise, I know how long have

285
00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:08.920
you been going from your house?
He? He? Do you know how

286
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:19.440
long you've been gone from your house? What's your last name? Lee?

287
00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:36.920
Do you know what your name's Denise? Lee? Can you tell it all.

288
00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:41.319
What street you're on? Do you
know this guy? That's what gives

289
00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:52.640
you? Don't been a land from
anywhere? What's your address? What's your

290
00:23:52.640 --> 00:24:26.400
home address? You know? Can
you see you have a Can they turn

291
00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:48.599
off the radio or turn it down? Are you gonna help me? So,

292
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:55.119
no matter how unnerving that call is, you obviously can tell that.

293
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:59.960
After a little over five minutes,
the kidnapper realizes that Denise has his phone,

294
00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:03.039
he grabs it from her, and
he promptly hangs that phone up.

295
00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:07.240
I don't know about you, but
that had to be probably one of the

296
00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:14.359
scariest things to date for Denise to
know that the one lifeline she had had

297
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:18.000
just been realized and taken away from
her by someone who obviously wished ill harm

298
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:22.480
to her. Rick and Nathan,
her dad and her husband, were informed

299
00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:27.680
immediately regarding the existence of that nine
one one call, and both who were

300
00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:32.839
still at Nathan and Denise's home at
this time, were asked if they would

301
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:37.319
listen to the call and verify if
this was in fact Denise's voice and the

302
00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:41.640
call And can you imagine having to
do that, to have to listen to

303
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:47.319
what you just listened to? And
you love her with every ounce of your

304
00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.720
being, and you have to listen
to her pleading for her life and to

305
00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:53.039
just let her go and verify,
yes, that's my wife, or yes

306
00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:57.720
that's my child, that's my daughter. But they did, and both men

307
00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:03.400
confirmed that it would definitely Denise's voice
in the phone call that had been made

308
00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:07.599
to nine to one one. And
Nathan though, was very confident, now

309
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.680
you know Denise is going to be
found. We know that you know she's

310
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.920
in this this car she was taken, but quickly that that confidence was a

311
00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:21.799
little dashed and that police discovered the
kidnappers phone was a cheap, prepaid what

312
00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:26.599
we call burner phone. And this
wasn't like a phone you would have day

313
00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:27.720
in and day out, the cell
phone you use every day. This is

314
00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:30.720
like you go to Walmart you buy
one of those little phones that's you know,

315
00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:37.279
you pay for minutes type thing.
And there's no GPS tracking device that

316
00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:41.599
would have allowed police to track its
location. Although police were able to obtain

317
00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:45.880
what's called a ping report from the
cell towers, which makes them know Denise

318
00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:51.680
was close by. That was useful, but it was not enough to be

319
00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:56.599
able to track her down specifically.
Now a little bit of information some pings

320
00:26:56.680 --> 00:27:02.119
of phones are incredibly accurate. Today
as of twenty twenty three, we can

321
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:08.480
get really really accurate. But back
then I would say at best they might

322
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:14.000
could have gotten within a two mile
radius at best of where she was.

323
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:17.880
And that sounds great and all,
except two miles is a long way.

324
00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:22.799
You ever try to run two miles
I have I'm getting flashbacks of pe in

325
00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:26.359
high school. Two miles is a
long way. And not to mention,

326
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:30.480
you know, we do have a
thing today called rapid SOS if you want

327
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.680
to get really nerdy with it,
and you know, on an iPhone today

328
00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:38.599
we might could get within feet of
where a person was because it's web based

329
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:44.480
and you know, this gives you
things, including like elevation. So if

330
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:48.240
you were on a multi floor building
imagine New York, two square miles,

331
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:52.119
how useful do you think a ping
would be. You know, rapid SOS

332
00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:56.640
is good because it could tell you
multi floors and about their elevation. But

333
00:27:56.759 --> 00:28:00.480
back then, really all they had
with those cell phone towers and it probably

334
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:06.519
was not as accurate as you would
get today. But using the number associated

335
00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.920
with that phone, the police were
able to identify the purchaser of the phone

336
00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:15.119
and of the prepaid minutes, and
they identified that purchaser as Michael King,

337
00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:19.960
and when asked, neither Nathan nor
Rick were able to say who he was.

338
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:22.559
They were dumbfounded, looking at each
other, going I've never heard this

339
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:27.839
name in my life. Who could
he be? So Nine minutes after Denise

340
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:33.279
made her frantic phone call to nine
one one, police received another call,

341
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.920
and this was a call from a
girl named Sabrina Muxlow. I'm going to

342
00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:42.279
insert that call now. Listen to
what Sabrina tells police. And the girl

343
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:47.240
came out of the got out of
the car and like my dad's cousin went

344
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:49.000
and put her back in the car. And when she got out, okay,

345
00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:56.319
where's your dad's house? It's annoyance
for where would he be going with

346
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.480
this female? He came older to
my dad's house, called a shovel gas

347
00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:04.759
pink and some mouth a shovel and
a gas can, yall. And I

348
00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:11.839
don't care what horror movie you're watching, shovel and gas can don't make a

349
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:15.279
good mix. And at the time
that that call was made, we know

350
00:29:15.400 --> 00:29:22.400
this now, Denise was only four
miles from her own home. She wasn't

351
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:27.799
that far away. In the big
scheme of things. Then, shortly after

352
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:33.599
that call, at around six thirty
pm, a woman by the name of

353
00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.880
Jane Kowalski, who was driving down
the highway, pulls up to a stop

354
00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:44.039
at a red light, and while
she's sitting there, she hears what she

355
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:49.279
thought were the screams of terror coming
from a child in the car next to

356
00:29:49.319 --> 00:29:52.440
her. Now, I mean,
I just told you in the intro a

357
00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:56.400
story about a listener right who heard
screams and she went and investigated and ended

358
00:29:56.480 --> 00:29:59.559
up being a parrot. You never
know what's gonna happen. But in this

359
00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:04.759
instant, Jane thought the screaming was
a child number one, but number two.

360
00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:10.640
She was very concerned at the tone
of the scream. She knew that

361
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:15.079
this was not just a scream of
a child being loud. This sounds terrified.

362
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:19.759
This was not a normal scream.
And so she turns and she looks

363
00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:25.759
out of her window and comes eye
to eye with a white male driving the

364
00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:30.440
vehicle where the screams are coming from. And then suddenly, without warning,

365
00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:34.920
she sees a hand shoot up and
a female begins banging on the window of

366
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:41.160
the passenger seat, and Jane is
stunned and she's watching in just pure terror

367
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:45.559
as the driver starts trying to subdue
the girl that's trying to bang on the

368
00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:48.559
window and scream for help. But
as luck would have it, at that

369
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:53.599
exact moment, that's when the light
turns green and that car drives off,

370
00:30:53.880 --> 00:31:00.119
and Kowalski is following behind that car
as she calls nine one one, and

371
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:03.480
I want you to take a listen
to that nine one one call. Nows

372
00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:08.519
Well, I'm on forty one going
south and I'm on bill Cross Street right

373
00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:15.119
now. It's that I'm on Chamberlain. I just crossed Chamberlain. I'm on

374
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:18.680
forty one going south and I was
at a stop flight. On January seventeen,

375
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.319
two thousand and eight, young Florida
mother Dennis Semberlee was abducted from her

376
00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:26.440
home at around two pm and would
be dead by the end of the day.

377
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:29.920
From the moment she was kidnapped until
her death several hours later, a

378
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:33.119
number of namal Mont calls had been
placed related to her plight, one of

379
00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:36.519
which was made by Amber herself,
the daughter of a Florida detective. Amber

380
00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:38.640
was able to take her up doctor's
phone, and then the heart wrenching exchange

381
00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:42.240
provide details to the dispatcher while making
it appear that she was speaking to her

382
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:45.400
killer. She was abruptly cut off
from continuing in the call. Another one

383
00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:48.519
of the calls was made by a
woman in traffic who heard screaming coming from

384
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:52.240
the car next door. The call
was mishandled with potentially leaf of consequences.

385
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:56.759
Right, and a man pulled up
next to me and there was a child

386
00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:00.440
screaming in the car at the bar
the end. It's the blue Camaro,

387
00:32:01.480 --> 00:32:07.200
like a Camaro like in the nineties
or early two thousands or something. He

388
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:10.279
was a baby or no, it
was a child. It was morld,

389
00:32:10.839 --> 00:32:14.799
I don't know what. It's dark
and I and I turned to look at

390
00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:19.400
him and he's a white male,
sort of light colored here, sort of

391
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:22.480
plump. He's behind me now and
I tried to slow down so he could

392
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:25.240
pass me and I could read his
license to fight. Man, don't hang

393
00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:29.680
up, Okay, I mean,
I'm not okays, okay, where are

394
00:32:29.720 --> 00:32:32.079
you now? Forty one? Okay, I am. I'm going to pass

395
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:37.599
across street and I believe he's still
behind me. I met jinks dry.

396
00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:42.079
I'm just crossing it. I'm going
very slow, like forty five miles an

397
00:32:42.119 --> 00:32:46.119
hour on forty one, and he's
I believe he's behind me. He has

398
00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:50.599
not passed me. And he's going
slower than I am, which is not

399
00:32:50.759 --> 00:32:53.359
right because like we're holding up traffic
and stuff. But I think that he

400
00:32:53.480 --> 00:32:57.400
saw me look at him and I'm
not trying to be over thematicure. But

401
00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:01.559
he's going even slower now and pulling
over. No, he's something's going on

402
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:06.799
because he's even going even slower now. But he's right behind me. And

403
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:09.400
I don't know if the kid was
I don't know your name. Okay,

404
00:33:09.400 --> 00:33:13.039
my name is Jane. Okay.
He's pulling over to the other lay now,

405
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:20.000
Jane Kowalski kow a l s k
I and giving your cell phone umber

406
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:24.279
k Si Lujah eight one three two
zero five okay. He's he's going to

407
00:33:24.359 --> 00:33:31.319
turn zero two zero five forty one
hundred, oh shit, and he's he's

408
00:33:31.319 --> 00:33:37.599
going to turn left on Toledo Blade. He's turning left right now, okay

409
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:40.960
it is and I'm I'm in the
other lane and you're gonna get down and

410
00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:45.039
he's turning left onto the least right
and it's like a blue I want to

411
00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:50.960
say, like a Camaro type of
car, white male kids, and there's

412
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:53.720
a kid in the back seat and
they kept banging on the window. Went

413
00:33:53.799 --> 00:33:58.519
left on Toledo blade. That how
old is this child? I did I

414
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:02.039
did see the child. I say
less than ten. Definitely not an infant

415
00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:07.680
old enough to bang on the window. Okay, seven to ten, I

416
00:34:07.480 --> 00:34:12.320
don't know. Five to ten.
Okay, now it's screen and they in

417
00:34:12.440 --> 00:34:15.880
the arrow green arrows and he's going
now now something left on Toledo blade.

418
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:20.920
Yeah, do you want me to
do? Me to turn try to follow

419
00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:24.719
him? Or okay, do you
want her to follow him? Okay,

420
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:30.320
can you turn? Oh? Oh, he just turned on Toledo blade.

421
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:31.320
I don't know if I can catch
up. There's a bunch of traffic and

422
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:37.920
I can't get over. Oh.
Boy smiled in the car some place between

423
00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:45.440
five and ten, and it was
banging on the window and screaming and crying

424
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:52.079
and screaming, like screaming, screaming, screaming and not a happy scream,

425
00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:55.519
like get me out of here,
scream left on Toledo blade. And he

426
00:34:55.559 --> 00:35:00.599
said it's a blue tomorrow blue or
black, very dark. He's the white

427
00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:05.239
male And I want to say,
uh, sort of light colored hair,

428
00:35:05.719 --> 00:35:07.840
maybe a little in the face.
Not I didn't. I don't think ob

429
00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:10.559
but I'm way past them now for
me to go catch them, I don't

430
00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:13.480
know if I'd ever be able to
go back. I mean, I would

431
00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:15.320
never stop them. I'm not gonna
get my buffer risk And I've got your

432
00:35:15.320 --> 00:35:24.679
phone number eight one three two zero
five zero five and your first name again,

433
00:35:25.159 --> 00:35:31.760
it's Jane Kowalski ko w A L
s K. I. I mean,

434
00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:35.239
I hope they weren't just playing around. To me, it sounded like

435
00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:38.360
the kid was okay, white and
and panicky and I don't know, but

436
00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:43.320
instead of taking a chance, I
just wanted to make sure I called it

437
00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:45.400
in. I'm feel terrible something.
I'm very glad you did, ma'am.

438
00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:50.119
That's exactly what you should do.
Okay, Well you lost him, and

439
00:35:50.440 --> 00:35:53.199
thank you now and we really appreciate
you calling us. Okay, can someone

440
00:35:53.280 --> 00:35:57.960
follow up with me? I mean
or hold on, ma'am? Okay,

441
00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:09.920
what yes, okay, hang on
man, okay, okay. The vehicle

442
00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:15.320
turned left on Toledo Blade off of
forty one southbound. He's no longer with

443
00:36:15.480 --> 00:36:22.000
the vehicle. The vehicle had a
white male, white male driver, blue

444
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:28.599
or black Camaro. Male had white
hair, and it was a child screaming

445
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:34.679
in the car and banging on the
window. Okay and banging on the window

446
00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:43.159
lam blast. Okay, I've got
everybody hollering at me, and just one

447
00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:52.639
second, I may need you to
pull over. So just there was time.

448
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:57.800
Okay, I'm okay, I'm gonna
to pull over out. Yeah,

449
00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:09.800
that would be great. Okay,
I'm glad you called in. Yeah,

450
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:14.159
me too. I mean, I
don't know if there's a an amber alert

451
00:37:14.199 --> 00:37:17.880
out or something like that, but
there with me. And where are you

452
00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:23.039
pulling over? I just pulled over
into the Toyo US Okay, the town

453
00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:27.960
center mall, town Centermall. Yeah, okay, that's excellent. I'm from

454
00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:30.920
Tampa. I'm going down to visit
my sick I don't even know where I

455
00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:34.119
am actually, but I kind of
going where. I'm going down to Fort

456
00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:37.079
Myers to visit my grandmother and my
sister. So there's a chili there,

457
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:42.119
then there's a TOI tell me what
kind of car you're in, Let's say

458
00:37:42.280 --> 00:37:50.960
a sober rcetadis cree eightsl Okay.
If you just sit there and your doors

459
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.559
are off right, oh well,
yeah, I mean no, No,

460
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:57.599
I mean sit in the car.
I always have my doors. That's cover

461
00:37:57.679 --> 00:38:01.039
of good the car. Yeah,
okay, all right, I heard me.

462
00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:05.280
Do they want to make contact with
her? She's pulled over? Hang

463
00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:12.480
on, bear with me here one
to south left. Yea, he'd be

464
00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:19.800
heading to the interstate. I appreciate
you holding on, Jane. No problem.

465
00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:23.719
Well, actually I hope it's about
to be nothing really, but to

466
00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:29.039
me, I would never she's pulled
over the Toys of US parking lot.

467
00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:31.960
Do they want contact with her?
I have all that I gave it to

468
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:43.119
you. Okay, I'm asking you
if they want contact with her? Yes,

469
00:38:44.719 --> 00:38:47.400
okay, Jane. We have your
phone number. If we need you,

470
00:38:47.480 --> 00:38:51.679
we'll call you back. You'll be
on that cell phone number if we

471
00:38:51.719 --> 00:38:53.559
need you, right absolutely, and
don't have to pay. I'll give you

472
00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:58.320
whatever information I can give you.
Okay, And we really appreciate you calling

473
00:38:58.360 --> 00:39:02.400
in. Yeah, okay, I've
both got a channel. Man, Okay,

474
00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:06.639
I'm Jane. All right, careful, Oh, I shall sing you

475
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:10.960
now as you just heard. During
Jane's nine one one call, at one

476
00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.880
point, the kidnapper realizes or who
she believes to have been a kidnapper of

477
00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:21.480
this person that she was on to
him, and that Jane was watching what

478
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:25.639
he was doing, which is actually
why he pulled behind her. See,

479
00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:30.280
Jane tried to slow down in an
effort to get his license plate, but

480
00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:36.679
when she would slow down, he
would slow down even more. So.

481
00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:42.639
What is absolutely horrible about all of
this is that the dispatcher relays a call

482
00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:50.320
to others in the nine one one
call center, but no one ever responds

483
00:39:50.960 --> 00:40:00.239
to Jane's call. This is absolutely
a complete breakdown in the way that nine

484
00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:04.280
one one calls are supposed to work. You have an active caller calling in

485
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:08.679
about a person being subdued in the
back of a vehicle, screaming in a

486
00:40:08.719 --> 00:40:17.159
manner that seems absolutely, you know, horrific, and the dispatcher doesn't appropriately

487
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:22.840
process the call so no one responds
to it, Like, what the hell

488
00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:29.119
is your job? Then? I'm
just curious, you know, what are

489
00:40:29.159 --> 00:40:31.280
you doing? Why did you even
answer the call if you're not going to

490
00:40:31.320 --> 00:40:37.039
dispatch somebody out to it. Unbelievable. So at six forty two pm,

491
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:42.360
police go to the home of Michael
King after learning his identity through that Burner

492
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:45.400
phone purchase, and they break down
the door, but the house is empty

493
00:40:46.280 --> 00:40:52.119
and they start searching the property and
they come across what they can only describe

494
00:40:52.199 --> 00:40:55.760
as a torture room, and it
was obvious it had been recently used because

495
00:40:55.760 --> 00:40:59.960
when they find the duct tape,
it's still containing long strains of hair,

496
00:41:00.360 --> 00:41:05.920
and that stickiness that tacked to that
tape still appeared to be fresh. A

497
00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:10.920
thorough search of King's home was conducted
and there was a number of rectangular mirrors

498
00:41:12.320 --> 00:41:16.280
hanging on the walls side by side
in his dining room, but there was

499
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:22.679
also a set of hooks on the
walls that were not supporting any mirrors.

500
00:41:22.360 --> 00:41:27.920
And then when the police entered the
master bedroom, there was a yellow blanket

501
00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:32.559
that covered his window, and there
was a Winnie the Pooh blanket, pillows,

502
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:38.000
and a wad of duct tape with
hair attached on the floor in that

503
00:41:38.119 --> 00:41:45.400
room. Directly across from the pillows
and the blanket was another mirror that was

504
00:41:45.480 --> 00:41:50.679
identical to those hanging in the dining
room, and it was propped up against

505
00:41:50.719 --> 00:41:52.599
the wall. If this does not
give you, it puts the lotion on

506
00:41:52.679 --> 00:41:58.400
its skin vibes. I don't know
what else, but why is a grown

507
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:04.480
ass man having Winnie the Pooh decorations
in his house and mirrors all over the

508
00:42:04.519 --> 00:42:08.559
walls and hooks into the walls.
It doesn't take a genius to figure it

509
00:42:08.599 --> 00:42:14.159
out. And then in the kitchen
the police found an intact role of duct

510
00:42:14.159 --> 00:42:17.400
tape on the bar, and there
was a garbage can in his pantry which

511
00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:23.079
contained more duct tape, and in
that trash can there was more hair attached

512
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:29.119
to that duct tape. If you're
not getting the vibes, start getting them,

513
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:34.880
because this man's a freak. Then
eight minutes later after that Kowalski call,

514
00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:38.239
police received yet another nine to one
one call, and this time it's

515
00:42:38.280 --> 00:42:45.320
from a man named Harold Muxlowe,
who was Sabrina, the previous caller's father.

516
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:49.000
Though at the time when he made
that phone call, he wanted to

517
00:42:49.039 --> 00:42:53.960
remain anonymous, and he gave some
vague information other than to describe the vehicle

518
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:58.519
of the person he was calling about. The description of the vehicle he gave

519
00:42:58.679 --> 00:43:01.280
was again that Kamara that was green
with a bra on the front of it.

520
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:06.000
So here's a short section of his
nine one one call. Is he

521
00:43:06.039 --> 00:43:15.880
gonna hurt the girl? Did them? And where were in the car?

522
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:22.199
Was he? Okay? So before
I go any further, I want to

523
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:27.639
piece together Harold's story for you that
the police found out later, so you

524
00:43:27.679 --> 00:43:30.880
can understand why he called nine one
one, and then why his daughter Sabrina

525
00:43:30.920 --> 00:43:37.519
had called earlier in the day.
So Harold's story is Michael King, who

526
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:42.320
was his cousin, had visited him
around six PM and asked him if he

527
00:43:42.360 --> 00:43:45.840
had a shovel, a gas can, and a flashlight. And when Harold

528
00:43:45.880 --> 00:43:51.320
asked him why, Michael said that
his lawnmower was stuck in the mud and

529
00:43:51.360 --> 00:43:55.920
that he needed to dig it out. After Muxlow went and got the tools

530
00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.800
that King asked him for, they
said their brief goodbyes like you normally would

531
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:05.159
do, and Muxlow started walking back
up to his house. But that's when

532
00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:09.639
the calmness of that afternoon was split
as he heard a female voice begin screaming

533
00:44:09.679 --> 00:44:15.800
from the vehicle. Call the cops, Call the cops. Well, Muxlow

534
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:19.960
was really unsure of exactly what was
going on, and he turned around and

535
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.039
began walking down the driveway again,
back towards King. And as he walked

536
00:44:24.039 --> 00:44:29.800
down towards the yelling woman's voice,
he was also asking King, Hey,

537
00:44:29.840 --> 00:44:32.039
Hey, what are you doing.
You know what's going on here. Now,

538
00:44:32.199 --> 00:44:37.760
imagine King standing next to the passenger
side of his vehicle, okay,

539
00:44:37.159 --> 00:44:43.440
and he's bent down, and as
Muxlow gets closer, King lifts his head

540
00:44:43.519 --> 00:44:45.960
from the side of the passenger of
the car and he snaps, nothing,

541
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:50.960
don't worry about it. So Muxlow
kind of stops, like, you know,

542
00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:53.199
what the heck is going on?
And I think it's important here to

543
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:59.400
point out that we all come from
different walks of life, with different experiences,

544
00:44:59.719 --> 00:45:04.400
and we process information differently. So
you're listening to this podcast from the

545
00:45:04.440 --> 00:45:07.760
point of view that you know,
this is a true crime story, but

546
00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:14.239
in true crime and then added into
reality, Muxlow was trying to process what

547
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:19.159
was going on while simultaneously, you
know, evaluating what he knows about his

548
00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:22.599
cousin King, right, So don't
miss that point. We sometimes like to

549
00:45:22.679 --> 00:45:27.599
judge people from our seat that we're
sitting in, not from the realities of

550
00:45:27.920 --> 00:45:30.119
what was happening in that moment.
And so what he knew about his cousin

551
00:45:30.199 --> 00:45:38.320
King was that he was a poor
decision maker and that he sometimes had strange

552
00:45:38.360 --> 00:45:44.159
relationships in the past. So I
know, right now you're probably screaming to

553
00:45:44.199 --> 00:45:46.800
yourself, oh my God, why
didn't you run up in savor? Well,

554
00:45:47.199 --> 00:45:50.599
y'all, he flied out, didn't
know what was going on in the

555
00:45:50.639 --> 00:45:52.280
moment, and I really think,
in all honesty, we have to give

556
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:57.880
him that grace. He knew that
King dated and did some weird shit with

557
00:45:57.920 --> 00:46:01.119
some weird women, and it kind
of was one of those things where I

558
00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:04.440
think he kind of was trying to
figure it out and maybe he needed to

559
00:46:04.440 --> 00:46:07.199
stay in his lane, and he
he didn't quite know what to do.

560
00:46:07.559 --> 00:46:09.159
And that's the reality of it.
He just really didn't know what to do,

561
00:46:09.599 --> 00:46:14.320
so, not wanting to get involved
with whatever craziness was taking place in

562
00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:19.320
the moment, initially, he turned
and he began going back up his driveway

563
00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:24.599
toward his house. But then something
flickered inside of Harold's mind, and curiosity

564
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:29.400
mixed with a hint of something's just
not right here it got the best of

565
00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:32.559
him. So he turned around once
again, and he walked down to the

566
00:46:32.719 --> 00:46:38.440
edge of the street towards King's car, and there he stood in absolute shock

567
00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:45.519
as he watched King crawl over the
console of the Camaro, and then he

568
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:50.639
put his hand on the head of
what appeared to be a woman coming from

569
00:46:50.679 --> 00:46:54.559
the back seat. He said she
had shoulder lenked hair. He put his

570
00:46:54.679 --> 00:47:00.480
hand on her head and shoved her
head back down into the back seat.

571
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:05.239
So obviously, listening to the story, you realize that this is Denise and

572
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.039
that she was attempting to get out
of the car and she's fighting for her

573
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:12.800
life. But Muxlow, at that
point, you know, is looking into

574
00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:15.119
this car, and he also sees
a portion of a knee come up,

575
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:21.920
and as that knee was coming up, King overpowered her and pushed her back

576
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:25.159
down on the floorboard. And all
of this was taking place in literal seconds.

577
00:47:25.480 --> 00:47:30.039
And then King ran around, he
climbed to the driver's seat, and

578
00:47:30.119 --> 00:47:35.360
he sped away. Now, Muxlow
also had a really good relationship with his

579
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:37.960
daughter, and he was really unsure
what to do, so he decided to

580
00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:44.440
call her. And that's why Sabrina
had information about what Muxlow had seen when

581
00:47:44.519 --> 00:47:49.360
she dialed nine one one. But
in the meantime, Muxlow, you know,

582
00:47:49.400 --> 00:47:52.519
Harold Muxlow, he just stood there
processing what he had just seen,

583
00:47:52.760 --> 00:47:55.719
and y'all, he just couldn't let
it go. It wasn't right. It

584
00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:00.840
stirred his soul. So he didn't
know exactly what to do, but he

585
00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:05.239
knew he had to do something,
so he decided to go get his keys,

586
00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:08.639
and he went, and he drove
directly to King's house because he wanted

587
00:48:08.639 --> 00:48:13.880
to investigate the story that had just
been told to him. In Muxlow's mind,

588
00:48:14.119 --> 00:48:17.159
he had to see for hisself if
a did King return to his house,

589
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:22.320
and more importantly, was there a
lawnmower in fact stuck in the yard.

590
00:48:23.920 --> 00:48:29.239
So when Muxlow arrived at King's house, the pit in his stomach and

591
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:31.800
the fear of what he realized in
that moment was enough to make him sick.

592
00:48:32.119 --> 00:48:37.960
Not only was King's green camaro nowhere
in sight, nor was a lawnmower

593
00:48:38.199 --> 00:48:44.239
anywhere in King's yard, I mean
nowhere. Can you imagine the sick feeling

594
00:48:44.320 --> 00:48:49.639
he must have felt when he realized
that he had unwittingly just handed a shovel,

595
00:48:50.199 --> 00:48:55.360
a flashlight, and a gas can
to his cousin, who obviously now

596
00:48:55.400 --> 00:49:04.239
has a female held captive against her
will. So many people will be affected

597
00:49:04.679 --> 00:49:09.000
by King's actions that day. It
was in that moment that Muxlow did what

598
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:13.280
he knew he had to do,
and that's when he placed that anonymous nine

599
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:16.159
to one one call. And there's
a multitude of reasons why he tried to

600
00:49:16.199 --> 00:49:21.320
remain anonymous in that phone call,
and none of it is because he was

601
00:49:21.360 --> 00:49:25.280
complicit in any way. When he
made that phone call, he provided a

602
00:49:25.320 --> 00:49:30.920
description of King's vehicle, and he
informed the dispatcher that a person might be

603
00:49:30.039 --> 00:49:35.320
in the described vehicle against her will. And again, we don't know if

604
00:49:35.360 --> 00:49:38.199
he feared King in that moment or
if it was a mix of other contributing

605
00:49:38.280 --> 00:49:42.719
factors, but I would think it's
safe to say it was probably both.

606
00:49:44.400 --> 00:49:47.159
None of us want to ever believe
that someone that we know, love,

607
00:49:47.239 --> 00:49:52.079
or a family member is capable of
doing something such as taking a girl against

608
00:49:52.119 --> 00:49:55.320
her will, and there's no valid
reason to have done so either, So

609
00:49:55.440 --> 00:50:00.400
for him to be afraid, I
don't think was unbelievable. He was also

610
00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:05.239
concerned, in fact, or so
concerned in fact, that he actually drove

611
00:50:05.360 --> 00:50:08.360
to the home to try to talk
himself out of what he already knew to

612
00:50:08.400 --> 00:50:14.320
be a problem. I also found
in some of my research that Maxlow's wife

613
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:21.079
hated King. She hated him,
and so he was not supposed to be

614
00:50:21.119 --> 00:50:25.239
hanging out with him, nor sharing
tools with him, So staying anonymous would

615
00:50:25.239 --> 00:50:29.320
have been the best way that he
could think of in that moment to try

616
00:50:29.320 --> 00:50:31.320
to help the girl out, but
also to not get in trouble with his

617
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:35.039
own wife. And I know that
kind of sounds comical, but hey,

618
00:50:35.639 --> 00:50:37.920
happy wife, happy life, And
I think he did the best he knew

619
00:50:37.960 --> 00:50:42.480
how in the moment. At nine
pm that evening, So it's been a

620
00:50:42.519 --> 00:50:46.480
couple hours now that Denise is missing. Deputy Christian Weimer and State Trooper Edward

621
00:50:46.599 --> 00:50:53.239
Pope were posted at Toledo Blade Boulevard
near Interstate seventy five watching for a green

622
00:50:53.280 --> 00:50:58.599
Camaro. Remember nine one one had
already put out a series of bolos those

623
00:50:58.599 --> 00:51:01.480
be on the lookouts and near the
whole county, and all of the officers

624
00:51:01.480 --> 00:51:07.280
were looking for this vehicle. And
in the BOLO nine point one is going

625
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:09.719
to give all the pertinent information for
the vehicle. So the officers had a

626
00:51:09.719 --> 00:51:14.719
description of the car, a license
plate number, et cetera. They had

627
00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:20.280
everything that they needed to identify this
car. And based on the information collected

628
00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:23.519
at that point, police were also
certain that they had the right guy that

629
00:51:23.599 --> 00:51:29.199
they were looking for. So included
in the BOLO was not only the vehicle

630
00:51:29.199 --> 00:51:36.679
information, but a driver's license photo
of Denise Amberlee and also King. Both

631
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:42.079
of them were able to be identified
via the pictures that they had, and

632
00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:45.719
at around nine ten PM, a
green Camaro matching the description given in that

633
00:51:45.760 --> 00:51:52.159
Bolo drove from Toledo Blade Boulevard onto
the on ramp for I seventy five southbound.

634
00:51:52.760 --> 00:51:59.239
That's when Trooper Pope recognized the vehicle
immediately and began to follow that Camaro

635
00:52:00.079 --> 00:52:05.239
once it was radioed in. The
officer flipped on his lights and he turned

636
00:52:05.239 --> 00:52:08.559
on his sirens, and the green
Camaro pulled to the side of the road

637
00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:13.760
and it came to a stop.
I don't know about you, but I

638
00:52:13.800 --> 00:52:17.159
can feel the eeriness that that officer
must have felt, and also that painful

639
00:52:17.239 --> 00:52:22.719
hope that when he approached the vehicle
he would see Denise sitting in the car

640
00:52:22.800 --> 00:52:27.800
full on, expecting her to be
scared and crying, but hopefully alive and

641
00:52:27.920 --> 00:52:32.199
right where she had last been seen
by so many people. And based on

642
00:52:32.320 --> 00:52:36.960
the information the officer had at the
time, he conducted what is known as

643
00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:42.199
a felony traffic stop. And these
stops are a little more dangerous in nature

644
00:52:42.199 --> 00:52:45.400
than a typical traffic stop, so
unsure of whether King is armed or if

645
00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:49.639
he has a plan to maybe shoot
it out with the officers. Because he's

646
00:52:49.760 --> 00:52:52.800
obviously involved in a very serious felony, the officer has to keep a safety

647
00:52:53.320 --> 00:52:58.000
in mind. He has to keep
safety in mind of not only himself,

648
00:52:58.400 --> 00:53:01.559
but the people in the vehicle that
he has stopped, because if he becomes

649
00:53:01.639 --> 00:53:05.800
part of the crime scene by injury, then he won't be able to help

650
00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:09.119
Denise in the vehicle. So as
such, he makes the decision to place

651
00:53:09.159 --> 00:53:14.880
his vehicle in what's called it a
tactical position, which frall intins and purposes

652
00:53:14.920 --> 00:53:17.880
means he took an angled approach whenever
he got behind the Camaro, and he

653
00:53:19.039 --> 00:53:22.960
likely was using his engine block as
cover or possible cover. As he got

654
00:53:22.960 --> 00:53:28.159
out of the vehicle and he drew
down on that green Camaro, he had

655
00:53:28.199 --> 00:53:32.880
his weapon pointed at it. If
someone's willing to take someone against their will

656
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.079
and abduct them from their home in
front of their own children, you do

657
00:53:37.159 --> 00:53:42.559
not know what they are capable of
once they're cornered. So Officer Pope,

658
00:53:42.559 --> 00:53:45.639
with his weapon drawn, yelled out
into the night, and he commanded the

659
00:53:45.760 --> 00:53:52.320
driver to exit the vehicle, not
once, not twice, but multiple times.

660
00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:54.920
Get out of the vehicle. Get
out of the vehicle, let me

661
00:53:54.960 --> 00:54:00.039
see your hands. Get out of
the vehicle. Adding to the complete the

662
00:54:00.119 --> 00:54:04.119
stress of the situation. Would it
even shock you if I told you that

663
00:54:04.239 --> 00:54:09.079
King did not comply, He would
not get out of the vehicle. Driver,

664
00:54:09.239 --> 00:54:15.039
Step out of the vehicle, driver, exit the vehicle. The officer

665
00:54:15.079 --> 00:54:17.880
continued to state commands to step out
of the vehicle, to let me see

666
00:54:17.880 --> 00:54:22.159
your hands. He was doing everything
he could in the safest manner he knew

667
00:54:22.199 --> 00:54:27.639
how. But it was only after
the fifth command, under the threat that

668
00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:32.119
Officer Pope stated, I will fire
into the vehicle. Did the door open

669
00:54:32.480 --> 00:54:38.119
and the driver exit. He also
got out of the car backwards when the

670
00:54:38.119 --> 00:54:44.000
officer was watching him get out,
and the officer noted that he was leaning

671
00:54:44.119 --> 00:54:49.760
over the console as he got out, like towards the passenger seat, and

672
00:54:50.280 --> 00:54:53.559
he got out just in a very
awkward fashion. So when Officer Pope got

673
00:54:53.599 --> 00:54:57.920
a complete visual of the driver,
he would say that he identified the driver

674
00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:04.079
as a perfect match to the person
on Michael King's driver's license. Once King

675
00:55:04.199 --> 00:55:08.400
was completely out of the vehicle,
Officer Pope could readily see that King was

676
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:14.559
wet from the waist down. He
also had mud caked on the bottom of

677
00:55:14.599 --> 00:55:20.679
his shoes. He was wearing jeans
and a camouflaged shirt, and once the

678
00:55:20.719 --> 00:55:24.440
handcuffs were on, Officer Pope ran
to the vehicle to help Denise get out,

679
00:55:25.320 --> 00:55:29.000
and as he got to the car
and he looked inside the vehicle,

680
00:55:29.679 --> 00:55:35.719
he saw a gas can on the
passenger seat and a cell phone with a

681
00:55:35.760 --> 00:55:40.440
battery on the passenger side floorboard.
There was a blanket and there was a

682
00:55:40.519 --> 00:55:46.320
ring in the back seat, but
there was no Denise Lee in the vehicle.

683
00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:53.000
Officer Pope searched King's pockets and discovered
a wallet that contained his driver's license

684
00:55:53.039 --> 00:55:58.280
with a photo that matched the picture
of the Bolo, and he also recovered

685
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:02.159
a cell phone from which the battery
and the simcard had been removed. He

686
00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:07.480
also noted that on the infamous vehicle
bra of the Camaro there were hair strands

687
00:56:08.239 --> 00:56:14.280
hanging from it, and those same
hair strands were also seen on the spoiler

688
00:56:14.639 --> 00:56:21.519
with what appeared to be blood spattered
over it and also covering the car bral

689
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:27.159
was a really thick what the officer
described as a sap like substance. So

690
00:56:27.199 --> 00:56:30.480
it doesn't take a genius to figure
out what it looks like may have happened.

691
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:34.719
The vehicle had been in a wooded
area thick enough to spread sap on

692
00:56:34.760 --> 00:56:37.559
the vehicle, and King has been
in an area where there is water and

693
00:56:37.639 --> 00:56:44.960
thick mud with a shovel and a
gas can. So at nine point thirty

694
00:56:45.039 --> 00:56:49.280
pm, police contacted Denise's father,
Rick, and they let him know Michael

695
00:56:49.320 --> 00:56:52.880
had been caught, but that Denise
was not with him. So Michael King

696
00:56:52.920 --> 00:56:59.039
gets hauled to the police station and
the interrogation starts and Michael refuses to admit

697
00:56:59.239 --> 00:57:04.840
any involved in the kidnapping of Denise, and then he spends this insane story

698
00:57:05.159 --> 00:57:09.840
where he starts claiming that he and
Denise were both abducted by a stranger who

699
00:57:09.880 --> 00:57:15.480
had offered them both a ride,
and he says that he was let out

700
00:57:15.519 --> 00:57:22.400
first by the abductor and has no
idea where Denise is, so, in

701
00:57:22.440 --> 00:57:24.639
an effort to get him to tell
the truth, the police bring in his

702
00:57:24.679 --> 00:57:30.559
cousin, Harold Muxlow to talk to
him, but Michael decides to double down

703
00:57:31.039 --> 00:57:37.719
and he sticks to his story even
though Harold Muxlow is there, and he

704
00:57:37.800 --> 00:57:43.360
also refuses a lie detector test,
so police then booked him on a charge

705
00:57:43.360 --> 00:57:47.239
of kidnapping Denise Lee. But y'all, where is she? The blood on

706
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:52.480
the spoiler is going to indicate an
injury, So is she dying? Can

707
00:57:52.559 --> 00:57:58.039
she get help? Is she mortally
wounded? Where is she? For two

708
00:57:58.440 --> 00:58:02.679
long days police search for Denise,
and then on the third day, a

709
00:58:02.719 --> 00:58:07.960
person assisting with the search for Denise
noticed an area of land that was near

710
00:58:07.159 --> 00:58:13.159
an area of Plantation Boulevard in Northport
where the earth appeared to be disturbed.

711
00:58:13.559 --> 00:58:17.360
In really close proximity to the disturbed
area, there was also two piles of

712
00:58:17.440 --> 00:58:22.760
sand to small ones that seemed really
out of place compared to the normal terrain.

713
00:58:22.719 --> 00:58:28.199
And also in those two piles of
sand were what appeared to be blood.

714
00:58:29.119 --> 00:58:32.360
So if this is what police thought
it was, this would probably be

715
00:58:32.400 --> 00:58:37.199
a body recovery, not a rescue. So according to a crime scene technician,

716
00:58:37.239 --> 00:58:40.880
it appeared that the blood had been
on the ground previously and that the

717
00:58:40.920 --> 00:58:45.480
sand had been placed on top of
the blood because the sand had absorbed the

718
00:58:45.480 --> 00:58:50.679
blood. So police called in a
forensics team who carefully started an excavation of

719
00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:55.800
the disturbed area on the morning of
January nineteenth, and as that team slowly

720
00:58:57.239 --> 00:59:02.239
and methodically removed layers of the earth. They readily noticed that there were like

721
00:59:02.440 --> 00:59:07.880
scallop marks, which to the naked
eye looked like they had been made with

722
00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:19.599
a round nosed shovel digging down into
the ground meticulously, they took care and

723
00:59:19.639 --> 00:59:24.039
they removed the dirt. We're at
a depth of three feet one inch.

724
00:59:25.519 --> 00:59:32.280
The team discovered the nude body of
Denise Amberlee lying there in a shallow grave

725
00:59:34.079 --> 00:59:42.360
of muddy water, on her side
and resting in the fetal position. Her

726
00:59:42.400 --> 00:59:49.039
cause of death a single gunshot wound
to the head. The twenty one year

727
00:59:49.079 --> 00:59:53.880
old mother of two and loving wife
of Nathan Lee would never see her babies

728
00:59:53.920 --> 01:00:01.239
grow up. Someone else made that
decision for her. Now, the next

729
01:00:01.320 --> 01:00:05.320
part of this is going to be
the description in detail of what Denise went

730
01:00:05.360 --> 01:00:09.199
through as seen through the evidence at
the scene. It's graphic, so I

731
01:00:09.239 --> 01:00:14.960
want to give you a warning.
But the heinousness of what happened to this

732
01:00:15.079 --> 01:00:20.440
young mother isn't as simple as she
was simply taken and shot. I wish

733
01:00:20.480 --> 01:00:25.280
it were that simple, but according
to the medical examiner, the size of

734
01:00:25.320 --> 01:00:30.199
the wound indicated that the bullet could
not have been larger than one centimeter,

735
01:00:30.920 --> 01:00:35.000
and that the projectile that caused the
injury would have been from either a nine

736
01:00:35.079 --> 01:00:39.920
millimeter or a thirty eight caliber weapon. Based on the autopsy, the wound

737
01:00:40.039 --> 01:00:46.480
was consistent with the gun having been
placed against Denise's head at the time it

738
01:00:46.519 --> 01:00:52.920
was fired. This is an execution. The location of the entrance wound was

739
01:00:52.920 --> 01:00:59.519
to the right of Lee's right eyebrow, and it led the medical examiner to

740
01:00:59.599 --> 01:01:05.519
conclude that the gun would have been
in Denise's field of vision if her eyes

741
01:01:05.559 --> 01:01:10.199
were open. So this means that
this young mother was brought out into a

742
01:01:10.320 --> 01:01:16.000
marsh under the extreme stress of knowing
the chances of seeing her babies and her

743
01:01:16.119 --> 01:01:22.639
husband were fading away, and she
literally looked at the gun that was about

744
01:01:22.880 --> 01:01:30.920
to take her life. The medical
examiner further explained that when the gun was

745
01:01:30.960 --> 01:01:37.599
discharged, Denise's eye exploded, and
he then opined that some of what appeared

746
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:40.679
to be that sap like substance that
was located on the brawl of the Camaro

747
01:01:42.960 --> 01:01:51.119
could actually have been Denise's ocular fluid
as it shot out. There was also

748
01:01:51.360 --> 01:01:55.719
aspirated blood in Denise's lungs, which
indicates that Denise continued to breathe for a

749
01:01:55.760 --> 01:02:02.199
period of time after the wound was
inflicted, and the sheer depravity of what

750
01:02:02.440 --> 01:02:10.599
actually occurred to this young girl is
beyond comprehension and without reason. Along with

751
01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:15.599
Denise's precious body, there would be
more pieces of evidence that would tell more

752
01:02:15.639 --> 01:02:19.920
of the story and what she went
through, including two pieces of duct tape

753
01:02:19.960 --> 01:02:23.519
that were removed from her hair.
During the autopsy, the medical examiner found

754
01:02:23.519 --> 01:02:30.440
bruises on Denise's wrists, and due
to their same general location on each wrist,

755
01:02:30.760 --> 01:02:36.039
the medical examiner concluded that they were
likely caused by ligatures and were also

756
01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:39.920
consistent with defensive defensive injuries, which
means this little girl fault. The medical

757
01:02:39.960 --> 01:02:45.480
examiner noted that young Denise had vaginal
bruising and anal tearing, both of which

758
01:02:45.519 --> 01:02:54.559
were caused by rape trauma. He
concluded from the condition of the injuries that

759
01:02:54.599 --> 01:03:02.679
they were inflicted pre mortem and were
without question non consensual. She didn't want

760
01:03:02.719 --> 01:03:08.880
to be around this man, but
she was forced to be, and semen

761
01:03:08.960 --> 01:03:15.199
recovered from her rape kit matched the
DNA profile of King, to the exclusion

762
01:03:15.519 --> 01:03:22.920
of one quadrillion other Caucasians. She
may have died by that gunshot wound,

763
01:03:23.400 --> 01:03:29.280
and I know the details are hard, but I genuinely believe that the details

764
01:03:29.360 --> 01:03:32.960
are what make this the truth.
She didn't ask for this, She didn't

765
01:03:32.960 --> 01:03:37.719
deserve one ounce of this, and
this depraved human being took it upon himself

766
01:03:38.239 --> 01:03:44.360
to satisfy his own desires and needs
and then snuff out the life of a

767
01:03:44.519 --> 01:03:52.239
kind, gentle young mother with an
entire life ahead of her. Nathan was

768
01:03:52.280 --> 01:03:57.519
such a loving and tender husband,
and to think that an animal of a

769
01:03:57.599 --> 01:04:01.920
human being would take it upon himself
to tear and abuse his precious young wife,

770
01:04:02.519 --> 01:04:09.199
it literally stirs the crazy in me, as I hope it does you.

771
01:04:09.199 --> 01:04:13.519
You know, the true honor of
being dangerous is the person who keeps

772
01:04:13.559 --> 01:04:18.159
it leashed. The dangerous in all
of us should be sleeping, but not

773
01:04:18.280 --> 01:04:23.559
dead. And knowing what this young
girl went through, and then knowing the

774
01:04:23.559 --> 01:04:29.199
family that had to hear the details
yet remained composed, shows what level of

775
01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:39.039
good people were dealing with. It's
unacceptable, it's inexcusable, and it's unspeakable

776
01:04:39.079 --> 01:04:44.800
what that girl went through. With
the body now found, as with any

777
01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:48.760
investigation, the police started to develop
the profile of Michael King to attempt to

778
01:04:48.800 --> 01:04:53.840
figure out why he had targeted Denise. So who was Michael King? Let

779
01:04:53.880 --> 01:04:57.199
me tell you. He was a
thirty six year old who had moved to

780
01:04:57.239 --> 01:05:00.719
Michigan from Florida in two thousand and
two after he was divorced. He was

781
01:05:00.719 --> 01:05:05.280
an unemployed plumber who had not worked
in three months, but he had no

782
01:05:05.440 --> 01:05:11.679
criminal history. He was also the
father of a thirteen year old son.

783
01:05:12.639 --> 01:05:16.000
Police started interviewing those who knew him, including Patty Paul, who owned a

784
01:05:16.000 --> 01:05:20.079
barber shop where Michael would go to
get his hair cut, and she described

785
01:05:20.159 --> 01:05:29.719
Michael as a quiet and modest guy, except for one occasion when he came

786
01:05:29.760 --> 01:05:34.760
into that barbershop with the company of
a young girl. Now Patty, just

787
01:05:34.840 --> 01:05:39.639
in conversation and doing hair, asked
the girl how old she was while making

788
01:05:39.719 --> 01:05:45.800
conversation and the girl said, Oh, I'm fifteen. So Patty assumed,

789
01:05:45.800 --> 01:05:50.280
Oh, this must be a family
member of Michael's. So she was shocked

790
01:05:50.800 --> 01:06:00.119
and horrified when as they left,
Michael King started making out with that fifteen

791
01:06:00.360 --> 01:06:04.480
old girl. Pedophile much where did
this young girl come from? Why is

792
01:06:04.519 --> 01:06:11.159
a grown ass man making out with
a fifteen year old girl? Family was

793
01:06:11.199 --> 01:06:15.480
also asked about Michael King, and
they gave insight to some of his strange

794
01:06:15.480 --> 01:06:21.280
behavior from when he was younger.
The family even said that when King was

795
01:06:21.360 --> 01:06:27.599
seventeen, after watching the movie The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he decided to go

796
01:06:27.639 --> 01:06:31.159
get a chainsaw and he would chase
his family members with it while exhibiting zero

797
01:06:31.400 --> 01:06:38.360
expression on his face. They also
said that when he was thirteen, he

798
01:06:38.480 --> 01:06:42.840
was acting out a cartoon, supposedly, and he almost killed his brother with

799
01:06:42.880 --> 01:06:49.719
a bow and arrow. Even further, a second girlfriend of Michael King's stated

800
01:06:49.800 --> 01:06:54.199
that on January fifteenth, two thousand
and eight, which would have been two

801
01:06:54.360 --> 01:07:00.280
days before Denise's abduction, King's behavior
was becoming so extreme that he even started

802
01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:05.519
telling her that the neighbors were watching
them through the windows. So there's some

803
01:07:05.559 --> 01:07:13.840
stuff wrong with this guy. But
interestingly enough, no one said anything.

804
01:07:15.280 --> 01:07:20.239
This is why I'm so so enthusiastic
about if you see something, say something,

805
01:07:20.559 --> 01:07:25.840
because your gut is telling you something
for a reason, guys. A

806
01:07:25.960 --> 01:07:30.679
co worker of Michael Kings told police
that Michael once exposed himself to her,

807
01:07:30.360 --> 01:07:35.480
and another coworker of his claimed that
he had sexually assaulted her and was touching

808
01:07:35.480 --> 01:07:42.000
her in inappropriate ways on multiple occasions. But no one reported anything. And

809
01:07:42.079 --> 01:07:45.239
I'm not victim blaming here. I'm
just trying to put shine a light and

810
01:07:45.280 --> 01:07:47.880
say, guys, together, as
a collective, people knew something was wrong

811
01:07:47.880 --> 01:07:54.440
with him. So let's go back
to Jane Kowalski real quick. So it's

812
01:07:54.480 --> 01:07:58.360
been a couple of days after Michael's
arrest and she's watching the news on TV

813
01:07:58.679 --> 01:08:01.400
and they show a mugshot of Michael
and Jane's like, you know, what

814
01:08:01.440 --> 01:08:05.119
the fuck this is the guy I
saw in the car. So she calls

815
01:08:05.159 --> 01:08:09.920
the Northport Police to let them know, Hey, if you need anything further

816
01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:13.159
from me, I'm the one that
called in nine one one, you know,

817
01:08:13.280 --> 01:08:16.000
let me know. But there was
a huge problem there because Northport Police

818
01:08:16.000 --> 01:08:21.760
Department knew nothing about what she was
talking about. Unbeknownst to her, when

819
01:08:21.800 --> 01:08:27.520
she made that nine to one one
call, she crossed a jurisdictional boundary during

820
01:08:27.560 --> 01:08:31.000
the call, and her call had
been routed to the Charlotte County Sheriff's office.

821
01:08:32.319 --> 01:08:39.359
After she realized this, she said, oh my god, to herself,

822
01:08:39.359 --> 01:08:43.279
this is probably the problem. So
she reaches out to them and she

823
01:08:43.399 --> 01:08:46.039
gets the same thing. They had
no idea about her nine one one call.

824
01:08:46.239 --> 01:08:53.800
Because the dispatcher's never sent it out
For two more days. Jane was

825
01:08:53.880 --> 01:08:58.199
so upset about what was going on, she continued to call both departments until

826
01:08:58.239 --> 01:09:01.479
finally they were able to try down
her nine to one one call recording.

827
01:09:02.760 --> 01:09:08.479
So they did an internal affairs investigation, and they discovered that the dispatcher that

828
01:09:08.560 --> 01:09:13.199
took the call realized that it could
have been related to Denise's kidnapping, because

829
01:09:13.199 --> 01:09:19.439
remember, her dad worked there.
So the dispatcher shouted it out like across

830
01:09:19.479 --> 01:09:28.640
the aisle to everybody, but she
never entered it into the system. The

831
01:09:28.760 --> 01:09:34.359
dispatcher who who shouted it out admitted
to this, but said, hey,

832
01:09:34.359 --> 01:09:38.079
there was so much chaos going on
because you know, we were looking for

833
01:09:38.119 --> 01:09:41.479
someone who worked for us. Their
daughter was missing. She said, I

834
01:09:41.600 --> 01:09:49.479
just got totally overwhelmed and I forgot
unacceptable, unacceptable, don't care if it

835
01:09:49.520 --> 01:09:56.119
was an accident. That accident,
in my opinion, was a huge indicator

836
01:09:56.159 --> 01:10:00.680
of what ended up in the end. You can't forget. There is forgetting.

837
01:10:00.840 --> 01:10:02.000
If I forget to put grades in
as a teacher, I don't get

838
01:10:02.039 --> 01:10:04.039
to say, oh well, dad, gummet forgot to put it in the

839
01:10:04.039 --> 01:10:08.800
computer. My bad. No,
if you're a doctor and you're in a

840
01:10:08.840 --> 01:10:12.600
hospital, do you forget to give
CPR to somebody when they're asking for help?

841
01:10:12.840 --> 01:10:18.880
No, and they won't keep you
employed there. So how big of

842
01:10:18.920 --> 01:10:24.159
a deal is this? Well,
when Jane's call came in at six thirty

843
01:10:24.159 --> 01:10:32.079
five pm, there was an officer
parked right there alongside Toledo Bend Avenue,

844
01:10:32.560 --> 01:10:40.439
which means that Jane, Michael and
Denise sitting in the passenger seat of the

845
01:10:40.479 --> 01:10:49.039
car drove right past him, right
past him. All that dispatcher had to

846
01:10:49.079 --> 01:10:57.239
do was get on the radio and
do an announcement. The call just came

847
01:10:57.279 --> 01:11:00.560
in, we're looking for this car. That officer would have fought at them

848
01:11:00.279 --> 01:11:04.239
and pulled them over, and Denise
would have been put in his vehicle.

849
01:11:05.880 --> 01:11:10.119
I believe that, I firmly believe
that. I don't think that this is

850
01:11:10.159 --> 01:11:14.319
a police officer, you know,
you know, malpractice. This is a

851
01:11:14.399 --> 01:11:18.600
dispatcher malpractice. It's horrific. You
don't just shout things out across the aisle.

852
01:11:18.840 --> 01:11:23.199
Other people are doing their jobs.
They're not paying attention to what you're

853
01:11:23.199 --> 01:11:28.640
shouting out across the aisle. On
it so unacceptable. So I know you're

854
01:11:28.680 --> 01:11:30.560
like, well, Kelly, what
happened to her. That's horrific. Did

855
01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:32.560
she get fired? Well, yeah, I want to tell you exactly what

856
01:11:32.560 --> 01:11:40.920
happened to her after the internal investigation
was done. Two days off without pay,

857
01:11:41.119 --> 01:11:45.159
two days off without pay. You
tell me how you feel about it.

858
01:11:45.359 --> 01:11:50.199
I know how I feel about it. Was it intentional? No,

859
01:11:51.000 --> 01:11:59.079
But when you fail to do the
absolute minimum due diligence of what your job

860
01:11:59.279 --> 01:12:05.199
entails, two days without pay is
not enough. The police investigators also determined

861
01:12:05.439 --> 01:12:10.479
that Denise did everything she could to
save her own life, even going as

862
01:12:10.479 --> 01:12:15.640
far as to plant clues inside Michael's
vehicle because during over one of the looks

863
01:12:15.640 --> 01:12:17.640
inside of the vehicle, police found
strands of hair that were ripped out by

864
01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:23.439
the root from Denise's own head and
they were hidden under the seats, along

865
01:12:23.479 --> 01:12:28.000
with the ring that Denise always wore
that Nathan had given her. She had

866
01:12:28.039 --> 01:12:32.439
also hidden that in the back seat
of the car. The medical examiners were

867
01:12:32.479 --> 01:12:36.239
able to link the DNA from Michael
to the DNA on the body of Denise,

868
01:12:38.119 --> 01:12:44.720
and the investigation determined that Michael King
aggressively raped Denise multiple times at his

869
01:12:44.840 --> 01:12:49.199
home with the creepy ass mirrors,
as well as doing it again right before

870
01:12:49.239 --> 01:12:55.520
he executed her and put a bullet
in her head. A couple of days

871
01:12:55.560 --> 01:13:00.359
after the body of Denise was recovered, they also recovered a single nine millimeters

872
01:13:00.479 --> 01:13:05.000
shell casing in the grass near that
gravesite where he had tried to bury her,

873
01:13:05.279 --> 01:13:09.560
and a couple hundred yards away from
that grave site, a crime scene

874
01:13:09.560 --> 01:13:14.359
technician recovered a pair of boxer shorts
and guess who they were owned by Nathan

875
01:13:14.479 --> 01:13:18.359
Lee, her husband, but Denise
often wore those. We all do that,

876
01:13:18.479 --> 01:13:20.720
ladies, right, We put on
our husbands shorts. That's what we

877
01:13:20.760 --> 01:13:23.760
do when we want to be comfy, throwing a T shirt, watch some

878
01:13:23.840 --> 01:13:29.000
TV. And they found Nathan's boxer
shorts and a shirt that belonged to Denise

879
01:13:29.039 --> 01:13:32.359
close by. And the boxer shorts
tested positive for sperm cells. And it

880
01:13:32.479 --> 01:13:35.640
wasn't the sperm of her husband,
which would have been completely one hundred percent

881
01:13:35.720 --> 01:13:41.800
okay, it was the DNA profile
of Michael King, to the exclusion three

882
01:13:41.840 --> 01:13:47.760
point five trillion other individuals. And
after his car was towed to that Northport

883
01:13:47.760 --> 01:13:53.600
police department, the shovel with dirt
caked all over the underside of it was

884
01:13:53.640 --> 01:13:58.319
discovered in the back seat, and
Harold Muckslow did positively identify that shovel as

885
01:13:58.319 --> 01:14:01.960
the one he gave King on the
afternoon of January seventeenth. They also found

886
01:14:02.000 --> 01:14:06.199
a palm print on the driver's side
window of the Camaro, which was identified

887
01:14:06.199 --> 01:14:11.880
as belonging to Denise, and DNA
testing on the hair recovered from the outside

888
01:14:11.880 --> 01:14:15.800
of the Camaro matched the known profile
of Denise Lee to the exclusion of one

889
01:14:15.880 --> 01:14:21.520
hundred and ten trillion other Caucasians.
The hair in the back seat was Denise's

890
01:14:21.840 --> 01:14:27.720
to the exclusion of nine trillion other
individuals. The blanket located in the back

891
01:14:27.760 --> 01:14:32.079
seat tested positive for blood and matched
Lee's DNA to the exclusion of nine trillion

892
01:14:32.159 --> 01:14:40.000
other individuals. And the blood on
the outside of that vehicle, that SAP

893
01:14:40.159 --> 01:14:45.239
like substance found on the brawl of
the Camaro matched the known DNA profile of

894
01:14:45.319 --> 01:14:51.439
Denise Amberlee. He did it,
and he did it with extreme malice in

895
01:14:51.479 --> 01:15:00.359
his heart. In April of two
thousand and eight, Nathan ensued the Arlett

896
01:15:00.359 --> 01:15:03.039
County Sheriff's office. And not because
that man wanted money, but he wanted

897
01:15:03.039 --> 01:15:09.199
accountability. And I don't blame him
for it. Rick, Denise's dad,

898
01:15:09.399 --> 01:15:13.039
wanted to ensure that mistakes like this
would not happen to another family, and

899
01:15:13.079 --> 01:15:17.079
he himself pushed for a state law
that would require standardized training for dispatchers and

900
01:15:17.199 --> 01:15:21.359
call center workers. And it was
called the Denise Amberlee Act, and it

901
01:15:21.399 --> 01:15:26.439
was passed into law on April twenty
fourth of two thousand and eight. But

902
01:15:26.520 --> 01:15:30.359
there's a downside to this. It
only provides optional training for dispatchers and it

903
01:15:30.399 --> 01:15:34.920
does not mandate training and certification for
nine one one dispatchers. So to this

904
01:15:35.119 --> 01:15:40.199
day, the family is still pushing
for certification to become mandatory. Do you

905
01:15:40.239 --> 01:15:44.800
know in the state of Louisiana,
to cut hair you have to have more

906
01:15:44.840 --> 01:15:48.960
certification training than to be a dispatcher. Youatta look that up. To cut

907
01:15:49.000 --> 01:15:59.720
hair you need more training than to
be a dispatcher. So then some other

908
01:15:59.760 --> 01:16:03.680
weird stuff started going on. While
King was in jail. He started calling

909
01:16:03.720 --> 01:16:09.600
his brother and started speaking of this
crazy conspiracy that he was afraid And I

910
01:16:09.600 --> 01:16:12.479
want you to hear these words.
What King was afraid of. He was

911
01:16:12.600 --> 01:16:18.159
afraid that he was going to be
raped, beaten, and murdered by the

912
01:16:18.279 --> 01:16:24.840
jailers. Oh, he was afraid
of that. He was afraid of that.

913
01:16:25.119 --> 01:16:28.560
Wow, good to know. I
hope he was afraid, even though

914
01:16:28.600 --> 01:16:32.760
that's a total croc of shit.
And on December fourth of two thousand and

915
01:16:32.880 --> 01:16:39.319
nine, the trial judge sentenced King
for the murder of Denise Amberlee, stating

916
01:16:39.560 --> 01:16:47.279
that the murder was especially heinous,
atrocious, and cold and calculated. The

917
01:16:47.319 --> 01:16:55.119
trial court concluded that the aggravating circumstances
established in this case substantially outweighed the mitigating

918
01:16:55.119 --> 01:16:59.640
circumstances, meaning that the cruelty that
he showed outweighed anything that might say he

919
01:16:59.680 --> 01:17:03.000
was or sad or whatever bullshit reason
he came up with, and therefore the

920
01:17:03.039 --> 01:17:08.800
finding of guilt by the jury with
a vote of twelve to zero. The

921
01:17:08.880 --> 01:17:14.800
judge imposed a sentence of death upon
Michael King. But there's been no swift

922
01:17:14.960 --> 01:17:18.520
justice here, no swift carrying out
of that sentence, because as of today,

923
01:17:18.720 --> 01:17:23.800
he still sits in the Union Correctional
Institution in Rayford, Florida, and

924
01:17:23.840 --> 01:17:30.640
there's no indication as to when his
death sentence will be carried out. There's

925
01:17:30.760 --> 01:17:35.600
no doubt that what Denise experienced was
beyond horrible, and I hope that this

926
01:17:35.680 --> 01:17:43.000
episode was able to capture the abject
terror that she was experiencing. Her voice

927
01:17:43.039 --> 01:17:46.079
was panicked, and her frantic please
to nine one one, the dispatcher asking

928
01:17:46.119 --> 01:17:51.000
for help and to King himself to
bring her back home would ultimately prove fruitless.

929
01:17:51.680 --> 01:17:57.239
This murder was unquestionably cold and cruel, and it was motivated by an

930
01:17:57.319 --> 01:18:01.439
evil man with a selfish lust at
the front of his mind. Denise was

931
01:18:01.479 --> 01:18:06.359
held captive by King for over four
hours, and as noted in the audios,

932
01:18:06.399 --> 01:18:12.880
you heard, rarely to people get
to experience firsthand with a deceased victim

933
01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:16.399
encountered. But in this case it's
painfully available, and I've given it to

934
01:18:16.479 --> 01:18:21.840
you. No amount of mitigating circumstances, in my humble opinion, will ever

935
01:18:21.960 --> 01:18:27.640
outweigh the cruelty displayed that day,
and so many victims were left in the

936
01:18:27.680 --> 01:18:32.119
wake of this unconsciable act, and
unfortunately including a lot of kids. King's

937
01:18:32.119 --> 01:18:35.479
own son, who was thirteen at
the time of the penalty phase of his

938
01:18:35.560 --> 01:18:42.199
trial, amazingly continued to be an
excellent student in Michigan, and although he

939
01:18:42.319 --> 01:18:47.560
experienced more trauma in that time than
any kid should ever have to, he

940
01:18:48.119 --> 01:18:54.600
powered through. He thankfully received counseling
to help him cope with his not only

941
01:18:54.600 --> 01:18:59.640
his own mother's departure, but his
father's unspeakable actions. But even more devastating

942
01:18:59.800 --> 01:19:02.520
is that the fact that Denise never
got to see her sons grow up,

943
01:19:02.800 --> 01:19:08.279
nor did they ever hear her voice
or feel her loving touch ever again.

944
01:19:08.960 --> 01:19:13.520
And they're teenagers now and they've been
lovingly cared for by their father. But

945
01:19:13.560 --> 01:19:19.079
no matter what Denise has missed out, she deserved those years. And I'm

946
01:19:19.159 --> 01:19:24.119
friends with Nathan through social media,
and I can tell you this, the

947
01:19:24.199 --> 01:19:30.720
boys look like Denise a daily reminder. I'm sure that Nathan painfully endures each

948
01:19:30.840 --> 01:19:34.079
day when he sees them. But
also what a gift. In a weird

949
01:19:34.119 --> 01:19:39.119
way, Denise is still there.
She's here, y'all, and her kids

950
01:19:39.119 --> 01:19:44.359
are evidence of a precious life that
still lives on through them. So King

951
01:19:44.439 --> 01:19:48.199
couldn't kill every part of her,
no matter how hard he tried. So

952
01:19:48.239 --> 01:19:54.399
I guess when you have to abduct
the defenseless girl half your size to express

953
01:19:54.479 --> 01:19:59.199
your power and your control, that
says a lot about you. So King

954
01:19:59.319 --> 01:20:02.399
continues to sa sit on death Row, an example of someone who thought he

955
01:20:02.479 --> 01:20:09.640
was smarter, like a Champagne in
a tall glass, when in reality,

956
01:20:09.920 --> 01:20:14.039
King's nothing more but a lukewarm glass
of pists and a plastic cup