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ESCONDIDO: Amber's father recalls secret meeting with district attorney
Dubois forms group dedicated to finding missing children
April 19, 2010 10:32 pm
<snipped>
On Thursday, Maurice "Moe" Dubois waited five painfully long hours ---- and came away with more revelations than he possibly could have seen coming. At 9 a.m. that day came a call from Escondido police, requesting his presence at 2:15 p.m. for a secret meeting with San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Dubois said on Monday. It was an odd time, 2:15 p.m., he remembered thinking. Odd location, too: a parking lot a couple of blocks from the county courthouse. He was told to look for a man in a red Ford Taurus.
Dubois had become numb to the unusual in the months spent investigating the disappearance of his daughter, Amber Dubois, 14, whose remains were found last month. But this meeting was different. He knew something big was coming. The man in the red sedan took Dubois, his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca Smith, and Amber's mother, Carrie McGonigle, to a parking garage under the Hall of Justice, the courthouse in downtown San Diego. Avoiding the main entrance to the courthouse, as well as public scrutiny, the man escorted them upstairs to the district attorney's main offices.
Dumanis was there. So was Deputy District Attorney Kristen Spieler, who was prosecuting John Albert Gardner III, the registered sex offender accused of killing one teen and suspected of killing Amber. Also at the table, Dubois said, were Escondido police Chief Jim Maher and Lt. Bob Benton. "We thought for sure they were going to tell us they were charging somebody," Dubois said. "But it wasn't at all what we thought it was going to be." That's when Dubois learned Gardner had led police to his daughter's remains. And that Gardner had confessed to the killing. Raping her. Stabbing her. All inside of 90 minutes. And then he buried her. It was the first time Dubois heard how his daughter died, although authorities still haven't told him how the hulking Gardner got the freckled freshman into his car. They did tell him, though, that when Gardner confessed to killing Amber, he said that Dubois' statements at a March 3 news conference had influenced his decision to come clean.
Court documents show that Gardner and his attorney signed the proposed plea deal on April 5 ---- 10 days before Dubois met with Dumanis. Dubois read the statement that would serve as the basis for Gardner's guilty plea, three paragraphs that included the words: "I took Amber Dubois to a remote area of Pala where I raped and stabbed her." Dumanis was thinking of taking the deal. And she wanted input from Amber's parents, Dubois said. Dumanis met with Amber's family after meeting separately with Chelsea's parents, Kelly and Brent King.
Amber's disappearance has shaped her father's life. During the year before her remains were found, he and Smith started More Kids, an organization dedicated to finding missing children. The group ---- at www.morekids.org ---- will work to support victims and families of missing kids "whether they need a Web site put up or just a hug," he said. It will also help coordinate search efforts when kids go missing. Public safety and education are also a part of the master plan. He also hopes to reform legislation dealing with search efforts for missing children. Not sweeping changes, Dubois said, but rather "fixing the leaks." "We have been through what we have been through, and we have seen flaws in the system," Dubois said. "Amber was my only child. I want to protect the child of everybody out there."
*Much more at link!
Article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_383d8fb4-8e0f-5eb9-a9b1-4d01919236ad.html
Dubois forms group dedicated to finding missing children
April 19, 2010 10:32 pm
<snipped>
On Thursday, Maurice "Moe" Dubois waited five painfully long hours ---- and came away with more revelations than he possibly could have seen coming. At 9 a.m. that day came a call from Escondido police, requesting his presence at 2:15 p.m. for a secret meeting with San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Dubois said on Monday. It was an odd time, 2:15 p.m., he remembered thinking. Odd location, too: a parking lot a couple of blocks from the county courthouse. He was told to look for a man in a red Ford Taurus.
Dubois had become numb to the unusual in the months spent investigating the disappearance of his daughter, Amber Dubois, 14, whose remains were found last month. But this meeting was different. He knew something big was coming. The man in the red sedan took Dubois, his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca Smith, and Amber's mother, Carrie McGonigle, to a parking garage under the Hall of Justice, the courthouse in downtown San Diego. Avoiding the main entrance to the courthouse, as well as public scrutiny, the man escorted them upstairs to the district attorney's main offices.
Dumanis was there. So was Deputy District Attorney Kristen Spieler, who was prosecuting John Albert Gardner III, the registered sex offender accused of killing one teen and suspected of killing Amber. Also at the table, Dubois said, were Escondido police Chief Jim Maher and Lt. Bob Benton. "We thought for sure they were going to tell us they were charging somebody," Dubois said. "But it wasn't at all what we thought it was going to be." That's when Dubois learned Gardner had led police to his daughter's remains. And that Gardner had confessed to the killing. Raping her. Stabbing her. All inside of 90 minutes. And then he buried her. It was the first time Dubois heard how his daughter died, although authorities still haven't told him how the hulking Gardner got the freckled freshman into his car. They did tell him, though, that when Gardner confessed to killing Amber, he said that Dubois' statements at a March 3 news conference had influenced his decision to come clean.
Court documents show that Gardner and his attorney signed the proposed plea deal on April 5 ---- 10 days before Dubois met with Dumanis. Dubois read the statement that would serve as the basis for Gardner's guilty plea, three paragraphs that included the words: "I took Amber Dubois to a remote area of Pala where I raped and stabbed her." Dumanis was thinking of taking the deal. And she wanted input from Amber's parents, Dubois said. Dumanis met with Amber's family after meeting separately with Chelsea's parents, Kelly and Brent King.
Amber's disappearance has shaped her father's life. During the year before her remains were found, he and Smith started More Kids, an organization dedicated to finding missing children. The group ---- at www.morekids.org ---- will work to support victims and families of missing kids "whether they need a Web site put up or just a hug," he said. It will also help coordinate search efforts when kids go missing. Public safety and education are also a part of the master plan. He also hopes to reform legislation dealing with search efforts for missing children. Not sweeping changes, Dubois said, but rather "fixing the leaks." "We have been through what we have been through, and we have seen flaws in the system," Dubois said. "Amber was my only child. I want to protect the child of everybody out there."
*Much more at link!
Article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_383d8fb4-8e0f-5eb9-a9b1-4d01919236ad.html
