{"id":379917,"date":"2010-03-02T10:46:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T15:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8ec3c2e970b"},"modified":"2010-03-02T10:46:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T15:46:01","slug":"chelsea-kings-father-believes-missing-teen-is-still-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/379917","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea King’s father believes missing teen is still alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Possible<\/img><\/p>\n

The father of a San Diego teen missing since last week said this morning that he believes she is still alive despite the arrest of a sex offender in connection with her disappearance.<\/p>\n

Chelsea King,<\/a> 17, a high school senior, went for a jog
\nThursday on the hilly trails around Lake Hodges in northern San Diego
\nCounty and has not been seen since.<\/p>\n

"Until I hear differently, I believe she’s alive," father Brent King told CBS News Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

The King family, along with hundreds
\nof law enforcement authorities and volunteers, plan to continue their search today for the blond, blue-eyed girl. But their hopes of finding her alive dimmed
\nafter police arrested a registered sex offender Sunday evening outside
\na Mexican restaurant near the popular recreational area.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The suspect, John Albert Gardner III<\/a>,
\n30, was arrested on suspicion of murder and rape after investigators
\nfound several pieces of unspecified evidence. Gardner, 6 feet 2 and weighing 230 pounds, pleaded guilty in 2000 to molestation
\ncharges involving a 13-year-old girl.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nA psychiatrist at the time recommended that Gardner be given the
\nmaximum sentence, which was at least 10 years in prison. San Diego County
\nprosecutors recommended a six-year term. "It is my opinion that [the
\ndefendant would be a continued danger to underage [girls] in the
\ncommunity," said the psychiatrist in the court documents.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAuthorities were not sure Monday how much time Gardner actually served
\nin prison. According to the Megan’s Law website, he lives in Lake
\nElsinore in Riverside County, but was visiting his mother in San Diego
\nCounty last week. At the time of his arrest, Gardner’s pants were damp,
\nauthorities said.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIt was not clear Monday if Gardner was providing any information
\nregarding Chelsea’s whereabouts. Authorities were focused on the 14
\nmiles of shoreline of the shallow lake, where FBI dive teams on rafts
\nscoured the murky water. Hundreds more volunteers searched the desolate
\ntrails winding around the lake.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"It’s rugged terrain: sloughs, rocks, vegetation, hills. It’s not easy,
\nbut it’s not deterring them," said Jan Caldwell, a spokesman for the
\nSan Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nFriends and relatives described Chelsea as an outgoing overachiever
\nwith a passion for literature who had been accepted to several
\ncolleges. She played French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony and
\ntutored other students.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nHer parents, who live in a gated community, didn’t like her to jog
\nalone. It was one of the few rules they had to set for their daughter.
\n"They wanted her to study less and have more fun," Mikkelson said.<\/p>\n

–Richard Marosi in San Diego<\/p>\n

Photo: Volunteers examine a backpack discovered near Lake Hodges. Friends and
\nrelatives described Chelsea as an outgoing overachiever with a passion
\nfor literature who had been accepted to several colleges. Credit: Don Bartletti \/ Los Angeles Times<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The father of a San Diego teen missing since last week said this morning that he believes she is still alive despite the arrest of a sex offender in connection with her disappearance. Chelsea King, 17, a high school senior, went for a jog Thursday on the hilly trails around Lake Hodges in northern San […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}