Murder of Denise Amber Lee - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Denise Amber Lee was murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed by Michael King on January 17, 2008; the crime followed his kidnapping

Kidnapping

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

and raping

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

her earlier in the day. Lee and several others had attempted to call for help through the 9-1-1

9-1-1

9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...

system but there was a lack of communication and the police and other emergency services arrived too late. Five 9-1-1 calls were made that day, including one by Lee herself from her abductor's phone and one from a witness, Jane Kowalski, the latter giving a detailed account of events as they unfolded before her. Failings were later found in the way the 9-1-1 operators handled Kowalski's call and further failings were later discovered countrywide in the 9-1-1 system. The Denise Amber Lee Act was passed unanimously by the Florida Legislature

Florida Legislature

The Florida State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Florida Constitution states that "The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida," composed of a Senate...

on April 24, 2008. This act provides for voluntary training for 9-1-1 operatives. Lee's family continue to lobby for new law, called simply Denise's Law, to be passed; this would recommend mandatory training and certification for all 9-1-1 dispatchers. The Denise Amber Lee Foundation was established in June 2008 to promote such training as well as to raise public awareness of the issues involved. Michael King has been sentenced to the death penalty.

Denise Amber Lee

Denise Amber Lee (née Goff) (August 6, 1986 – January 17, 2008) was born in Englewood, Florida

Englewood, Florida

Englewood is a census-designated place in Charlotte and Sarasota counties in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 16,196.Englewood also was the original name for Vineland, Florida...

. Lee was the daughter of Sgt. Rick Goff, of the sheriff's office in Charlotte County, Florida

Charlotte County, Florida

Charlotte County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 141,627. In 2005, the population of the MSA was 154,030.The U.S. Census Bureau 2007 estimate for the county was 152,814...

and Sue Goff. Not long after their first date, Lee's future husband, Nathan, bought her a $40 heart shaped ring which she never removed, though it was later discovered in King's car.

Michael King

Michael King (born 1971) trained as a plumber but had been unemployed for several months previous to the crime and was facing foreclosure on his home in North Port. He is divorced. He has a low IQ and family members described to the court how King had had an accident while sledding as a child; an expert witness described the subsequent injury as a "divot" in his brain. He did NOT die from the "divot" in his brain

The Crime

On January 17, 2008, Michael King abducted Denise Amber Lee from her home. He drove her around, tied up in his vehicle, for quite some time; several people witnessed the journey. Later, King raped and murdered Lee and buried her in a shallow grave. Her body was found on January 19, 2008. King was later found guilty of kidnapping, sexual battery and first degree murder; he was sentenced to the death penalty and is presently detained awaiting execution.

Nathan Lee was at work that Thursday (January 17, 2008); his wife, Denise Lee, was at home with their young children. She called him at 11:21 a.m., the last time the two would speak. Among the topics discussed was the nice weather: the couple decided that the windows should be opened at their home. She said she had already opened them. Nathan Lee arrived home around 3:30 p.m. to find the windows closed, his wife missing and the children home alone in the same crib. This prompted him to make his 9-1-1 call, the first of the day related to this crime.

A neighbor saw a car arrive at Lee’s home around 2 p.m. The car was later identified as Michael King's dark green 1994 Chevy Camaro.

Lee was bound and taken to King's home in North Port, Florida, where he set up what the prosecution in the trial referred to as a "rape room". Duct tape

Duct tape

Duct tape, or duck tape, is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure sensitive tape often sealed with polyethylene. It is very similar to gaffer tape but differs in that gaffer tape was designed to be cleanly removed, while duct tape was not. It has a standard width of and is generally silver or black...

and other evidence was found in this room.

She was then taken to King's cousin Harold Muxlow's home, where King then borrowed a shovel, a gas can, and a flashlight. Lee was able to take King's cell phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

while he was out of the vehicle and dial 9-1-1. Her desperate 9-1-1 call was released during the trial, which caused a lot of reaction by the public. The operator obtained information from Lee which later helped convict King. The call is several minutes long with Lee begging for her life saying “please” 17 times. She answered the call taker's questions while pretending to talk to King. Judge Deno Economou, the presiding judge over the murder trial, noted how unusual and rare it was to hear a murder victim’s last words. Prosecutors said later that Lee had given them their best evidence that she was taken against her will, she did not know her abductor and her subsequent murder was premeditated. Lee was unable to give her exact location. Police were unable to trace the location of the caller (Denise Amber Lee) because it was made on a prepaid wireless phone.

Around 6:30 p.m., a witness, Jane Kowalski, heard screaming from a car next to hers at a stoplight. Kowalski called 9-1-1 to report what she believed to be a child abduction. The call was allegedly mishandled however, and no police were dispatched to the area by Charlotte County Dispatch.

Several BOLOs (Be On Look Out reports) were issued by the Florida Highway Patrol

Florida Highway Patrol

The Division of the Florida Highway Patrol is a division of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the law enforcement agency charged with ensuring the safety of the highways and roads of the state.-History:...

and the North Port Police Department to 6 surrounding counties starting at 4:59 p.m. However, Charlotte County Sheriff's Office deputies were unaware of the BOLOs. Police were never dispatched into the area where Kowalski had reported the sighting of King. According to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs Report #08-01-003 the Charlotte County Dispatch Center was understaffed. Deputies in the field testified they were not made aware of a green Camaro until 6:45 p.m. and only after Sgt Goff had listened to his daughter's call.

At some unknown time later, King shot Denise Lee in the head and buried her naked body in a 4 ft.deep hole. King then proceeded to bury other evidence in areas close by.

At 9:15 p.m., roughly six hours after Lee was first reported missing, Florida Highway Patrol Officer Eddie Pope pulled King's Camaro over as King tried to enter I-75 from Toledo Blade and only a short distance from where he buried her.

Lee was found on January 19, 2008 off Toledo Blade, North Port, less than five miles from where Kowalski last saw her.

The Trial of Michael King

The trial of the State of Florida vs. Michael L. King officially began on August 24, 2009. Lead prosecuting attorney

Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...

was State Assistant Lon Arend, lead defense attorney

Attorney at law

An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor and lawyer...

was Public Defender

Public defender

The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...

Carolyn Schlemmer. Presiding judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

is Hon. Deno Economou, and the trial took place in Sarasota County, Florida

Sarasota County, Florida

Sarasota County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2008 estimate for the county was 372,057. Its county seat is Sarasota, Florida....

.

The prosecution presented DNA and other forensic evidence

Forensic identification

Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts"....

, including hair and personal articles of Lee's found around and within the Camaro, King's home, and the grave site. Other evidence included King's change of clothing, duct tape, a shell casing, the shovel, and King's cell phone. The prosecution also called eye witnesses, including Jane Kowalski and King's cousin. The defense attempted to provide reasonable doubt by bringing to the jury's attention of evidence tampering and contamination, and by suggesting that one of King's friends had committed the crime. The judge did not approve of the latter defense. The defense rested without calling any witnesses.

On August 28, 2009 after deliberating for only two hours and five minutes, the jury found King guilty of kidnapping

Kidnapping

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

with intent to commit a felony, sexual battery

Battery (crime)

Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the fear of such contact.In the United States, criminal battery, or simply battery, is the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact...

, and first degree murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

. On September 4, 2009, at 2:45 pm, the jury handed down the recommended sentence of death, in a unanimous 12–0 vote.

The 9-1-1 calls

In total, five 9-1-1 calls related to Lee's disappearance were placed by five different people between 3:29 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on January 17, 2008. Four were routed to operatives in Sarasota County, Florida

Sarasota County, Florida

Sarasota County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2008 estimate for the county was 372,057. Its county seat is Sarasota, Florida....

; the other— placed by Jane Kowalski and the fourth in the sequence— was routed to operatives in neighboring Charlotte County, Florida

Charlotte County, Florida

. The one routed to Charlotte County was allegedly mishandled.

Nathan Lee placed the first call at 3:29 p.m. after he became concerned that his wife was missing from their family home, leaving their children home alone. Nathan Lee said, "My kids were in the house and I don't know where she is". This call, along with her father Sgt. Rick Goff's intervention, resulted in a countywide search for Lee. The search was eventually widened to include neighboring counties.

The second call was placed by Lee at 6:14 p.m. from her abductor's cellphone. This call was presented by the state prosecutors as part of the key evidence at King's trial. Lee had left the line open as she spoke with King. She had attempted to cause King to implicate himself and had surreptitiously dropped clues into the conversation for the listening operatives as she spoke.

At 6:23 p.m., Sabrina Muxlow— daughter of King's cousin, Harold Muxlow— placed the third 9-1-1 call. She was concerned that King appeared to have a girl tied up in the back of his vehicle. She said, "He came over to my dad's house" and "borrowed a shovel, a gas tank, and something else". Sabrina Muxlow explained further that when Lee had tried to escape "my dad's cousin went and put her back in the car".

Jane Kowalski's call was placed by cellphone at 6:30 p.m. while she was driving on U.S. Route 41

U.S. Route 41

U.S. Route 41 is a north–south United States Highway that runs from Miami, Florida to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miami, was U.S...

. "I was at a stoplight and a man pulled up next to me and there was a child screaming in the car", she said. She explained further that she heard "terrifying screaming" and that she had "never heard anything like that". Kowalski believed that she was witnessing a child abduction. She also identified the car as a Camaro but stated the color as blue (rather than green). She stated that she had made eye contact with the driver after which "a hand came up and started banging on the passenger window". Since she had crossed the county line into Charlotte, the call was routed to that latter state's 9-1-1 call center. It was only after she saw the news the following day that she realized she had witnessed the abduction of Lee rather than that of a child. When she called the North Port Police Department to explain who she was and that she had made a 9-1-1 call, it became apparent that the call had not been forwarded to the correct authorities. It is this call that is alleged to have been mishandled due to the fact that the operatives neglected to file it correctly. This call was also presented by the state prosecutors as part of the key evidence at King's trial. Although Kowalski’s call lasted 9 minutes and included cross streets, Charlotte County Dispatch failed to dispatch a car. Furthermore, the dispatcher did not enter Kowalski’s information into the CAD

Computer-assisted dispatch

Computer-assisted dispatch, also called Computer Aided Dispatch , is a method of dispatching taxicabs, couriers, field service technicians, or emergency services assisted by computer. It can either be used to send messages to the dispatchee via a mobile data terminal and/or used to store and...

until 6:42 p.m., twelve minutes after Kowalski's call had begun.

The final call was placed by Harold Muxlow at 6:50 p.m. He was vague in his account and attempted to hide his identity, but later investigations revealed that he was indeed the caller. He said "[I am] not sure exactly what the emergency is" but explained that he felt that some one had been taken: "It didn't look like she wanted to be there". He confirmed that his cousin had borrowed a gas can, a shovel, and a flashlight; he was told, he stated, that these were to be used to fix a broken lawnmower stuck in a ditch. During the call, Muxlow said he had seen a woman in the car struggling with King; the woman had got out of the car at one point and shouted "Call the cops" to which King replied "Don't worry about it" as he pushed her back into the vehicle and drove off. Muxlow testified during the murder trial and gave crucial evidence identifying the voice talking to Denise during her 9-1-1 call as Michael King.

The Denise Amber Lee Foundation

Due to Jane Kowalski's mishandled 9-1-1 call, more research revealed several issues countrywide in the 9-1-1 system, so a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

with the mission to "To promote and support public safety through uniform training, standardized protocols, defined measurable outcomes, and technological advances in the 9-1-1 system." was established in June 2008 in Lee's name. Her husband, father and father-in-law continue to manage the Foundation, along with many other notable community leaders from the region.

Subsequent Florida State Law

On April 24, 2008, the Senate Bill, CS/SB 1694, concerning the Denise Amber Lee Act, which provides for voluntary training for 9-1-1 operatives, was passed unanimously by the Florida Legislature

Florida Legislature

. The Act's passage into state law continues.

House Bill CS/HB 355 and Senate Bill CS/SB 742 are being considered at present in Tallahassee to address the fact that 9-1-1 operatives in the state are not required to undertake mandatory training. Lee's husband Nathan Lee and her father Rick Goff continue to lobby in Tallahassee to get Denise's Law passed, which would recommend mandatory training and certification for all 9-1-1 dispatchers.

A separate bill, sponsored by Representative Robert C. Schenck

Robert C. Schenck (politician)

Robert C. Schenck, III is a Spring Hill, Florida Republican politician who serves as a Representative in the House of Representatives of the U.S. state of Florida. He was first elected to the Florida House in 2006, and was re-elected in 2008....

, that would place significant limitations on 9-1-1 calls when played in public, is being considered by the Florida Legislature. The Lee family has spoken against this bill. The Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist

Charlie Crist

Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...

, has said that he is "not favorably inclined toward the bill". The bill was later dropped.

External links

Official websites and relevant blogs – The non-profit organization started by Lee's widower.

Peggy Lee's blog "toosad4words"