Going West: True Crime - Denise Amber Lee // 63

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

In 2008, a 21-year-old mother of 2 was abducted from her home in North Port, Florida. While in the car with her captor, she was able to make a crucial call to 911 in hopes that they'd track her location. But when the local Sheriff's Office dropped the ball, her life was at risk. Numerous other calls came into the station that afternoon as police covered 3 separate counties looking for this young woman, praying that they would find her alive. This is the story of Denise Amber Lee. ________ BetterHelp is an online counseling service that connects you with professional counselors in a private online environment at an affordable cost. Going West listeners get 10% off their first month of BetterHelp using code GOINGWEST. Visit betterhelp.com/goingwest and simply fill out the questionnaire to help them assess your need and match you with your perfect counselor. Try BetterHelp today! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Heath has been sick over the past few days, so I'm going to be the one telling most of today's story, but he's going to be right here with all of us and saying as much as he can today. Yes, thank you guys so much for your patience. I'm a little under the weather, but you know, Daphne's got this. I got this.

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So thank you guys so much for helping us out. If you guys want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. Also, real quick announcement. We have some new merch up for you guys. We have some new sweatshirts, hats, and some t-shirts, and other things. So go over to our website goingwestpod.com. Click the shop tab and yeah, pick yourself up some GW merch. Not gonna lie, we got some cute stuff in. I'm actually wearing my favorite

pullover right now. It's the black going west pullover and I've been living in it this whole quarantine. I'm not gonna lie. And also remember if you guys are the $10 patron, you guys will have 25% off of all merch items, so remember that as well. Alright guys, this is episode 63 of going West, so let's get into it. In 2008, a 21-year-old mother of two was abducted from her home in Northport, Florida. While in the car with her captor, she was able to make a crucial call to 911, in hopes that they track her location. But when the local sheriff's office dropped the ball, her life was at risk.

Numerous other calls came into the station that afternoon, as police covered three separate counties looking for this young woman, praying that they would find her alive. This is the story of Denise Amber Lee. The Denise Amber Goff was born on August 6, 1986 in Inglewood, Florida to sue and rick Goff. Inglewood is a quiet beach town located along Florida's southwest Gulf Coast with a population of around 14,000 people. Denise's father Rick worked as a sergeant for the Sheriff's Office throughout her childhood and he raised his family within the Methodist Church. In 2004, Denise graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lemmon Bay High School.

So she was an honor student and had a very high GPA. Denise was definitely more of a quiet bookworm growing up. She was incredibly smart and loved learning. While she was in high school, she met Nathan Lee, who goes by Nate. He was two years older than her and he graduated in 2002, and he was definitely more of like a cool guy. He loved sports, and they were complete opposites. But Denise really developed a liking to him. So when she was a senior and he was out of school, she asked him out. They kept in touch over the years and they went on a date.

To their surprise, it went really well, and with Valentine's Day around the corner, he bought her a $40 ring with a heart on it. Denise and Nate fell in love, and about a year and a half into dating on August 20, 2005, the two got married at first United Methodist Church in Puntagorda, Florida. It was very important to both of them to have a family together, so they were quickly expecting their first child who ended up being a son. They named him Noah. About two years later, they had another son, Adam.

Since Denise was busy raising children, she didn't pursue her college degree as she had originally planned and she didn't pursue her college degree as she had originally planned and she didn't work. Nate had three jobs to support the family, and although that was hard on all of them, they surrounded themselves with a lot of love and he and Denise were so happy to be raising children together. They rented a house in Northport, Florida, which was the town that neighboured their hometown of Inglewood. They liked the area because it was rural, close to the beach, and most importantly, close to their families. But Denise's dad wasn't too happy about them living there. The house was brand new with three bedrooms, but he described it as

being, quote, in the sticks. Much of the area was under construction, but it was all they could really afford at the time, and Denise and Nate were just happy that they could have a new home to raise their family in. The two were incredibly close, they spoke on the phone as much as they could throughout the day while Nate was at work. So while Denise was home with the kids, you know, he would call her or she would call him and they would just keep up to date with each other throughout the day. But on Thursday, January 17th, 2008, things were different. It was a fairly rainy morning when Nate left the house to work his electric meter reading

job. That day, Denise stayed home with the boys, as usual. At this time, Denise was 21 years old, Nate was 23, Noah was 2, and Adam was just 6 months old at 11.09 a.m. Nate called Denise to say hi at the time of this call It was about 72 degrees Fahrenheit or 22 degrees Celsius So even though it was kind of drizzling that day it was still pretty warm and very humid like the humidity was in 90 percent I've never been to Florida, but I could imagine the humidity there. Yeah, I've been to Florida once and it was very humid. So they had the air conditioning on a lot even in the winter months because in January it's winter in the United States. So they just kind of had the AC running as much as they could to try to get the humidity out of the house. So during Nate's call with Denise,

he told her to make sure that the windows were open and to turn the air off so they could save money. And she told him that she had already done that since it was such a nice day outside. They got off the phone and Nate continued to work throughout the day until around 3pm. When he got off work, he called Denise, but she didn't answer the phone. This was unusual for her because she always answered the phone. I mean, like I said, she was home all day, so Nate kept calling her, but she wasn't answering any of his calls. Within the 25-minute drive home, he'd called her eight times. He knew something had to be wrong, but he didn't let himself overreact.

There, you know, obviously could be a ton of reasons why she wasn't answering the phone. Right, exactly. And probably in this situation, you're always kind of thinking the worst and hoping for the best. Well, even if I call you and you don't answer, I'm like, where is he wise in answering? You kind of just sometimes assume for the worst. Who knows why? Who knows why we do that? You know, she could have been in the shower or she was just playing with the boys and her

phone was a way or to the side. I mean, I got a call this morning and my phone was away or to the side. I mean I got a call this morning and my phone was in my pocket and I just didn't feel it so things happened. But when Nate turned around the corner onto their street, he began to panic a bit. He noticed that the windows and the curtains were shut. And like I just said, hours ago Denise said that they were open. When he ran inside the house, he noticed that it was hot and that the windows were not latched shut. Whenever they closed the windows, they always locked them.

So he ran around the house looking for Denise and the kids, but he didn't see his wife anywhere. He did find the boys laying together in the same crib, which they never did since Adam was 6 months old and Noah was 2 years old. He then saw that Denise's cell phone and her keys were laying on a chair. So then he knew something was wrong. Nate immediately called 911 at 3.29 pm. So Nate explained to the police that his kids were in the house alone and he had no idea where his wife was. They asked Nate if there were

any signs of forced entry and if any money was gone. But Nate explained that everything looked normal except for the fact that Denise was not there. Nate then called Denise's father Rick, who remember was a veteran of the Sheriff's Department and had worked for them for over 25 years. That's when they discovered that Rick had also had trouble reaching Denise that day. He had left her a voicemail a little bit earlier, asking her to come over for dinner. And when Nate called him, Rick was expecting it to be about coming over that night. So that's why he brought up right when he answered the phone.

But Nate instead informed him that Denise was missing. And when Rick asked him what he was talking about, Nate said, I'm telling you, she's missing. And in any missing person's investigation, the police look at people closest to the victim. And when there's a spouse involved, they're the first ones that they look at, as we all know. But although Rick didn't know a lot about the details regarding his daughter's disappearance, he knew that her husband Nate could not be involved. So as an officer of the law, he wanted to make sure that the police wouldn't be wasting

any time looking into Nate. So he told the North Port Police Department to get a helicopter and canine units out to his daughter's home immediately. He had also informed his chief and department of what was going on, even though it was a different jurisdiction. When police arrived to Denise and Nate's home at around 5 p.m., so an hour and a half after she was reported missing, they learned something huge.

And just to be clear, Rick hadn't worked for the Northport Police Department. He had worked for a neighboring sheriff's office, the one in Charlotte County, so it was pretty close by. Jennifer Ecker was the least-only next door neighbor and she gave the police some information. To explain their house a little better, they're situated on this big sweeping corner.

I'm tried to write this out as best I could, so just try to follow. Think of these two houses, cuddled in the sweep of the letter U. There's one house to the right of the leads. Both of their front yards have grass and the leads have one tree in their front yard, but otherwise it's totally open. But behind both of these two houses is a wall of trees until you go around the corner,

then you'll start to see other houses. But they're very spread out. So the only house that's in view of the leaves home is the one right next door on the right-hand side, which is Jennifer Eckert's house. And across the street is just a huge wall of trees, and a bit behind those trees is the highway. So it's definitely a very private area with lots of greenery. And this is just an important visual, so you all know that the only person that could have witnessed anything that happened at the Le's house would be Jennifer Eckert. And even she didn't have the best view unless she was looking out the window or if she were outside since the houses were obviously side by side. For an

actual visual of the street and the houses, check out our Instagram at Going West Podcast or our Twitter at Going West Pod. So I just said this was Jennifer Eckert's house. It wasn't really her house. She was staying with a relative, but just so I don't confuse anyone, I'm just saying that it's her house. I know that she had been staying there for a little bit, but I'm not sure how long, but she was there for a while. Jennifer was staying with family, and on the afternoon of Thursday, January 17th, 2008, around 2.30 p.m., Jennifer was sitting in the living room. Since the street, as I said, was a little more private, not many cars drove by.

So when Jennifer saw someone coming down the street, she took notice. A dark green Chevy Camaro pulled into the Lees driveway just 30 minutes before Nate got off work and about an hour before he arrived home. Jennifer went outside and noticed that a white male was sitting in the car and was in the driveway for around 15 minutes just chillin there. She went back inside her own house or her relative's house to sit on the couch and mind her own business. And about 10 minutes later, she noticed the Camaro driving away. Jennifer even told the police that the Camaro had a black bra on it. And for those who don't know, there are things called car bras which are made to put on the front bumper of your car to stop bugs

and rocks from hitting your car. And it also helps prevent dings and scratches. And it's kind of funny that you brought this up because like if you've ever gone into like a quiet peaceful neighborhood, you notice that a lot of the residents in that neighborhood will kind of be sort of alarmed when they see a car that they don't recognize coming in. Because my family lives in a cold sack

and when we see random cars pull in, we're like, hmm, I wonder who the fuck that is, you know? That is true. I've noticed that one being at your parents' house. So I mean, this was a smaller town too. Like I said, around 14,000 people. So definitely a smaller town. And like I said, super private streets.

So I understand her. Yeah, I could see how she would be concerned seeing this green Chevy pull into the neighborhood. And so much so that she went outside to see who it was and this wasn't new in her house. So that's why I say that. I think she'd been there for a little bit staying with her family. So now police had a suspect and they issued a beyond the look out, also known as a below for this man. Denise's father Rick went to the media and any other outlet that he can think of to get this story on the news. At this point, he was positive that his daughter had been abducted.

Police were stopping everyone on the road who looked suspicious and were out there searching for this Camaro. At 6.14 pm, so nearly three hours after Denise went missing, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office received a 911-1-1 call from a woman claiming to be Denise Amber Lee. And by the way, their house in Northport and both Denise and Nate's hometown of Inglewood are both in Sarasota County. So this is the local county sheriff's office. We wanted to include the 9-1-1 clip, but it's really bad quality because the only recording I could find is when they played it in court. So I'm just gonna play like a little small clip so you can hear just a teeny bit of it and then we're gonna explain

what's said in the call. Here we go. So as you can tell, this woman is incredibly distressed. Exactly, and the 911 operator was trying to get as much information from this woman as possible. And this was so that she could help, but she also wanted to make sure that this wasn't a hoax. Since the case had hit the media, it was a concern that the call could be a fake. Denise kept pleading that she just wanted to see her family again. When the operator asked her if her name was Denise Lee, she said, uh-huh. She was trying to be discreet so her captor didn't know that she was on the phone with the

police, which is really smart. The operator then asked Denise if she could tell them what street she was on. Denise said no. The operator then asked if she knew the guy she was with. Denise again said no. The operator told her it was hard to hear her because the radio was too loud and Denise can be heard saying, I can't hear, it's too loud. Then Denise continued to plead to see her family and her kids. She was able to sneak information in as if she was talking to her

captor. So she talked about the green Camaro and asked the captor to take her back to her house on Latour Avenue. So she was really smart in this trying to give the police as much information as possible, but without letting him know that she was on theittor Avenue. So she was really smart in this, trying to give the police as much information as possible, but without letting him know that she was on the phone. Right, she's not trying to give it away, but she's trying to drop some breadcrumbs. The call lasted about six minutes, and Denise finally said, are you gonna help me? Are you gonna let me out now? Help, please. Then the captor is heard saying, where's the phone? And Denise responds, I don't know.

Then, the phone call that the Sarasota Police Department received from Denise. Police played this clip for Rick, Denise's father, and he confirmed that it was definitely her voice, which only heightened his concerns. My first question regarding the 911 call with Denise was, why the hell didn't police track this call? I mean, it's 2008, they have the technology to pull the location in a six minute time span.

But apparently, Denise was using the abductors' phone, and it turned out to be a throwaway phone that didn't have the GPS tracking police needed to determine the location of the call. But police were able to get pangs off cell towers, so they knew that she was in the general area. They just didn't know exactly where she was. Okay, so this guy is basically using a burner phone, correct? Yes, that's what it seems like.

Meanwhile, police were going to work to figure out whose name was connected to the phone that Denise had called 911 from. So they got the cell tower pangs and now they can at least figure out whose name was connected to the phone that Denise had called 911 from. So they got the cell tower pangs and now they can at least figure out whose phone this is, so they don't have nothing. They discovered that it belonged to a man named Michael King. And when Denise's father Rick Goff and her husband Nate heard the name, neither of them knew who it was. So they knew this man was a stranger to Denise and the whole family,

which only kind of made the whole situation scarier. But now that they knew who he was, we're gonna go to the other side of this story for a minute. We're gonna talk about what has happened to Denise up to this point. At around 2.30 pm, Michael King went into the Lise home where he found Denise on the back porch cutting her son Noah's hair He held her at gunpoint tied her up and threw her into the back seat of his car Before driving her to his house which was nearby in the same town of North port

Apparently he had a room in his house. He called the rape room Where he duct taped Denise and sexually assaulted her multiple times. So the fact that he doesn't know Denise or or maybe I'm getting this wrong, but I just I always find it so strange when abductors go into homes and they take people without knowing if another male is there at the home, if the husband is home. It's just, it's like taking a huge chance. So in my opinion, I feel like he had at least been casing the house and watching to make sure that she was home alone with the kids.

That's what is believed to have happened and will definitely get into more of that later. What is really interesting to me about this whole situation is that Jennifer Eckert, remember the neighbor, that she had walked outside and seen him sitting in the car, but then, like, it's so sad to think about Michael putting Denise into the back of his car and Jennifer sitting on her couch and missing that part. The car drives away and she doesn't know that her neighbor has been abducted. Right. because she had come out of the house Beforehand and I mean just maybe a few minutes later or even possibly a few seconds later She could have caught Denise's abduction the way that the couch was situated

You can see out the front window, which is how she saw the Camaro driving back out of the street But she didn't know that Denise was inside the car or what had happened. She probably assumed that it was like a friend of the family or something. Right, and hindsight's 2020, so it's not like she, you know, had any idea that Denise was being taken. In retrospect, I'm sure she wishes that she had stayed

outside a little longer, so she could have witnessed that, so she could have called police, but in situations like this, sometimes those things just happen. The information that she provided alone, just saying that the Camaro pulled into the driveway at this time was in the house for about this much time, like that in itself is so helpful.

So at least she could provide some kind of information. Right, exactly. And I think everybody's pretty grateful that she was actually able to identify this car and give police something to go on. So let's talk a little bit about Michael King. He was born on May 4, 1971, so at the time of this crime, he was 36 years old while Denise was 21.

Michael had been working as a plumber for many years, but for the months leading up to Denise's abduction, he was unemployed. And because of this, his house was potentially getting foreclosed. He had also been divorced for 10 years, and many people would later say that his behavior became slightly erratic after his wife left him. He started causing trouble with neighbors

and got in trouble with vandalism. Michael wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he had a fairly low IQ. This was thought to be because of a sledding accident that Michael had as a child, which is really scary to think about. Because ever since it happened, something wasn't quite right because of the brain trauma that the accident caused. Michael also took care of his 12-year-old son by himself after the divorce. After Michael King raped Denise Lee in his house, he put her in the

back of his Chevy Camaro again and drove over to his 45-year-old cousin Harold Muxlow's house. When he got there around 6 p.m., Michael asked to borrow a shovel, a flashlight, and a gas can. Harold hadn't seen Michael in around 9 months, but he fetched the items for him to borrow. When he asked Michael what it was for, he said his lawn mower was stuck and he needed to dig it out. And in Harold's mind, he's like, okay, that's happened to me before. This is no big deal. And they kind of caught up for a minute, like I said, because they didn't see each other in a while. And Michael said that he had quit his plumbing job and moved his trailer near O'Cala, which

is about two and a half hours north of Northport. He also mentioned that his house in Northport was potentially facing foreclosure. Throughout their conversation in the driveway, Harold remembers Michael acting fairly calm, except for towards the end he kind of started to act like he was in a hurry. When Michael was putting the shovel, flashlight, and gas can into the car, a girl screamed, call the cops from inside the car. When Harold looked, he really only saw a silhouette of someone's head and then their knees between the front seats, you know, as if they're sitting in the middle back seat because it was dark outside. So he really couldn't see

what was going on in the car or who it was. Harold asked Michael what was going on and Michael responded, don't worry about it before getting into his car and driving away. Harold originally thought that it was Michael's girlfriend because Michael was known to have crazy girlfriends and he figured that they were just having some drama, especially since the last time he'd met Michael's girlfriend, he thought she was psycho. But he still had a bit of a weird feeling about it. Apparently, Michael didn't cause much trouble, except for like I said the whole vandalism thing, I don't know if his cousin really knew about that and his neighborly troubles,

but you know, Michael kind of kept to himself. He didn't do drugs or drink, but he did have the tendency to make up stories. Apparently, Michael had a big imagination. For example, he would tell people that he was once a male dancer, and he would lie about having a bunch of girlfriends at once, which these seem like pretty harmless lies.

So Harold didn't expect Michael to be doing anything really bad. Michael sounds like he's kind of insecure. Yeah, he's got some stuff going on. It's kind of strange to me that Harold wouldn't have done a little bit more investigating, especially if he had heard the word specifically called the cops. And this is a good lesson for everybody. If you ever hear somebody in a car saying call the cops,, she probably call the fucking cops. I totally agree with you. I think in his mind,

maybe to him it was like, oh, his girlfriend's pissed off and she's mad at him so she's being dramatic, which I mean, sure, sure. And I'm not trying to blame Harold at all for the situation because like I said, you know, before hindsight is 2020, you never know exactly what the situation because like I said before, hindsight is 2020, you never know exactly what the situation is, but I can just say that if you do hear somebody say, call the cops, you should probably call the cops. Also, something I forgot to mention is, so when she said, call the cops, Michael had been putting the shovel and the gas can in the flashlight in the back seat. So he was like on the other side of the car opening the back seat door when she screamed this and instead of going around to the driver seat He climbed into the back of the car and over the center console to sit in the driver seat

So it was just like really like what the fuck is going on right now. This is it was just weird, you know I'm curious I'm curious where Harold was in relation to the car I'm curious, I'm curious where Harold was in relation to the car when Denise yelled called the cops. Was he in front of the car? How far away was he? Was the car door open? Was her mouth muffled by some sort of cloth or something? From what I could tell, Michael had pulled into the driveway facing forward and they were

standing outside the garage kind of in front of the car. You're just outside the house saying, you know, when someone picks something up, usually standing the driveway. And then Michael had gone around to the other side of the car. And like I said, it was dark outside or almost fully dark outside. And so I think he was trying to be inconspicuous by putting the stuff in the back of the car. And maybe when he had gotten out of the car,

he was like, don't make a sound kind of thing. But then she did. Sure. And I'm kind of also wondering, like, how loud was this scream? How loud was the call the cops? Was it, you know, mild or was it like a scared-to-death call the cops? I'm screaming for my life kind of thing because that does make a difference here. I think if it had been, I mean, I really don't know. He never I read so many different articles about him, you know, giving interviews and stuff and he didn't go into that specific.

It was enough to concern him and we're going to talk a little bit more about what he did after Michael left because it did concern him. But in the moment, because it all happened so fast, in the moment he's like, there's this girlfriend trouble. And then once Michael left he was like, maybe it wasn't. Right, and I don't want to get to hung up on this detail, but I am pretty curious about it. So, I mean, he had a really bad feeling about it, and it got worse as Michael drove away.

So he decided to call his 17 year old daughter Sabrina, and told her about what happened with Michael. Sabrina didn't really know Michael at all because he wasn't very close to the family, so Harold asked Sabrina to come over to watch her grandmother at the house so that he could leave and go check Michael's house to see what was going on. But again, it was kind of like, I'm going to go gauge the situation personally instead of being dramatic and calling the cops. And I think that's what I read in one interview with him is he didn't wanna overreact.

Right, and this is also his family member. Regardless if they aren't that close, he's still family. So he probably is thinking I just wanna check it out before I send in the alarms. And Michael wasn't known to kidnap people. So I don't think his mind was really going there because in his mind, Michael just wasn't really capable of that. When Harold arrived to Michael's house,

he didn't see his Camaro or a stuck lawnmower. So he knew that something was wrong, especially because he left after Michael did. So he would assume that he would have been home by the time that he got there. So he tried to call 911 on his cell phone, but for whatever reason, the call would not go through. Luckily, unbeknownst to him, before Harold had even gotten to Michael's house like minutes

prior, Sabrina had called 911 at 6.23 pm. Nine minutes after the call from Denise came into the police, Sabrina, who remember, is Harold's daughter. She called 911 to report what her father had told her, because she was like, that's weird, dad. So we got to tell the authorities about this. Yeah, let's do the right thing and tell someone. Exactly. And she told the police that Michael had tied a girl up in his car, which was probably true, but it's not something that Harold told Sabrina, nor that Harold even saw, since he could only make out a silhouette. She then told police that Michael borrowed a shovel, a gas tank, and something else that

she'd forgotten, which was a flashlight. So police were now even more aware that Michael King was their guy, and that he abducted Denise Amber Lee. Just after the operator got off the phone with Sabrina, yet another call came into the police station. It was from a woman named Jane Kowalski. She was at a red light next to a dark colored Camaro on the Sarasota Charlotte County line. But the call went into the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, which was a different police department and jurisdiction from the Sarasona County. And Charlotte County didn't know about Denise's

911 call. Charlotte County was where Rick had been an officer, so they were aware of Denise's disappearance. They just didn't have as much information as Sarasona County did. Jane Kowalski told the police that there was a child in the car next to her who kept banging on the back window. She also heard someone screaming, get me out of here from the back of the car. So Jane immediately believed that it was a child abduction. And I mean, she assumed this, she didn't see who it was in the back seat. She just saw a hand coming up and smacking the window. So I think in her mind she just went, it's a kid, you know, maybe that's just something you assume.

But the driver saw Jane notice what was going on. So when the light turned green, the man didn't move, which forced Jane to start driving, because they were at, they were both at a light and he was like, oh, she knows something's up, I'm not moving. The Camaro then pulled up behind Jane's car, so she kept an eye on him from behind her in her rear-view mirror, with intentions to track where he was going so she could tell the police. But again, police didn't know right away that this could be connected to Denise's abduction.

They thought that it was something else entirely. And I think it was probably partially because Jane said it was a child abduction as if she knew, which is not her fault, but it's tough situation. Jane told the police that she was on Chamberlain on the 41 going south. She said that she thought it was a blue or black Camaro since it was dark. She couldn't tell the color for sure. So I'm assuming that this also might have made a difference because the police were looking for a green Camaro, but again, I really don't think that the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office knew anything, except for that Denise was missing. I don't know if they were aware to look out for a green Camaro because the Sarasodic County Sheriff's Office, they had the most information here. And I can't believe that little shithead tried to pull a move on Jane and just not go with the green light, but Jane was smarter than that.

She kept her eye on him. Well so creepy that he noticed that she noticed that something was wrong and he was like, I'm not moving, that's just creepy. Yeah, he knew that he was kind of found out. Which I think also made him look more guilty to her, and then she was like, okay, this is definitely an abduction because he looks guilty and he's not moving. Right, what a dumbass.

I mean, honestly, that, like you just said, that makes you look way more suspicious if you're not moving at a green light. Well, and she also made direct eye contact with him, and she said that she made a face that kind of said what's going on, and then that's when he kind of hung back. So again, he pulled up behind her and then she noticed that he was turning left on Toledo Blade.

So since she was in front of him, she couldn't make that same turn. And she told the police this on the phone and they said can you turn him follow him? But there was too much traffic to make the turn safely. So she couldn't do anything, except for tell the police what she did know, which was that he was a slightly chubby white man with whitish hair. Since Jane wasn't able to follow him, the dispatcher told her that a deputy would meet her in Port Charlotte, which was nearby, to get a proper statement, and they'd send a car to come find the vehicle she explained.

I feel like what they should have done and I'm just taking a wild guess here, but I feel like they should have just sent out multiple cars to that specific road, I mean. Well, that was their plan. That's what I meant by Sendacara. I meant like send out the troops. Right, right, but having Jane meet them

and then sending people out, I feel like it's kind of counterproductive, wouldn't you say? I think it was at the same time, like someone's gonna meet you to talk to you and then other people are gonna go looking for the sky. Oh, okay, okay, cool, yeah. That's kind of what I was gathering there.

But the biggest issue here is that once they got off the call, Jane's information was never entered into the police's dispatch system. So officers didn't jump on this this like the dispatcher had said. And because of that, the police, who could have surrounded the entire area where Jane had made the call, didn't even know where Michael was. As far as I could tell from what I read, it kind of seemed like it was a case of, oh, I thought the other person entered it into the system. So they completely dropped the ball, and they lost their chance at saving Denise's life without even realizing it.

Wow, what shitty circumstances? I don't even know how that, like how do you think someone else is entering it? How do you not enter it during that entire call? I mean, I've never been an I'm one dispatcher, but I saw the call, and she was on that shit right away. And by the call, I mean, the movie with Hallibary, if you haven't seen it, it's crazy. Go watch it. At 6.35pm, so 10 minutes after Sabrina Muxlow called 911, and right after Harold stopped by Michael's house,

Harold drove over to a 7-11 convenience store to call the police because his cell phone for some reason was not working. He told them that his cousin Michael drove a 1995 green Chevy Camaro and that he thought someone had been taken against their will. So all within a 30-minute time span, four people had called the police to report suspicions regarding either Michael King and or a Camaro. Police surrounded three counties with a helicopter looking for this car while police sped over to Michael King's home to see if he had gone back there. But when they arrived to his home at 6.42 pm, he wasn't there. They searched the house and found duct tape with strands of hair on it and discovered restraints on Michael's headboard, which kind of told them that Denise had likely been kept there for hours.

They also found Denise's clothes, a single shell casing, the shovel, and Michael's cell phone. But the house was empty. Other officers were at Harold Muxlow's house, getting the full story on his cousin's visit that evening. And can I just say that this typically doesn't happen. You don't usually see in these type of cases that there are so many witnesses to crimes and good on all of these people who reported all of this stuff. I feel like they did their very best. That never really happens all that often.

Well, that's why I thought this case was so interesting because of all of the calls to 911, all these people trying to save this woman's life. And I was just actually just listening to an episode on this podcast about how a lot of the time when crimes are committed in public, a lot of the time people don't do anything about it. And there was one specific case where this girl had been stabbed in the back multiple

times and raped in public. And there were multiple people who saw this happening, but they were too afraid to do anything or call police. And then finally one woman had stepped up and called, but it was far too late. It's really sad, but that is true. I remember where Heath and I live were near a main street and it's a long street road. And so basically someone had been hit by a car where I guess these two guys were, what's it called, racing?

Street racing? Yeah, street racing. These two guys were street racing and somebody was jaywalking. It was super late at night. And somehow this car didn't see this guy crossing the street and he hit him. And this guy's laying in the middle of the street, the car drives off, it was a hit and

run. And all these other cars are driving by and no one's stopping, no one's doing anything, they're just driving while this dude is laying in the street and he died. It's, I don't know, I think maybe it's because people just don't know what to do. Yeah, I think sometimes it's shock or sometimes people are afraid something bad could happen to them. You know, sometimes people are like, hey, I'm just gonna stay out of this. But honestly, guys, if you see something, definitely say something. Well, just like how they say, if you're, if you see a rape or something like that, say fire instead of rape, because more people will come if there's a fire and instead of an assault. Right. And in any case, if you see something, just make sure that you tell somebody whether

it's the police or whoever. And one quick note on this too is that, like I said with Harold, he didn't want to overreact so he was like, I'm going to see this through and not call the police, not jump to conclusions. But at the same time, if you think something bad happened, you may as well just call the police because if it ends up being nothing, great. But if you don't call the police and it ends up being something, that's way worse. Yeah, yeah, definitely. About two and a half hours passed and no other calls regarding Michael King,

Or Denise Lee came into the police. So police had no idea where Michael could have taken her. But at 9.16 p.m. that night, a police officer spotted a dark green Camaro with a black car bra on the front bumper and pulled them over. At this point, it had been seven hours since Denise's abduction. Michael King was behind the wheel of the car, but Denise wasn't in the back seat, or anywhere in the car for that matter.

He was pulled over just six miles away from where Jane had seen him. Michael decided to tell a story to the police when they asked him where Denise was, and by the way this was recorded on police cam. So, Michael said that he got hijacked and that he and Denise had been victims of an abduction, which is hilarious. I mean, what a way to spin the story. Right, and at this point, police have been to your fucking house, buddy. They've seen the evidence at your house. Right, but he told them that they had both been blindfolded, so when the abductor got rid of Denise,

he didn't know where that had happened. And to me, I mean, this is a really bad lie because I mean, why would he just be driving his car all casual after being abducted and not called 911? Like, yeah, that makes ton of sense, dude. Great story. Well, he's definitely a dumbass. And I think everybody who is called into the police department knows that it's his car. Harold knows that it's his car. You're not fooling anybody." Michael then took the cops to the supposed area where he and Denise's abduction had occurred, which wasn't far from his house at all.

There was nothing at that location that proved Michael's story to be true, and they didn't believe him anyway, especially like Heath said with all the calls that they'd received that made him seem like he was the enemy. So police charged him with kidnapping, but they still had no idea where Denise was. They just hoped wherever she was that she was alive. When police searched Michael's car, they discovered a cell phone battery, a blanket, the gas can borrowed from Harold and a heart-shaped ring. It was later determined that this heart-shaped ring

was the one that Nate gave Denise on their first Valentine's Day together, which I mentioned in the beginning of the story. Oh man, that's seriously so heartbreaking. I know, and she never took this ring off. And it's possible that she had a feeling she wasn't going to get out of the situation and she pulled that ring off in the back seat of the car to leave it as another breadcrum. That would be, she seemed really, I mean, obviously we know she's incredibly intelligent. So just by leaving the breadcrums with the police or the call to 911, I didn't even think

of that. You're right, this probably was a breadcrum. But still, I mean, just how heartbreaking is that? It's so sad. And in the car, they also found the shovel, which was caked with dirt by the way, and they also found hair that later matched to be denies. Michael maintained his innocence, but as soon as Harold heard about his innocence claim, he knew it had to be a lie.

Hours later, at 2.30 a.m., Harold went to the North Port Jail to help police during their interrogation of Michael. Harold was under the impression that Michael snapped. Between his bad relationship, to his possible foreclosure, to his job loss, he just felt like Michael didn't have anything good going for him, so he kind of lost it. Harold told Michael that he should just confess, and he did this by putting his own daughter in Denise's position. He told Michael that Denise's father wants to know what happened to his poor daughter, just like he would if this happened to Sabrina.

He told Michael to just tell police where she was, but Michael didn't budge on his story. Later that morning, volunteers and police officers scoured the area hoping to find Denise. Police used canine units to try and track Denise's scent for two days. On January 19th, 2008, so just two days after she was abducted, a canine unit came upon a shallow grave in a field of marsh, just a half mile away from where Michael had been arrested two nights prior. There, they found the nude body of Denise Amber Lee laying in the fetal position. She had been shot to death by a single bullet to her head. When Nate learned what happened at the Charlotte County

Sheriff's Office, how they didn't enter Jane's information into the system, he sued them for mishandling such an important call and they settled for over one million dollars. I would have done the same thing. And even Rick, of course, he worked for that Sheriff's office who totally let the biggest ball in this case drop and technically let his daughter die. So imagine how that feels. Your place of work is the one who fucked up. Oh yeah, and I'm sure he's just incredibly disappointed. And when they were searching and collecting evidence from Michael King's car, they matched the pom print

on the back window to be that of Denise's, which then matched up with the call that Jane had placed. So her call, I mean, again, good on Jane for calling because that ended up doing a lot later and just telling us a lot more about what was going on in that car. Right, it didn't save Denise's life, but it could have. But it could have.

And also, it's possible that this case could have ended up as a cold case and possibly never solved if these people didn't tell what they had seen. Exactly. So although Michael didn't confess, they had enough on him to continue on with the trial, which occurred the following year on August 24th, 2009. The prosecution showed a variety of DNA samples and other evidence found in Michael's car and home,

including her hair, her clothes, and the fact that the earth found on the shovel matched the three-foot hole that Denise was buried in. So they had, I mean, they had a lot against him in this case. Michael's defense tried to make the jury believe that the evidence had been tampered with and contaminated, and that Michael's friend had actually committed the crime and framed him. But they had no evidence of that whatsoever. So I mean, they were really just grasping at straws here. But Harold Muxlow and Jane Kowalski both testified against Michael King because they fully believe that he had been the one to commit this crime.

After just four days on trial and two hours of jury deliberation, the jury found Michael King guilty of the kidnap, sexual battery, and first degree murder of Denise Amber Lee. And just two weeks later, they sentenced him to death. Unfortunately, Michael King never admitted guilt for murdering Denise. So we can't say for sure why he chose her as a victim. Nate believes that he had seen her in public and had been watching her or possibly following her, but this can't be confirmed. Michael currently remains in custody at the Florida Department of Corrections, and is

one of the 83 inmates on Florida's death row, but he does not have an execution date. He's now 49 years old. Five months after Denise's murder, her husband Nate founded the Denise Amber Lee Foundation to promote proper 911 dispatcher training, so nothing like what happened with the Jane call would ever happen again. He also wanted to raise public awareness of what happened to Denise and pass new laws and acts to keep people safe. Nate continued to raise Noah and Adam and he remarried 10 years after Denise's murder.

To this day, he continues to fight for justice for victims, including his late wife Denise Amber Lee. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone. Like I said, I'm sick, so if I said anything crazy, don't hold it against me. Next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. And if you guys want merch, we have like hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts, we have a bunch of cool stuff that we just added. A lot of good art on there, so head on over to goingwestpod.com and click the shop button

to check it out. And if you want to see photos from this case and other cases that we've covered, head on over to our Instagram at GoingWestPodcast or our Twitter at GoingWestPod. And if you want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash GoingWestPodcast. All right, so for everybody out there in the world,

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