True Crime with Kimbyr - Young Mom Goes Missing - Clues Found In A Phone Call Part 3

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

In Part 3, Kimbyrleigha continues with compassion and care as she delves deeper into the aftermath of this tragic case. She reflects on the profound impact it had on the community and the loved ones left behind. With a gentle approach, Kimbyrleigha explores the emotional toll on the victim’s family, the public outcry, and the search for justice. This episode also examines the lessons learned and the changes advocated for in response to the systemic failures. Join Kimbyrleigha as she brings this heart-wrenching story to a close, offering a thoughtful and empathetic look at the lingering effects of this devastating crime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After this call, they put out yet another bolo with the description of the car with the black bra as an additional piece of evidence. The crux of this case has to do with negligence. The absolute negligence that happened here, the dropping the ball in more ways than one. The 911 operator who took Jane's call failed to route that call properly. And the reason why is because the Northport police were handling the case, Charlotte County. which was the county that Rick worked for, only got involved because Rick asked them to. When Jane was driving on the 41, she had just passed the county line. That line separates Northport from Charlotte County.

So her call was routed to Charlotte County. Not Northport. Still, there should have been a record made and dispatchers notified. There were helicopters in the sky. There were deputies on foot with police dogs and patrols. cars and they were so close that had this opportunity not been missed and this negligence not happened, Denise wouldn't be face to face with a monster less than a few miles away from her home. Meanwhile, the police are banging down Mike's door. Here's what the officers are relaying over the radio. I can't imagine the fear that was in Denise's father because he knew how these things

turned out. Yet he's trying so hard to hold on to hope that his daughter wouldn't become another statistic. But time was running out. There they were at 3493 Sardinia Avenue, the house that stood still like no one lived there. They kicked down the door of this empty house with their guns out in front of them going room to room looking for Denise or any signs that she had been there. Here's the police radio. But they did spot something. a roll of duct tape. When they enter the master bedroom, you can hear an officer over the radio saying that there was a blanket placed over the window. There was another blanket that was crumbled up on the floor. I'm going to show it to you on the screen. This is a Winnie the Pooh blanket, probably reminiscent of when his little boy was younger or maybe it came from Denise's house. They collected what they could. They got a hair tie that was laying on the floor, a wad of bunched up duct tape that hair was sticking to. And they also got a pillow on a makeshift bed that was placed on the floor, which is what I'm showing you here. When I look at this, I get sickened because this is most likely where Mike carried out his heinous axe on Denise. This was

another crime scene. So they began putting the yellow tape around Mike's house. A second scene that they had to search from top to bottom. And Oma and Dana are living right next door. They knew this man could fly off the handle and now they're looking outside as a sea of police cars have their lights flashing and helicopters are above the house and now news stations are getting involved because the word is getting out as much doubt as rick had in his mind him and nate were still hoping for the best and everyone was hoping for the best and nate as much doubt as rick had in his mind he was still holding out hope him and nate were hoping for the best and everybody was hoping for the best because of the sheer amount of people that were helping Nate really thought they were going to find her.

These investigators were not leaving any stone unturned. They were cutting up pieces of the carpet. They were collecting hair ties, the blanket, the duct tape. I think to myself, she was leaving behind clues. That's what we're told to do. Leave something behind. I don't know if you're thinking the same thing I was, but I was like, why are they not on Toledo Blade at this point? That was the road that Jane said the car to. turned down. Why are they not there? Well, you know why they're not there? They didn't find out about that 911 call till two days later. They would have been able to get there in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. There were 70 units in positioned at different checkpoints all over Northport and beyond. They had positioned a lot of the patrol cars on I-75, which was one of the largest highways in the

area. This is because there are on ramps and off ramps and they wanted to make sure they knew every car that was coming in and out. It wasn't until 9.15 p.m. So you do the math. The call from Jane came in around 6.30. It's now 9.15. So Mike has had about three hours to himself and to his deeds. Three more hours with Denise. And I just keep thinking, what happened in those three hours? There were two officers that were parked on a median, one facing one way, one facing the other way, and they were kind of butted up against one another watching the ramps. One of those highway patrolmen was Eddie Pope. When I read this, I got so upset, but they were right near Toledo Blade. And all of a sudden, around 9.15, they noticed a car. It's coming off a side road onto Toledo Blade and then coming on the

highway. Eddie Pope recognized it was a dark colored Camaro and it entered I-75 South. Now you're going to hear from the police radio a call that comes in to dispatch. As highway patrolman Pope follows this car, he realizes that the license plate matches. He explains it better, but it's this chilling feeling that you get. It's this feeling of adrenaline because you know that this is your guy, but you're also terrified. You don't know what this person's capable of. Traffic stops are some of the most, if not the most dangerous encounters that police can have. He put on his lights, not knowing what was going to happen, and he tries pulling the Camaro over. Right away, Pope could see that there was only one person in the car. No, Denise, from what he could see. He wasn't going to take a chance either. He

grabbed his pistol, opened his car door, and then he took cover behind it. And he asked a driver to put up their hands and get out of the vehicle. Then he sees the figure with his legs coming out of the car and Pope is ready to shoot because he has no idea what's going to happen. He has no idea what's going on. Just like he's taught to do, he orders the man to walk to the back of his own vehicle and put his hands up. That way, he's not near his car. Mike can't go back, operate his car, and leave. You're putting space between the driver and their ability to leave the scene. That's exactly why police officers do this. And as soon as Pope came closer with his pistol raised, Mike said he wanted a lawyer. That was the first thing they came out of his mouth. He says,

I want a lawyer. Pope wastes no time. He handcuffs him and throws him against the car and starts pressing him about where Denise is. He's screaming at him. Where's the fucking girl? And Mike keeps repeating, I want a lawyer. But Pope doesn't let up. He just keeps screaming. Listen to me. Where is the effing girl. And this is when Mike says that he had been hijacked. His car had been hijacked. Do you really think that this officer believed him? No. It wasn't hard to tell that Mike had been somewhere doing something because his jeans were soaking wet and they had dirt all over them up to his waist and there was mud on his shoes. I'm sure you know where this is going, but Pope pats him down trying to make sure he has no weapon on him.

and he finds a wallet and a cell phone and the cell phone no longer has a battery in it or a sim card. So between the 911 call and now, Mike at the very least had suspicions that either his cell phone had been used or it was being tracked. They don't waste any time. They begin to search his vehicle from top to bottom. And they did find things, but they didn't find Denise. She was nowhere to be found. They found the gas can, which was now laying on the passenger. side of the car on the floor. They find the shovel and they see it's been used because it still has wet dirt on it on the tip. It's lying in the back seat along with the flashlight and blankets. They might not have known where Denise was, but they definitely knew that she was in the car because

she left clues behind. They continued to examine his vehicle and they saw blood. Their flashlights could tell there was a substance on the outside of his car on the hood and on the black bra. And as they examined the car closer, they noticed another liquid that was running down the hood of the car. It was some kind of thick, clear liquid along with hair. And they also found hair in the back of the vehicle. These were not good signs. Any experienced law enforcement officer knows that these are signs that they've missed their chance to save someone. Can you believe that Mike maintained the story that he was kidnapped? When they took him to the station, he wouldn't quit. he was just telling another one of his lies but trust me these investigators were not falling for his

bullshit his story was that some guy and denise had hijacked him at gunpoint they got into his car and they told him to drive he said that they put some kind of covering over his head and they tied him up and they just took off oh and he wasn't able to hear anything no he couldn't hear what the girl said or he could hardly hear her screaming because the hijacker took his time to shove earplugs into mike's Of course, the investigators are pressing him and telling him things like, listen, we need to find her. She's got two babies at home. The investigator even asked him, where should we start looking? Where did all of this take place?

And Mike says, you know what? You should probably go and look close to my house because that's where it initially took place. And isn't it interesting? He's telling the story and turning it on himself because he did that to Denise. He took her from her driveway. He put a blindfold on her. He held her at gunpoint and pushed her into his car.

The investigators were already on Toledo Blade and everything around it since that was the road that he came from. It's getting late at this point, but they're doing the best they can. They have professional divers in the swamps, helicopters still above, dogs on the ground, but it's getting dark. And they knew they weren't going to be able to continue. They had to end the search because it was also starting to rain. However, that night wasn't over for Mike. They were continuing to press him. He says the man took them out of the car and made them walk into a dark area and that they were both tied up.

He just keeps going on and on and on. I would, oh, this would bother me so bad. Seven hours after Denise was kidnapped, canines made a hit on some disturbed dirt. It was very close to where Michael was apprehended and it happened at the end of the night. So like I said, they knew they were not going to be able to continue. One of the dogs had run off right when they were pulling everything back in. and the dog went into the woods and started to alert on this spot. As much as they wanted to look right away,

they did not have enough light or resources to break around that night, so they had to wait till the next day. Meanwhile, Mike's ex-girlfriend Jen is being questioned. She cannot believe what they're telling her, that she couldn't imagine he would do something like this, but that he did have problems. She told him about the injury when he was younger and the things that had been happening recently.

She said sometimes he would have off days and he wouldn't be like himself, and he was super depressed lately, but none of that gave her any reason to believe that he would do this. The next morning, Friday, January 18th, right after daybreak, investigators resumed the search. They targeted that area of interest from the night before. It was on Plantation Boulevard off I-75 and near another street called Panacea. I'm going to try to show it to you here on the screen. This is the approximate vicinity of where it was. However, I do have an overhead shot of where they were doing the investigation of this area, and you can see it right here. There were cops on horseback,

there were canine sniffing the woods, helicopters, divers in the pond. They had people on boats, and they even had thermal imaging, everything and anything. Can you imagine the sadness that Denise's mother and father were feeling? Her mother, Sue, caring for her two grandchildren, while she's waiting to find out what's going to happen. I would be a wreck. And police were interviewing them as well and showing the pictures of Michael and asking, do you? you know him? Does he look familiar? And neither one of them knew who he was and they had never seen him before. The thought has to cross your mind that you're never going to see your kid again. Rick knew in his heart they probably were not going to find Denise alive. And I think this is when

you resign yourself to just wanting their body back. You just, you want to be able to know that they're home safely. Even if you never get the chance to speak to them again or look in their eyes like you did before and have them look back at you because they're just a shell of who they were, you still want them back. You don't want to imagine your child cold and lonely, even though you know they can't feel that, but you can imagine just laying there by yourself. That is not the grave you want for someone you love. The word was getting out regarding Denise's disappearance. News stations were reporting on it and as Jane was drinking her morning coffee, she sees it on the news. All she could think was, oh my God, she sees Mike's pitcher. She's like,

that's him. She calls the number on the screen to provide a tip. And when she spoke to the authorities, she told them about her 911 call. Nobody knew what she was talking about. It's frustrating because she said, I told you. I told you about Toledo Blade at 630 yesterday. Why haven't you found her? I saw her. They acted like they didn't even want to talk. They gave her the whole, ma'am, you know, we'll get back to you. I think at this point, they knew that they had messed up. They had enough evidence to charge Mike with kidnapping, so they did lock him up, and they were still interrogating him.

They put him in a cell with a guy named Charlie, and turns out that he's somewhat of an informant. Sometimes when people get locked up, they tend to relate to the other criminals there, and then they start to share and confess what they did. Many inmates, though, are trying to get information because if you snitch, you can sometimes reduce your sentence. So that gives them an incentive to try to get information. So this is Charlie's experience with Mike. He hears him saying over and over again, I don't want to get effed in jail.

I don't want to get effed by a gang in jail. All he's caring about is himself. Charlie knew everything that was happening because he could hear it on the police radios. The whole time everything's going on, he's getting a play by play. and he's trying to get Mike to talk. Mike keeps telling Charlie that the cops are against him, that they're just trying to set him up because they can't find the other guy and it's all a conspiracy and he has nothing to do with it.

Now he changes his story and says, I was just driving down I-75, minding my own business, and I see this guy on the side of the road and I want to help him because he's in trouble. So I pull over and then all of a sudden he shoves him in the back seat and then he puts a girl back there. But he doesn't know what happened to her. What? What?

What? Like that doesn't... It doesn't make sense. Charlie's like, dude, you're a 200-pound man. How big was the guy? You couldn't do anything? And Mike's like, no, I was scared that he was going to shoot me. Mike is trying to cover his tracks.

So he says that the hijackers is just driving around some neighborhood in Mike's car. Mike knows everything. So he's trying to figure out a way he can spin the story. Charlie keeps questioning him saying, what do you mean? He's driving around a neighborhood. Mike's like, yeah, he's just driving around the neighborhood in circles. Charlie goes, if you had a hood over your head. your head. How do you know that? How do you know where he was? How do you know where he was driving?

And Charlie's getting frustrated and he finally says, listen, dude, somebody saw you with the blonde girl. You were driving a car. Mike is like, what are you talking about? And Charlie admits he overheard everything when Mike was being booked that the girl had called 911. She talked to the operator. They knew her name. They knew his voice and they tracked his phone to him. They were in his house. Apparently, Mike didn't know any of this, but he especially didn't know that Denise had actually reached 9-1-1, and he gets quiet. His mood flips. He's getting nervous. He says, wait, what?

What do you mean? Charlie says what we would probably say, that we watch a lot of forensic shows, and they're going to be finding everything. He says they're going to get your DNA. They're going to use luminal. They're going to see blood you left behind, your semen, your saliva. And he looks right at Mike, and he says, they're going to get your DNA. they're gonna get you they're gonna get you man it's over Mike's quiet for a while and then he wants to know everything about this 911 call because he's already trying to sew together another

lie he tells Charlie that the hijacker was on the phone the whole time it was the hijacker he's like yeah hijacker was on the phone now that I think of it the whole time that was the hijacker I'm not funny in these videos these are serious videos I don't try to make jokes but this is laughable it gets more idiotic Mike tells Charlie I can't. Mike tells Charlie the hijacker made Mike take off his shoes and then the hijacker put Mike's shoes on so that Mike's footprints would be everywhere to frame him for anything that was going to happen. Come on. It's not even a good story.

It's a good idea, but it's not a good story. What's he going to say when they find his semen? Is he going to say that the hijacker hijacked his eggplant too? And Mike all the while is pretending he cares. cared about Denise, that he was the one that was trying to help her escape. He even says, gosh, you know, I hope she's okay. I hope they find her. And that's sickening. Mike's court appointed attorney walks in and Charlie was eavesdropping and the attorney tries to persuade Mike to tell him where Denise was. He says, this is your last chance to get

life in prison instead of getting the electric chair. But he maintained his story that he was taken. At this point, they bring in his cousin Harold to try to get information from Mike. But he wouldn't budge. And here is part of that conversation. It's not much, but at the very least, you'll be able to see Mike's demeanor. I don't know, man. He'll hide there. I told you that.

I couldn't. They tried to put 911 on and phone and everything. So he's sitting there telling his cousin the same story that they hijacked his car and he tried to call 911. They knew he wasn't going to give them any information. I'm preparing myself. This is when the sad part of the story has to be told, and it's the part of the part of. that I hate telling, but it's the part that always has to be told so that we can reveal what these monsters are like. When investigators returned to the site of interest, they noticed an area

in a marshy field where the ground looked disturbed. According to the appellate brief, in the vicinity of the disturbed area, there were two small piles of sand that were out of place for normal terrain. In those piles of sand, there was what appeared to be blood. It had appeared that the blood had been on the ground first and then sand had been put on top of it because the sand had absorbed the blood. A forensic team started the excavation of the disturbed area on the morning of January 19th. As they removed the dirt, they noticed galloped marks, which were consistent with a round nose shovel digging straight into the earth. At the depth of three feet, one inch, they discovered the nude body of Denise Amber Lee lying on her side in the fetal position

with a gunshot wound right above her right brow. He said there was also water in the bottom of the hole and because her body was in the water and it was in an area that was away from the sunlight it kept her body cold so she was very well preserved. It just looked like she had been sleeping and she had just been placed there. A couple days later they did find a single 9mm shell casing and it was in the grass near the grave site. The actual bullet though was never found. A couple hundred feet away from the grave, a crime scene technician recovered a pair of boxers that belonged to Nathan and Denise wore them a lot and they also found a shirt that belonged to Denise. The boxers were tested for semen and it was positive and the cells

matched the DNA of Michael King. Since it was so close to her right eye, this led the medical examiners to conclude that the gun would have been seen by Denise. It would have been right in her field of vision. Now this part is something that really disturbed me. I had never heard of anything like this before, if none of this has been disturbing enough. But from the location of the wound, the medical examiner explained that when the weapon was discharged, it caused Denise's eye to explode. and that thick translucent substance that was located on the bra of the Camaro, that was most likely her ocular fluid. And like I said, I had never heard about that in any other case.

There was also aspirated blood in her lungs, which means that she continued to breathe after her wound was inflicted. Two pieces of duct tape were removed from her hair. The medical examiners found bruises on her wrists and concluded that they had been caused by ligatures and some of them were defensive wounds. Her brawl was torn and it was buried nearby and there were bruises on her thighs. I am not going to go into details about the other parts of her body that we know were traumatized in the non-consensual event that occurred, but seaman was recovered and it matched my goals to the exclusion of one quadrillion other Caucasian men. No question. He did this. It's terrifying to think that this woman was in her own home in the daytime with her children

innocently living her life. It wouldn't matter and it definitely wouldn't change anything, but I want so badly to know what was going through Michael's head. Before the end of this video, there is more that I need to say because I can't leave it like this. I want to celebrate how Smartinise was, the signs that she left behind, the evidence that she purposely planted to aid in the discovery. of her identity in case she didn't make it. I'm sure she knew deep down inside that her father was going

to do whatever it took to solve this case and she helped. They found strands of her hair that were stuffed underneath the seats of the car and she pulled them out keeping the root intact so they would have DNA to collect. There was something else. When the cop's flashlight shined through the dark vehicle's backseat, something caught his eye. The light reflected off something shiny and small within the blanket in the back seat was a tiny heart-shaped ring and you and I both know it's Denise's ring because we know she was in that vehicle we know she was in that backseat fighting for her life we know that in her last moments dealing with everything else she was dealing with she purposely removed the heart-shaped ring that she never took off the special

ring Nate gave her on their very first Valentine's Day together She took it and she placed it underneath a blanket in a crevice on the driver's side back seat and I'm showing you the picture if you want to take a look. She left a behind as a sign that she had been there and it's so sad for me to think that in her last moments she was making sure to do as much as she could so that this disgusting man was held accountable for what he did to her. When they found this ring, they had to have someone identify it and that's when Nate's worst nightmare became a reality that he would never be able to shake. He came down to the police station and he had to confirm that the ring belonged to his beloved wife Denise. He knew she never took that ring off and he knew what it meant to her. It meant more to her than her wedding ring. Some part of him knew that she knew if she would have left her wedding ring behind. He might not have been able to identify it as much as he was able to

identify the heart ring. Denise just knew that. And it's actually really gut-wrenching to hear this, but I am going to play the clip of when he was identifying the ring. We know Mike did this. So what happened to him? I don't like to end these stories until we talk about what happened to the person who carried out these horrific crimes, what he was charged with, and ultimately what sentence he received. There were a lot of witnesses for this trial. There were doctors who came in, talked about his head injuries and that, you know, he had

learning disability and what his mental state was like and the symptoms he was head. having the headaches, the buzzing in his ears, the stress he was under. They had explained his relationship was falling apart. His house was being foreclosed on. He was unemployed. But these things happen to people on an everyday basis. It's no excuse for hurting an innocent person. His ex-girlfriend came in and she talked about only two days before the crime occurred. Mike's behavior became more extreme. He believed that the neighbors were looking through his windows and he was becoming even more paranoid. He thought people were following him and it was only a matter time before they caught him. Sometimes I think anytime I hear paranoia, I think schizophrenia,

but that's not what we're talking about here. The doctors who examined him concluded that it was actually frontal lobe damage. They found that he had abnormalities in the frontal lobe and they concluded that the abnormal activity was consistent with traumatic brain injury. There was also a weird divot in his brain in that area, probably from his accident. The defense tried to argue he was in a catatonic state when this happened, but to me, I'm sitting here thinking, you're in a catatonic state, but you're able to look at a woman you don't know, go into her home, kidnap her, let her sons be put inside of a crib, take her back to your house, do unconsensual things to her, tie her up, drive to your cousin's

house all in a days, all in a catatonic state? I find that very hard to believe. We usually want to know why did this happen? We don't want to think that these things can happen at random. We want to find a connection. Some people say it was because one of her family members was a mortgage broker and Mike's house was being foreclosed on. So he was trying to get revenge. Another person came forward and said it was because Rick had a past as an undercover cop. And this was a hit.

I don't know about that because why would you have to do all those other things? If it was a hit, why not just enter in the house? The most logical one that people really did believe, but it was debunked by Denise's family, was a man who called in to say he was at the post office in Northport. It was just a couple hours before Denise went missing. He said she was standing behind him in line, and so was Mike. And Mike was looking at her as she was coming through the door with a box. When she left, he saw Mike leave and assumed that Mike followed her back to her house.

But at the trial, they concluded that this was a random. act that he randomly drove by, he saw her, and in the blink of an eye, he premeditated what he was going to do next as he sat in her driveway. His ex-girlfriend even testified that on that night, between 4 and 6 p.m., this was after he had taken Denise, but before he had killed her, that she talked to him on the phone and he sounded completely normal. That is really cold. In the end, though, they did not think that he was incapable of understanding. standing right from wrong, especially with how disgusting and heinous this crime was, just how atrocious and cruel it had been, and the judge sentenced him to death. I'm going to let you hear that clip real fast so that you know exactly what happened. Of Denise Amber Lee, the defendant is

sentenced to be put to death in the manner prescribed by law. There were two victim impact statements by her dad and Nate, and I couldn't find those. But I did find them being interviewed after the trial. She's the most amazing person I've ever known, and I want to thank her for being an amazing wife and an amazing mom-dard kids. Not only that, the jury was able to hear all of those 911 calls in their entirety, but the most riveting one was definitely the one by Denise herself. Her, we'd still be looking for. We'd still be looking for him. She's the one to turn us on. him direct from the beginning with her 911 call. I'm ending this, but one last thing that made this case different than many others was the negligence of the 911 operators and Nathan Lee filed a wrongful death suit against Charlotte County Police Department.

That's the same police department that Denise's dad worked for. The lawsuit was based upon what happened to Jane's 911 call. And here's Nate's perspective. There's not a doubt in my mind, Denise would still be here. Not a doubt in my mind. Now the sheriff of Charlotte County, P.D., John Davenport, he didn't see it this way. And he made his own public statement regarding his perspective.

The assumption is that Charlotte County screwed up and could have saved this girl's life. That's what everybody's thinking. And I'm telling you that until the facts come out here, that's the wrong assumption to me. I personally can't really stomach the fact that he kept referring to her as this girl. That's a fellow officer's daughter.

Her name is Denise Amber Lee. Nate disagreed, and so did Rick. I'll play that clip for you. If you have heard Ms. Kowalski's call, you heard severe incompetence. That is unacceptable. I mean, I hate to say that the sheriff's office is responsible for my wife's death because, you know, they didn't pull the trigger, but they could have stopped it. But again, the sheriff publicly defended his choices.

Was it a missed opportunity? Certainly it was. Would it have changed the outcome? We'll never know. I don't think it would have because we had officers in that area and looking for the green Camaro. They didn't find it. It didn't matter what the sheriff thought anyway. There was ample evidence presented at trial that was not in the police department's favor.

When Jane's 911 call came in, deputies from Charlotte County were on the exact road Jane was calling from. One deputy took the stand and said under oath that he was parked on the side of Toledo Blade at 635 p.m. He could have been behind Mike in mirror minutes had that call been dispatched. During the trial, the 911 operator testified. I want you to listen

and possibly give me your thoughts on what she said happened. What was the first information you received that day about Denise Amber Lee? In the afternoon, we were advised that Denise Lee had been kidnapped and we were given a description of Mr. King and his vehicle. Sitting in the call-taker position, can you dispatch a call? No ma'am. Why not? I don't have a radio. Everybody was talking in loud voices.

We had a supervisor that was trying to patch our radio frequencies with Northport radio frequencies. We have a dispatcher that believes her radio isn't working at the time. She's standing next to Liz giving Liz verbal information I thought that I'm giving her. We have Liz on the radio with, I don't know how many officers speaking to her. What do you think? Was there evidence that had this call been routed in the correct manner, they would have found Denise in time? How do you feel about the fact that she's a 16-year veteran?

That there was evidence she did make the connection between Jane's call and Denise's case. The defense attorney argues, and you'll hear her. him in a second that the blame shouldn't be transferred. Despite what Mr. Boyle has told you, it's about transferring responsibility, transferring responsibility to the sheriff that the sheriff should pay for what Michael King did. I understand what he's saying. Michael King is the reason why Denise is dead, but you can't just leave it at that because there's intervening causes to look at.

And that was the negligence in this case. You have to hold someone accountable for that. The professional process was not followed in this case. We know that because Nate won the lawsuit. He also started a foundation called the Denise Amber Lee Foundation, and I'm going to put it up on my screen. Its mission is to standardize training for 911 dispatchers in all 50 states to ensure that emergency services always receive those calls. He never wants what happened to Denise to happen again. Denise's dad advocated for a new law.

the Denise Amber Lee law. It's standardized training for all 911 call operators and it was put into place and here he is in front of the court. We had cars on the road waiting to apprehend the guy right where she was at but they never dispatched the car. On behalf of my daughter I'd like see this bill passed. And they did sign that into effect. Okay I promise this is the last part of the video but I know you guys like details. Rick Wade in on the Gabby Petito case since it was in Northport, and it included some alleged negligence regarding the Northport police and the fact that they mistook Brian's mom for Brian. And due to this huge mistake, they didn't follow him off the premises, and he got away. Here's Zinneesa's dad with his perspective.

So why weren't investigators keeping an eye on Brian? Well, we're getting some insight from a family who also lost a loved one. We didn't know where she was at because she was kidnapped and was able to dial 911. There was a little failure in the system because, Not one hung up on a person trying to help her. That's the biggest thing you want to an answer to that one way or the other. And even when we found Denise, it's still not closure because you want to, you never have closure on it completely. Orport's just doing what they're asked to do by the FBI. They can't step on the FBI's toes because the crime happened out there.

They're just being what we call an agency assist. So where's Nate and his boys now? Nate tried very hard to heal and he actually thought he would never be able to love again. a single dad he did his best to give his boys as much love as he could but finally he did meet a woman named Tanya and he let her into his heart and they fell in love they're now married and he says it's still hard for him the memories of Denise will never leave him he even worries if Tanya doesn't answer the phone because it brings back the terrifying moments when he couldn't find Denise we put our faith and trust and our instincts and our knowledge

and even our personal experiences to help us in times of danger. Sometimes that's not enough. So we rely on professionals whose job it is to help us when we can't help ourselves. Denise did all the right things. She did everything she could, then handed the baton to the system she believed in her entire life, banking on the heroes in blue to rescue her in the nick of time. She never got a chance to know the truth.

That her father hadn't failed her. That he's still a hero. The system failed. And they ran out of time. Thank you so much for watching in another one of my videos. I really appreciate you being here. And I'm thankful that I have this opportunity to tell you these stories. So thank you so much once again.

And I will see you in my next video.