King had gone for a brisk five-mile run on the popular trail, but never returned.

Seventeen-year-old Chelsea King disappeared from a local hiking trail in Rancho Bernardo Park on Feb. Volunteers put up a portrait of Amber Dubois before a candlelight vigil, Monday, March 8, 2010, in Escondido, Calif. “Amber never wanted to miss school and she had the check in her pocket for the lambs, I mean there’s no way she was missing that day of school,” McGonigle said of the fear that suddenly gripped her.Īmber’s disappearance spawned a massive search effort with hundreds of volunteers who scoured the surrounding areas for any sign of the missing teen. “I figured maybe she went to play with her lamb and just lost track of time,” Cave recalled.īut alarm bells started to go off when he ran into one of Amber’s teachers at school, who told him Amber had never been to class that day. It wasn’t until Amber didn’t come home that afternoon that McGonigle’s boyfriend, David Cave, became concerned and drove to the school to try to find the teen. According to her mother, Carrie McGonigle, Amber had been a “free-spirited” kid, concerned more with taking extra classes and graduating early than shopping or fashion and had vowed never to miss even one day of class. It had been just an ordinary, drizzly Friday morning in Escondido, California when Amber had set out on her trek to school. They wouldn’t solve the case until another teen disappeared almost a year later in a nearby county. It was one of the few clues that investigators would have to go on in the months that followed. He was described as being “doughy-looking” and dark-complected. She disappeared just outside the high school, after one witness reported seeing her talking to a boy who looked much taller than she did, according to “Dateline: Secrets Uncovered,” airing Wednesdays at 8 /7c on Oxygen. Even more heart-breaking, the teen - who had loved books and wanted to become an animal behavioral scientist - would never make it to school at all. Watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered Peacock and the Oxygen App.Īfter days of persistent begging and bargaining, her mother had finally agreed to let the 14-year-old buy the lamb as part of Escondido High School’s future farmer’s program.ĭubois set off to school the morning of Februvictorious, with the check to purchase the lamb securely in her backpack.

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