This week my community was catapulted into the national media spotlight with the brutal murder of Poway High School student Chelsea King. This is exactly the sort of horror we say “could never happen where I live.” And yet, unbelievably, it did.
I know exactly where they found Chelsea, having walked that same trail myself many times. It is my favorite part of Lake Hodges. There is a turn-off which goes over a bridge and leads to a waterfall. There are houses right there on a ridge. It is a beautiful area. It is a trail which now, unfortunately, will always be associated in my mind with this heinous crime.
Passions are understandably inflamed right now. It is hard to comprehend anyone wanting to hurt a petite, straight-A student who was on the cross country team and a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony. I also learned yesterday she was a peer counselor at Poway High. How could anyone randomly snuff out a bright life like that? What makes it worse is the man accused of doing this has a history of violence against women. People have said things like “Put him in a room for three minutes with some Navy Seals.” His parents’ Rancho Bernardo home was defaced this week.
That is exactly the sort of thing we must guard against. We can not allow this guy, John Albert Gardener III, to rob us of our peace and security. And no matter how we feel personally about this monster, we must allow the justice system to work. Yes, we all agree it broke down when it allowed him to go free after serving only five years for brutally attacking a 13-year-old. But we finally have the chance to set things right. The DA’s case is strong. The evidence is there. I hope there are no glitches that get in the way of giving this man everything he deserves – even if it means the death penalty.
Given what has been reported about Chelsea’s nature, and from what I have seen on TV about her parents, I know some good will come out of all this. They seem like strong people who will not let their daughter’s death be in vain. And I know the community will heal as well. We will be a little more vigilant when we are out in public. We won’t brush off those odd things we see. We will demand that our officials enforce laws on the books now, and we will work to strengthen those laws. We will come together to make our community the kind of place where things like this never happen again.
