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911 Caller Talks For First Time About Slain North Port Mother
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Published: April 7, 2008
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One of the last people believed to have seen a North Port mother alive is talking about her experience.
Denise Amber Lee vanished from her home on Jan. 17. It took two days for authorities from several Bay area agencies to find her body. Police have charged Michael King with kidnapping, raping and killing the 21-year-old.
On Friday, the state attorney's office released the 911 call from a driver who heard someone yelling for help. Prosecutors say that woman was Lee, trapped in King's green Camaro. The driver, Jane Kowalski, talked to NBC about what she saw.
"That screaming was unlike anything I had ever heard in my entire life. and I knew something was definitely wrong in that car," Kowalski said. "And I thought the first thing I need to do is get that license tag, because that was the first thing I could give the call taker. But there was no way I could've gotten it because he got behind me. So something was definitely wrong."
Kowalski thought the trapped person was a child. When the 911 operators asked Kowalski to describe what she could see and hear, Kowalski said, "Uh, like screaming, screaming -– and not a happy scream, like a get-me-out-of-here scream."
An internal investigation revealed the Charlotte County dispatch center, which received Kowalski's call, failed to spread the word about the suspicious car.
Lee's husband, Nathan, said his focus now is raising the couple's two young boys. "Obviously if police knew where Denise was, they would've been able to get her and find her," he said. "You know about the 911 calls. I can't talk about that. I don't want to talk about that."
Investigators said Denise Lee also called 911 from Michael King's cell phone, but prosecutors did not release that tape Friday, citing legal reasons.
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