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Search For North Port Woman Moves To Manatee County

Tampa Tribune photo by MIKE WELLS

Investigators are searching an area near the suspect's home.

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By Mike Wells, The Tampa Tribune and John Davis of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and Chip Osowski of News Channel 8

Published: January 17, 2008

Updated: 01/18/2008 06:08 pm

NORTH PORT - Investigators have moved the search for a missing mother of two who was kidnapped from her North Port home Thursday to Manatee County.

Denise Amber Lee

Searchers in North Port wrapped up their efforts to find Denise Amber Lee, 21, at about 6 p.m. today and planned to resume at sunrise.

"We're still hopeful this is a rescue mission. As time goes on it gets harder and harder," Charlotte County Chief Deputy Bill Cameron said at a 4:30 p.m. news conference.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is in charge of the search for Lee, 21.

North Port police, who are handling the criminal investigation into her abduction, charged Michael Lee King, 37, an unemployed plumber who lived near Lee, with felony kidnapping earlier today.

King is being held at Sarasota County Jail. He has no prior arrests, according to a check of criminal databases.

A stay-at-home mom, Lee is the daughter of Richard Goff, the former head of the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office narcotics bureau.

Her husband, a Florida Power and Light employee, called police about 3 p.m. Thursday after arriving home to find their 2-year-old and 6-month-old sons alone in a crib.

North Port police Capt. Robert Estrada said Lee at some point Thursday used King's cell phone to call 911. Dispatchers overheard her pleading with someone to let her go.

Police attempted to track the phone's location but were unsuccessful because it was shut off or disconnected, Estrada said. They determined the phone was King's, however, and played a tape of the call for Goff, who confirmed the voice on the tape was his daughter's.

"We would not have known Mr. King's name or anything if we had not gotten that call," Cameron said.
Investigators are focusing on a search area near where the Florida Highway Patrol stopped King's Camaro on Thursday night and with which King seems to be familiar, Estrada said.

Today's search focused on an area west of Interstate 75 between Toledo Blade and Sumter boulevards, Cameron said. Search crews are looking through thick brush and have boats on various bodies of water, but no dive teams at this point.

King is being uncooperative with investigators, Estrada said.

Detectives still have not discovered any ties between King and Lee, Estrada said. Goff told detectives he does not know King or recall seeing him.

A cousin of King's told police that King had borrowed a gas can and a shovel from him, saying his lawn mower had broken down in a ditch. Estrada said no members of King's family have been charged in the disappearance, although they have been questioned.

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