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Link Sought Between Suspect, Missing Woman

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By VALERIE KALFRIN and MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

Updated: 01/19/2008 12:22 am

All day Friday, to investigators and relatives, the situation made no sense.

On their minds was Denise Amber Lee, 21, of North Port, daughter of a law enforcement veteran and a married stay-at-home mom. She liked posting pictures and video on My-Space of her 2005 wedding and her two sons, showing off her infant's hiccups and his 2-year-old brother dancing around in a diaper.

Where was she?

Michael Lee King, 37, wouldn't say. King, also of North Port, sat in the Sarasota County Jail on Friday, charged with felony kidnapping in Lee's disappearance. Investigators said he took Lee from her home Thursday afternoon, but they didn't know why. They couldn't find any link between her and King, an unemployed plumber who lived nearby.

King had moved out of the house in October and hadn't been seen around the area until he showed up Sunday, neighbors said. The house was empty except for blankets on the floor and a mirror leaning up against the wall, authorities said.

Search Focuses On Manatee County

Friday night, searchers turned their efforts to a site in Parrish in Manatee County.

The Manatee County sheriff's deputies said investigators pinpointed a cell phone tower in that area that had picked up the 911 call Lee had managed to make shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday from King's phone, tipping detectives to his identity.

Lee's husband, Nathaniel, a Florida Power & Light employee, called police at 3:29 p.m. Thursday after coming home to find his wife gone and sons Noah, 2, and Adam, 6 months, alone in a crib, North Port police said. A neighbor told police about a green Camaro that had been parked in the family's driveway.

At 6:14 p.m. Thursday, Lee called 911 from King's cell phone, North Port Police Department Capt. Robert Estrada said. Dispatchers recorded her pleading with someone.

They played a tape of the call for her father, Richard Goff, the former head of the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office narcotics bureau. He confirmed the voice on the tape was his daughter's, Estrada said.

Police tracked the phone number to King. They also received a phone call from a relative of King who reported the man had borrowed a flashlight, a shovel and a gas can from a cousin, saying his lawn mower was stuck in a ditch.

As King drove away, the cousin spotted a woman tied up in the back of the Camaro, police said.

"I hope to God she's still alive," said the cousin's father, Harold Muxlow Sr. of North Port.

So did Lee's family and friends, although some, like Philip Puente Sr., Nathaniel Lee's grandfather, feared she was dead.

"At least he didn't harm the children," said Puente, 75, who lives in Maryland.

Investigators said King was uncooperative in interviews about what had happened to Denise Lee.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper pulled King over about 9:15 p.m. Thursday on southbound Interstate 75 near Toledo Blade Boulevard after recognizing the Camaro from a law enforcement bulletin about the kidnapping.

Late Thursday and early Friday, more than 100 officers looked for Lee in the several square miles near where King was picked up. Deputies in kayaks and boats searched canals and ponds, while others rode horses through thick underbrush. Helicopters searched by air and K-9 officers covered the ground.

Loved Ones Feel 'Helpless'

A national search of criminal databases shows King has no prior arrests, just traffic offenses recorded in Sarasota County prior to 2005.

Attempts to reach relatives in Michigan were unsuccessful.

Throughout the day, investigators focused on searching the area around where the trooper had stopped King.

Friends of the Lees, meanwhile, like Samantha Sauline of Port Charlotte, posted prayers on the family's MySpace page Friday for Denise Lee's safe return.

Nathaniel Lee had worked three jobs until recently so that his wife could stay home with their children, Sauline said in an e-mail. When Sauline spoke to him Thursday, he was "devastated and couldn't understand why" his wife had been abducted, she said.

"I have called family and friends all over the state of Florida and the U.S. to get them praying," Sauline said. "We all just feel so helpless."

News Channel 8 reporters Krista Klaus and Chip Osowski contributed to this report, which includes information from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Wells can be

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